A Fractal of Loops

Brocade is a very interesting fabric.

Brocade is woven, and the way woven fabric works, generally, is that the vertical threads are fed through the mechanism of the loom, then raised and lowered in groups. As you raise a group of threads, you pass one line (called a pick) of horizontal thread through it. Then you lower the first group of warp threads and raise the second. When you''re making very basic plain weave, there's just 2 groups, the odd and the even threads. This determines the picture, because raised threads are visible on the surface of the fabric, while lowered threads are on the underside. I work with a 4 shaft loom, so I have 4 different groups that can be raised or lowered (either shaft by shaft or in pairs and trios. That gives me enough flexibility to make diamonds, squares, and some undulating and zig-zag lines. More complicated looms sold for hobby weavers will give you 8 or 16 groups and those patterns can be more complex.

But to make images as complicated as wrestling cats, you would need dozens or even hundreds of different orders of threads raised and lowered. So, historically, what was instead used was a draw loom which rather than having a huge number of shafts you just raised and lowered each thread independently, for each line of thread in the fabric. This required two weavers. One to raise and lower the threads, one to weave. A really good draw loom team could weave brocade at a rate of about an inch a day (Essinger, James (2004) Jacquard's Web. Oxford University Press, Oxford UK pg 16 - 17).

This all changed with the invention of the Jacquard Loom. The Jacquard loom stores the pattern in punch cards, one card per row, and once the cards are loaded onto the loom the pattern of raised and lowered threads is determined by the cards (the mechanism for raising the threads literally rises through the holes in the binary punch cards). This totally changes the cost and availability of luxury fabrics, because on a Jacquard Loom, that same complicated brocade can be made by one weaver, at about 24 inches per day (Essigner, James (2004) Jacquard's Web. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK pg 38).

The punch card mechanism from the Jacquard Loom, is the directly ancestor of punch card computing, which is where we get all modern binary computing from.

So what do we think guys?

I was going to say 'also at 1 inch/day I would expect such a brocade to be used for formal clothing, possibly a robe or something. i.e. seen publicly, whereas bed hangings are a LOT more fabric even than full floor-length robes or a cloak with a train, AND they would only be seen by the emperor, his servants and nohecherei, and perhaps his wife and/or mistress. Despite the reference to 'gentlemen of the bedchamber' the eudocharei are straight up servants, they're not an aristocratic buffer between the emperor and the lower servants.

“The world wavered distressingly before Maia’s eyes, but Cala grabbed his arm and all but forced him to sit. “Put your head down,” Cala said, and he did not sound at all like he was talking to an emperor. “Deep breaths. That’s it.”"

You're sixteen. You are your father's only daughter. You are very beautiful. You know you are beautiful. More people than your father have said that the emperor himself is taken by your beauty. It is well-known that the emperor was forced to marry a woman he found quite ugly- but like his other wives, she's dead. Maybe a part of you considers that for a moment, worries a little, but most of you sees an opportunity. You are very beautiful, it's the most important attribute you've had your entire life. So you become the sweet, beautiful elven girl you know the emperor must crave. You dress in beautiful gowns and smile at him shyly when he asks to dance.

(He's so old, you think, holding his wrinkled hands. But you can feel the power swirling around him. People fear this man, this man who is touching you so softly, so reverently. You've never had power, not like this and it's intoxicating. When the marriage contract is signed, your father is ecstatic. For the first time, you think, he might be glad you are a daughter and not a son. )

You're eighteen and married to the emperor. You are the empress. And no one cares. The Untheileneise Court is a place rife with rumors and vipers. You've heard the murmurs (never said in your presence or the emperor's) about why an old man who is likely past his childbearing years would choose a young woman with nothing to offer besides her beauty. The emperor himself treats you like you're delicate, breakable, little more than a possession or a trinket. He chooses your dresses and has your hair dressed in elaborate styles. You are the empress, and you have no more power than you ever have.

You're twenty and have nothing to do. The emperor still gives you nothing beyond his suffocating doting, no matter that you've thrown tantrums, begged, pleaded. You can be more than a beautiful doll. You have nothing to do but spread vicious gossip about those you hate most. When you hear something about the previous empress being mad, it's the barest effort and satisfying to spread the rumor further. The emperor has little regard for his fourth wife, so even if he were to notice the gossip, he's unlikely to censure you for "behavior unbecoming an empress". It's a giddy, pointless thrill.

You're twenty-one and your cousin has become embroiled in a scandal so vile that your family has disowned him. You and your cousin have never liked each other (despite his lifestyle choices, his vow of poverty, his eerie obsession with death, he's had more freedom than you've ever enjoyed. He's had choices.) But of course, he can stay with you, you are not beholden to your grandmother's will. It's a choice you can make and for once, no one can stop you. The emperor, as much as he notices, can say nothing about an obvious act of charity.

(There are rumors, of course. But it's a simple matter to redirect attention to other matters. Your cousin's story is juicy and you will tell it, but you will spin it so that you are the benevolent empress helping a wayward soul.)

You're twenty-two and your husband is dead. You did not love him. You did not like him. In some ways, you may have even hated him for the way he treated you. But without him, you have nothing. You are nothing. Your only chance is to gain power with the half-forgotten fourth son who has never been to court.

You're sixteen. You are your father's only daughter. You are very beautiful. You know you are beautiful. More people than your father have said that the emperor himself is taken by your beauty. It is well-known that the emperor was forced to marry a woman he found quite ugly- but like his other wives, she's dead. Maybe a part of you considers that for a moment, worries a little, but most of you sees an opportunity. You are very beautiful, it's the most important attribute you've had your entire life. So you become the sweet, beautiful elven girl you know the emperor must crave. You dress in beautiful gowns and smile at him shyly when he asks to dance.

(He's so old, you think, holding his wrinkled hands. But you can feel the power swirling around him. People fear this man, this man who is touching you so softly, so reverently. You've never had power, not like this and it's intoxicating. When the marriage contract is signed, your father is ecstatic. For the first time, you think, he might be glad you are a daughter and not a son. )

You're eighteen and married to the emperor. You are the empress. And no one cares. The Untheileneise Court is a place rife with rumors and vipers. You've heard the murmurs (never said in your presence or the emperor's) about why an old man who is likely past his childbearing years would choose a young woman with nothing to offer besides her beauty. The emperor himself treats you like you're delicate, breakable, little more than a possession or a trinket. He chooses your dresses and has your hair dressed in elaborate styles. You are the empress, and you have no more power than you ever have.

You're twenty and have nothing to do. The emperor still gives you nothing beyond his suffocating doting, no matter that you've thrown tantrums, begged, pleaded. You can be more than a beautiful doll. You have nothing to do but spread vicious gossip about those you hate most. When you hear something about the previous empress being mad, it's the barest effort and satisfying to spread the rumor further. The emperor has little regard for his fourth wife, so even if he were to notice the gossip, he's unlikely to censure you for "behavior unbecoming an empress". It's a giddy, pointless thrill.

You're twenty-one and your cousin has become embroiled in a scandal so vile that your family has disowned him. You and your cousin have never liked each other (despite his lifestyle choices, his vow of poverty, his eerie obsession with death, he's had more freedom than you've ever enjoyed. He's had choices.) But of course, he can stay with you, you are not beholden to your grandmother's will. It's a choice you can make and for once, no one can stop you. The emperor, as much as he notices, can say nothing about an obvious act of charity.

(There are rumors, of course. But it's a simple matter to redirect attention to other matters. Your cousin's story is juicy and you will tell it, but you will spin it so that you are the benevolent empress helping a wayward soul.)

You're twenty-two and your husband is dead. You did not love him. You did not like him. In some ways, you may have even hated him for the way he treated you. But without him, you have nothing. You are nothing. Your only chance is to gain power with the half-forgotten fourth son who has never been to court.

it's not just "that doctor has internalized misogyny" it's that western medicine is, as in so many parts of our culture, deeply authoritarian. the patient is meant to be a passive problem to be solved by the active doctor. there is meant to be a stark harsh line between you and the doctor, where you are pure of any medical knowledge and simply report the raw data & let the doctor interpret it. this is how the system works. it fucks over marginalized groups the most because that's how marginalization works, but even a thin white abled cis man could get fucked over by this shit if he's unlucky.

First time through Goblin Emperor this is just setting detail but coming back to this detail about the Cetho Ulimeire after finishing Cemeteries of Amalo it reads totally different doesn't it?

Brocade is a very interesting fabric.

Brocade is woven, and the way woven fabric works, generally, is that the vertical threads are fed through the mechanism of the loom, then raised and lowered in groups. As you raise a group of threads, you pass one line (called a pick) of horizontal thread through it. Then you lower the first group of warp threads and raise the second. When you''re making very basic plain weave, there's just 2 groups, the odd and the even threads. This determines the picture, because raised threads are visible on the surface of the fabric, while lowered threads are on the underside. I work with a 4 shaft loom, so I have 4 different groups that can be raised or lowered (either shaft by shaft or in pairs and trios. That gives me enough flexibility to make diamonds, squares, and some undulating and zig-zag lines. More complicated looms sold for hobby weavers will give you 8 or 16 groups and those patterns can be more complex.

But to make images as complicated as wrestling cats, you would need dozens or even hundreds of different orders of threads raised and lowered. So, historically, what was instead used was a draw loom which rather than having a huge number of shafts you just raised and lowered each thread independently, for each line of thread in the fabric. This required two weavers. One to raise and lower the threads, one to weave. A really good draw loom team could weave brocade at a rate of about an inch a day (Essinger, James (2004) Jacquard's Web. Oxford University Press, Oxford UK pg 16 - 17).

This all changed with the invention of the Jacquard Loom. The Jacquard loom stores the pattern in punch cards, one card per row, and once the cards are loaded onto the loom the pattern of raised and lowered threads is determined by the cards (the mechanism for raising the threads literally rises through the holes in the binary punch cards). This totally changes the cost and availability of luxury fabrics, because on a Jacquard Loom, that same complicated brocade can be made by one weaver, at about 24 inches per day (Essigner, James (2004) Jacquard's Web. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK pg 38).

The punch card mechanism from the Jacquard Loom, is the directly ancestor of punch card computing, which is where we get all modern binary computing from.

So what do we think guys?

I was going to say 'also at 1 inch/day I would expect such a brocade to be used for formal clothing, possibly a robe or something. i.e. seen publicly, whereas bed hangings are a LOT more fabric even than full floor-length robes or a cloak with a train, AND they would only be seen by the emperor, his servants and nohecherei, and perhaps his wife and/or mistress. Despite the reference to 'gentlemen of the bedchamber' the eudocharei are straight up servants, they're not an aristocratic buffer between the emperor and the lower servants.

We know that Maia's not exactly the most reliable narrator. Don't get me wrong, I love him, and his behavior makes sense! He grew up in an abusive household, and he can't help but see everything through the lens of trauma... But that doesn't make him right; he likes Dazhis & is wary of Beshalar, but Dazhis is the one the betrays him, whereas Beshalar literally puts himself between Maia and an assassin. Maia assumes that the children won't want anything to do with him/they must secretly hate him, though by all appearances, they do not. Maia is wary the archprelate, but all the archprelate does is show Maia where his mother worshiped & offer to get him a chaplain without judgement.

We also know that Csevet is our/Maia's view into the court & who is and isn't trustworthy. He dislikes Tethimar the Asshole, so we/Maia know that that Tethimar is an asshole & not to be trusted. He gives Maia a hint about how Csoru behaves so that Maia can react appropriately. He encourages Maia to have the children over for Maia's birthday & he's right that they enjoy it. When Csevet arranges for Csethiro to be Maia's bride, we know that things will work out despite their initial meetings because Csethiro is Csevet's choice & we can trust him.

Given those two things... How much of Maia's initial impression of Esaran can we take as accurate? After all, Esaran and Csevet are friends, and Csevet is our guidepost for who is and isn't trustworthy in the court...

I just... I genuinely wonder if Esaran is as "bad" as Maia makes her out to be? When Maia first meets her, he describes her as, "[...] he realized, his heart sinking, that here was one who had served his father with her heart as well as her mind." And it's like. Maia. Maia, honey. Maia, sweetheart.

Maybe she's grieving.