#concultures

OK. OK. It’s not done really yet--I have yet to add fresh water and cities and all that stuff, and I need to chop off the bottom--the southern ocean is way to big. BUT I just got done tracing my old map of Aeniith into Inkarnate and I AM VERY EXCITED ABOUT IT. It took me like 3.5 hours but I feel so fulfiled!

This is gonna be totally disjointed, because I sprained my ankle and it hurts and I can’t really think straight, lmao. So.  ~

I’m thinking about gender roles in the different cultures of Aeniith. It’s something I thought a lot about over the years. Gotevian culture was one of the first that occurred to me. I say “occurred” because I definitely didn’t think of it on purpose or really choose to create it. It just happened, when I was very young.

Gotevian culture has always appeared to me as pretty gender-egalitarian. Not super patriarchal, not super matriarchal. Gender roles are comparatively open. Other-gender folks are recognized, not terribly stigmatized, and there are even instances of agender/bigender people in spiritual culture and history (e.g. in legend, myth, etc.). I’d also imagine that non-heterosexual relationships, while not officially recognized by the state, aren’t ridiculed or stigmatized either. Gotevians are more or less pretty chill about this kind of thing. I think the laws are pretty slow to change, however, so many same-sex couples will eventually be given the same legal status as hetero couples. 

I think the lines between what we’d consider “queer” and what we’d consider “not queer” are relatively comparable to modern progressive culture in the West but gender roles may be less defined in Gotevian culture. 

In Quarios, married or partnered couples are expected to provide for each other. There is no necessary expectation that women are domestic, or that men work outside the house. This is an economic distinction that isn’t particular relevant to gender roles in Gotêvi, at least not anymore. 

I think the reason the Gotevian culture originally developed this way (in my mind, I mean) was because this is kind of how my childhood image of gender was: my family is/was very open about gender roles, in pretty much every way. My mother was and still very much *is* a dominant force in my family, and my sister and I grew up a lot more fiery, outgoing, stubborn, etc. than my brother (and my dad is super chill and sweet, likewise). I grew up playing with just as many trucks, trains, and tools as I did with ponies, dolls, and fairies (fairies were a major part of my existence as a kid tho). So my early perception of gender as a kid was very much that...it wasn’t a restrictive thing. Being a girl, boy, or anything else was something you could be...but it didn’t mean that suddenly then you weren’t allowed to do or be other things.  That might explain the very early development of Quarios/Gotevian culture as pretty egalitarian on gender terms.

Later, I started imagining contrasts to this approach. I knew that Orikrindia had a line of kings--just kings--no sovereign queens. I knew this meant something about their society. That there were specific ideas about who could and should be rulers. Authority was interpreted as a masculine purview in Orikrindia, and because of this, independence for girls and women (and indeed any non-masculine people) was severely restricted. Hence stories like Elucuna’s, in which a young noble woman flees her country for a change at independence and mastery of her own fate.

On the other side of the coin, there is the Tosi Empire, which is highly matriarchal. I never imagined that a strict matriarchy would ever be ultimately any “better” than a strict patriarchy--it still restricts all of its members and makes life especially shitty for one half (or so) of the population. I knew the Tosi were expansionist, imperialistic, and had a society we’d consider pretty brutal, unfair, and probabyl downright cruel. Still, I knew there would be stories that would be worthy of telling. What is life like for men in Tosi society? How is it different from or similar to life for Orikrindian women? What other inherent differences in the two cultures would influence how individuals would experience their lives?  In trying to find the answers to these questions, I started writing about them. This is ultimately when the story of Elucuna and whence another story I am writing about a Tosi man and woman who are involved in political intrigue in the Tosi military. I personally feel that some of the most fascinating stories are told by those who aren’t necessarily very privileged in any society--the underdogs, the survivors, the people who’ve been given the shit end of the stick and still come through, traumas and all. I think these are some of the stories I’ve been yearning to explore in these fictional societies that have become so central to my personal imagination. 

~

In trying to decide how much “magical” stuff exists in Aeniith...I’ve determined the following:

- Weird things happen sometimes that no one can explain

- The same is true for Aeniith

- There are definitely telepathic individuals

- These people are few and far between, and more common amongst some groups than others

- The Ríli as a species have the neurological ability to sense the presence of other living beings with working brains

- They can differentiate between sentient people and animals, and tell approximately how far away they are 

- There are telepathic/precognitives amongst all races, but they are much more common amongst the Bayë and Ríli

- Those of the above who are born amongst the Tosi usually have short lives (because Tosi society is rough on people who are “different”)

- The Selupa may be harboring a group of precogs somewhere in the inner parts of their kind-of shadow government, but this is not totally clear yet

- There is a group of Bayë (totally a splinter group) in Elta (normally no Bayë live on this side of the planet) that are essentially psychic vampires. They draw energy from the minds of other people (animals only offer a small amount of energy), which eventually kills the other person if they continue to feed from them. These psychic “vampires” are called the Clussimeth

- Unlike true vampires, they can’t “turn” others. They can only kill them. 

- The Clussimeth are a very small group, and until recently, no one really knew where their home base was

- The Clussimeth will feature in one of my WIPs

- Ghosts may be a thing

- The circumstances in which ghosts exist are fuzzy

- They tend to be attached to places

- And to strange situations in the past that have gone unresolved by those in the modern age

- Ghosts are particuarly attached to places still inhabited by any of their descendents

Aeniith itself is a planet—a cohesive world in a fictional universe. The basic layout of Aeniith includes two lateral hemispheres. Just as the concepts of “eastern” and “western” hemispheres of the Earth are based on an arbitrarily drawn line, so are the two hemispheres of Aeniith. The “western” hemisphere is known as Keta. This includes two major continents, Quarios in the south, and Ei in the north. The name Keta means “cradle” in Gotêvi (also known as Gotevian or Gotêvinur), one of the languages spoken in Quarios and Ei.

The “eastern” hemisphere is known as Elta. Elta includes the continents Izoi, Naga, Arcuna, and Hizai.

Throughout Aeniith, there are various nations, countries, and cultural groups of different species of humanoids. The main species are as follows:

Amelae (singular Amel): these are the most physiologically “human-like” of the intelligent humanoids species of Aeniith. They live in Keta and Elta. They are also the most internally diverse species with regard to physical differences. Well known nations of Amelae are Quarios and Ei (made up of the Gotêvi and Lomi cultures), Orikrindia (the island east of Ei), the Arshi of Arcuna, and the Teg of southern Quarios.

Zuna: the Zuna live primarily in Elta, and are notable for being larger than most other species. They have higher sexual dimorphism, with the females typically being larger than the males. Well known nations of Zuna are the Tosi, Selupa, and Karkin.

Ríli (singular Ríla): these are some of the smallest of the peoples of Aeniith. They have greyish skin and typically stand 145-160cm tall. They are native to Izoi in Elta

Bae (singular Baa): the Bae are the most unique from the other species of Aeniith. They have physiological systems that none of the other peoples share, such as a separate circulatory system, low level telepathic abilities, the ability to absorb electricity from the nervous systems of others species into their own, very long life spans (800-3000 years, depending on the subspecies) and six fingers on each hand. They are unable to successfully breed with any other groups beyond their own. Because of their marked physiology, there are many theories across Aeniith as to their origins, although none has been proven. They are divided into several subspecies: Mei, Nonil, Megana, Quiluma, and Nirfai, which tend to have self-contained cultural groups. They live primarily in Keta, but some groups have traveled to Elta, most notably the Clussimeth (sometimes called “vampires” of the Bae), an offshoot of Nirfai, which live on Izoi. The term Bae is actually an exonym (name given to a group by another outside group) that is a Gotevian word, the plural of the word baa, meaning vaguely ‘spirit’. The Baen word for themselves is Iemir or ‘the people’. The singular form of this word is Iem or Em.

Amongst the peoples of Aeniith, interbreeding is possible for some. The most common by far is that between Amelae and Zuna. They are probably the most physiologically similar of any two groups. Many people of mixed Amel and Zuna heritage live in Elta especially (due to this being the side of the planet where almost all Zuna live), and some cultural groups exist that are totally integrated and consist of Zuna, Amelae, and many degrees of mixed-heritage people. One such nation is that of the Keresn.

thank you!

in short, the achiyitqans trace their mythological origins back to Aciy, who was the child of Hánaki (salmon-friend) and Unnáŋa (fox-follower) who were children of two warring groups (one human, one asali (fish-people-type-things)), and who ended up being raised by the other group due to meddlesome spirits, and each group wouldn’t tell their adopted child about their true origins or the existence of the other species, but then they found each other and figured it all out. (so the poem is allegorical, since they weren’t literally a fish and a fox, but based on this story, yea)