Tribe/Teddybear's Listeners

• Dead-strains are the heroes, gene-strains are the stage hands
• There is wisdom and immortality in stories, not necessarily accurate facts
• Individual and small group travel is common

Traders of stories, with an entrenched and oppressive strain-based caste system, led by a fairy tale obsessed AI, Teddybear

Things to Know

Part of a series about the Tribes of Outlook.

• Tribes
• Creating Your Tribe
• Current Tribes
  • The Mutati
  • The Diamond Tribe
  • The Cartographer Tribe
  • The Seil
  • The Teddybear's Listeners

• Know Your Place Strain is all important in Listener society, and can dictate even the minutiae of social interactions. You are always aware of the strains of those around you.
• Whoever said it had to be accurate? Listeners often employ creative license in the retelling of stories. However blatant lies are out of scope.

Humans

• Do The Thing Even if it goes badly, it will make for a much better story afterwards than if you do not act and forever regret it.
• Live to tell the tale Don’t throw your life away for nothing and cut your Story short. Sacrificing yourself to save others? Awesome. Getting drunk and dying in a barehanded wrestling match with an Oddy? Not so much.

Fay

• All in all, you’re just another brick in the wall As an individual, you don’t matter. But make no mistake, the fay are the backbone of Listener society, and you don’t need to remove that many bricks from a wall for it to all come tumbling down.

Things to avoid

• Overly blatant and immersion breaking OOC fairy tale references There is a fairly clear inspiration to this tribe. However, references to specific fairy tales, pop-culture references and other behaviour that might be immersion breaking for other players is discouraged. Ideally specific fairy tale inspiration should be oblique and subtle and make other players feel clever if they figure it out.

• Slavery The Listeners have a deeply hierarchical society, but the gene-strains are in no way enslaved, and slavery is not a theme of the Citadel LRP. The gene-strains of the tribe are technically free to leave and join another tribe - what usually keeps them around is religious and cultural identity - most deeply believe in their religion and their role in society, and do not want to leave their friends and family, or face the disapproval that can come with leaving. However, some do leave, and still more are not completely happy with the status quo.

• OOC based discrimination The tribe draws inspiration from fairy tales, and in the real world many such stories are deeply laden with gender roles, heteronormativity, and other regressive attitudes, so care must be taken when using these for inspiration. A story about a dragon capturing specifically princesses who are then rescued by dashing princes would be out of place, for instance, since Citadel is a gender-neutral setting. More generally, discrimination on the basis of characteristics such as gender, LGBT+ status, race, or disability, whether IC or OOC is against the rules both of the Citadel LRP and of CLS. Themes of discrimination should be kept to strain alone.

Formation

Part of a series about the Tribes of Outlook.

• Tribes
• Creating Your Tribe
• Current Tribes
  • The Mutati
  • The Diamond Tribe
  • The Cartographer Tribe
  • The Seil
  • The Teddybear's Listeners

Teddybear used to be the librarian of the legend and folklore section of a large library in the pre-Decline world, and was also charged with reading fairytales to children. In the gene-strains, Teddybear saw the fairytale creatures of old, and concluded that the they were created to act as supporting characters for the dead-strains, who are the protagonists of this world. Out of this grew the tribe’s pervasive social stratification, which sees the gene-strains (known as ‘fay’ within the tribe) subordinate to the dead-strains (‘humans’). In general, the Listeners value storytelling, history, and dramatic deeds about which tales are told.

Leadership

The spiritual leader of the tribe, who is seen as somewhat akin to a prophet, is an Advanced AI called Teddybear.

Non-religious governance is provided by the Reading Circle, a group of the eldest and most respected Humans of the tribe. Important decisions, when too mundane to concern Teddybear, are decided by the Circle. Every year, the Circle elects a Reader, who acts as something of a leader to the tribe.

Reputation

Teddybear's Listeners are a peaceful tribe and reputation is important in Listener society - the tribe makes a point of treating other tribes with hospitality. Members of the tribe visit other tribes often to trade stories. This is not to say other tribes necessarily approve of the Listener’s values. Indeed, listener gene-strains treat dead-strains in other tribes with just as much deference as those in their own tribe, which can cause awkwardness and even resentment.

Religion

Teddybear is the source of religious guidance for the tribe, having imparted upon them a story of the creation of the strains, the Dance of Earth and Moon, which explains their predestined roles. Every dead-strain (Human) has a Story, and their purpose in life is to fulfil that Story. The fay do not have individual Stories, their purpose in life is to serve the Humans in pursuing their Stories.

It is from the Dance of Earth and Moon that the strains take their more religious names: dead-strains are the Children of Earth or The Storied, and gene-strains are the Amalgams of Moon, or (Scions of) the Storyless.

The strains are the moral successors to the humans and fay spoken of in folklore, and so the dead-strains, being more similar to pre-Decline humans, must be the protagonists. The gene-strains, with their fantastical and animalistic qualities, are clearly the successors to the fairies and monsters of such tales. Such creatures only ever played two roles, and only one of them good. Thus the gene-strains strive to help and serve the dead-strains - indeed, any gene-strain who pursues personal goals or tries to make a name for themselves is surely on a path to evil, and should be subject to due vigilance.

Admittedly, the Listeners do not necessarily believe in the literal truth of all stories, even the most culturally important ones. What is most important is the truth that lies below the surface, which is no less valid for lack of accuracy in the details.

The afterlife for the Listeners - the Humans at least - is to live on in the stories told about you. There is no greater honour for a Human than to be immortalised through their deeds. The fay strive to be remembered in these stories as helpful companions, adjutants and supporting characters and thus also receive a measure of immortality. Occasionally, a radical fay might choose to be remembered as someone's nemesis or colourful villain. Such a path is inevitably fraught with suspicion and potential ostracism but may be no less rewarding.

Ideas of morality are also influenced heavily by fairy tales. This means that Listeners might be poorly equipped to handle ethical nuance and lean toward a black and white view of the world (if not actually subscribing to blue and orange morality). At best, this looks like striving to act always in the right way; at worst, it can look like covering up the wrongdoings of those with high status, and viewing mistakes as evidence of evil intent.

Due to the divine nature of stories in Listener society, the Listeners also have a great deal of respect for history, and this extends to respect for their own elders as well as the people of the past civilisation. Material wealth is shallow - true wealth is in the memories we have and the tales we pass on.

Defining Traits

The Listener society is stratified into two castes based on strains. Young Listeners are educated about their roles in society beginning from an early age. The two strains are usually educated separately, and receive a much of their knowledge from the fables of Teddybear themself, who pays special attention to the children.

By adulthood, the ideas of human-supremacy are deeply ingrained in the psyche of all in the tribe, and so whilst not all fay are necessarily enthusiastic about their subordinate role in society, few leave, and even fewer rebel, for to go against their role would be a matter not just of personal shame but of heresy, and would likely result in complete ostracism from the tribe.

It is common for the humans to go out adventuring in seek of fame and glory, although this is far from the only way in which a human Listener may attempt to fulfill their story. Indeed, Listener children are told stories of acts of great compassion, courage, self-sacrifice, and guile, be the protagonists physicians, technopaths, diplomats, craftspeople, or warriors.

There is a tendency for the fay to do the more mundane and domestic work, including maintenance of the tribe’s extensive archives, with many working hard to make sure that the tribe continues to function when Teddybear decides to send half the tribe off on some big adventure.

Some of the highest ranking dead-strains have personal gene-strain scribes, who follow them, helping them in their goals, and telling others of their heroics, even sometimes, although not necessarily, writing down the best ones. Being a scribe is considered a position of pride for a fay. Others will act as wandering scribes, going from human to human, helping each one, including dead-strains in other tribes - they still have stories, even if they don’t know it. Others still are bards and storytellers, and go from tribe to tribe telling stories and picking up new ones.

When fay do go out adventuring, it is invariably in aid of a larger story involving humans. Their role in such is purely to allow the narrative to move along smoothly, and in recounting their stories, they are expected to minimise their own deeds and allow humans to take credit wherever possible.

The common habit among the Listeners is that whatever activity the strains find themselves engaged in, the humans are encouraged to shine as individuals, whereas the fay should take a collectivist attitude, and fade into the background, like good stage workers. A good fay’s presence should be invisible, like the ground or the air, not noticeable unless it were to disappear.

How one conducts oneself in society, too, is stratified according to strain. Humans are expected to conduct themselves according to ideas of honour and integrity. How much this is followed in practice is variable. Whilst fay are expected to act with deference towards humans, they are somewhat freer in how they act towards other fay. In a bizarre twist, the fay have no reputation to gain or lose, and as long as they don’t rock the boat or bring shame upon the Listeners, there are fewer expectations placed on their behaviour.

Relationships and marriages between two or more humans are encouraged, particularly if it enhances their stories. Similarly, relationships between fay are also acceptable and commonplace, but, especially in the case of scribes, should not interfere with the primary loyalty of the fay which always lies to the humans. It is accepted that relationships between fay and humans certainly happen, but this is somewhat taboo, more so in some quarters than others, and usually glossed over.

Aesthetic

The tribe prefers clothes with history, and it would not be unusual to see items of clothing that have been repaired many times. It is also not uncommon for people to embroider their names on their clothes, and so some well-loved clothing will have a long list of names on it. Listeners also like to wear relics from the previous civilisation, and medieval clothing and motifs from fantasy are popular, especially among the dead-strains. Some carry instruments for playing songs with them. Many people will be able to tell an anecdote or two about what they are wearing, but it isn’t necessary to know the story of an item to appreciate that it has one.

All newborns are taken to Teddybear to be named. Teddybear often chooses names from books in their mental library, and is known to have a somewhat eclectic taste. Human names tend to be more flowery; fay names more utilitarian, sometimes descriptive. Listener names aren’t gendered, and they/them pronouns are used for children unless and until they choose different ones for themselves.

Contact

Mark Cooper (Cryptophage)