Tag Archive | reiassan

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.

World/Character-Building Fun Prompt Call – Dragons Next Door, Addergoole/Doomsday, Reiassan/Edally

Mar28

I had so much fun writing the four world/character/storybuilding stories yesterday that I want to do more! 🙂

But I’m still really busy with Sekret Projeckt. 🙁

So! No promises I’ll get to any of these, much less all of them, but here goes:

For Addergoole/Doomsday/FaeApoc, Dragons Next Door, or Reiassan/Edally, ask me any world/character building question that can be answered in fiction form.

For example: How did Akatil end up at Addergoole (I’ve already answered that one, short form), Where did Aud go to school? (another one already answered ;-)… I think you get the idea.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/915765.html. You can comment here or there.

Tweets about Reiassan Food, preserved for posterity

Mar26

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Something Later in the Rin/Girey timeline, just for fun

Jan19

Rin/Girey/Reiassan has a landing page here. The prompt was “something hot;” I ended up with something cold. Whoops!

“Remind me again why we’re up here?”

It was snowing; it had been snowing since they left the capital – no, in truth, it had been snowing since before winter had properly arrived. Southern-born Girey was miserable in the cold; Rin’s first tour of duty had been further north than this, and she was in her element.

“Well, we’re up here to check on a few problems that have been brought to the Emperor’s attention. And we’re up here because it’s harder to assassinate us on the road.” They were on one path out of seven to their destination, neither the most obvious nor the most hidden. “Ah, here.” She tilted her head. “A way-station. We can thaw out your bits.”

“My bits?” It was impossible to see his eyebrows through the layers of hood and scarf Girey was wearing, but Rin could hear the raised-eyebrow tone in his voice.

“Your bits.” She stifled a chuckle. “It’ll take a while to heat up, but it looks unoccupied.”

Half an hour later, they were down to three layers of clothes, their coats and hoods dripping dry by the doorway. The fire was burbling along merrily in the fireplace, and the tiny cabin was warming up quickly. “So.” Rin raised her eyebrows. “How are your bits doing?”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/886921.html. You can comment here or there.

Knowing Where His Place Is

Oct27

Egarengar had known things when he married Inatalana.

He had known that it was a political match first, a financial match second, and a match of compatible personalities third.

He had known that her title was so much higher than his as to be on a different ladder altogether, and that they were distance enough related that, if they had been goats, they would not have even had the same colors in their coats. He had known that she was a daughter of the Emperor, and that they would be expected to have many, many children.

He had known that he was stepping into a subordinate role, but one where he would be respected and honored, treated as a peer and not as an employee.

He had known all this because he paid attention, because he asked pertinent and impertinent questions, and because he had an extended family to tell him those pieces he hadn’t noticed on his own.

Watching Girey, he realized the young Prince had none of that. He did not know who Arinyanca was, not in the context of Lannamer. He didn’t know what position she’d offered him, in giving him the bracelet which Egarengar had carved. He didn’t know where he would stand in relation to the court he had been thrust into. All he knew was that Arinyanca had plucked him from a tent and dragged him across the length and half the breadth of Reiassan.

And yet, he was still standing, just behind and to the left of Rin’s shoulder, looking unfortunately Princely. And, more importantly, he looked as if he would smash the face of anyone who insulted Arinyanca.

The girl could hold her own, of course. She was Inatalana’s daughter and Egarengar’s. But Egarengar smiled to himself. He might not understand it yet, but the boy had found his place.

Written to [personal profile] kelkyag‘s prompt, or at least near it.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/837569.html. You can comment here or there.

Insult atop Injury

Sep18

Thimbleful Thursday is a new microfic prompt site (mine!). This week’s prompt was “Add Insult to Injury” and the word limit was 300 (270-300).

This piece is 303 words, and comes after Other Soldiers, Other Fates.

Reiassan has a landing page here.

“And there we go.” The chains between his shackles locked securely to the back of the goat’s saddle. “Ready to travel.”

Hiron had, he supposed, been in worse situations. He had been a thief before he was a soldier, after all, and a beggar before he was a thief – in far-South Bithrain, what was more, where beggars who did not have the excuse of an injury or a disfigurement were looked at as something lower than the shit the goats left in the gutters.

And yet there was something absolutely humiliating about being taken as a captive by a Calenni woman. Okay, the Calenni had won the war. Okay, long before that he’d gotten slashed in the calf and ended up in their stinking prisoners’ tent. Okay, long before that he’d found himself conscripted into the army, because the good lords weren’t wasting meals nor space on thieves when they could shove a sword in their hand and send them to the front lines.

All of that put nicks in what had once been a mighty pride. But now, now – still healing from the injury to his calf – Hiron found himself in the hands of a goat-faced Calleni woman.

“You’re pretty.” She patted his shoulder. “You’ll do just fine.”

Hiron found what was left of his heart sinking. He wasn’t being picked up as some sort of field-hand, was he? He had to have misunderstood. Her field-Bitrani was awful.

“I’m sorry.” He tried Calleni – nearly as bad as her Bitrani – in hopes that something would make sense. “I’m not-”

She grinned – like a goat, argh – and patted him again. “I know what you are. Mine, now.”

Hiron slumped against his chains. As if every blow he’d suffered wasn’t enough, he was being taken as a war-bride.

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