Land of Bastion (Werecats)

Land of Bastion
Bastion is a fair land consisting of many forests and lakes. The soil is fertile for growing crops and raising livestock, but winters are harsh and bitterly cold, for the country is surounded by mountains with few passes outside. When snow falls many of these passes, which are more like hunting trails, are buried and they can?t get supplies from other countries.
The valley has only two large cities at opposite sides of the kingdom. The northern city is the capital of Gaskin where their main religious and education areas are.Gaskin also includes the meeting hall and federal courthouse where the leadership meets and high-level prisoners are tried.
The southern city is the major trade city, well-named Catskill, where travelers come through going both ways with goods and where organized crime proliferates. There are also a number of guilds for trades available to all races, inns, and taverns.

People:
Bastion is the homeland of Werecats. Some other werecreatures may live there also but werecats are the most common residents. Werecats divide themselves in two groups who have severe enmity to each other. Townsfolk or Civil Werecats live mostly in small towns and hamlets, while Wild Ones or Feral Cats are nomads who wander the forests. They set up camps near the cities and towns for supplies during winter and sometimes into early spring if the winter was unusually harsh.
Townsfolk strongly dislike the nomads because of differences in their religious beliefs. Strangely enough the werecats who call themselves Civil are much more aggressive and cruel in their enmity. They tell their kits horror stories about nomads and if a camp is nearby, anything that goes wrong in the town will be blamed on the nomads. This makes it very difficult for the Wild Ones to sell the furs and crafts they make in their journeys to their own kind. Considering at least half of all the nomads are merchants and fur traders, this is a huge obstacle to their very existence, especially in winter. The nomads fight the townsfolk just to protect their jobs and families, which turns the horror stories into self-fulfilling prophecy.

Religion and Traditions:
Something that the townsfolk seem to miss is how similar they are to the wild ones. Both worship the same single deity, Bastet or Kali, and they claim her as their Divine Queen and Mother to the entire race. Both groups also hold similar seasonal festivals to honor their Mother. In spring both celebrate the birth of a new year with feasts and sacrifices to the Queen Mother?s Temple in their capital city of Gaskin. This is the only festival that women have some degree of power in the towns. Women lead the sacrifice offerings and music, because a festival isn?t a festival without music. Men are in charge of cooking for both groups during this festival. In summer weddings and coming-of-age festivals are commonly practiced. The one coming-of-age festival that is the same between them includes music, dancing, and an evening feast for all those who came-of-age . In fall and winter, there are still festivals but they aren?t as big as the spring and summer ones.
Now onto differences. Both Feral and Civil Werecats agree on who Bastet is, but they focus on two different aspects. Ferals see her as a strong Warrior Queen and as such allow women more freedom than the Civils. Women are allowed to fight and not required to bear any kits if they don?t wish to. Townsfolk focus their energy on the Mother aspects of Bastet and cannot imagine their own women fighting or having no kits. They even call that barbaric and cruel, yet women (and men) who don?t follow their rules are cast out with nothing but the clothes on their back.
Feral Wercats also have different festivals. In summer they have a graduation festival, usually after the coming- of-age one where the now officially adult young ones choose what occupation they want. The choices are Warrior, Trader, Healer or Teacher. As soon as kits are able to walk they start getting training in different aspects of camp life, and after this Graduation, they start to specialize, and become apprentices to a master in any of those aspects.

Government:
Most of the towns in Bastion are self-governing with Lord Protectors in charge. Lord Protectors are always of noble blood and can only inherit through the male line. Male heirs are prominent among their underlings also. Underneath the Lord Protector is the Protectorate, which includes his own personal guards as well as the officers of the Town Guard. With the exception of officers, Town Guard are basically foot soldiers and sentries. There is no need for calvary in small towns, but the two cities are bigger and Gaskin has a full rank of military. In Catskill the military?s main job is a police force to curb organized crime.
Gaskin has a Council of Masters who choose a new Lord Protectorate for any town if the old has no male heir and punish high-level criminals such as traitors and defectors of the military. The Council of Masters are officially heads of wealthy families, but they must always include at least one ?Speaker for the People.? The Speaker can be a Master Craftsman from one of the guilds in Catskill or a Scribe from the temple .
Only men from the temple would be allowed in the council, but inside the temple, women are actually the masters. They lead all rituals and speak sermons and guard all the important history of their Divine Queen. Men keep schedules of festivals and rituals, clean the temple, and very few are Scribes. A scribe writes records, but the women make sure the records are accurate before they archive them. A scribe is the highest level a man in the temple can have.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/Qtjfq8aHVqk/viewtopic.php

kim zolciak kim zolciak travis pastrana quinton coples a.j. jenkins riley reiff david decastro