In vadral, life is a commodity. Value is determined by the worth you've put into society. What you do, how you do it, and so on. It is all a factor. Low value individuals can be bought cheaply. Noble Families are even subject to these rules - it isn't unheard of to be a noble family one day and reduced to being on the very market they enjoyed, due to a misachievement.
This lends to a “if you're great, you can become great” mentality with the people of Vadral. The only ones exempt from these laws of value are the royal family, but even then it's governed internally by the head of the family and ruler. The best case scenario for anybody is to marry into the royal family.
Individually, Vadrali pay close attention and care to their appearance. Given their morality towards “worth being put into society,” people take that to mean primping themselves up when they're not working, as getting nice clothes dirty is as much a taboo here as it is in any polite society. Evergreen plays a dominant role, as it is the national colour. Orchestration heavily favours string and precussive string.
Ribbons and frills are the name of the fashionable game in Vadral fashion. In vadral, nobody wears full length pants and instead opt for skirts and other types of free flowing fabrics for the legs. Tops are generally close-fitting. Due to the prevalence of magic, ruffles and scrollwork in fabrics are much more common. Petticoats are not common, but do show up more in higher echelons in vadral society. Footwear is mostly boots, with heeled boots replacing any instance or indication of high-heels. High lacing on boots is very popular on wealthier citizens. Feathers are also a common feature, in accessories and fabric-additions.
Vadral uses magic to construct their homes and buildings, lending a very handcrafted appearance to all of their architecture. But, they understand architectural principles as any good civilization does, so their general aesthetic is “Art noveau with a touch of postmodernism.” Their buildings also tend to be integrated into the landscape rather than platforming outwards, so more often than not the curve of their cities are dictated by the curve of mountains.
Vadral, like the other Balance societies, blends technology and magic as much as possible for useful results. This is particularly apparent in their licensing of Hekate products and of their own soultec systems.
Vadral's primary focus is SoulTec, a proprietary technology that allows souls to be harvested for various purposes (including, in some delicious cases, consumption). SoulTec captures souls in a metal-crystalline cube and allows them to be repurposed for society's needs. As Hekate's Denarius does most of the heavy lifting, so SoulTec is primarily reserved for enchantment powering.
Vadral heavily focuses on magic. Like the other Balance socieities, Vadral has a magical talent that they pride themselves on beyond any other - the ability to summon a being formed from one's soul called a Force, tethered to one's physical body by an ethereal tether. Forces vary wildly in shape and form due to the differences in inherent in individuals.
Vadral, like all Balance Societies, focused so hard on magic during its history it quite simply forgot psionics existed.
Given their territory - across many mountain valleys - the farms that Vadral runs are all tiered paddies.
Vadral tends not to reshape the landscape when it comes to both buildings and farming, instead opting to go with the shapes they were given. Vadral's primary grain is Spreyt. They also cultivate many flavourful berries.
Vadral citizens tend to raise birds as both livestock and pets. Their feathers play a prominent part in Vadral fashion. Otherwise, the only other notable creature in their pet use are cats.
Vadral is very pasta heavy in their cooking, and the only meat they have is poultry. Herbs are common and plentiful, but most of their sauces tend to be sweeter as their mountain terrain lends itself well to berries but not as much to typical saucy vegetables. Much like the people, artful preparation is also very key in vadral foods.
Religion, while once a thing on Balance, faded out of public and private worship shortly after the kingdoms established themselves.
Vadral, as their territory lies within temperate regions, celebrates solstices and equinoxes as proper changes to the season with small festivals involving food and gifts.
An annual celebration taking place on May 23 is the celebration of the shared date of birth of the Royal Family during which the entire country celebrates both the nation, and the royal family that leads it.
Death in vadral is a very casual affair, given their affinity for soul harvest. Birth, by comparison, is slightly more formal, but mostly within respective families - as is normal for humans.
Vadral is a very traditional monarchy.
Vadral is structured as a royal family at the top, with appointed or birth nobility holding territories under them. Nobility governs the outlying territories, and poor governors are removed from power while the ruler appoints a new noble family in their place.
Basic crimes suffer basic imprisonment, but repeat or stronger offenders can be put into indentured servitude or worse: be bottled up and used as a power source via SoulTec. This is such an effective use of the worst criminals that, on occasion, other nations have been known to ask Vadral to handle their criminals on the sly.