(This whole section is really just for a post I'm going to make in Conlangs. I'll put a link when that's up.)
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The area where Dzougĕdan. is spoken is relatively hilly with some forests, with mountains surrounding it at every side but to south (it gets more flat around there), which hits the sea. Think France - the south is warm and coastal, and the further north you get, the colder it gets. The people there are divided into two groups: Northerners and Southerners. (I'm abbreviating them as N.s and S.s.) The N.s conquered the S.s some centuries ago; they were related groups, but spoke a different language, leading to Dz. getting simplified, and to distinct features of their dialects/sociolects. As one goes North or South, the respective groups increase in proportion.
The Southerners were generally made into serfs and tradesmen of Northerners, and while there are plenty of Northern serfs also, they are always higher up the social ladder than the Southerners. Northerners generally took on the roles of local chieftains, higher classes, and military leaders. Both groups normally enter religious positions, but N.s tend to fill up the higher ones.
The Southern coast is only nominally Northern land - the lords are Northern, and they pay fealty to the N. up, well, north, but the S.s really run the cities. Trade and crafts are huge there, and ideas passed around the sea hit the area here first.
The far North is mostly... Northern. Southerners and all the complexity that come with them aren't really a present thing.
[Problem: I haven't expanded most of all this this yet...]
The middle areas tend to be organized into villages - N., and S. All the villages are ruled a local chieftain - always Northern. The S.s' most important figure is their Spokesman - viewed at best as a middle-rank N. Even the lowest N. lords himself over most S.s.
N.s view themselves as strong, aristocratic, wealthy, and manly, which they like a lot (S.s think they're meatheads). Telling over family lineages and histories make up a good deal of how they pass time in the winter. They don't marry Southerners, period, for this reason - lineage. Southerners, on the other hand, prefer cleverness to strength in their culture (what with the N.s' ability to mash them to pieces, and the cultural positions they both occupy). The N.s think of them as poor and wimpy and unintelligent (though witty). If they're from the Southern regions, they think they are lazy; otherwise, they admire them as being industrious (though that might be one of the N.s' only compliments that they'll give S.s).
The idea of being a wise, well-developed person (moral, yeah, but pragmatic and disciplined and with good foresight) is a big deal for both. The idea of a person's personality this way is called "Gra" - in English, maybe "Mind." Everyone has a Gra, but having Gra is something one has to work at.
Both groups are patrilineal and -local. Both groups look almost entirely the same in terms of bodily appearance - hair, skin, body type; just the N.s train to be warriors more, making them look built,
Religion - shared by both groups - is based on astrology, and all the myths, rituals, and gods pinned onto each astrological movement and meaning. The predictions and associated knowledge are called Wirĕr (sg. Wir). A priest/druid is called a Cuar. Their main job is to memorize the Wirĕr, and use that knowledge to teach, help, and advise people, and to please the gods. A sacred object, place, person, etc is called a Hueil (think like the Shinto idea of a shrine). The priests regularly specialize. There are also many folk practices. Even a N. chieftain will listen to a S. Cuar - just, y'know, nobody is forcing you to listen most of the time. If you don't - well, it's your funeral. Probably. [Problem: I still need to study astrology, darnit.]
Years are reckoned like the sun, with some intercalations; months go by the moon. Months are divided in two ways - quarters of the moon (generally 7 days each), and phases (generally 5 days - new, waxing crec., waxing gib., full, waning gib, waning crec., new again). There's a very important Wir - one that's about as ubiquitous to everyone as the 7 Days of Creation are in the West - about how the quarters phases are an analogy for the gods throughout time - how they waxed and waned, and will wax and will wane, and will wax again, in their power.