#xaurius

"Behold, one of our most traditional snacks."

She then showcases another bag of snacks, in this one the crickets have been chopped into smaller pieces, tossed with a flavored batter and fried crispy. "A more involved process."

She then picks up a bag of potato chips that is meant to be flavored like the traditional snacks, and has a bit of powdered cricket in the flavoring dust. "Barely even counts as eating bugs."

As she puts the potato chips down you can see a small pile of other snacks, mostly crispy and made with more crickets, mealworms, a bag or two with ants on the packaging.

She then moves, the camera showing a giant pile of many varieties of snack with all kinds of bugs, the branding Alternian. The snacks are taking up almost half of a sofa, with some falling onto the floor. Ali sits sideways on the sofa, holding the phone up high so that the snacks make up her background. "I am the queen of Xaurius. Matriarch of the most powerful Xaurian family. This?"

She slumps backwards on the snacks, there is much rustling of packaging, several more bags fall to the floor. Her expression is aggrieved.

"Is making me feel inadequate."

----

The Xaurians have not had bugs as a cornerstone of their diet for a long long time, they are a very old fashioned food.

Meanwhile, Alternia.

Point for Alternia.

Ali keeps two charms dangling from her horns. The Raven rose is made of gold and dangles off a simple gold ring from a matching chain, it's located on the swoop below her horn tip on the left side. The Ampora sign is hanging off a horn-cap, also made of gold and very pointed at the tip. It's on the right horn, and while the horn cap, chain, and sign are made of gold, the sign itself is enameled violet. Xaurians are very fond of enamel. Easier to get exact colors, since they love repping their family colors or wearing a loved one's eye color (Xaurians when in their natural, non-human based form tend to be colors that blend into the natural rocks of their homeland, but eyes are vibrant and gem-like. Often enhanced by the glow of magic, which can be several shades and was mentioned in another post. Hair can be any natural human color but black is considered most traditionally attractive).

Also, I'm posting more baby lore after work if I can get my muse to survive that long o.o

Screenshot because I'm lazy

I would like to start properly designing the Raven sigil, the casual one is very similar to normal rose heraldry but with pointed petals, since that's how I used to draw roses all the time. Since some of the worldbuilding is that old I'd like to keep it. Main colors are gold and purple. However, I've never seen this cross before? I'm wondering if I could get some tree vibes out of it, maybe if I made the background green? I'd keep the line art gold. The tree would be more obvious in more detailed uses, like embroidery on clothing, a tapestry, or a painting, maybe even mosaic. I dont know how well it would read as tree otherwise. Might just stick to the rose with a pentacle at the center. Need to download a drawing app. This poor tumblr needs a profile pic lol.

They are an old dynasty now, but their founder was a miner-turned-gladiator. His mother kept a few rose bushes in her front yard, and they were moved to the courtyard once their palace was built. The rose garden is well cared for and established. If you are ANYONE to the Ravens, you've had a flower arrangement with their roses included gifted to you at least once.

The pentacle is merely to imply strength in magic, etc etc.

Very very good at mobility aids/other accessibility

Its fun for them, they love inventing. Do you want your new leg to have a foot or hoof? (Hooves can help with frequent climbing, stairs or hiking, etc due to how they craft the ankle joint/how the hoof can grip uneven surfaces)

Xaurians- make things look as physically whole and 'normal' as possible, glasses and certain minor scars excluded. Believes in 'fixing' over 'treating'. Very look-ist as a culture overall.

Much better about medication though, very accepting. You'd be more likely to hide your use of meds from an elven elder than a xaurian.

But that still is mostly "getting close to 'normality'" though they see it as kindness. As with everything Xaurian, they prefer to not dwell on their cultural issues.

(Ali is partially a self insert but Heather has an understanding of the gods that is oddly familiar, even for a Raven. Perhaps especially for a Raven. I thought it would be funny to write a character that doesn't fear the gods as much cause she kinda gets them.)

I do a lot of brainstorming and eureka-ing while stressed at work, which sucks cause it don't have time to write anything down, i just pray I remember it.

Heather has a retinue of her 4 year old son, his 4 child companions (two are orphaned xaurians raised by the Temple, two are orphaned alternian refugees who have been taken in by the older knight/priest couple who are also in Heather's retinue. There's a seven year old, a five year old, and a three year old. The Ravens are trying to include alternians to improve trust between royals, xaurians, and alternians.) And a Temple group, I haven't decided what to call it but they consist of two priests and 3 guards, though they are referred to as knights when in westeros. They have both Temple and royal approval, its close enough to a knighthood. Heather also has two handmaidens/ladies, one is a woman from an old money xaurian family and the other is a cerulean blood.

The Temple group includes an old married couple, they have kids and grandkids and are in their 1700s, kind of old to still be working but they're in excellent health, love what they do, and will probably continue working for decades to come before retiring. The husband is a priest, he is helping train the secondary priest, a novice priestess but very capable healer. The three guards include two temple guards and one yellow blood, borrowed from the Palace's household guard. He wasnt a strong enough psionic to become a helmsman but he did occasionally charge stuff. He mostly did IT and cleaning and stuff. He was stationed on a threshecutioner ship until sgrub happened and made friends on the ship (mostly a few wrigglerhood friends who were lucky enough to be stationed on his same ship after they were conscripted as threshies) who taught him sicklekind. He received further training in Xaurius, both from retired threshies and by the people running the Palace guard, once his 'platoon' was sent there (his buddies old platoon, they took him along for the ride. He was a decent enough fighter that the Xaurians didnt mind).

I think thats everyone. The two royals, two handmaidens, the Temple group, the kiddos grabbed so baby wouldn't get bored of all the adults.

This will probably be a project unwelcoming to those who are strictly asoiaf folks, but imma be real it's mostly my mutuals who read my writing anyhow, from what I've noticed. Also, refer to the words at the tip of my blog.