Culture

The Culture of the Nestos League

The Nestos League is a culture that is focused on craftsmanship and the written word.

The founder did not want to live in a culture focused on pure materialism. His interests took him back to the Arts and Crafts Movement and William Morris. While he did not disavow technology, he saw it as serving the crafts shop and the city, not as a way towards mass homogenization or mass consumer culture.

He wanted a place where the things which people owned were built with beauty, quality, and craftsmanship. He also did not want to see the waste he saw in modern society. As the culture expanded, he tried to create an ethic of stewardship where land and resources are carefully managed. This extended to building and seeking out extensive handicraft skills.

This ethic expanded beyond the focus on craftsmanship to the concept of self-reliance with the ability to garden, make ones clothes, and material needs in our own country without excessive reliance on outsiders. As part of this ethic, all of the resources in the Nestos League have been mapped and the land has been carefully described in the maps.

He also wanted easy access to goods and foods. There are readily available public gardens as well as community gardens. Houses are well built, but not massive.

There is a merchant class which trades and travels bringing in ideas and people from all over. The merchant class is often involved with the process of discovering new products and ideas for trade. This includes things like sponges from the ocean, bamboo, coffee, and other products.

The strongest class is the scholar class. This is not an academic class like modern academics. It is closer to the scholar gentleman of China, the philosopher of Greece, or the alchemist physician of the middle ages.

To make sure the written word has spread throughout society, there are classes of scholars focused on teaching and interesting with the public. The two main classes are the builders, the Sons of Scorylo and the Daughters of Penelope. Also, there are popular tracts which are read by many like the Book of Den.

People can access the written word through public reading rooms, the Storytellers Association, plays from Crimea, woodcut books, broadsheets, and books written on practical subjects from presses like the Abdera Blue Press.

To strengthen The Nestos' Leagues Culture it has built strong ties with other regional cultures reaching out to Crimea, Sumeria, Aksum, and others. There is a focus on working with other cultures that are not actively opposing them.