Patrica C. Wrede's Worldbuilder Questions

Visits

• Are there questions that must be asked or avoided when visiting someone (e.g., how's the family, how's the business, never talk politics or religion, etc.)? Are there topics that can only be raised by the host? By the guest?
• How seriously does the culture take the responsibilities of host and guest? What rules define when someone becomes a host or guest (e.g., in some mid-easter countries, giving bread and salt to someone makes the person your guest; giving him a 5-course meal without bread or salt doesn't)?
• What things are considered courteous to offer a guest: food, reading material, personal guards or attendants, music/entertainment, a person of the opposite sex to sleep with?
• What is considered a courteous response to a host's offer? Are there things it is considered rude to accept? Rude to turn down? Rude to ask for? Rude not to ask for?
• When a guest arrives, is food or drink offered immediately, after an interval, or only on request? Is there a particular food or drink that is customary to offer a newly arrived guest?
• How do the different customs of various countries/races interact, conflict, etc? Example: A man from a culture where it is not polite to refuse a host's offer of food being the guest in a culture where the guest is expected to say "when."

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