Dulshan (lit. "the land of five"), is a country or region well to the south of Chardil.
Children
Wealthier Dulshand families have a strict order of attachment for male children, the so-called rule of five. The first child is turned wild - usually abandoned in sacred spaces in jungles or on mountains. Most of these children die: those very few who survive are considered extremely holy. The subsequent order is that the second child inherits the family estates, the third is given to the priesthood, the fourth is given to some sort of military occupation (see the notes on Francolins below) and the fifth and further children work on behalf of the second in some capacity and often take up respected skilled occupations. Female children are not governed by these rules, although a child initially considered female, as long as she would not become the first, may at any time once they are able to understand the concept challenge a relevant younger brother to a duel for the place they would have had in the family heirarchy had they been male. If they win the duel, they are treated as male from that point onwards.
Poorer families - those who are not of the estate-owning classes - do not usually observe the rules, although in the urban centres lines can sometimes blur and choosing to observe the rule of five is an important prerequisite for attempting towards or claiming higher status.
The Francolins
Dulshand fourth sons often serve across the world as mercenaries - the Francolin Companies are the most notable form of this.
Dulshand cosmology
The cosmology - religion might not be quite the right term - of Dulshand is centred on three celestial bodies - the earth, sun, and moon. The earth, also known as the Great Beast, the Old Fellow, or the Toothed One, is represented and imagined as a great crocodilian-like being that waits beneath the surface of the great seas. The Old Fellow seeks, always, to catch the moon, which is associated with prey animals like deer and antelope: so each night, he waits, ready to spring forth and grab his prey in mighty jaws - until morning, when the Sun, the celestial hunter, comes out and stalks the Old Fellow in turn, forcing him to remain hidden beneath the waves forever to survive.
The typical folklore is that eventually, one day, the Sun's guard will be let down and the Old Fellow will be able to leap forth and devour the moon: this will also of course lead to the end of all life on the Old Fellow's back. Some Dulshand scholars and theologians debate alternative possibilities for ending the great cosmic stalemate, and some of the most radical even suggest that the stories should be solely seen in their form as analogies, though this is a decidedly rare and cynical perspective.
Dulshand politics
Dulshan is mostly fairly unified, with an itinerant monarchy, though the precise allegiance and obligations that different cities or tribes or regions have to the Feathered Court vary. The nominal monarchs always reign for short terms: a young, childless man and woman from local noble houses will be selected to spend respectively some years as the King of Butterflies and the Elephant Queen. The theory behind this is that divinity, which will lead to the right path, is found in the negation of the self and the breaking of natural order: thus the most brave and strong of men is given the command of court ceremony, food, peace negotiations, match-making, whilst the most delicate and gentle of women is given the supreme command of Dulshand's armies, arrayed in battle regalia and given charge of personally conducting sacrifices before battle and leading troops into battle. After a certain number of years (which can vary, but generally from four to seven), the pair are Judged, a privilege usually held by the city of Maraken but occasionally granted elsewhere: the elders of the city can pronounce whether the lions and butterflies are satisfied with the monarchs - results vary from the King and Queen being pensioned generously to their being freed, enslaved, exiled, or on rare occasions sacrificed. Dulshan does not usually practice human sacrifice - but the King and Queen are a butterfly and elephant respectively for sacral purposes and so do not fall under this rule.
Despite this theory giving the nominally "least qualified" people each respective job, the system tends to work. This is in part because the Feathered Court develops its own institutional memory separate to its short-lived superiors, and certain noble families attached to the court are as important in figuring the sway of Dulshan's politics as knowing the will of its monarchs (though these are taken seriously: it would be wrong to think of the King of Butterflies or the Elephant Queen as mere ceremonial posts).
~More to be added~
