Thinky Thoughts
May. 22nd, 2012 02:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
weirdletMore on Princess Aksinya and her adventures with 'Prince' Shaan.
So, I need to figure out what these two actually get up to. What are the stakes in their adventures? And more importantly, why the hell is Aksinya's family willing/all fired up to get her out of the palace?
It's got something to do with the spirits, I think. The fact that she's actually really pretty good at what she does with the family magics, to the point where she could perhaps make bargains of her own with some of the older, deeper, creepier ancestral monsters- how do you prevent your sub-chiefs from clamoring for war you don't want, if your daughter could actually raise up a kraken? How do you excuse not using a member of the royal family to the fullest extent of their potential abilities?
Marry her off to a foreign barbarian and ritually/magically cut ties with her from the family magic, of course. She'll still be able to scry a bit, sure- make water-drops dance along her fingers like a pickpocket with a coin. But she won't be able to summon the sea-wolf, or the thunder-cliff horses, nor guide great fleets through ice or traverse the deep-sea waters and ask questions of the ancient things there.
There will be no blood-dark water-priestess at the head of a relentless army, bringing the sea and its creatures to salt the earth wherever she goes.
Huh- so that makes Aksinya our resident Prophesized Evil McGuffin, it would seem. And her fiance may think this is a nasty trick that got played on her people, to fob off an assassin-baiting, god-troubling mage-hobbled witch on them- but she also likes Aksinya, a lot. Certainly Shaan doesn't want to take the expedient route and kill her or hand her over- not only would that be an idiot's move for someone who doesn't want a conquering army devouring her folk, but it would be absolutely dishonorable not to protect her friend and partner. There were words spoken. She made a promise.
So it's the open road for them.
So, I need to figure out what these two actually get up to. What are the stakes in their adventures? And more importantly, why the hell is Aksinya's family willing/all fired up to get her out of the palace?
It's got something to do with the spirits, I think. The fact that she's actually really pretty good at what she does with the family magics, to the point where she could perhaps make bargains of her own with some of the older, deeper, creepier ancestral monsters- how do you prevent your sub-chiefs from clamoring for war you don't want, if your daughter could actually raise up a kraken? How do you excuse not using a member of the royal family to the fullest extent of their potential abilities?
Marry her off to a foreign barbarian and ritually/magically cut ties with her from the family magic, of course. She'll still be able to scry a bit, sure- make water-drops dance along her fingers like a pickpocket with a coin. But she won't be able to summon the sea-wolf, or the thunder-cliff horses, nor guide great fleets through ice or traverse the deep-sea waters and ask questions of the ancient things there.
There will be no blood-dark water-priestess at the head of a relentless army, bringing the sea and its creatures to salt the earth wherever she goes.
Huh- so that makes Aksinya our resident Prophesized Evil McGuffin, it would seem. And her fiance may think this is a nasty trick that got played on her people, to fob off an assassin-baiting, god-troubling mage-hobbled witch on them- but she also likes Aksinya, a lot. Certainly Shaan doesn't want to take the expedient route and kill her or hand her over- not only would that be an idiot's move for someone who doesn't want a conquering army devouring her folk, but it would be absolutely dishonorable not to protect her friend and partner. There were words spoken. She made a promise.
So it's the open road for them.
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no subject
Date: 2012-06-03 12:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-03 08:30 am (UTC)Their people are a bit Mongolian, a bit Mercedes Lackey's Shin'a'in, a bit Fire Nation in the love of reds and a bit ancient Celt/Semitic in that they're big on herding and hunting, things that keep you on the move but with strong home-bases to return to. Shaan's palace is a tent that houses her family and their treasures, and it moves from season to season as they rove through their territories.
There's this tendency to have nomads as barbarians- that's not really what I'm going for. They have a very wealthy, sophisticated, and mobile kingdom.
Back to Shaan and her brother. Because she was born first and because all children of the king/khan are princes, she's been pushing herself as a warrior- but a certain level of badassery is considered the norm for any member of the moving people. Her brother is a bit more scholarly by inclination, possibly in training to a priest or a magic user (or both). In this situation where the girl twin is born first and must take the role of a man, it's normal for her brother to back her up when it comes time for children- unless she were to marry a boy who has taken the role of a woman, such as an actor or a shaman. They've got a firm man/woman role setup for marriages- but the actual sexes behind the roles can be negotiable. Someone wears the topknot and someone wears the earrings- someone orders the household from the inside and someone protects it from the outside.
Shaan and Rahnjen look similar, but Rahnjen smirks a little more slyly and has always got a book or a scroll or a brush to hand, and he's always got a note written in ink on his arm or his wrist. When he can get away with it, he joins his sister while she's observing the herd for danger and he studies in the sunshine. Sometimes there are small wars fought with fruit-pits.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-03 02:50 pm (UTC)What are fruit-pits?
no subject
Date: 2012-06-03 05:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-03 08:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-03 08:34 pm (UTC)