Customary Dominions

Customary Dominions

How it works: Every place, be it a simple home, an institution, or a public location, has social expectations tied to it, be it actual rules, customs and traditions, or just simple good manners. A private school might have a strict dress code for students. In a restaurant, customers are expected to tip and might be considered rude if they don't. It's simply polite to offer any guests in your home something to drink, especially if it's hot outside.

You have the power over a specific place. All social mores tied to that location can be tweaked at your leisure by changing existing mores, upgrading them from manners to rules or vice versa, modifying how strongly they are enforced or considered rude, outright removing them, or adding new ones from whole cloth. This can be done in multiple ways, depending on the place you have power over and the type of control you have.

Social constructs are there for a reason, and changing mores will change the general way actions are morally viewed by society at large, but that still won't stop people from forming their individual ideas based on their personality and the way they interact with the world.

Others will not know of the mores intrinsically, but their knowledge is based on their prior knowledge of the place. If a guy has visited that cafè for years he will probably know all of the traditions of the place, while the newly hired barista will probably have to be taught the rules on the first day.

Limitations: Your power is limited by the physical location of the place, and cannot trickle outside it except in the case of how the location is viewed, or in preparation for entering the place. For example, if you have control over a gym and make a new rule that customers of the gym have to wear pink leotards, only the customers of this specific gym will have to wear pink leotards, and only in the confinement of the gym. They will buy the leotard in preparation for going to the gym, and others will understand that that's just the rule of the place.

Also, rules and mores are all social, and as such they cannot target a specific individual. They can, however, be placed over a specific group of people, or a specific position inside the social structure related to the location.

Variants

The Heart of the Home: Every social more is kept and catalogued in a room or cabinet you and only you have access to. Your power takes effect by moving, adding, or removing files.

Hard Written: Your power takes effect by writing in a special book, binder, or anything that keeps a record of all modifications.

Soft Spoken: Your power takes effect by speaking.

Hard Written Rules, Soft Spoken Traditions: All rules must be written down on a special book or binder, and all customs are decided by speaking.

Lead by Example: Every action you do while manifesting your power is considered a new custom or rule depending on how it's shown to others. How mandatory these new mores are is dependent on how strictly you enforce them.

Retroactive Mores: Every change also alters the past, so that the social more has always been in effect. You can specify when the effect initially began, and how or why it was made.

Reality Realm: Your power over a location can change the fabric of reality to accommodate and your changes on people.

Amoral Mores: Every change you make to an existing rule or custom will treated as amoral by everyone. Individual judgements over it are cast aside as things are just the way they are.

Chain Enterprise: You not only have control over a singular place but over all places tied to a singular company or properties of a singular individual. All mores and traditions will start taking effect from the closest building to you and slowly expand to the entire enterprise.

Every Town has a Pub like this: You have control over a specific kind of place, and your changes will affect all places like it. The power will start taking effect from the closest building to you that fits the description and slowly expand from there.

Administrative Power: Your power has been given to you legally, and with it, you have administrative duties you're expected to fulfill. Just as you have been given your power, it can be taken away if those expectations are not met.

Legal Hell: You can impart a new rule, but it will not take effect immediately. All bureaucratic steps to make the rule legally binding must be completed and processed first. In the meantime, people may begin preparing for the change while waiting for the rule actually to become binding.

Cosmic Coincidence: You can impart a new social more, but it will not take effect immediately. Stars will align to create a happenstance that will create the social norm in the future. In the meantime, you can relax and watch all the puzzle pieces slowly come together.