Allarian Culture

The mainstay of Allarian culture has always been honor, understood as having your actions be true to your purpose. A soldier that obeys their commanding officer is honorable. A citizen who calmly accepts the social order is honorable. A noble who does not abuse their wealth or power is honorable. An artisan who does an honest, good job, is honorable. Any individual who fulfils a promise is honorable. Thus, honor and duty become two sides of the same virtue: duty is to be true to others, honor is to be true to oneself.

This idea reflects on the Kingdom’s original motto—Zah En’Ali, ‘Honor your Duty’. Queen Elyse changed it to Fai En’Ali, ‘Honor your Dream’, as a loud and clear statement against the prohibition of Fai magic, and towards greater inclusion of the long-marginalized Ellari caste.

Since Allaria also loves its refinement, often translated into baroque forms of art, speech and thought, the concept of ‘honor’ has been heavily expanded upon through centuries of moral studies, academic treatises and legal codes. The Allai tongue has seven words for ‘honor’, each representing a different degree or form to fulfil your duty. There are over 1 300 different definitions of ‘honor’ in the Royal Library, and florid debates on The Eliadu are a common popular pastime and even a competitive sport.

Proper form
The second concept that sustains Allarian culture, and has sustained it for a thousand years, is proper form. Proper form of speech, a correct behavior, an upright stance in every sense. Since honor must be practiced, Allarians developed the cultural conviction that virtue must be expressed. What’s the point of always fulfilling your promises if you never promise anything? What’s the point of knowing proper manners if you don’t show them? Thus, appearing virtuous is at least as important as being virtuous; and it’s not hypocrisy, for Allarians rarely say anything they don’t feel. But they want you to know they do think proper thoughts, and will be sure to say it in clear, audible, proper words.

However, when an Allarian commits a crime or makes a mistake - almost the same thing in Allarian culture—they must admit it, but everyone else will try to hide it away. If you do wrong, it’s your duty to come clean; it’s society’s duty to pretend it was nothing. The criminal will be arrested, the mistake will be corrected, the noise will be silenced. But quietly. And passersby will carry on, not acknowledging disorder. Acknowledging disorder is not proper form. It invites disorder into your life, welcomes wrongdoing to everyone’s mind. Better to keep it hidden, tucked away. As loud as Allarians are with their virtue, they need to be discreet with their failings.

Empathy and prejudice
Finally, Allaria has a complex, conflicting approach to empathy and prejudice.

On one hand, Allarians believe in fine arts, fine taste and fine breeding, and draw a very marked line between those that have it and those that don’t—which more often than not means Allai half-elves vs. everyone else. Even the less wealthy or powerful citizens tend to blame themselves for their condition, and unconsciously aspire to belong to the ‘high classes’; which often refers to those that can appreciate higher poetry, courtly behavior or even refined forms of combat. Allarians believe this refinement can be inborn or taught, but it nonetheless separates one class of people from the rest. And of course, all Allarians, regardless of their stance on equality, assume they are more refined than any foreigner.

On the other hand, empathy, compassion and sensitivity are the most prized virtues in Allarian society. Part of having ‘class’ is NOT acting superior—even though most Allai nobles gleefully do—and most Allarian philosophies commend the ability to understand, to share and to put yourself in the shoes of others. Despite their caste-based society, and their often ridiculous prejudices, Allarians remain kind, concerned and willing to help - or at least to do what they think is helping.