Archeologists tell us that the earliest bells in the Northern World were found in primitive proto-Glenrid societies. These first bells, bronze plates suspended from a wooden frame and rung with padded mallets, were used to signal the end of the working day and as instruments for laborers to play after work.  One might be as large as two meters across or small enough to place on a table top. Self-ringing bells, in the sense of requiring no external mallet, were invented later, and again these appeared first in the Ambarak region, though they quickly spread throughout the Northern World. Handbells or hanging bells with clappers (kulkun) and round bells rung by small spheres moving freely inside (kellis) appeared roughly simultaneously, within a generation of the establishment of the first unified Glenrid Kingdom. 

Chimes of kellis were used in Glenrid religious ceremonies. The largest and most ornate chimes marked the entrance to temple groves, and each season's Golden Toe priests carried leather strips hung with twelve or fifteen small kellis at all times, that they might be prepared to lead prayers or rituals whenever the need arose. It was also standard practice to adorn the trees close to one's own house with long strings of lightweight "tintinata" kellis. 

Kulkun were more common in the central regions of the Uzdumalian empire, where most government buildings had at least one large kulku that rang the hours of the day. Kulkun thus became symbols of imperial power, and their placement and use were regulated by sumptuary laws. During the Jacini Dynasty, for example, the emperor could have any number of bell towers at any corner or corners of his palaces. A minister of the first rank could have bell towers at only two corners of his residence. Ministers of the lower ranks could have one tower, at a north, west, or northwest corner. Officials and titled merchants could have a single free-standing or wall-mounted kulku, but no tower. Ordinary citizens were permitted handbells only. 

In the early post-Uzdumalian era, the Targhandic warlords who controlled Greater Uzda, the Kreyinten Peninsula, and the Tudint Valley outlawed the use of bells entirely, citing the ancient notion that bells have "temperaments," although this term had for everyone else long ago lost any anthropomorphic meaning. Many religious automata were destroyed as a result of these injunctions, as cymbals and kellis were commonly included in their construction. A similar prohibition was attempted in the Second Glenrid Kingdom, under Rabihi the Pliant, but there it was flouted in all but the most blatant ways. People might remove their kellis chimes from trees that faced directly onto a major street, but left them on their indoor trees and hung across their back gardens. According to contemporary sources, even at the height of Targhandism in the region, the sound of wind-tossed jingle bells could be heard in every corner of Ambarak.

See also:

Ambarak

Glenrid Tree Worship

Sumptuary Laws