Edestekai

• Priest Li'dke Yu Hw'lts - One of the many priests in the Edestekai village. He gave us the orientation of Edestekai culture.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

 The primary values of the Edestekai are order, fertility, and abundance of lands and crops, and peace. Edestekai abhor killing and violence, and any act of violence except in self-defense is strictly punished and requires a lengthy ritual of purification. Edestekai will defend themselves if attacked, and have been known to fight with an almost insane fury when their religious principles are at stake.

Edestekai prefer to remain isolated from the other intelligent species on Volturnus, and would prohibit outsiders from their villages if this did not conflict with their values of non-violence and peace. Because of these values, they will tolerate outsiders provided the outsiders do not violate Edestekai law or interfere with the Edestekai religious rituals. If an outsider becomes completely accepted into Edestekai society, that individual's role in the rituals of the race is decided by the High Priest.

 Edestekai believe that meat should be eaten only by the gods, and are thus vegetarians themselves. They intensely dislike the Kurabanda, who hunt for meat. Edestekai strongly hate the Ul-Mor, because the Ul-Mor manhood ritual involves trying to kill a (It was after questioning on your end you realized their name for 'quickdeath' - BudReeep makes a quick addition to the poly-vox to substitute the Edestekai name for the beast.

 The Edestekai farm the hills of Volturnus. They cultivate fields of a tuber called morda and several varieties of a grain known as arbon. In addition, the Edestekai keep large numbers of blotes, docile amphibians about the size of a dog and similar in appearance to a salamander. Blotes are hosts for a parasitical fungus called krume. Krume looks something like shelf fungus, and grows profusely on the skin of blotes. The Edestekai cultivate this fungus on their blotes and harvest it about every 6 weeks. Edestekai also use irrigation to create stagnant ponds where they grow a green algae called squill (you come to identify the 'green spinach' on your plates as squill).

 The trisex family is the basic unit of Edestekai society. Nurturers are expected to remain in the household and perform child-rearing and maintenance duties. Egg Layers are expected to cultivate crops and assume general responsibility for maintaining the food supply. Fertilizers are free to become skilled workers, artisans, idol-makers or even priests.

 Higher social organization is on the village level. A typical village contains about a thousand Edestekai. Organization above the village level is in the hands of the elected High Priest and his immediate followers. They live in the holy city, near the Crystal Stonehenge. Also living in the holy city is "Justice", a captive Quickdeath.

 Religion is the strongest cultural force in Edestekai life. Religious rules, rituals and beliefs control almost all facets of daily life. There is no distinction between the government and the religious authorities; in Edestekai society, the priests are the government.

 The Edestekai worship thousands of gods. The gods represent the forces of nature: sun, moons, stars, winds, creatures, oceans, etc. There are three gods which are most important among these. The Edestekai believe the Egarit ("Light") and Elenehet ("Darkness") created the world; the sun and stars would not stay in place; the oceans would not keep to their boundaries, etc. But then the goddess, Edesti ("Order") intervened and the world in its present form came about. To crown the creation, Edesti nurtured the "Chosen Ones", the Edestekai. These she made trilaterally to releft the trilateral nature of ulitmate divine authority. The lesser gods were then given control of various areas of functioning in the universe.

 The Edestekai believe they have a special mission to magically assist the gods in the constant struggle against chaos. The gods receive their power from magical rituals which the Edestekai perform. Most of these rituals take place on special consecrated grounds, and involve group singing, chanting and very intricate patterns of dancing. There are rituals for all aspects of Edestekai life: a ritual of rain, a ritual of planting, a ritual of harvesting, a ritual to prevent or cure disease, a ritual for protection from enemies, etc.

 Nothing is allowed to interfere with the performance of these rituals at the proper time, for the Edestekai believe that if the rituals are not performed at the proper time, there is a chance the gods will lose too much power, causing the world to end as stars fall from the skies, oceans flood the world, and all life ends. Non-Edestekai are not allowed to participate in these rituals. The sacred grounds where rituals are performed may not be touched or walked upon by any Non-Edestekai.

 All religious teaching and ritual is under the control of priests. These are each equal in authority and power. The supreme ruler of the Edestekai is a High Priest who lives in the supreme temple near the Crystal Stonehenge. This High Priest is elected for life by vote of all the other priests.

 Sometimes priests see visions or hear unknown voices. The Edestekai belive these revelations have been sent to reveal the will of the gods. Such revelations are called True Visions. There is NO appeal from any judgement made by a priest who has had a True Vision concerning the case in question. However, the people as a whole must agree that the priest/judge's hallucination is in fact a True Vision, and not merely a fantasy of the priest's own creation. Priests who have seen an authentic True Vision are regarded as living saints.

 Each year a certain number of individuals from each village are sent to the holy city to labor for the High Priest. The pilgrimmage and work time are considered holy. Any individual who has worked in the holy city is held in special reverence.

 Edestekai villages and houses are filled with idols of the various gods. Each idol must be given proper reverence. It is a crime punishable by death to steal an idol belonging to any Edestekai.

 The Edestekai legal system is based upon belief in oracles, communications from the gods. Accused persons are put on trial before judges who are also priests. Evidence and testimony are taken, but the final decision is left to the priest, based upon what the priest believes to be the will of the gods. Accused persons are allowed a special appeal to the gods. If the accused does appeal, the priest picks a sheaf of arbon greain at random and counts the number of kernels in it. If the number is odd, this is believed to be a special sign from the gods that the accused is innocent. If the number is even, the accused is not only guilty of the original crime, but has offended the gods by appealing to them to cover up his or her guilt!

 The Edestekai believe that their god of justice takes the physical form of a quickdeath. To the Edestekai, these animals are messengers of the god of justice and are holy animals. Priests always weare a shawl of quickdeath hide when hearing a case. A live quickdeath is always kept (in captivity) in the main Edestekai temple near the Crystal Stonehenge. The capital city lies many days travel to the west.

 Punishments for crimes require the offender to pay back to the person he/she harms something of equal value to the harm done. In extreme cases, the punishment may be legalized slavery. The crimes of heresy and blashphemy carry the death penalty. Death is administered by staking the criminal out with three stakes to be eaten alive by a quickdeath.