I am a dinner guest for a member of one of your races. What do they prepare for me, and how should I behave?

Draconnae - Despite their fearsome appearance, the dragon folk are civilized1, and the decadent meals they prepare for distinguished guests are a reflection of this. Expect to see vast platters of roasted meats and vegetables, enormous poached roc eggs, seared filet of mountain salmon and a number of cooked desserts, typically brûléed (the dragons love sweets). The food would no doubt be delicious (if perhaps a little well-done for some palates), but you'd probably have greater difficulty with the Draconnae's extremely rigid system of manners and etiquette. With some exceptions, the host is always seated on a chair higher than that of his guests, as the Draconnae equate altitude with prestige. It is not unusual for servants to regularly take portions of food from the guests' plates during a meal and give it to the host, as a means of demonstrating that the food is safe to eat - to so much as acknowledge this practice is regarded as the gravest of insults. Guests may not wear anything more ostentatious than their host in any way, and if the host has worn something about his or her horns, it is common courtesy to acknowledge and compliment it. Many a political alliance has been made and broken based on proper adherence to Draconic etiquette, and it is a source of widespread relief that such formal meetings are no longer necessary since their retreat from world affairs.

Jotun - Among the northern ogre clans, the smoking and curing of meats is seen as nothing less than an artform, and Jotun2 butchers hold a position of extremely high regard within the clan. A staple of the Jotun diet is the muc - a species of enormous boar, as large as an elephant, which is used for food, as a mount in battle and as a beast of burden. After every battle, the muc who is deemed to have served his master most faithfully is slaughtered and eaten by the clan at a great feast, so the ogres may imbibe some of its strength. To be a guest at a Jotun feast is a great (albeit dangerous) honour - once the Ragnar and the Gothar3 have taken their choice cuts of meat from the muc, the feast becomes a free-for-all as the ogres push, shove, bite and headbutt their way to their favourite cuts. While they are a notoriously durable people, such a sortie would usually prove fatal for a human, and it is not uncommon for political guests and foreign dignitaries to be spared the melee and given portions of food typically prepared for children - much to the raucous amusement of their Jotun hosts.


1: The Draconnae (singular: Draconne) are intended to be a subversion of the D&D Dragonborn - rather than being noble warriors and paladins, they are instead a far more cerebral race of politicians and sorcerors, with all the haughtiness and arrogance of the stereotypical high elves. Their extreme adherence to social etiquette is partially inspired by that of Victorian England - there were even handbooks published in the late 19th century about how to properly behave at various social events.

2: The Jotun are indeed named after the giants of Norse mythology, although they differ from them in a number of ways. My world draws inspiration from a lot of mythological and historical elements with a primary focus on Norse, Celtic and Germanic myth - this ties in with the more metaphysical nature of the world, which I'm not quite ready to share just yet.

3: The Ragnar and the Gothar are the political leaders of each Jotun clan. The Ragnar is typically a veteran warrior and is very much a figurehead - someone for the warlike ogres to rally behind. The Gothar is a relatively new position, created as the need for greater political interaction with other kingdoms emerged. The Gothar is more behind-the-scenes than the Ragnar - in matters of negotiation and other political discourse, it is the Gothar who leads the way.


May have gotten a little carried away...

/r/worldbuilding Thread