There are a number or cultures on the Ring of Tears. The predominant culture is the Shenmiri, which is a very refined culture--liberated and, at the same time, very restricted.

Shenmiri life is full of rituals, from birth to determining one's life-path to coming of age to swearing service to passing on one's legacy in the days before death. Honor is very important to the Shenmiri, and they follow a strict code of ethics, honor, and obedience. To dishonor someone is a grave offense; to dishonor oneself, worse, and to break oath is near sacrilege. Oathbreaking is punished almost always by casting out the offender and shunning him or her. Very rarely will any Shenmiri even acknowledge the existence of one who has broken oath. Shenmiri warriors in particular take honor and duty very, very seriously.
The Shenmiri live under a series of castes, called Houses. The system is not a very rigid one, and it is entirely possible to change one's caste, either through marriage or adoption, through money, or, in some cases, through apprenticeship to a member of a certain House. The Houses are as follows:
House Royal, the House of the nobility. The Lords and the Emperor must be of House Royal.
House Protector, the House of warriors. The Shenmiri think very highly of warriors, and train a type of warrior known as the blade-dancer, known for speed and agility and self-control. One does not choose to be a blade-dancer; rather, more experienced blade-dancers select those they will train. To be chosen to train as a blade-dancer is a great honor and is rarely refused.
House Mystic, the House of scholars and sorcerers. Knowledge is much respected among the Shenmiri, so scholars and sorcerers alike tend to have high stature. Shenmiri magic is divided into eight disciplines: geomancy, hydromancy, cryomancy, aeromancy, spectramancy, pyromancy, electromancy, and necromancy.
House Artisan, the House of craftsmen.
House Servitor, the House of servants. Many other cultures see this House as the lowest, least respected caste, but the truth is that House Servitor is highly respected among the Shenmiri, who place a great deal of significance on obedience. Members of House Servitor can, in truth, rise quite high in wealth and status--for instance, the geisha, an order of servants made up mostly of women, correspond in many ways with the highest-paid courtesans of the mainland and live very well, though unlike many courtesans the geisha are employed for all types of pleasure, not merely sex, and learn song, dance, minor healing, and many other skills.
Women have a fair amount of freedom among the Shenmiri. A woman may be a member of any House, just as a man may. Women can own land and train as warriors or sorcerers, and one of the current five Lords is a woman.

In general, the Shenmiri are considered a calm, even placid, people, but this is not precisely true. The Shenmiri are as likely as any other culture to produce quick tempers, and often do so. However, outsiders do not often see this temper displayed, as it tends to be rigidly controlled around any outlander. Shenmiri restraint and discipline are legendary.

The society is somewhat feudal; they are ruled by an Emperor, and under the Emperor by five Lords who own and govern areas of land. There has been one female Emperor, but only the one; female Lords are less common than male. The Emperor's word is law. Even most outcast Shenmiri will obey an edict of the Emperor.
The Lords cannot countermand the Emperor's laws, but can make their own laws for their territories. The Lords generally divide their land up into districts of a few communities and place regional governors to oversee these territories.

In appearance the Shenmiri tend to be small and slight, and often look deceptively delicate. Their skin is naturally a very pale, milky color; when it tans, it tans an equally pale gold. Their hair is generally straight and fine, uniformly black in color, sometimes with deep blue or purple highlights, and their eyes are slightly slanted, colored a deep, bright blue-violet. They tend to favor graceful garments, silk or cotton, either flowing loose or wrapped so as to be out of the way. Their tastes run to cooler colors, greens and blues and violets, but one can see them wearing nearly any color combination so long as it is tasteful.

As the terrain of the islands of the Ring of Tears is too rocky and mountainous for much crops or livestock, most Shenmiri, like many of the other peoples in the Ring of Tears, live by trade, though there are no trade cities or ports in the Ring. Most of the peoples of the Ring do some manner of special or novel craftwork, which is then taken by their merchant ships and sold or traded in port cities on the mainland. There the merchants buy raw materials and other supplies that can't be had naturally in the Ring, and bring them back. Poorer families live off of the sea, fishing both for their own food and to sell, on the Ring and on the mainland.
The Shenmiri are a very artistic people, and do a great deal of delicate stone- and metal-work. They also produce fine silk and cotton cloths from raw materials purchased on the mainland. Both Shenmiri arms and armor and Shenmiri silk are considered very fine and are much prized on the mainland, where they are hard to find and tend to be expensive. Shenmiri armor is generally made of scales of steel and lacquered steel plates; Shenmiri swords tend to be light and graceful and extremely strong, made by folding the steel many times during forging.
The general population of the mainland knows little about the Ring of Tears. Of all of the cultures and races in the Ring, the Shenmiri are the best-known, and so most trade objects that come from the Ring are labeled Shenmiri when, in truth, perhaps only half or three quarters of them were made by the Shenmiri.

Copyright © 1999 Abigail Laughlin and the members of the Circle of Stone.