Culture of the Rahi Vasa Company

The Rahi Vasa Company is not as populous as the Hui'leia, but are more economic and organised. These two closely related cultures share a language and common species identity. Their religions both stem from the same root and historically these two groups used to be one. The separation is political, economic and cultural, but there are strong and warm ties between both groups.

Their culture could be summed up by their three core beliefs:


 * Everyone has something to trade, trade honourably with everyone you meet.

To the Ravaco, everyone has something they can trade. This means that elderly are looked after as their wisdom is able to be traded, while the dumb or lame may still hold value. Every person is given full recognition as possibly holding great wealth, in material, skill or knowledge. When Ravaco meet they will usually trade stories with friend or family, and simply greetings and waves to strangers. When formally meeting other people, formal trades will occur, with valuables being exchanged. This has lead to confusion over the custom and a undeserved reputation for piracy.


 * Record history, so that you can account for yourself and those who came before.

Ravaco will always make records of important happenings, in whatever medium is appropriate. Carvings on structures show when and who built it, why and any tales from the construction. Tattoos record life events, spirits that influence that person and aspirations. Business transactions and contracts are written down for even minor dealings, and carefully stored, so they maybe referred to. The Rahi Vasa Company produces many scholars and scribes, and has a strong record of its own history.


 * Ravaco are family, be open and communal with them.

The Ravaco will live and work best in community, and will have a number of close groups they belong to, often with overlap. They are members of a tribe, often genetically linked, and will live with many other tribe members. They will tend to work or sail with a large group which will be considered another family, with the casual interaction and dedication that comes with it. Any regular group will form an easy, open intimacy among it, be it a group who frequent the same tavern or workers in a remote logging camp. Almost anything will start with a few Ravaco forming a group to work on it in a patriarchal or matriarchal fashion. It is incredibly rare to find a Ravaco doing anything alone.

The Ravaco are a boisterous and rowdy people, who take a relaxed approach to life, but who can turn very sharply into serious people in a trade or a fight. The Ravaco day on land is marked with waking with the sun, working until close to sundown, then reveling and socialising. At sea, the ship crew will gather and have a drink before changing to the night watch. The Ravaco believe strongly that the Mother and Father will judge their spirits based on measures such as their trade honour, and so day to day life is marked with number of small trades made in a simple ease.

This routine persists for 6 days of each week, with long days trading or crafting. On the seventh day of each week, most stores and workshops close and most ships port as Ravaco tend to religion, hobbies, arts, family and friends. By tradition and law, someone who has stayed at an inn or flophouse for the Sixday is entitled to a free Seventhday so that they may rest and recover.

Architecture
The most common building in Ravaco culture is the Tribehall. These are large, rectangular, wooden halls with steeply sloping roofs and a large open area. The walls, roof and rafters are all highly carved and brightly painted. Tribehalls are versatile buildings, able to function as warehouses, living quarters, meeting areas, and workplaces.

The communal culture of Ravaco have many members of a 'family' living and working together as possible. This might not be a genetic tribal family, but possibly your sailing crew or profession family. Up to ninety or so Ravaco will sleep in the same Tribehall, on flax mats which are put away during the day, or used as casual seating by relaxing Ravaco.

The main area of each Tribehall is left open, without partitions as it improves the function of kitches, workplaces and storage. Sleeping areas are also unpartitioned as Ravaco do not seek privacy among their family.

While Tribehalls are large, even a moderate tribal group will require multiple, with some used as living quarters and others as working or storage areas. The Tribehalls will be arranged facing each other either side of a long open retangular ground with the oldest and most important Tribehall closing off one end of the ground.

A vali is a group of Tribehalls inhabited for at least a few generations and will be secured with a wall and a gate, although this is more symbolic of property than any kind of defence. The gate may be just an archway, and will always be very highly carved with spiritual images of home, security, wealth and ancestors. Where other cultures would have a village, the Ravaco have a single vali.

People who do not live in a certain vali are free to come and go during the day, as markets and workplaces are inside vali and customers and workers often come from outside.

If the population within a vali grows too large, at about four hundred members the tribal group will split along genetic / political lines, and construction of new Tribehalls to accommodate the leaving Ravaco will begin. This is usually an amicable happening, and the site of what will become the new vali is chosen close by.

Large settlements will consist of multiple vali but usually no more than eight to ten, each holding up to a few hundred Ravaco. The vali will generally have a small distance between them, leading to a spread out settlement, with crops, animals, forest or fallow land between them.

In cities of approximately thirteen or more vali, a vertical version has been designed to better make use of limited land. Such a vali is a multi story building, no more than eight stories tall due to difficulty of construction. Each story is an open hall, allowing for similar use to the Tribehalls of a more conventional Vali. In cities these structures will be placed relatively closely, with streets forming between them and stalls springing up around their foundations.

In such cities, infrastructure such as water supply and paved streets are collectively purchased by vali from people able to built them. Sewerage is taken care of with a system which washes the waste to holding ponds where it is purchased off the city at large by fertilizer producers, and the money is split between the vali.

Clothing


The Ravaco generally prefer outer clothing that is non-restrictive, colorful, and easy to remove quickly for swimming. While it has obvious relationship to the clothing of other Bawa cultures, there are some large difference.

All Ravaco wear tight fitting leather vests and shorts. This is a sort of armour, as the leather is often tough, but flexible, and together, these two items offer many places to attach various items. These also form their swimming outfit, as it allows them to take tools and various other items through the water, and be able to work rough cargoes or fight as soon as they exit the water.

Over these leather underclothes, Ravaco will wear a loose shirt-like outer garment, held closed with toggles if the wearer wishes. They will also wear a bolt of fabric wrapped around the waist twice, with the top rolled down, often secured with a rope. Both of these items are quick to doff for swimming.

Accessories
Ravaco tend to wear many metal piercings, with eyebrow, nose, lip, ears, and navel being common spots. Studs, rings, and small chains to other piercings are the most common. Bangles are very common, but are often lightweight strings with small shells of no real value on them in case they are lost or broken while working or swimming. Arm bands of fabric, leather or sharkskin are commonly worn tight to the skin, and are highly coloured and patterned.

Ravaco often wear necklaces with a single, large and ornately carved pendant on them when on shore.

All working Ravaco carry a long, flat, diving knife with a blunt/flattened tip. The blade (called a Rahj’agaga, literally “Serpent’s Tooth") is worn in a sheath attached to the leg or forearm. The knife has a serrated edge (for cutting line), and a slightly curved plain edge (for prying open shells, gutting fish, cutting food, and defense).

Hair
Ravaco are genetically disposed to tight, curly hair, ranging from white through copper through to an almost black red.

Ravaco often cut some or all of their hair close to the scalp, with shapes and designs often shaved into the short hair. Other designs seen include topknots, sailors braids, cornrows and deadlocks with other parts of the scalp shaved. While onshore, more maintenance heavy styles, including long natural curls are seen in both men and women, while at sea more practical and seaworthy styles are seen.

Some Ravaco even shave all hair to the scalp, as this helps display the neck and scalp tattoos many adult Ravaco obtain.

Nudity
Bearing of the chest by either sex is uncommon, but well accepted, even in public. Total nudity is avoided in public.

Tattoos
Like the Hui'leia to the south, Ravaco are commonly tattooed. They use a bleaching agent in the ink, which produces light, whiter scars, and a chisel that produces furrowed impressions in the skin.

Ravaco tattoos are often mystical, but also historical. Due to the nature of the standard wear, the most common tattoos for public display are on the shoulders, upper arms, and lower legs.These tattoos are often historical, representing trials, triumphs or important events in someones life. The designs are all highly stylised, but what they depict varies immensely.

The chest and back are often tattooed, but in a more personal and mystical manner. Both of these are done in small sections over a Ravaco lifetime, and are associated with spirits of future (chest) and past (back). Finally, the scalp and neck is often tattooed, with tribal markings in fine spiral and curving patterns.

While the historical tattoos are able to be obtained from anyone with skills and chisel willing to apply them, the chest and back tattoos are only worked on shamans, who have the knowledge of spirit forms and the skills to combine them in a meaningful way. This is often done as a sacred ritual. Finally, the head tattoos are applied by an elder family member, and mark the wearer as an adult.

Cooking
The Ravaco enjoy community and conversation at meals more than perfect cuisine. Because of this, Ravaco cooking and eating is done as a large collective, with meals of ten to several hundred Ravaco not being uncommon. Food is prepared by a smaller group, and Ravaco will line up, and take their food back to eating spots where they will sit and talk over the meal.

Ravaco staple foods are taro and kumara, and many recipes include these or are accompanied by teka. Teka is a sweet, slightly alcoholic soup drink make from kumara and sugarcane that is often drunk as or with a meal. Teka can be hot or cold and is served in a mug. Hot teka is often drunk as a breakfast, as it is easy to prepare a large amount without much effort for a vali or other group early in the morning. The main meal is eaten at midday, as it gives the longest time to prepare and clean up, and lighter meal and stronger alcohols consumed in the evening.

A stereotypical ravaco meal is a mixed bowl of 2-4 meats and 4-6 vegetables in small pieces, suitable for eating with fingers. Ravaco enjoy both agricultural and aquacultural foods, and it is not uncommon for a meal to consist of seaweed, salad greens, diced taro, shellfish and pillpig accompanied by teka. Food is often highly spiced, with chili oils, spice powders, sugar, salt, pepper, and sweet and sour vinegars present for flavouring.

Poor Ravaco may live on unseasoned bread and fish, known as poor, but filling fare. The bread is made from Saltrice and is very dense and lacking flavour to Bawa palates. These ingredients will be chunked into small cubes and eaten in the same manner as more varied fare.

Entertainment and Arts
Ravaco have a wealth of entertainment and artistic options. There is almost constant street entertainment, as beggars seek to trade entertainment for coin, and it is a empty street in a city that does not have one beggar telling stories, singing, performing theater or creating art as children watch on.

More formal entertainment exists too. There are public amphitheaters which have music or dramatic performances most days, with relatively low admission costs so that it is a very common pass time. Themes range from simple skill demonstrations and mocking comedy to high art and political satire, although only most skilled writers would attempt satire against the Smiling Merchants.

Drinking houses are incredibly common, and are a easy way for members of differing vali to meet and form a family group. There will often be bawdy music and intoxication upon spiced spirits, but the main purpose is to allow Ravaco to enjoy a relaxed company. Drunkenness is not looked down upon, but failure to uphold contracts and agreements because of it is.

Games are all very trade, bluff and mercantile focused. One of the common games is focused around trading cards with other players to get advantage at the cost of coin, but whoever wins gets a larger pot. Games of chance with a house are not allowed, but interpersonal gambling is seen as acceptable, so snake and rat pits are common.

Their songs are powerful and complex, often starting off without instrument backing before body percussion begins then full drums fill in behind. Clear powerful vocals are used to tell stories, and songs can often be danced to. Ravaco dances fall into two goups; group dances to an audience, and partner dances, usually with someone of close acquaintance. Moves are often smooth, transitioning from pose to pose in a flowing manner.

Storytelling and recording is highly regarded by the Ravaco with the three main forms of oral chants, carvings and written text all being produced in volume. Much like dramatic performances, there is a lot of publicly enjoyed 'pulp' stories, but literature is a respected and profitable profession.

They are excellent craftsmen and women, and are adept at making jewelry, painting, weaving and carvings, as these are typical pastimes while out at sea. They often paint their vessels in reds, whites and blacks, and favor more geometric and symbolic shapes rather than realistic shapes in their artwork and clothing.

Gender Roles and Sexuality
Male and female Ravaco enjoy strong gender equality, as trade has emphasised that it is only what each individual brings to the table that they can bargain with.

Sex itself is seen as casual and natural, with nearly no exclusive long term or ceremonial partnerships. Children are raised by the larger tribal group, and the concept of exclusive parenthood is unknown to the Ravaco.

Homosexuality is not taboo, but cannot be considered for shaman leadership positions (as they do not mirror the gender dichotomy of the Mother and Father spirits). Homosexual couples are valued highly, since they will not produce children of their own, but can assist with the rearing of the rest of the family's children.