Creature:Knobi/Culture

Culture
Due to the bitter cold temperatures in the highlands, the Nobi have no concept of "Personal Space". To them, the closer you are to others the warmer you'll be and warm=good. They have also developed a number of strange ways and habits that are related to their dangerous environment.

Totems
The Nobi have many strange ways, among them their belief in 'Totems'. They believe that each person gets an animal totem that represents their innermost spirit. Oftentimes they do act similarly to their totem spirit, but that could be related to their knowing what the totem is. There are a few plant totems as well.


 * Cave Bear Totem- You have a big heart, and want to protect all those precious to you. You can have bad days, but those are rarer then the good ones.
 * Cave Lion Totem- You have a strong heart, will protect your friends, and will always crush your enemies.
 * Winter Wolf Totem- You work well with others, but can be viscous and self serving as well.
 * Snow Leopard Totem- You are a loner, you don't really like being near others, and you rarely spend time doing "fun" activities.
 * Snow Rabbits Totem- You are an overactive, hyper person. You make friends easily, are the life of the party, and try to fit in as much as possible.
 * Highlander Totem- You are obstinate and somewhat self centered, but loyal to your friends. Your also very perceptive.
 * Clydesdale Totem- You are a strong person who often leads others though a difficult situation. Everyone looks up to you, and wants to be your friend.
 * Winter Deer Totem- You are shy and quiet, with a tendency to run and hide instead of doing dangerous or nerve-wracking things, like going outside your comfort zone.
 * Ice Goat Totem- You are obstinate to the point of rude, you refuse to back down no matter what, and aren't afraid to live alone.
 * Mammoth Totem- You are a friendly person, but tend to be quiet and thoughtful. You can, however, move a mountain with time, so to speak.
 * Longhorn Cattle Totem- You go with the flow. Your greatest goal in life is to be normal and happy. Contentedness is as good a goal as any,
 * Winter Bison Totem- You stand strong against all things, using determination and willpower to survive the sad things, and a happy-go-lucky attitude for everything good.
 * Drani Totem- Having this totem means that you are better at defense, that you are a gentle spirit but capable of being mean and nasty if your friends or family are in danger.
 * Warner Eagle Totem- You are proud and strong, with a good brain and an understanding of the need to sometimes do harsh things to help those around you.
 * Homely Pine Totem- You are a friendly and welcoming person, willing to help all those who need it.
 * HinNat Flower Totem- You have a coldhearted and somewhat cruel personality on top, but on the inside you are a friendly and helpful person.
 * RutOpin Bush Totem- You openly help people and never ask for anything in return. Others look at you for help and reassurance, and you never ask for anything in return. You give, but never ask to receive.
 * NatNit Vine Totem- You have a tendency to be aggressive and somewhat mean, but only to those close to you. On the outside you seem nice and friendly and caring, but inside you are selfish and mean. (most people with this totem hide that they have it, and few ever get this one)

Coming of Age
In order to come of age, a Nobi must prove they can survive on their own. They can do this between the age of 16 and 20. At 20, they get kicked out by their parents, never to return, whether or not they proved themselves capable of surviving on their own. The younger they prove their worth, the more pride they bring the family, and themselves, but if they try to soon they usually end up heading home feeling stupid, but losing no honor. Only their pride is injured. The way they prove they can live on their own is by trying to leave and seeing how they do. The ones that are respected most aren't always the ones who try when they turn 16. The ones who are able to judge their limits and wait for them to overcome those limits, those are the ones most respected.

Marriage
In the Everwinter Highlands, there are more females then males, because the female Nobi are the stronger of the two. The Females are the ones more common in armies, with the males taking on more 'bookish' jobs. Since the females outnumber the males so greatly, a male Nobi can have up to 5 wives, occasionally more. Oftentimes the wives are siblings or have been friends for much of their lives, and get along really well. The Male has to convince the female to chose him, not the other way around.

Male/Female Differences
Since the females are stronger and longer lived, daughters are favored among the Nobi. They also get the more "brute force" and "militarian" kinds of jobs, while the males generally get 'bookish' jobs. But males can be in the army just as females can, and females are just as smart as males. Besides the females being stronger, both sides are pretty equal. Oh, but the females are considered more important because they can only reproduce so often, males can do so whenever, and as much as they want, and as such are more expendable. Males have been known to die saving females of any age from dangers. So have females for males, but less often.

Language
The Koldenwelt Nobi speak "Nobian", which is a variation of the Old Tongue of the Elves. They use the Old Tongue to speak in diplomatic situations, though they are beginning to change to the language of "Kolden", used in the Western Forests. They still speak and write in their native language of Nobian for the most part.

Traits of the Nobian language is that the written language is very swirly. It has flowing letters that seem to blend into a picture with time. The best of the writers are able to create a truly amazing image using the shapes of the words, as well as what they say. This is literal, the way the words are shaped is in such a way that a positive paragraph creates a positive image out of the black and white portions of the words and sentences. The spoken language is like a never ending song, using all sorts of tones and notes, it sounds like singing from a distance, though once you get closer you can see that there is a different song for each conversation, each sentence, each word. The Nobi have always loved art, and every aspect of their culture shows this.

Architecture
The Nobi love beauty, but their ideas of beauty in physical form are the opposite of their ideas of spoken or written beauty. They prefer large, blocky structures, and like open areas as much as possible. They are, after all, from a vast and open plain-lands. While individual buildings may be nice and orderly, their cities are far from it. Streets intersect at strange angles, sometimes having streets a multiple levels bridge each other and having stairs or elevators to move people up and down them. The cities from above are a confusing tangle of 20-30 stories of streets and buildings. They change over time, with side streets and alleyways popping up out of no where, and then vanishing under new buildings and houses. Only the main streets will remain unchanged for many years, and even then they can be blocked by a slow closing in by houses. That's just natural evolution in the process, and no one wants to stop it. Many cities of the Nobi have a magic-powered map that alters itself as the city changes, and almost as many have maps that show people the best way to their destination one at every street corner in Ironforge itself, which is a complex and confusing system of tunnels, large open chambers filled with buildings, as well as thousands, tens of thousands, of individual houses coming right out of the tunnels. Nobi Cities are honeycombed with tiny streets, small bridges from house to house over main tunnel ways and streets. They look for all the world like a chaotic and confusing cobweb, in every way, even 3-D.

The Nobi do, however, have a few notable preferences in their city designs. First, they like there to be at least 4 streets that are main streets, which, in their minds, should never change. They also like to have a set of circles that connect those main streets to each other, with the main streets ending at a central circle, inside of which the government buildings are held, usually defended by a solid wall of stone between 20 and 200ft thick, depending on the size of the city and on its importance. Ironforge, for example, have 173ft thick solid stone walls around the Capitol Section of the city, with another set of 82ft thick walls inside those. It is inside that inner barrier that the "Great Forge" is located.

The Great Forge
Home to the Council of Masters, the Great Forge is an old piece of machinery. It is what controls the entire of Ironforge's machinery and systems, it is what keeps the volcanos rage capped and tamed. The Great Forge itself is a massive metal construct, with a giant column of magma flowing up through the center to the rest of the city. This column is held up by a powerful Seal from when the Nobi first arrived. The Seal itself is what holds back the volcanos fury, all one has to do is remove or destroy the seal to release this power.