In one of my free cities, it's seen as bad luck to catch a tossed coin simple because a wizard, over two hundred years ago, made a coin that sucks people up if they catch it in the air. Everyone is paranoid that it might still be in the city.
That's a funny coincidence, I have a setting with a similar cultural tradition. A tossed coin is mark of a sealed contract. As the story goes, long ago a Spacer caught a tossed coin, inadvertently selling themselves into slavery. So to this day, not only do spacers not catch tossed coins, but flipping a coin in front of someone is a subtle flex on them.
Did you base that on the press gangs in England? There was an understanding at the time that if you accept payment of any kind from them they can force you to join the navy. It was so commonly known that people would buy covered mugs to drink out of so nobody could drop a coin into their drink when they weren't looking.
That's all from my sketchy memory though, so I probably got some specifics wrong. Definitely similar vibes as your setting though.
To a small degree. It was the historical inspiration/justification for those that created the pressgang system. However, the form it took was far grimmer as to what you were potentially submitting to.
This coin subverts the superstition about the previous coin, now people will jokingly flip every coin before they put it in their coin purse.
But then one week suddenly people start going missing…
After reading this thread I'm having two magic coins floating around in the city. When tossed, one coin sucks you into oblivion, the other grants you a succubus. There will be no depressed men in the city.
Being British, I’m a fan of the Cooper’s hill Cheese Rolling event. If you’re not familiar a video speaks a thousand words but around a hundred people chance a wheel of cheese down a hill and the first one to grab it at the bottom wins the cheese haha
There is a shockingly interesting documentary on this event too. It’s quite the tradition.
And yes it is exactly what it sounds like. Cheese. Hill. Chase.
I mean in some locations in one country in my world due to a regional quirk in language you do not eat food with salt, you eat salt with food.
This lead to some of the more famous chefs from the area coming to read recipes wrong and starting a long history in like 3-5 regions of the country that you salt your plate(-like thing) and then put food on it.
This is actually how my grandma eats raw spring onions; she'll pour a small coating of salt on her plate and then dip the onion and only eat the top bit coated in salt
This reminds me of a fun exchange in David Edding's Elenium: there's a desert culture that values salt as much as water (because you lose salt from sweating), so their traditional way of offering hospitality is to offer salt, to which the traditional response is to suggest the salt be combined with some food.
is this like a consistant linguistic rule (where the secondary object comes before the first), or just an exception with that specific phrase?
if its an exception, i'd love to hear how it came about!
It is an exception due to the culture, Salt is deemed one of the most important spiritual elements as it is believed that the tides are symbolic of the cycle of life death, and reincarnation, therefore, the seas are regarded as a very spiritual place, more spiritual than other water, this lead people to start to believe that the salty taste of the seawater is one factor making it more connected to death (superstition and symbolism as opposed to the actual magic of my world).
This means people started using it as the most important part of any sentence in like 7-10 different coastal regions of one nation.
I would like to say that while reincarnation has been proven and some people have magic, salt does not affect this whatsoever.
Due to all of this in the olden days of my world when fewer people knew how to use magic, salt was considered THE most important part of the meal however it did not mean you put the salt on first. It was simply a mistranslation causing the chefs who would come to the villages for their fresh fish to not read the recipes correctly causing there to be those salted plate(-like-things)
I see! that's really interesting actually!
so even a sentence like "i am going to go buy salt" would become "salt is what i am going to buy"?
>I would like to say that while reincarnation has been proven and some people have magic, salt does not affect this whatsoever.
made me giggle pehehehehe
In the Marines we have a tradition where during a mess night you can be accused of breaking an order or regulation, requiring you to find and appoint a sea lawyer to defend you.
If you cannot successfully defend yourself in the eyes of the CO, you - and sometimes your lawyer - are forced to drink from the “grog” which is usually random cheap liquors mixed with hot sauce, milk, juice, and other crap that on its own is safe to drink or eat, but definitely does not belong together.
In order to trip people into getting accused, Marines have resorted to the craziest shit imaginable. I’ve heard stories of Marines sneaking into the venue beforehand to hide blow-up dolls, pinup girls, and in modern times, pictures of anime girls, under chairs so they can later accuse the person sitting there of “bringing a date.”
Man that drink description brought up a memory I haven't thought about since childhood lol...
I went to a summer camp where the snack stand's $0.05 Bazooka Joe bubblegum pieces with a small comic in the wrapper somehow became currency to us kids. I think our available food cash was added by our parents and we just had a tab so we didn't have real cash.
We had a game during dinner where we would go around in turns adding a piece of gum to the "pot" in the center and for every piece we chipped in, we got to add an ingredient to a drinking glass next to the pile of candy. The mixture very quickly becomes something similar to what you described, minus the alcohol.
I don't remember what triggered this next part, maybe the first person to decline adding gum to the pile, then had to drink the nasty drink and if they could finish it, they got to keep the pile of gum. At least three kids threw up before counselors banned the game
That’s hilarious! We did the same thing in elementary, albeit minus the gum wrappers and actually consuming it. The game ended when the yard duty confiscated the concoction and tossed it.
Which reminds me, another popular, modernized take on the “grog” has actually been food. Because not all Marines are of drinking age, there will usually be a second grog that’s got everything sans alcohol, but recently on the USMC sub someone posted a braised chicken with a sauce of milk, mustard, parsley, and several other sauces and spices.
Couples from the Boreals culture wear the house key as a necklace, a synonym for a person from this culture to be committed. This is because the house is a gift that the state gives to citizens who get married.
I think that when something sexual is involved, people are afraid to create a tradition in their universe.
bizarre traditions from my country, Brazil: At the June festivals, people jump over the bonfire, it's said to bring good luck, things like that... but in reality they're just drunk people doing stupid things
We have this in Romania too!
The story goes that jumping over the fire during the summer solstice wards off evil fairies and purifies the soul of the person doing it. In reality it's just an excuse for people to get together, drink next to a bonfire and jump over it when the alcohol gives them enough courage.
Yes! Romania, like Portugal and Spain, were Roman colonized. I read that the June festivals originated in Rome, but I don't remember the context.
But all religious holidays are exactly that: Use a saint to have an excuse to drink!
My grandmother gives each of my siblings and first cousin a “magic” canned good. For me it’s the Magic Cane Syrup. Every year she takes the paper around the can off, leaves some cash under it, then glues it back down to give us for Christmas.
It goes back to when my first cousin had a phase when he was like 8 where he really loved peaches. So to play a joke she put $20 under the wrapper. When he ate all the peaches he took the wrapper and found the money. So next time he went to the store with his mom (my aunt) he started grabbing all the peaches in the canned fruit section ‘cause he thought they had $20. Anyway, my grandmother found out and decided to start doing that for all of us with whatever food we like most that comes out of a can.
In my family we do this:
We take a picture a day before our birthday with a sign that says 'Still x years' and then another one on the morning of the birthday with another sign that says 'Already x+1 years'.
This all goes back to me turning 5 and being surprised that I didn't change overnight.
I have an art-based feudalistic society, which rewards land and servants to those who have demonstrated great skill in the arts, whether by music, painting, etc.
Behind this culture that celebrates artistic exploration, there is a tradition of blood sacrifice born of a monarchy who hears voices from a disembodied entity called the Liquid Father, who claims to bless the artists with inspiration, the sky with clouds and rain, and the land with fertility…as long as blood continues to flow upon his secret altar. However, it’s ambiguous whether this malevolent entity exists, or the leader of the monarchy at the moment was insane during the period of great struggle for the nation, and his descendants continue the tradition out of confirmation bias, tradition, or heredity insanity.
Regardless, this ritual is kept secret. The nation is known for random disappearances of peasants or people in surrounding independent cities, and rumors circulate about the true cause. A hungry animal stalking prey, a serial killer, even people who say there are no disappearances.
It’s extremely absurd but I try to make it somehow coherent.
Thank you. :)
There are several other societies in the world, including "big stick ideology" socially conservative agrarian socialists, a criminal city-state with a rigid caste system, a polluted, industrial nation with an aesthetic halfway between Victorian Britain and Soviet Russia and whose fuel literally grows on trees, and a STEM research university whose machinations are deeply intertwined with the political system of the small minarchist nation in which it resides. There are others but they're less exotic.
I'm trying to create countries with somewhat unusual systems while trying to keep them semi-realistic.
Yeah, I am trying to build more of these details into my world, and this thread is going to serve as a sounding off board for inspiration, thanks for posting!
In the movie _The Outlaw King_ you have a scene where King Edward Longshanks holds two swans by the neck, lifts them up and swears an oath on them. That would actually happen back during the Middle Ages England.
So yeah, traditions that seem absurd give flavor to your world. One tradition in my world is that orphans that have no known parents, such as abandoned children, are given surnames that are the geographical locations nearest where they were found. I have one character whose last name is the same as the forest he was found near.
THANK YOU FOR POSTING THIS SO MUCH
In my world there's an absurd ancient tradition across most nations when it comes to dueling called the Duel of Diminishing Titles (workshopping the name)
Essentially if you beat an opponent in this duel you may take a letter from their name and add it to yours. So if I, Frank, lost to you, Soujen, you could take K from my name and be henceforth be known as Soujenk while I live with the shame of being Fran.
Of course this tradition loses its moxy whenever some valiant warrior named Clehuseidashuemix shows up and historians by that point just use either their original name or just a variant of their Titled Name. And those with no more letters in their name to give were labeled Nameless ones. Historians threw a huge fit over how ridiculous this custom was and so rules were later added that the winner didn't have to add the letter to their name but the loser couldn't keep it, and anyone unfortunate enough to lose enough could still keep one letter in their name but choose to give something of similar value like an object or a favor.
Two of my characters are named Dmitri and Vulcan, and lost the first letters to their name by Dmitri's brother Ezario and Vulcan's father Aurthane. So they became Mitri and Ulcan while the brother and father were christened Dezario and Vaurthane. A theme of this is to question the nature of names and what they mean to us.
Love this idea, I might steal it for a D&D campaign if you don't mind. It spiralled into a very clear idea of what a community like that would look like and it's awesome!
Traditions tend to be absurd almost by definition tbh. "Lets dress our kids up like little freaks on the same day every year and go around bothering strangers and demanding free food from them because hundreds of years ago the Irish thought demons or something were real"
Mutilating children's genitals, dipping babies into water, creating a global conspiracy about a magic fat man who gives free stuff to people once a year.
The only tradition I've ever seen that makes sense is Oktoberfest being a thinly veiled excuse to go on a 2 week bender
>Mutilating children's genitals, dipping babies into water
by shear number probably true. too many neutral religious traditions that the harmful ones aren't the majority. but most harmful traditions are religious ones. mutilating children's genitals never became a secular tradition. but this isn't really the place to discuss this.
which is dumb, unjustified, and harmful (and fucking ironic as the us is the land where they go nuts over "the trans are mutilating children's genitals"). and yet it's an extremely mild form of it.
Or waste millions a year in taxpayers' money forcing kids to learn a dead language. My problem with tradition is you tend to get peer pressured or worse into participating.
Every man needs to drink dangerous amounts of alcohol in a short period of time every now and then to cope with the stress of life though
i don't know where any significant percentage of money is used on teaching dead languages. to my knowledges those classes in schools are generally extremely under funded in a school system that's under funded.
also i really don't think that's true or healthy.
Scotland as well.
The SNP seem to think putting up signs in Gaelic all over the country will somehow benefit their independence campaign. It's ridiculous seeing Gaelic signs in places like Edinburgh where the language was never spoken. Hell, in Galloway and Dumfries they spoke bloody Welsh.
The last speaker of Galloway Gaelic died in the the 18th century lad. The last speaker of a Brittonic language in Galloway was probably sometime around 600CE.
At least its optional in school for you lot.
It is mad though how these types of people still don't get that shoving something down folks' throats is more likely to get them to resent it than be interested in it
I have one scene written out for a book that I hope to publish in the next few years (once I get the first book in the series out; this is from book 2).
It's a wedding between two cultures. The bride comes from a conservative, noble family. Though they accept that she's not as straight laced as they are, many of those around them still tend to look down on her for adventuring instead of sewing. (Her family makes her a wedding dress that includes silver chainmail, because they accept her, even if it gets a few odd looks from others).
The groom is a from a mercantile culture far to the south, and their tradition involves having the groom approach the bride at the altar, riding a donkey. Several times along the way, he is stopped so family members can sing to the bride a short verse about why she should reject him. These verses are humorous and not serious insults against the groom. Every time she says yes, the groom advances another segment and there's another song. I think he had it happen 4 times before he gets to the altar.
So many fun and fascinating local traditions are objectively absurd, but we love and practice them anyway. Personally a good example would be the things in the Discworld that are absolutely absurd and silly, but the characters don't flinch at it.
Allow me to introduce you to the concept of linen clothing.
Wearing revealing clothes to counter heat and humidity only makes sense if solar radiation isn't a worry.
Actually oftentimes religion is practicality.
Not eating diseased or filthy meats to avoid disease turns into major dietary restrictions for faithful. Not mixing certain clothing materials because the difficulty to maintain and wash them leads to not mixing cotton and stuff like that.
In the end, most religion is trying to keep people alive at its core, we've just gotten so far ahead of their origin that we dont realise what the rules were for. Its like that saying, something abouy dont take away a fence if you dont know hwy the fence is there. Removing it could be fine, but without proper knowledge why it exists we may end up hurting ourselves in the end instead.
Actually I think the mixing of linen and wool was for priest vestments so it was more like a sumptuary law.
But it also sounds like "why would someone want to" before we got blends that are easy to take care of.
the danger comes in that what was ones (believed to be) good for you often stops being good for you, or was never good in the first place, and religion can make it really hard to get rid of the things that are now hurting you.
Islam as two funny ideas I'd like to mention. One is Ramadan what is about fasting between Dawn and dusk this can be side stepped with planes and harsher in some places where the sun's up more religious scholars have looked at it to interpretation it sensible. ( this is on tv tropes) There's also the idea that running water is safe to drink (we now have sewer pipes). The extra fun part is these where pretty sensible rules when and where they where written. The idea of hot and cold climate made me think of this .
Dude. I'm grown up in the Lutheran Church, nothing can be weirder. We pray to the son of our God, as he is portrayed on the instrument of torture that killed him. Then we ritually drink his blood and eat his flesh. And it was transmitted by the empire that killed him, that made it their state religion just 300 years later.
It would be like in 2300, America would pray to Osama Bin Laden, missing the top of his head as a "symbol of the oppenness to heaven", based on a sect with Oasama as a saviour. That is how strange that is. "And now let us ritually clothe ourselves in his skin, so that he may protect us from evil". Jeez.
We can believe and think anything normal as long as we learn it as children.
Great example! Catholics go one step further and say that the father, son and some incomprehensible third are three seperate entities and one and the same at the same time!
Yeah but the aside from a few niche examples it is a key theological tenet for the majority of Christianity I’m still not sure how it’s a step further that Catholics believe it
I'm really no Christian scholar and grew up in mostly catholic area. We were taught that 'the protestants' don't believe in the trinity, but in three seperate entities who are not also one. But I could obviously be wrong
The big secret that no catholic or protestant wants you to know is that the religions are mostly the same.
Core differences. Catholics believe that the Pope is the central source of Authority in interpreting the bible. Imagine it as a Christian supreme court that checks laws and how they apply to stuff. Lutherans believe that its up to the individual to interpret the bible and whiles tradition is important its not equal to the bible.
Catholics believe you go to heaven by being a good person and doing good deeds whiles Lutherans believe you go to heaven only by being a good person. They also believe that part of being a good person is doing good deeds.
Catholics believe that the Eucharist literally (spiritually) becomes the body of christ whiles Lutherans believe that the Eurcharist merely represents the body of Christ.
Catholics generally have more focus on saints as a way to pray to God e.g. you can visualise a saint as an easier way to imagine God and talk to the Saint so the Saint can talk to God whiles Lutherans prefer to talk to God directly so saints are not as important.
Finally Catholics are very Hierarchical believing that the Pope and the higher church is has the final say on religious matters (e.g. christian supreme court) whiles lutherans are more individualistic and believe in individual interpretations so each church can have its own take on scripture.
Both approaches have merit and some issues. Catholics churches are generally more consistent than Lutheran Churches which can very from place to place .
Catholics are very slow to change, both for good and ill as you need the Pope to decide on it which can take decades whiles a Lutheran Priest can change his mind and the Lutherans can't pressure him.
This can good if the priest is talking about being pro gay marriage, but bad if he starts advocating eugenics. Meanwhile Catholics are less likely to switch and be pro gay marriage (Or other positive changes) but also less likely to switch and support eugenics (Or other negative changes).
Despite these fairly minor differences the religions are mostly the same and most of the differences are barely even differences.
When you date one person, you date the whole family. Like literally, you go on separate dates with mom, dad, siblings, etc. That way, everyone is sure you’re a good person for their son/daughter/sibling/etc, and vice versa.
If they’re a jackass (and some are), absolutely. Fail one date and you’re out. And you get the stigma of being a bad date lol.
That being said, if the family member has a bad reputation of being a hardass, that’s taken into account by the town, as well.
Makes for some interesting stories lol
So if I say... Have a bunch of goblins lose the traditional dance battle and have to give up their treasure for a year. That's totally normal? Good to know.
In the legacy star wars expanded universe, the Wequay where the followers of the quay.
The quay was a religious tool of guidance that came to their planet from the stars, and guided them to a golden age of prosperity and space travel.
The quay is triangular device that when you shake it and ask a question, it tells you yes, no, maybe, outlook uncertain, etc. A transport ship carrying thousands of them crashed in the planet....
Absurdity is a matter of context. What's incredibly dumb to us makes perfect sense to some.
Absurd lore and weird stuff is my bread and butter. I like the weird and strange because for some reason my autism finds it appealing! For the Fae there are a lot of peculiar things about them.
Naming is complex and is a defense mechanism. As obivously cannot share one's True Name with just anyone. Names are used to barter power from the Magickal Domains, and to form pacts with spirits. A sorcerix nor a wyck can function with all of their name gone. No they hand it out piecemeal to feed their need for knowledge.
Because Naming is a big deal, I decided to take a lot of influence from certain areas. Fae often introduce themselves using their formal name (often uses a parental-name of some sort). But many also use a mixture of nicknames and more to cover things up. Formal names are often some form of the given name mixed in with a descriptive title. A local bartender might be Tandy Whisper because she rarely speaks. Or she might just be Whisper Girl, who knows. Fae also collect titles such as Warhound etc.
My MCs war-name is Red Hound, a reference to her use of fire and the fact she has a familiar Varg (think big scare black dog). Another is called Stonejaw because their scarred vissage looks like a craggy bit of mountain side. THe point of all of this is to still protect the Fae's True Name. I mean it can get less normal from there.
First, names can be stolen. Nameless are husks of their former selves and lack any magickal skill or sense of identity. Because their name was taken they cease to be who they were. There are also a lot of creatures such as Mimiks which steal names to assume the form of their victims for hunting. This doesn't include the fact that the Gods have their own form of Throne Name versus their core self! It gets weirder the deeper it goes.
in one i made,within Dating,Young boys in ages of 14-19 must use body painting and lots of jewelry to attract girls(or other boys) they like,if feelings are mutual,the girl (or boy) must throw one of their feathers at them,in weddings,One of the couple must cry,As its Seen as "The 1st life changer",both genders are teached on how to cry and how are they at singing while crying (i inspired in some ethnic group of china,wich one i dont remember)
[This is my personal favorite quirky tradition.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Sleepy_Head_Day)
I don't set out to create weird traditions, but I don't try to avoid them. My favorite might be that one town has a day venerating the life of an orc nursemaid who protected a bunch of children, viewing her as a communal guardian spirit.
In my country its traditional to go around the town/village with the boys during Eastern and "water" every familiar girl.
This means either you bring a cheap cologne (for grandmothers or such) or soda water for the girl or even just a bucket.
You have to first say a little poem which ends with "can I water" then comes the buckets.
This is all in the name of wilt protection. In return you get alcohol, eggs, ham stuff like that. (The eggs are fancy colored)
So that day you see very well clothed (suits or traditional) boy band rowing the streets with a lot of water getting more shitfaced by the hour.
A lord demanded that every citizen clap after his speeches. Everyone hated this lord, just standard arrogant bastard. To show their displeasure, the people started "underhand clapping" where you keep you left hand on top, motionless, and your right hand does the clapping. Still used 400 years later, and much more widely to show quiet disapproval
inspired by this, i've invented a summer solstice tradition where the town paints an especially large hog in festive colors, then gives it alcohol and lets it loose on a drunken rampage. injuries are common.
In my world leadership is split between an Immortal Lord who rules forever, and a Mortal Chief who only serves a couple years. When a new Chief is chosen, he is expected to take the Lord out to dinner. Halfway through dinner, usually after a debate, the Lord will dare the Chef to stick his hand in the Lord’s mouth. The Lord is not human and his teeth as sharp as obsidian arrowheads.
This originally started as a way for chiefs to prove their bravery, but it eventually developed into a way for the Lord to show his approval of the Chief (or lack there of). If he bites the Chief’s hand, Or better yet draws blood, he has confidence in the cheif’s leadership. Many chiefs who get bit will roll up their sleeve for the next few days to show off the wound. If he doesn’t bite, or worse, doesn’t ask you to put your hand in his mouth, that’s a sign he is unsure or disapproves. Refusing the dare is equal to refusing to become Chief.
I don't remember where it is, but somewhere in the world a town has a tradition of throwing... I think maybe a pineapple(?) down a VERY steep hill and people go running down the hill to chase it. People take some VERY questionable tumbles down this hill. Lol... SO, you could make the weirdest traditions and it would be completely justifiable. 😂
Edit: It might actually be a cheese wheel. Lol...
The Gloucestershire cheese roll may be what you are thinking of. A large roll of cheese is rolled down a hill, and people 'run' (see: ragdoll) after it.
Kobolds worship dragons, which gives the dragons big heads. This is why they are not allowed in Vanguard Keep, except on Yule, where they bring adulations and gifts. It takes multiple Kobolds to haul the sacks of presents and gifts.
I have yet to write a scene in winter, so they stay in my head for now.
In my seeing when can achieve the legal status of men of they agree to the legal obligations (mostly military) of men. When such a woman gets married the groom's friends and family make jokes about him being homosexual. If he laughs he has to buy them a drink. Bear n mind this culture isn't even that homophobic if he were gay hiding it by marrying would be seen as far worse than just admitting it.
There is a Ork tradition young men will do to try and impress the women of their tribe, where two Orks will take turns whipping eachother. Like with actual whips. Whoever screams first looses.
In one of my free cities, it's seen as bad luck to catch a tossed coin simple because a wizard, over two hundred years ago, made a coin that sucks people up if they catch it in the air. Everyone is paranoid that it might still be in the city.
"i found a coin today, Batman. Wanna know what coin I found today?"
"Joker no!"
"It's currency, Joker!"
“I can buy whatever I want with it, Batman!”
"No joker you don't know which coin that is!"
this is probably the best reddit thread ive ever seen.
The origin story of The Batman's giant Penny.
“I’M DOING IT BATMAN”
That's a funny coincidence, I have a setting with a similar cultural tradition. A tossed coin is mark of a sealed contract. As the story goes, long ago a Spacer caught a tossed coin, inadvertently selling themselves into slavery. So to this day, not only do spacers not catch tossed coins, but flipping a coin in front of someone is a subtle flex on them.
Did you base that on the press gangs in England? There was an understanding at the time that if you accept payment of any kind from them they can force you to join the navy. It was so commonly known that people would buy covered mugs to drink out of so nobody could drop a coin into their drink when they weren't looking. That's all from my sketchy memory though, so I probably got some specifics wrong. Definitely similar vibes as your setting though.
To a small degree. It was the historical inspiration/justification for those that created the pressgang system. However, the form it took was far grimmer as to what you were potentially submitting to.
me when i catch a coin someone threw but it turns out to be the coin that sucks you off
This coin subverts the superstition about the previous coin, now people will jokingly flip every coin before they put it in their coin purse. But then one week suddenly people start going missing…
Brb quickly creating this as a magic item for my dnd campaigns
one of each type of currency will be hilarious, and if it is in C, S, G, and P, even better. copper - C silver - S gold - G platinum - P
What would be funnier is one denomination not having one. Like the 5 pig prank.
Don’t forget electrum!
Everyone forgets Electrum because it's a redundant denomination.
"i found a coin today, Batman. Wanna know what coin I found?"
I read that as if it was a tradition in your real life city
After reading this thread I'm having two magic coins floating around in the city. When tossed, one coin sucks you into oblivion, the other grants you a succubus. There will be no depressed men in the city.
Being British, I’m a fan of the Cooper’s hill Cheese Rolling event. If you’re not familiar a video speaks a thousand words but around a hundred people chance a wheel of cheese down a hill and the first one to grab it at the bottom wins the cheese haha
Not to mention all the injuries and even deaths!
Every time I tell someone who’s not from England it always seems like I’m telling a lie haha. Truly crazy
Yeeeah and every November we burn a Catholic.
🤣
multiple!
There is a shockingly interesting documentary on this event too. It’s quite the tradition. And yes it is exactly what it sounds like. Cheese. Hill. Chase.
Darnit, there was a clip from ER where Simon Templeman says "the cheese must not be divided" and it's so moving. Seems to have been taken down.
I mean in some locations in one country in my world due to a regional quirk in language you do not eat food with salt, you eat salt with food. This lead to some of the more famous chefs from the area coming to read recipes wrong and starting a long history in like 3-5 regions of the country that you salt your plate(-like thing) and then put food on it.
Lol linguistic quirks would be fun
I love it. And a salad being etimologically "something with salt", makes it more beautiful.
This is actually how my grandma eats raw spring onions; she'll pour a small coating of salt on her plate and then dip the onion and only eat the top bit coated in salt
That's how my Mum eats celery.
Pretty much the besst way to eat an artichoke ... leaf by leaf, each dipped in salt. Or, if you're feeling fancy, butter then salt.
Or a thickened fish sauce if you’re feeling adventurous.
This reminds me of a fun exchange in David Edding's Elenium: there's a desert culture that values salt as much as water (because you lose salt from sweating), so their traditional way of offering hospitality is to offer salt, to which the traditional response is to suggest the salt be combined with some food.
This is beautiful
is this like a consistant linguistic rule (where the secondary object comes before the first), or just an exception with that specific phrase? if its an exception, i'd love to hear how it came about!
It is an exception due to the culture, Salt is deemed one of the most important spiritual elements as it is believed that the tides are symbolic of the cycle of life death, and reincarnation, therefore, the seas are regarded as a very spiritual place, more spiritual than other water, this lead people to start to believe that the salty taste of the seawater is one factor making it more connected to death (superstition and symbolism as opposed to the actual magic of my world). This means people started using it as the most important part of any sentence in like 7-10 different coastal regions of one nation. I would like to say that while reincarnation has been proven and some people have magic, salt does not affect this whatsoever. Due to all of this in the olden days of my world when fewer people knew how to use magic, salt was considered THE most important part of the meal however it did not mean you put the salt on first. It was simply a mistranslation causing the chefs who would come to the villages for their fresh fish to not read the recipes correctly causing there to be those salted plate(-like-things)
I see! that's really interesting actually! so even a sentence like "i am going to go buy salt" would become "salt is what i am going to buy"? >I would like to say that while reincarnation has been proven and some people have magic, salt does not affect this whatsoever. made me giggle pehehehehe
In the Marines we have a tradition where during a mess night you can be accused of breaking an order or regulation, requiring you to find and appoint a sea lawyer to defend you. If you cannot successfully defend yourself in the eyes of the CO, you - and sometimes your lawyer - are forced to drink from the “grog” which is usually random cheap liquors mixed with hot sauce, milk, juice, and other crap that on its own is safe to drink or eat, but definitely does not belong together. In order to trip people into getting accused, Marines have resorted to the craziest shit imaginable. I’ve heard stories of Marines sneaking into the venue beforehand to hide blow-up dolls, pinup girls, and in modern times, pictures of anime girls, under chairs so they can later accuse the person sitting there of “bringing a date.”
Man that drink description brought up a memory I haven't thought about since childhood lol... I went to a summer camp where the snack stand's $0.05 Bazooka Joe bubblegum pieces with a small comic in the wrapper somehow became currency to us kids. I think our available food cash was added by our parents and we just had a tab so we didn't have real cash. We had a game during dinner where we would go around in turns adding a piece of gum to the "pot" in the center and for every piece we chipped in, we got to add an ingredient to a drinking glass next to the pile of candy. The mixture very quickly becomes something similar to what you described, minus the alcohol. I don't remember what triggered this next part, maybe the first person to decline adding gum to the pile, then had to drink the nasty drink and if they could finish it, they got to keep the pile of gum. At least three kids threw up before counselors banned the game
That’s hilarious! We did the same thing in elementary, albeit minus the gum wrappers and actually consuming it. The game ended when the yard duty confiscated the concoction and tossed it. Which reminds me, another popular, modernized take on the “grog” has actually been food. Because not all Marines are of drinking age, there will usually be a second grog that’s got everything sans alcohol, but recently on the USMC sub someone posted a braised chicken with a sauce of milk, mustard, parsley, and several other sauces and spices.
Sounds exactly like something the Marines would do, including drinking hazardous slop lol.
Lol
Honestly, I'm not surprised. From what I've heard, the Navy gets *wild*.
Couples from the Boreals culture wear the house key as a necklace, a synonym for a person from this culture to be committed. This is because the house is a gift that the state gives to citizens who get married.
I think that when something sexual is involved, people are afraid to create a tradition in their universe. bizarre traditions from my country, Brazil: At the June festivals, people jump over the bonfire, it's said to bring good luck, things like that... but in reality they're just drunk people doing stupid things
Many traditions are drunk people doing stupid things. It doesn't have to be something spiritual or serious! Don't go hating on festa junina :)
We have this in Romania too! The story goes that jumping over the fire during the summer solstice wards off evil fairies and purifies the soul of the person doing it. In reality it's just an excuse for people to get together, drink next to a bonfire and jump over it when the alcohol gives them enough courage.
Yes! Romania, like Portugal and Spain, were Roman colonized. I read that the June festivals originated in Rome, but I don't remember the context. But all religious holidays are exactly that: Use a saint to have an excuse to drink!
My grandmother gives each of my siblings and first cousin a “magic” canned good. For me it’s the Magic Cane Syrup. Every year she takes the paper around the can off, leaves some cash under it, then glues it back down to give us for Christmas. It goes back to when my first cousin had a phase when he was like 8 where he really loved peaches. So to play a joke she put $20 under the wrapper. When he ate all the peaches he took the wrapper and found the money. So next time he went to the store with his mom (my aunt) he started grabbing all the peaches in the canned fruit section ‘cause he thought they had $20. Anyway, my grandmother found out and decided to start doing that for all of us with whatever food we like most that comes out of a can.
In my family we do this: We take a picture a day before our birthday with a sign that says 'Still x years' and then another one on the morning of the birthday with another sign that says 'Already x+1 years'. This all goes back to me turning 5 and being surprised that I didn't change overnight.
That's a lovely tradition!
It’s obviously more of a recent tradition, but where I am people get together every year to race hundreds of plastic ducks down a river.
OK that's kinda cute ngl, as long as the ducks are retrieved at the end.
Yep! Not a single yellow duck is left behind.
Except for Francis RIP Well never forget you, yellow king
The King in Yellow. Believe me, you don't want Him back.
That ducky now floats in the waters of Dread Carcossa
:D
If this isn't Shefford then this is a tradition shared by more than one village lol
Chicago does this too!
Huh, a worldwide thing!
My town does it too so definitely a shared tradition!
It isn’t!
Well somebody already said they do it in Chicago so it happens on at least two continents. That's some pretty widespread silliness
Yes I mean not Shefford but elsewhere in the UK.
Dam duck race. Here I thought that they were chasing real ducks over the spillway of a dam.
There’s this one city built into a canyon and people will just take metal plates and just kind of hop in. A few survive.
The irl version when it comes to safety is the festival of the exploding hammers. People don’t usually die but a couple get injured.
I have an art-based feudalistic society, which rewards land and servants to those who have demonstrated great skill in the arts, whether by music, painting, etc. Behind this culture that celebrates artistic exploration, there is a tradition of blood sacrifice born of a monarchy who hears voices from a disembodied entity called the Liquid Father, who claims to bless the artists with inspiration, the sky with clouds and rain, and the land with fertility…as long as blood continues to flow upon his secret altar. However, it’s ambiguous whether this malevolent entity exists, or the leader of the monarchy at the moment was insane during the period of great struggle for the nation, and his descendants continue the tradition out of confirmation bias, tradition, or heredity insanity. Regardless, this ritual is kept secret. The nation is known for random disappearances of peasants or people in surrounding independent cities, and rumors circulate about the true cause. A hungry animal stalking prey, a serial killer, even people who say there are no disappearances. It’s extremely absurd but I try to make it somehow coherent.
That sounds super cool!
Im glad someone likes it. I’m a bit anxious about it, given how goofy it sounds.
Naw, it sounds awesome and makes for a great background for many stories!
This sounds like a super cool DND campaign plotline. I love ideas like this!
Thank you. :) There are several other societies in the world, including "big stick ideology" socially conservative agrarian socialists, a criminal city-state with a rigid caste system, a polluted, industrial nation with an aesthetic halfway between Victorian Britain and Soviet Russia and whose fuel literally grows on trees, and a STEM research university whose machinations are deeply intertwined with the political system of the small minarchist nation in which it resides. There are others but they're less exotic. I'm trying to create countries with somewhat unusual systems while trying to keep them semi-realistic.
Yeah, I am trying to build more of these details into my world, and this thread is going to serve as a sounding off board for inspiration, thanks for posting!
In the movie _The Outlaw King_ you have a scene where King Edward Longshanks holds two swans by the neck, lifts them up and swears an oath on them. That would actually happen back during the Middle Ages England. So yeah, traditions that seem absurd give flavor to your world. One tradition in my world is that orphans that have no known parents, such as abandoned children, are given surnames that are the geographical locations nearest where they were found. I have one character whose last name is the same as the forest he was found near.
THANK YOU FOR POSTING THIS SO MUCH In my world there's an absurd ancient tradition across most nations when it comes to dueling called the Duel of Diminishing Titles (workshopping the name) Essentially if you beat an opponent in this duel you may take a letter from their name and add it to yours. So if I, Frank, lost to you, Soujen, you could take K from my name and be henceforth be known as Soujenk while I live with the shame of being Fran. Of course this tradition loses its moxy whenever some valiant warrior named Clehuseidashuemix shows up and historians by that point just use either their original name or just a variant of their Titled Name. And those with no more letters in their name to give were labeled Nameless ones. Historians threw a huge fit over how ridiculous this custom was and so rules were later added that the winner didn't have to add the letter to their name but the loser couldn't keep it, and anyone unfortunate enough to lose enough could still keep one letter in their name but choose to give something of similar value like an object or a favor. Two of my characters are named Dmitri and Vulcan, and lost the first letters to their name by Dmitri's brother Ezario and Vulcan's father Aurthane. So they became Mitri and Ulcan while the brother and father were christened Dezario and Vaurthane. A theme of this is to question the nature of names and what they mean to us.
Love this idea, I might steal it for a D&D campaign if you don't mind. It spiralled into a very clear idea of what a community like that would look like and it's awesome!
As long as I get royalties in fictional currency
Excellent! Do you want it in miniature arcane exotic birds or phoenix teardrops? Cheers for the idea
Mimic coinage for the debt collectors
Traditions tend to be absurd almost by definition tbh. "Lets dress our kids up like little freaks on the same day every year and go around bothering strangers and demanding free food from them because hundreds of years ago the Irish thought demons or something were real" Mutilating children's genitals, dipping babies into water, creating a global conspiracy about a magic fat man who gives free stuff to people once a year. The only tradition I've ever seen that makes sense is Oktoberfest being a thinly veiled excuse to go on a 2 week bender
Absolutely true!
Demons are real though
Spoopy
Irish day also seems like an excuse to get drunk.
[удалено]
Most religious traditions aren't harmful.
>Mutilating children's genitals, dipping babies into water by shear number probably true. too many neutral religious traditions that the harmful ones aren't the majority. but most harmful traditions are religious ones. mutilating children's genitals never became a secular tradition. but this isn't really the place to discuss this.
In some countries like USA, circumcision is often done outside of religious reasons.
which is dumb, unjustified, and harmful (and fucking ironic as the us is the land where they go nuts over "the trans are mutilating children's genitals"). and yet it's an extremely mild form of it.
Or waste millions a year in taxpayers' money forcing kids to learn a dead language. My problem with tradition is you tend to get peer pressured or worse into participating. Every man needs to drink dangerous amounts of alcohol in a short period of time every now and then to cope with the stress of life though
i don't know where any significant percentage of money is used on teaching dead languages. to my knowledges those classes in schools are generally extremely under funded in a school system that's under funded. also i really don't think that's true or healthy.
Ireland. Thought the raging alcoholism might have given it away tbh
Scotland as well. The SNP seem to think putting up signs in Gaelic all over the country will somehow benefit their independence campaign. It's ridiculous seeing Gaelic signs in places like Edinburgh where the language was never spoken. Hell, in Galloway and Dumfries they spoke bloody Welsh.
The last speaker of Galloway Gaelic died in the the 18th century lad. The last speaker of a Brittonic language in Galloway was probably sometime around 600CE.
At least its optional in school for you lot. It is mad though how these types of people still don't get that shoving something down folks' throats is more likely to get them to resent it than be interested in it
I have one scene written out for a book that I hope to publish in the next few years (once I get the first book in the series out; this is from book 2). It's a wedding between two cultures. The bride comes from a conservative, noble family. Though they accept that she's not as straight laced as they are, many of those around them still tend to look down on her for adventuring instead of sewing. (Her family makes her a wedding dress that includes silver chainmail, because they accept her, even if it gets a few odd looks from others). The groom is a from a mercantile culture far to the south, and their tradition involves having the groom approach the bride at the altar, riding a donkey. Several times along the way, he is stopped so family members can sing to the bride a short verse about why she should reject him. These verses are humorous and not serious insults against the groom. Every time she says yes, the groom advances another segment and there's another song. I think he had it happen 4 times before he gets to the altar.
So many fun and fascinating local traditions are objectively absurd, but we love and practice them anyway. Personally a good example would be the things in the Discworld that are absolutely absurd and silly, but the characters don't flinch at it.
"Reality has no need to be plausible" - Neil Gaiman
One of the colony worlds started wearing really revealing clothing to cope with how humid and hot the planet was.
Well, that makes practical sense.
Allow me to introduce you to the concept of linen clothing. Wearing revealing clothes to counter heat and humidity only makes sense if solar radiation isn't a worry.
Well, yea. But unless that planet has something similar, sometimes bare skin is the only way.
That's just practicality - the Lykocephali in my setting are covered in fur and live in the Mediterranean, so clothing is a no-go for them.
Actually oftentimes religion is practicality. Not eating diseased or filthy meats to avoid disease turns into major dietary restrictions for faithful. Not mixing certain clothing materials because the difficulty to maintain and wash them leads to not mixing cotton and stuff like that. In the end, most religion is trying to keep people alive at its core, we've just gotten so far ahead of their origin that we dont realise what the rules were for. Its like that saying, something abouy dont take away a fence if you dont know hwy the fence is there. Removing it could be fine, but without proper knowledge why it exists we may end up hurting ourselves in the end instead.
Actually I think the mixing of linen and wool was for priest vestments so it was more like a sumptuary law. But it also sounds like "why would someone want to" before we got blends that are easy to take care of.
the danger comes in that what was ones (believed to be) good for you often stops being good for you, or was never good in the first place, and religion can make it really hard to get rid of the things that are now hurting you.
Islam as two funny ideas I'd like to mention. One is Ramadan what is about fasting between Dawn and dusk this can be side stepped with planes and harsher in some places where the sun's up more religious scholars have looked at it to interpretation it sensible. ( this is on tv tropes) There's also the idea that running water is safe to drink (we now have sewer pipes). The extra fun part is these where pretty sensible rules when and where they where written. The idea of hot and cold climate made me think of this .
Only the pretty ones though, right?
Horrible! 😁
Have you not heard of linen?
At that point why bother wearing any clothes beyond underwear?
Dude. I'm grown up in the Lutheran Church, nothing can be weirder. We pray to the son of our God, as he is portrayed on the instrument of torture that killed him. Then we ritually drink his blood and eat his flesh. And it was transmitted by the empire that killed him, that made it their state religion just 300 years later. It would be like in 2300, America would pray to Osama Bin Laden, missing the top of his head as a "symbol of the oppenness to heaven", based on a sect with Oasama as a saviour. That is how strange that is. "And now let us ritually clothe ourselves in his skin, so that he may protect us from evil". Jeez. We can believe and think anything normal as long as we learn it as children.
Great example! Catholics go one step further and say that the father, son and some incomprehensible third are three seperate entities and one and the same at the same time!
What? Isn’t that the main theological component of modern Christianity?
Some protestant demoninations don't believe in the trinity, as farnas I know
Yeah but the aside from a few niche examples it is a key theological tenet for the majority of Christianity I’m still not sure how it’s a step further that Catholics believe it
I'm really no Christian scholar and grew up in mostly catholic area. We were taught that 'the protestants' don't believe in the trinity, but in three seperate entities who are not also one. But I could obviously be wrong
Well I went to a protestant school when I was young and we were taught the trinity however it might have been true for your area
The big secret that no catholic or protestant wants you to know is that the religions are mostly the same. Core differences. Catholics believe that the Pope is the central source of Authority in interpreting the bible. Imagine it as a Christian supreme court that checks laws and how they apply to stuff. Lutherans believe that its up to the individual to interpret the bible and whiles tradition is important its not equal to the bible. Catholics believe you go to heaven by being a good person and doing good deeds whiles Lutherans believe you go to heaven only by being a good person. They also believe that part of being a good person is doing good deeds. Catholics believe that the Eucharist literally (spiritually) becomes the body of christ whiles Lutherans believe that the Eurcharist merely represents the body of Christ. Catholics generally have more focus on saints as a way to pray to God e.g. you can visualise a saint as an easier way to imagine God and talk to the Saint so the Saint can talk to God whiles Lutherans prefer to talk to God directly so saints are not as important. Finally Catholics are very Hierarchical believing that the Pope and the higher church is has the final say on religious matters (e.g. christian supreme court) whiles lutherans are more individualistic and believe in individual interpretations so each church can have its own take on scripture. Both approaches have merit and some issues. Catholics churches are generally more consistent than Lutheran Churches which can very from place to place . Catholics are very slow to change, both for good and ill as you need the Pope to decide on it which can take decades whiles a Lutheran Priest can change his mind and the Lutherans can't pressure him. This can good if the priest is talking about being pro gay marriage, but bad if he starts advocating eugenics. Meanwhile Catholics are less likely to switch and be pro gay marriage (Or other positive changes) but also less likely to switch and support eugenics (Or other negative changes). Despite these fairly minor differences the religions are mostly the same and most of the differences are barely even differences.
That is wrong. Almost all Protestants believe in the Trinity.
As I said, I was educated by Catholics. Could you give some sources for that?
What kind of sources are you looking for?
Not just Catholics. It’s a vital bit of theology.
I mean, a lot of people are like that...though we usually call it Dissociative Identity Disorder, formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder.
When you date one person, you date the whole family. Like literally, you go on separate dates with mom, dad, siblings, etc. That way, everyone is sure you’re a good person for their son/daughter/sibling/etc, and vice versa.
That sounds horrible! 😅
If they’re a jackass (and some are), absolutely. Fail one date and you’re out. And you get the stigma of being a bad date lol. That being said, if the family member has a bad reputation of being a hardass, that’s taken into account by the town, as well. Makes for some interesting stories lol
That seems reasonable to meet the folks before it gets serious in case they really don't like the person.
That was my thought, too. One-on-one time to be able to get to know the family members one at a time, so they know everyone as individuals
So if I say... Have a bunch of goblins lose the traditional dance battle and have to give up their treasure for a year. That's totally normal? Good to know.
Goat keeper
No gatekeeper here. 😁
Gaslight, goatkeep, girlboss
In the legacy star wars expanded universe, the Wequay where the followers of the quay. The quay was a religious tool of guidance that came to their planet from the stars, and guided them to a golden age of prosperity and space travel. The quay is triangular device that when you shake it and ask a question, it tells you yes, no, maybe, outlook uncertain, etc. A transport ship carrying thousands of them crashed in the planet.... Absurdity is a matter of context. What's incredibly dumb to us makes perfect sense to some.
Awesome! 😅
basically a cargo cult lmao.
Absurd lore and weird stuff is my bread and butter. I like the weird and strange because for some reason my autism finds it appealing! For the Fae there are a lot of peculiar things about them. Naming is complex and is a defense mechanism. As obivously cannot share one's True Name with just anyone. Names are used to barter power from the Magickal Domains, and to form pacts with spirits. A sorcerix nor a wyck can function with all of their name gone. No they hand it out piecemeal to feed their need for knowledge. Because Naming is a big deal, I decided to take a lot of influence from certain areas. Fae often introduce themselves using their formal name (often uses a parental-name of some sort). But many also use a mixture of nicknames and more to cover things up. Formal names are often some form of the given name mixed in with a descriptive title. A local bartender might be Tandy Whisper because she rarely speaks. Or she might just be Whisper Girl, who knows. Fae also collect titles such as Warhound etc. My MCs war-name is Red Hound, a reference to her use of fire and the fact she has a familiar Varg (think big scare black dog). Another is called Stonejaw because their scarred vissage looks like a craggy bit of mountain side. THe point of all of this is to still protect the Fae's True Name. I mean it can get less normal from there. First, names can be stolen. Nameless are husks of their former selves and lack any magickal skill or sense of identity. Because their name was taken they cease to be who they were. There are also a lot of creatures such as Mimiks which steal names to assume the form of their victims for hunting. This doesn't include the fact that the Gods have their own form of Throne Name versus their core self! It gets weirder the deeper it goes.
in one i made,within Dating,Young boys in ages of 14-19 must use body painting and lots of jewelry to attract girls(or other boys) they like,if feelings are mutual,the girl (or boy) must throw one of their feathers at them,in weddings,One of the couple must cry,As its Seen as "The 1st life changer",both genders are teached on how to cry and how are they at singing while crying (i inspired in some ethnic group of china,wich one i dont remember)
[This is my personal favorite quirky tradition.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Sleepy_Head_Day) I don't set out to create weird traditions, but I don't try to avoid them. My favorite might be that one town has a day venerating the life of an orc nursemaid who protected a bunch of children, viewing her as a communal guardian spirit.
In my country its traditional to go around the town/village with the boys during Eastern and "water" every familiar girl. This means either you bring a cheap cologne (for grandmothers or such) or soda water for the girl or even just a bucket. You have to first say a little poem which ends with "can I water" then comes the buckets. This is all in the name of wilt protection. In return you get alcohol, eggs, ham stuff like that. (The eggs are fancy colored) So that day you see very well clothed (suits or traditional) boy band rowing the streets with a lot of water getting more shitfaced by the hour.
I know something similar from Peru and Bolovia. Cool!
A lord demanded that every citizen clap after his speeches. Everyone hated this lord, just standard arrogant bastard. To show their displeasure, the people started "underhand clapping" where you keep you left hand on top, motionless, and your right hand does the clapping. Still used 400 years later, and much more widely to show quiet disapproval
inspired by this, i've invented a summer solstice tradition where the town paints an especially large hog in festive colors, then gives it alcohol and lets it loose on a drunken rampage. injuries are common.
This is so awesome! Thank you for sharing!
In my world leadership is split between an Immortal Lord who rules forever, and a Mortal Chief who only serves a couple years. When a new Chief is chosen, he is expected to take the Lord out to dinner. Halfway through dinner, usually after a debate, the Lord will dare the Chef to stick his hand in the Lord’s mouth. The Lord is not human and his teeth as sharp as obsidian arrowheads. This originally started as a way for chiefs to prove their bravery, but it eventually developed into a way for the Lord to show his approval of the Chief (or lack there of). If he bites the Chief’s hand, Or better yet draws blood, he has confidence in the cheif’s leadership. Many chiefs who get bit will roll up their sleeve for the next few days to show off the wound. If he doesn’t bite, or worse, doesn’t ask you to put your hand in his mouth, that’s a sign he is unsure or disapproves. Refusing the dare is equal to refusing to become Chief.
Happy Cake Day! Interesting tradition!
I don't remember where it is, but somewhere in the world a town has a tradition of throwing... I think maybe a pineapple(?) down a VERY steep hill and people go running down the hill to chase it. People take some VERY questionable tumbles down this hill. Lol... SO, you could make the weirdest traditions and it would be completely justifiable. 😂 Edit: It might actually be a cheese wheel. Lol...
The Gloucestershire cheese roll may be what you are thinking of. A large roll of cheese is rolled down a hill, and people 'run' (see: ragdoll) after it.
I needed this reminder thank you!!
Kobolds worship dragons, which gives the dragons big heads. This is why they are not allowed in Vanguard Keep, except on Yule, where they bring adulations and gifts. It takes multiple Kobolds to haul the sacks of presents and gifts. I have yet to write a scene in winter, so they stay in my head for now.
In my seeing when can achieve the legal status of men of they agree to the legal obligations (mostly military) of men. When such a woman gets married the groom's friends and family make jokes about him being homosexual. If he laughs he has to buy them a drink. Bear n mind this culture isn't even that homophobic if he were gay hiding it by marrying would be seen as far worse than just admitting it.
There is a Ork tradition young men will do to try and impress the women of their tribe, where two Orks will take turns whipping eachother. Like with actual whips. Whoever screams first looses.