The Umbral Empire
“One stands before us in Durance. Speak thy name and testament.”
There are several folktales taught to children that are unique to the Umbral Empire. The first is a type of tale where an individual is offered countless dangerous opportunities, and thinking themselves prudent and wise, decline to run reckless risks. These tales always end with the utter destruction of the individual and all they hold dear, chastising them for their foolish failure to be bold and gain what was necessary to prevent disaster. Similarly, other children’s tales emphasize the importance of never mocking another’s failure if what they tried was daring enough, or how shameful it can be to gain great success without ever running risks.
It comes as little surprise to outsiders that there is no greater cultural insult than to call a peer of Umbros a coward. It does, however, come as a significant surprise that the insult is almost unheard of, because gloryhound risk taking is so deeply ingrained, that if a peer is failing to act on something opportune but dangerous, it is just assumed that they are restraining their natural inclinations to try regardless of consequence and forcing themselves to wait for slightly better odds.
There is a constant tension in Umbros that is never truly reconciled. Deep responsibility to Houses whose continued survival very much depends upon their protectors continuing to draw breath, versus the constant need to run greater and greater risks to gain glory and strength to guarantee the success of those same Houses. To any that would bemoan that, there is a common saying in the Empire that if one finds the crown heavy, another would happily bear it.
“Dare Greatly.”
Modesty, as a notion, is not overly prized as a virtue inside the Empire. If one has a strength in any arena and in any form, it should be flaunted. This combined with an intensely daredevil culture can result in extremely predictable conflicts, and some cultural traditions have arose to slow the constant churn and bloodletting between the best and brightest of Umbros’ rising talent. Duels are more restricted than most would expect. While all take place in magical rituals to restrict the degree of collateral damage, it is an immense loss of face for a challenge to take place except between peers. And ‘peers’ have a more restrictive meaning in the Umbral Empire than in the peerages of the other realms: it is not noble blood alone. One is considered a peer of the Empire if, and only if, they are a blooded member of a noble family and have magical talent. The latter is considered far more important, and is a strict requirement in voting for the Tannistry. It is customary for the Gifted visiting Umbros to be given courtesy noble titles in address.
The need to cultivate the relationships between Peers and their houses finds an emphasis on social events that those outside of Umbros often find excessive and frankly exhausting. Masquerades serve a particular role in Umbros, where it is understood that many can recognize precisely whom they are interacting with, that those under exile are tolerated with a polite fiction of anonymity, but one can spend a pleasant evening with those whose situations would be materially improved by marrying them, murdering them, or frequently both.
Those perplexing social events serve an important function in that it is given to the Peers to cultivate as many allies as reasonably possible among other Gifted, as it is commonly accepted that one trying to go about their Durance alone is nothing more than a particularly self-indulgent way of committing suicide.
“Return puissant.”
More peers of Umbros are invited to Shroudwatch Academy than any other group, a source of not inconsiderable pride in the Empire, but the reason is not necessarily indicative of overwhelming natural ability. It is understood, of course, that it is far more likely to be Gifted if one’s maternal bloodline has magical talent. But the likelihood of one manifesting magical talent is tied inseparably to moments of great personal risk, intense danger, and all too often trauma.
It is expressly forbidden to have children in arms, strenuously enforced by all the realms of Catenys after some infamous and rarely-spoken incidents. But Umbral noble houses tend to not be overly concerned with the safety of their scions, and increasingly hope that life-threatening situations awakens ability in them. Betrothals between noble houses are generally of a shorter duration, as one would neither guarantee that a noble still be among them in the following years, nor would they imply that they would ever do the self-defeating notion of attempting to keep them out of harm’s way. Longer betrothals, in the rare cases they happen, are taken as a sign of immense confidence in the capabilities of those involved to not die despite whatever reckless behavior they chase.
Safety, it is said, is a price they are unwilling to pay.
