Nation of Ora

The people of Ora, the Orani, see life as an exercise in service and gratitude. When the Gograzhi set their malevolent gazes upon Ora, the Eternal Nation, they sought to undermine that which they perceived as closest to the divine spark. They did not understand that every part of the whole is equally valuable, so rather than shattering the resolve of the world, they only shattered the Font of Ora, and befouled the land itself. This shattering did not diminish the Font for the people charged with its care, who appointed five priests, one for each of the shards. The people split into five tribes, and they left their uninhabitable land to dwell amongst the other nations.

The Orani dress according to the tribes with whom they dwell, but with their own twist, recalling specific seasons, but typically with natural motifs and symbols:

• Razi-Ora -- Summer/autumn (reds, oranges, etc) foliage style; also desert/savannah foliage.

• Kyr-Ora -- Spring/Winter -- light green, sky blue pine, mountain styles

• Ishu-Ora -- Spring/Summer -- island and sea plants, etc.

• Von-Ora -- winter/autumn foliage styles

• The Mendicants (Mendicant-Ora) - celestial (sun/moon/star) motifs.

The Orani have no land, and internally they forebear to own property in the form of land. Their dwelling places in each nation are grants from those amongst they dwell. Outside of the Keeping, they do no work for themselves, but will contribute to the collective labor of their host community. In return, they are fed and given sufferance among their hosts. The Mendicants-- those of the Ora who travel between the nations regularly-- serve also, delivering news and trade goods, ensuring the stability and quality of coinage, and carrying the mail.

The most important things to the Orani are neighborliness, justice, and the Keeping. They feel a special obligation to be good guests and neighbors in the places they dwell and the lands through which they travel, modeling this virtue through their own example. They cultivate evenhandedness and objectivity in disputes as virtues, which had led to the development of an order of judges in their ranks, professional arbiters of disputes among their own and other tribes.

The Ora have a loose hierarchy of priests (Anani) and sages (Vati). Each tribe has an Anan-dai, the most senior or reverend priest among them; these answer to the Anan-ji; or high priest, who has the right of convening council of all the Anani and attendant Vati as needed. The Anan-ji is usually one of the Mendicant-Ora, but not always.

Finally, the Keeping is the sacred promise they keep to protect the shards of the shattered font, anticipate the time of repair and return to their lost land, and to honor the memory of the Lost Goddess, whom they keep alive in their songs and stories. As such, they preserve the sayings of their sages and priests in collections of books (called "Words of the Sages" generally), constantly kept and updated within a given tribe, and then collated and copied by the Kyr-Ora and disseminated by the Mendicant Ora.

Orani Names

Given Names

Orani names are inspired by Hebrew or Biblical names and by Tolkien elves, and are largely gender neutral. Children are often named after historical figures or given a variation on a known name. They are generally structured thus: [Name] b'[ParentOne]'[ParentTwo]. For example: Surach b'Menah'Takohav or Meliar b'Yeva'Avanah.

Family Names

As noted above, Orani don't have standard surnames, but create their surnames from a combination of their parent's first names. The exception is if they are a Vatu or Anan-dai/Anan-ji, in which case they drop the surname in favor of the title, or if they have no known parentage.

Name Examples

• Arboel (sage's name)

• Davuel (sage's name)

• Jeshurun (an ancient hero)

• Surach

• Ysme