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The Robes and the Office, a piece of fic regarding Edally Academy

Nov11

Written about Empress Otyeriotanerio, Enrie’s great-great-great grandmother, who is mentioned in Edally Academy: The Missing Treaty. Or, at least, her robes are.

Otyerio tched at the piled layers of her formal robes. “I will not miss these. Robes are lovely. But when we’ve allowed them to become tents and shackles all in one,” she shook her head. “We’ve gone too far.”

She let her gaze trail over her gathered sons and grandsons. “I’d suggest one of you put your foot down. When it’s decided which foot will be be doing the putting.”

They shifted, some uncomfortably, some impatiently. Seven of them. Seven left who could qualify to take her throne. Her youngest son cleared his throat.

“Mother, you don’t know that this is your last festival. You could be with us for many years to come.”

“Oh, Edrinon, and disappoint Antonnon and Acadadar? They’re already sick of waiting for an old woman to die. And besides.” She looked in the long mirror at herself. Her braids, gone from silver to white in the last couple years, trailed in two simple plaits to her thighs. Her face was etched with too many years of debating and arguing, too many years of stomping her foot and standing patiently through festivals and parades. “There is a time to be done. And there hasn’t been a good battle in so long… in so long none of you were born when last I got to swing a sword at someone.”

“It’s a time of peace, Mother.”

She noted that, while Edrinon was still trying to talk her into staying alive longer, Antonnon and Acadadar were in no way trying to disavow their ambition. Good for them. You had to want the throne, or it would devour you.

“It’s a time of peace,” Empress Otyeriotanerio agreed. She held still while her maid slid on the first layer of her festival garments over the soft embroidered under-tunic. “And that means it’s time for a Peace Emperor, and time for the War Empress to get a well-deserved rest.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1008487.html. You can comment here or there.

Into Lannamer: the final (I hope) rewrite of a novel 10+ years in the making

Nov1

The war is over. Rin wants to go home. But if she doesn’t take the recalcitrant, difficult Girey with her, he’ll either be dead, the center of a rebellion neither nation can handle right now, or both.

Girey just wants to go home, too. But chained to the back of Rin’s goat, he’s finding himself going in exactly the wrong direction.

This is going to be a long journey!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/994734.html. You can comment here or there.

Notes on Rin and her place in the royalty of Calenta

Oct24

Rin is the fourth? in line for her grandfather’s throne. Some of those before her in line have recused themselves – not interested in leadership, focused on a calling in the priesthood, interested in romance with someone who didn’t want to be in a leadership position, or not interested in creating heirs for one reason or another. Many have died. Her grandfather is quite old, and has outlived handfuls of his heirs.

More than half of the royal heirs went into the army. Calenta has a heavily meritocratic society – their rulers were originally war-chiefs of nomadic tribes – and earning a high position in the Army is one way to prove your merit. However, it’s also a good way to die, especially with an active war boiling on the front.

When Rin left to study healing, she was fourteenth in line. When she left for the army she was ninth in line. Her cousin Elen was three behind her and now is one behind her.

Her mother recused herself long ago. Her mother is a scholar and prefers her books to people.

Probably –> recusing yourself is acceptable (being removed from the inheritance is not, is considered very shameful, and it /does/ happen), but it is a one-way street. You can’t decide to un-recuse yourself.

While I decided to get rid of the immensely complicated inheritance system I’d originally thought of, it still flips genders. I.e., since the Emperor is male, his heir WILL be female, his daughter or a granddaughter THROUGH a daughter, or, if one suitable cannot be found, from his mother’s or grandmother’s line.

This has made Rin’s uncle, who needs a name (though he might have one in an earlier draft), exceedingly cranky.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/997133.html. You can comment here or there.

So I’ve been playing with paper dolls (Reiassan fashion…)

Oct23

layering.png

And I made up a bunch of them to fit This paper doll to see if I could get the layering down.

…there really should be at least one more skirt layer…

This is Rin-Era, someone working in a middle-status job, like a city bureaucrat and –I just realized I didn’t check the buttoning side–

Oh, good. they all button to the right hip. Even if there’s a sort of excessive amount of decorative buttoning.

I tell you, button-maker has to be a high-status job in Reiassan.

Edited to add: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/photo/album/3134?page=1 the whole scrapbook!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/996608.html. You can comment here or there.

Some notes on clothing in Calenta/Reiassan

Oct22

I’m working on a tiddlywiki/setting bible, which meant pulling out all my old notes on the setting here, on the old wiki, everywhere, and beginning to compile them.

And then I realized most of the clothing notes, esp. for Rin/Girey era, were in my head and had evolved mightily.

So:

The basic unit of Calenyen clothing is the kiparrie* (orig. Qitari before I realized I didn’t have a Q…). This garment has a high band collar, either split on one side or split in the middle with an asymmetrical cut going off to one armpit (Chef’s coat, cheongsam).

The side the shirts close on indicates skilled worker vs. unskilled labor.

The garment is fitted at neck, chest, and shoulders; sometimes it is fitted down as far as the hips and sometimes it is looser, even baggy. It is worn down to the knees over full pants (tozhyu) or a full skirt (kanzhyu) (except in very warm weather, when it is sometimes worn over very short pants), and it (and the pants or skirt) is almost always worn in layers.

The number of layers is dictated by weather (In summer, this can come down to an undershirt and undershorts and a vest-like over-kiparri with, probably, a light pair of overshorts) and by formality. Layers in deep winter or exceedingly formal situations can number from four to ten.

* This, like “kimono”, is a generic term, with any number of specific terms depending on shape, length of hem and sleeve, purpose, cut of collar, etc…

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/995815.html. You can comment here or there.

Character Bible Rin and Girey Part One

Oct20

(From here)

Basic Questions
What is your full name? What name do you go by?
Arienyankarina, Rin
(Ah-reen-nyan-kar-in-nuah)
Do you have any other nicknames? Where did they come from?
Ariena – standard shortening of long names in my country
(Ah-reen-na)
What is your age?
I have had twenty-five birthdays
What is your birthday?
I was born in the rainy season, on the first day the rain came as water and not snow.
Where are you from?
Lannamer, the capital of Calenta
Where are you living now?
Oniarika, a city on the Bitrani-Calenyen border

Basic Questions
What is your full name? What name do you go by?
Girey Tel Darion, son of Fenry Ron Darion, king of Bithrain
Do you have any other nicknames? Where did they come from?
Prince, your lordship, your highness
What is your age?
Twenty-three
What is your birthday?
The first festival of Veignevar in the hot seasons
Where are you from?
The capital of Bithrain
Where are you living now?
Oniarika, a city on the Bitrani-Calenyen border

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/995083.html. You can comment here or there.

A Wedding, a drabble

Sep19

Two of Arinyanka’s younger cousins were helping her dress, while a third and fourth stood behind her on a stool, braiding ribbons into her hair.

On the other side of the room, two more of her cousins were doing what they could with Girey’s hair and beard. He was reading, holding the ancient scroll carefully while layers were draped over and around him. There was no complaining. He hadn’t spoken, as a matter of fact, since she’d handed him the scroll.

He looked up. There were eight other people in the room with them, but he looked directly at her. “This isn’t in any of the Bitrani histories.”

Rin opened her mouth to answer, but he beat her to it. “It wouldn’t be. We – the priests removed so much as heresy.” He set the scroll down with the reverence it deserved; a cousin stepped in immediately to clasp bracelets on both Girey’s wrists.

He cleared his throat. “I -” He shifted to Bitrani and tried again. “I understand.” His gesture, short as it was, took in the finery he was wearing, the Bitrani royal colors a repeated note in clothing that was otherwise entirely Calenyena.

“You don’t mind?” It was a foolish question, but the Girey she was wedding this week was so different from the one she’d kidnapped. She found herself still expecting some complaint, some whining.

He smiled crookedly. “Of course I mind. But I was always going to go to a state marriage, before. And this… this is a state marriage all right. Just… gaudier.”

Rin chuckled quietly. “Don’t tell me that Bitrani get married in mud and dirt colors, too?”

“Mud and dirt,” he agreed solemnly, “and don’t forget dust.”

“I’m afraid you’ll have to settle for getting married in silk and finest linen, then.” Her shoulders settled and Rin found herself smiling. “Not even itchy army-issue wool.”

“I suppose I can live with it.” The cousins were looking at him strangely. Girey laughed, a short sound she still didn’t hear often. “For you.”

Anti-slump prompt call

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/982493.html. You can comment here or there.

Early World- and Fashion-Building: Reiassan/Homeland

May29

Okay!

So, when we (I) talk about the proto-Calenyena (lit, people of the Calentata, from Bitrani/Tabersi Shalenti, rulership-by-lay-priest, see Caliphate.), I’m talking about the Rinzyanena, (lit, “People of Rinzyant,” “People-of-this-place”).

In turn, the Rinzyanena were formed from three-plus tribes of nomadic goat-herders who were trapped by a series of earthquakes in a lush southern valley. Although the tribes spent quite a bit of time warring, they spent their downtime talking with each other and intermarrying, to the point where they were eventually one people.

Fashion: the tribes who became the Rinzyanena (whose names are lost to history) wore four primary garments: a tightly fitted vest and very short pants or hip-wrap of brightly colored felted goat wool, and chaps and a long split jacket of the same. They had narrow woven wool fabric at this time, similar to tablet weaving. And most of their garments were heavily embroidered, since embroidery is a very portable craft.

It was not until they settled into a more agricultural lifestyle in Rinzyant Valley that they discovered a flax-like plant and began weaving fabric wide enough for garments; the first woven garment commonly in use was a sleeveless tunic, essentially a rectangle with a neck-hole and side seams, which went under the vest.

It was here that the use of the side-buttoning on the vest first began: they had recently created metal buttons. A tribal chief, wishing to be obviously visible in battle, had run a line of buttons very close together on right right side of his vest (he was left-handed). Soon, right-buttoning was a thing for chiefs and others they determined worthy, because a chief had first done it.

That’s all I have for today! Next tricky bit: the Rinzyanena meet the other two major nations on this continent.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/946199.html. You can comment here or there.

April A-Z Blogging Challenge: K is for Knitting (etc)

Apr14

The Meme Master Post

K is for knitting and kisses and kites

Good topics!

Knitting! I was going to start with the Oldest Egyptian Socks I’d just found last night whilst Googling Old Clothes, and then, while looking for sources, found this Blog Post on Knitting and the Oldest Egyptian Socks (which were made with Nålebinding, but hey, it’s close).

In my current quest to figure out Everything about Reiassan, I’ve been googling the oldest extant clothes, which is how I ended up finding the the Oldest Egyptian Socks. It’s not the first time I’ve come across Egyptian Socks, though, in my Reiassan research – I knit, so I was looking for evidence that the Calenyena might have picked up knitting early on in their timeline. (Further evidence shows that Egyptians did, indeed, knit as well as do nålebinding, so that works out.)

But that part of Reiassan started because someday, someday, I want to cosplay my setting. Probably at least two different eras of it (That’s what I get for writing a millennia-spanning setting). And when I started really getting into Reiassan was about the same time I started getting into knitting.

It’s kind of sad. I started getting into knitting because my baby cousin was having her first baby. She’s got three kids now and that first blanket still isn’t done.

I haven’t knit all that much since we got the house, actually, though I keep meaning to start again. It’s a nice thing to do with my hands that doesn’t take up all that much brainspace; it’s more relaxing that surfing the internet and more productive, too. *looks at pile of yarn and incomplete projects* also, it’s free, at this point.

Maybe I’ll do that. And blog about that, too. As well as the Fashion History of Reiassan and Homeland.

And, ah, kisses are nice and we used to fly kites every Easter and whoops look at that, out of time!

Catch you tomorrow for L~

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/922483.html. You can comment here or there.