Culture and Society of the Berturracioi
Introduction
The society of the Berturracioi, the human people of Arezilur, is organized in tribes, each led by a chief who is advised by an oracle of the Path of Nulai. About half of the Berturracioi are nomads who travel in camel caravans between the oases; the rest live in the cities and towns of the oases and the coast. Every craft is regarded as an art, and the Berturracioi are known above all for their glasswork, their sung poetry and their music.
Names and Identity
Berturracioi have a given name and a family name, and belong to a tribe. Given names are Berturraci words with a meaning, often shortened: Marriera is a shortened form of barimbertuarriera, "desert rose". Family names pass through the mother.
A Berturracio identifies first by tribe and then as a Berturracio. Tribes keep their names whether they are nomadic or settled, and members of the settled tribes also identify with their city. Nomads and townspeople regard one another as kin. Tribal names are Berturraci words, often for a place, an ancestor or a trait. The five tribes that founded Gristilia are the Belidde ("glass warriors"), Underre ("sand wanderers"), Aivile ("wind walkers"), Irbille ("star seekers") and Illerre ("moon followers"), each a shortened form of a longer Berturraci compound.
Societal Structure
Each tribe is led by a chief, who is advised by the tribe's oracle. The tribe's elders choose the chief from among its families, and the chief serves for life. Women and men share in leadership, trade, the work of the caravans and fighting.
Every activity, from glasswork to cooking to the raising of children, is regarded as an art. An apprentice becomes a master when the masters of a craft accept a masterwork; mastery is a rank, not a guild. Artisan families carry prestige, and the members of the Council of Gristilia usually come from them.
Berturracioi marry one spouse, and a husband joins his wife's tribe.
In the cities an oracle advises without a vote: one advises the Council of Gristilia, one the ruling family of the Bugluria Kingdom, and others the leading families of the Irerilde Free Ports.
Religion and Spirituality
Most Berturracioi revere Nulai, the Ascendant Spirit of fate and destiny, randomness and chaos. Their oracles are Osiari of the Path of Nulai, trained at the House of Nulai at Issiere Oasis. Through meditation and focus they perceive the spirits of fate and read them for their tribes. A reading is not formally binding, but going against one is thought to invite misfortune, and a chief who ignores the oracle loses standing.
Arihis is honored as the spirit of the desert and the source of the glass of Beilisia. Nāaon, the Ascendant Spirit of illusions and shadows, is regarded warily, and mirages and the illusions of the desert are blamed on him. Yeparchism, brought from Gosterra, survives as a minority faith in the cities and is strongest in Gristilia.
The dead are buried in the sand, and the grave is marked with a piece of glass. Nomads bury their dead where they died; townspeople bury theirs outside the city walls.
Language
The Berturracioi speak Berturraci, which descends from Gostaldi and is known as a flowing, poetic language. It is written in the Gostaldi alphabet. Literacy is high in the cities and lower among the nomads.
The speech of the nomadic tribes is more conservative, while that of the coast has taken in many trade words; all of it is mutually intelligible. Berturraci is the language of trade in Gristilia, and the Berturracioi are known for being well versed in foreign languages. The Qerem who live in Berturracio cities speak Berturraci as well as their own language.
Literature and Oral Traditions
Poetry is the chief literary art of the Berturracioi. Poems are recited and sung at gatherings, around the fires of the caravans and in the courtyards of the cities, and a master poet holds the same standing as a master of any other craft. Each family keeps its line through the mother as a recited genealogy, learned by heart. In the cities poems are written down and printed, and Gristilia has printing presses; among the nomads poetry is mostly memorized and passed on by recitation.
Music and Dance
Most Berturracio music accompanies sung poetry: a singer with a bowed one-string fiddle, often joined by a hand drum covered with hide and by reed flutes. In the cities glass wind chimes hang in courtyards and doorways. Women and men both play and sing.
Dance takes several forms. In solo dances the dancer moves with long cloths held overhead and swept around the body. Circle dances, with clapping and drums, are held at weddings and gatherings, and caravans are greeted with dancing when they reach an oasis.
Art and Craftsmanship
Glass is the foremost Berturracio craft. The natural glass of Beilisia is cut from the mountains as glass and needs no smelting; in the workshops, above all in the Foundry District of Gristilia, it is cut, carved, engraved and polished, or melted down and blown. It is made into vessels, lamps, windows, mirrors and jewelry. Its natural colors range from clear to smoky and green, and pieces are prized for their color.
Other crafts include silver jewelry, worn by women and men; leatherwork, especially saddles and bags; and the weaving of tent cloth, rugs and head-cloths in geometric patterns.
Berturracio painting depicts desert light, the caravans and the life of the cities.
The cities are built of sun-baked brick and stone around courtyard houses, and the windows and lamps of the wealthy are made of Beilisian glass. The nomads live in woven tents.
Medicine and Healing
In the cities physicians practice the medicine of the time, many of them trained in the League of Balúrail, and Gristilia has a hospital. Among the nomads, healers treat illness and injury with desert plants, bonesetting and the care of wounds, and their knowledge passes down through families. The Osia of the paths the Berturracioi follow plays no part in healing.
Common ailments are heatstroke and thirst, and eye disease caused by glare and sand. Glass workers, and others exposed to the dust of the glasstorms, suffer from Beiscivica, "glass lung", a disease of the lungs caused by breathing glass dust.
Clothing and Adornments
Berturracioi wear long, loose robes and head-cloths wrapped around the head against the sun and sand. Most robes are white; dyed cloth is worn for occasions and by the wealthy. Robes are the usual dress in the cities as well as in the desert, though some city people wear foreign dress for business.
Both women and men wear silver jewelry (necklaces, bracelets and pendants) and beads and pendants of glass. The design of a pendant marks the wearer's tribe.
Cuisine
The staples are dates and figs from the oases, barley, and the milk and cheese of camels, goats and sheep, which the nomads also keep for meat. The nomads bake flatbread in the hot sand beneath the coals of a fire. On the coast fish is eaten fresh or salted, with salt from Gassiga.
Sweet tea, made from Lumbage imported from Balúrail, is drunk from small glasses and offered to guests. Tidğujt, the beetles that are a Qerem delicacy, are rarely eaten by Berturracioi.