Surebleak Culture Study

Block Party excerpt

The Goals

The Delms of Clan Korval -- a First-In Scout Commander and a native 'Bleaker -- asked their aunt, Lady Kareen yos'Phelium, to study Surebleak's history, customs, and society

• with the objective being to help shape a Surebleak Code, and Korval's place within that code and that society.
• So that Clan Korval and The Scouts and The Mercs and Terrans, and all Liaden individuals, guilds, and clans -- with their Liaden Tenets -- that are immigrating to Surebleak do not overpower the native culture.

Quotes elucidating the goals:

Lady Kareen yos'Phelium to Professor Kamele Waitley: "Since the relocation, my work has been redefined. The Delm requires me to observe the society in which we now find ourselves, and compile a plan for the clan's new direction, now that the Code no longer...constrains us, as the Delm would have it. I prefer informs us."

Luzee, a native 'Bleaker: "...there's maybe things in here we could adapt for the Surebleak Code, like the Lady talks about. It was the Human Resources manual, after all, an' far's I know 'bleakers and newbies is all human."

Val Con yos'Phelium to Theo Waitley:

"...core cultural assumptions which are in desperate need of being regularized—”

“That’s what Kamele and Lady Kareen and the Scout teams are doing.”

“Yes. I hope to see a culture mutually acceptable to those who were Liadens and those who are Surebleakean formed in my lifetime.”

Pat Rin yos'Phelium To Quin yos'Phelium: “Kareen yos’Phelium, Clan Korval,” his father continued, “has been tasked to study -- and if necessary, to advocate -- the future shape and duties of Clan Korval, and those dependent on and from it.”

Kareen yos'Phelium to Kamele Waitley: "The Scouts hold -- and they are in some measure correct -- that all custom is valid, and all law is just -- inside the society which formed them. It is therefore my task to discover the ethos and the rule of Surebleak -- the core of its custom -- and codify it, not only so Korval will find its place more easily, but so that Surebleak will know itself again."

Lady Kareen yos'Phelium: "It is my duty to deduce Surebleak's society before it is fractured yet again, and its core hidden forever....That is why I must be located in the city."

Kareen's Research Group

To achieve the goals set forth above, Kareen gathered a group of research associates together. They meet at her house on the corner of Dudley Avenue and Farley Lane, in Surebleak

• Lady Kareen yos'Phelium, group leader
• Professor Kamele Waitley
• Scout historian vey'Loffit
• Silain, the Luthia of The Bedel may have "records of Surebleak before its... collapse" because "the kompani has been on this world for...an amount of time..."
• Droi of the Bedel - "a skilled researcher with a strong memory"-- to access Surebleak history through dreaming
  • "The Bedel archived their knowledge and their skills in dreams; thus, to dream was to learn."
    • Silain: "In the City Above, there are two wise women who seek to bring together the several families of the gadje into one family...They need to understand what this world was meant to be. We, the kompani, hold dreams from an earlier time which might help them."
• Tassi -- a visitor who helped the team for some weeks: "Tassi has been helpful. She’s a good researcher and a truly talented linguist. We’d had...a pile -- more than an archive -- of texts that we couldn’t quite puzzle out. Tassi’s grasp of language shift has been invaluable there. She’s almost through our backlog.”
• Luzeal / Luzee, a native 'Bleaker, visits frequently to work with "the Perfessor and the Lady" (see Block Party, free at Baen.com)

Interviews

The research group invited every Surebleak native to come tell them a story from their past (hoping it will elucidate the culture, codes, ethics, norms by which they lived).

• 'Bleakers with a story to tell are invited into Lady Kareen's comfortable front parlor, transformed into an "interview studio"

• Miri Robertson told a story, for example, of hungry children noticing a pie cooling on Gran Eli's windowsill.
• Rebbus Mark, a descendant of Kristofer Mark, operations economist for Gilmour Agency - the guy who set up the tollbooths -- told Road Boss Miri how the tollbooths were originally supposed to work, for the benefit of all. Miri encouraged him to speak with the Council and gave the research group his contact info.

Surebleak Historical Search and Archival Library

The research group created the "Surebleak Historical Search and Archival Library

• The group made a public plea for old documents, newspapers, letters, recipes, receipts, legal briefs, photos, etc.
• They make copies of all the old documents 'Bleakers bring them, cataloging and filing them, and returning the original if requested (See Block Party)
• Luzee responded to the plea. Her great-grandma worked as office manager for the chairman of Gilmour Agency, and keep the agency files. All her old documents, data sticks, etc. are in Luzeal's basement
  • including the Human Resources manual proving that Gilmour Agency broke their own plan for evacuating ALL the colonists, if needed

Quotes elidicating the library:

"Names and dates. The way Luzeal told it, the Surebleak Historical Search and Archival Liberry din't think there was nothin' better'n names and dates."

Algaina to Luzee: "You want a copy of all the old rules the old bosses voted out when they wasn't convenient? For what?"

"Well, I ain't finished reading it, for one! For t'other, there's maybe things in here we could adapt for the Surebleak Code, like the Lady talks about. It was the Human Resources manual, after all, an' far's I know 'bleakers and newbies is all human."