Zuvenderai

Zuvenderai is the oldest and most widespread tradition of romance in Zusea, shared between an older male (the gotha) and a younger male (the zofala). The earliest related practices emerged in the Mendarian period and flourished several hundred years later in Classical Zusea. The influence of Zuvenderai on Zusian culture was so extensive that the renowned Classicist Alfred von Orphenau once called it "the principal cultural model for free relationships between citizens in the Zusian city-states." The Classical practice is particularly associated with the powerful cities of Tarnum, Vestau, and Ostarna.

Some scholars consider the tradition to originate with Mendarian, particularly rites of passage on the island of Kutha, where it was associated with military life. After the Zusian Fog the practice settled into its contemporary mold; no longer reserved for the military, Zuvenderai came to encompass a complex set of courtship rituals and legal rights, and became part of the wider, which was characterized also by and , male symposia, and the social seclusion of women. Some scholars have argued that post-Fog cultures placed much greater restrictions on women's autonomy and sexuality, and thereby encouraged men to seek romance in the less formal company of other men.

Modern Zuvenderai comprises both a legal union between two partners and the surrounding practices and cultural ideals. Traditionally, the culmination of a formal courtship is a legally-recognized marriage, establishing rights and obligations between the gotha and zofala, any children they might have, and between them and their in-laws. However, styles of courtship vary widely across Zusea, with many explicitly anti-traditional practices and relationships. The Vordic Church requires a few of the traditions to be observed in order to bless the union; however, full legal rights to marriage were extended to all same-sex couples in 2011, including unconventional Zuvenderaic relationships.

Zuvenderai has been the subject of intense societal debate since at least the time of the Early Vordic Empire. Idealization and denunciation occurs with roughly equal frequency in the literature of the time; some scholars argue that this signals a shift in attitudes, that idealization was universal in the Classical period, and that criticism began in Vordin as a reaction against the growing influence of Vestic and Ostarnic culture. In particular, Zuvenderai became associated with "southern decadence," a trope which persisted in Medieval Zusea. Homosexual practices of all kinds became especially controversial after unification in the 19th century, with some calls to ban sodomy altogether, in line with Messiani traditions elsewhere in the world. During the conflict between the Iron Hand and the Trotzia in the early 1930s, the Iron Hand attempted to force the Vordic Church to cease recognizing same-sex unions, though they were blocked by the Reformist Party. The emergence of after the Endwar further impeded attacks on Zuvenderai, and today the tradition is widely accepted in Zusea.

Roles and expectations
Traditional Zuvenderai prescribes a relatively strict dichotomy between gotha and zofala. Often cast in pedagogic terms, the gotha is the older, more experienced romantic actor, whose greater knowledge is reflected in his active or dominant sexual role. The ideal gotha is often depicted as an older aristocrat, who takes on the role of mentor to the zofala. The gotha is expected to cultivate a masculine appearance and maintain an intimidating or powerful physicality. The term "gotha" shares an origin with the modern Zusian word gota, meaning "godparent" or "godfather."

The zofala meanwhile is the younger, less experienced actor, almost always cast in the passive or submissive sexual role. "Zofala" shares an origin with zofa, an archaic term for a maid or servant; the zofala is also sometimes called the schönäla, an term of endearment meaning "beauty" or "pretty boy." The zofala is usually regarded as a symbol of beauty, purity, and innocence, not an inferior object of sexual gratification, and is therefore portrayed with respect in art and media. Physically, the zofala is expected to be slender and effeminate, and is almost always hairless in premodern art. Unlike the gotha, the zofala is often the recipient of affectionate nicknames, including süßa ("candy"), delikata ("delicacy" or "delicate thing"), and leckerlein ("dainty" or "tasty").

In poetry and art, the zofala often serves as the embodiment of idealized youth, or even idealized beauty. Orphenau, for example, describes an ideal zofala as:

a beautiful creature without pressing needs of his own. He is aware of his attractiveness, but self-absorbed in his relationship with those who desire him. He will smile sweetly at the admiring lover; he will show appreciation for the other's friendship, advice, and assistance. He will allow the lover to greet him by touch, affectionately, while he looks, himself, demurely at the ground.... The inner experience of a zofala would be characterized, we may imagine, by a feeling of eagerness, and proud accomplishment. He is often uncertain, but his uncertainty is a kind of wisdom, the wisdom of curiosity.... He is something like a god, or the statue of a god.

Behaviors and customs
The earliest recognizable Zuvenderaic customs emerged in Ostarna, and involved ritual. The gotha would select a youth, enlist the chosen one's friends, and carry off the object of his affections to a retreat outside the city. There, the youth would recieve gifts as a sort of informal, and the courtship could only continue if he accepted them. Thereafter would come weeks of feasting; the aspiring gotha would hunt their food with friends, and the potential zofala would learn to prepare and serve meals. At the end of this time, the suitor would present the youth with three more required gifts: silk robes (or some costume of equivalent expense), a lamb, and a drinking cup. Depending on the wealth of the suitor, these might be accompanied by other gifts as well. Upon the couple's return to the city, the youth would sacrifice the lamb to Finndar, and his friends would join in a final feast. The youth would sometimes be called pikkolo, a term for a boy waitress, because he stood at the side of his gotha during meals and served him his wine from a ceremonial goblet.

Importantly, the ritual could only take place if the youth's father approved the suitor as being worthy of the honor. As Sindolf claims in his dialogues, "Nothing [of what concerns the boy] is kept hidden from the father, by an ideal lover." In some cases the father played an even more active role; according to Octolindis, Ostarnic fathers would pray that their sons would be handsome and attractive, in order to attract potential suitors and "arouse fights of erotic passion" between older men.

Many of these traditions remain essentially the same in modern Zusea, with some slight variations and innovations. Vordic churches, especially urban ones, usually maintain property in the countryside that modern suitors can borrow to use for an abduction. Since 1999, the father's approval is no longer required, though it is still preferred. The regulations surrounding the gifts have also been relaxed, and the only required gifts in the modern church are the lamb and the drinking cup.

Mythology
Two pagan Gods were considered the guardians of Zuvenderaic couples: the youthful Finndar and his older lover Gildomir, son of Athir, king of the Gods. The story of the two serves as the mythological basis for the tradition of abduction, as explained by Adalbrun:

There is some pleasure in loving a boy, in fact even the son of Athir, (that is, Gildomir), king of immortals, fell in love with Finndar, seized him, carried him off to Elgard, and made him divine, keeping the lovely bloom of boyhood. So, don't be astonished, Octolindis, that I too have been revealed as captivated by love for a handsome boy.

Even outside of Zuvenderaic art, Gildomir is usually depicted as an idealized masculine hero, both powerful and wise. Finndar in contrast is often depicted as an idealized male youth, both in statuary and art, and in modern representations.

Sexual practices
There are no known explicit premodern images of Zuvenderaic couples, as such a thing would be considered shameful to the zofala and a grievous breach of his propriety. However, there is an abundance of suggestive pottery. Some vases depict the gotha seated and the zofala climbing into his lap. The composition of these scenes mirrors those of women mounting men who are seated. Oral intercourse is likewise never depicted, nor even directly suggested; the activity seems to have been reserved for prostitutes or slaves, and considered shameful for a freeborn zofala. The popular slur sufa, meaning "drunkard," was often employed against effeminate or promiscuous men; such an accusation was equally insulting to a zofala as a gotha.

Orphenau argues that, historically, the zofala was not supposed to feel "womanly" desire for the gotha. In contrast, Richard Heisenbaum argues that Classical zofalai were expected to hide their desire as a form of modesty; he points out that the zofala is frequently described as feeling intense affection for his gotha, with implications of sexual affection as well. In Sindolf's dialogues, it is related that the zofala develops a "passionate longing" for his gotha and a love which is "at once selfless and self-worshipful." Octolindis meanwhile claims that the zofala feels a desire "similar to a woman's, albeit more modest, to attract the affection of the gotha, a desire for desire," but some scholars interpret that statement as.

Most of these prohibitions have weakened or vanished in modern Zusea as a consequence of the, which expanded the acceptable range of practices and expressions around Zuvenderaic relationships. During the sexual revolution in the 1970s, scholars and artists began to defy social convention and engage in explicit discourse of Zuvenderaic sexuality, and soon it was mainstream. This openness has sparked a countervailing Modesty Movement in contemporary Zusea among some zofalai who seek to revive the traditional prohibitions.