Livarian cultural norms and traditions

Livarian cultural norms and traditions incorporate a collection of shared customs and beliefs of Livarians. While the country remains a highly diverse place today, its people share a common historical, cultural and sometimes religious heritage which has informed what it means to identify as a Livarian.

How to tell if you're Livarian

• You identify as an islander, even if you live in one of the megacities of Livaria, and have a strong affinity with the sea. You identify with a maritime culture and tradition that goes back centuries.
• You almost certainly live in a large town or city. Owning a house is often considered a luxury to many people, as most people live in apartments.
• Your stim is the most important social group and extended familial unit. You identify strongly with your stim, and while it’s not as traditionally close-knit and prescriptive as it used to be, you all have responsibilities to the stim that need to be taken seriously.
• If you are an Orkanan, you are highly likely to be Peratolian. You would likely attend communal worship at the local Hall, during which you will take part in communal rituals overseen by the Alf. If you are looking for spiritual guidance, you would consult your stim leader or an Orkanan clergyman at a shrine or your local Hall. At home, you will carefully curate and care for your own household shrine, which you will build over the course of your life. Cultivating your own family shrine is a deeply personal and rewarding experience, and you could invite friends and stim members to your home and show them your shrine, telling stories of how you collected each element. It is traditional to give high-quality statues and sculptures as gifts to mark major life occasions to adorn a household shrine. If you are financially comfortable or well-off, you will commission a sculpture or painting for the local Hall at some point in your life, normally to mark an important milestone such as the joining together of stims, the birth of a first child or retirement.
• Birds, specifically corvids, are important symbols of the nation and Livarian life, and flocks of ravens are considered auspicious.
• Your sense of humour is often characterised by dark or dry humour, irony and fatalism. The butt of jokes often involves Hellish people.
• As a working person, you have around 20 days paid holiday per year, on top of public holidays. Amongst the most important public holidays in Livaria is Exemplar Valderyk Day celebrated on 11th Thrimil, which marks the country’s unofficial national day – celebrating the conversion of the first Livarian ruler to Orkanan.
• You tend to spend your holidays in one of three ways: first, visiting family members in different parts of Livaria; second, holidaying within Livaria, perhaps going to one of the national parks or the seaside for an outdoor holiday, or an historic town for a more cultural holiday; and third, travelling abroad on a larger family or solo holiday. Your favourite international holiday destinations include Auresia, Anisora, Achilleion and Parnethia, with shorter ‘city breaks’ to Anarian cultural highlights also popular.
• You recognise the King/Queen-elect’s role as head of state as being largely symbolic. They nevertheless perform important social and traditional functions and act as a unifying figurehead for the nation and a point of stability, depending on the length of his/her reign. However, you may also be sceptical that the King-elect’s position is as neutral as it is often presented, with the election process seen as overly complex, archaic and influenced by opaque vested interests. Equally, if you are a republican, you consider the entire institution of the Livarian monarchy to be an historic aberration that should have been abolished years ago.
• If you are an extrovert, you might engage in a range of communal hobbies and past times, including playing a team sport – football is amongst your favourite. In the evenings or weekends, if you are in a sociable mood you might spend your free time at a local café, drinking tea or wine, chatting and discussing politics, the latest sport fixtures or gossiping.
• If you are a child, you might attend an after-school club while your parents are at work, which will either be run by your stim or socken, your school or local Orkanan Hall. If you are a young person over the age of 18, you might enjoy going to a techno bar (called a Tekh-bar (тех-бар) in Livarian), drinking and dancing to electronic music.
• If you are an introvert, you might enjoy a range of past times, including: reading a magazine, a Livarian or foreign novel (Anisoran and Arvorian are amongst the most popular foreign literature imports); going to a gaming arcade or, if you can afford one, playing on your family’s personal computer; or watching the latest television programmes, with some of the most popular across the country being soap operas, espionage dramas, murder mysteries and historical/period dramas.
• Punctuality is important and being late is a sign of disrespect to your host or guests, whether in a work or private setting.

Everybody knows that…

• … a strong navy is necessary to keep us and our interests safe. We have traditionally been surrounded by adversaries that seek to cut us off from the world. As such, robust investment in the navy is not a luxury, but a necessity to ensure our and future generation’s security and prosperity, and to simply keep food on the table.
• … Orderists are control freaks and work their people half to death; living in an Orderist society means your time is highly regulated and controlled. It is not an appealing way to live your life.
• … the Hellish and the Orderist Commonwealth are fundamentally our enemy, and have been for centuries. They cannot be trusted and will attempt to undermine our society at any opportunity. The Hellish people themselves aren’t bad, but they are misguided and exploited by their corrupt Orderist overseers.
• … the Sokokan government talk a lot about what's moral and right, but they play just as dirty as anyone else and are unscrupulous in keeping control over the disparate cultures in their empire, many of whom don’t even want to be part of Sokoku.
• … Auresia is a dependable ally and has been a friend to Livaria through difficult times. It’s a great place to go on holiday and has a noble history.
• … Wolgos are violent savages that must be contained to their southern hemisphere. We’ve fought so many wars against them over the last hundred years, and sacrificed so much to contain them, and yet they are still allowed to threaten the civilised human world. Livaria has a responsibility to contain the Wolgos.
• … the Kamurans are a likeminded, industrious people on the other side of the planet. We have a great deal in common as maritime peoples, and they have become a strong friend to Livaria. Their young empress is an iconic and popular figure in Livaria.
• … Vittmarkers are unpredictable and prone to drag everyone around them into their own political dramas, including Livaria. Nevertheless, they’re plucky, democratic and just as anti-Orderist as us, so that gives us common cause.
• … Arvorians are fellow Malorski and Peratolians, but they also have strange Dakhani customs. Despite being socialist, Arvor has remained a relatively stable international partner and have proved a bulwark and ally against the Wolgos.
• … Anisorans have lost their way in recent decades and the current regent is notorious and always causing trouble in Anaria Minor. The Anisoran government backs terrorists in the region, and probably further afield. Despite this, it's a popular holiday destination for Livarians, though you should avoid western Anisora as it can be dangerous. Anisora's exiled empress is a little known figure in Livaria, but Anisoran cultural exports remain highly influential in Livaria, including novels, visual arts and music.
• … Nestorians are eccentric and have some unusual practices and institutions, but they are an important partner in containing Helreich. Our politicians and the general public and often willing to intervene to support Nestor if necessary, as stability in the region remains important for Livaria.
• … sometimes men have sex with men, and sometimes women have sex with women. Almost everyone accept that this happens and has always happened. Older generations might be somewhat suspicious of same-sex relationships that move beyond merely having sex and become cohabitations or marriages, as they prefer more orthodox heterosexual couples and families. However, nowadays most people don’t care one way or another and just let people get on with their lives.