Amawir (culture)

The Amawir culture is a very old and developped culture, that is mostly represented by the Amawir race in the south, altough there are several humans who live according to the Amawir ways. It consists of architecture, food, clothing, customs, language and many more aspects that sets it apart from any other culture in Aeron. The ancient Amawir culture revolved around trading and religion, but over the years the Amawir have evolved towards a more materialistic scientific culture. This has led to a progressive and liberal spirit among the bearers of the culture, which in turn led to overall economical succes.

Religion
Religion played a central role in early Amawir culture, and was used to bind the originally nomadic culture together. Most of the Ancient Amawir buildings still standing to this day were originally used as temples or spiritual burial sites, and only later turned into palaces or fortifications. However, as the Amawir started to settle and became a sedentary culture, more and more inventions and mechanical solutions were found to improve daily life, which in turn led to a more mechanical view of nature and the physiology of the Amawir race. This process was stimulated and accelerated by the practitioners of the newly formed profession of medic, who argued that spiritual treatment of diseases was not effective and in some cases even harmful. The most famous medic and writer is Duygu Nurullah, who wrote the theological-political treatise, which argued that if a god or multiple gods created the universe according to certain rules, the study of these rules was theology and hereby not heretic. He also stated that anything that did not work according to these rules per definition had to be false, because it would deny the existance of a god or multiple gods as a whole.

This led to a true revolution in Amawir religion and litterature, as it ment that anything supernatural did not exist, which ruled out wonders and the afterlife, and that theology and science essentially were the same. Since then the Amawir mostly believe in a materialistic world and religious freedom, and religious culture is considered more as a form of artistic expression.

Architecture
Architecture has played a big role in Amawir culture ever since they became a sedentary culture. Typical Amawir architecture is usually built from local sandstone, mostly rough stones but in some more expensive cases the use of polished sandstone is seen as well. The bright sandstone colors are used to reflect the heat, which is also why the much darker regular stone is rarely if ever seen used in Amawir Architecture. Other architectural characteristics include the use of symmetry in large buildings like palaces or castles and the use of bright colors, often trough the use of sailcloth on marketstalls or the pinacles on palace towers. Ultimately the use of dark wood is common in regular neighbourhoods, as it serves as a great support or foundation for the often unstable houses.

Something else that's very typical for Amawir architecture is its unique city architecture. Usually Amawir towns or cities have the houses standing very close to eachother, with some even being built in or on top of eachother. This has many advantages like being able to fit a lot of people in a limited space, but also serves as a way to protect the civilians from the sun, as the houses cover the streets in the shade, which makes the temperatures outside much more pleasant to live and work in. Something that also strikes most travellers is how almost all roofs in Amawir town or cities have a flat roof. This is because it only rains very rarely in the southern part of the Aeronian mainland, so here is no need for sloping roofs to carry off the water. On top of that it delivers extra space for storage, or a potential terrace.

However not all houses are built like this. Most luxurious houses stand apart from the others and have small towers with colorful roofs. These houses also usually have way bigger entrances and windows than the more common houses, although that does raise the temperature pretty firm. The use of arches and symmetrie is also used more often here than in other houses. If the owner of the house is very wealthy there are sometimes even fountains or flora to be found around the house, which is very expensive due to the lack of water in the south.

Language
Nowadays Amawir speak the same language as humans, but this wasn't always the case. For a long time the Amawir practiced multiple variations of their own language, each named accordingly. However, hundreds of years of trading with the humans made their language come closer and closer towards the Amawir language, untill the two languages essentially became one. The only remaining sign of the language today is in the naming of Amawir children. These are names that often mean something in the ancient Amawir language, and are considered as a way to somewhat preserve their own culture and bless the newborn child. Apart from that only ancient scrolls and insciptions can be found to prove the existence of the language, with only very few remaining who are able to translate them.

Although the Amawir and the humans technically share the same language, they both use them very differently. Amawir will often be more fluent and extrovert than humans, and have the tendency to talk way faster and show more emotions than humans normally would. Furthermore they will often adress foreigners with a title derived from their ancient language like efendi or seyyah, which they use to flatter the stranger or to stimulte then to buy something from them. Most of these characteristics probably come from their customs of trading and haggling.

However, there are a few exceptions. Talking fast without thinking is something that is only fit for the commoners and the young  people. Therefore older and wealthy people will often specifically express tehmself as slower and calmer, to indicate the other person their knowledge or social status.