A Short Guide to Building your own Disciple
It was asked by some voters how they might be able to build small backstories and personalities for their in-character personas. This guide will serve as a way to help inspire and also potentially address some questions people might have about the setting.
You may use as much or as little from this guide as you like - this is not required for participation. But if you do want to create a character, here's some information how.
Name
Vaspukaran generally follows the following formula:
Lineage Name (Only for the Upper Chambers) Matronymic, Personal Name.
Lineage Names are reserved for long acknowledged mixed-descent clans such as those that exist among the High Priesthood and the great Juror households. That there are great clans among the High Priesthood and there are great Juror Households is a
problem. Lineage names are passed down matrilineally except in cases where there is a legal agreement to not do so (say when one lineage is much greater). Vasparak society is generally matrilineal but patrilocal (meaning women move to the man's household) and patriarchal (in that the husband is legally privileged over the wife).
However, matrilineal inheritence grants significant power to women in marriage, and there are some areas (such as the Ischak Plateau and Kusro) where it is matrilocal as well, with men journeying to the wife's village and house to live there. Vaspukaran thus has a culture of 'mobile men', who are intent on proving themselves in order to win marriages and integrate themselves into their new families, and women are positioned in the role of focused household managers. This is still deeply and profoundly flawed, unjust, and oppressive, but it is a different model of relations. Direct inheritance is de-emphasized and does not necessarily pass by way of primogeniture. Instead, property is held in trust by the dowager or patriarch of the lineage, and passed on by election.
Matronymics are a name derived from the mother's.
Hyanaki Akov, is son of Hyana, Akov's mother. Almost everyone has this. This is used as an identifier by officials
Personal Names are the name of that specific person. Most friends and family will address you by this name. Members of the sect address each other by their first name, and when this there is more than one person with that name they use...
Nicknames & Titles. These along with titles are very common. 'Old Strong Belman', is one example. Guru is an informal but prestigious title, recognizing Wendam as a sage and teacher. Baba is also a prestigious title, recognizing Tanda as an elder and advisor. In many Vasparak villages, Babas are more influential and important than the local proctor priest meant to govern it. Rectors are one of the lower ranks of non-monastic Low Priests, generally having responsibility for some temple or a practitioner of holy law.
Methods of Address
Brother and Sister is somewhat common, especially among the newly inducted or among jurors. Most members of the sect use the gender-neutral term
Chaver or
Chaverim, roughly meaning scholarly colleague, friend, fellow, or companion. All of these english-language terms are also fine, as is 'disciples' or 'fellow disciples'. 'Followers of the path of the Apocalypse', 'Fighters', 'students' are also popular among Pugilists.
Culture & Naming Scheme
The Vasparak language draws inspiration heavily and especially from Hebrew, but I have intentionally made some of its inspirations diverse to make it a less obvious 1:1 and to represent it as a lingua franca which has consumed vast portions of vocabulary from new entrants into the Kingdom of God (sometimes intentionally). A majority of the population speaks Vasparak as a first language (though not all are culturally Vasp) and due to mass literacy and language programs and cultural penetration very significant proportions of the remainder speak it as a second.
Different languages have different historical inspirations but I really do want to keep these inspirations loose and less fixed because I do not have time to make conlangs and by pinning down a specific language as having a specific historical connection you create certain cultural implications and expectations I don't really want. Suffice it to say that names can be drawn from Afro-Asiatic and Indo-European sources. Vasp itself is heavily drawn from Hebrew, Aramaic, and Armenian with elements of Persian and Arabic.
In a lot of cases I will take a normal name in a specific language and specifically tone-shift or alter the phrasing slightly by changing a few letters. This not only allows for some distance but keeps things fresh. However, that also means I want to avoid appropriating names of religious or historical figures too much, so that is one area I recommend staying well aware from.
Class
Most rural laborers, farmers, and urban proletariat are mouflons. Heathens (who do not accept Amalgast as the prophet as God as their king) who continue to practice their faith outside of a Mission are legally classified as witches. The skilled professions and trades are low priests, as are parish priests, temple priests, and ordinary monks and friars. Jurors compose anyone born on a Juror Palatine (those purple splotches of inviolable Juror territory) or anyone who swears an oath before a jury and is seconded for it.
Their status is only inherited by those born on Juror territory or within the home city of the garrison. Jurors are soldiers by culture, but theirs is the soldiery of an organized militia, and almost everyone has a day job save for garrisons. Jurors are absolutely allowed to travel outside their territories for work and many do. Each chamber has its own legal rights and privileges that the others do not have, and have certain taxes they have to or do not have to pay. Mouflons are not a 'default' rite but have their own privileges mainly relating to land rights and village commune membership not shared by low priests.
Low Priests join the priesthood and rise up to become High Priests by passing an increasingly difficult series of exams. The contents, difficulty, and success rate of the examination process is a major point of contention. Priests who join orders generally surrender some rights to their property and instead hold some property in common on behalf of their local abbey or order chapter. This is not total, and is usually done by shares of ownership.
Schismatics are those identified as belonging to a legally recognized but unprivileged rite. They are allowed freedom of worship but disbarred from certain high offices. They can still pass the priestly exam but would need to renounce their schismatic beliefs before proceeding up the ladder beyond becoming deacons (the governor of a county equivalent inside a synodic circle). Patriarchs are drawn from the ranks of the High Priesthood by special election of a convocation, organized out of the highest high priests in the Kingdom.
Souls of an Autocephalate belong to that Autocephalate and owe their allegiance to only the Patriarch and the leadership of their autonomous religious community, which varies wildly based on the autocephalate. Souls may choose to exit their communion, but would be then required to convert to the local rite. Souls of an Autocephalate pay the synkrata and also must fulfill military service if called upon. Their loyalty to the Patriarch and Patriarch alone outside of their own leadership puts them in contention with the Jurors.
Most members of radical sects are drawn from the lower two orders, though Jurors are more a vertical slice of society rather than a purely 'higher' order so there are many of their number within sects as well. Functional literacy is widespread and even full fluency is growing. It is worse on the margins and the frontiers and at majorities in the core.
Historical & Geographical References
If you want to make some historical references:
Amalgast is the founder of the Amalgastene Rite and the Kingdom of God. He overthrew the Gushan Rohirrate, an empire of horsemen which controlled much of the central basin upon which Vaspukaran was centered. He had seven followers who each represent some aspect of traditional virtue extolled by the Kingdom of God, translated through centuries of change. Esther is his wife and a militant woman, Boros his brother and the patron Rav of many peasants, Haviva his sister and an image of chastity and kindness, Yovan the first Juror and a bandit who changed his ways and joined Amalgast, Yataryn the first Cheshvan who defected from the Gushan Rohirrate, Urmah the stormcrown of Usral whose domain was the first autocephalate, and Rav Sansun who was the first priest of his communion.
Ravs are great sages and teachers. The term is somewhat between the Jewish 'Tzadik' and the christian 'Saint' and is both a formal and informal designation. There are Six Ravs: Yatoni, known mostly as a statesman and lawbringer, Karogen, a warrior, Tologda, a mystic, Rongen, an ascetic, Zurah, a scholar, and Hastata, an artist. The Amalists also revere the seventh, 'fallen Rav', Obrogras, who was known mostly as an advocate for many strange and esoteric things such as the idea of continual soul transmutation. He is not remarked upon in official discourse except as a Judas of the Ravs who betrayed them; Amalists insist he was betrayed in turn. Obrogras is the functional father of modern Amalism and helped reform and redefine the faith following the Weeping Years.
The Ravs brought the end to the Weeping Years, a warring states period in Vaspukaran's history after the successors of Amalgast had failed to keep the Kingdom together. They founded the second Patriarchate with its current political situation.
Pasan Ghadi is the founder of Pugilism. Opernani Myriam was a witch who converted to Pugilism and was his foremost student.
The Malekate of Babarak, often just called Babarak, is a historical empire centered on the Hadit River over 1600 years ago. Eradicated by a historical and dramatic flood, Babarak is seen as the root of all evil. The Iconoclasts use the analogy to the flood that wiped out Babarak as a purifier of evil institutions.
The Bambisnan Vashti was a prophetess of a stillborn religion in Babarak. She was martyred by the Malek and some say that it was this that caused the flood, that the water began to spill from the wound that he inflicted. Modern Vaspukaran claims religious lineage from her, though little of her faith is actually known beyond her supernatural goodness and righteousness.
The Simurgh is the archangel and its veneration is shared across many faiths. It often appears as a nightmare of feathers or a great eagle with a head of fire. In Pugilism the archangel taught Pasan Ghadi how to fight injustice and also how to wrestle.
Yuhwaism is a monotheistic religion founded by the martyred Yuhwa in the same period as Babarak. The state religion of the Gushan Rohirrate, Yuhwaites were declared witches during the Second Patriarchate (the first of such) and their status has varied from neglect to outright persecution by the Patriarchate. They are often feared as a fifth column for the Great Western Coven, a militant missionary superpower which disputes Vaspukaran over the northwest frontier.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but these common cultural references are ways to spice up your in-character commentary, and I know that
@notbirdofprey asked for some historical sages.
Now this is getting wildly longer than I originally intended so I'll cut it off there.
