Table of Contents

• Sticks, Swords, and Very Sharp Rocks
• The Social World of Weapons
• Armor
• Unarmed Combat
• Honor
• Codes of Honor
• The Culture of Dueling
• How to Fight a Duel
• Standards of Beauty
• Cosmetics
• Body Modification I: Adornment
• Body Modification II: Reshaping
• Tattoos
• Jewelry
• Perfume
• Incense
• Clothing Basics
• The Social Economy of Clothing
• Clothing and Status
• Modesty
• Matchmaking
• Courtship
• Wedding Customs
• Honeymoons
• Writing Systems
• The Tools of Writing
• Stelae, Scrolls, and Books
• Libraries
• Literacy
• Handwriting
• The Printing Press
• Censorship
• Hours and Minutes and Seconds
• Keeping Time
• Time and Society
• Concepts of Time
• Religious Sites
• Religious Practices
• Religious Texts
• Religious Specialists
• Language as Magic
• The Magic of Numbers
• Superstitions
• Taboos
• Ghosts
• The Undead
• Witches
• Faeries
• Inventing Trees
• Gratuitous Worldbuilding
• Against Monoliths
• World as Palimpsest

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About the Author: Marie Brennan is a former anthropologist and folklorist who shamelessly pillages her academic fields for inspiration. She recently misapplied her professors’ hard work to The Night Parade of 100 Demons and the short novel Driftwood, and together with Alyc Helms as M.A. Carrick, she is the author of the Rook and Rose epic fantasy trilogy, beginning with The Mask of Mirrors. The first book of her Hugo Award-nominated Victorian adventure series The Memoirs of Lady Trent, A Natural History of Dragons, was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award. Her other works include the Doppelganger duology, the urban fantasy Wilders series, the Onyx Court historical fantasies, the Varekai novellas, and over seventy short stories, as well as the New Worlds series of worldbuilding guides. For more information, visit swantower.com, Twitter @swan_tower, or her Patreon.