(no subject)

[sythyry]

[This will only make sense if you've read the previous entry from this morning. -bb]

A Pause for Imperialism [19 Hivvem 4261]

Me:"You're a whole emperor?"

Jrakh:"Well, yes."

Me:"That means you outrank Prince Nestrune?"

Jrakh:"Technically, yes. In practice, I'm with the low-grade barons, here, except when exotic counts for something."

Thelvion:"And you're married to three primes of three different species?"

Jrakh:"Well, yes."

Mintiet:"How does that work?"

The actual conversation was pretty confused and boggled. Here's how it works.

1. Dlesty is an empire, which is to say, five (in this case) city-states, all of them conquered by the single city-state of Dlesty Mene.
2. Dlesty Mene is a republic, with occasional democratic tendencies. It has a four-chambered senate which has most of the power, one chamber for each of the four populous species. Gormoror vote with Cani (which makes no difference). The one Zi Ri can visit any chamber any time zie wants, and harangue people, which zie does about once a decade. Sleeth and Khtsoyis don't get any votes. The other countries that Dlesty has conquered don't get to vote, though two of them have advisory powers to the senate.
3. Dlesty's figurehead-of-state is a four-person sacred marriage, heiros gamos, of one person of each of the four populous species. Jrakh is the Rassimel one. A heiros gamos rules as long as all four members live. When one dies, the next generation gets married and assumes power ... well ... powerlessness. Jrakh has been Emperor for six years, though she's only performed her actual imperial duties once year.
4. Those imperial duties are:
   1. Jrakh accepts tribute from the subject states. Not taxes -- one of her spouses is nominally in charge of taxes. Every year there's a ceremony in which the dukes of the conquered states humble themselves in front of Jrakh, and present her with great riches. Which she then donates to the citizens of Dlesty.
   2. She is the tiebreaking vote in the Rassimal Senate.
   3. If Dlesty conquers another city-state, she will ceremonially kill the duke of that state as part of the ceremonies of humiliation. After which, of course, the duke will be healed back to life and given a new title as subject duke. She expects to do this twice in the next decade or so. "And that's not giving away any state secrets. My Cani wife is nominally the Commander-In-Chief, but she doesn't have any more to do with the military than I do with the government. I just know what I read in the broadsheets."
   4. She and/or her spouses show up ceremonially at a variety of events; e.g., the start of most big sporting events, and the groundbreaking for civic buildings, and such as that.
   5. She and her spouses ceremonially open each year of the senate. In a way that really works a lot better if they're married.

Whiskey:"So ... you screw a Herethroy, a Cani, and an Orren in front of the most important people in your country?"

Jrakh:"yes" She sounded hideously embarrassed, not that I blame her.

Whiskey cheered and bounced around on the tables. "Yay, the kingdom entirely entirely ruled by traff!"

Jrakh:"No, you've got more of that in Vheshrame than we ever did."

Mintiet:"How's that?"

Jrakh:"Well, most of the upper classes at least flirt with everyone, and some have flings. With us it's just the heiros gamos -- anyone else doing it would be considered to be undemocratic. To be acting like the imperial family. It's absolutely not done."

Me:"Absolutely?"

Jrakh:"Well, it's absolutely kept secret, maybe. There'd never be a club like this."

Esory:"Jrakh? If you don't mind a very personal question..."

Jrakh:"Not at all."

Esory:"How do you feel about your spouses?"

Jrakh:"Dear. Very dear. I know what you're asking, though: am I really transaffectionate, or just a heirogamist? I don't really know. Loving them can be a lot of work, just like any arranged marriage."

We did our best to understand and sympathize, for a whole ninth of an hour, until Whiskey decided that this petty little emperor who wasn't him had been the center of attention for too long.

Comments

[wave-cannon.livejournal.com]

"Whole Emperor"?
Since when does one become half an emperor?

[brynndragon.livejournal.com]

Actually, it sounds like she'a a fourth of an emperor to me.

[wave-cannon.livejournal.com]

Hah

[kris-schnee.livejournal.com]

I still want to know:
-Why anyone, imperious or not, would travel 47,000 miles for a club meeting.
-More on this clearly-very-important concept of the "Rassimel bikini."
-How we're going to implement the duel-war system over here.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

She's a student at Vheshrame Academy. We've got rather a heap of future (and, I guess, present) heads of state here, with Nestrune as merely the stenchiest.

[zeeth_kyrah]

I suspect a Rassimel bikini is designed to show off a Rassimel's body in a way that, say, a Gormoror bikini never would.

[cattitude.livejournal.com]

A not entirely unserious question: would you rather be ambassador to Vae or ambassador to Dlesty? Because if being ambassador to Vae gets too onerous, you might just be able to arrange the other to get out of it.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

A terrible monster, or a very very distant country? Hmm... at the moment I think I will take the monster. She hasn't tried to kill me much lately, and the thought of exile in such a far land sounds unpleasant.

[brennabat.livejournal.com]

I thought I'd stop by and wish you well in your club! In fact, I am feeling the cross-dimensional kinship with you, for I too have joined a club of similiar nature, and I am finding it a great deal of fun. I hope your club will be the kind of community and support mine is to me. Next, you must run for Academy President! Nay, emperor! Empress? I do not know the the proper wordage for a Zi'Ri Emperor. Empressor!

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Hi, Brenna.

Tell me more about your club, if you wish? What is good about it?

I think my current day job of ambassador to Vae is enough and a half!

[brennabat.livejournal.com]

It's a college club for gay, bisexual, lesbian, transgendered and allies. Your counterpart is a black lesbian human woman of inspiring dedication! I suppose that the above club interests, with the exception of transgendered, is nothing unusual on your world; although, it in terms of acceptance by society, the interests are about equal. We meet in a dungeon below the Building of Student Gatherings and Also Lunchings Plus Pinball, where we make plans, and nibble, as you do. He had plans to go to a restaurant akin to your Across Saga, but those were cancled! Our fearless leader was snapped up by multicultural something something obligations! Foo.

On a side note, do you have transgendered individuals on your world? Your translator may need to explain all the details about that word, and its history on my world, as its too complicated for me to get in to here.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

How, counterpart?

No; there is nothing remarkable about taking a lover of the same sex, so long as they are the same species (in Vheshrame, at least). It's considered a bit frivolous, I suppose. And if someone is so devoted to it as to be remarkable, he (I am thinking of Havune here) may be teased a bit, especially by other-sex spouses. My first impression of your club was that it was analogous to a club for those who delight in sweet-flavored wine: an appreciation society, rather than a support one.

I thought I should remind you about Dustweed, but my translator said that zie is the closest equivalent of intersexed, not transgendered.

I don't know of any transgendered people for whom that is the most important problem.

But, well, read on.

[justicezero.livejournal.com]

While you may consider it frivolous, it has a social connotation in this place similar to your interspecies relations. At present our land is dominated in certain respects by a small number of powerful religious interests; At least three claim that sex is for the purpose of creating children and as such same-gender relationships are an abomination to be discouraged; at least one has extremely specific roles for each sex and as such considers it an abomination for there to be relations that do not meet the pattern; and those ones cover the majority of people. The continent.. I suppose 'branch'.. where most of those who might be responding come from is, for a variety of counter-intuitive reasons, heavily dominated by one of the former, though they pride themselves on not being thus dominated.

So far as transgender, I assume that might happen in case of some magical mishap at birth or such in your world. It's certainly not understood here. Your nearest equivalent, I expect, would be trans-species. By this, I hypothesise, for instance, a Cani who does not feel themself to be Cani but rather, a Herethroy. While technically able to participate in Cani society, it brings them no joy. Their wish would be to acquire Cloak of Another God to transform themself into a Herethroy and immerse themself entirely into Herethroy culture and life forever, feeling that the Herethroy form is their -real- form which an accident of birth deprived them of. Mind, this is seperate from traff, as they might become a Herethroy who is traff toward Cani. In this, I expect that culture and the limitations of spells might make life inconvenient, but the situation would be much more acceptable than our equivalent, as no good means of transformation has been found. (There is a poor, surgical equivalent, but it is, in my view, grossly insufficient.)

[brennabat.livejournal.com]

Counterpart meaning that you are both leaders of school groups, and brave ones at that! I'm not sure if she founded the group, but she does head it, as you do yours. Also, while some of our members might suggest it is also an appreciation society, I think our primary goal is to show a strong front as well as to provide various support.

I think it is our strong societal differences that make this difficult for you to see as similar. Indeed, I think we have origin conflicts! The nature of our creation is different, and, so, the peculiarities in our development may be vastly different. Transgender issues may not exist to the same degree on your world as mine, because the potential was not created by your gods. Plus, there's the whole matter of nurture, and, well, I'll leave it at the nature point.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Well, I dunno exactly who heads my group...

I will ask about transgender issues, when I get a chance. It's not something I've particularly met, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone in Across Saga were thusly cursed. While our species were made by gods, individuals were not -- witness Dustweed, for one unfortunate.