#madoire

come here

tell me where your body withers

come here

Riccio was a stupid boy. He did not live in a town by the forest where raveling men visit and lay their curses. He lived in a city untouched by legend, in a house where truths were told as lies. He was a boy who learned wickedness from his wicked parents. He could not hunt, or ride, or sing with any grace. But he was very good at faking. He faked until he went from a stupid boy to a stupid man. He did not speak, or barter, or bed women with any skill. He faked it with a pretty smile and charming words.

I tell you this so you will not cheer him. Riccio is not a hero. No one is a hero.

Look at you, asking all the tough questions. This is also a thing I have not thought about.

Cue making shit up off the top of my head!

I feel like, for the most part, giving and receiving things is the same as in our world. Give thanks, write letters to distant grandmas and aunts who mail you stuff, stew in guilt over things you don’t like/won’t use/don’t need but are unable to re-gift because it was a present, god damn it.

The only time gift-giving is taken upon with gravitas is in the case of the winter season. It’s the time of the season for loving. There’s a confusing hierarchy of romantic gifts (I’ve just decided this second), some of them convey a higher level of commitment than others. Certain foods, rings, hat pins, are all low level romance gifts. They sit on the line between good friends and casual lovers. Cakes with flowers on them are big gesture gifts, things that say ‘I would like to make a verbal agreement to only kiss each other and possibly meet each other’s families.’ Flower cakes are meant to be shared as a sign of commitment to each other. But sometimes people buy flower cakes just for funsies and they don’t mean anything. Hard to tell.

The biggest way of non-verbally confessing romantic intention for a person is to buy them clothes. Women who have dresses sent to them from lovers, or men who receive suit jackets or hats, know 100% that it’s a serious relationship, with implications of a future proposal.

Refusing a romantic gift is always super awkward. With the less important ones, y’know, it’s easier to just politely decline. If you get to the clothes-giving stage and aren’t feeling the desire to settle down, it’s basically expected that you return the clothes and then never speak to that person again. Returning gift says enough, and to explain beyond that would just be guilt-assuaging self interest.

In this post, I mentioned a hand gesture of lightly grasping at the air/bringing fist to chest in thanks. People do that all the time, especially when accepting things, and it’s usually followed by cheek kisses. Eliopians especially enjoy kissing.

Bleep bloop. I don’t know that much about the history of astronomy. But the world is loosely inspired by Victorian America, so I’m going to cop out and say they know about as much as people did back then. Which was not a lot compared to what we know now, but enough to get by on. The main tool of Victorian astronomers (as far as I’m aware) were big fuck off telescopes, and they would then try to hand sketch what they saw.

Artama hand gestures like

clapping when you want a group’s attention or you have a specific thing you want to talk about

it’s generally polite to clap back to signify the speaker has your attention

how the ‘back of hand to mouth’ gesture can be used both irritatingly to cede to in an argument or sarcastically to say ‘I guess I respect you,’ it can also be a very solemn and serious thing to show a person how deeply you care for and admire them

a vague, open gesture made by the ear to show someone you’re listening but aren’t going to look at the person talking. it’s not rude to stay focused on what you’re doing as long as you make the gesture

also

Artama families all have different calls for locating their children/family members, sometimes whistles, sometimes melodic notes just hollered across a distance; there’s an appropriate response children holler back to show they’ve heard and they are safe and they are still in earshot

silly endearments like, “rug” and “seed” and “stitch.” To say “you fill me up” to someone is to say you never go emotionally wanting with them in your life. “you are my bread.” and thus, “bread” becomes a lovely thing to call your sweetheart

in the country, you get endearments like “peach” and “plum”

specifically in regions with vineyards, you hear people telling their friends “you’re a good year/vintage”

I spent a really long time thinking about this because there are so many (too many) things I could talk about, but the most relevant is the Sun and Moon Goddess.

The legend goes that they have two faces, one for each side of themself, and their moods and whims dictate day and night, and in some ways, the seasons. When the sun and the moon are both visible in the sky, it’s said that the Goddess is looking in a mirror.

The difference in lore about the Sun and Moon Goddess is largely in the different ways religions approach the Gods. In Eliopianism, the Gods are a secondary focus of worship. They’re seen as distant, somewhat childlike, and too mercurial to depend on for leadership. “The greatest gift the Gods gave humanity was Our Lord” is essentially the popular thought. Eliopians call the sun and the moon Tian, and show them respect nominally as a celestial force, but not much else.

For the Artama people, the Moon Goddess Arte is their primary deity and the source of their strength. It’s believed by both faiths that these goddess stemmed from the same place and can be considered the same person, though the Artama largely ignore Arte’s presence as the sun. They build elaborate shrines and “feed” them daily. Most of their folksongs and dances relate in some way to the Goddess, they bake special foods for her on holidays, they paint crescent moons on the foreheads of newborns, all of that good worship-y stuff.

I have all of my personal notes and ideas about alchemy as per Madoire typed up and organized, but it’s great to find the research that sparked those ideas. I feel like I’ll have a much better time explaining things to people now, because I can say “oh yes, my laws are inspired in part by the Hermetic Principles and also this really great quote from Jean Dubuis.” I’d forgotten all about these things.