The Kalatorii (Nomad Culture)

The Kalatorii are a matriarchal nomadic culture who set themselves the purpose of living in harmony and union with nature - both the natural world and human nature as they understand it.

The Dance of Creation

The Kalatorii tell that in the beginning there were only Lumina and Intinicura, and that the two existed in unceasing war. After long ages of hatred they resolved to draw apart - each to an opposite end of the universe, so as never to meet again. Yet the farther they drew apart, the more Lumina came to understand that the empty void of the universe held nothing to contain or define the edges of her light, and Intinicura understood that she might be swallowed up in the universe’s darkness.

When at last they returned to one another, they held each other close. Out of old habit they meant to fall back to fighting - but their new understanding turned their movements instead into a dance. From the first inertia of that dance the universe was made as we know it, and the world and all that is in it; and every created thing still carries that original inertia within it.

When humankind was made, Lumina and Intinicura set the power of creation into the soul of woman and the power of empathy and attachment into the soul of man. Just as the goddesses had used the matter already present in the universe to create, so they granted woman leave to create and to carry on humanity - and to do so with the help of man.

Society

The Kalatorii wander from place to place as they wish, though they may settle for a time in a chosen region according to their needs and desires. Their main pursuits are entertainment and trade in the places they reach. They drive their livestock with them - chiefly cows, goats, and chickens - and live off dairy and eggs, but not meat, unless it is hunted as part of a rite or for a festival.

A community is led by its head, the Buna (a word meaning grandmother, or the good one), chosen by majority of the tribe; the appointment is then confirmed or rejected by the goddesses in a sacred ceremony. Though their way of life is communal, built around nuclear and extended families, there is a broad division of roles along gendered lines: women fill most of the official roles - leadership, the spiritual, and the material and economic - while men generally take supporting roles, such as the household, the raising of children, logistics, and manual labour. Some trades belong to no one division in particular: tailors, farmhands, jewellers, carpenters, smiths, and the like.

Faith and Symbols

The Kalatorii worship two goddesses:

• Lumina - goddess of light and of life.
• Intinicura - goddess of darkness, of change, and of chaos.

Their symbols include various illustrations of moon and sun; two women dancing in a circle, holding hands; skeletons sprouting flowers; and plants - usually trees - wreathed in flame.

Their language is called Limba, which is said to sound much like Romanian.

Rites

The Kalatorii keep both public and personal rites.

Public rites include the rites of the seasons (the changing of the leading goddess in the dance), the rite of birth, the rite of death, and the rite of union (marriage).

Personal rites include the rite of spiritual passage (kept when one feels a significant personal or spiritual change), the rite of falling in love (romantic), the rite of love (not limited to romance - a celebration of devotion to another), rites to increase fertility (in both female and male forms), the refreshing of the home altar (the caravan itself), and rites of separation (the release of negative energy).

The home altar holds offerings to both goddesses. Lumina favours flowers, fruit, gemstones - anything colourful and alive that has been “imbued with such purpose.” Intinicura favours bones, wet earth, unwanted or leftover plant matter, and blood. The offerings are usually renewed once a week. A rite of separation is performed by tying a thin cord between two standing, burning candles and leaving them until the flames have consumed the cord; the Kalatorii’s book of chant keeps separate passages for different occasions - a bad feeling, a death that will not release its hold, or a parting and divorce.

Appendix

Sources & Attribution

• Primary lore: The Culture of the Nomads (worldbuilding document), translated from the original and archived privately.