The League culture and customs
Hospitality
“The best of everything” might as well be the League motto. Wealth exists partly to "keep score" but its true value lies in its ability to acquire the fruits of civilization: beautiful things, comfortable clothes, delicate jewellry and inspiring entertainment. While outsiders sometimes criticize the League for being a den of greed and miserliness, this is largely unsupported prejudice. Wealth, after all, achieves very little if it is simply stored in a vault.
The nation is a crossroads for trade in all kinds of luxury goods, and being able to set a fine table for close friends and allies is the mark of a solid citizen, regardless of social position. It is clear, however, that such a table is by invitation only; life in the League is busy, and unexpected guests are an unwanted distraction. People wait to be invited to dine, anyone arriving at a League table with an assumption of hospitality will receive short shrift. To ensure that everyone has a chance to see the depth of their hospitality, most individuals and guilds prefer to throw a lavish party, at most once a year, to which they invite everyone they know, friend and foe alike. Balls and feasts are common, with hosts competing to offer the most lavish entertainment and finest distractions. A party is a serious business in the League because it is an opportunity to demonstrate one's wealth and social cleverness.
Citizens of the League are meticulous in recording favours done and favours owed, but when they give a gift to someone it is free of any obligation, even the expectation that the gesture will be returned. Gifts are given by the rich and powerful as a way of demonstrating their social standing but the cleverness and appropriateness of the gift is much more vital. Gifts that display insight into a person's character, or allude to their situation are more impressive than mere wealth. Gifts to political opponents are common, they carry a mark of respect and appreciation. It is the mark of a true Merchant Prince that they are as gracious in defeat as in success.
Duelling
Although duelling to the death is illegal, formal duelling is an accepted way of settling disputes. Challenges are usually publicized, bouts between well-known duellists can attract quite a crowd and the magistrates like to have one of their number present to ensure that no foul play occurs. The terms of the duel are set by mutual agreement by the participants, but usually both parties will use matching weapons and fight until one party submits or is too wounded to continue. It is accepted practice for powerful and wealthy individuals to employ professional duellists to fight in their stead.
Rules
There is a strong emphasis on rules in League society. They despise people who break the law, because they are seen as cheating and using unworthy mechanisms to take wealth and power from their more prosperous neighbours. The League has other rules besides Imperial laws, however. Manners are important; individuals are expected to remain polite even towards their hated enemies. While the League strives to be civil not servile, it is vital to display the respect due to those who have earned positions of importance in League society. A regard for punctuality is an element of this civility; if a party begins at sundown then you can expect to be turned away if you turn up an hour later. Breaking the general rules of civility and respect suggests you are the sort of person who cannot be trusted. If you cannot obey the small, simple rules how can you be expected to obey the important, complex ones?
Performance
Performance and display are important parts of life in the League. From the signs over every shop and the street vendors hawking their wares, the rumbustious displays of bravado by the Free companies and the dramatic duels between rival theatre troupes, to the ostentatious parties of the Merchant Princes and the displays of wealth and power, everything is on show in the League. Those who want to get ahead need to show everyone why they should be employed, those who have achieved success want everyone else to know it.
Most people in the League implicitly understand the importance of image, even while they realize its artificiality. Nobody really imagines that the duels between rival actors are genuine, they understand that this is performance, indeed that is the very point of the exercise, the actors compete to more brilliant and compelling and thereby win business for their troupe. The fights between bravos might result in broken bones, but their ultimate purpose is to demonstrate the capabilities of the Free Company they work for. The masks worn by the actors in the theatre are not real, but it is attendant on everyone to treat them as real, otherwise the play cannot proceed.
Relationships
Love and romance are often irrelevant when marriage is discussed between the rich and powerful. The affairs of the heart may guide the naive or unambitious but prominent League citizens consider marriage to be an opportunity to cement an allegiance or gain a key ally. For powerful citizens in the League, marriage is usually about personal loyalty and social advancement rather than passion.
That is not to say that the League is devoid of romance. A spouse that begins an affair must be discreet, but as long as they ensure that their paramour is not using them to gain damaging information on their guild, and that their husband or wife is not insulted by their behaviour, society turns a blind eye. Such romantic affairs rarely last long, and neither partner expects them to, but there are plenty of stories of "true love" prospering in the barren garden that is guild politics, although in theatre and litearture such romances invariably end badly.
Prosperous and well to do members of a guild, both married and unmarried, are sometimes accompanied by a cicisbeo (kick-a-BEY-o). At first glance, outsiders sometimes confuse a cicisbeo with a courtesan. Whether male or female these individuals are expected to be examplars of League society, quick-witted, sharp as steel but above all loyal. Some do provide sexual services but their primary service is to support their patron with unconditional loyalty - and also to make their patron look fantastic when out and about in League society. Most provide other services as well, whether as bodyguards, valets, personal assistants, confidantes, doctors or even espionage agents. The cicisbeo is unique in that they are generally not part of the guild to which their patron belongs, but that once their loyalty is bought it is ironclad. They do not work for "the highest bidder" but rather as long as the financial agreement between patron and cicisbeo is maintained, they endeavour to be absolutely reliable and trustworthy. A cicisbeo who betrays their patron, for whatever reason, is effectively ruined and likely to be utterly excluded from League society - assuming they survive the attentions of their outraged patron, her guid, any previous employer, and indeed all other cicisbeo.
Funerals
The League obsession with keeping score extends past death. League wills are full of grandiose stipulations, extravagantly planned wakes, and endowments for public statuary.
The true stars of League society, or simply those with the greatest reputation for hosting the finest parties will attract the cream of society to their wakes. This being the League, it can be hard to tell the difference. The less-than-popular will put aside monies for the hire of mourners to weep and throw themselves to the ground. Traditionally, the deceased attends their own wake, in the form of a single masked performer. Party-goers are given free license to say things to the Death Masque that they would have liked to say to the deceased were they were alive.
The richest will hire professional Troupes to perform the highlights of their lives in theatre or music. True immortality is to have the play or song commissioned about your life performed long after you're dead. Of course, the writer may choose to subvert your memory cleverly if the actual truth doesn’t agree with the public image you wished them to portray. Immortality can be for good or ill, after all.
The ashes of the vast majority of League citizens will end up cast into one of the of the four great rivers. The exception are those few souls whose virtue has gained them the signal honour of a place in the great Necropolis of Highguard. Their remains make their final journey across the Bay of Catazar on black-draped funeral barges.