Tuluki Tattoos.

[Delusion]

You only get the House tattoos if you're lifesworn to a House. That's been my experience, at least.

The most common in-game usage of Gol Krathu, whether it's correct or not, is to refer to Muk's entire domain, including the Grasslands, scrub, and Grey Forest, not just the bit within the Scaien Wall.

Hm. Plenty of non-lifesworn I've run into in game have had the ring tattoos - mostly because they're free from some NPCs, I believe, and hey, it shows affiliation as well as any piece of equipment or attire would.

This might be people just getting them without checking? The way the tattooist NPCs are set up and where they are placed means a person could, at any moment, go get tattoos for every bardic circle on a whim, then break into some restricted location or another and get more to say that they are a slave, pop a six-pronged star on their feet, say that they're GMH family, and probably indicate that they are some sort of ranked soldier and war hero, too.  

Not saying that people with the ring tattoos doesn't mean that the tattoos aren't given before a person is lifesworn, just that it was my own experience that the life oath was necessary.

[Delirium]

Actually, you can't get the bardic circle tattoos 'on a whim' any longer.

[Cind]

Actually, you can't get the bardic circle tattoos 'on a whim' any longer.

In my newbie days I got one, because I thought it was pretty X)

[Dalmeth]

The most common in-game usage of Gol Krathu, whether it's correct or not, is to refer to Muk's entire domain, including the Grasslands, scrub, and Grey Forest, not just the bit within the Scaien Wall.

You're taking it a little too literally.  The docs specifically refer to all the tribes that culturally identified themselves as living within Gol Krathu at the time they were conquered by Muk Utep.

While some tribes may pass through Gol Krathu, none of them live there as they would then be assimilated or destroyed by Tuluk.  You can essentially think of the term "Gol Krathu" evolving over time with the increased influence of the Tuluki citystate.

These days, the distinction between the band and star tattoos is only to mark the rare occasion of a citizen who was not born in the city.

[Karieith]

If a person has the band because they are a Tuluki citizen, but does not have the hand tattoo because they are tribal does this mean they cannot be employed by a Noble House or work as an Aide to the Faithful?

The Band designates citizenship, the hand tattoo designates caste? (This is a question!)

Tuluk is hard guys! 

[Jeshin]

Surif Houses employee only true-inked citizens. The neckband is a citizens ink. This means you are a true-inked citizen and employable.

The caste tattoo is specifically for -caste- Tuluk has two common caste markers. Six pronged and seven pronged stars to denote commoner or nobility. As a fun fact, though this may have changed, bardic inkings count as a caste marker... This means Amos Konviwedu could have the neckband and his bardic ink on his hands in lieu of a six pronged star. This would help explain why citizen tribals might not have six pronged stars.

[Nyr]

Code Select Expand

Tuluki Caste Tattoo Room [D]

The NPC in this room allows you to set up your character with appropriate
Tuluk caste tattoos. People born in Tuluk to Tuluki citizens are usually
citizens, and all Tuluki citizens are marked with these tattoos. Skip this
step if your character was NOT born a Tuluki citizen. When you've finished,
you can go 'down' to enter the game.

NOTE: Once you leave, the ONLY way to get caste tattoos is to get them in-
game from a Templar. If your PC was always a Tuluki citizen, and should
have the appropriate tattoos, get them now. 

   Available tattoos:

   1 - a tattoo of a six-pronged star
   Worn on the hands, this signifies unaffiliated commoner status. All
   Tuluki citizens wear this tattoo. Example: "buy 1 hands"

   2 - a blue and purple inked band
   Worn on the neck, face or head, signifies residence in Gol Krathu.
   If you are from anywhere in the Northlands (except Luir's Outpost),
   you would wear this tattoo. Example: type "buy 2 neck"

Note that these tattoos ONLY go in these places, and you only need ONE
of each tattoo.  Tattoos are very important in Tuluki culture. For more
details, please see:  http://www.armageddon.org/general/tattoos/
 
A dwarf stands here, waiting to help you add tattoos to your character.

[bcw81]

Code Select Expand

Tuluki Caste Tattoo Room [D]

The NPC in this room allows you to set up your character with appropriate
Tuluk caste tattoos. People born in Tuluk to Tuluki citizens are usually
citizens, and all Tuluki citizens are marked with these tattoos. Skip this
step if your character was NOT born a Tuluki citizen. When you've finished,
you can go 'down' to enter the game.

NOTE: Once you leave, the ONLY way to get caste tattoos is to get them in-
game from a Templar. If your PC was always a Tuluki citizen, and should
have the appropriate tattoos, get them now. 

   Available tattoos:

   1 - a tattoo of a six-pronged star
   Worn on the hands, this signifies unaffiliated commoner status. All
   Tuluki citizens wear this tattoo. Example: "buy 1 hands"

   2 - a blue and purple inked band
   Worn on the neck, face or head, signifies residence in Gol Krathu.
   If you are from anywhere in the Northlands (except Luir's Outpost),
   you would wear this tattoo. Example: type "buy 2 neck"

Note that these tattoos ONLY go in these places, and you only need ONE
of each tattoo.  Tattoos are very important in Tuluki culture. For more
details, please see:  http://www.armageddon.org/general/tattoos/
 
A dwarf stands here, waiting to help you add tattoos to your character.

So in other owrds, the face ink is not a citizenship in, and nobility can't hire anyone without the hand inks.

[Schrodingers Cat]

The caste tattoo is specifically for -caste- Tuluk has two common caste markers. Six pronged and seven pronged stars to denote commoner or nobility. As a fun fact, though this may have changed, bardic inkings count as a caste marker... This means Amos Konviwedu could have the neckband and his bardic ink on his hands in lieu of a six pronged star. This would help explain why citizen tribals might not have six pronged stars.

Not that it matters much but there's also the hexagon caste tattoo used for slaves.  Sure PCs aren't going to be playing slaves any time soon, but they may encounter slave NPCs and should be able to recognize them.

The way I understand is that every adult citizen born in Tuluk has at least two tattoos (if not more). These are the purple and blue band and either star on the hands (six or seven pronged) or a hexagon (instead of a star) on their hands or somewhere else (usually not easily covered) on their body.

In Tuluk the tattoos are a map of someone's life.  If one were to strip a Tuluki citizen down and examine their inks one could get a pretty clear idea of who are, what they do, and where they've been (similar to Russian mafia tattoos, if you're not familiar with this watch the movie Eastern Promises, great flick).  The tattoos are supposed to tell a story.  Unless they were trying to hide something, I doubt a Tuluki citizen would ever ink over old tattoos but instead get new tattoos in other locations (if possible, and I say this because it is possible to run out of wear locations for new tattoos).

I'm not certain about the bardic tattoo thing but it doesn't seem to make sense that bards would be different.  If they're commoners, they'd wear a commoner tattoo to distinguish them from nobles and slaves.  I don't believe bards are their own caste.  Someone (staff?) please correct me here but aren't bardic tattoos the same as other affiliation tattoos?  Like working for Tenneshi, Kadius, T'zai Byn, etc?  Just to illustrate my point, if a slave were to be a member of a bardic circle, how would they wear their tattoos?

[Nyr]

Yeah, bards aren't a separate caste.

I understand this stuff is confusing and can be made less confusing.  We'll get to that eventually but right now the documentation focus is on clan documentation revamps.

[palomar]

Also, if someone was granted citizenship later in life (which is very rare), they would only get a caste tattoo (six-pronged star most likely) on their hands but not the blue/purple band since it denotes the person originating from the Gol Krathu.

[palomar]

I'm not certain about the bardic tattoo thing but it doesn't seem to make sense that bards would be different.  If they're commoners, they'd wear a commoner tattoo to distinguish them from nobles and slaves.  I don't believe bards are their own caste.  Someone (staff?) please correct me here but aren't bardic tattoos the same as other affiliation tattoos?  Like working for Tenneshi, Kadius, T'zai Byn, etc?  Just to illustrate my point, if a slave were to be a member of a bardic circle, how would they wear their tattoos?

Bards wear caste tattoos (commoner or slave) on their hands like everyone else, and they usually wear their Circle affiliation tattoo somewhere visible.

[Karieith]

Also, if someone was granted citizenship later in life (which is very rare), they would only get a caste tattoo (six-pronged star most likely) on their hands but not the blue/purple band since it denotes the person originating from the Gol Krathu.

This adds a really odd situation, because the guards at the arena only let in people who have the purple band...

Are you sure it's the hand inks that denote citizenship? I know that's what the docs say, and I too love the Docs but the Arena Guards say differently.

Edit: What I'm trying to figure out here is the distinction. What I'm getting is that the purple band designates you as having been born in Gol Krathu while the Hand Star designates that you are a Tuluki citizen.

IE: What is the POINT of the Blue and Purple band?

Only Tuluki Citizens (Hand) will get the purple band and only because they were born in Gol Krathu as a mark of pride. That Tribals born in Gol Krathu would not get the purple band even though they were born in Gol Krathu unless they were also Tuluki citizens (which they should be! Since everyone born in Gol Krathu is automatically a Citizen of Tuluk, right? I don't understand how Citizenship works but LOL ANCHOR BABIES if so.)

You will NOT see a Tuluki with just the band, but you WOULD see a Tuluki with just the star (rarely) these are the Tulukis who earned their citizenship.

That is what I'm getting from this thread, is that the correct assumption? I'm sorry, this is very confusing.

[Lizzie]

The band shows you were born in Gol Krathu.

The hand thing is a caste designation. What -kind- of Gol-Krathu-ie are you?

So - neckband + 6-ponted star = normal citizen.
Neckband + 7-pointed star = noble
Neckband + hexagon = slave-who-was-actually-born-in-the-north-and-not-merely-captured-from-elsewhere

[marko]

That is what I'm getting from this thread, is that the correct assumption? I'm sorry, this is very confusing.

Go what Nyr posted in the thread since they are the final authority on the matter.

IE,

If you are citizen of Tuluk and born in Tuluk you have the purple band AND a caste marking - six prong star.
If you are citizen of Tuluk and were not born in Tuluk you have the commoner caste marking - six prong star.

If you are slave of Tuluk and born in Tuluk / North you have the purple band and the slave marking - hexagon.
If you are slave of Tuluk and were not born in Tuluk you have the slave caste marking - hexagon.

If you were born in the North and you were respecting northern culture you got the purple band.  
Note: In this case you are not considered a proper Citizen until the caste tattoo is applied (six pronged star).  As such, some clans may have restrictions about hiring non-Citizens.

An example, if you start out being born in Tuluk to a bard circle then you would have:

Purple band on neck / face / head
Six-pronged tattoo on hands
Circle tattoo on prominent location

If you were a normal Tuluk citizen, you'd start with purple band on neck or face or head and six-pronged tattoo on hands.
If you were to join a House and that House marks their people with tattoos then you would get that tattoo added somewhere - probably in a prominent location.
If you became a thief - you'd add the thief's tattoo.  
If you became an assassin - you'd add the assassin's tattoo.

If you accomplished something special to your character and you like the ideas of tattoos telling stories then you'd add that tattoo as well.  

Don't try to overthink it.  Nyr was very clear.  

[Schrodingers Cat]

Edit: What I'm trying to figure out here is the distinction. What I'm getting is that the purple band designates you as having been born in Gol Krathu while the Hand Star designates that you are a Tuluki citizen.

The arena guard should probably check for either/or hand/neck tattoos.  But who knows, there might be a reason behind this.  Maybe he's just prejudiced.

[hyzhenhok]

If you are confused about Tuluki caste tattoos, especially some specific element that you feel is directly relevant to your character IC, it's a good idea to contact the staff. A lot of this stuff is unclear and its implementation in the game is inconsistent. About a year and a half ago, a major clan I was in did not have Tuluki employment tattoos even though the specific tattoo they should receive is documented on the website and would be important for any Northerner to have. But the staff was happy to have the tattoo added to a vendor in the clan compound after I raised the issue.

[Eurynomos]

If you are confused about Tuluki caste tattoos, especially some specific element that you feel is directly relevant to your character IC, it's a good idea to contact the staff. A lot of this stuff is unclear and its implementation in the game is inconsistent. About a year and a half ago, a major clan I was in did not have Tuluki employment tattoos even though the specific tattoo they should receive is documented on the website and would be important for any Northerner to have. But the staff was happy to have the tattoo added to a vendor in the clan compound after I raised the issue.

We are aiming to rectify the confusion currently, with our massive clan doc revamp. Hold on to your butts, boys!