Tag Archive | demifiction

Book Review: The Ideztozhyuh Strode Out of the Mountain (Reiassan Demifiction)

It is a truth of our people that goats have always been with us: we imagine, if we are fanciful, that we rode on goatback from between Reiassannon’s legs, back in the Time Before Time.

A recent paper penned by the learned Scholar Piebryo-Tis seeks to dispel that notion, along with several other of our closely-held family stories, as it were.

The Ideztozhyuh Strode Out of the Mountain, Lannamer Stone Press, tells a story – one nearly as unbelievable as the fable of riding from the goddess’s thighs, if with more scholarly backing – of a possible origin of the Calenyena people, and, perhaps more importantly, of our goats.

In the extensive pages of this tome, Scholar Piebryo-Tis details finds from dusty archives left sitting since The Voyage, as Ideztozhyuh Strode refers to the mythical travel from another world. In these finds, the story goes, lies evidence that the first goats were hardly larger than the horses you’ll see running around some mid-continent valleys.

While every schoolchild knows that goats are bred for stamina, size, wool, milk, and temperament, it is one thing to think of gaining a [term here translates as “knot” but means, pretty much, “hand;” a unit of measurement about 4″ or a decimeter long] or sleeker wool; it is quite another to think of starting from the size of a modern newborn kid.

That is, of course, not the only revolutionary idea in Scholar Piebryo-Tis’ work. Among other thoughts unlikely to come into common acceptance any time soon: that the Ideztozhyuh, Piebryo-Tis’ word for these proto-Calenyena, were illiterate until they encountered the mythical Writing People, who taught them language; that the Ideztozhyuh learned to dye fabric from the Bitrani (ridiculous! We’d still all be wearing brown wool!); and that the Ideztozhyuh learned to ride goats from a stranger from another mountain.

Scholar Piebryo-Tis’ sources are fascinating, and the work involved in finding all of this material was clearly well-done. If the Scholar would stick to the facts and not go off on weasel-tracks, this would be a much more solid read.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/773873.html. You can comment here or there.

Wanted Poster (Demifiction for Reiassan)

Find This Woman

Lutlin Red

(Woodcut of a sharp-cheeked Calenyena woman with a simple 2-braid hairdo and a scar across her nose)

Stole three goats from Amenet 7 Gidkah
Reward 20 High Kie for the goats
5 High Kie for Lutlin Red

(woodcut of three goats, one with curly horns, one with straight horns, and one with a broken left horn & a curled-back right horn)

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/773425.html. You can comment here or there.

Reiassan Demifiction – History Text involving Rin & Girey

Chapter 7
The End of the War

This history of humanity on Reiassan begins with war, and it nearly ended with war.

The Peace Treaty of 758 would likely have ended as all other peace treaties between the Calenyena and the Bitrani had – with betrayal, deception, violence, and war – save for two facts.

The first – that the tacticians of the Calenyen army engineered a decisive blow against the Bitrani, one which left their army dead or demoralized, many of their officers captured, and their people ready to surrender – is discussed in great depth in Chapter 8.

This chapter focuses on the secondary but no less important reason for the lasting peace, a peace that has, as of this writing, held for two hundred and fifty-two years with only very minor skirmishes to mar its record: Prince Girey of Bitrani.

When the heir to the Calenyen throne, Arinyanca, returned home to Lannamer from the front, she brought with her a single captive, the sole surviving claimant to the Bitrani throne. There is a great deal of debate about her motives in doing so, but one piece of her own writing sums it up quite nicely:

    Left where he was, one of three things would quickly happen: he would die as an officer, his identity never known. He would be revealed as a Prince, and die thus to solidify the peace. Or he would escape and foment rebellion.
    I chose to make a fourth option.

With that choice, Arinyanca very likely shifted the history of our world.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/769185.html. You can comment here or there.

Reiassan Demifiction – Shoes & Fashion (@inventrix) (Steam Era)

The Lannamer Chronicle1

Fashion Stories

The mid-summer2 festival is always a great spectacle and a wonderful time to see what the fashion world holds, and this year was no different.

The Lady Etaememevvyo3 made, as is her wont in recent years, the most impressive splash with her details. You may remember the hat she wore last year, done in an ancient Bitrani-esque fashion but with decidedly Calenyena notes?

This year, of course, Etaevyo4 was under obligation to out-do herself, especially with her elder sister’s wedding so quickly upcoming. And outdo herself she did!

Her headpiece this year was a more sedate thing, hearkening back to the ancient styles of her ancestors. It had to be; she presumably wanted nothing to draw attention away from her footwear.

And, for the first time in many a mid-summer festival – or perhaps in her life – everyone was staring at Lady Etaememevvyo’s toes.

The boots she wore – they have to be called boots – went up to her knees, as a riding boot or a campaigning boot might. However, the soft felt of their nature – dyed in streaks and swirls to complement the solid colors of her dress – was attached to a hard wooden sole, which had a wedge heel of at least a hand-span.

What’s more, the felt had been cut away strategically, so that Etaevyo’s toes, the arches of her feet, and her ankles remained bare.

Rumor has it that she will be auctioning off these boots at Kaidebbee’s. Last year, the affectation she called a hat sold for enough to finance the Pyietnaazh Orphanage for an entire year.

1. After some consideration of newspaper titles, I decided, short of making up the Calenyena word for “talking stick (which I should do), “Chronicle” was the closest to a Calenyena concept while still very clearly saying “newspaper.”

2. Lit. “Hot and Wet season.” The Calenyena recognize three seasons – Cold, Hot/wet, and Harvest.

3. Etaememevvyo: Ee-tay-meemeev-vyoh

4. Etaevyo: as is common in this era, the newspaper is shortening the Lady’s name to the familiar first couple syllables+last couple syllables.

5. This newspaper is contemporary with Edally Academy.

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Looking for some prompts/suggestions: Reiassan Demifiction

Pretty much [WARNING: TV Tropes] What it says On the Tin – I’m looking for a few prompts on demifiction in the Reiassan setting – any era, anything I could conceivably work into the setting.

I will write at least 4 pieces of at least 100 words during the month of August.

What is demifiction? – to quote [personal profile] lilfluff: “To quote [personal profile] ysabetwordsmith demifiction is, ‘Demifiction is imaginary stuff written as if it were nonfiction. This includes such things as reviews of books that don’t exist, fake movie posters, heroes’ shopping lists, etc. It can be challenging to write but it makes a great way to stretch your creative skills, and a really fun way to explore your settings.’

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/766110.html. You can comment here or there.