Oh there was another page in the OoC ^^'
Don't worry, I've done that too...
@Jack: That glasses thing seems a bit odd to me. When I try to envision it in any kind of functional manner, anyway. It's pretty damn hard to actually transfer fluid between cups (or glasses) this way, or at least to do so in a way that won't end up with most of it on floor or looking very questionable, to think of - maybe if your cups just happened to be perfectly square and still filled almost to the brink...
The meanings of customs have transformed quite significantly over time, though... And to an extent the form and time of the customs, too (such as how I've - I think maybe never - shook hands as a greeting, but always as a more congratulatory thing ... and toasting also being generally between people you've known for a while, and for celebratory reasons). The only thing that would still make sense in the (presumed) original context is raising a hand with fingers stretched out and showing our palms, even when we now tend to do it as both greeting and goodbye. Though now when I think of it, the latter is easily explainable, too. ("See, I didn't steal anything while I was here, either.")
...There was this one guy who always used to give me the soldiers' salute as a greeting/goodbye. And
only me; everyone else - regardless of sex - he either bowed (he often wore a hat, so he took that off for it, too) or just waved. Not sure what was up with that; but it was mildly amusing. Maybe I look like an officer or something.
But yeah... Sekalyns don't bow ... or toast, salute or shake hands, for the matter - the latter three would most likely just confuse them a bit (assuming we've Sekalyns who are not too familiar with foreign customs - which, to be fair, many of them are not), but bowing in particular is very likely to be interpreted as severe mockery, and may even result in a blade drawn against you. (And in a hypothetical situation where Aemoten would have to give a brief overview on what to do or not do before meeting with any subgroup of his people, it would probably be one of the first things he'd mention, especially if it was the Northeasterners.)
Then again, many of those customs wouldn't really make too much sense in their culture space from the standpoint of the supposed origins of the - beginning from the fact that checking a person you can plainly see carrying at least a knife anyway for weapons is a bit superfluous, that they do not submit to our typical western concepts of nobility, typically do not wear helmets with visors (except for maybe the Northeasterners), and so on and so forth. They do have holding a hand up for greeting, though (which I've read is, however, still an insult in some regions of Africa, so it's not like even that is universal).
There were more differences, obviously - such as in regards to making direct eye contact or what clothes are acceptable or expected to be worn (such as it being perfectly normal for Sekalynic women to be completely topless or the fact that skirts and dresses aren't even a thing there, or that places where you're not supposed to take weapons along practically do not exist and you're pretty much expected to at least carry a knife even when you're a "regular", non-warrior person (you generally only wouldn't have one if you were a
kyolonth, which are the only ones borderline not allowed to open-carry blades, and are basically the closest to a slave you can be in that society)), or what parts of a person you are generally allowed to touch without explicit permission and which ones you shouldn't,
et cetera, et cetera...
Hmm... And I'll see whether I can post tonight or tomorrow morning; I'm feeling mostly coherent again. (Poor Aemoten. Everyone seems to assume he'll be instantly fine after he's killed...)
