Contents

• Society
• Art
• Pop Culture
• Communication And The Spread Of Ideas
• Holidays
• Gender and Gender Roles
• Subcultures and Alternative Lifestyles
• Universal Fears
• Money and Wealth
• Food, Meals, and Mealtime
• Leisure
• Charity and Wellfare
• Health, Fitness, and Beauty Standards
• Values
• Patriotism
• Diversity
• Aspirations And Goals
• Superstitions
• Bad Manners and Insults
• Family Structures
• Pregnancy, Birth, and Motherhood
• Coming of Age
• Rites of Passage
• Love and Romance
• Sexuality

Society

Ancient Mountain Culture is defined by its rejection of the Kami and adherence to the will of Mountain Gods, their attendants, and nature spirits. This is more than merely a religious difference, as the ways of these people are not simply those given to them by the divinities of the mountains they call home. While unproven, and on occasion denied, it is wildly believed that that Ancient Mountain Culture is a continuation of Z̚oman culture. Archaeology suggests at least some elements are related to Z̚oman Culture, but these elements form a minority of practices.

The majority of the Ancient Mountain Culture's art is essentially commissioned by members of the government. Artistic endeavors are exclusively funded mutual trusts, while artists themselves are generally treated poorly. The culture values the work, but not the workers. This appears to be due to the general importance of the artworks the Ancient Mountain Culture produces. Its art is almost exclusively restorative, being employed to return ancient shrines and temples to the heights of their glory. The culture also uses its art for making certain concepts easier to understand for children, but little else. Individuals of course still decorate their homes, and there are many fashions which come and go within their culture, but institutional works of art are almost entirely restorative in nature, and there is no room for creativity, only restoration.

In terms of recreational art, the Ancient Mountain Culture culture does enjoy the preforming arts. They primarily focused on dance, with their greatest works consisting of a form of energetic dance using wide sweeping movements generally rapidly preformed in sequences, which can be preformed by an individual or groups, occasionally as parts of a theatrical dramatic performance. The foremost artisan within this medium and time was the dancer Eh-43a 'Rusty', whose works are typically the first ones thought of and mentioned when discussing the Ancient Mountain Culture's artwork of the current era.

In the Visual Arts, which are entirely restorative, they primarily focus on sculpting, with their greatest works consisting of an image created by altering vast sections of land to create patterns by raising or lowering the ground itself. These sculptures are only viewable from great heights and can span across entire landscapes. Their art showed a particular emphasis on texture, value, and hues. The foremost artisan within this medium and time was the sculptor Gethwicki "Blue Nova" Yiithrila Velismi, whose works are typically the first ones thought of and mentioned when discussing the Ancient Mountain Culture's artwork of the current era.

In the Literary Arts, the Ancient Mountain Culture focuses on literature, with their greatest works consisting of fictional and factual stories and accounts of eros intended to arouse similar feelings in the readers. The foremost artisan within this medium and time was the author known only by the pen name "Silk Lace" (who is remarkably not a goblin, as no goblin would ever write a story where sex and sexuality as scanalious and lewd even for the sake of a fetish), whose works are typically the first ones thought of and mentioned when discussing the Ancient Mountain Culture's artwork of the current era.

Pop Culture

The Ancient Mountain Culture does have certain elements of art found within its popular culture. These are sculpture and literature. These arts are made available to the public through capitalist ventures.

Despite the rural nature of these communities, the advent of the printing press brought printing technology to the culture, which embraced the mass production of stories. Stories are sacred things within the Ancient Mountain Culture, and the ability for everyone to collect the stories of their people became a treasured part of their culture. One way to identify a village as belonging to the Ancient Mountain Culture is the presence of "Word Shrines" in homes which are elaborately decorated book shelves covered in many books and religious iconography.

Sculptures within popular culture serve as an outlet for creativity found within artists. Small scale modules of various landscape sculptures are very popular, simply to show others what individuals believe certain things should really look like, to capture the largely unknowable sculptures at a scale where mortals can see them, and to allow people to make fantasy mountain sides, which are very popular for wargaming with miniatures.

The Ancient Mountain Culture sees art more as work to be done than a means of expressing one's self. This is true even at the level of the common man.

Communication And The Spread Of Ideas

The Ancient Mountain Culture lacks much in the way of communication between its desperate groups. THemajority of information passed between areas is related to the restoration attempts of shrines, primarily technical tips and discussion on certain common motifs. The lack of technology and wealth has resulted in most people learning simple spells and rituals to send audible messages across long distances. General news is also spread via this method.

Writing is also very important. It is seen as good as setting words in stone, no matter the medium in question. There isn't a member of the Ancient Mountain Culture who would dare change any piece of text. It is seen as an immutable record of events either real or fictional and thus, sacred. The Ancient Mountain Culture is known to execute those who falsify record, alter records, or knowingly commit false information to the written form via a process known as "Scaphism", which is so abjectly horrific and barbaric it does not merit writing in this article. Consequently, their written records are impeccable.

Holidays

The major Ancient Mountain Culture holidays are:

1. Unnamed Spring Festival
   1.  
   2. A festival that marks the beginnings of the spring melt. It is primarily a means of ensuring a community has fully repaired its dams and dikes but includes many recreational events. It serves a secondary role as a means of celebrating surviving the winter. A notable festival event is rounding up caches of nuts lost by squirrels over the winter and using them in various sacrificial offerings.
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2. The Fallow Fair
   
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   2. A fair taking place just before harvest season, with the primary event being the picking of the most promising crops from each field to assess the prime specimens of the year. The goal of this is not to glorify exceptionally high yields but to identify fields that need to lay fallow the following year. Members of the community will make public oaths to assist in the fallowing come next spring and support the farmer through the unproductive season.
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3. The Feast of the Mountain
   
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   2. A simple day-long event where the local mountain god (or most powerful spirit of the mountain if it lacks a divine) will come to the communities who dwell on their mountains and bring gifts, perform minor miracles, and generally assist their worshipers. It's typically recorded as a grand old time, as if an old friend has come to visit. The mountain gods often use this day to show off to one another.
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4. The Wine Summit
   
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   2. A very simple holiday where the winter's wine is first tapped and shared amongst all as a means of sampling the wine. A single cask is poured out on the peak for the mountain god. Carrying this cask to the peak is considered a high honor and often reserved for the child of a village elder, should they have come of age that year.
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5. The Kegger
   
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   2. A three-day long general "rambunctious time", which is held on no real calendar day. Rather it begins when the first batch of the year's fruit beer is ready to be drunk and is celebrated by getting drunk over the course of the day. The second day is typically a day of rest and quiet (presumably due to hangovers), and the third day takes the form of a general celebration of other cortege industries by allowing people to show off their goods and wares.

Gender and Gender Roles

The Ancient Mountain Culture makes use of gender roles common to ELvenoid cultures. The physical sex of a person is irrelevant to this cultural aspect, only their behavior matters. There are many metrics used to determine one's role within society, but generally speaking it boils down to weather one prefers working in domestic roles, or physical labor. Neither group is seen as superior or inferior, but do have to comply with cultural standards and demands based on who they are and what people like them have done for the community in the past (both recent and distant).

Universal Fears

The top five most common fears found within Ancient Mountain Culture's members are:

1. Falling from Sheer Cliffs
2. Failure
3. Theft of property
4. Eldritch Horrors
5. Dying due to a careless doctor

Food, Meals, and Mealtime

The Ancient Mountain Culture's members typically eat one large meal at dawn with many small personal snacks throughout the day, which are eaten communally, with groups of families rotating the responsibility of providing everyone's meals between themselves. This is due to simple practicalities of life on mountainsides and the nature of people's work precluding most from easily coming home multiple times a day to eat. The rotation came about due to the general cultural trend to value small changes in day to day life, hence specific dishes and recipes changing not only by day, but also via cook on a given day, helps add variety.

Ingredients that are common in the Ancient Mountain Culture's dishes are rice, fruits, beans, cassava, cilantro, bell peppers, chickpeas, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and any of various meats that are locally available like venison, wild fowl, or poultry. A characteristic seasoning for the culture is a mixture of garlic, paprika, and sun dried tomato which imparts a flavor profile that is quintessentially the Ancient Mountain Culture's. Common ingredients may include garlic, onions, bonnet peppers, celery, green onions, and herbs like cilantro, chives, marjoram, rosemary, tarragon and thyme. This green seasoning is used for a variety of dishes like curries, stews and roasted meats.

Ancient Mountain Culture culture has several prominent music festivals and arcane festivals, which are culinary significant due to being the heart and soul of folk cooking.

The Ancient Mountain Culture finds remaining silent during mealtimes to be rude. As the most common moment when a family will be gathered in one place is at meal times, this is the best time for socialization. Meals are consequently longer, drawn out affairs. Naturally, remaining quiet and eating quickly is seen as quite rude and anti-social.

Leisure

Ancient Mountain Culture's members typically prefer to a decent balance between labor and leisure which slightly favors labor. This is something enjoyed by all without regard to social station, wealth, sex, or creed.

Popular adult pastimes include:

1. Drawing
2. Singing
3. Writing
4. Sculpting
5. Weaving

Popular pastimes for children include:

1. Calligraphy
2. Painting
3. Memory Training
4. Roleplaying Games
5. Wargaming

Charity and Wellfare

In the Ancient Mountain Culture culture acts of charity are commonplace. Life is hard in the mountains. Donors are typically seen as noble by the rest of their culture. Donations are typically made to assist the impoverished, with notably less going to other groups in need.

As with all of Eyom's cultures, general welfare is of excellent quality and reach. While primarily given to them by charity organizations from foreign banks (Usually Gnollish banks), the Ancient Mountain Culture does do its best to have local community resources for those in need. Due to these combined efforts, food and shelter is available to all who need it. Groups will help provide basic necessities such as clothing, tools for their profession, etc, as people need them. People are generally expected to help those they see struggling, and do so given that tomorrow it may be them in need.

Health, Fitness, and Beauty Standards

The Ancient Mountain Culture sees psychical fitness as not merely a desirable trait, but a mandatory one. Individuals who are not fit are not shunned, but will be sent to a dedicated member of the community who will coach them into a healthier state. Given the frequent need to fight off monsters, scale sheer cliffs, and move heavy loads up and down slopes, its hard to see how this could be otherwise.

Mental Health is seen as a non-issue. People who cannot do something due to who they are are helped with that particular thing (or things), and only the generally mean of the culture looks down on them for it. Mental health is simply seen as one of the ways people can be different.

The ideal person within the Ancient Mountain Culture is someone who is both extremely physically fit, and greatly intelligent, independent, tough, and who values their community. Most people within the culture meet this standard.

Patriotism

The Ancient Mountain Culture expects all of its members to band together in times of need such as war, and to give everything for the community if needed. At all other times, it cares little for what people do so long as they are in some way assisting the community with its goals.

Diversity

The Ancient Mountain Culture is diverse as a whole, though individual towns are often suspicious of outsiders. There is no general racism found within the Ancient Mountain Culture, they care not for what people are other than outsiders, or insiders. They will eventually open up to outsiders, and few communities pose a threat to travelers, but they do not approve of other cultures "softness" affecting their children. Should an outsider prove to be close to their own values, they will be welcome.

Aspirations And Goals

The general goals of people in the Ancient Mountain Culture are usually wrapped around being the one to restore a significant or important part of one of the mountain's shrines or temples. Most of life is dedicated to this.

Superstitions

Some superstitions common to Ancient Mountain Culture culture are:

1. A specific number is so unlucky, no one will even tell you which number it is.
2. Knocking on wood just after being struck with bad luck negates the bad luck.
3. Getting a haircut on the second day of the week will cause bad luck.
4. Gifting anything with a blade will sever a relationship unless a cooler blade is gifted in return (this loops).
5. Declaring a drink to be your last will get you killed that night.

Bad Manners and Insults

Some superstitions common to Ancient Mountain Culture culture are:

1. Telling someone to smile.
2. Sighing during a conversation.
3. Interrupting.
4. Forgoing cultural table manners.
5. Being late.

Some commonly used insults in Ancient Mountain Culture culture are:

1. lowlander
2. mullet-having motherfucker
3. Kami Lover
4. fuckhead
5. Mike

Family Structures

Families in the Ancient Mountain Culture are headed by no one. They are inter-generational, meritocratic, yet communal structures without any true direct analogues or comparisons. Each individual acts according to their abilities and needs, but also in service to those within the family whom they can help. This relationship is mutual and two way. The bonds it creates are so close that it is difficult for significant others to move in with their spouse as doing so would mean leaving their family. A specific ceremony exists to make the move feel acceptable by elevating its social importance to what each party feels is correct for such an event.