Contents

• Society
• Art
• Pop Culture
• High Culture
• Communication And...
• Holidays
• Gender and Gender Roles
• System for Tabulating...
• Subcultures and Alternative Lifestyles
• Universal Fears
• Money and Wealth
• Food, Meals, and Mealtime
• Leisure
• Charity and Welfare
• 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

The majority of Sylvin's art is commissioned by the wealthy, with a full 60% commissioned by the aristocracy. Artistic endeavors are partly funded by the state through many trusts, with yearly budgets set for artistic expression. Sylvin culture treats artists with great respect, with both high and low born citizens often idolizing a articular artist. This is due to Sylvin culture using the majority of its art as a general facet of everyday life and a primary promoter of cultural unity. Sylvin culture also uses its art for: celebrating life, easing the learning process through visual aids, swaying public opinion towards specific goals, ridiculing cultural norms, and immortalizing key figures of history and mythology.

Sylvian culture considers art to be taboo if it conveys erotic feelings, provokes or incites violence, or conflicts with generally held religious beliefs. Works which are either illegal or taboo are enshrined by those it resonates with and desecrated by those it provokes.

As Sylvin culture is almost entirely contained within the bounds of its Empire, some of the Sylvin Empire's laws are relevant to the discussion of Sylvin art. Sylvian culture has two notable laws relating to the creation of art:

The first of these two laws is intended to ensure that once a piece of art is installed, it is nearly impossible to remove as it already has the approval of all layers of government and any relevant property owners on which the art has been installed. The removal of art is seen as a crime, unless the art was intended to be temporary or is too highly damaged to repair. Art that cannot be repaired is often replaced with an imitation or a recreation if the original artist is still alive.

The second of these two laws was recently enacted to combat a general cultural distrust and hatred of the institution of government itself. The goal was accomplished by realigning the public's opinions toward individuals within the government. This transformed Sylvin culture from one which despised the government in general to one which is far more politically educated and can typically name all currently serving members of their local and regional governments and name said politicians general goals and current political dealings. The general view of the government is now that of a machine that requires many engineers to run, some of whom are corrupt; this is opposed to the previous view of "an unwanted cesspool".

Presently, Sylvin culture greatly favors the preforming arts. They primarily focus on dance, with their greatest works consisting of dancing making use of rapid foot movements to replace or supplement the percussion within the music being preformed for the purpose of the dance, often making use of specialized footwear to enhance the sound produced by the dancer's feet. The foremost artisan within this medium is the dancer Keif Vindleberg, whose works are typically the first ones thought of and mentioned when discussing the Sylvin's artwork of the current era.

In the Visual Arts, they primarily focused on painting, with their greatest works consisting of finger painting using oil on silk. Their art shows a particular emphasis on hues, texture, and value. The foremost artisan within this medium is the painter Masha Vale, whose works are typically the first ones thought of and mentioned when discussing the Sylvin's artwork of the current era.

In the Literary Arts, Silvin culture is primarily focused on literary fiction, with their greatest works consisting of a form of narrative where fantastical tales of marvelous adventures are presented in order to convey various ideas about virtue, nobility, and honor to the reader. The foremost artisan within this medium and time was the author Hoskins McGlothlin, whose works are typically the first ones thought of and mentioned when discussing the Sylvin's artwork of the current era.

Pop Culture

Sylvin's popular culture is dominated by theater and literature. These arts are made available to the public through collections and a small number of large institutions and corporations who have monetized theater as a business, profiting off ticket sales while outsourcing the cost of creating the plays to the general public. This exchange is seens fair by most due to the playwrights not choosing which plays they produce, but rather allowing all who help fund a play to vote on which story will be performed that year. Naturally, donating more buys one more votes.

In recent times, the impact of theater on Sylvin culture has diminished. This is primarily due to the creation of seeming, glamour, and illusions of plays having become an artform of their own. The majority of playwrights will use illusory duplications of the greatest actors of past generations to fill rolls they would have been suited for if they were available (or, in many cases, still alive). The public generally dislikes this practice, seeing it as depriving the world of new generations of artists. Consequently, theater has fallen out of favor in terms of large-scale expensive productions for the masses. This movement has been countered by the emergence of small-scale local volunteer acting troops in what many call a regression to previously over trodden grounds.

This complaint is rooted in an ancient Sylvin tradition seen at fairs and other celebrations where volunteers who have trained for years of their lives would fill specific rolls within plays depicting events important to the event, or the local area. These eventually translated into a medium for telling any story anyone wished to tell and could convince the troop to preform. This, in turn led to the modern era of massive productions, which the general public is rebelling against.

High Culture

Sylvin's high culture is dominated by theater and painting. These arts are made available to members of the cultural elite through capitalist ventures.

Unlike the theater of pop culture, high culture's theater remained small, with most nobles and aristocrats owning their own private theater troops. These troops are used for performances made to entertain guests and one's self alike, with the majority of their work never being seen outside of one-off performances with a few exceptions for works which were shared amongst groups of nobles and due to the money and power behind them have become cultural mainstays.

Due to its nature as the personal commission of a single individual, or a small group of individuals, high culture's works tend to have a very niche and focused nature. Each work is different and tailored to the patron's personal tastes. Thus, no trends can be gleaned from these works other than a general desire within the nobility for plays that have nothing to do with current events.

For many years, private troops were seen as thieves who withheld their talents from the public, but in recent times due to the various controversies in popular theater, the opinion has reversed. Generally speaking, these troops are seen as people who respected the craft too much to "Fall in" with the general public's commercialized theater.

Communication And The Spread Of Ideas

Sylvin culture allows new ideas to spread organically but prefers to keep such things personal and intimate. Hearts and minds is the idea, though "Don't talk about it" is the result more often than not. While Sylvin culture has embraced printing (especially newspapers) and is one of the primary adopters of the aethary, it prefers to use these mediums for discussing ideas already present within its public discourse.

There is no single force keeping this status quo. Instead, it appears to be an emergent property of other elements of Sylvin culture, which Syvins themselves value. Family ties, the urge to get ahead, to have a leg up on one's enemies, and a desire to be known as the master of something with cultural weight all come together to create a culture that's slow to embrace new ideas. It's also slow to drop bad ideas, with many factions debating outdated problems for clout rather than focusing on new or emerging problems. Or opportunities.

This process is compounded by Sylvin culture's status as an amalgam of thousands of smaller cultures that were forged from the shards of the First Sylvin Empire's fall and shaped by the biology of the biologically Sylvin people. Given the nature of the curses affecting Biological Sylvins, it is largely impossible for Sylvins to rely on body language, even within their own clans and families.

When four of a family have an emotionally expressive tail, and one does not, the tailless one is left behind. Some Sylvin can smell pheromones and use them to judge emotions, others cannot. Some can hear heartbeats up close and know if someone is fearful, angry, or lying. Others do not.

Sylvins rely on words more than anything for proper communication, even though the majority of their members subconsciously attempt to understand body language at all times. The misunderstandings caused through this process have resulted in the creation of formal schools to teach communication skills. Unfortunately, these can only help so much. No one can deny nature to the same extent as everyone else. Some learn to communicate through the barriers, others learn to peek through with they pay close attention, and others simply cannot learn these skills.

This barrier is the easiest to surpass. Sylvins are inflicted with two curses, and the bite of the second cuts far deeper. With most species with sexual dimorphism, certain patterns of behavior, general preferences, and trends exist between the sexes. These can be understood and easily used to understand others of the same sex more often than not.

Sylvins do not have this luxury. They have two sexes, but these are only reproductive. There is no way to tell males and females apart at a glance and even if one has been briefed on the reproductive organs of a biological Sylvin individual, that infomration would be of no help in understanding their mind. Thus Sylvin do not know upon meeting someone for the first time what that person might value, respect, or want. There cannot be a frame of reference for this meeting based on species nor sex. The whole of Sylvin culture rests uppon people who must communicate their identities in words to people who want words to be secondary to how those words are said.

These factors have created a culture that is incredibly individualistic and often rejects blood relations entirely. It is not unusual for young Sylvins to leave home at the end of their adolescence in search of a place they belong. Where there are others like them. Thus, Sylvin communication with itself is notably poor.

There are things that unite and bind them as one people. Common goals. Common enemies. Shared histories. They must be reminded of these things regularly to remain unified. Otherwise, they fragment, seeking out their peerage. Especially when that peerage does not exist.

All of this is critical to Sylvin culture. New ideas spread slowly and often die. This is their filter. New ideas which can survive within their society have something to them. Some values that can transcend these critical limits. Thus, when a new idea survives the gauntlet and becomes something most people have heard of, it is often adopted culture-wide within mere months.

Social institutions and governments within Sylvin culture do their best to ensure there are such reminders in daily life. Symbols are greatly important. Art is a necessity. Speeches. Festivals. The Sylvins can exist as an Empire, but without their Empire, they would break apart into many new nations. It is seen as the duty of the government to ensure such a fate never happens. Sylvins are after all, humans. They understand what would happen to their peaceful lives if unity died.

Holidays

Holidays are especially important cultural unifies within Sylvin culture. There are five major holidays universally celebrated through all areas in which the culture has any notable influence. These five holidays are:

1. The Magus's Eves (aka Magi's Night)
   
   1.  
   2. A festival festival held the night before each solstice, spring, summer, autumn, and winter. While strictly speaking this is four holidays, the event itself is split into quarters with parts of a singular ritual performed on each day. There is no unified idea of what the ritual is, exactly. In one place it may be a blood sacrifice of an animal, in another it could be melting down coinage into a singular block and burying it. In others, it involves channeling specific spell energies into various vessels.
   3.  
   4. While the regional purpose of these rituals has been lost to time, they are said to bring fortune to those who participate. Some of the rituals have genuine arcane functions, though their effects are corrupt and low energy, preventing extrapolation. Archaeological evidence suggests the earliest form of the ritual involved the offering of a newly grown young adult's virginity, and that this was done away with over 1400 years ago.
   5.  
   6. The modern holiday is still centered around these many rituals, but other celebratory events have arisen over the years, leading to many activities split into quarters with one quarter performed on one of the days. Chief among these is the Legend of Silva, the recounting of the life of the Sylvin Empire's founder, which is split into four chapters: Childhood (spring), Rise (summer), Reign (autumn), Fall (winter). This is now the main purpose of the holiday, a reflection on shared history through mythology.
   7.  
2. People's Day
   1.  
   2. People's Day is a celebration of local and regional culture, history, and accomplishments held on the 11th of Dèkè Qu. The vast majority of people begin celebrating on the 9th, and reserve the 11 for the traditional events such as reenactments, plays, and speeches.
   3.  
   4. The other two days are used for annual fairs. These fairs are the source of a very culturally important gift, historic replicas. An ancient courtship tradition states that true love is proven by gifting a prospective spouse a replica historic artifact which not only does the giver believe represents their love in a particular way, but that the reliever understands as representing them in the same way without communication. As the gift is meant to be given on People's Day, an industry arose around last minute gift giving as the seriousness of the tradition waned over time.
   5.  
3. Firetongue
   1.  
   2. Firetongue is 10 day long festival beginning on the 26th of Qëtê Nadizi and running into the next year, ending on the 5th of Qëthê Qu. Its purpose is to codify the stories of those who died during the year, and to recite the stories of those so great their names have yet to be forgotten.
   3.  
   4. This is accomplished through the use of many storytellers who will light fires that are kept burning for the ten days. These stories are spoken as if a great crowd has come to hear them told, even if none are there to listen. Typically, the celebration of this holiday is very somber, serving as a second funeral.
   5.  
   6. After the first five days have passed, the festival turns from remembrance to celebration. Local heros legends are told, and crowds tend ot gather for them in the evenings, sharing the tale with a mug of ale. In recent times, potlucks have become popular at these recitations.
   7.  
4. Grainday
   1.  
   2. Grainday is a harvest holiday designed to celebrate the life of a specific Wizard, though it has grown into a general purpose festival for celebrating the technological and scientific discoveries and breakthroughs of Eyom in general.
   3.  
   4. In its orgional form, the holiday celebrated Aquilo Borlaug, a 17th Century Wizard who discovered an arcane means of reproducing certain druidic magics. These spells created effects functionally identicle to Purify Food and Drink, Hidden Spring, and Plant Growth. Unfortunately, these spells were greatly elevated in energy level in the conversion from druidic to arcane such that no one aside from the most elite mages could cast them.
   5.  
   6. Magi Borlaug spent the remainder of his days searching for a means of making any of the spells practical for the average farmer to use. He eventualy discovered an entirely mundane means of creating semi-dwarf, high-yield, disease-resistant species of maize, rice, wheat, and potatoes. These crops were so potent that 4-5 times more food could be grown on the same area of land, with only twice as much water and nutrients. He published his research in a scientific journal, as well as farmer's almanacs, becoming the first Wizard to become a scientist (In recorded history at any rate), and saw the small scale adoption of his engineered crops before his death.
      
      Shortly after his death, an especially harsh winter and dry spring hit many Sylvin regions, devastating crops and rendering a growing season so late that any attempt at a harvest before first snow that year impossible. This came on the heals of a major plague, which had depleted both manpower and granary reserves. If not for the great yields produced by the few farms which had adopted Borlaug's crops, an estimated 60% of Sylvins would have starved to death.
   7.  
   8. Magi Borlaug was hailed as a hero, and posthumously given a Doctorate of Agricultural Science by the University of Kingsmead many great honors and awards, chief among which was the holiday in his honor, taking place on the 12th of Sêqëê Nadizi (both a great date for harvesting many crops, and his birthday). The holiday began to celebrate other great inventors and scientists within a century, with the prerequisite of their invention having either saved, or improved, the lives of uncountable people.
   9.  
   10. Many people have forgotten Aquilo Borlaug was a wizard, leading to the loss of some of his contributions to arcane knowledge. However, most people alive today use his spell to locate lost keys, though they do not know it to be his work as well.
       
       1.  
5. Eventide
   
   1.  
   2. Eventide is a summer solstice celebration taking place on the day of the summer solstice. It is an important cultural holiday which symbolizes balance between forces and factions. As the night and day have become equal lengths, so do does all of Sylvanian culture. One's station in life is ignored for the day, nobles mix with serfs and outlaws are welcomed to town for the celebration.
   3.  
   4. It is a time of forgiveness and unity. Many debts are forgiven, promises are made to improve certain things, and serious conversations are had without the fear of being punished for impudence.

Gender and Gender Roles

Sylvin culture has no gender roles. It's simply impossible for it to have any standards for behavior, occupations, or even preferences based on someone's sex. This is due to biological Sylvins being afflicted by the Genus Iniuriam curse. This curse decouples the subject's physical forms from their sex, such that while some Sylvins appear male, are male, and act male and others appear female, are female, and act female, they comprise a mere 34% of all Sylvins.

Sylvin are largely randomized. Someone who appears to be a large and burly male could be biologically female while lacking any female secondary sex characteristics. Likewise, a small and fair maiden could be male while possessing all female secondary sex characteristics while having a masculine personality. Every possibility is equally represented within them.

Consequently, Sylvins cannot prejudge people based on their sex, and have no good clues as to the genders of those they interact with. Each person must be treated as an individual. The natural instincts of the human mind greatly abhor such granularity. They cry out for simplicity and boxes in which to put things. Thus, Sylvin culture substitutes gender roles for Physical Rolls.

Sylvin culture takes the predominant trait of someone's mind and body and uses it as the substitute for their gender. For example, a muscular person is believed to be strong and enjoy things that require great strength and will be looked down on if they prefer to spend their life on things that do not require their strength.

Over the centuries, this has mixed with the Sylvin culture's need for individuality by creating a standardized system of measuring one's physical attributes, which is used both as a means of predicting what people are like, and also as a sort of horoscope, as well as a game for those who enjoy competing with friends for higher scores. This system is called the System for Tabulating Athletics and Technical Strength, or STATS for short (Yes, Doctor Jessica Fieldsman is very proud of that acronym).

Given its importance, STATS will be explored in brief in the following section.

Subcultures and Alternative Lifestyles

Sylvin culture is something of an umbrella culture, with dozens of notable subgroups found within its folds. These groups used to be more distinct, but have largely melded into a singular amalgamation of their general beliefs and practices over the last 200 years. The interesting aspect of the change is each sub-culture insists it is precisely as it was before, and everyone else is attempting to imitate them.

The exception to this is the Twelve Great Tribes. Each of the original human tribes remaining in Eyom has its own culture and practices, which are sharply defined to this day. A simple summarization of the Twelve Tribes follows:

1. Apis - Hard working, communal, industrious laborers. Focused on development, improvement, and furthering all material goals.
2. Bombyx - A relaxed and rural culture based around trade.
3. Canis - A marshal culture based on honor, loyalty, and duty.
4. Capra - Carries a very strong arcane tradition, with little care for science and the plight of non-mages.
5. Equus - A very communal culture based on agriculture.
6. Felis - A nomadic culture known for its wagon trains and ancient migratory paths. Often serve as merchants and messengers. Known to keep roads in good repair.
7. Gallus - An industrial culture with a notable emphasis on brewing (beverages and potions).
8. Ovis - An entire culture of elite warriors who are really angry history keeps insisting they don't get to just be farmers.
9. Scrofa - A rather decadent culture based around the acquisition of personal wealth and power.
10. Tarandus - A mostly isolated culture with many ancient nature-worship-based practices. Often accused of practicing druidic rituals.
11. Taurus - A bunch of slightly polite and kind rural folk with an understandably large variety of and passion for dairy products.
12. Varanus - A seemingly lazy culture known for producing many great thinkers.

Universal Fears

The top five most common fears found within Sylvin's members are:

1. Devastating tornados
2. Arcane Weapons attack
3. Government restrictions on firearms and ammunition
4. Changes to the Welfare System
5. Identity Theft

Food, Meals, and Mealtime

Sylvin's members typically eat three meals, one at noon, one in the late afternoon, and one at night, which are generally eaten in solitude. The solitude is seemingly due to embarrassment coming form the spectrum of beastblood mutations and their resulting changes to how an individual may prefer or need to consume their food. Sylvins with rodent teeth need to gnaw to wear down their teeth for health reasons, and are easily embarised if their chewing annoys others with its volume. Many canid Sylvins prefer to lap their beverages from a bowl. Sylvins with beaks often need to peck and crush harder food to pulp in a bowl before swallowing it. The Sciuridae Tribe is notorious for eating two meals at once, storing the second in cheek pouches for later, a process many others find disgusting.

For many, the chaos of a group of Sylvins eating is repulsive due to the general inability to create universl table manners. Thus, most Sylvins choose to gather for a meal with personal cutlery, plates, and bowls, tank the cook for the meal, and then find a quite spot to eat on their own before returning to public areas and communal activities.

Flat bread is the fundamental base of all meals to be had in Sylvin culture. Other staples include rice, roti made from atta flour, and beans. Foods are flavoured with various types of chilli, black pepper, cloves, and other strong herbs and spices along with the flavoured butter ghee. Ginger is an ingredient that can be used in both savory and sweet recipes. Chopped ginger is fried with meat and pickled ginger is often an accompaniment to boiled rice. Ginger juice and ginger boiled in syrup are used to make desserts. Turmeric and cumin are often used to make curries. Common meats include lamb, goat, fish, chicken and beef. Beef is less common. Pork is considered as a taboo food item by all Sylvins, though it is commonly eaten in some remote regions. A variety of very sweet desserts which use dairy products is also found in Sylvin cuisine. The main ingredients in desserts is condensed milk, ground almonds, lentil flour, ghee and sugar.

Sylvin culture has several prominent spring festivals, which are culinary significant due to potlucks being one of the main draws to attend the festivals

Leisure

Sylvin's members typically prefer to work long hours but also demand periods of rest, relaxation, and leisure, which is a pleasure regularly enjoyed by elites with a few days a week officially designated as leisure days. The poorer classes are generally unable to stop working during these days, though everyone finds at least five days a month which can be labor-free and thus used for all manner of recreation.

Popular adult pastimes include:

1. Poetry
2. Witchcraft
3. Drama
4. Barbershop Music
5. Card Games

Popular pastimes for children include:

1. Sports
2. Amateur Radio
3. Children's Arcana
4. Card Games
5. Reading

Charity and Welfare

In Sylvin culture acts of charity are generally preformed on rare occasions, for reasons specific to the donor (often political protests against existing welfare policies, or to publicly show one's stance for or against something seemingly unrelated to the charity in question). Donors are typically seen as somewhat foolish by the rest of their culture, due to the robustness of Sylvin welfare systems. Donations are typically made to assist the abused, with notably less going to other groups in need.

As with all of Eyom's cultures, general welfare is of excellent quality and reach. By Eyom's standards, Sylvin welfare is above and beyond that of most other nations. Food and shelter programs are ubiquitous, with food seen as a human right and therefore all basic food stuffs will be provided to all. Full stop. The state will pay the farmers for their labor. Programs to assist the poor with acquiring basic necessities such as clothing, tools for their profession, etc are omnipresent and designed to ensure there will never need to be a repeat customer barring nothing short of the worst luck one could imagine. These institutions are backed by ancient trusts, corporations, and laws dating back to the first Sylvin Empire and are one of the many ways the will of Silva himself is still felt in the modern world.

Sylvin culture has a notorious punishment for many serious crimes which involves declaring someone an Outlaw. This removes them from all protections of the law, as well as prevents them from accessing any of the culture's wealth by denying them welfare. These individuals are branded on the forehead such that it is extremely difficult to conceal their outlaw status. Many other cultures see this practice as barbaric and part of why Sylvin nations have a notably worse time with banditry.

Health, Fitness, and Beauty Standards

Sylvin culture has sciencified its health and fitness standards with STATS. Of course, there is some controversy with the system. Notably in their lack of any real beauty standards. Given the average sylvin varies in appearance from "Entirely human provided they are dressed." to "Is that a beastfolk?", they have an extremely hard time codifying nay standards of beauty.

This has resulted in Sylvins generally not caring what other people think is attractive, and caring only for their own tastes and desires. An interesting drawback to this system also found within Sylvin culture is most people think they are ugly due to not being attractive to themselves. This phenomenon bears further study.

Patriotism

Sylvin culture has remained unchanged in terms of patriotism since the height of the First Sylvin Empire. In times of war, everyone is expected to drop everything and turn their full attention and physical capabilities to the war effort. This is often what occurs, as nothing unites Sylvins quite as well as a common enemy whose declared war on them.

Peacetime is more chaotic. Everyone is expected to know and perform their civic duties. Unfortunately, without some active and ongoing event to unite against many Sylvin find their attention wandering to personal matters rather than public ones. Thus, there are many people whose entire job is to ensure people are "hyped up" about civic matters and current national events. This has the unfortunate side effect of creating culture wars within Sylvin Culture. The practice is something many hate, but disrupting it has proven to not only be challenging but also started its own culture war.

Diversity

Sylvin culture is notable for one rather interesting aspect. Its members genuinely do not care what species someone is. An immigrant who wishes to become a part of Sylvin culture will be accepted without question so long as they change their behavior to fit in with everyone else. Color, sex, gender, and nationality matter not to Sylvins. They care only about one's creed. This makes their culture the most diverse culture in the known world in terms of species comprising the culture.

Their sex-based curse has also ensured their culture is entirely egalitarian. Though many find that the term inadequate as egalitarianism is the acknowledgment that the sexes are of equal value, while Sylvins seemingly only care what someone's sex and gender is for the purposes of having children in the most biological of senses.

There is a roomer amongst several other cultures that one of the two thousand true Wood Elves moved to the Sylvanian Empire after having a change of heart and were entirely accepted into the culture. Attempts to prove this roomer have proven fruitless, though an official statement from Empress Kleis the Second was found on the subject:

Aspirations And Goals

Manual Prompt:What are the big life goals and aspirations?

Manual Prompt:How are these encouraged through...

1. Education?
2. Employment?
3. Religion?
4. Expectations and Norms?
5. Education?

Superstitions

Some superstitions common to Sylvin culture are:

1. Stepping in dog poop is actually considered good luck if you do it with your left foot, but the right foot brings bad luck.
2. Eating goat meat will cause the growth of facial hair.
3. Gifting anything with a blade will sever a relationship unless a coin is gifted in return.
4. Doing your needlework on on your doorstep will prolong winter.
5. Letting your purse touch the floor will make you poor.

Manual Prompt:Create orgins for each.

Bad Manners and Insults

Some superstitions common to Sylvin culture are:

1. Using the last of a communal resource and not replenishing it.
2. Using the Party Mode on a messenger stone in public so everyone has to hear your conversation.
3. Taking credit for others work.
4. Wearing excessive perfume.
5. Leaving a mess in public washrooms/bathhouses.

Some commonly used insults in Sylvin culture are:

1. scumbreath
2. fraggle
3. beast fucker
4. gowk
5. [A gesture made by extending one's hand with only the middle finger raised.]

Family Structures

Families are typically patriarchal in Sylvin culture. At least, as much as they can be. In truth, there is no exact word for their system. Presently mascuarchal is being proposed as an official term, though it is unlikely to be chosen for many scholastic reasons.

The system is described simply in that whoever is the most behaviorally describable as masculine within a Sylvin household is the head of the household, regardless of any of their physical traits. This is a clear growth from the ancient human custom of patriarchal households. Yet, unlike most cultures with a clear gender basis for family structure, the "leader" role is used almost entirely within a democratic process as a mediator and tiebreaker who has no vote of their own.

This is due to family being seen as the absolute most important thing within Sylvin culture. Your family, its standing, its power, and its dominion are simply paramount to one's own importance to others. Any action one takes colors their family and vise versa. Hence, families will vote on courses of action, plan with one another on how to improve their lives, and otherwise act as a unit.

Of course, families are defined as parent-child households. Most Sylvin families do not include grandparents or great-grandparents. Those that do are usually only found in rural areas which lack elder care programs. This is in great contrast to most of Eyom's other cultures.

Also in contrast to Eyoms other cultures is the process by which new families are forged. Sylvin culture emphasizes marrying young, though in the modern era many people remain unwed whether or not they have a life partner. The traditional courtship process beings when a child leaves their parent's home on their first day as an adult. From this moment on, the individual will search for someone they love, trust, and have reproductive compatibility with in order to form a new family unit within their community by the birth of their first child.

This is problematic for many Sylvin people who are for lack of a better term, homosexual. IE they are only attracted to people whose sex is the same as their own. These individuals are generally not seen as being families within Sylvin culture. Not out of malice, but due to not having children. This is an issue that can be entirely solved with adoption, as Sylvin culture sees no difference between an adopted child and a biological one. However, if a couple does not wish to raise children, they will be the subject of gossip and low-level disapproval from their neighbors.

A notable recent event relating to same-sex Sylvin couples who wish to be childless is a Constructi company has elected to manufacture Zomnani constructs in the form of Sylvin children to serve as housemates for such couples out of a perceived "easy patch to the bug" as they put it.