Patrica C. Wrede's Worldbuilder Questions

Greeting and Meeting.

• How did the greeting gesture originate (example: shaking hands to prove one's weapon hand was empty)? Is there a special I-am-not-armed gesture for wizards?
• Is there a difference between the greeting offered to an equal and that offered to a superior or inferior? Between that offered a man or a woman? (cf. the various levels of curtsey) Between that offered a human vs. a non-human?
• Is there a way of changing a greeting gesture to make it insulting?
• When meeting someone for the first time, how are they greeted--wave, handshake, bow, some other gesture? Does this differ if one already knows the person? If you see someone you like on the far side of the street, how do you acknowledge them?
• How are two people who have not met before introduced to each other? What is the order of precedence when there are several people of differing sex, social status, or race/species present who must all be introduced to each other?
• Are there people or beings who are never introduced to each other? Are "true names" significant, and if so, under what circumstances would someone be given someone else's true name? Are there customs involving the way in which someone is named when being introduced (example: giving all of a person's names and titles at the first meeting, but never repeating them afterward, so that he's always referred to as "George" even though he's introduced as the Duke George Edward Canterbury Gordon de la Suis-Foule, Marquis of Horsham, Whitewater and Framingham, Earl of St. Peter's Close, and Viscount of Abernathy.)

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