Editing Dvadi (section)

= Society =
Dvadi society is notable for their attachment and reverence of music. Old myths of the conversion of their lords tell of the beauty of Saint Aldo’s Chants, a recorded list of chants that are a part of Dvadi Liturgy and their church doctrine. They believe that the creation of the world, the Trium, and their connection to creation are bound up in song, and that they are capable of connecting closely to the Trium through singing. Their society is also known for its theater and love for performance. Tales and stories are didactic in nature, telling stories and narrating through rich choir songs and the theme of the penitent man. Suffering for the sake of faith is a deeply rooted virtue, and some attribute this to the strife and toil of the Dvadi to discover a faith that would unify them. To this day, a plurality of Dvadi still hold to the Cult of Alexander, worshiping the family and praying for their return despite the aristocracy’s turn toward the Trium. 

Dvadi are individualistic, to a degree one would find abhorrent if they had grown up around the related peoples of the Perenians or the Rosti. This is largely in part due to the understood peace required to hold the Dvadi people together due to their religious variety. They understand a system of localism as necessary to govern their lands. Towns and villages, rather than the King, control the laws and mandates that the people follow. Still, the many faiths have tried to encroach upon the territory of the others, and this has led to disputes in their checkered history. 

The moral and cultural norms of Dvadi custom elude most outsiders. They are highly exclusive within their enclave villages, even to other Dvadi. An observer once said that a man of Trium faith from another village was barred from opening a stall in an adjacent town market, because the former refused to join the congregation of the target town’s church. It was a strange affair indeed, but a common one within the lands of the Dvadi. To live and be welcome in a community, one is expected to adapt and join together with their customs. It’s a strange mix of communitarian and individual ethics, but one in the Dvadi culture that does not produce tension. Each member of the community, due to the community’s independence, is expected to contribute and cultivate a strong work ethic. 

Excommunication and scapegoating is a method used to excise members of the community who stray from the local moral consensus. It is a serious matter, but one that is given almost religious significance. Each community differs by faith in how they handle it, but the end result is always the same. A member is exiled and sent out into the wilderness. 

Societal structure relies on a crude form of feudalism, run by the elders of each village. Each elder answers to a Baron who manages a collection of villages, who then answers to the King himself. The Dvadi do not possess a large kingdom, and as such their political structure is simplified accordingly. The King maintains a council of officials from the villages under his rule. These officials advise and run administrative affairs to the extent they are necessary. Since the conversion of the aristocracy to Triumism, the King tends to keep a bishop in court for religious matters. These bishops are rarely zealous, having to balance the need to press the Church’s influence with the need to keep the peace.