As I am working hard to get out a sequel to Drinna (for those of you who cared to read Drinna: thank you), and I am working in other things in Trithofar, I am posting my notes so far on Kunjelic Life Stages. Perhaps this will help understand something of Drinna's life and the life of her people and how her culture thinks.
Because Kunjels grew up in Gollithia, a world notorious for large and dangerous animals, many of which did NOT come with them into Trithofar, they grow up a little faster than humans and are typically not as silly as some young humans tend to be, though with many foibles all their own as well. Anyway, here is a list of life stages.
With each stage, I am giving the root. To make it male, add -or; female, add īa (pronounced as in 'eye-ah')
Stage: Bēm (helpless or infant)
Age: Birth until around 1-1.5 years old.
Physical Landmarks:
1. Ability to walk unassisted.
2. Ability to hold onto something in hand and manipulate it
3. First set of teeth.
Social/Cultural Landmarks:
1. Have no say in society.
2. Basically are considered to be utterly helpless and dependent (DUH!)
Mental Landmarks:
1. Ability to recognize and even name many of his primary family members.
2. Ability to say a few words that make sense. Kunjels develop the ability to express ideas much faster than comparable human children. They cannot exactly talk, but they have a bit quicker ability to recognize and name things.
Exit Pass:
1. Ability to recognize someone they see by name.
2. Ability to walk unassisted.
Ceremonies:
1. The First Path: The child is taken to the church and made to walk all the way across a particular room with a grass-covered floor without help. When he does this, he is rewarded with food and encouragement, and has purrweed rubbed on forehead and a special prayer given by the priest(ess) in charge of the ceremony. His name is officially recorded on his scroll in the church and signed off by the priest(ess). Usually, this means the child has overcome a year of growth and will not suffer from early childhood fatal problems. The child receives his/her name officially as Bēmor or Bēmīa _______________, Infant of the Protector's Blessing.
Rewards:
Child is given a small amount of freedom about the house and is allowed to be with parents. Sometimes, he can even be trusted to go outside with a parent and walk about.
Stage: Bēsh (Tiny One):
Age: 1-4 years old.
Physical Landmarks:
1. Ability to run (albeit awkwardly).
2. Ability to climb certain small things.
3. Ability to recognize tastes and food from non-food.
4. First set of teeth basically in place (for defense as well as eating).
Mental Landmarks:
1. Can be somewhat aggressive towards others, those child does not like. Bitey.
2. Ability to talk solidifies. Able to make requests and attempt demands and carry on limited conversations.
3. Able to play quite a bit and invent toys, first signs of creativity and individual thought.
Cultural Landmarks:
1. Sleeping in own bed.
2. Able to play and stay within certain area of house (usually hearing).
3. Recognizes friends now and enjoys playing with fellows.
4. Learning to count.
Exit Pass:
1. Object recognition.
2. People recognition.
3. Ability to climb a small obstacle.
Ceremonies:
1. The Little Mountain of Finding: A very small piece of what could be compared to as playground equipment is presented to the child (basically, this could be a stone structure or a wooden structure about half a person tall, usually a box or trapezoidal shaped thing). The child is required to climb in and out of the thing and fetch a particular object from it from a group of objects and take it to a specified person.
2. Girls and boys have hair tied at this age. There is very little difference in dress between boys and girls of this age, and this mostly so special clothing does not have to be made. Because girls and boys of this age are far from any sort of need of 'beauty,' they are encouraged not to differentiate.
Rewards:
The child's accomplishment is recorded on their scroll, and the child is named a Bōsor or Bōsīa. At this point, the child is expected to learn how to count and to sort objects. Many kunjel parents teach their children how to recognize certain dangerous objects, plants, animals, etc. The child is given further privileges and introduced to more friends and allowed to play a little more away from the house. The child is asked to do certain things as well, and help parents with small tasks.
Stage: Pesh (little or young boy/girl)
Ages: 4-6 years old
Physical Landmarks:
1. Able to play and be trusted not to do too many stupid things. Able to actually go and visit other houses in the wolch within sight of home by him/herself.
2. Able to dress and bathe self.
3. Able to find and recognize wild-growing food.
Mental Landmarks:
1. Full command of spoken language and able to carry on reasonable amounts of conversation with adults and peers.
2. Able to hear and repeat stories told as well as songs.
3. Able to count as far as 100.
4. Beginning to learn how to group and count as well. Basic addition and subtraction skills being acquired .
5. Ability to recognize sacred objects from other objects.
Cultural Landmarks:
1. First stage where child can boss younger children around. They are not allowed to discipline younger children, but they outrank younger children.
2. Receive first choice of food, and are able to choose what they like to eat and not eat.
3. Etiquette training begins.
Exit Pass: Ability to change clothes by themselves and choose appropriate clothing for different situations. Ability to bathe and groom self. Ability to recognize appropriate behaviors in different situations as well.
4. Children begin to differentiate between boys and girls in how they dress and self-decorate a little. Boys usually cut their hair shorter, while girls continue to grow it out. Jewelry is worn, as are particular perfumes and things. Girls begin to wear purrweed, while boys typically where the oils of certain gremlins (like minkoils) or sweetgrass oils.
Ceremonies:
1. The Churchjourney: The parents put out various items required for grooming and dressing and tell the child to prepare himself to meet the Protector. They then tell the child that he is to prepare himself to go to church and to come to the church when he has done so. He is to groom himself and present himself in the Church. At this time, he must make his first prayer to the Protector as well as his own person.
Rewards:
1. Now the child is trusted to go places and do things for the family. The child is required/allowed to dress how he/she wants to dress. The child is given the ability to be a boy or girl in the wolch. The child can go with parents and start to learn how to hunt, fish, and get his/her own food. Child entrusted with certain responsibility and chores around the house, including fetching water, picking berries or grasses, making or maintaining things, etc.
Stage: Jeb (high or recognized boy or girl or normal boy or girl)
Ages: Usually from 6-7 years old until around 10-11 years old, though if the child has not finished the previous stage, this one can be skipped, and is often done if the child is not showing signs of being very scholarly and is more interested in labor and chores, or the priests have decided that he/she will be a laborer of some kind. A child must achieve Jebhood if they are going into the priesthood or to be a knight or scholar of any kind. Debatable if they are going into being a merchant or wagoner or farmer.
Physical Milestones:
1. The child is basically pre-pubescent, but very close. This is the very beginning of their first pubescent growth spurts (at the end of this stage, that is).
2. At their strongest before puberty. They can run and hunt and keep up with an adult.
3. Playing sports and understands the rules.
Mental Milestones:
1. The child is able to remember and recite things he/she hears quite well.
2. The child is able to understand the point behind stories, myths, and legends other than just able to know their meaning.
3. The child can count up to 200 and fluently add, subtract, multiply, and divide within that range.
Cultural Milestones:
1. The child can interact with adults rather fluently.
2. The child can hear and tell stories.
3. The child can relay information about people and their needs.
4. The child can help dress game, cook, and wash.
5. The child recognizes the importance of etiquette and social interactions.
Exit Pass:
1. The ability to sing an entire song or recite an entire story from beginning to end AND explain why the story matters.
Ceremonies:
The Recital: The child stands before the Assembled Church and successfully sings a ballad OR tells a story, usually something by memory. In both cases, the child must explain why he/she chose the particular thing performed, what's important about it, and how it relates to his/her life. If acknowledged (by having the congregation stand to vote), the child is given jebhood. If not acknowledged, the child waits for Desshood. Jebhood is a very honorable title to have in one's community, usually subject to privileges above and beyond the Dessel. If they fail in their task, they wait to be acknowledged as a Dess and are instead labeled a Dedess (near dess). This is a very serious thing and not every child necessarily achieves this ranking, and in fact there are, in some societies, limitations on just who will be able to achieve this rank in a given year, if at all. In the bigger cities, the child must perform his story/song in front of the counsel of priests. Not every child even tries to do this.
Rewards:
1. Jebs begin some of their education sooner than other kunjels and are usually made to be prefects or helpers in their school groups as well as tutors. They are allowed to help in church functions as well as deliver messages between people. They are given special seating in church. Among the others their age (once they've become dunel or higher), they are allowed first choices as to which books they wish to read during their education period, and they are allowed to read some of the forbidden or Elder Books. They are given priority also when their marriages are arranged and are married before the rest of the dunels. Jebs are allowed to survey certain careers, as in be a sort of temporary apprentice to certain people. They are called upon to do particular tasks for the clergy and can become squires to knights.
2. Jebs are taught, during Jebhood, how to take account of things written and how to write the names of certain people and things. They are taught how to do inventories and required to increase their memories. Some of them are even allowed to transcribe books (without knowing the meaning of the words, of course) for their town scribes.
3. Jebs are allowed to assist in hunting or with knight missions and allowed to help maintain weaponry.
4. Jebs are allowed to assist in sorting out farm goods and other materials that require a priest's distribution and some of them are even allowed to help deliver them. They are taught more of the managerial type tasks and such.
5. Jebs are allowed to learn how to ride and maintain japals and horses and other livestock as well.
6. Jebs receive permission to wear a particular necklace with a pendant on it to designate their ranking.
Stage: Dess (Near man or Near Woman; the word Dess being a part of the word for Near).
Ages: 12-14 or so
Physical Milestones:
1. Puberty is setting in. Boys grow bigger and stronger. Girls develop breasts. Both get some hair. All get their hunter's teeth, which are an extra set of canines. All begin to develop night vision in their eyes (the ability to see well past dusk quite well).
2. Both become quite muscular and able to endure quite a bit of physical activity.
3. The body is preparing for the rage and muscles can have spasms that are very painful during this time. The rage glands are beginning to produce the adrenaline and other stuff mixture that makes the rage.
4. When Kunjels start to growl at people they love with serious growls, it is time to think about the rage. This stage lasts until the rage starts.
5. Typically, physical activities and exercise for Desses is suspended as soon after the Dess begins to show signs of the rage, to weaken them. They are also given less food, in order to hurry the rage and make it happen. When the body is threatened or made to endure difficult circumstances, sometimes that can cause the first rages to take place.
Mental Milestones:
1. Kunjels begin selecting where they are going in life, whether they will do what their parents are doing or will they start to learn a different trade/career. They begin to apprentice some at this stage, if they have not started that as a Jeb.
2. During this time, they are taught culture, art, poetry, and above all: meditation. Parents usually instruct their children in this time about how to live in Kunjelic society, the rules of living, the qualifications of becoming a wayward or moving up, the use of the rage, the inappropriate uses of the rage, and how to behave towards members of the opposite sex. Many kunjels are taught at this time, above all others, to go into the family thought rooms and meditate.
Cultural Milestones:
1. The stage of being a Dess is something to be respected and watched. They are in the time when the rage can begin, and when the rage begins, it means this time is over. Kunjels do not have to have finished puberty before they get the rage, either, and it is actually preferable that they get the rage early and then develop physically, as it makes them easier to control.
2. Children and adults are made aware of a person as a Dess. Usually, Desses are announced before the entire congregation and they are required to stay home or near the church. As soon as they feel the rage coming on, they must go into Trakia, during which they are bound and provoked into having the rage as much as possible while being fed as little as possible.
3. The kunjel learns about honor and how to keep it, and they are typically tested on it quite often.
TRAKIA:
The process called Trakia is basically translated as "Recreation." One journeys through Trakia or goes through Trakia. Trakia is a specific program carried out in cooperation with the church and the parents to both provoke a young Dess into the rage and teach them how to contain and control it. Depending on where the young Dess lives and how close a Traktinis or Trakis is will determine how exactly a kunjel is restrained for the purposes of Trakia. It will either involve being chained to a wall and fed little and provoked until rage happens, or it can be as simple as being chained to a post under a pavilion. Of course, it may involve simply ropes and very astute family members.
During Trakia, the young kunjel must be kept hungry and nervous. The candidate is not allowed much sleep and is often provoked, even treated with what we humans might consider to be near torture. Water boarding? Yeah, it could happen, among other things, and a fully grown kunjel would wonder what the big fuss is about if they heard about it. It is NOT a pleasant experience for anyone involved and parents are often told they cannot visit but once a day or week depending. During this time, the object is to so upset and so threaten the young Kunjel that they are forced into a rage as often as possible. As the restrained kunjel comes to know what the onset of the rage feels like, they begin to teach them how to restrain it. The candidates do not receive any permanent or life-threatening physical harm, nor is actual torture to be used, though painful and intensely frustrating things can be. Until they can hold back the rage, the candidate is not permitted to leave.
When finally they are provoked to the rage, and hold it back, and voluntarily submit to the Calmist involved, and prove that they have no desire to harm the Calmist (or Provoker), then they are allowed to be released. However, Trakia is not over. Now, they must move the Sklunjia.
The Sklunjia traditionally is a large, irregularly shaped, heavy, piece of scrap metal. It CAN be just about anything that a typical teenager could not lift and easily move, ranging from a huge piece of wood, to something half buried, to an anchor. It must be something that is irritating to the touch in some way and it must be moved from one place to another, and it can be covered in oil or grease. Traditionally, this means placing the object up on some kind of pedestal. The point is that the rage, particularly the strength and focus the rage provides, is required to move the object (and so the kunjel must be able to turn the rage on when required and use it on something necessary).
The process of moving the Sklunjia takes place in a courtyard. Members of the same sex in the family, as well as same-sex priests are allowed to be in attendance as someone moves the sklunjia because the person moving the sklunjia has to be naked or nearly so to prevent the use of clothing to help. Usually, this will involve a very small loin cloth made of grass and perhaps a grass shirt if anything at all. After the sklunjia is moved. the kunjel is declared before the witnesses to be a dun(īa/or). Their scroll is updated. Later, they are presented (wearing appropriate clothing) to the rest of the congregation of the church as a dunīa or dunor and accepted into the community. Now, the kunjel has much to happen. They are allowed to court and create a betrothal with another member of the community. They begin learning to read and write in earnest, as well as begin to learn their careers. Many kunjels only learn the basics of reading, while others learn more, depending on what they think they will be doing later. Kunjels are not allowed to touch books or learn the difficult stories or debate religious doctrine without having been through Trakia.
Stage: Dun(īa/or)
Ages: Between 13 and 15 usually.
Physical Milestones:
1. The rage and the ability to control it.
2. Fully developed bodies.
3. Flexible musculature and a bit of flexibility in joints.
Mental Milestones:
1. The ability to control the rage, to make it occur, to use it, and to put it away again without committing sins.
2. Knowledge of future career.
3. Reading and writing ability.
4. Knowledge of what are called "The Dark Miracles" and the "Secret Doctrines." These are things that are not so nice that the Protector has done, particularly the Drod story.
Cultural Milestones:
1. The rage is under control, able to be summoned when needed and stopped when needed. The kunjel no longer blacks out while in the rage.
2. The kunjel acquires a betrothal, arranging to be married with another. During this time, the courtship ritual begins in earnest. The females and males are, for the most part, on equal footing, and either one of them can end the courtship, but it is the male who must finally declare that he will marry the female. During this time, the two are encouraged to exchange both gifts and secrets. They are encouraged to write to each other.
3. The females are required to make for themselves a bow and arrows and learn to hunt. Kunjel females are often the ones who do most of the hunting and gathering. Males will often hunt with their wives and help protect them from harm. They will cook the game and they will protect the family with their lives. The males will make a sword or spear for themselves. This can be fine (in the case of rich families) or just good enough. Some swords are little more than rectangular clubs, and it is up to the individual kunjels involved to make for themselves a good or a bad weapon of choice. This may not be the only sword they ever get to use, but it is a symbol of their willingness to learn to make it, and so if it looks like crap, then, well, it looks like crap. This is one of the few times a kunjel will ever have to make a weapon for free with the help of the local blacksmith.
Ceremonies:
The Bonding Ceremony: During which the priest acknowledges the couple and basically tells the others to keep "hands off." It is neither polite nor honorable to get into a bonded pair of dunel's business.
The Making: When the Kunjel makes his/her weapon.
The Promisekeeping: During this time, a kunjel will make a promise and he will keep it. So, if he promises to kill fifteen gremlins, then he will not return to his home until he's killed fifteen gremlins. If he promises to climb a mountain, then he will do it. The Promisekeeping is a ritual pronounced before the congregation and if carried out will earn a kunjel credibility among his people and credit with the priests of the church. Often, knights have to promise to return to Thortinis in a year, during which time, they learn the laws of other lands.
The Breaking: This is a ceremony that undoes a betrothal. The priest takes a stick and holds it up before the congregation and uses the rage to break the stick in their presence, declaring that what once was one has now become two. This is done when one of the members of a betrothed pair violates their oath or breaks honor and either rages out of turn or breaks the law. One of the two pieces of the stick, the one declared to be the person in violation of the law, is thrown into a fire and burned. The person who broke with honor is declared a wayward and not allowed to be in church and is considered a wild animal. Waywards can voluntarily be put back through Trakia again, or they can be driven outside of Thortinis and left, or they can be held captive until they are able to prove themselves again.
Rewards:
The dunel are allowed to learn their trades, to read and write, and to eventually get married.
Stage: Rēsel, which is a head of a household.
Age: Typically this is around 18-20.
Physical Milestone:
1. Well, two kunjels are married. They establish a household together and sexual intercourse causes them to be physically bonded together. Kunjels are not much for cheating on each other, though it can happen. They are typically rather chaste. Kunjels do not like to be subject to circumstances.
2. They will usually begin having children soon after.
3. They are, at this time, allowed to grow out a beard (the males).
4. They are at their peak physical condition.
Mental Milestones:
1. Absolute control of the rage.
2. Civility and honor are upheld.
3. They begin having contact with priests/esses on a one-to-one basis to confess dishonor quietly. If they have done something wrong, they confess it and the priest explains how they may be restored to honor again and be protected by the Protector again. Of course, they can do this before and often do.
4. Will probably spend more time in the Thoughtroom than before.
Cultural Milestones:
1. Are allowed to boss around anyone of a lesser rank than themselves, so long as they are not telling anyone to do wrong deeds.
2. Determine when their children do what and reach what milestones.
3. Are the lords and absolute rulers of their household. Inside a kunjels house, the Rēsel have the power of even life and death over anyone who comes inside. Yes, they can kill if necessary to protect their home, their children, and their things. They can even hold court of a type inside their homes.
4. They are primary teachers to their children and they are absolutely and ultimately held accountable for their children.
5. They maintain this title until such time as they take the title Sārēs(īa/or).
The title of Sārēs is one that is given to the elders of a particular community. You could call these people the deacons of a church, and often as not they become teachers, scholars, clerks, and etc. They are supported by their families, but they do not stay with their families. Instead, they represent their families in the town government and are allowed to basically retire until such time as they pass on. Kunjels live a long, long time, and so they are not allowed to take this title until certain conditions are met:
1. All of their children are Rēsel.
2. They maintain honor.
3. Their parents are not still alive.
4. They have more than one child.
5. They have some physical limitations that keep them from their normal trade.
The Elders of a village are often teachers and guides and helpers. They do things around town, make things, train others, and whatever they can physically handle. Kunjels are encouraged by honor to stay as active as possible for as long as possible. It is not pleasant or good for a kunjel to fall so ill they can do nothing, and often that will bring on a desire for an honorable death. Some older kunjels will actually go a-wandering, and many Kunjels will not chase them down if they choose to do that.
So, this is what I have for now. Will return later with other Kunjel things, I guess and hope.
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