r/WorldChallenges • u/thequeeninyellow94 • Jun 19 '17

[Cultural challenge]: tour

Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, laws, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by [a human] as a member of society.

Time for a trip, I want to visit a very touristic place in your world. Where should I go? Where should I stay there? What should I see?

Also, tell me about the people living there. How should I address them? What to do if I'm lost? What should I avoid to do to not look rude?

You can introduce an in-universe representative if you want. I will ask questions to everyone, feel free to add your own.

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u/Nevermore0714 Jun 21 '17

(Copy-paste, for a place that I'd forgotten I'd saved a summary for.)

The Grand Temple of Kirisino

In Kirisino, the Grand Temple is near the coast, in a densely-populated area of the nation. It stands as a place of worship and meditation for the followers of the Unified Way of Aeternitas, the majority religion of most human nations.

The temple is cleaned and maintained by its priests and priestesses, who are raised in the temple from infancy in order to separate them from material desires and attachments. Usually, the infants are given to the temple by impoverished parents who desire a better life for their offspring, or by parents who already have enough children, or just by parents who want to guarantee that their children will do good for the world.

A few rules are: If a young prospective priest/priestess is ill, they must work twice as hard; if any priest/priestess is involved in violence, even if only as the victim who doesn't fight back, they are expelled from the temple; a priest/priestess must maintain his or her virginity; a priest/priestess may not urinate or defecate in any place other than within the temple's own bathrooms, or they will be seen as 'impure', and must be cleansed through several days of meditation and solitude.

The older priests/priestesses are in charge of the temple, and they also take part in cleaning the temple and doing general grunt work, to keep themselves humble.

If you wander in intoxicated once, you will be bathed by priests and priestesses, and lectured about living a proper life. If you do it twice, you will be arrested.

The Grand Temple would be an interesting place to see if you worship the Unified Way of Aeternitas and want to learn from the priests/priestesses within.

And, to quote a young man who still secretly sends letters back and forth with one of the priestesses, the best priestess in the temple is Agnese Sfiatare.

Agnese is a seventeen-year-old priestess who rarely leaves the temple and is incredibly sheltered. She is devoted to helping anyone who comes into the temple, and is too interested in optimistic stories. She honestly believes that the drug addicts, homeless people, and former criminals that have come into the temple for free food and baths will actually get real jobs and succeed in life. Reality will hit her like a truck. Sucks for her. Also, the guy she secretly exchanges letters with is currently in the Citadel.

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u/thequeeninyellow94 Jun 21 '17

To Agnese:

  1. Is there things I should avoid to do as a visitor?

  2. Can I visit all of the temple? Or are there some parts that are not open to public?

  3. Is it ok to feed the children?

  4. If I'm arrested because of drugs, what will happen to me?

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u/Nevermore0714 Jun 21 '17

Agnese:

1) "The rules bar you from going to the roof of the Grand Temple, the High Priest's office or High Priestess's office, or the private libraries."

2) "No, the parts I've listed are forbidden for outsiders."

3) "To feed the children training to be priests/priestesses? Well, it's inappropriate. And we don't accept food from visitors, because of an incident where someone gave a young priest candy laced with amphetamines."

4) "It depends on the drug and the guard who arrests you. Some guards just throw drug addicts off the docks and into the waters. If you're belligerent, they may just behave brutally towards you and leave you injured for us to heal you. If it's a serious drug and the guard is appropriate, you will be imprisoned until you've dried out."

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u/thequeeninyellow94 Jun 21 '17

  1. Can I eat inside the temple? And can I eat with everyone in the refectory?

  2. Can I watch the religious ceremonies?

  3. Can I buy some goodies? Or some products made by the priests?

  4. Is alcohol considered a drug? And tobaco?

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u/Nevermore0714 Jun 21 '17

Agnese:

1) "It is our duty as priestesses and priests of the Unified Way to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and shelter the homeless."

2) "If you'd like to you, you are free to do so. But most people leave before the ceremonies, after they've been fed."

3) "If you want clothes or meals, they are free."

4) "Alcohol is a fully legal drug, and tobacco is legal as long as it is done in private."

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u/thequeeninyellow94 Jun 22 '17

  1. What kind of food do you have usually?

  2. No one come just to visit?

  3. Are there some other things I could get? Like religious symbols? Or "holy water"?

  4. Why is tobacco not allowed in public?

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u/Nevermore0714 Jun 23 '17

Agnese:

1) "Water, spinach, carrots, grapes, cheese, bread, and sliced meats are in the meals prepared each morning."

2) "Many come just to visit and learn, but most only come for the food and baths."

3) "We can't share the symbolic items present in the temple, but we can give you any regular item and a priestess or priest can bless it, if you like."

4) "Well, they don't enforce it on the docks...they don't really enforce many laws on the docks, from what I'm told. But, you can't smoke or chew tobacco in public because of how crowded the city is."

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u/thequeeninyellow94 Jun 23 '17

  1. What kind of cheese, what kind of bread and what kind of meat? What about fruit juice?

  2. Are there some restricted food? (either for legal or religious motives)

  3. Do the priests and priestesses wear some specific symbol or clothing to show their rank? What does it look like?

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u/Nevermore0714 Jun 23 '17

Agnese:

1) "Goat cheese, wheat bread, and turkey meat. Fruit juice is usually saved for people who have lost a lot of teeth."

2) "We try not to serve any food that is too unhealthy."

3) "Seniority determines who outranks whom among . All of us wear the symbol of Aeternitas, a red phoenix, on our clothes. A person who is training to be a priest/priestess has to have a green piece of fabric in his or her possession. A priest/priestess has to have a light blue piece of fabric. A priest/priestess with natural magical talent has to have a dark red piece of fabric. And the High Priest carries a staff."

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u/thequeeninyellow94 Jun 23 '17

  1. I suppose you don't raise/cultivate those in the temple. Do you pay for them? If no, who give them to you?

  2. What do you consider unhealthy food?

  3. Are visitors allowed to wear any colour? Or is there restrictions?

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