Introduction
I admit I have a certain love of obscure cultural details.
It's the anthropologist in me. When I got the chance to play a
non-human race in NERO, I lept at the chance to immerse myself
and "pretend" I came from a different culture than those
of the human Kingdoms.
I also have a love of ritual and ceremony, and I take keen interest
how ritual transports the participant to another time and place
where the greater forces of the universe are met.
This lead me to the choice of playing a Quentari Elf in NERO.
The National Quentari
Elf culture packet, published several places on the web, gave me
a start in building my character background. Through character
background, roleplaying, and writing I have built up from the
foundation of the race packet. Below I share some of my thoughts.
Basic Foundations
From the race packet, I distilled the essential structure
of the Quentari Elven culture:
1) The Quentari place high value on honor, both personal honor
and the honor of one's family.
2) The Quentari have a deep respect for nature and the tides
of life-cycles within nature. They prefer to "tread lightly"
on Tyrra and live in dynamic harmony with her creatures.
3) The Quentari have a ceremony for everything. As Lili once
explained to her friend Seronia, ceremony allows one to take pause
and contemplate the forces at work in one's life. Ceremonial actions
are valuable and necessary in order to ground one in wisdom.
4) The Quentari language is essentially borrowed from Tolkien's
Quenya and the Tengwar alphabet.
An Expanded Quentari Culture Guide Coming Soon!
A year or so after playing NERO, the President of NERO International named me as the "Quentari Elf Culture Manager." At the end of 2005 / beginning of 2006, I hope to release an expanded version of the Quentari Elf culture packet that is currently used. Keep your eyes open for it on the www.nerolarp.com website.
