Well, most of my focus in that area is on the politics and foreign policy of Imperial Russia. I only know a few cultural/societal facts, and they're broad. Mainly that most of the population was largely agrarian, vastly undereducated, still tied to the land in many ways after being emancipated and quite superstitious and devout.

That's not too terribly far off from the Vucari, many of whom are still illiterate and traditional, but it's difficult to imagine serfdom when most of the agricultural products are meats, which don't require as much manual labor as crops.

This is true. That also involves giving them weapons with which to kill prey, which could just as easily be turned on a landowner. Ha ha.

Hadn't thought about the 'armed peasantry' angle, but it's certainly a good point. Probably keeps the leadership from going too far against the will of the people.

Meat is less dense than other crops though--it takes much more land to raise a pound of meat than grain or vegetables. You'd have to have a lower population density with small towns surrounded by massive ranches for the most part.

Most likely they'd have something like modern dog food, which uses very little meat and that mostly for flavor. Ever read Bazil Broketail? They made a sauce for noodles for the dragons, with a flavor appealing to the dragons since carrying enough meat to feed them would be impractical for a variety of reasons. The masses would probably mostly eat dog food.

Fortunately the Vucari and many other Beastfolk do occupy part of their diet with carbohydrates- often half, or even more. They aren't dogs, though- they're concerned with taste, texture, and other culinary subtleties. Kibble would probably be the lot of the soldier, a dry and unpalatable, yet edible foodstuff that travels well.

Even if most of your agricultural focus is on raising animals for meat, you're still going to need a lot of plants to feed that livestock. It takes roughly 6 kg of grain to produce 1 kg of meat, so unless you have a huge amount of land for ranching, you're going to have to either grow or import a lot of that feed.

One thing to remember with scent is that it lingers. Walk into a room, and depending on how sensitive your nose is, you'll know everything that happened from a few hours ago to possibly weeks. Scent based evidence would probably be admissible in court, you might carry a rag as well as a notebook to rub on stuff to get scents, etc.

Do you read the Freefall webcomic? http://freefall.purrsia.com/ He's done a good job with Florence and showing some of the things that happen with such a strong sense of smell.

It's been a long time since I read Freefall... maybe I should do some catching up. Also, good point on scent as admissible evidence- it seems logical, given the fact that scents are very difficult to fake.

It also affects privacy--bathing on one hand wouldn't be liked because it "erases your notes" but on the other hand it keeps your affairs private. You'd also control access to houses and the like. Modestly wouldn't be concerned so much with physical appearance as how you smell--perfumed loin cloths would be popular.

They would be worried about all the same things, but it's a different sense. How would you put all that through the nose instead of eyes?

Well, I know during Catherine the Great's time, things were pretty shitty. Catherine decided to take a tour of her country, and her guard somehow hired actors and created fake sets while shooing the real citizens away in order for her to think that everything was okay as she traveled.

This is the internet though. Have you tried World Book online?

Heh! I never knew about the elaborate sham, but I can kind of believe it. I understand that the whole establishment of serfdom began as a response to refugee crises during the Mongol invasions and occupations. Russian serfdom was a famously shitty deal.

It's where the analogy of the "potemkin village" came from, if I recall correctly.

Even in russian christianity today may elements of the old pagan ways persist.There are still folk sorcerers over there.Perhaps you can seek inspirtaion for their mindset there.

I might look into that. The Vucari aren't monotheistic, so it seems logical that they'd have a number of major and minor gods, and possibly a lot of rituals.

Also are they canine,feline,ursine,or something else entirely?

They seem to resemble wolves,in mongolian and siberian indigenous beliefs,the wolf has a very high status.

Well here are a few things to consider about how the Vucari's diet might affect the developement of thier agriculture and in turn result in the birth of a relatively new social class in thier society:

Being based on wolves I can hazard a guess that the Vucari were primarily hunters, with that being a big deal in thier culture at least until someone got the idea (or took the idea) to raise domesticated animals for purposes such as food and materials for clothing. And in order to feed thier would be beasts of burden they would have to figure out how to cultivate land for the purposes of grazin; but who, in a society where hunting is a strong measure of one's worth, would willingly dedicate themselves to tending to beasts and tilling soil? In this it is likely the duty would fall upon those who for whatever reason might be less then adept at hunting and over time this job would become hereditary, and the descendents of these original herders and farmers might end up becoming the Vucari basis for both settlement and serfdom; just because the job they perform is a neccessity does not gauruntee them either the same rights as other Vucari or the same kind of respect, as there would likely still be a large emphasis on hunting for sport even if the more practical uses for it are no longer as neccessary as they once were.

Based upon the serfdom that was active in Russia during the time periods you've mentioned, its important to know that serfs are more bound to the land then to the lords of the manor itself; if the lord of land dies and his land is transferred to another, the serfs serve all the same. Serfs are not peasents in that that they lack the freedom to leave; I am not sure how Vucari concepts of nobility or class work, but this is all just meant as some food for thought about how more agriculturaly inclined members of Vucari society might end up being treated in a culture coming from a mostly carnivorous hunter society.

this is a little late, but when the one god religion was introduced to russia and neighboring areas, one of the "pagan" themes that was absorbed was the twin creators concept. One god was good, and created the good things in the world. The other god was bad, and created the bad things in the world. the really interesting part is that the twin creators didn't fight each other, but worked together to create the world. In some traditions in eastern europe and russia, God and the devil worked together to create the world. some ideas are nearly impossible to kill, much to the Church's chargin.