Created by Petty Officer 2nd Class Sofia Cipriani on Sun Aug 3rd, 2025 @ 6:42am
Culture
Daily Life & Social Norms
El-Aurian society places great importance on balance—between logic and emotion, nature and technology, tradition and innovation. With lifespans that span millennia, patience, mindfulness, and self-reflection are foundational values. El-Aurians are slow to anger, but trust is sacred; betrayal is rarely forgiven.
Social etiquette is rooted in calm discourse. Interrupting someone mid-conversation is considered disrespectful. Elders are always addressed with formal honorifics, and silence is often used to convey thoughtfulness rather than awkwardness.
Fashion & Aesthetics
Clothing reflects the wearer’s emotional state and role in society. Flowing robes, earth tones, and iridescent fabrics are common, often enhanced with reactive threads that subtly shift in hue. Traditional dress incorporates symbology related to time, harmony, and nature.
Jewelry carries ancestral significance. Crystals recovered from El Auria are worn in pendants, rings, or headpieces and are believed to aid temporal awareness or store significant memories.
Family & Relationships
Given their longevity, El-Aurian families often span many living generations. Relationships tend to be deep, fluid, and sometimes polyamorous, built on mutual respect and emotional honesty. Children are raised communally in educational collectives with input from family, mentors, and scholars.
Bonding rituals (akin to marriage) are quiet affairs marked by shared creative expression—partners may write joint music, co-author poetry, or sculpt a “memory stone” that captures their connection.
Cuisine
Cuisine is heavily plant-based and infused with ritual. Meals are slow, symbolic, and often enjoyed in communal silence or accompanied by storytelling. Recipes evolve generationally—meals reflect not only taste, but emotional memory.
A renowned dish, Tal'na broth, made with highland herbs and minerals, is said to enhance temporal perception and is consumed only on key religious or personal occasions.
Arts & Expression
Art is not considered a profession, but a lifelong pursuit. Most El-Aurians will study multiple disciplines—painting, music, sculpture, poetry—using creative expression to process emotion and explore memory.
Visual and kinetic arts are dynamic: holographic paintings shift with ambient light, sculptures emit tonal vibrations, and theatrical performances may run for days, blending history with ancestral memory.
Rites of Passage
The Listening (Age 40): A meditative ceremony in which the individual formally embraces their empathic and temporal sensitivities. Considered emotional adulthood.
The Calling (Variable age): Marks the declaration of one’s life path (e.g., science, art, diplomacy). Participants receive a Threadmark — a time-reactive tattoo symbolizing their role in the greater fabric of El-Aurian society.
The Unfolding (End of life): A sacred rite where the dying project their most significant memories through astral means, preserving them in crystalline matrices held by family or cultural archives.
Festivals
Day of Silences: Held on the anniversary of El Auria’s fall. El-Aurians observe a planetary silence for one full rotation. Memorial gatherings share stories, memories, and ancestral wisdom under the stars.
Pulse Festival: Occurs every 50 years. Cities across Kaitos hold multisensory art events synchronized with tectonic activity, symbolizing the planet’s “heartbeat” and the renewal of cultural spirit.
The Weave: A generational tradition where individuals share their life experiences by weaving literal threads into vast community tapestries, which are publicly displayed to inspire the younger generation.
Rituals & Ceremonies
Ritual life is central to El-Aurian identity, blending memory, time, and emotional resonance.
The Listening: A rite of empathic awakening held at age 40. Includes a meditative retreat and public sharing of insight.
The Weave: A generational storytelling ritual where families and communities create symbolic tapestries interwoven with their life experiences.
The Unfolding: A sacred end-of-life ritual where individuals project memories into a crystal for archival and emotional sharing.
Virehn’s Vigil: An annual planetary remembrance of El Auria’s fall, marked by floating lights released into the Onaluna Sea.
