Bordevarian Hospitality
Hospitality among the Kingdom of Bordevar is about power, wealth and life.
From the Regional Fete, Noble Feasts and Grand Tourneys, Bordevarian hospitality is a colourful affair of wealth, culture and joy. Ever a nation obsessed with projecting strength, Bordevarian showmanship is an underappreciated element of its national culture. In the same way that a noble house's heraldic colours show the strength of a house, Bordevarian hospitality shows the strength of the nation.
Interwoven in the festive dancing and grand meals is an undercurrent of respect and power that is infused throughout Bordevarian society. The strange meritocracy of Bordevar demands respect and observance. Nobles are to be treated highly, with prime places of honour, exquisite food and entertainment. In return they are expected to provide for their commonfolk, protecting them from abuse and providing wealth to be enjoyed. Knights are to be celebrated as the protectors of the realm, given accolades and colours. In return they are servants of the realm, protecting celebrations and ensuring lawfulness. This constant cycle of respect upwards resulting in service downwards is as much a part of Bordevarian hospitality as it is Bordevarian warfare or politics.
Hospitality in the Kingless Kingdom broadly comes in two forms; Private Hospitality and Public Festivities. A nation of strong commonfolk towns, a desire to celebrate success and courtly intrigue creates a nation obsessed with grand public festivities. These fetes, festivals, feasts and tourneys are huge public events which anchor the calendar, creating a culture all of their own. But they also bely a far more personal and equally deep private hospitality engaged in each day. A hospitality rooted in care, love and the social good.
Public Festivities
Public Festivities are generally held at least once a month with a scattering of yearly dates of notable importance. Regions will hold a seasonal event, traditionally in the format of The Harvest Fete in Autumn, The Grand Winter Tourney, The Spring Gathering and the Grand Summer Banquet. Notable yearly events include Coronation Day (Celebrated in June, marking the coronation of King Bordevar in 41AE), Oakford Day (Celebrated in September, the day the Oaken Accord was signed) and Grand Offering of Mourning (Celebrated in April, marking the death of King Bordevar). Generally, festivities known as ‘grand’ place responsibility on the nobility, while other events are commonfolk-lead events.
The Harvest Fete is often the social high-point of the commoner calendar. Marking the point of greatest wealth and prosperity during the year, the Harvest Fete is a gathering of celebration, trade and community. The main harvests have been brought in, work begins to slow in preparation for winter and life can take a few days to be celebrated rather than worked. Harvest Fetes are beautiful affairs marked by coloured ribbon everywhere including maypoles, garish costumes and fete stalls. They will often be replete with games, traders from far and wide and more food than you can shake a knight at. Understandably these air often creates an air of love and excitement resulting in many weddings being celebrated at Harvest Fetes and as many fistfights. For the nobility, Harvest Fetes are a time to celebrate with the commonfolk, walking among them and congratulating them. Importantly, nobles are still nobles during this time so respect is still afforded to them. For knights, the Harvest Fete is often between campaigning or adventuring season and is a prime moment to relax. Harvest Fetes will often see knights cutting loose more than any other time of year.
The Grand Winter Tourney is a challenge in the face of weather. A declaration that Bordevar is stronger than wind, rain or spheres-forbid snow. Normally a Duchy affair, the Grand Winter Tourney invites knights and warriors from across the region to compete in tests of skill and mettle, providing ample excitement during the dour winter. On particularly auspicious years, Dukal houses may co-ordinate on a regional Tourney, proving to be particularly grand affairs. Tourneys will vary in their events, but most common are:
- Archery, open to all.
- A Joust (referring to a formal battle between two Knights) open to knights only.
- A Grand Melee, open to all and fought at once
- An Enchanters Conundrum (some sort of magical puzzle or question posed to be solved)
- The Dukal Fancy (A wildcard event with often strange terms posed by the Duke or Duchess themselves).
The Grand Winter Tourney is often seen as a chance for a Dukal House to demonstrate their power and influence, with the quality of prizes and the quality of showing being directly attributed to the houses grandeur. The Grand Tourney is also an important time for the Trials of Knightly Valour, with many would-be-knights presenting themselves to their mentors for assessment or putting forward claims during this time. The importance also tends to cut the winter campaigning season short, or at least bring it closer to home so that Knights are available to attend the Grand Tourney in their home duchy.
The Spring Gathering is everything the Harvest Fete is not. With winters sting lapsing it is a time to prepare, plan and heal. Where the Harvest Fete is a time of celebrating work done, the Spring Gathering is a time to plan coming toil. The Harvest Fete is wild excitement and wealth, the Gathering is looking to the past seasons failures. It is not a dour event, no gathering of the commonfolk could be, but it is a time of consideration. The Spring Gathering is traditionally a time of new things, with new guilds, bands, houses or similar being formed. It is also a time of airing grievances as the year comes to an end. The Leavings Feast is normally the highlight of the gathering. Made up of the remaining granary supplies after winter it is traditionally a feast of hope and goodbyes as the commonfolk look to the next year. For nobles the Spring Gathering is a time to liaise with their commoners to keep the realm afloat. For Knights it is often a time of preparation, acquiring new skills, arms and armour.
The Grand Summer Banquet is the high point of the Noble social calendar. Much like the Winter Tourney it is a time for noble houses to demonstrate wealth and power by putting on a grand banquet. Grand Banquets tend to be extravagant affairs with bards, dancing, multi-course meals and speeches. It is common for The Summer Banquet to be central to the Trials of Virtue and also to Noble marriages. It is not formally organised for one noble house to put on a banquet, rather Houses may put on a banquet to demonstrate influence or only attend to other Houses to show allegiance. It is not uncommon for particularly social nobles to spend a decent amount of Summer drunk moving from banquet to banquet. Commonfolk are invited to attend these Grand Banquets, often supporting the overall process. While they are seated at their own tables, the Commonfolk bring a lively nature and celebration to the affair. For Knights the Summer Banquet is a time of brotherhood. If they are home they often attend to show allegiance to a noble or to take part in courtly life. But equally as often Knights will have a Camp Banquet if away on campaign, where the rations are gathered and efforts are taken to have as grand a meal in more humble circumstances.
Coronation Day is a day of challenges, where Bordevarians of all statuses set challenges for those around them. This is done in the hopes of driving all to achieve and filling them with the spirit of The King. Oakford Day celebrates the commonfolk of the Realm and provides a release moment for tension. Commonfolk will adorn themselves in leafy branches and sprigs before playing good natured pranks on the nobility or other such jests while Knights act as peacekeepers, stopping anything before it gets too disruptive or illegal. The Grand Offering of Mourning is a formal day of remembrance. Bordevarians visit the graves of those they have lost and are expected to give an object either in remembrance (by leaving it at the grave) or in charity (by giving it to The Church).
Private Hospitality
Privately, the core of Bordevarian hospitality is protocol and meals. Protocol refers to the treatment of nobles, knights and commoners within the overall framework of Bordevarian society. More information on Bordevarian protocol can be found on the Knighthood and Nobility page.
It is common for every Bordevarian family, house or order to organise their down around a meal. This meal is seen as the main gathering point of the group to sit, eat and socialise in private. For noble houses and knightly orders these meals can take on a war-room like feel as they take the private moment to share information, gather their schemes and work together. For commonfolk these meals are a private moment to relax, to put aside work and the outside world, leaning back on friends and family. Mixed groups will often combine these two atmospheres. Regardless, these meals are semi-formal and private. Semi-formal in that they acknowledge importance, with all remaining standing until the Master of the House has allowed them to sit, obliging some amount of cleanliness and generally being a meal of substance. They are private in that they are reserved for the group and any very close allies. To be invited into such a meeting is a great compliment and not to be taken lightly. They are not always the same meal, although dinner is often the most common. Some commoner guilds focus around breakfast and its important start to the day, some knightly orders focus on lunch in division between the morning and afternoons training, some noble houses favour supper and its dark secrecy. The focus is on dedicating one meal a day to a semi-formal gathering of the group.
Welcoming Newcomers
Arriving at a Bordevarian home or event varies based on whether you attend as a commoner, a noble or a knight. While all non-Bordevarians are recognised as being separate to the hierarchy of Bordevar, common tradition has it that guests take on the trappings of the Bordevarians they attend with. As such a guest of the Duchess would be treated as part of the Duchess’s household, while the guest of a commoner would be treated as a commoner. If the circumstance is ever vague it falls to the host, master of the house or other such person to make a statement to its effect. “This is Osric of The Iron Valley and in this house you will treat him as a Knight” or something to that nature.
The first essential step is informing and educating of expectations. Is there anyone you should bow to, is there someone who has a particular title, who is the host? These questions generally fall to the inviting party to answer and educate. Bordevarians understand that this can be a learning curve for foreigners and act with good humour to pleasant mistakes, but they seldom excuse them. The point is to have foreigners learn the hierarchy and honour it, not be excused by it.
Noble guests are often given space to demonstrate themselves. They will be announced as any other noble with full honours and titles. It is only polite for other nobles to be inquisitive of them, ask about their history, accolades and other such endeavours. Making the guest feel both respected and welcomed is the balancing act.
Knightly guests are treated similarly to Nobles, with the focus on their titles and honours. Knightly guests may also be asked to give service in some manner, acting as guardians to a notable guest, supporting a group's protectors or other such effort. It is also considered respectful to tend to a Knightly Guests equipment, offering the services of a squire, storage and cleaning as if they were a knight of the gorup.
Commoner guests often find themselves wrapped up in the commoner experience quickly. They will be asked to assist with duties and chores but will also be given a behind-the-scenes view very quickly. Sharing gossip, secret doors or stashes of food and drink are classic ways to welcome a newcomer, as is involving them in any commonfolk duties.
Common Passtimes
Bordevar is a sophisticated nation with wealth and prosperity. This is reflected in their appreciation for games, music, dance and superstition.
Bordevarian games are certainly some of the most prop-centric of the Realms. Festivals and fetes are likely to be consumed by games such as apple bobbing, tug-of-war and treasure hunts. If it would be at home in a carnivals side-show alley and can be fantasy-fied then it would be at home in Bordevar. Gambling tends to be split between board games such as Chess or Checkers and betting on animals performing activities such as running, remaining or making noises. Remember, if you don’t have any animals, you can always dress a commoner up as one and make do. Provided they get a cut.
Bordevarian Music is split often neatly along class lines. Summer and Spring music is often bawdy, lewd and loud. Full of energy and jokes and often accompanied by instruments such as tambourines, fiddles, ukuleles and flutes. This music is the music of the harvest fair, of the village tavern and the maypole square. It is celebratory and designed to get people dancing and enjoying themselves.
This is contrasted with Winter and Autumn music. The music of the state and the music of death. Harps, larger woodwind, drums and brass instruments give a weight and importance to the music. It is the music of the royal procession, an army on the march or of ceremony. It is intended to give steel to the soul, honour to the important and remember the lost.
Bordevarian dancing is the courtly dances of the late middle ages and beyond, mixed with a lively energy of the common people. Couples dancing or dancing with rotating partners is more common than individual or group affairs. Ranging from slow sweeping ballroom dancing full of symbolism through to lively jigs that have partners spinning across the room.
More than other realms, Bordevarian hospitality superstition is recognisable to us as the superstitions of carnivals, sideshows and rural living. Fortune tellers with magical globes (magic optional), sleight of hand tricks and frogs that can predict your death are all par for the course. Harmless minor magic or simple theatre meant as excitement and entertainment.
Meals and Drinks
Bordevarian food and drink is incredibly varied as you would expect for a nation as wealthy and wide as Bordevar. Personal meals can be varied based on location, preference and wealth, but draw primarily from English and French inspiration. Festival food is also very appropriate, particularly during fetes, feasts or fairs. Often it is the manner or format within which food is consumed that is more important (a private meal, a fete prize or grand feast for example).
Very common within Bordevar are various pastries ranging from rolls, pies, scrolls and beyond. Be they sweet, savoury, warm or cold, Bordevarians appear to love taking something good and wrapping it in pastry. Regional pie making competitions, sweet scroll tournaments or vegetable roll-offs can become as competitive and violent as any knightly bout.
Bordevarian alcohol is also varied with beers, ciders and wine being more common that distilled liquors. With plenty of produce and time to let is brew it is common to see Bordevarians experimenting with cinnamon apple ciders, dark chocolate beers and other strange concoctions which are well regarded across The Concord. Those distilled liquors that are common are often the result of a nobles private passion project or a dedicated guild of distillers.
Faux Pas
Beyond the incredible attention paid to social hierarchy and its many elements (better found on the Knighthood and Nobility page), Bordevarian social faux pas tend towards lack of honesty. Coming to a Harvest Fete with a rigged game is likely to get you beaten by the Sheriff and lying about achievements to attend a noble feast might get you duelled into surgery. Do not presume on the trust of Bordevarian hospitality for it can very quickly be removed.
The greatest faux pas is reformation. Bordevarians are used to outsiders affecting the guise of friendly visitors to critique and dismantle their way of living. Not only is this seen as abusing the hospitality of hosts but it shows your disdain for their way of life. If Bordevar will change it must come from within, not without.
Bordevarian Hospitality in your Game
Organise with your group to have one meal together each day. Make it an event if possible with a private place, good food and some time to appreciate it. This should be a private event that doesn’t invite outsiders willy-nilly. Use it as an IC time to bond, relax and plan with good food, drink and family.
If possible, work with your group, Duchy and Realm to make the seasonal social events part of the calendar. Perhaps at a Summit, perhaps as a social event. Each has an important place within the social calendar of Bordevar and each has its own role, atmosphere and highlights.
You're in Bordevar to be a part of it social structure not against it. Embrace titles, bowing and importance in your place. It adds grace and weight to roleplay of the realm. But by the same motion don’t abuse the power you have to diminish the game of others. A noble being a tyrant ordering commoners around adds game if they’re deliberate and clear out-of-character but it destroys game if you're not.