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Fashion

Layering is key; coats and pants and high boots. Skirts over skirts for women. Very little is low-cut, nothing is sleeveless. There are a lot of scarves and capes, hats and, most importantly, furs. Due to the dangers of the forests, hunters are viewed with a certain reverence, so the presence of pelts in clothing becomes a status symbol, a style that is popular and widespread -- and also, of course, practical.

Generally, women wear skirts and men pants. This is strictest among the nobles, where elaborate costumes in bright colors are rampant. Among the lower classes, and especially among knights and hunters, it is more acceptable for women to dress in a more masculine fashion, for practicality purposes.

Corsets are common among the upper classes, tied tight to shrink their waists and swell their hips. Among the lower classes, however, these are simplified into simpler bodices, designed to support the back and shoulders and keep women trim more than anything else. They are worn over clothing, as opposed to under, and are frequently even fur-lined, providing an additional layer of protection.

In this world of winter, most people are slim, as it can be difficult to find food even enough for survival. Those who can afford to eat more, however, do -- so men with round bellies or women with heavy curves are viewed as bountiful and beautiful, wearing their wealth and prosperity on their bodies, as well as in their clothing.

Entertainment

In the lower classes, any time a fire is lit, and in every pub, music takes over as the primary source of entertainment: common songs that everyone chimes in and sings together, with rousing choruses easy to dance and stomp along with.

In the lulls between songs, storytelling is key -- everyone chiming in with myths and tales of various spirits in the woods, most of these prefaced with ‘my father once...’ or ‘my great-grandmother said...’ Children learn these stories from their parents and share them with their peers, changing them each time they’re told. Many may have a grain of truth at their core, but have been so altered by time it’s impossible to tell.

Mummers take the more common stories and frequently perform in busy streets or for noble watchers, putting on elaborate shows with masks of furs and metal and stone. Many of these acts are directed at children, with a strong moral lesson at the end.

In more higher class homes, the shows are turned into more elegant plays with many parts, often with romance infused into the tales.

Sanctioned plays put on for ‘all classes’ by the royalty are a seasonal event. Such plays, with much more beautiful and elaborate costumes, are created with the main purpose of extolling the royalty, drawing out heroes and stories of defeating strange monsters that have emerged from the forests. Many of these heroes may never have existed -- but they serve the purpose of establishing that only royals have the strength and power to ‘resist’ the evils of the forest and to hunt certain creatures.

Other ‘lessons’ that these plays might also enforce are stories of townsfolk who are possessed by ‘rogue’ spirits, telling how they change in subtle ways to become evil, implying that those possessed are intent [consciously or not] on destroying the city and their way of life.

Herbology and Medicine

Most of the medicine in the world is rudimentary at best. While some of the medicines and lichens they use are in fact quite effective, nearly as much is superstition. There are few truly qualified healers, and most of those are kept close to, if not in, the royal courts to ensure the long life of the nobles. Anyone with real skill in the medicinal arts who stays in ‘impoverished’ areas may in fact be held in a certain suspicious light, either of supernatural dealings or out of concern that they may have been dismissed from the courts for being less capable than their court counterparts. That said, no one in need of a doctor can truly afford to be choosy about who attends them.

Broken bones can be crippling in this world, or even fatal. Being crippled is a slow death, as it is likely to destroy whatever livelihood someone previously possessed. A handful may be lucky: a lame weaver is not as detrimental as a lame hunter, but a broken wrist is almost a death sentence. Even the most skilled healers would have a hard time dealing with truly serious illness.

Knowing this is what drives some to the forest for help. Despite the fact that it is strange and intimidating, inside the boundaries where the snow breaks to expose terrifying green vegetation, it also exposes warm pools where some say the gods pause to drink. These strange waters can mean life or death for those who are beyond the skill of a healers aid. However, surviving the strange powers of the pool -- something which is by no means guaranteed -- means one is forever marked. Some say it is better to live with this mark than to die the slow death of a broken limb or the delirium of a terrible sickness, but only those who walk away, forced to live with strange eyes or strange hair color, can say for sure how they feel about the trade...particularly as there have been cases where those who brought the individual to the pool have died in a possible ‘exchange’ of life.

Crime

Murder and Rape - anyone caught committing either of these ‘greater crimes’ is sentenced to ‘Trial by Forest’, the most terrible punishment that you can receive. There is no court of piers to judge if they are or are not the guilty party, there are only the trees and the forest. Anyone who manages to come out alive after their allotted days have passed are judged ‘Innocent’ -- but most emerge mad, or at best ‘changed’. Any changes are attributed to ‘lesser sins’ as though the spirits possess some level of human morality.

Lesser Crimes - Theft and lesser crimes are punished instead by what the nobles would refer to as a monetary system. A fine is charged of the offender. However only the wealthy and well to do can usually afford to pay the fine. Those who can’t pay are instead sworn to an indentured servitude. Theoretically the servitude can be worked off in a certain amount of time -- but as the servants are expected to become part of the household staff they therefore must pay for uniforms and any food or drink that they consume in this service. The result is that most who find themselves sworn into servitude are unlikely to ever walk ‘free’ again.

Education

Lower Nobles, Artisans and even Peasants are normally apprenticed -- either to a skilled member of their family or to someone else. It can be anything from sending a child to a talented merchant as a form of payment for a debt, or bartering with said merchant to take on a child as a favor in hopes of bettering their life.

A farmer’s son or daughter may hope to be apprenticed to any of the more skilled working classes, but will be trained in the farmer’s life until such time as they are found, or are given to a ‘Master’.

There are three ranks of servitude when one is apprenticed to a Master; the first step is Apprentice.

Apprentices are given the most menial chores. These may or may not have anything to do with the skills they will need to have before they are themselves a master. They may be expected to prepare dinner, clean the house, the clothes, even carry water back to the house; this may go on for years before the Master determines someone is ready to start assisting with their art.

Once the meaty learning, a rising apprentice can expect only simple tasks to begin with -- grinding pigment, cutting lengths of wire or separating herbs. Punishments for errors can be harsh; this craft is livelihood for both Master and Apprentice, and failure could mean loss of revenue or worse.

The mid stage of yotheur learning process, Journeyman may now be called on to help the master directly. They are not yet ready to take off on their own but have grown much closer to it. Journeymen know the tools, know where to find quality supplies, how to barter, even how to teach the new apprentice if there is another in the wings. They may even, in their later years of Journeyman, be trusted with handling simple orders on their own.

It is at a master’s call when their apprentice is ready to be called a master in theirr own right. It is he or she who will call them master first and their faith in their former students skills give customers faith in turn. Freshly dubbed masters may finally refine any stylistic differences that they might have started to acquire as journeyman.

Hunters are in a way the exception to the rule; their master may teach them the basics of knife and bow, but their survival is very much at risk.

Noble education

Nobles are far more likely to receive a tutor. The elders of a house will choose a suitable tutor or tutors for the subjects that they wish their young people to master -- most commonly reading and writing as well as some form of ‘formal art’, whether this be singing or an instrument. They will doubtless be taught the formal dances, and hunting, though girls are likely to be excluded from the latter unless they show a distinct aptitude (or bloodthirst). Even then, most frequently they’re kept to falcon hunting as opposed to more brutal, hands-on hunting.

Young women are likely to be taught how to mend, and most particularly how to embroider or weave -- not so they can make a living but so that they can fill unused hours.