Valroni culture

Valroni culture refers to the culture of Valron, which is primarily a mix of Viodoxan culture and foreign influences, stemming from Viodoxan Hanzeizh roots and later fusing with other foreign cultures as people immigrated to the area, such as the Aurlunoren and Ryzani. It is rare to find a Valroni whose parents were born in Valron or heritage fully Valroni.

Identity
From the foundation of Valron to the Great Migrations of Valronis back to Valron, the government seperated the people from Lord, High Council, Dyntoi and Commoner. Though in the Autumn of 165 TE, the High Council and Mel E. V. O'Valmen decided to make a 6 tier hierarchy starting from Lord, National Assembly, Bourgeois, Artisans, Peasants, Slumsmen and a out of tier group known as the Mandatory Volunteer Workers. In the early 200s, Mandatory Volunteer Workers and Slusmen were phased out and combined with the peasantery class.

Valron's major ethnic group, the Valroni's can be found around the 25% of IAU, majority of Kingdom of Valron, >1% of Aurlunor and >1% of Yimmu-Audal, making them a small minority of the world population.

The reason why most of Valronis follow Valroni culture is that most non-Valronis in Valron were assimilated into Valroni culture, though some kept roots of their culture and language. At the same time some non-Valroni culture went in to Valroni culture, like how Ryzani culture had a profound impact on Valroni culture.

Clothing
Valroni people having both summer and winter, have seperate clothings for each. Summer clothing is usually made of silk as it is a light fabric designed to cool the body. Clothing usually a mix of blue, white and gold. pants and dresses usually brown or grey. Women usually have blue diamond embroidery sown at the end of their sleeves with golden tips with a belt made of a mix of leather and iron. In Summer, males usually wear pants and boots if they are going out. Though fashion for male labourers is much different, as they wear a tank top and some trousers, usually made of hemp and paired with a bamboo hat. Valroni clothing has to be cooling as the lowlands of Valron (Valron City, Krigor and Kalai Bali) are usually scorching hot (even going up to 57 degrees celsius) for this silk is used to keep a person cool. In the highlands however they have to be warm as the highlands are known for being very cold.

Despite the warm weather, it is very common to see people wearing long sleeve button up shirts with a tie with a chemise under the shirt, a waistcoat, a suit or blazer with a mackintosh or coat wearing long trousers, with woolen underwear and socks with leather boots with iron tipped laces. People generally use suspenders to prevent their trousers from dropping. The trousers also having a buckle, a zip and a button. Valronis generally wear bowler hats, but flat caps aren't uncommon. Valroni women generally wear a heavy dress, a petticoat with a corset, a chemise under the dress where the neck is to catch sweat, a plaited bonnet or mobcap and rarely a pinafore. The aforementioned mobcap is always plaited and generally quite servantile in nature, the amount of plaits in the mobcaps signifies the rank of the servant and is generally feminine. Students tend to wear trousers with long sleeved button up shirts with a tie, waistcoat, suit and mackintosh if they are male and female students generally wear a heavy dress with a blouse or a pinafore with a chemise to catch sweat, with a petticoat and corset. Though in early Era of Frihet, corsets and crinolines are falling out of fashion, with women preferring to wear a chemise, a dress and a blouse or a pinafore. All Valronis wear boots. 50 years before the Era of Frihet, crinolines, which are cages that go under the dress were invented to make the dress look more puffier. Though in early Era of Frihet, corsets and crinolines are falling out of fashion. Most Valroni clothes have buttons and laces, but trousers in more recent years evolved to have a metal clutch and a flier in addition to a buttons with many female clothes having lots of places to tie knots, laces and buttons.

Cuisine
Valroni foods are intended to have no waste while also feeding the a large amount of people. Food is often predominantly served hot, heavily seasoned and aggressively cooked, with meat or seafood, accompanied by colder sides. Valronis tend to be very slim and underweight. Many initiatives have been set up to no avail. Valronis generally eat with a pair of chopsticks. Made from twigs if poorer. Bamboo or wood if richer. Metal, lacquer, ceramic or clay of the comfortable and intricately designed for the richest. Plates and bowls are generally either made of wood, metal, lacquer or ceramic.

Most Valronis have gardens where they raise a variety of fruits and vegetables. owning pigs, sheep, goats, poultry (such as bantams, sparrows, chickens, quails, ducks, swans, and more), rarely bovines, and other animals to have some of their own food source. There are thousands or perhaps millions of different plant cultivars, creating a biodiverse habitat with all edible plants and herbs. This is taken to the point that there are numerous breeds of domesticated animals in Valron. Since milk is uncommon in Valron, as most Valronis are lactose intolerant; in order for a Valroni to digest milk without experiencing any issues, the milk must be fermented. The majority of Valroni farmers raise buffalo, zebu, sheep, goats. Bovines are used for meat and leather and to till the earth. Goats are raised for meat, horns and hair. Sheep are raised for meat and wool. These animals are typically kept by farmers, although the majority of Valroni people also maintain them. Despite the fact that due to the warm climate of Lowland Valron,

It is fairly simple to locate street vendors in Valron, including wholesalers, peddlers, and hawkers. Produce and meat are typically sold by wholesellers, whereas various things are offered by peddlers and sold by hawkers. The majority of people enjoy purchasing food from hawkers. Few people consume coffee, thus tea is the prefered beverage. Most people occasionally drink alcohol. In Valron, no food is ever wasted. The solid moromi from soy sauce production is used to flavour many foods, crustacean shells are used to flavour broth, barley waste from beer production is used to flavour foods and is used as a protein supplement, egg shells are used to provide calcium, and fruit and vegetable skins are frequently used in Valroni cooking and leather production.

All socioeconomic classes enjoy eating game, and kids frequently enjoy hunting crabs and turtles along the shore. The Valron Beach Whaling Company is the largest whaling company in Valron. To reach a quota and be able to pay taxes to the government, they always kill 100 or more whales there. A whale can feed several villages. Deer or bear hunting is common in Tiham; the fat is typically used to polish wood, as a filler for lacquer. Dogs, wild boars, squirrels, dear and turtles are among the other game that are widely consumed and considered delicacies. Turtle is a more exotic meat that is typically exclusively eaten on occasion.

Animals are slaughtered as swiftly as possible to prevent the production of stress hormones that would otherwise impair the flavour. Blood is always drawn and utilised in numerous foods, including blood cakes and blood sausage. Typically, organs are cooked and eaten. Small intestines are frequently kept to produce sausages, but organ meats and more delicate parts like the eye and brain are consumed. If there are left over meat, it is genrerally preserved. As with bones, they  can be used for cooking (for marrow or stock), tools (for manufacturing tools, buttons, and other sundry items), or art (for scrimshaw and jewellery). The most delicate animal organs, such as the brain and eyes, are cooked more delicately and with less seasoning. Testicles and other meaty animal parts are cooked a little more aggressively. The animal's fat is often always used in Valroni cookery, even if the thing made is sweet. Peanut, palm or coconut oil are sometimes used but are generally costly and not much people, including the very rich don't use them.

Common tools in Valroni cooking would include, a cleaver, generally cleavers have a whalebone handle perpendicular to the blade and are joined by welding the metal to the handle, tapered in the front of the blade; a pair of chopsticks (though a metal spatula is sometimes used) and cooked on a wok, made from carbon steel. Valronis generally eyeball the measurements but some precautious Valronis would use measurements using cups and spoons around the kitchen and or use measurements in relation to size of stuff in the kitchen. Though a set of weight scales are also used if a recipe needs to be specific. Most Valroni housespouses would keep recipe cards, which sometimes would have measurements or those aforementioned cups and spoons (Note: cups and spoons are normal cups and spoons not the measuring ones), with some Valronis just saying things like little, a bit, a lot, a tiny bit, a drop or things like that. Measurements in Valroni cooking could include, tumbler, wineglass, teacup, gaiwan, large mug, small mug, salt spoon or the size of an egg of a hen.

The primary cooking fat in Valroni cooking are derived from animals. Lard is very popular in Valroni cooking for both sweet and savoury foods and popular for its flavour; suet is also popular for some baked sweets because of the moisture it adds; tallow is sometimes used for cooking, but it is generally used for cosmetics, skin products, shoe polish and wood lubricant; drippings are used to moisten bread; schmaltz (poultry fat) is popular but mainly as a filler for lard. Among other animal fats, these are the most popular fats.

Hawkers
Hawkers in Valrôn generally peddle on the side of the road, some using small carts or baskets. Some even carry a large metal capsule to cook. Hawkers who use woks make fires and suspend their woks on bricks.

Wholesellers
Wholesellers in Valron generally sell produce on the side of the road, they generally are of tribal Valroni origin or of foreign origin, like Aurlunoren immigrants. Grocery stores do exist, but people also buy from wholesellers if they want it fresh, because of this many tribal people and immigrants start in the wholesale business with many wholesalers selling many cultivars of different plants. Herbs and spices are generally sold by Valronis because of their deep knowledge of them, fruits/vegetables/grains are generally sold by farmers and sometimes by grocers, dairy products and more processed foods like sugar, salt, biscuits and dry isinglass are sold by grocery stores, bread/pastries/cakes/confectionery are generally sold by candy stores and bakeries, meat is generally sold by a butcher and cured meat can be bought from butchers or delicatessans.

Tea culture
Tea is a staple drink in Valron.

Artisanal Teapot making
Valroni artisans are extremely skilled at making teapots using a clay that contains a iron oxide, kaolin, quartz and mica. They are mixed and kneaded to create small oxygen bubbles that intensify the flavour of the tea. The resulting clay is called Valroni teapot clay. When tea is poured out of the teapot it creates no splashes and goes out of the spout quick and straight. It also keeps the tea hot in the pot. The teapot also preserves the flavour of the tea, with the tea flavour more intensified. Tea cups called gaiwan are made of normal clay and glazed with a mix of glaze, kaolin, quartz and mica with some colourings and an extra layer of transparent quartz added to further preserve the tea flavour, the gaiwan is sometimes unglazed. Gaiwan is a small bell shaped cup with a saucer the same size as the gaiwan's base that has a small ring to help it stand under it, it has a small lid that helps strain the tea water from the tea leaves, it also fits perfectly on it and touches the side of the cup.

Artisanal Soy Sauce and Miso making
Soy sauce is made by mixing soy (yellow soy or black soy is ok) and wheat flour to ferment using qu, red yeast rice or koji. It then becomes moromi when a salt brine is added and left to ferment for months to years, it has to be mixed using a paddle for most of the time, to filter the sauce from the paste, artisans use cloths to extract the sauce weighed down using a stone and left to drip into a pitcher for a few days. What is left is aged moromi waste, which is used in Valroni cooking to make a savoury tasting flavour that is like a dry form of soy sauce but less salty. Double fermented soy sauce has soybeans and wheat readded and fermented for another few months to yeyars. Soy sauce made by artisans have a slightly sweet flavour from fermentation and can not be achieved using machinery.

Miso is made with the same components as soy sauce without the wheat and also fermented. Tamari, a salty liquid that is a product of double fermentation of soy sauce by adding more soy and flour; moromi, byproduct that is an umami solid made from extracting tamari, soy sauce or soy sauce that has been fermented mutiple times. Soy sauce is extracted out using a muslin cloth and put on the edge of a table with wood boards (about 2cm by 60 cm / an inch by two feet) on all sides, with the board on the edge with a small opening for the soy sauce to drip through into bucket made of pine, after two days, the cloth has to be pressed using a board, preferrably made using palm wood that is about (2 ft by 2ft / 60cm by 60cm) and pressed using a steam powered hydraulic press.

Painting
Painting is a small facet of Valroni art. Many painters create their own paints, which are sometimes natural, and sometimes artificial.

Paint-making
Paint-making is an artisan job that involves creating paints. Natural paints would include turmeric, annato and gac. Artificial chemicals used in Valroni painting would include copper sulfate, lead nitrate and copper carbonate. Most paints are either alcohol based or oil based. Artists would grind pigments and mix it with oils. This trade is complex as some pigments if milled too fine or course will make a different colour and mixing the oil, water, vinegar or other chemicals with the milled pigments and emulsifiers are also extremely hard. Artisan made paint is still popular as machinery couldn't mix the paint properly.

Pottery
Pottery in Valron is an important job as it is a complex trade. Clay has to be fine, but not too fine, and a litte course and clay usually contains compounds like iron oxide and others. Valroni potters would make heavily intricate patterns on their unglazed works and glaze heavily intricate patterns if glazed too. Unglazed earthenware has to smooth which is hard to achieve with a slightly course clay.

Earthenware
Earthenware jars and made of a Valroni clay that should be not to fine and a little course. It should be really big, and hold about 60 litres of liquid or 60kg of objects. They can vary in size, but the ones used for fermentation should hold 60 L, with some only holding 500mL, Earthenware can also create other things like pots and cups. This is used over glass as it is cheaper to heat clay.

Barrel-making
Barrel making is an integral craft for the soy sauce and drink industries. They are created with wood. Barrels are not usually made of metal as it doesn't contribute to flavours and aromas made during the fermentation and aging process.

Soy sauce barrels
Soy sauce barrels are usually made of pine or oak. They are put together by weaving strips of bamboo and wrap around the barrel. Bamboo is used as it doesn't corrode when it contacts with sodium or salt. A good barrel should be round and should not make any leaks and should not corrode

Alcohol barrels
Alcohol barrels can be made with a variety of woods and usually have copper wires and the base is made of copper as it gathers heat to boil the brew faster

Umbrella making
Umbrellas are a vital object for Valronis as it rains a lot in Valron. Umbrellas are made from wax paper and bamboo. The frame and handle is made of bamboo with a apparatus to open the umbrella made from bamboo that pushs the frame the wax paper rests on up. The apparatus has sticks of bamboo that hold the frame. The canopy is made of wax paper that is sometimes has something painted on it. It is very heavy, weighing around 2.5kg/5 lbs. The frame has hinges that open the umbrella with supports that are pushed up with the apparatus that hold the frame.

Entertainment
Though most people in Valron are serious workaholics, entertainment is popular during Sundays. This is because the Valron work day starts on 6 am in the morning and ends at 11 pm at night and it is from Monday to Saturday, usually with a 40 minute break in the middle for both adults and children. Valronis generally like theatre, music, board games and drawing. At home, families generally play board games like chess or weigoqi. Popular activities at home are sewing, knitting, scrimshaw, woodcarving, drawing, woodworking, needlework, embroidery, fishing (only possible in the lowlands), falconry (only possible in the highlands), fabric work and playing music is also popular. Most Valroni children do not play sport outside of school as they are forced to do militaristic style sport. Some Valronis like to watch wayang opera perfomances.

Games
Valroni children play a variety of games in their free time like chapteh (which was a game imported from Kumaur), which is kicking a ball of feathers as much times as possible only using the feet and kness; kaucheok, which involves nine small stones which the player needs to throw a stone up and pick up another stone and catch the stone and throw the two and pick the next and throw and you get the point; badminton is a popular sport in Valron with many kids playing it. Most Valroni students decide to partake in scouts, extracurricular activities or clubs. Games like hide and seek is generally discouraged because of the dangerous streets, with kidnappings and murders relatively common and children disappearing with hundreds of cold cases. Some Valroni children also like to gamble on cockfights or even play poker and underground gambling activities. Some teenage children also enjoy poisoning their enemies

Music
An integral part of Valroni music is strings and the piano. Stringed instruments are generally made of darkwood and well rosined with strings generally made of linen, with the bow made of horse hair. The piano is generally made of the best quality woods, with the keys either made of ivory if white and ebony if black. Music generally resembles ragtime music and classical music. Famous musicians include, Lee Huang Yik and Teo Ngih Hai, among others.

Wayang Performances
Wayang performances generally show local folklore in the form of opera. Though another variety of wayang perfomance, called wayang kulit is generally done with traditional puppets made from thin paper played behind a transluscent cloth. The Wayang performances are generally done by women, dressing in traditional clothes singing opera-style singing about the local folklore of Valron

Wayang kulit
Wayang kulit is a puppetry performance done with flat puppets behind a piece of transluscent cloth and generally show many tribal folklores. If people watching are on the front, they'd be able to see the colours of the elaborately crafted puppets but if the watcher is in the back they'd see shadows. It is generally played with an orchestra of musicians playing local instruments.

Steam powered machines
Steam is the main source of power in Valroni machines. Most machines having turbines. These are mainly used to move things like a wheel or mix things like liquids and dough. These still can not be used in paint making as they are not good enough to mix paints as they are usually too fast or too slow and don't mix the paint properly.

Life
Valronis generally wake up at 5am in the morning and eat breakfast or it is eaten at school. They then clean themselves and dress up for school or work and usually walk or cycle there. Only 14% of Valronis own autowagens because of their exhorbitant price. They then attend classes or work and usually after about 6 hours and 40 minutes have a nutrient rich lunch. They work for another 6 hours and 40 minutes and walk back home, have dinner, though schools usually provide dinner. Students would do whatever assignments and homework they need to do in a two and a half hour session after school, which is mandatory and then walk or commute back home.

Media
Media in Valron is generally free, in form of newspaper, radio, filmreel or television. Though television is in it's early phase, with most people having a large white cloth and a projector for film reels. In Valron, films are generally called motion pictures, and some require a phonograph cylinders to play sound. Though in more recent years, televisions made from wood and several mechanisms have been made.

Languages
The official language of Valron is the Valroni language, which is a language basically only spoken in Valron. However, there are a few speakers across the Aurlunor and Yimmu Audal. Though Valroni isn't the only language spoken in Valron, and children are taught Travelers' Tongue and Hanzeizh in school, with some Valronis learning other languages like Aurlunoren outside of school, Valroni still remains the main medium of communication in Valron. Valroni is a relatively complex language with the verb changing depending on context and with a complex aspect system. Some nouns also change depending on the information of it, for example, the word, "a cup" changes if it is full or not. Nouns also have 2 sets, definite nouns and indefinite nouns. The honorific system in Valroni is also complex, having 8 levels of politeness.

Subcultures

 * Tihami culture
 * Krigori culture
 * Kalai Balian Culture
 * Chrimatsican culture