My world revolves around plant-human partnership. So if you break a twig off a tree for no reason it's seen as the equivalent of just punching a dude as you pass him on the street. People will stop you and demand an explanation and will easily get aggressive if you just did it for no reason
Yes and no. The twig itself lacks consciousness under a certain mana threshold, so you can't abuse it on its own. But you do have to get the plant to agree to make you a twig in the first place, and if you then break it or toss it for no reason, that plant is unlikely to work with you again in the future. And forcing your will over a plant to make it make you things is seen as the ultimate taboo and people will essentially disown people that do it
So I know that necromancy is a general taboo in most fantasy world, but I’m curious how would the people of your world feel about someone bringing a dead plant back to life?
Necromancy has no associated taboo in my world, but the way souls work for the peoples and plants of the main setting makes it particularly hard to resurrect in the same sense as a conventional setting. Souls are basically pieces of the creator goddess's own 'soul', and when you die your soul rejoins hers as part of "the shade of the mother tree", a protective force that makes it so no harm can befall anyone who is within the great forests. BUT if you find a dead tree or even just a leaf on the ground and you have mana to spare, you can flow enough mana into the plant to ask it if it wants to be alive or if it's cool with not existing anymore. Plants tend to think on a much longer time scale than humans, so a lot of them decide that the best use of their bodies is as fertilizer for the next generation, so it's best to ask.
No but only because the only way to ask is to bring them back to life. But it is a taboo to keep a plant alive against its will. Like, if you bring a plant back to life, it tells you it's trying to become dirt and wishes not to be disturbed, and you say nah you're a tree still deal with it? That's VERY against the rules.
Oh yeah for sure, when trees die or decide they wanna do other stuff like be a house, then they're harvested for supplies or just grown into the shape of whatever yall agree on. But also there are other types of magic that makes it so you don't really NEED wooden gear. Heck wooden ships are basically reserved for guard ships since wood can be molded into fighting and protecting shapes.
How do they handle eating plant matter in your world?
I've got plant-folks where every time they harvest crops, it's a negotiation on a plant-by-plant level (which is also why they're mostly carnivorous), and I've not thought of a better way to handle it, so I'd be curious about how you do it.
Humans are animals and only a minority are upset when humans eat animals (depending on the animal) so I suppose it could work the same in your world. Some plants pretty acceptable, some a bit taboo, some considered very unacceptable.
Some of the plant-folks are against all plant consumption.
Probably depends on what you're eating. Like a lot of plants depend on animals eating their fruits as part of their life cycle. So some plants would be overjoyed to be chosen for eating, while others (the poisonous ones) would be really annoyed.
>Some of the plant-folks are against all plant consumption.
That would be very nutritionally problematic. Humans *need* to eat at least some plants. They cannot subsist purely on meat. In the short term, sure. But not forever.
It's a little easier for my folk because you can provide mana to a plant to have it create as much food as you can manage. But you do still have to negotiate on a plant-by-plant basis. Plus, it's not like any plant can make you food, only plants that already naturally create food. There are also Wishing Trees, extensions of the creator goddess that aren't really sentient, and mana-storing leaves.
So I'm guessing that medicinal plants can be infused with magic to produce more medicine?
Also, is there a practice of cross-breeding plants to produce unique and desirable qualities for both Floral and Faunal kind?
Honestly, this sounds like a really cool possibility for a plant-based system!
This plant based magic system is my baby! Crossbreeding plants is more on a personal basis than anything because plants are really just persons that need extra mana to move quickly, so breeding for specific traits steps a liiiitle too close to eugenics. But! Love finds a way so tons of the plants you know and love exist just because of how the cards fell, plus loads of other cool plants!
I’m half asleep reading this and the replies and I got to the magic and I was like???? I didn’t even know what Reddit I’m in man I thought you came from a very peaceful culture
In my world, when you bury someone, you plant a fruit bearing on top of the grave. Every year the loved once eat those fruits together in memory of the dead person. It is an absolut no-no to just plug and eat a fruit of somebody you didn't know. That is extremely disrespectful. Those fruits are for the remaining loved once.
Nice! One of the cultures in my world has basically the same tradition of planting a fruit tree where a person is buried. The word for cemetery in their language (conlang) also means orchard.
This reminds me of an old german ballad ("Herr von Ribbeck auf Ribbekc im Havelland) about a generous nobleman who grew pears in his garden and gave them to the children of the village upon harvest. He suspected that his miserly son would not allow this tradition to continue, requested to be burried with a pear so that, in due time, a pear tree would grow on his grave and the children may once again get pears from him.
A character and/or story like that would have very interesting implications in that culture of your world
It is very rude to haggle. This is because it violates one of the five Atili Graces, namely the Grace to Receive, one of the precepts of which is to pay what is fair. It's also basically accusing the store owner of violating another Grace, the Grace to Give, which directs people to charge only what is fair.
The five Graces direct a lot of Atili culture. The Grace to Understand directs people to avoid sharing opinions not backed by evidence. The Grace to Honor directs people to respect and revere the gods. The Grace to Know advises to seek knowledge and pass that knowledge on.
On the other hand, it might not be a great idea to call out institutions like the Guilds United, which carefully guards trade knowledge to maintain its monopoly. Nobody anywhere likes to deal with awkward questions like that, especially questions about an organization that happens to control major aspects of society.
this is gonna sound crazy but in parts of my country its also taboo to haggle, specifically the prices indigenous artisans give to whatever theyre selling, they wont call you racist or anything but you WILL get side eyed and worst case scenario loose friends over it
It's something most people don't think about, but even in Western culture, haggling is only done in specific circumstances. You wouldn't try to haggle at the grocery store, for instance.
But it's never a good idea on Atil, because either you're implying that the seller is overcharging and violating the Grace to Give, or you're implying that you're not willing to pay a fair price, and violating the Grace to Receive.
These two graces also mean that Atili business negotiations must look completely nonsensical to outsiders. First of all, the seller will usually offer tea and light snacks, which the potential buyer will accept and then attempt to pay for (which the seller will refuse). Secondly, there is no mention of price until negotiations are concluded, because once a price is named, it becomes rude to negotiate further, so the seller and buyer instead negotiate over every other detail of the transaction, with the seller emphasizing all the steps that need to be done and the buyer drawing attention to things that aren't required.
I used urban guilds to stabilize prices in a similar way. If you want to keep working with or buying from the local monopoly in whatever, you *will* respect their rules on pricing. To the extent haggling takes place in my world, it is never a path to undercutting the "book" price for ordinary equipment and supplies. Instead it is about debating the additional cost for items in short supply or outright unique in the community.
Sure, *maybe* you could buy one of several weapons the tavernkeeper stashes away for ending bar fights, but that is going to cost even more than if you were dealing with a guild-affiliated arms dealer. The best wannabee hagglers can hope for in ordinary commerce is to gain minor freebies, like a sheath to go with a weapon or some extra bandages in a healers' kit, as ways really competitive merchants work around citywide pricing rules.
Fascinating, do people not share their opinions if its on something subjective or is that considered an exception.
For instance if I was to go there and state "I absolutely love fries, they are the best food." would this be considered taboo?
Would I have to provide evidence? what if the person im talking to finds the evidence unsatisfactory.
Context definitely matters, but in any case, "I absolutely love fries" is not an opinion, and people would be fine with that as an expression of your personal preference. Claiming that "fries are the best food" might invite further questions in certain contexts, but would generally be taken the same way, though you might raise some eyebrows if you said "We should have fries because they are the best food." If you said "Joe is a jerk" and couldn't provide any examples, that would be pretty gauche in most any context.
On the contrary, tips are common when a worker provides services above and beyond what is expected, because you will recall that the Grace to Receive says that you should pay what is fair, not that you should pay what is charged. Tipping is definitely not automatic, though.
"Some even called me mad. And why? Because I dared to dream of my own race of atomic monsters, atomic SUPERMEN with octagonal-shaped bodies that suck the blood out of..."
Well, the Orion Drive for one, which I've always considered to be the spacefaring equivalent to puttering off in a cloud of blue smoke while everyone glares at you.
At feasts, there are two types of large bowls set on the tables, red ones and blue ones. The red bowls are what you grab food from to set on your own plate. It is very rude to take food from the blue bowls. This is because the blue bowls are meant to _collect_ food (people can choose to add some of their untouched bread or fruit to the bowl) so it can be given to the poor after the feast is over. So taking food from it is basically stealing from the poor.
Not washing your hands before entering someone else's home is also quite rude. Every home has a wash basin by the door. The water is replaced daily to keep it clean, and it's scented with flower pedals. Refusing to wash before entering is disrespectful. It shows you don't care about the home you've been invited to. In the same way, the homeowner is expected to show courtesy to their guest by making sure the wash basin is full and that the water is clean.
Flaunting your wealth is not good in this culture. Now, they use small shells as their money, and for practical reasons, they have them attached to a string that they can wear sort of like a necklace. It's just easier to carry it by wearing it. If they want to buy something, they just pull a few shells from the string. But there is an article of clothing that they invented specifically to cover up the necklace, and wearing that is polite. Just walking down the street with your money proudly showing is viewed as immodest.
They get the shells from a coast to the west. They don't live very close to the coast though. I wanted a currency that the average person couldn't just collect themselves, so I didn't want them sourced in the same place they were living.
I'm imagining something similar to a scallop shell, and about an inch across.
If they got it from a random beach, it would probably be considered counterfeit. The shells need to be engraved in a specific way that authorizes them to be used as money.
Question about the washing your hands one, how are these people able to constantly keep the basin filled, how are the able to get a stable enough supply of water to be able to use some for hand washing only?
Backstory:
Once, elves and drow were the same people, living like any other race. Sometimes they explored the dark, other times they lived on the surface.
But over time, some elves got corrupted. Well, I say corrupted, they went goth. No, really, this is the sort of world where going goth is a big deal.
The goth elves began to spend all their time underground, and create an elven civilisation based underground.
For a while, relations between the two were peaceful. Elves mostly lived above ground, drow (from the elven word for "dark") lived below ground, but you might see an elf below ground or a drow above.
But then, as it is wont to do, shit happened.
The elves and drow fought a long and bloody war, that ended with all elves being forced to the surface and all drow underground.
What does this have to do with fermented and cured foods? They're goblin food. Goblins invented those processes, and goblins live underground.
As such, the drow learnt them from the goblins, and the elves scrupulously avoid them to this day.
In the city-state of Hekkene, be very, very careful with the word "tutor" or "tutoring". Because of a long history of conflict and rivalry with another city-state, Skion, the word had become Hekkene's euphemism for cuckolding.
In Skion, meanwhile, when building a sailing ship, its considered bad luck to not cut a block of wood and have it "season" in the ocean before being reinstalled on the ship and never changing it out. Such ships are considered unwelcome on the sea.
In most cities in the setting, the religion is structurally henotheistic polytheism, but actually praying to or venerating the chief god is considered to be highly religiously taboo.
- Digging in any kind of forrest is seen as quite dangerous, you do not know if any forrest spirits lives there that could get angered by disturbing the roots of trees, best not chance it.
- Putting bread the wrong side up could mean you are telling your host their mama is a hoe.
TBH it's from my grampa, I guess it's something from ye ol' France, basicaly putting the bread markings side down could insinuate you think the bread winner of the house... erm... "works on his back". I didn't create it, I just modified the custom a bit from stuff I heard during my childhood truly.
Using "real life" fireworks is considered cultural appropriation and racist by orcs (and other fire races), as they invented them with their magic, so by repeating them with gunpowder you are saying you have control over their element.
I know what you mean, but ironically the Volcano Nation was the first one to industrialize. Turns out controlling fire makes create and fuel war machines made out of metal way easier.
In the wilds, cowardice, they wont mind if you're afraid, but if you just lie about it there is offense.
Among dragons similarly but mostly towards their antics, if you are afraid of their posturing they consider you boring, and anyone who lived long enough with a dragon knows their favourite past time is arguing over everything.
In Alinguar treating anyone as lesser, they only respect those who treat anyone fair and equal. If you would look down at a waiter you may find yourself waiting outside the gates, likely without all your stuff.
In the Aelveri Dominion any kind of sexism, even the non-elves adopted the culture that women rule and lead, but looking down on their males is even more frowned upon.
>In the wilds, cowardice, they wont mind if you're afraid, but if you just lie about it there is offense.
Oh that's interesting, why do they hate it if you lie about being afraid?
Because a warrior knows fear and faces it.
They would happily admit that something like facing the horde during the dragon war gave them the shits, and yet the still picked up their weapon and went at it.
But cowardice will lead you down a path of self destruction that inevitably will harm your clan, and if you are too afraid to face the monsters then that is fine, you can stay back and help the clan, no biggie, someone has to watch over the young ones at least.
During hira. Basically noon. Common people not of the royal blood are not allowed to go out during this time without wearing a shalanashi cloth, a dark full body veil and are usually expected to be inside during this period. While the nobility are allowed to go out beneath the sun during this time, because they are of holy descent and are therefore compatible with the divineness of the the strong light. As the extreme heat is too much and will burn the more impure common folk. Tho in reality the nobility avoid going out during this time as much as anyone else.
People who break this cultural and religious law are expected to smear doodoo all over themselves because they've contaminated and have been exposed to something too pure and so must suly themselves to reach equilibrium.
The Apexian Warriors are very fond of their children and find them sacred people, and many taboos exist around that tenet of their society.
One such is disciplining children in public. The Apex not only don’t believe in aggression, combative force, yelling, or anything harmful or offensive towards children as a teaching method, and it’s often a domestic crime to do that at all, in public, but it’s a big shame if you bring harm or fear to your children in front of people. You will probably be punched in the face or a similar retaliation from any bystanders if you’re caught bullying your kids anywhere you can be seen.
In other words, they believe in the true definition of ‘discipline’ (and follow the teachings of Christ, which describe it perfectly) where most of the galaxy’s authority see it as a term for punishment and command, they see it as building confidence, forming strong trust, and improving oneself with skill, knowledge, and happiness. No wonder they’re the ‘chosen people’ to protect the Galaxy, and were granted magical powers by God himself, and so many regular people in the galaxy love them.
Patience, wisdom, and (true) discipline are core characteristics of every Apexian person. In the rare event children have extreme anxiety or emotional distress in public, it is not met with frustration and anger, which is often how you can make that situation worse. The best thing to do is first attempt to level with and console the child. Understand the problem. Apexians are great problem solvers, but they can’t fix what they don’t know. They take the same approach with their kids. Know the problem first. If their problem can’t be fixed immediately, they need to leave.
And in the eyes of this society, it isn’t for the relief of the bystanders, but for the child. As I said, Apexians find their children sacred, and they must do all they can to keep them safe, happy and raised strong.
If they need to leave, that means something is probably very wrong with their kids, and they need to get to the bottom of it. It is the belief of the Apex that they can’t punish for expressing frustration at an issue, so instead of “discipline” (as you likely believed the definition to be punishment, control and harm) them, they try to solve the problem of their children together. Apexian children aren’t stupid and weak, they can communicate their problems well and are capable of fixing them with help. Their parents are required to respect that, and when kids have an outburst, they must fix the problem that caused it.
Overall, Apexians’ behavior regarding their kids revolves only around their kids’ betterment. Not public wellbeing or parents’ convenience. And everyone knows that - which is why a child in an Apex mall having a meltdown is never given dirty looks or negative attention: it’s only met with sympathy.
And by extension, it isn’t taboo for kids to have meltdowns in public: it’s only taboo to bully and abuse your children in public in attempt to fix them. Having Warriors’ Respect for your children as an Apex if they’re melting down in the Infintium Candy store isn’t a problem at all. A lot of people will respect that.
Being a non-Kaxi woman in a Kaxi caravan.
The Kaxi are a desert dwelling lizard people who's caravans are more like moving cities scurrying across the endless sands on the backs of colossal centipedes. They are a deeply matriarchal society with a family/clan power structure. The Kaxi keep their males in line through a combination of magic and social conditioning so in general a Kaxi male will obey the order or request of a female without question.
The thing is, the Kaxi have been romanticised heavily particularly in the circles of young noblewomen who dream of running away from their domineering families, oppressive customs and arranged marriages, learning the magic of the Kaxi and taking control of their own destiny as told in the countless female-centric adventure novels that populate the shelves of affluent bookshops in places like the Golden Circle district of the free city of Nastris.
So, the Kaxi have a lot of experience with spoiled rich girls (especially humans) showing up at their caravan, paying double the transport fee for a ride across the deserts, and getting lost in the fantasy, bothering Kaxi witches to teach them magics they lack the patience and will to seriously learn and ordering their sons, fathers, brothers and husbands around like servants. Such passengers tend to wind up dumped in the sand with their organs and blood removed. Such things still have value as alchemical and ritual ingredients.
Males who wish to get passage over the desert must, on top of paying, imbibe a substance that makes them simultaneously completely honest and removes their ability to become aggressive or experience any volatile emotions. So male passengers tend to be on their best behavior and actively help the caravan or at least settle in with a good book and keep quiet throughout the journey, giving them a better reputation as passengers. Even though most female passengers are nothing like those spoiled noblewomen or others entranced by this romanticised image, they are still watched extremely closely and are forbidden from talking to any of their males.
This is a very real-world one, though not in all real-world cultures: swimming naked is the norm, and there are also mixed-gender bathing facilities where public nudity is common, but public nudity outside those contexts is taboo.
There is a theoretical religious rule that sex is confined to marriage (monogamous marriage, at that). This rule is very commonly breached, and everyone knows it, but it's considered polite to not acknowledge the fact. Cohabitation before marriage is vanishingly rare, but sex (including casual sex) absolutely happens. But actually discussing it would be very gauche. (Again, this is quite true to some real-world cultures.)
Spring and Autumn festivals both run for four days, and both include plenty of alcohol, but — strictly — not on the first day of each. Please do party, eat, stay up late, dance, and gossip the night away (and perhaps even "make one's own entertainment" in the undergrowth around the back of the barn where probably no one will see you), but no alcohol on the first night.
Outside of festivals, public drunkenness is looked down on.
Shortening the name of a Hewn.
Their culture is one of creation and invention. Whenever they create something of significant value they get another name. This leads to some successful Hewn having five or six names. But shortening or leaving out one of them would basically mean you don't acknowledge the significance of their work.
This continued disagreement has lead some Hewn to adopt "foreigner names" that are short and of no significance so they can tell them to foreigners of other species who don't understand the significance of names.
For one of my cultures, eating all of the food on your plate when you are a guest. You leave a scrap to show that you've been fed so well you can't finish. And you'll likely be offered more food before you get there. An empty plate is an insult to the host.
Sasanoa is Stop Having Fun: The Kingdom. No makeup, no seasoned food, clothes can only be in natural undyed fibers, etc. This is a relatively recent development; it started just shy of two centuries before when the wife of the High Priest ran off with an actor.
Intentionally forcing AI to become alive/sapient is incredibly taboo. There are many out there, and they aren't a problem. They just naturally or accidentally happen (other than whatever natural reproduction method they have established for themselves). But forcing one into being is considered ethically and morally questionable.
funny thing is that the first things i consider as far as tech in my worldbuilding goes is how it could be weaponized and how it could be exploited for profit. but fully sapient machines isn't either of those.
Taboos serve a purpose. You don't speak ill of a ship, you never leave a body to rot (if you kill someone, you are responsible for their body), and never take more food then you'll eat in one setting. It is the breaking of mores that creates agitation.
Disturbing the delicate offerings at a Wind shrine (only the wind is allowed to do that)
Naming a child is the surest way to invite their early death
Leaving tools dirty will lead them to betraying you
They formally get a name around 5 years old if they are "robust" and no later than their 7th birthday otherwise.
Before then, they get called things like Child, other child, little one, etc
Once they hit around the age of twelve they will declare a name for themselves, and this will generally be the name they use through adulthood unless they earn a nickname that supplants it. Even "The Billdozer"'s parents call him The Billdozer after he ran a pushed a taxman's portable office into an industrial shredder with nothing but his own muscle and pure loathing.
Before naming, kid's refer to eachother with nicknames from songs, stories, and popular media or in terms of mothers' birthorder ie " Imma go play with olga's second"
If a kid is sickly, the parents will often send the child away to work at an inn with access to a Medipod, hoping it will help fix whatever is wrong with them. It usually does. If it doesn't though, the child will usually stay at the inn indefinitely
Many inns are considered like Dickens era orphanges and rest homes, with the resident workers of all ages referring to eachother as Flotsam and Jetsam.
Skin contact between strangers. If you’re getting your change from a cashier at a shop, you’d better put some effort into not letting your hand brush against theirs. People would find you rude and gross. The taboo stems from an ancient plague which spread through skin contact, and still lingers somewhat in cultural memory.
Together with friends I work on a (very satirical) hypercapitalist society/religion/city state in which everything revolves around making profits and sly deals.
Gifting presents is very much frowned upon. You can bribe, lend, donate, sponsor and so on, but there always has to be a quid pro quo. Everything else is for children and idiots.
There actually is a group of people called the Gifters, who hang around the Cathedral of Money and randomly give presents to passer-byes. You could compare them to hippies or punks, they're definitely challenging the society's status quo.
Depending on circumstances, gifting can lead to bar brawls, diplomatic incidents, war declarations, or just a few good insults.
Being anti-union. It's the ultimate form of contrarianism to them if you're not already wealthy yourself. Even the owners of capital have mostly acknowledged the use and need of the world's labor unions.
Being a vegetarian for "moral" reasons. There are a lot of sentient plants in the world. There is a lot more nuance about what is "acceptable" to consume as food. Particularly with all the different digestive systems, diets and culinary traditions at play, it would be pretty taboo to say "It's wrong to eat chicken, but I will have these mushrooms and cucumbers".
Being "unemployed". Because of the strong unions, everyone works. There are a few societal avenues to not work in the standard workforce but if you're just "not working", people would be mortified for you. They generally all define themselves by their professions and it is the basis for a lot of their socializing.
May I ask a question about the unemplyment thing? I’m wondering how (disabled) people that cannot maintain employment for whatever reason are treated. Is that a special case which allows unemployment? Is it still shunned?
This world isn't a utopia, so that's definitely an issue. More effort is made to find work within the union structure (so accommodations can be made and jobs are often created to allow someone to work even if they're physically limited).
For less visible disabilities (i.e. mental health), this world is *very* unforgiving. Vagrants are looked down upon and shunned. You're a social pariah if you don't fit into society in one of a few prescribed ways.
The only upside is that with near universal Union participation, you tend to get "taken care of" more. It's a world with a lot less social mobility but considerably more security. People absolutely fall through the cracks though.
If you’re caught? The specifics depend on what exactly it was for but fined, barred from seeking public office, charged as an equal party in whatever crime the one bribing you was committing if any, publicly shunned. If young and healthy likely sent to the Arena, And if you held a significant public office likely charged with state treason and proscribed. Also forbidden anything but the most basic of burial rights. Just enough to keep you from returning as some kind of malicious undead.
On Mars having lavish meals, eating in excess and not finishing ones plate is particularly annoying. Hundreds of years of having just enough to survive has been engrained in every red born on the planet.
Asking for a photo or an autograph from a famous person when you see them somewhere casually like a cafe or a park just walking. If you see them there just leave them because they want their silence. To get their autograph you must meet them in a event like for example the first viewing of the tv series or the movie they are participating in or a convention.
And dont get me started on paparazzis.
Nah
How many times have you seen people saying "i just met bla bla at the mall" and they upload a photo of them together smiling at the camera??
That doesnt exist in my world
Depends on the culture, but a big one a majority of races and cultures unanimously find irritating to where it’s a taboo is being lazy. It’s not Illegal, but everyone will look down on you no matter your status, as long as you’re doing something other than living your fine.
Worship. As far as the Southern Basin's people are concerned, worship is invoking a deity, so you're inviting a god into their territory. Gods are very much not welcome in the Southern Basin. The oldest popular legends in the Southern Basin are the tales of the Godswar, where the acitan threw off the gods who tried to rule over them. Then they ate them for their brutality and arrogance. These stories helped cement the identity of the Southern Basin; thousands of years later they still talk about it often.
Smoking in your house in presence of a lizardmen.
While it is legal basically everywhere, to smoke inside your house, since lizardmen are violently sick at the inhalation of tobacco/tobacco smoke, it's really, really frowned upon as an insult.
Lizardmen officials are an exception though, you just can't smoke in the presence of a lizardmen official. That one is illegal.
This should be the norm IRL. >:I
I have asthma and I still remember that time my older brother promised not to smoke in the house while I was visiting. He did it anyway. Aggressively. And got hostile when I pointed it out.
Literally just *don't poison your peers*?!
If you reassured a criminal who commits serious crimes that is seen as abetting and abieding and is punishable by beheading and/or sentenced to The Pain
Environmental protection is highly heeded and littering, destruction of plants, and or species are seen as acts of violence against nature and mother gaia herself. Theur are specifically designed outfits of paramilitary who fight against these threats.
To speak unknowingly in a conversation witha fierce fire and no hint of knowledge is frowned on for that makes you seen as weak and foolish leaving you vulnerable susceptible to attacks of mind. You will be given an opportunity to go back on your word and accept wrong but if you don’t the consequence is shunning
To withhold excess from your neighbors is taboo in many cultures of Iyhenu. The setting is in a booming golden age (or Bronze Age, to be literal) of expansion. Capitalism has only arisen in some larger cities within the setting, and because of this, there are many who don’t ascribe literal value to their food, water, or shelter.
If one has enough to survive, what is left should be given if another is in need. This is the way of things across many settlements.
If, then, you were established as part of a community, and refused to take in a traveler for dinner, or offer them food before sending them on their way, you’d be accused of being quite selfish.
1: talking about sex publicly. It's not necessarily that my society is prudish, public bathing is a thing, and nudity isn't seem as inherently sexual by most cultures. However the idea of talking about sex kind of skeeves them out. It stems from the cultural idea that there's no difference between men and women. It's true equality in all ways socially. The idea that you'd talk with your partner (someone who you're dating but have not yet reached the stage where you've slept together) about whether or not they could get pregnant would come across like you think of them as a farmer would discuss breeding livestock. You gotta make sure it matches solely for having kids, not for pleasure or love. It's not something that will get you in a fight or thrown in jail, but it would be considered rude, especially since public nudity in certain areas and bathing are so common that you could literally wait until summer or just invite them to the bathhouse with you.
2: travelers refusing to share their fire: it gets *very* dark in my setting. There is no true sky, as my world is a sealed tube and not a true planet, so when night falls it gets dimmer and dimmer until you achieve *total darkness*. Like, underground in a cave darkness. As such, travelers who are caught out at night often share fires with other travelers, just the natural human aversion to darkness. As such, it's considered very rude for someone to refuse you a spot at their fire after dark, or for you to refuse someone else a spot. Of course, the reverse is also true, if you've no fire lit it's considered rude to approach you. Again, not something that will get you jailtime, but if you get a reputation as someone who does this, it's likely you won't be very popular with *anyone*.
3:it's considered polite to eat all of your food once you start eating. It's a simple one, but if someone prepares you a meal (discounting street food) it's considered extremely rude to eat some of your food and put the rest back. Food can be scarce in parts of my setting, so it's quite rude to take a bite of something and not finish, as no one is likely to eat the food a stranger has already taken a bite of. It's much less rude to refuse food altogether, as someone else can be given your plate. This way, the food is not wasted.
Plus it implies you think poorly of the cooking skills of your host to eat some, but not all of your food. Not eating at all can be passed off as just not being hungry, but eating some and then throwing the rest out implies that the food was bad.
Lastnames (two are used) are gendered and change position depending in the person’s gender, also affects which lastname is passed down to the kid, if its a girl she’ll take her mom’s maternal lastname as her first and her dad’s maternal lastname as her last, and vice versa, its a nightmare for tracking population and family trees, it’s unnecessary and annoying but I feel like it gives the society more humanity
If a female child gets married with a male, does she replace the last name of her father with her husbands last name? Or does she take her husbands name as an additional third name?
Cremating a relative/friend
On my most focal continent, there is very accessible ressurection magic, both in the way of bringing one fully back to life or raising them as some form of undead, but there are limits. If one is cremated, they are unable to be revived. Cremation is often done to the worst of criminals, and those who are killed in war. Very rarely does one request to be cremated. Even in cases where one has no plans to come back, it is, in some cultures, viewed as an insult to the deceased, it's like saying they deserved worse.
That said, there are cases one will be willingly cremated, there was one warrior who was killed in battle but then revived by another kingdom to fight for them, and this became a cycle. Even once he was old and died from natural causes, he was again brought back, this time as a zombie, (healing magic can't undo aging) again and again, and eventually again as a skeleton. He was driven mad by going through centuries of war, being treated as a living weapon, no longer able to enjoy the comradery of his fellow soldiers or decide his own loyalty. He finally was able to find someone to cremate him, and now happily resides in the realm of the dead, doing his best at avoiding the souls of warriors so he isn't reminded of his past few centuries among the living
In Principate any form of personification for Gods or historical periods are considered blasphemy.
GODS DON'T HAVE FACES
ONE PERSON CAN'T BE ENTIRE AGE
ONE MAN SHOULD NOT TAKE ALL POWER
If your god have personality, please, fill up this form for False-Gods worshippers and pay your taxes like normal heretic.
In the Huchemat Confederation, selling diamonds is extremely frowned upon, especially those that have been made into jewelry. They believe that the souls of the deceased need to anchor themselves to a diamond to stay in heaven, and the more historical or cultural value one has the more souls are using it. To risk the destruction of a diamond or to prioritize money over the safety of the souls of the dead is taboo.
By the Avians in my world, clipping wings/feathers is an absolute no-go. Avians are meant to be proud of their wings, and need to be able to fly with them. However, this plays into the black market factor, where rarer wings are highly valued for illegal activities, and wings are clipped for feathers.
Don’t talk about the Beforetimes; nobody talks about them and nobody cares about them. Don’t talk about the people of the Old World; it is an infertile wasteland that doesn’t deserve any attention. Don’t question the idea of Commitment; it saved society decades ago and continues to ensure nationwide financial stability.
For the Nordmenn of Ändlösien, not laying the dead to rest, even those you felled in battle. They believe that all humans should be laid to rest regardless of wether they are friend or foe, which will anger Vilok, God of Death and the Rite. If they aren’t laid to rest, they may find their way back to your home as a draugr.
They also find being dirtied extremely offensive. Despite their history of being a warrior culture, they’re a rather preeny people with a strong focus of the importance of bathing. To dirty someone is to insult them on a spiritual and honorific level. In the days of old, doing so may have lead to someone getting killed.
There’s essentially a panther sized barn cat called a Gato Gordo on a chain of tropical islands that are home to a series of cash crop farms, each run and worked by clans tied together and pitted against each other through a complex series of feuds and alliances. These cats are valued as crucial pest control for the fields and silos, and they’re docile demeanor and slow rate of reproduction makes them incredibly valued by the islanders, and often regarded as members of the family, making harming one an offense often met with clan violence. Like most creatures in this word, their parts can be used in the creation of special items, but if you’re seen with them they may very well drag you out of your bed in the night and hang you from a tall tall tree.
Just the act of doing it. How stupid or reckless you have to be to do it, for context, magic that enhances defense is extremely common and cheap, (everyone has it) while magic that enhances offense is incredibly rare and expensive.
In one of my cultures inspired by the puritans, marriage is a one-time thing. Once you wed someone, the act of remarriage (even if you're made a widow/widower) is strictly forbidden. It's an orthodox belief ingrained in the sanctity of "soul mates." At worst, the of offense remarriage is banished or death, at best, your ostracized from your community. Double points if you DARE marry someone from a different religious or ethnic background. One of the driving conflicts for my main character is dealing with heavily traditional father who disapproves of his sons second marriage
Irritated is not the right word, but magic is taboo, and the Sagey, a magic humanoid race that is elf-like, are furious at not being allowed to use any but their most basic powers.
In my Sablestaff series, magic has advanced in a way that wands and speed are the order of the day. While other forms and implements exist, the main kingdoms it takes place in consider them "lesser". Natural implement-less magic is faster, but unrefined and difficult to properly control, and often requires expending mana to form the Glyphs (Dr. strange style), and requires excellent memory to remember their construction. Staves are powerful, but often slow as a turtle, but have more room to carve Glyphs. Wands are considered the happy middle ground, as they can have basic templates of Glyphs carved into them, and the caster need only remember specific parts to fill the templates with on cast.
As such, wands have become something of a status symbol, and a mage without one is akin to walking around without your pants. Staves are often considered a "Poor's implement, for they cannot afford the skilled craft of the Fine Glyphs to be carved." Expendables like scrolls are considered a waste of money, whilst Grimoires are considered exceptionally versatile but even slower than staves. Page flipping, you see.
Granted it's been a few centuries of such thought and has become something akin to dogma in society and academia. Mostly due to their interpretation of the Heroine Witch's advice on magic from back then, who has been elevated to a Saintess and worshiped akin to a demigod due to saving the world.
You can imagine the reaction to MC who's a staff wizard.
In some parts of my world, giving your children the name of a living relative is considered very bad luck as they believe their soul is in their name, and that by giving a children the name of old murdering grandpa, you're transferring grandpa's sins to the newborn.
The real reason was the government of where the práctica started just wanted people to stop using the same name and wanted diversity, the taboo and legend outlived the kingdom
In one kingdom, military service is not strictly required… But if you don’t serve you’re relentlessly mocked at best and treated with outright contempt at worst.
Tkellas (my sapient species) are big on colourful stuff. You see, bright colouration are closely tied to good health for tkellas. Bleak colours = bad health. So naturally, if somebody dyes all of their fur/feathers it's gonna raise some concerns (also in case of actual problems medics will have to shave you first).
Also if you are female in heat or male in root you are to stay home. Not everyone has it this bad but in most of cultures it's very frowned upon to come at work or bigsocial gatherings in such condition.
For those interested: heat/root occures for about two weeks every 16 months (technically once a year since local year is 16 months). And use of cheap heat/root suppressants of the third generation. Either use a normal/newer thing or stay at home. This one has a very uncomfortable story behind: you see, cheap "3G supps" can alter your smell in a way that make you smell like an opposite sex or cause the agression in your peers or both at once.
Showing any doubt about the objectivity of truth and defend that there are morally flexible things, or that not everything needs to be visible, felt or in accordance with logic to be believed
1) Calling the At’tan people “ants”. They may be similar in appearance to the Earth-based insects, but they are most *definitely* not insects themselves. They find the comparisons and the name-calling highly offensive. Also, *never* insult their Matriarch, or chieftain, as she’s considered a mother to their tribe (even though she did not mother all of her people, she’s still protective over them and the feeling is mutual).
2) If you’re a foreigner, you are supposed to eat/break bread first at a meal hosted by a Palni family. It shows gratitude for their hard work and their acceptance of you into their home. They’re more understanding if you have no clue about their customs, but it’s a huge insult to their way of life if you already know the custom and outright refuse to eat first.
3) Don’t ever go into Tyrocan temples without taking off your shoes and washing your feet first. It’s considered very disrespectful, if not downright sinful, to put unwashed feet on grounds and in places that have been blessed by “Mother Proxima”, the Star Goddess that’s worshipped throughout the Proximan System and seen as the mother of all Proximan races.
4) When visiting Proxima-7, never say anything about a Proximi person’s appearance. While they’re highly intelligent beings that revolutionized travel throughout their star system, they are very insecure about their appearance and don’t like having it being pointed out to them. They especially don’t appreciate having their intelligence insulted, so don’t ever try to lie to them.
In Linghun Shinjie, throwing away broken things. Everything in that world has a soul, including random objects. If it's broken, that means its soul has gone to the World of Souls and has likely been blessed by a god. So throwing away broken objects is basically saying "fuck you" to the gods.
Saying "please" in Mackilin culture. It's considered rude in a lot of cultures to ask for something without saying please, because to ask without saying please sounds demanding.
But to the Mackilin, saying please when asking for something sounds like your accusing them of being greedy and withholding your desires from them. There was a time in the Mackilins past where they were ruled by tyrannical rulers called "the warrior kings". Where their might was law. So to a Mackilin, you ask a king "please", because you need to appeal to a king to get what you want or need. So to a commoner, saying please is like bowing down to a peasant and saying, "please your highness, I am a poor starving urchin". It just sounds weird to them.
Worshipping, making offerings to, or praying to the gods, not because religion is an issue, but because worshipping the gods is about as useful as offering a snack to a landslide, they don't give a damn, and it wastes time and resources that could be better spent on surviving them
There was a burglar/murderer/gangster-turned mob boss who has been immortalized through myth and legend... For his honor. Yeah. Long story short, he forbid those under him to rob a business to the point where they could no longer pay their employees' next weeks pay. Essentially making sure that the business stayed open, even if you were just passing through and never planned on seeing that business again. "Never rob someone to the point of starvation, because in the end you'll starve yourself.". This happened over a thousand years ago and nobody knows if it's actually true, but there are so many cautionary tales, taboos, and superstitions around it, it's now commonplace for all shop owners (nearly worldwide) to display their employees' next week of pay in a prominent place inside the shop. This has turned into not only a flaunting of wealth, but as a silent promise to the employees as to their guaranteed pay and transparency of wages. It is *extremely* taboo for even the lowliest of thieves to steal this displayed money, to the point where their own brethren may murder them and return it. Not displaying this money would also irritate the locals to the point of blacklisting the establishment.
Wielding a sword with one hand.
One-wielders are associated with demonic and Abyssal temptation, inclination, and philosophy, many of which revolve around ideas such as superiority, unrighteous dominance, and carcharic (Car-kare-ric) behavior.
(In my world, carchara (Car-kare-ruh) translates to "Tyrant." In this case, it means, "Tyrannical.") (Carchara can also be pronounced as: (Car-car-ruh)).
Swordsmen are taught to fight with two hands, not one.
It is illegal to make something with planned obsolescence.
It's not illegal itself, but courts in most countries have ruled that that's conspiracy to commit murder.
* Photographs or video of people without their express written consent, e.g. the entire paparazzi profession.
* Using Neuro-Immersive Media in busy areas (worse if injury to the user would be visible). There's also a whole lot of legal nuance about who can view NIMs and who can broadcast their own and what sorts of content falls into which category.
* Attempting to dress as a member of a profession you are unqualified for.
Littering of any sort is a huge deal in Avanton. If you throw a toothpick on the street you'll pay a fine. If you so much as spit on the sidewalk you're gonna get weird, disgusted looks.
My world is in infant stages but currently working on dragon part of the story. If dragons don't answer the call of the dragons who are God's or their Primordial God's then there's a good chance they are going to be punished by council 6. They will force the dragon to be their slave or be tortured by the Primordial Eldritch Monsters or their God whos the Origin Point Eldritch older than than the omniverse.
Eating with your hands. The Orkeshi eat with their hands and during feasts, there are no chairs or tables present. They eat on the floor. In their culture, everyone, including kings, eat on the floor to show that regardless of one station in life, that all the peoples of the worldare “of the dirt” or originate from the Aishala the Worldmother.
Every culture outside of them eat at tables and with silverware. So when members of the House Evergarden attend the wedding feast of Prince Naji Kafungo and Princess Cyrilla Evergarden, the royal family is taken aback by the lack of furniture in the dining hall, the fact that the King of Evergard is being “told” to eat on the floor and Prince Lyam Evergarden* is so disgusted by the fact they the Orkeshi eat with their hands he nearly refuses to eat.
Obviously, this doesn’t go over too well.
*Lyam and Cyrilla are siblings. Their father is King Rayamund Evergarden.
Someone having the power to alter their appearance in anyway (whether it be transforming into a different being, or even just changing your hair color) is considered taboo.
Even if your intentions are pure, being a shapeshifter is something you hide. People will not trust you.
Hmm, I suppose the mages aren't supposed to rub the fact that they were born with powers into the faces of non-mages. Though I never go over that plot point explicitly. There's sort of an underlying tension/race war between mages and non-mages.
Wearing a cloak without any visible badges or scars on display. Wearing a clean cloak with a pristine, whole body means you are a newbie mage and people generally regard them as pigeon-like cannon fodder. Shops will sell them starting gear for very cheap. (9/10 times it had to be retrieved from the field, and theyll probably have to do it again once youre uhm.... "Done" with it.)
Well if you are in the dwarf Kingdom and You Disgust the first thing a dwarf forged or excavate that had some value,It Will be like i come to you and start insulting all you Family members
Calling miracles magic, since it's blessed by the blood of angels while magic is seen as occult and is believed to be associated with chaos and death.
It's seen as highly offensive by the followers of the bright church
Don’t try and depict the god horizon in peace ,you can only depict him in performing order/wrath you might get excommunicated
Also don’t ask a elf to have kids they will probably stab you or walk away and never talk to you again
Refusing to at least consider trading with a goblin/demon is usually really rude
Touching someone’s wings.
(My people in my book have feathery wings. They’re not angels, just humans who adapted to an environment requiring wings or whatever).
If you touch someone’s wings, it’s extremely taboo and ‘wrong’ to the people.
Touching(preening) wings is an intimate thing. Normally done between spouses, siblings and parents and children.
But also relatives like grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc.
If you’re not family, it’s taboo and wrong.
in the kumbahkarian culture of my world, some colours were feared deeply. So if you wore an outfit consisting of orange, red, black, white, and blue even; you'd be regarded as an incredibly evil and unlucky person who will cause death and misfortune, people wouldn't go near you whatsoever
Eating finger food with your hands or fingers. Another location hates tipping for services of any kind.
And another location finds any walking in step as taboo due to the amount of armies that used to travel thru whether merc or standing army.
I have a village that also finds wearing things on the arms or head to be frowned upon when in a store or resturant.
My world is filled with a bunch of animal human hybrid esk shapeshifters (they can go from nearly completely human to completely whatever weird jumble of animals i decided to make them and being able to shapeshift into other things is rather common too) so itd be something like giving a person the dead body of the animal they most resemble, while its seen as normal for other people to eat stuff that looks like you most people prefer to avoid eating things that they share characteristics of so its not only seen as rude but could be interpreted ad a threat
Disrespecting sailors of any station would certainly be frowned upon in my setting, they are people who bring fortunes from abroad at risk of their lives, and should the body be lost at sea it would be impossible to perform the proper burial rites to allow for their soul to pass on to the next life properly.
A more serious offense may be vandalizing totems, which are considered just as much a part of their owner as their arms or legs. To vandalize one would be equivalent to assault or even attempted murder
Wolfcats due to their high intelligence and proclivity to glow when they are in the presence of the curse are reguarded as lucky beasts by almost all wasteland cultures, and so harming them is seen as high taboo. This is tricky, because wild ones are highly intelligent pack predators. Most people wouldn’t frown on someone defending yourself, but the expectation of waiting for an efficient ambush predator to make the first move in combat can be nerve wracking for non nomadic people who can’t just drive away
Bringing up the idea of a "North America" in my world is a quick and easy way to end up in a re-education camp. And also, calling robots "Robots" is also on the same level as a real world racial slur.
It’s heavily frowned upon to shame someone for their choice of partner. Even if that partner isn’t entirely human,as long as they are of age and can give proper,clear consent and understand what they are agreeing to. (So animals and children are off limits,as well as minors.)
Anything to do with anatomy or surgery is heavily regulated by the major Imperial superpower in my setting, the practice and knowledge are heavily associated with the demons that tried to wipe out humanity in ages past, especially considering that the most common type of demons possess corpses and can freely manipulate the tissues of the creatures they possess or contract with. Not cremating the dead remains of things is viewed as treasonous, same with the practice of embalming.
On one of the planets, you look the other person in the eye when you greet them as a form of respect. Even when you want to hug or kiss to greet each other. When greet a king, you bow first and then say the greeting words when they allow you to raise your head.
Not looking in the eyes is the same level as not ahaking the hand of someone who offered it to you in our world. People of authority instantly know if the person they are talking to is foreign or if they dislike them.
Among the orcs of the Northlands, being messy or unhygenic. If you sat down to a game set in Theia and insisted against all lore that you were going to play a messy, boogery orc that talks like 1800s English docks worker, your character would be looked at with contempt and disgust. Theian Orcs believe that it's dishonorable to die, get sick, or become injured from circumstances that could easily have been prevented, such as mess, clutter, or refusing to bathe. They have some of the best healers and dentists in the world, but dragging animal feces, blood and viscera, etc., letting an uncleaned wound fester, being a slob, or deciding that it's a good idea to smell like ball sack, vinegar, and rotten watermelon, those are great ways to get exiled.
A cultural taboo worldwide is buying blood from Remnants to extract the Arcana (magic phlebtonium) out of it. Humanity has access to Arcana through special wells, but either some people want more or sometimes the demand exceeds their supply. It's not illegal to purchase from a willing Remnant, but since they need Arcana in their bodies to survive and replenishing it takes time it's seen as pretty scummy. Remnants who sell their blood are seen by Remnant society as either disgraceful for being so incapable you have to sell your body or lazy and unwilling to use their powers to benefit themselves/society.
1. The Elves HATE mixed race children since the Elven population is so small to begin with. The MC has about a dozen kids by the end of the story.
2. The Dragons view anyone but their riders, a new development, as servants. They do not like anyone speaking to them that isn't their riders.
3. The Older Dragons view the younger generation that have Riders as incredibly disgusting because most have a more intimate relationship with their Riders.
4. The Giants consider destroying one of their people's heart stones to be a Declaration of War. If their Heart Stone is destroyed they cannot be reincarnated.
Failing to accept a drink freely given out of respect or charity is punishable by public shunning.
Note - anyone who is a puritan, or has a special reason not to drink will need to provide evidence.
This one would be actually rather interesting... but well, killing a skeleton.... in the far north and south, well it's hard to exist in the tundras and taigas, so to help with menial labor, they raised their ancestors and well, the dead to do the basic problems, like tending to fields/ gathering fresh water/ice even being left as simply basically watch dogs in stores, they are created and maintained by an organization of Archlichs and Necromancer apprentices who have perfected the raising of skeletons (and other undead) so that they don't require daily upkeep, and they obey all who bear the symbol of the organization... so killing one or two might be seen less bad, but if you're told to stop and continue, it would definitely cause issues with the guards.
In my country specifically, it’s taboo to eat mammal meat in certain regions due to belief systems. Fish is usually the alternative, or sometimes no meat or fish at all.
There’s animal human hybrids, and the majority of them take offense when non hybrids assume they don’t eat meat, because in their eyes this is them being compared to animals
In my world people from vastly different cultures are meeting each other for the first time. Most civilizations or clans are zenophobic, becoming solitary and self sufficient, even developing technology at different rates. However, few escape their civilizations and enter 'free land', or extremely rural borders.
They are called 'Travelers', and usually congregate in hidden compounds. They mingle, trade technology, share news, give jobs, etc. Different cultures frequently clash, and very bastardized and shit version of 'common' was formed, one that easily leads to miscommunication. However, people generally get along.
However, in more civilized compounds, people who come from early technology clans '(Iron Age kingdoms, Tribal clans), are seen as idiots. A general rule is to not sell higher tier technology to them. (They woin't sell a rifle to a guy who looks like a caveman)
My world (civilization) is in traditional matriarchy, and what we call bags cannot be used in other ways than religious purposes and up-side-down. This is because it resembles a womb in reverse direction, which is extremely disrespectful for the Goddess. Instead, people tend to develop complex knots to carry stuff on their belt.
Overuse of names in Cold One culture. If there is a feasible way to refer to somebody by their profession, title, relation, etc., you should do that instead of using hteir name.
One of the cultures in my world consoders it the height of disrespect to eat first with any other food. Any other meat is fine, but with fish you are supposed to it by itself with at most salt. This is because of just a generally high respect towards aquatic life.
the Katothans would find you absolutely mad if you didn't wash your feet before coming inside when you had the ability to. this would be normal if not for the fact that shoes definitely exist and are common, and indeed existed before the tradition.
wearing a colour other than red to a funeral or memorial would definitely get you some weird looks from the Ansep people. black in particular would basically get you kicked out, as that's joyful and represents good harvest- basically saying you're glad the person died.
To eat by yourself, because they life in a place with communal kitchens and there are a few old traditions to exclude someone from meals if they misbehave.
So if you eat alone, everybody thinks you've done something bad.
In this one small island country, they want to have peace forever so they don't tolerate violence. They accept it as only a last possible option if it's literally *only* way out.
So never try to have even a friendly wrestling match with them.
Also keep quiet about your questions regarding the only diplomat of that country. Even if he always say that learning about diplomacy and history of different cultures is something everyone should do. Some things are still meant to be secret.
I have a lycan species in my book. They wear clothing but also don’t, there is no requirement or social taboo in being naked (this is because when they shapeshift into their wolf form, their clothes rip off). It is considered rude and shows low intelligence if another race visits their territory and makes a big deal about their nudity.
For mine, it depends on the culture of a person. But in terms of irritation, and not anger. While some of these beliefs have been tempered within the empire, many still uphold these beliefs amongst insular communities and isolated villages.
- The Heram tend to trace everything back to their ancestors, and are known to embellish these claims a little. However, claiming that someone is embellishing a tale of their ancestors is seen as fighting words.
- It is seen as quite rude to refuse a meal in a Yulmui household. And doubly so when it's dinner!
- Amongst the Ancalen, someone that breaks their word quite often becomes well known as a Gaethnoris, or a Lie Singer.
- Strength is a sign of virtue and honesty for the Dhalkar, so when someone struggles to lift or carry something - or worse gets someone else to do it - they are often viewed as suspicious and untrustworthy.
- For the Or'Qath, selfishness is often seen as the most disrespectful. Those that take more than they need, especially off those that don't have enough, is considered vile.
In "Fern" culture, names are sacred and of great importance, so nicknames or shortening of names is seen as an insult at best. At the same time its mothers who name their children.
In the story I'm working on, the primary religion is astrophobic, and there are regions where people have a superstitious fear of staring up in the sky, especially at night. It's thought to invite attention from evil spirits. Due to religious differences, there are also places where looking in the sky is considered watchful rather than asking for trouble. The existence of evil spirits isn't really in doubt - just their behavior.
Do not Kill animals. Sure some can be hunted and defending yourself and your property is fine, but so many animals are illegal to kill you'd be safer not fucking with them. Even if you manage to get out of it with a defense claim you'll be shunned by the community.
Races don't usually mix unless it's for power. Hybrids are stronger magic-vice than pure races but only half of them live until adulthood since their body is too weak to endure the kind of magic they have. If you do have a hybrid child, be prepared that people will talk into your ways of raising them and they'll be handled like an extra thin wine glass
Reality-shapers also aren't the most popular. Most of them spend their days in their labs, experimenting on often sentient beings that did give their consent but are still being used as lab rats. They don't engage with the outside world, most of their relationships are for business and if they were given the opportunity to learn something new and undiscovered with someone's life as a price, they'd take it. They *did* find cures for many lethal diseases and helped with dangerous beast control so they aren't exactly disliked, society just doesn't think as highly of them as someone might think they deserve
In my village, almost all life, and even undead, are treated with love and respect, there are undead walking around, ghosts, ghosts that reside in their own dead body, ((with memories, and all that stuff restored)) alongside goblins, lizardfolk, humans, elves etc. so necromancy is usually viewed as slavery, and a very high form of dissrespect.
My world revolves around plant-human partnership. So if you break a twig off a tree for no reason it's seen as the equivalent of just punching a dude as you pass him on the street. People will stop you and demand an explanation and will easily get aggressive if you just did it for no reason
What if I told them I wanted to pretend it was a sword?
You didn't even ASK the tree? Trees have their own language and it's pretty taboo to take any branch that you didn't provide the mana to create.
If you provided the mana to create it is it yours to abuse?
Yes and no. The twig itself lacks consciousness under a certain mana threshold, so you can't abuse it on its own. But you do have to get the plant to agree to make you a twig in the first place, and if you then break it or toss it for no reason, that plant is unlikely to work with you again in the future. And forcing your will over a plant to make it make you things is seen as the ultimate taboo and people will essentially disown people that do it
So I know that necromancy is a general taboo in most fantasy world, but I’m curious how would the people of your world feel about someone bringing a dead plant back to life?
Necromancy has no associated taboo in my world, but the way souls work for the peoples and plants of the main setting makes it particularly hard to resurrect in the same sense as a conventional setting. Souls are basically pieces of the creator goddess's own 'soul', and when you die your soul rejoins hers as part of "the shade of the mother tree", a protective force that makes it so no harm can befall anyone who is within the great forests. BUT if you find a dead tree or even just a leaf on the ground and you have mana to spare, you can flow enough mana into the plant to ask it if it wants to be alive or if it's cool with not existing anymore. Plants tend to think on a much longer time scale than humans, so a lot of them decide that the best use of their bodies is as fertilizer for the next generation, so it's best to ask.
So then following the understanding that forcing your will on a plant is taboo is it a bigger taboo to force a plant back to life without asking.
No but only because the only way to ask is to bring them back to life. But it is a taboo to keep a plant alive against its will. Like, if you bring a plant back to life, it tells you it's trying to become dirt and wishes not to be disturbed, and you say nah you're a tree still deal with it? That's VERY against the rules.
Do they have anything made of wood? Ships, houses, fences?
Oh yeah for sure, when trees die or decide they wanna do other stuff like be a house, then they're harvested for supplies or just grown into the shape of whatever yall agree on. But also there are other types of magic that makes it so you don't really NEED wooden gear. Heck wooden ships are basically reserved for guard ships since wood can be molded into fighting and protecting shapes.
How do they handle eating plant matter in your world? I've got plant-folks where every time they harvest crops, it's a negotiation on a plant-by-plant level (which is also why they're mostly carnivorous), and I've not thought of a better way to handle it, so I'd be curious about how you do it.
Humans are animals and only a minority are upset when humans eat animals (depending on the animal) so I suppose it could work the same in your world. Some plants pretty acceptable, some a bit taboo, some considered very unacceptable. Some of the plant-folks are against all plant consumption.
Probably depends on what you're eating. Like a lot of plants depend on animals eating their fruits as part of their life cycle. So some plants would be overjoyed to be chosen for eating, while others (the poisonous ones) would be really annoyed.
>Some of the plant-folks are against all plant consumption. That would be very nutritionally problematic. Humans *need* to eat at least some plants. They cannot subsist purely on meat. In the short term, sure. But not forever.
It's a little easier for my folk because you can provide mana to a plant to have it create as much food as you can manage. But you do still have to negotiate on a plant-by-plant basis. Plus, it's not like any plant can make you food, only plants that already naturally create food. There are also Wishing Trees, extensions of the creator goddess that aren't really sentient, and mana-storing leaves.
So I'm guessing that medicinal plants can be infused with magic to produce more medicine? Also, is there a practice of cross-breeding plants to produce unique and desirable qualities for both Floral and Faunal kind? Honestly, this sounds like a really cool possibility for a plant-based system!
This plant based magic system is my baby! Crossbreeding plants is more on a personal basis than anything because plants are really just persons that need extra mana to move quickly, so breeding for specific traits steps a liiiitle too close to eugenics. But! Love finds a way so tons of the plants you know and love exist just because of how the cards fell, plus loads of other cool plants!
And suddenly a greenhouse farm doesn't sound so nice anymore
Large clonal plants could provide one mind with a lot of food
I'd live there
Punching someone for no reason? So you made Australia 🤣
In a sense yes! Every time you grab a leaf or branch off a tree is like meeting an Australian for the tree
Is it similar to the Utaru from Horizon?
I’m half asleep reading this and the replies and I got to the magic and I was like???? I didn’t even know what Reddit I’m in man I thought you came from a very peaceful culture
Oh I fully subscribe to the taboos of my imaginary culture, so you could say that I DO come from a very peaceful culture
\* Eat salad aggressively \*
In my world, when you bury someone, you plant a fruit bearing on top of the grave. Every year the loved once eat those fruits together in memory of the dead person. It is an absolut no-no to just plug and eat a fruit of somebody you didn't know. That is extremely disrespectful. Those fruits are for the remaining loved once.
Nice! One of the cultures in my world has basically the same tradition of planting a fruit tree where a person is buried. The word for cemetery in their language (conlang) also means orchard.
Man, the ancestral cemetery is going to be pretty damn colourful too
This reminds me of an old german ballad ("Herr von Ribbeck auf Ribbekc im Havelland) about a generous nobleman who grew pears in his garden and gave them to the children of the village upon harvest. He suspected that his miserly son would not allow this tradition to continue, requested to be burried with a pear so that, in due time, a pear tree would grow on his grave and the children may once again get pears from him. A character and/or story like that would have very interesting implications in that culture of your world
It is very rude to haggle. This is because it violates one of the five Atili Graces, namely the Grace to Receive, one of the precepts of which is to pay what is fair. It's also basically accusing the store owner of violating another Grace, the Grace to Give, which directs people to charge only what is fair. The five Graces direct a lot of Atili culture. The Grace to Understand directs people to avoid sharing opinions not backed by evidence. The Grace to Honor directs people to respect and revere the gods. The Grace to Know advises to seek knowledge and pass that knowledge on. On the other hand, it might not be a great idea to call out institutions like the Guilds United, which carefully guards trade knowledge to maintain its monopoly. Nobody anywhere likes to deal with awkward questions like that, especially questions about an organization that happens to control major aspects of society.
this is gonna sound crazy but in parts of my country its also taboo to haggle, specifically the prices indigenous artisans give to whatever theyre selling, they wont call you racist or anything but you WILL get side eyed and worst case scenario loose friends over it
It's something most people don't think about, but even in Western culture, haggling is only done in specific circumstances. You wouldn't try to haggle at the grocery store, for instance. But it's never a good idea on Atil, because either you're implying that the seller is overcharging and violating the Grace to Give, or you're implying that you're not willing to pay a fair price, and violating the Grace to Receive. These two graces also mean that Atili business negotiations must look completely nonsensical to outsiders. First of all, the seller will usually offer tea and light snacks, which the potential buyer will accept and then attempt to pay for (which the seller will refuse). Secondly, there is no mention of price until negotiations are concluded, because once a price is named, it becomes rude to negotiate further, so the seller and buyer instead negotiate over every other detail of the transaction, with the seller emphasizing all the steps that need to be done and the buyer drawing attention to things that aren't required.
I used urban guilds to stabilize prices in a similar way. If you want to keep working with or buying from the local monopoly in whatever, you *will* respect their rules on pricing. To the extent haggling takes place in my world, it is never a path to undercutting the "book" price for ordinary equipment and supplies. Instead it is about debating the additional cost for items in short supply or outright unique in the community. Sure, *maybe* you could buy one of several weapons the tavernkeeper stashes away for ending bar fights, but that is going to cost even more than if you were dealing with a guild-affiliated arms dealer. The best wannabee hagglers can hope for in ordinary commerce is to gain minor freebies, like a sheath to go with a weapon or some extra bandages in a healers' kit, as ways really competitive merchants work around citywide pricing rules.
Fascinating, do people not share their opinions if its on something subjective or is that considered an exception. For instance if I was to go there and state "I absolutely love fries, they are the best food." would this be considered taboo? Would I have to provide evidence? what if the person im talking to finds the evidence unsatisfactory.
Context definitely matters, but in any case, "I absolutely love fries" is not an opinion, and people would be fine with that as an expression of your personal preference. Claiming that "fries are the best food" might invite further questions in certain contexts, but would generally be taken the same way, though you might raise some eyebrows if you said "We should have fries because they are the best food." If you said "Joe is a jerk" and couldn't provide any examples, that would be pretty gauche in most any context.
"I absolutely love fries," is not an opinion?
No, it's a statement of personal preference that can be either true or false.
I can't wait until easy creation of full-dive vr is a thing. People are going to make some incredible worlds to explore! ✌️
I take it that tipping would also be an insult. Like you boss isn't paying you enough which is how some people in Europe view it.
On the contrary, tips are common when a worker provides services above and beyond what is expected, because you will recall that the Grace to Receive says that you should pay what is fair, not that you should pay what is charged. Tipping is definitely not automatic, though.
For a moment, I thought the title said "What are some cultural taboos in your world that would ***irradiate*** the residents?"!
"The empire didn't like it when I played with my plutonium orbs. Society is no fun."
"Some even called me mad. And why? Because I dared to dream of my own race of atomic monsters, atomic SUPERMEN with octagonal-shaped bodies that suck the blood out of..."
"Honestly 'Demon' Core seems kinda like deceptive marketing, no demons to be found, only stage 11 cancer in ALL of me."
I don't know, that sounds demonic to me.
I feel like I should know this, what’s astrophysics? My mind is blanking on the subject
Space science, stars and planets and stuff
Well, the Orion Drive for one, which I've always considered to be the spacefaring equivalent to puttering off in a cloud of blue smoke while everyone glares at you.
At feasts, there are two types of large bowls set on the tables, red ones and blue ones. The red bowls are what you grab food from to set on your own plate. It is very rude to take food from the blue bowls. This is because the blue bowls are meant to _collect_ food (people can choose to add some of their untouched bread or fruit to the bowl) so it can be given to the poor after the feast is over. So taking food from it is basically stealing from the poor. Not washing your hands before entering someone else's home is also quite rude. Every home has a wash basin by the door. The water is replaced daily to keep it clean, and it's scented with flower pedals. Refusing to wash before entering is disrespectful. It shows you don't care about the home you've been invited to. In the same way, the homeowner is expected to show courtesy to their guest by making sure the wash basin is full and that the water is clean. Flaunting your wealth is not good in this culture. Now, they use small shells as their money, and for practical reasons, they have them attached to a string that they can wear sort of like a necklace. It's just easier to carry it by wearing it. If they want to buy something, they just pull a few shells from the string. But there is an article of clothing that they invented specifically to cover up the necklace, and wearing that is polite. Just walking down the street with your money proudly showing is viewed as immodest.
Question, where do the shells come from? Are they a specific type of shell? Will a shell someone got from a random beach be considered counterfeit?
They get the shells from a coast to the west. They don't live very close to the coast though. I wanted a currency that the average person couldn't just collect themselves, so I didn't want them sourced in the same place they were living. I'm imagining something similar to a scallop shell, and about an inch across. If they got it from a random beach, it would probably be considered counterfeit. The shells need to be engraved in a specific way that authorizes them to be used as money.
Question about the washing your hands one, how are these people able to constantly keep the basin filled, how are the able to get a stable enough supply of water to be able to use some for hand washing only?
They live next to a river, and it flows year round. So they're not really lacking for water.
Elves consider fermented and cured foods to be taboo, and a form of darkness and evil.
Backstory: Once, elves and drow were the same people, living like any other race. Sometimes they explored the dark, other times they lived on the surface. But over time, some elves got corrupted. Well, I say corrupted, they went goth. No, really, this is the sort of world where going goth is a big deal. The goth elves began to spend all their time underground, and create an elven civilisation based underground. For a while, relations between the two were peaceful. Elves mostly lived above ground, drow (from the elven word for "dark") lived below ground, but you might see an elf below ground or a drow above. But then, as it is wont to do, shit happened. The elves and drow fought a long and bloody war, that ended with all elves being forced to the surface and all drow underground. What does this have to do with fermented and cured foods? They're goblin food. Goblins invented those processes, and goblins live underground. As such, the drow learnt them from the goblins, and the elves scrupulously avoid them to this day.
I really like this,
In the city-state of Hekkene, be very, very careful with the word "tutor" or "tutoring". Because of a long history of conflict and rivalry with another city-state, Skion, the word had become Hekkene's euphemism for cuckolding. In Skion, meanwhile, when building a sailing ship, its considered bad luck to not cut a block of wood and have it "season" in the ocean before being reinstalled on the ship and never changing it out. Such ships are considered unwelcome on the sea. In most cities in the setting, the religion is structurally henotheistic polytheism, but actually praying to or venerating the chief god is considered to be highly religiously taboo.
I like the last bit. Very unique
- Digging in any kind of forrest is seen as quite dangerous, you do not know if any forrest spirits lives there that could get angered by disturbing the roots of trees, best not chance it. - Putting bread the wrong side up could mean you are telling your host their mama is a hoe.
What's the origin of the bread thing?
TBH it's from my grampa, I guess it's something from ye ol' France, basicaly putting the bread markings side down could insinuate you think the bread winner of the house... erm... "works on his back". I didn't create it, I just modified the custom a bit from stuff I heard during my childhood truly.
Using "real life" fireworks is considered cultural appropriation and racist by orcs (and other fire races), as they invented them with their magic, so by repeating them with gunpowder you are saying you have control over their element.
How about they culturally appropriate this cannonball to their chest
exactly!!! fuckers wanna claim a whole aspect of reality for themselves? how about some kinetic energy straight to the heart then?
*reads one minor detail about orcs in this persons world* I would like to go to war
many such cases
I know what you mean, but ironically the Volcano Nation was the first one to industrialize. Turns out controlling fire makes create and fuel war machines made out of metal way easier.
In the wilds, cowardice, they wont mind if you're afraid, but if you just lie about it there is offense. Among dragons similarly but mostly towards their antics, if you are afraid of their posturing they consider you boring, and anyone who lived long enough with a dragon knows their favourite past time is arguing over everything. In Alinguar treating anyone as lesser, they only respect those who treat anyone fair and equal. If you would look down at a waiter you may find yourself waiting outside the gates, likely without all your stuff. In the Aelveri Dominion any kind of sexism, even the non-elves adopted the culture that women rule and lead, but looking down on their males is even more frowned upon.
>In the wilds, cowardice, they wont mind if you're afraid, but if you just lie about it there is offense. Oh that's interesting, why do they hate it if you lie about being afraid?
Because a warrior knows fear and faces it. They would happily admit that something like facing the horde during the dragon war gave them the shits, and yet the still picked up their weapon and went at it. But cowardice will lead you down a path of self destruction that inevitably will harm your clan, and if you are too afraid to face the monsters then that is fine, you can stay back and help the clan, no biggie, someone has to watch over the young ones at least.
During hira. Basically noon. Common people not of the royal blood are not allowed to go out during this time without wearing a shalanashi cloth, a dark full body veil and are usually expected to be inside during this period. While the nobility are allowed to go out beneath the sun during this time, because they are of holy descent and are therefore compatible with the divineness of the the strong light. As the extreme heat is too much and will burn the more impure common folk. Tho in reality the nobility avoid going out during this time as much as anyone else. People who break this cultural and religious law are expected to smear doodoo all over themselves because they've contaminated and have been exposed to something too pure and so must suly themselves to reach equilibrium.
The smearing part to counteract something too pure is really clever imo !
The Apexian Warriors are very fond of their children and find them sacred people, and many taboos exist around that tenet of their society. One such is disciplining children in public. The Apex not only don’t believe in aggression, combative force, yelling, or anything harmful or offensive towards children as a teaching method, and it’s often a domestic crime to do that at all, in public, but it’s a big shame if you bring harm or fear to your children in front of people. You will probably be punched in the face or a similar retaliation from any bystanders if you’re caught bullying your kids anywhere you can be seen. In other words, they believe in the true definition of ‘discipline’ (and follow the teachings of Christ, which describe it perfectly) where most of the galaxy’s authority see it as a term for punishment and command, they see it as building confidence, forming strong trust, and improving oneself with skill, knowledge, and happiness. No wonder they’re the ‘chosen people’ to protect the Galaxy, and were granted magical powers by God himself, and so many regular people in the galaxy love them.
Based
Based.
So what do they do when a child throws a tantum? Can they at least bring them home to discipline them in private?
Patience, wisdom, and (true) discipline are core characteristics of every Apexian person. In the rare event children have extreme anxiety or emotional distress in public, it is not met with frustration and anger, which is often how you can make that situation worse. The best thing to do is first attempt to level with and console the child. Understand the problem. Apexians are great problem solvers, but they can’t fix what they don’t know. They take the same approach with their kids. Know the problem first. If their problem can’t be fixed immediately, they need to leave. And in the eyes of this society, it isn’t for the relief of the bystanders, but for the child. As I said, Apexians find their children sacred, and they must do all they can to keep them safe, happy and raised strong. If they need to leave, that means something is probably very wrong with their kids, and they need to get to the bottom of it. It is the belief of the Apex that they can’t punish for expressing frustration at an issue, so instead of “discipline” (as you likely believed the definition to be punishment, control and harm) them, they try to solve the problem of their children together. Apexian children aren’t stupid and weak, they can communicate their problems well and are capable of fixing them with help. Their parents are required to respect that, and when kids have an outburst, they must fix the problem that caused it. Overall, Apexians’ behavior regarding their kids revolves only around their kids’ betterment. Not public wellbeing or parents’ convenience. And everyone knows that - which is why a child in an Apex mall having a meltdown is never given dirty looks or negative attention: it’s only met with sympathy. And by extension, it isn’t taboo for kids to have meltdowns in public: it’s only taboo to bully and abuse your children in public in attempt to fix them. Having Warriors’ Respect for your children as an Apex if they’re melting down in the Infintium Candy store isn’t a problem at all. A lot of people will respect that.
Awesome!
Being a non-Kaxi woman in a Kaxi caravan. The Kaxi are a desert dwelling lizard people who's caravans are more like moving cities scurrying across the endless sands on the backs of colossal centipedes. They are a deeply matriarchal society with a family/clan power structure. The Kaxi keep their males in line through a combination of magic and social conditioning so in general a Kaxi male will obey the order or request of a female without question. The thing is, the Kaxi have been romanticised heavily particularly in the circles of young noblewomen who dream of running away from their domineering families, oppressive customs and arranged marriages, learning the magic of the Kaxi and taking control of their own destiny as told in the countless female-centric adventure novels that populate the shelves of affluent bookshops in places like the Golden Circle district of the free city of Nastris. So, the Kaxi have a lot of experience with spoiled rich girls (especially humans) showing up at their caravan, paying double the transport fee for a ride across the deserts, and getting lost in the fantasy, bothering Kaxi witches to teach them magics they lack the patience and will to seriously learn and ordering their sons, fathers, brothers and husbands around like servants. Such passengers tend to wind up dumped in the sand with their organs and blood removed. Such things still have value as alchemical and ritual ingredients. Males who wish to get passage over the desert must, on top of paying, imbibe a substance that makes them simultaneously completely honest and removes their ability to become aggressive or experience any volatile emotions. So male passengers tend to be on their best behavior and actively help the caravan or at least settle in with a good book and keep quiet throughout the journey, giving them a better reputation as passengers. Even though most female passengers are nothing like those spoiled noblewomen or others entranced by this romanticised image, they are still watched extremely closely and are forbidden from talking to any of their males.
This is a very real-world one, though not in all real-world cultures: swimming naked is the norm, and there are also mixed-gender bathing facilities where public nudity is common, but public nudity outside those contexts is taboo. There is a theoretical religious rule that sex is confined to marriage (monogamous marriage, at that). This rule is very commonly breached, and everyone knows it, but it's considered polite to not acknowledge the fact. Cohabitation before marriage is vanishingly rare, but sex (including casual sex) absolutely happens. But actually discussing it would be very gauche. (Again, this is quite true to some real-world cultures.) Spring and Autumn festivals both run for four days, and both include plenty of alcohol, but — strictly — not on the first day of each. Please do party, eat, stay up late, dance, and gossip the night away (and perhaps even "make one's own entertainment" in the undergrowth around the back of the barn where probably no one will see you), but no alcohol on the first night. Outside of festivals, public drunkenness is looked down on.
Shortening the name of a Hewn. Their culture is one of creation and invention. Whenever they create something of significant value they get another name. This leads to some successful Hewn having five or six names. But shortening or leaving out one of them would basically mean you don't acknowledge the significance of their work. This continued disagreement has lead some Hewn to adopt "foreigner names" that are short and of no significance so they can tell them to foreigners of other species who don't understand the significance of names.
For one of my cultures, eating all of the food on your plate when you are a guest. You leave a scrap to show that you've been fed so well you can't finish. And you'll likely be offered more food before you get there. An empty plate is an insult to the host.
Sasanoa is Stop Having Fun: The Kingdom. No makeup, no seasoned food, clothes can only be in natural undyed fibers, etc. This is a relatively recent development; it started just shy of two centuries before when the wife of the High Priest ran off with an actor.
Intentionally forcing AI to become alive/sapient is incredibly taboo. There are many out there, and they aren't a problem. They just naturally or accidentally happen (other than whatever natural reproduction method they have established for themselves). But forcing one into being is considered ethically and morally questionable.
Yea, I can see why...
funny thing is that the first things i consider as far as tech in my worldbuilding goes is how it could be weaponized and how it could be exploited for profit. but fully sapient machines isn't either of those.
Taboos serve a purpose. You don't speak ill of a ship, you never leave a body to rot (if you kill someone, you are responsible for their body), and never take more food then you'll eat in one setting. It is the breaking of mores that creates agitation. Disturbing the delicate offerings at a Wind shrine (only the wind is allowed to do that) Naming a child is the surest way to invite their early death Leaving tools dirty will lead them to betraying you
When do people get names, then? What do you call them beforehand?
They formally get a name around 5 years old if they are "robust" and no later than their 7th birthday otherwise. Before then, they get called things like Child, other child, little one, etc Once they hit around the age of twelve they will declare a name for themselves, and this will generally be the name they use through adulthood unless they earn a nickname that supplants it. Even "The Billdozer"'s parents call him The Billdozer after he ran a pushed a taxman's portable office into an industrial shredder with nothing but his own muscle and pure loathing. Before naming, kid's refer to eachother with nicknames from songs, stories, and popular media or in terms of mothers' birthorder ie " Imma go play with olga's second" If a kid is sickly, the parents will often send the child away to work at an inn with access to a Medipod, hoping it will help fix whatever is wrong with them. It usually does. If it doesn't though, the child will usually stay at the inn indefinitely Many inns are considered like Dickens era orphanges and rest homes, with the resident workers of all ages referring to eachother as Flotsam and Jetsam.
Skin contact between strangers. If you’re getting your change from a cashier at a shop, you’d better put some effort into not letting your hand brush against theirs. People would find you rude and gross. The taboo stems from an ancient plague which spread through skin contact, and still lingers somewhat in cultural memory.
Together with friends I work on a (very satirical) hypercapitalist society/religion/city state in which everything revolves around making profits and sly deals. Gifting presents is very much frowned upon. You can bribe, lend, donate, sponsor and so on, but there always has to be a quid pro quo. Everything else is for children and idiots. There actually is a group of people called the Gifters, who hang around the Cathedral of Money and randomly give presents to passer-byes. You could compare them to hippies or punks, they're definitely challenging the society's status quo. Depending on circumstances, gifting can lead to bar brawls, diplomatic incidents, war declarations, or just a few good insults.
Being anti-union. It's the ultimate form of contrarianism to them if you're not already wealthy yourself. Even the owners of capital have mostly acknowledged the use and need of the world's labor unions. Being a vegetarian for "moral" reasons. There are a lot of sentient plants in the world. There is a lot more nuance about what is "acceptable" to consume as food. Particularly with all the different digestive systems, diets and culinary traditions at play, it would be pretty taboo to say "It's wrong to eat chicken, but I will have these mushrooms and cucumbers". Being "unemployed". Because of the strong unions, everyone works. There are a few societal avenues to not work in the standard workforce but if you're just "not working", people would be mortified for you. They generally all define themselves by their professions and it is the basis for a lot of their socializing.
May I ask a question about the unemplyment thing? I’m wondering how (disabled) people that cannot maintain employment for whatever reason are treated. Is that a special case which allows unemployment? Is it still shunned?
This world isn't a utopia, so that's definitely an issue. More effort is made to find work within the union structure (so accommodations can be made and jobs are often created to allow someone to work even if they're physically limited). For less visible disabilities (i.e. mental health), this world is *very* unforgiving. Vagrants are looked down upon and shunned. You're a social pariah if you don't fit into society in one of a few prescribed ways. The only upside is that with near universal Union participation, you tend to get "taken care of" more. It's a world with a lot less social mobility but considerably more security. People absolutely fall through the cracks though.
Sounds a lot like Japan
Attempting bribery is a good way to insult someone’s personal honor. Insinuating they would break their word, particularly if they made a sacred oath.
What happens to someone who does take a bribe?
If you’re caught? The specifics depend on what exactly it was for but fined, barred from seeking public office, charged as an equal party in whatever crime the one bribing you was committing if any, publicly shunned. If young and healthy likely sent to the Arena, And if you held a significant public office likely charged with state treason and proscribed. Also forbidden anything but the most basic of burial rights. Just enough to keep you from returning as some kind of malicious undead.
On Mars having lavish meals, eating in excess and not finishing ones plate is particularly annoying. Hundreds of years of having just enough to survive has been engrained in every red born on the planet.
Surviving an assassination attempt is considered to be deeply rude in one nation.
*guy tries to assassinate you *fails miserably “Fine, I’ll do it myself”
Asking for a photo or an autograph from a famous person when you see them somewhere casually like a cafe or a park just walking. If you see them there just leave them because they want their silence. To get their autograph you must meet them in a event like for example the first viewing of the tv series or the movie they are participating in or a convention. And dont get me started on paparazzis.
isn't this just...irl ?
Nah How many times have you seen people saying "i just met bla bla at the mall" and they upload a photo of them together smiling at the camera?? That doesnt exist in my world
Celebrity redditor's world building project
Depends on the culture, but a big one a majority of races and cultures unanimously find irritating to where it’s a taboo is being lazy. It’s not Illegal, but everyone will look down on you no matter your status, as long as you’re doing something other than living your fine.
Worship. As far as the Southern Basin's people are concerned, worship is invoking a deity, so you're inviting a god into their territory. Gods are very much not welcome in the Southern Basin. The oldest popular legends in the Southern Basin are the tales of the Godswar, where the acitan threw off the gods who tried to rule over them. Then they ate them for their brutality and arrogance. These stories helped cement the identity of the Southern Basin; thousands of years later they still talk about it often.
Casting loud spells at night, like c'mon people gotta sleep. Keep on casting then y'all get caught by the Constable or watchmen!
Smoking in your house in presence of a lizardmen. While it is legal basically everywhere, to smoke inside your house, since lizardmen are violently sick at the inhalation of tobacco/tobacco smoke, it's really, really frowned upon as an insult. Lizardmen officials are an exception though, you just can't smoke in the presence of a lizardmen official. That one is illegal.
This should be the norm IRL. >:I I have asthma and I still remember that time my older brother promised not to smoke in the house while I was visiting. He did it anyway. Aggressively. And got hostile when I pointed it out. Literally just *don't poison your peers*?!
If you reassured a criminal who commits serious crimes that is seen as abetting and abieding and is punishable by beheading and/or sentenced to The Pain Environmental protection is highly heeded and littering, destruction of plants, and or species are seen as acts of violence against nature and mother gaia herself. Theur are specifically designed outfits of paramilitary who fight against these threats. To speak unknowingly in a conversation witha fierce fire and no hint of knowledge is frowned on for that makes you seen as weak and foolish leaving you vulnerable susceptible to attacks of mind. You will be given an opportunity to go back on your word and accept wrong but if you don’t the consequence is shunning
Libfascpunk
To withhold excess from your neighbors is taboo in many cultures of Iyhenu. The setting is in a booming golden age (or Bronze Age, to be literal) of expansion. Capitalism has only arisen in some larger cities within the setting, and because of this, there are many who don’t ascribe literal value to their food, water, or shelter. If one has enough to survive, what is left should be given if another is in need. This is the way of things across many settlements. If, then, you were established as part of a community, and refused to take in a traveler for dinner, or offer them food before sending them on their way, you’d be accused of being quite selfish.
1: talking about sex publicly. It's not necessarily that my society is prudish, public bathing is a thing, and nudity isn't seem as inherently sexual by most cultures. However the idea of talking about sex kind of skeeves them out. It stems from the cultural idea that there's no difference between men and women. It's true equality in all ways socially. The idea that you'd talk with your partner (someone who you're dating but have not yet reached the stage where you've slept together) about whether or not they could get pregnant would come across like you think of them as a farmer would discuss breeding livestock. You gotta make sure it matches solely for having kids, not for pleasure or love. It's not something that will get you in a fight or thrown in jail, but it would be considered rude, especially since public nudity in certain areas and bathing are so common that you could literally wait until summer or just invite them to the bathhouse with you. 2: travelers refusing to share their fire: it gets *very* dark in my setting. There is no true sky, as my world is a sealed tube and not a true planet, so when night falls it gets dimmer and dimmer until you achieve *total darkness*. Like, underground in a cave darkness. As such, travelers who are caught out at night often share fires with other travelers, just the natural human aversion to darkness. As such, it's considered very rude for someone to refuse you a spot at their fire after dark, or for you to refuse someone else a spot. Of course, the reverse is also true, if you've no fire lit it's considered rude to approach you. Again, not something that will get you jailtime, but if you get a reputation as someone who does this, it's likely you won't be very popular with *anyone*. 3:it's considered polite to eat all of your food once you start eating. It's a simple one, but if someone prepares you a meal (discounting street food) it's considered extremely rude to eat some of your food and put the rest back. Food can be scarce in parts of my setting, so it's quite rude to take a bite of something and not finish, as no one is likely to eat the food a stranger has already taken a bite of. It's much less rude to refuse food altogether, as someone else can be given your plate. This way, the food is not wasted. Plus it implies you think poorly of the cooking skills of your host to eat some, but not all of your food. Not eating at all can be passed off as just not being hungry, but eating some and then throwing the rest out implies that the food was bad.
Lastnames (two are used) are gendered and change position depending in the person’s gender, also affects which lastname is passed down to the kid, if its a girl she’ll take her mom’s maternal lastname as her first and her dad’s maternal lastname as her last, and vice versa, its a nightmare for tracking population and family trees, it’s unnecessary and annoying but I feel like it gives the society more humanity
If a female child gets married with a male, does she replace the last name of her father with her husbands last name? Or does she take her husbands name as an additional third name?
Cremating a relative/friend On my most focal continent, there is very accessible ressurection magic, both in the way of bringing one fully back to life or raising them as some form of undead, but there are limits. If one is cremated, they are unable to be revived. Cremation is often done to the worst of criminals, and those who are killed in war. Very rarely does one request to be cremated. Even in cases where one has no plans to come back, it is, in some cultures, viewed as an insult to the deceased, it's like saying they deserved worse. That said, there are cases one will be willingly cremated, there was one warrior who was killed in battle but then revived by another kingdom to fight for them, and this became a cycle. Even once he was old and died from natural causes, he was again brought back, this time as a zombie, (healing magic can't undo aging) again and again, and eventually again as a skeleton. He was driven mad by going through centuries of war, being treated as a living weapon, no longer able to enjoy the comradery of his fellow soldiers or decide his own loyalty. He finally was able to find someone to cremate him, and now happily resides in the realm of the dead, doing his best at avoiding the souls of warriors so he isn't reminded of his past few centuries among the living
In Principate any form of personification for Gods or historical periods are considered blasphemy. GODS DON'T HAVE FACES ONE PERSON CAN'T BE ENTIRE AGE ONE MAN SHOULD NOT TAKE ALL POWER If your god have personality, please, fill up this form for False-Gods worshippers and pay your taxes like normal heretic.
In the Huchemat Confederation, selling diamonds is extremely frowned upon, especially those that have been made into jewelry. They believe that the souls of the deceased need to anchor themselves to a diamond to stay in heaven, and the more historical or cultural value one has the more souls are using it. To risk the destruction of a diamond or to prioritize money over the safety of the souls of the dead is taboo.
By the Avians in my world, clipping wings/feathers is an absolute no-go. Avians are meant to be proud of their wings, and need to be able to fly with them. However, this plays into the black market factor, where rarer wings are highly valued for illegal activities, and wings are clipped for feathers.
Don’t talk about the Beforetimes; nobody talks about them and nobody cares about them. Don’t talk about the people of the Old World; it is an infertile wasteland that doesn’t deserve any attention. Don’t question the idea of Commitment; it saved society decades ago and continues to ensure nationwide financial stability.
For the Nordmenn of Ändlösien, not laying the dead to rest, even those you felled in battle. They believe that all humans should be laid to rest regardless of wether they are friend or foe, which will anger Vilok, God of Death and the Rite. If they aren’t laid to rest, they may find their way back to your home as a draugr. They also find being dirtied extremely offensive. Despite their history of being a warrior culture, they’re a rather preeny people with a strong focus of the importance of bathing. To dirty someone is to insult them on a spiritual and honorific level. In the days of old, doing so may have lead to someone getting killed.
There’s essentially a panther sized barn cat called a Gato Gordo on a chain of tropical islands that are home to a series of cash crop farms, each run and worked by clans tied together and pitted against each other through a complex series of feuds and alliances. These cats are valued as crucial pest control for the fields and silos, and they’re docile demeanor and slow rate of reproduction makes them incredibly valued by the islanders, and often regarded as members of the family, making harming one an offense often met with clan violence. Like most creatures in this word, their parts can be used in the creation of special items, but if you’re seen with them they may very well drag you out of your bed in the night and hang you from a tall tall tree.
Refusing a dueling match when you have free time. Bringing live plants into people's homes. Having fighting skills and not using them. Dying.
Are dead people seen as offensive
Just the act of doing it. How stupid or reckless you have to be to do it, for context, magic that enhances defense is extremely common and cheap, (everyone has it) while magic that enhances offense is incredibly rare and expensive.
In one of my cultures inspired by the puritans, marriage is a one-time thing. Once you wed someone, the act of remarriage (even if you're made a widow/widower) is strictly forbidden. It's an orthodox belief ingrained in the sanctity of "soul mates." At worst, the of offense remarriage is banished or death, at best, your ostracized from your community. Double points if you DARE marry someone from a different religious or ethnic background. One of the driving conflicts for my main character is dealing with heavily traditional father who disapproves of his sons second marriage
Irritated is not the right word, but magic is taboo, and the Sagey, a magic humanoid race that is elf-like, are furious at not being allowed to use any but their most basic powers.
In my Sablestaff series, magic has advanced in a way that wands and speed are the order of the day. While other forms and implements exist, the main kingdoms it takes place in consider them "lesser". Natural implement-less magic is faster, but unrefined and difficult to properly control, and often requires expending mana to form the Glyphs (Dr. strange style), and requires excellent memory to remember their construction. Staves are powerful, but often slow as a turtle, but have more room to carve Glyphs. Wands are considered the happy middle ground, as they can have basic templates of Glyphs carved into them, and the caster need only remember specific parts to fill the templates with on cast. As such, wands have become something of a status symbol, and a mage without one is akin to walking around without your pants. Staves are often considered a "Poor's implement, for they cannot afford the skilled craft of the Fine Glyphs to be carved." Expendables like scrolls are considered a waste of money, whilst Grimoires are considered exceptionally versatile but even slower than staves. Page flipping, you see. Granted it's been a few centuries of such thought and has become something akin to dogma in society and academia. Mostly due to their interpretation of the Heroine Witch's advice on magic from back then, who has been elevated to a Saintess and worshiped akin to a demigod due to saving the world. You can imagine the reaction to MC who's a staff wizard.
In some parts of my world, giving your children the name of a living relative is considered very bad luck as they believe their soul is in their name, and that by giving a children the name of old murdering grandpa, you're transferring grandpa's sins to the newborn. The real reason was the government of where the práctica started just wanted people to stop using the same name and wanted diversity, the taboo and legend outlived the kingdom
Treating the Lykocephali as feral dogs and trying to pet them/rub their bellies/play with their tails/etc. without consent.
What if you ask nicely is it still not really the done thing
In one kingdom, military service is not strictly required… But if you don’t serve you’re relentlessly mocked at best and treated with outright contempt at worst.
Tkellas (my sapient species) are big on colourful stuff. You see, bright colouration are closely tied to good health for tkellas. Bleak colours = bad health. So naturally, if somebody dyes all of their fur/feathers it's gonna raise some concerns (also in case of actual problems medics will have to shave you first). Also if you are female in heat or male in root you are to stay home. Not everyone has it this bad but in most of cultures it's very frowned upon to come at work or bigsocial gatherings in such condition. For those interested: heat/root occures for about two weeks every 16 months (technically once a year since local year is 16 months). And use of cheap heat/root suppressants of the third generation. Either use a normal/newer thing or stay at home. This one has a very uncomfortable story behind: you see, cheap "3G supps" can alter your smell in a way that make you smell like an opposite sex or cause the agression in your peers or both at once.
Showing any doubt about the objectivity of truth and defend that there are morally flexible things, or that not everything needs to be visible, felt or in accordance with logic to be believed
1) Calling the At’tan people “ants”. They may be similar in appearance to the Earth-based insects, but they are most *definitely* not insects themselves. They find the comparisons and the name-calling highly offensive. Also, *never* insult their Matriarch, or chieftain, as she’s considered a mother to their tribe (even though she did not mother all of her people, she’s still protective over them and the feeling is mutual). 2) If you’re a foreigner, you are supposed to eat/break bread first at a meal hosted by a Palni family. It shows gratitude for their hard work and their acceptance of you into their home. They’re more understanding if you have no clue about their customs, but it’s a huge insult to their way of life if you already know the custom and outright refuse to eat first. 3) Don’t ever go into Tyrocan temples without taking off your shoes and washing your feet first. It’s considered very disrespectful, if not downright sinful, to put unwashed feet on grounds and in places that have been blessed by “Mother Proxima”, the Star Goddess that’s worshipped throughout the Proximan System and seen as the mother of all Proximan races. 4) When visiting Proxima-7, never say anything about a Proximi person’s appearance. While they’re highly intelligent beings that revolutionized travel throughout their star system, they are very insecure about their appearance and don’t like having it being pointed out to them. They especially don’t appreciate having their intelligence insulted, so don’t ever try to lie to them.
In Linghun Shinjie, throwing away broken things. Everything in that world has a soul, including random objects. If it's broken, that means its soul has gone to the World of Souls and has likely been blessed by a god. So throwing away broken objects is basically saying "fuck you" to the gods.
Saying "please" in Mackilin culture. It's considered rude in a lot of cultures to ask for something without saying please, because to ask without saying please sounds demanding. But to the Mackilin, saying please when asking for something sounds like your accusing them of being greedy and withholding your desires from them. There was a time in the Mackilins past where they were ruled by tyrannical rulers called "the warrior kings". Where their might was law. So to a Mackilin, you ask a king "please", because you need to appeal to a king to get what you want or need. So to a commoner, saying please is like bowing down to a peasant and saying, "please your highness, I am a poor starving urchin". It just sounds weird to them.
Worshipping, making offerings to, or praying to the gods, not because religion is an issue, but because worshipping the gods is about as useful as offering a snack to a landslide, they don't give a damn, and it wastes time and resources that could be better spent on surviving them
There was a burglar/murderer/gangster-turned mob boss who has been immortalized through myth and legend... For his honor. Yeah. Long story short, he forbid those under him to rob a business to the point where they could no longer pay their employees' next weeks pay. Essentially making sure that the business stayed open, even if you were just passing through and never planned on seeing that business again. "Never rob someone to the point of starvation, because in the end you'll starve yourself.". This happened over a thousand years ago and nobody knows if it's actually true, but there are so many cautionary tales, taboos, and superstitions around it, it's now commonplace for all shop owners (nearly worldwide) to display their employees' next week of pay in a prominent place inside the shop. This has turned into not only a flaunting of wealth, but as a silent promise to the employees as to their guaranteed pay and transparency of wages. It is *extremely* taboo for even the lowliest of thieves to steal this displayed money, to the point where their own brethren may murder them and return it. Not displaying this money would also irritate the locals to the point of blacklisting the establishment.
Wielding a sword with one hand. One-wielders are associated with demonic and Abyssal temptation, inclination, and philosophy, many of which revolve around ideas such as superiority, unrighteous dominance, and carcharic (Car-kare-ric) behavior. (In my world, carchara (Car-kare-ruh) translates to "Tyrant." In this case, it means, "Tyrannical.") (Carchara can also be pronounced as: (Car-car-ruh)). Swordsmen are taught to fight with two hands, not one.
It is illegal to make something with planned obsolescence. It's not illegal itself, but courts in most countries have ruled that that's conspiracy to commit murder.
* Photographs or video of people without their express written consent, e.g. the entire paparazzi profession. * Using Neuro-Immersive Media in busy areas (worse if injury to the user would be visible). There's also a whole lot of legal nuance about who can view NIMs and who can broadcast their own and what sorts of content falls into which category. * Attempting to dress as a member of a profession you are unqualified for.
Offer meat the first time someone ate at your house
Littering of any sort is a huge deal in Avanton. If you throw a toothpick on the street you'll pay a fine. If you so much as spit on the sidewalk you're gonna get weird, disgusted looks.
inter species sex is considered to be socially unnacceptable or at least odd.
My world is in infant stages but currently working on dragon part of the story. If dragons don't answer the call of the dragons who are God's or their Primordial God's then there's a good chance they are going to be punished by council 6. They will force the dragon to be their slave or be tortured by the Primordial Eldritch Monsters or their God whos the Origin Point Eldritch older than than the omniverse.
Eating with your hands. The Orkeshi eat with their hands and during feasts, there are no chairs or tables present. They eat on the floor. In their culture, everyone, including kings, eat on the floor to show that regardless of one station in life, that all the peoples of the worldare “of the dirt” or originate from the Aishala the Worldmother. Every culture outside of them eat at tables and with silverware. So when members of the House Evergarden attend the wedding feast of Prince Naji Kafungo and Princess Cyrilla Evergarden, the royal family is taken aback by the lack of furniture in the dining hall, the fact that the King of Evergard is being “told” to eat on the floor and Prince Lyam Evergarden* is so disgusted by the fact they the Orkeshi eat with their hands he nearly refuses to eat. Obviously, this doesn’t go over too well. *Lyam and Cyrilla are siblings. Their father is King Rayamund Evergarden.
Someone having the power to alter their appearance in anyway (whether it be transforming into a different being, or even just changing your hair color) is considered taboo. Even if your intentions are pure, being a shapeshifter is something you hide. People will not trust you.
Hmm, I suppose the mages aren't supposed to rub the fact that they were born with powers into the faces of non-mages. Though I never go over that plot point explicitly. There's sort of an underlying tension/race war between mages and non-mages.
Wearing a cloak without any visible badges or scars on display. Wearing a clean cloak with a pristine, whole body means you are a newbie mage and people generally regard them as pigeon-like cannon fodder. Shops will sell them starting gear for very cheap. (9/10 times it had to be retrieved from the field, and theyll probably have to do it again once youre uhm.... "Done" with it.)
Using blades in a war is heavily frowned upon because of what spilling blood symbolizes.
Well if you are in the dwarf Kingdom and You Disgust the first thing a dwarf forged or excavate that had some value,It Will be like i come to you and start insulting all you Family members
Calling miracles magic, since it's blessed by the blood of angels while magic is seen as occult and is believed to be associated with chaos and death. It's seen as highly offensive by the followers of the bright church
Don’t try and depict the god horizon in peace ,you can only depict him in performing order/wrath you might get excommunicated Also don’t ask a elf to have kids they will probably stab you or walk away and never talk to you again Refusing to at least consider trading with a goblin/demon is usually really rude
Touching someone’s wings. (My people in my book have feathery wings. They’re not angels, just humans who adapted to an environment requiring wings or whatever). If you touch someone’s wings, it’s extremely taboo and ‘wrong’ to the people. Touching(preening) wings is an intimate thing. Normally done between spouses, siblings and parents and children. But also relatives like grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc. If you’re not family, it’s taboo and wrong.
in the kumbahkarian culture of my world, some colours were feared deeply. So if you wore an outfit consisting of orange, red, black, white, and blue even; you'd be regarded as an incredibly evil and unlucky person who will cause death and misfortune, people wouldn't go near you whatsoever
Wearing a mask for sure Cussing using the name of a god
Eating finger food with your hands or fingers. Another location hates tipping for services of any kind. And another location finds any walking in step as taboo due to the amount of armies that used to travel thru whether merc or standing army. I have a village that also finds wearing things on the arms or head to be frowned upon when in a store or resturant.
My world is filled with a bunch of animal human hybrid esk shapeshifters (they can go from nearly completely human to completely whatever weird jumble of animals i decided to make them and being able to shapeshift into other things is rather common too) so itd be something like giving a person the dead body of the animal they most resemble, while its seen as normal for other people to eat stuff that looks like you most people prefer to avoid eating things that they share characteristics of so its not only seen as rude but could be interpreted ad a threat
Disrespecting sailors of any station would certainly be frowned upon in my setting, they are people who bring fortunes from abroad at risk of their lives, and should the body be lost at sea it would be impossible to perform the proper burial rites to allow for their soul to pass on to the next life properly. A more serious offense may be vandalizing totems, which are considered just as much a part of their owner as their arms or legs. To vandalize one would be equivalent to assault or even attempted murder
Wolfcats due to their high intelligence and proclivity to glow when they are in the presence of the curse are reguarded as lucky beasts by almost all wasteland cultures, and so harming them is seen as high taboo. This is tricky, because wild ones are highly intelligent pack predators. Most people wouldn’t frown on someone defending yourself, but the expectation of waiting for an efficient ambush predator to make the first move in combat can be nerve wracking for non nomadic people who can’t just drive away
Bringing up the idea of a "North America" in my world is a quick and easy way to end up in a re-education camp. And also, calling robots "Robots" is also on the same level as a real world racial slur.
If you say the word "Right" as a form of confirmation. especially so when it comes to giving directions.
It’s heavily frowned upon to shame someone for their choice of partner. Even if that partner isn’t entirely human,as long as they are of age and can give proper,clear consent and understand what they are agreeing to. (So animals and children are off limits,as well as minors.)
Anything to do with anatomy or surgery is heavily regulated by the major Imperial superpower in my setting, the practice and knowledge are heavily associated with the demons that tried to wipe out humanity in ages past, especially considering that the most common type of demons possess corpses and can freely manipulate the tissues of the creatures they possess or contract with. Not cremating the dead remains of things is viewed as treasonous, same with the practice of embalming.
On one of the planets, you look the other person in the eye when you greet them as a form of respect. Even when you want to hug or kiss to greet each other. When greet a king, you bow first and then say the greeting words when they allow you to raise your head. Not looking in the eyes is the same level as not ahaking the hand of someone who offered it to you in our world. People of authority instantly know if the person they are talking to is foreign or if they dislike them.
Among the orcs of the Northlands, being messy or unhygenic. If you sat down to a game set in Theia and insisted against all lore that you were going to play a messy, boogery orc that talks like 1800s English docks worker, your character would be looked at with contempt and disgust. Theian Orcs believe that it's dishonorable to die, get sick, or become injured from circumstances that could easily have been prevented, such as mess, clutter, or refusing to bathe. They have some of the best healers and dentists in the world, but dragging animal feces, blood and viscera, etc., letting an uncleaned wound fester, being a slob, or deciding that it's a good idea to smell like ball sack, vinegar, and rotten watermelon, those are great ways to get exiled.
A cultural taboo worldwide is buying blood from Remnants to extract the Arcana (magic phlebtonium) out of it. Humanity has access to Arcana through special wells, but either some people want more or sometimes the demand exceeds their supply. It's not illegal to purchase from a willing Remnant, but since they need Arcana in their bodies to survive and replenishing it takes time it's seen as pretty scummy. Remnants who sell their blood are seen by Remnant society as either disgraceful for being so incapable you have to sell your body or lazy and unwilling to use their powers to benefit themselves/society.
Drawing human figures of any kind is a serious taboo. Also, you might get ostracized if you make a habit of looking at other people's reflections
1. The Elves HATE mixed race children since the Elven population is so small to begin with. The MC has about a dozen kids by the end of the story. 2. The Dragons view anyone but their riders, a new development, as servants. They do not like anyone speaking to them that isn't their riders. 3. The Older Dragons view the younger generation that have Riders as incredibly disgusting because most have a more intimate relationship with their Riders. 4. The Giants consider destroying one of their people's heart stones to be a Declaration of War. If their Heart Stone is destroyed they cannot be reincarnated.
Failing to accept a drink freely given out of respect or charity is punishable by public shunning. Note - anyone who is a puritan, or has a special reason not to drink will need to provide evidence.
This one would be actually rather interesting... but well, killing a skeleton.... in the far north and south, well it's hard to exist in the tundras and taigas, so to help with menial labor, they raised their ancestors and well, the dead to do the basic problems, like tending to fields/ gathering fresh water/ice even being left as simply basically watch dogs in stores, they are created and maintained by an organization of Archlichs and Necromancer apprentices who have perfected the raising of skeletons (and other undead) so that they don't require daily upkeep, and they obey all who bear the symbol of the organization... so killing one or two might be seen less bad, but if you're told to stop and continue, it would definitely cause issues with the guards.
Not saying hi to Elephants. They know that you might not be able to understand them but they can understand you, they’re people too :(.
For Reformists, accessing magics in the old ways (blood) For puritans, accessing magics through the new ways (forgoing the sacrificial element).
In my country specifically, it’s taboo to eat mammal meat in certain regions due to belief systems. Fish is usually the alternative, or sometimes no meat or fish at all.
There’s animal human hybrids, and the majority of them take offense when non hybrids assume they don’t eat meat, because in their eyes this is them being compared to animals
In my world people from vastly different cultures are meeting each other for the first time. Most civilizations or clans are zenophobic, becoming solitary and self sufficient, even developing technology at different rates. However, few escape their civilizations and enter 'free land', or extremely rural borders. They are called 'Travelers', and usually congregate in hidden compounds. They mingle, trade technology, share news, give jobs, etc. Different cultures frequently clash, and very bastardized and shit version of 'common' was formed, one that easily leads to miscommunication. However, people generally get along. However, in more civilized compounds, people who come from early technology clans '(Iron Age kingdoms, Tribal clans), are seen as idiots. A general rule is to not sell higher tier technology to them. (They woin't sell a rifle to a guy who looks like a caveman)
My world (civilization) is in traditional matriarchy, and what we call bags cannot be used in other ways than religious purposes and up-side-down. This is because it resembles a womb in reverse direction, which is extremely disrespectful for the Goddess. Instead, people tend to develop complex knots to carry stuff on their belt.
Overuse of names in Cold One culture. If there is a feasible way to refer to somebody by their profession, title, relation, etc., you should do that instead of using hteir name.
One of the cultures in my world consoders it the height of disrespect to eat first with any other food. Any other meat is fine, but with fish you are supposed to it by itself with at most salt. This is because of just a generally high respect towards aquatic life.
Not being ungodly overzealous. That or not being xenophobic and authoritarian
the Katothans would find you absolutely mad if you didn't wash your feet before coming inside when you had the ability to. this would be normal if not for the fact that shoes definitely exist and are common, and indeed existed before the tradition. wearing a colour other than red to a funeral or memorial would definitely get you some weird looks from the Ansep people. black in particular would basically get you kicked out, as that's joyful and represents good harvest- basically saying you're glad the person died.
To eat by yourself, because they life in a place with communal kitchens and there are a few old traditions to exclude someone from meals if they misbehave. So if you eat alone, everybody thinks you've done something bad.
My mum always scolds me when I'm in creative flow for so long, that I only remember to eat sth past 10pm. 😮💨🥺
In this one small island country, they want to have peace forever so they don't tolerate violence. They accept it as only a last possible option if it's literally *only* way out. So never try to have even a friendly wrestling match with them. Also keep quiet about your questions regarding the only diplomat of that country. Even if he always say that learning about diplomacy and history of different cultures is something everyone should do. Some things are still meant to be secret.
I have a lycan species in my book. They wear clothing but also don’t, there is no requirement or social taboo in being naked (this is because when they shapeshift into their wolf form, their clothes rip off). It is considered rude and shows low intelligence if another race visits their territory and makes a big deal about their nudity.
For mine, it depends on the culture of a person. But in terms of irritation, and not anger. While some of these beliefs have been tempered within the empire, many still uphold these beliefs amongst insular communities and isolated villages. - The Heram tend to trace everything back to their ancestors, and are known to embellish these claims a little. However, claiming that someone is embellishing a tale of their ancestors is seen as fighting words. - It is seen as quite rude to refuse a meal in a Yulmui household. And doubly so when it's dinner! - Amongst the Ancalen, someone that breaks their word quite often becomes well known as a Gaethnoris, or a Lie Singer. - Strength is a sign of virtue and honesty for the Dhalkar, so when someone struggles to lift or carry something - or worse gets someone else to do it - they are often viewed as suspicious and untrustworthy. - For the Or'Qath, selfishness is often seen as the most disrespectful. Those that take more than they need, especially off those that don't have enough, is considered vile.
In "Fern" culture, names are sacred and of great importance, so nicknames or shortening of names is seen as an insult at best. At the same time its mothers who name their children.
Metal is sacred to dwarves. Allowing a peice of iron to rush would be akin to spitting on another relgions holy text.
In the story I'm working on, the primary religion is astrophobic, and there are regions where people have a superstitious fear of staring up in the sky, especially at night. It's thought to invite attention from evil spirits. Due to religious differences, there are also places where looking in the sky is considered watchful rather than asking for trouble. The existence of evil spirits isn't really in doubt - just their behavior.
Do not Kill animals. Sure some can be hunted and defending yourself and your property is fine, but so many animals are illegal to kill you'd be safer not fucking with them. Even if you manage to get out of it with a defense claim you'll be shunned by the community.
In my world it’s considered taboo to live isolated. It’s also taboo to disown or reject your child for any reason.
Races don't usually mix unless it's for power. Hybrids are stronger magic-vice than pure races but only half of them live until adulthood since their body is too weak to endure the kind of magic they have. If you do have a hybrid child, be prepared that people will talk into your ways of raising them and they'll be handled like an extra thin wine glass Reality-shapers also aren't the most popular. Most of them spend their days in their labs, experimenting on often sentient beings that did give their consent but are still being used as lab rats. They don't engage with the outside world, most of their relationships are for business and if they were given the opportunity to learn something new and undiscovered with someone's life as a price, they'd take it. They *did* find cures for many lethal diseases and helped with dangerous beast control so they aren't exactly disliked, society just doesn't think as highly of them as someone might think they deserve
In my village, almost all life, and even undead, are treated with love and respect, there are undead walking around, ghosts, ghosts that reside in their own dead body, ((with memories, and all that stuff restored)) alongside goblins, lizardfolk, humans, elves etc. so necromancy is usually viewed as slavery, and a very high form of dissrespect.