#taa’yn

[accursedkaleeshi]

can we see some of the wives with kids I love them all so much

Taa’yn! Giant mom (7ft 9) takes pups for a shallow splash.

ft. Jerenru, Rondaja, Alīka, ígira, Vangolla, Ki’qarn, tiny Fyerri & Y’tyrim (Blys’aan’s 1st)

[tuberculosis-bot-9000]

Me reading the new chapter of Sahuldeem:

[accursedkaleeshi]

Gal'Jyn!

TL:DR Lore for our favorite foodie. The fraternal brother of Taa’yn’s triplets. A big boy with a big heart & an appetite to match. His ingpriva was a pot of soup made with his favorite chicken to honor Blys’aan. Gal’jyn stayed at the homestead & became the Sun & the Son of the Hearth, feeding his aging mothers & the community that sprang up around them. He married a northern kaleesh & had several children. 1k words below the cut!

Gal’jyn hatched in 32 BBY after taking his sweet time absorbing all the yolk in his egg. He proceeded to eat every bit of his shell as his family watched & then beeped indignantly when there wasn’t any more. Grievous remarked that they had a kiibri on their hands & deemed it appropriate to name him after his maternal grandfather. A kiibri (translating roughly to “food baby”) was a label used like foodie with the added implication of being a troublemaker in the quest for food.

Gal’jyn embodied the definition of kiibri in his early years, often getting him & his sisters in trouble. If he could get his little claws around something it went straight into his mouth. Grievous made his wives promise to tell any girl Gal’jyn may bring home in the future about the bean incident, wherein Gal’jyn got him & his (scared & confused) sisters trapped in the dark pantry so he could stuff his face with beans. They had to go so far as to turn him upside down to get him to relinquish his hoard. Even then, father had to fish beans out of his ear canals with his circuit board tweezers.

Since there was no keeping this boy out of the kitchen, Gal’jyn became the first coveted kitchen-prep pup. Blys’aan curbed his seize-first-ask-later attitude with swift spoon justice. Under her watchful command he learned to respect food as he got older. This was great! He loved food, he loved his family: he got to give his family food & they would love him too!

When Blissy’ma got sick he was sure some good soup would clear things right up like it always did. But it didn’t. When Blys’aan died Gal’jyn was especially inconsolable. He cried constantly but he had to be in the kitchen even if the sun was gone from the hearth. He would get in fights with Mertenzi & even father when he thought they weren’t doing something right. They had to banish him to the pantry until he could calm down.

Gal’jyn continued to be depressed & unsure for over a year. Even as he would help his older siblings with their ingprivas & try his best to understand his parents’ consolations about loss. One day he was out feeding the asiil when he noticed his favorite hen was not doing well. Le-Mumä Siisi (Big Lady Chicken) was the matriarch of their pen but she was almost as old as he was. She was blind & graying & getting bullied out of food.

Gal’jyn’s heart sank again. He gathered Le-Mumä up & hid her in his bunk for a few days, trying to help her get better. Eventually, sniffling into this big doddering bird in his cot one night, he realized there wasn’t anything he could do to save her. It wasn’t fair! But surely he could do something. When kaleesh hunt or cull an animal honorably they are taught to thank it for what it has given. It had lived an honorable life &…& its family will continue to live their lives just the same.

He had forgotten what the hearth was for. It wasn’t for him. It was for his family. The next day Gal’jyn asked Merma if he could make dinner. Mertenzi agreed. Gal’jyn spent all day making chicken soup from scratch just the way Blys’aan had taught him. Even though he did most of his task through streams of tears he denied help when his family offered.

Father said it was the best soup they had had in years. The family agreed & thanked Gal’jyn profusely. He had killed, plucked, & prepped Le-Mumä himself. His first ingdoré was fashioned from her skull & feathers. It was common for a child’s first ingdoré to be made of asiil since it is often one of their first responsibilities to mind the siisis.

Gal’jyn continued to be a permanent fixture of the kitchen. If he wasn’t in the kitchen he was dragging his sisters out on foraging trips. He kept the hearth warm & fed when the family was dashed by loss after loss. Even if he was sobbing into the bread. He never faltered from his duty even as he would hear some of his siblings getting restless.

It was 15 BBY, 4 years after the end of the Clone Wars, when Weyla was ambushed &, along with two of his brothers, abducted by Imperial agents. Bryaru became an unstoppable force. Not since father’s temper had he seen such incandescent rage. By the next year Brya’ma had gathered a small militia ready to go out into the galaxy & ruin Imperial lives. This included a handful of his siblings. All of his lyrkai, his blood siblings, the rest of Taa’yn’s children!

His twin sisters Hez’kiya & Twan’lei had long been part of the restless. All 19 years old at the time, they jumped at the chance to prove themselves more than just Gal’jyn’s sisters. Gal’jyn was gutted but wanted to be supportive. He had waved off their ship with big fat tears rolling down his tusks. Gal’jyn was much too scared to go to space. He was scared to leave home. He didn’t like being scared.

Kevanru saw this in him & suggested he try a pilgrimage. He could face his fears, reflect on his place, & he could always come home when he needed to. Several of his sibling had gone out on similar pretenses. Qylorr & Gor’daté had joined the Kolkpravis together. Hatyazi had gone to work with the surf-soothed, his mother’s people.

So Gal’jyn went north. He offered up his services to his grandfather, the warlord Gha’jyn. The warlord was not impressed. The son of his great daughter & legendary Khagen Grievous came all this way & he wasn’t even a warrior? He was just a kiibri! The rest of the sprawling archaic village was a bit more welcoming but still very different from how he had grown up. Gal’jyn served his grand-clan for about a year before he went back home.

He had learned a lot in his year abroad. Most importantly he learned his place was in the Kunbal with his family & the community. Indeed when he returned the outpost could have been called a village of its own, as whatever trouble Bryaru was brewing in the stars seemed to have increased the foot traffic. Everyone was elated to see him. Finally, they could have good meals again.

Having outgrown the little kitchen in their family home, they had started a community larder. Gal’jyn immediately set about making a proper community hearth. From this he could feed his aging mothers & whosoever needed it. Set right between their original home & their original neighbors, Gal’jyn set up shop. It became almost like a tavern. He simply called it The Pantry.

Gal’jyn did pluck up the courage to visit his sisters a few years later. In their pirate freighter. One of their long lost brothers had convinced them to take up piracy with him. Gal’jyn was petrified but tried to be supportive. When he got back home his mothers told him, with no small amount of fanfare, that there was a woman that had come through looking for him.

This was Zu-Litj. She was from one of the many tribes Gha’jyn had conquered & they had met when he was in the north. So smitten was she with how enthusiastically Gal’jyn had asked her mother for recipes that she thought to stop by his home during a pilgrimage of her own. Gal’jyn & Zu-Litj were immediately absolutely stupid for each other. Much to everyone’s relief, the twins returned home the next year around 8 BBY. The three of them became a blubbering pile of scales upon reunion. Gal’jyn married Zu-Litj later that year. They went on to have several pups. Gal’jyn stayed in his pantry where he belonged, the Son & Sun of the Hearth for the rest of his days.

[accursedkaleeshi]

Death of Taa’yn

Triplets for reference & cute depressing palette cleanser. TW childbirth, death, blood

Taa’yn grew up in the oldest Masyrta (Mother temple) in the great expanse of northern Kalee. Many around her were sure she was favored by the All-Mother, including her father. She did a lot of egg sitting, hatch monitoring, & midwifing, making her the best kaleesh to have around for her wives’ first eggs. That being said, she had dealt with hundreds of mothers & knew things did not always go according to plan.

         Being largely reptilian, their bodies can safely reabsorb developing eggs at all but the latest stages if something is wrong. If something went wrong during pregnancy that their bodies could not handle there was not really anything they could do about it, especially in the North. At nearly 4 years after her first child, it didn’t take long for Taa’yn to feel like something was off in her second pregnancy.

         The egg was too large. She could feel her organs & ribs being moved too far. The other wives could not tell for sure, since Taa’yn was the largest of them to begin with. That along with the cultural kaleeshi attitude of letting things take their course led Taa’yn to keep her concerns to herself. “The egg was still viable,” she thought to herself, “Or I would not still be pregnant.”

         She was right. Her eggs were in pristine condition, in fact. They were developing so well that her body saw this pregnancy as going great & so greenlit it to full term. But when the day came to deliver Taa’yn was stoic & insistent. She requested only a few specific wives to assist. Everyone was immediately concerned. Taa’yn had never been anything but cheerful & delivery, like most kaleesh events, had usually been an open party plan.

         Taa’yn delivered an egg 20% larger than usual. It had adhered to a wall of her womb & tried to take it with on the way out. There was a lot of blood. Taa’yn, through a grimace, informed her wives that there was another egg in there. Mertenzi & Twarxii had to reach up there to help it out. Nobody knew what to say or do besides put her eggs in her arms. They tried a few things to stop the bleeding but it was too much. Taa’yn, glowing with relief, had told everyone not to worry & that everything would be fine, that everyone would do so good, until she slipped away into a final sleep. She was barely cold when Grievous made it back.

Kaleesh very rarely had multiples. They were made to streamline one big egg at a time. Some of them didn't even know that could happen. On the very rare occasion that Kaleesh had twins they were two in one egg as was the case with Taa’yn’s large egg. This brought about its own set of concerns. The family was advised by the Mother Minders that came down for the funeral to remove the identical twins from their egg no later than week 10. Removing hatchlings before they were ready was nerve-wracking but, between their sharp little claws & instinct to eat, you can see where it might not be a great idea to let them hatch on their own.

Luckily their husband built an incubator & there was always a mother in the nesting room. Salaen had just become pregnant with her first & was very scared. She calmed down after sitting with the triplets, considering it mom practice. Despite being peeled early Hez’kiya & Twan’lei did very well. The family worried about the second egg, as it seemed to have been packed quite tightly. But Gal’Jyn was just making sure he got all the bang for his buck out of his egg, absorbing all the yolk before hatching & eating his entire egg. The triplets went onto be perfectly healthy pups.

[accursedkaleeshi]

Kaleeshi Spiritualism

The Kaleeshi pantheon is called the Hiilsay, which translates literally to “Soul/Value dais”. The Kaleesh often shorten this to just “The Say”. It has 8 main branches of Hiil (values of soul) that encompass all things.

A completely made-up lore dump from Accursed. 2.5k words until I find a better way to present this information. Sorry I made up so many words

Oyar (Wholeness)

        Oyar written in a specific character refers to the wholeness of the Mother & Spirit that, together, represent the All-Mother. Otherwise it is used to refer to spiritual completeness of oneself or community. It is something like enlightenment & it is very difficult to achieve.

Sidiir (Affiliates)

        The Say is split into 2 Sidiir which group affiliated values together. The Sidiir are Vivak & Ythral.

        Vivak is kind of like a light side. The more exciting side that everyone likes. The values in Vivak working together are attributed to life & vigor. War, Fire/Light, & Many: things the Kaleesh are all about. It is crowned by Mother, that gives all things.

        Ythral is kind of like a dark side. Things that are more intangible & complex. Although most Kaleesh know that Ythral is just as important as Vivak, its values have certain connotations. It is crowned by Spirit, which fills all but is often hard to understand. Water/Dark is synonymous with the void. The One is taboo & of course Death is not always pleasant.

Fyar (Balance)

        Fyar is a very specific concept. It refers to the bond between the hiil in opposing sidiir. One thing is dependent on the other in an inescapable bond that wants to be balanced. Light & Dark, The Many & the One. War & Death. Mother & Spirit are different than the rest as they are simultaneously created from & combine to form all things.

Oyama (The All-Mother)

        Also referred to as The Mother, Mother Kalee, or just Kalee herself, she is the center of Kaleeshi spirituality. Oyama is the start & end of all kaleesh & her creatures. The glyph is obviously the glyph for Mother within the Spirit. Oyama is always referred to with female pronouns. She is not usually visually represented but when she is it is as an ancient animal that the kaleesh believe they have descended from.

Masyr (Mother)

        Mother & Spirit are the root of all things. Mother is said to live in the hearts & souls of all kaleesh, since all kaleesh come from a mother. Mother also has domain & overlap with other hiil & lesser values but most notably fertility, green season, & protector of children.

        The glyph for Mother is the symbol for “person” cradled in two strokes, heavy in the center for support. The Hiilsay glyphs have gone largely unchanged since ancient times when kaleesh wrote exclusively with their claws. Temples to Mother are covered in clinging vines or light cloth banners where vines can’t grow. The temples range from enormous ziggurats to simple stelae on the side of paths with messages like “Call your mom :)”. Temple priests, Mother Minders, unlike other disciplines, are traditionally all female. Bonus lore: Taa’yn was a Mother Minder & was considered by the wives to have been blessed for her service.

        Kaleesh seeking consul or comfort from Mother will offer items that represent their own mothers or their motherhood.

Yth (Spirit)

        Yth (pronounced eeTH) is the flow of all energy on Kalee. Yth is just how kaleesh interpret the Force. Possibly the oldest glyph, it is just a scrawled circle as it encompasses everything. Most kaleesh have a healthy respect for the spirit since the only thing generally understood about it is that one’s soul is made of yth.

        Since Mother & Spirit are all things, there is a LOT of room for specialization. There are MANY different kinds of priests & shamans that have a wide range in their understanding & sensitivity of the Yth. There are not usually temples dedicated solely to the concept of Yth as they feel it is implied in any holy space. Temples dedicated to its attributes are often very potent.

        Spiritual kaleesh shed their strong emotions around as they accept becoming one with the All-Mother, on purpose or otherwise. Lingering energy lends to kaleesh continuing to believe their ancestors can still affect them. That & occasionally there are ghosts.

Sol (Light)

        Sol can mean light or fire in both a holy or literal sense. First of the more direct hiil, it covers the goods & the bads of the sun & of fire, Prometheus style. Kaleesh love being warm & goddamn do they love cooking food. Sol covers smaller values like hearth, metalwork, leatherwork & bone work. Sol & Water often have spots in each other’s temples to encourage balance to agriculture.

        Temples to Sol are always lit up & warm. Sol’s glyph is obviously sunrise on the horizon. A central fire pit is a common temple layout but in Sol temples it is a Feature™. Parishioners bring things to burn most often but will also offer flowers & fish that are the colors of the sun & fire. Sol sects range from journeying kaleesh bringing light to dark places with their ritual torches up to uh purification through fire inquisition type fuckers.

Der (Dark)

        Der refers to darkness, absence of light, & unknowable depths of dark water. Shadow is not something most kaleesh revere & they tend to be wary of the unknown dark. Hunters & trackers will invoke stealth & shade for successful stalking. Hunting nocturnal predators is usually a special occasion & requires experience. Kalee’s ecosystems are often wildly different at night. The glyph for Der is a horizon like its fyar Sol but is distinguished by a lone, dark ominous dot beneath it. What’s under there? Who knows!

        Der has the most disciples in its ocean faring kaleesh: the miirmanja (coastal hands of the sea) & the miirpinj (open ocean messengers). Like fire, water is both a giver & taker of life. But Der is considered with much more fear. There is no returning from the cold, dark abyss of deep water. It is a quiet & inescapable death, the opposite of a warrior’s frenetic death on the battlefield.

        But for its life sustaining merits temples to Der are dotted around Kalee’s many streams, rivers, & coasts. They are the most trafficked of Ythral temples by kaleesh trying to grow crops, sail well, & hoping for a safe monsoon season. Offerings include shells, reeds, blue beads & portions of fisherman’s catches. Temples range from small streamside shrines to some of the largest temples on the world given how much of the planet is water.

        Less seen are stelae to Der’s darkness bearing often just one word: “unseen”. These are shrines for the invisible ones. Some of them are seen as a spot to offer the homeless charity & some are seen as thieves’ guild markers, lowering the property value, so-to-speak. Rumor has it there are large hidden temples to Der Unseen, but no one has ever found one.

Klăn (The Many)

The Many is one of most revered of the eight, second only to Mother. Obviously, the Kaleesh are an extremely social species & feel great safety in numbers. Klăn represents family, community, & relationships. Its most notable sub-divines are health, love, & ceremony (i.e. song & dance).

These temples are very popular & always filled with people who will more readily help each other than if they just met on the roads. Klăn also has the most temples. Each community has one in the center, usually started as a central homestead family’s temple. This is what happened with the Sheelal family’s temple.

The glyph for Klăn is, of course, just 2 symbols for ‘person’. Kaleesh who regularly visit their temples often add another symbol to the hearth to represent themselves. Old temples have walls covered in glyphs. Kaleesh will stop by a Klăn temple seeking health & good fortune for their families, community projects, & fruitful marriages. Offerings include bread, berries or flowers that grow in clusters, feathers of colony seabirds, & buflor totems. Little carved frogs for household protection.

On (The One)

        Given that the kaleesh are all about the greater good, the One is kind of taboo. Although it garners a general respect since “there is not Many without first the One”, people are usually judgmental of the On until they need it. The Kaleesh are cautious about the slope between self-care & personal well-being to selfish & pompous. The On doesn’t really have sub categories; it is more about maintaining one’s self. It represents & is represented by balance.

        The only widely known cult of On is all about finding the balance between worthless & selfish. This isn’t even a sneaky mental health allegory. They don’t want to talk about it but will make assumptions if they see you struggling, like a shame your family couldn’t get that under control.

Although quite somber & stigmatized, the On is ultimately responsible for the hardest party an individual can get (besides dying). The Zrandalim is the Rite of Reconnecting. When a kaleesh feels they are yzron they feel disconnected in one way or another. This is often the hardest thing a kaleesh can go through. When that kaleesh feels re-engaged (yzranda: reconnect) with their community through acceptance of self: holy fuck we GAT to throw a party. Because not all kaleesh make it through yzron. Also Zrandalim usually includes beniilim (rite of earned self) since they’ve usually had some title-worthy epiphany.

The glyph for On is ‘person’ with another dark, ominous dot at the end. What is inside someone? Who knows! There are not modern temples to On. There are ruins of ancient On temples built by ill-fated warlords. Every now & again through Kaleeshi history some big shot warrior thinks “You know what, fuck it: I AM the BEST.” & builds monuments to themselves. These ancient emperors serve as cautionary tales against seizing power for oneself.

In more modern practice kaleesh would reach out to their ancestors for help finding their way at private or quiet temples or shrines. This might mean going on a pilgrimage or trying different roles in a community. (Or talking to your mom about your feelings. 75% of the time mom has your back.)

Vang (War)

        Vang is a shortened combination of ingja (hunt) & vasor (battle). Both of these concepts are much older than modern kaleesh. Kaleesh, being predatory creatures, find the hunt instinctual. Battle is closely related, since it utilizes the same concepts. There is usually an important distinction between what you hunt & what you battle. Early kaleesh would be much quicker to fight other groups of unknown kaleesh if they posed a threat to their group. They laid out territories before territory was ever a spoken concept.

        With hunting & combat being the 2nd & 3rd most common activities that kaleesh pour all their energy into, Vang is on par with the popularity of Klăn. The day to day uses of Vang temples is to come thank the animals of the hunts & wishing all involved good health. Hunting parties will often bring a large kill to the temple to process for the community so it was common that the temple floors be covered in blood. Kaleesh will also offer up some of their hunts & goods to hope for peaceful borders (or “I hope da fuck they do” borders). Vang & Sol temples are popular places to take your weapons (or yourself) to be anointed for battle. Vang will grant you honor & glory if you play your cards right.

        The glyph for War is the sigil for person & a vertical stroke downward. Most assume this to mean ���go out with intent to end a life” but scholars aren’t really sure. Vang temples are decorated in blood colored tapestries (Kaleeshi blood is red orange). Some of the hardcore ones are actually dyed in the blood of enemies & always contain trophies & bones.

        Also! Since the only times the Kaleesh have been off-world were for the purposes of waging actual war obviously the first of their colony temples were to Vang. Which was a lot for outsiders to take in.

Urv (Death)

        The kaleesh have a complex relationship with Death. If a large part of your culture is oh boy, here I go killing again there is a high chance that you too will be killed. Upon death, a kaleesh is supposed to be humbled as all of the deeds in their life are added up &/or distributed to the community. They are then celebrated for their efforts & encouraged to join the All-Mother.

Even though they are taught to live with death at a young age it can still be pretty scary. Urvuyn is a unique type of kaleeshi anxiety. It translates to “death hate or jealousy”. Some kaleesh get anxiously preoccupied feeling like they have to have some good shit to be presented at their Ythyariilim (rite of death). Some kaleesh will get jaded thinking they will only be celebrated at death.

Death doesn’t have smaller values under it rather, like On, it represents an underlying value: Respect. The kaleesh respect their dead. If you disrespect their dead they will kill you. Granted it can be hard to tell what constitutes as disrespect to outsiders, since kaleesh go around wearing each other’s bones. But that is legitimately (usually) done out of respect. The Huk on Oben started fucking with the kaleeshi alters & were met with the wrath of Bentilais.

There are not many temples solely dedicated to Death. Most Kaleeshi temples contain the bones of their communities or families where you can honor them. Custom differs from place to place whether most of your bones are buried, in an urn, or in the central community pile of everybody’s bones. The glyph for Death is one stroke down & one stroke up. Down to the earth & back up to the All-Mother. When there is recently dead the candles have lanterns or directional covers so that the spirit doesn’t get confused by the light while looking for Oyama.

        Northern kaleesh feel very strongly that the dead deserve rest so priests that commune with the spirits are on thin fuckin’ ice, pal. Western kaleesh have the opposite opinion & feel like grandpa would LOVE the opportunity to go to battle once again. This is just the general geographical vibe but that does mean there is less of a market for undead in the North & a bit of the East in the northern hemisphere.

[accursedkaleeshi]

Kaleesh pups making those little baby alligator beeps

Yes oh my god thank you

You & your twins stuck in a dark closet lookin for BEANZ

[accursedkaleeshi]

christ I love Taa'yn

Taa’yn loved helping people & was very excited to start this family. She & Mertenzi were like “Hell yes“. They were on the same page about this. Then they started having babies & Taa’yn had some kind of devine epiphany like “I was put on this planet for these tiny kaleesh” just look at her babies goddamit.

She didn’t get to see any of them grow up!!! Devastated, thank you

[accursedkaleeshi]

Please absolutely give us more of your grievous family headcanons they’re amazing. Also I love the drawing of the kids showing him the frog -Solstice

Random Grievous household headcanons for you, zenja.

Blys'aan (wife 7) had her own private cupboard with The Good Stuff, as she had been savvy in the foodstuff markets. Only she could use stuff from this cupboard, Grievous & Mertenzi had to ask permission.

If IBC sent Grievous to the surface of other systems he would pick things up from native markets (or seized assets) for various family members. This backfired amazingly when Salaen (wife 8) took a liking to some obscure processed fish-adjacent snack from an entirely different quadrant of the galaxy & it was all she wanted during her next pregnancy.

Also, seized assets. It'd just be funny if he took the desk ornaments of self important moguls with too much debt & gave them to his kids out in the middle of the jungle

Taa'yn's triplets are two identical twin girls, Twan'lay & Hez'kiah, & their fraternal brother Gal'ji (named after Taa'yn's father). Gal'ji had a tendency to lead his sisters into trouble, often in quest for food. True to form

Also speaking of pregnancy cravings, Weyla nearly decimated the local population of hot kricusts every pregnancy. Hot hot kricusts were spicy medium insects that were roasted. They didn't have hot hots in the south & Weyla's family didnt feed their children whole insects (which are commonly considered like baby food. Like goldfish crackers & cheerios. Protein!) Maybe babie facts will get their own post

[accursedkaleeshi]

Kaleeshi sexuality

My thoughts!

In general kaleesh are pretty open about gender & sexuality. Their society revolves more around roles & titles. Those roles & titles are open to most. Mothers are the least diverse, female usually since that is who are physically having the babies. But among modern kaleesh you can have female warriors, male wives, and nonbinary mothers.

        This is due in part to how similar the genders are in appearance & function. It makes it easy for them to have made the leap to equality. Machismo was the first thing to be equal opportunity. The hearth & arts have a little catching up to do. Little Suzy can get a battle axe for her birthday with little objection. If little Johnny wants to be a tailor there may be some grumbling from older folks.

        As far as sexuality, I reckon pansexuality is the norm on Kalee for much the same reason. Being that birth control is culturally illegal, husbands are often away, & warbands are in the field for long periods same-sex trysts are common. Among modern Kaleesh same-sex couples have gone from don’t-ask-don’t-tell to being seen as responsible for not running risks of surprise babies.

        Additionally (nsfw paragraph) since females have hemiclitori (plural) that are similar in structure to male hemipenes, sex is kind of an equal opportunity venture. If I never get around to illustrating alien pron this is the closest you’ll get (I see u anon, I might still draw kaleesh lewds). Males’ are larger at over 14 inches on average. Females’ are actually a modified hood that curl in on reception but they’re still 9-10 inches fully set up as it were.

        This kind of wraps into why kaleesh make terrible Jedi. They have a lot of high running emotion that they are showing all the time. They have a lot of rage to unleash but they also have a lot of love to go around. They don’t have a ton of little labels for things like humans do. Just a few. On Kalee, if you are not enemy you are friend & if you are friend you are family.

        Bonus content for reading: Sheltered Taa’yn, coming from one of the oldest most traditional families, expressing surprise that you can be gay & Jyada assuring her that everyone is gay. Grievous being like, “You think your father, in all his glory years on the battlefield, never had sex until he started taking wives?” He was right, of course, but who wants to hear that about their dad.

[accursedkaleeshi]

Wife height lineup  [Timeline]

Mertenzi - Taa’yn - Jyada - Twarxii - Bryaru - Weyla - Blys’aan - Salaen - Kevanru - Lyx’al

I think these are all linked correctly

[accursedkaleeshi]

how do each of the wives interact with children

I saved this ask for when I finished all the wives, bet you thought I forgot. Going in order under the cut to spare people’s dashboards.

Captain wife, Giant wife, That’s-what-she-said wife, Battle wife, Direct Action wife, Queen wife, Soup wife, Crikey wife, Husband wife, & Crybaby wife.

Mertenzi

Mertenzi is the boss. She knew she was going to be the boss when she agreed to marry Grievous. She is the quintessential family matriarch (omg like Meilin’s grandma in Turning Red). Her parenting style seems very strict in the same way. She always seems to be sharp & shouting & she’s not usually smiling. But she keeps everyone on track & makes sure everyone is taken care of. In a cumulative household of 30 children & 10 spouses that is a goddamn miracle. Herding cats is putting it mildly. So, even though Merma may yell at you for doing dumb shit, she still loves you. She is in fact supremely proud of their family. For all of the stupid things she yells at you for there are 3 times as many moments where she is so, so proud of you.

Taa’yn

The softest, gentlest, biggest mom. Giant mom would never dream of raising her voice. There was a child on her at any point from pup 1. Taa’yn lived for these pups, just constant hugs & kisses & contact. Thankfully kaleeshi society doesn’t make helicopter parenting easy, or they would be spoiled rotten between their father’s name & Taa’yn’s doting. She had to learn to stay neutral when toddlers inevitably started running straight to her to avoid the telling off of another parent. I’m adjusting the timeline to give Taa’yn an extra year, the eldest would be 4, almost 5, when she died.

Jyada

Jyada was the cool mom. Jyada let you get away with things other moms wouldn’t. Being a hunt mother, she was responsible for the children when they were old enough to start learning what’s outside. Children already often find this stage of life exciting & free. Then you have Jiji’ma teaching you about hunting & curse words not to say in front of other mothers. Jiji’ma would help you play tricks on your siblings. She also didn’t have a filter. As they grew into teenagers, Jyada was less cool to some who were trying to grow up as fast as they could. She was always juvenile, loud, & crass. Some would insist they were grown up now but always eventually came back around. Teenagers, amirite.

Twarxii

Ah yes, battle mom. A tiny bit of timeline shifting. Twarxii was with the family for six years before she lost a child & left to go back to her brother’s brigade. Had she remained, she would have been the one teaching the children martial skills, how to use weapons. Only the eldest had begun to learn offense from her when she left. She spent the time she had been there hunting & teaching the other hunt mothers to use various weapons under the guise of variety. Really, she was intensely competitive. Everyone was always impressed by her prowess, most especially the children. She wasn’t so sure about how good of a mom she was to the little ones but she tried. She had grown up in a very competitive privkliin. Taa’yn had really helped her feel comfortable being a bit more…soft. Twarxii would come back & visit from time to time & they would celebrate with tournaments. She was not as engaging as others & came off as cold, but she was awkward underneath. All in all she really cared for them & wasn’t sure how to show it.

Bryaru

Bryaru, as Jyada’s minion in mischief, was also a fun mom. She was Jyada’s “mom on the inside” as a hearth mother. As excitable as Bryaru was, she had never led a hunt in her life. Bryaru was always loud, open & approachable. Often times she was charged with taking children around the outside of the compound doing hearth chores, giving them their first taste of outside the house. Bryaru had a sharp eye & was the quickest hearth wife, so she could manage gaggles of pups quite reliably. She was always very supportive. All of the khaganatkliin were very supportive but, you know, direct action wife. Sometimes Jyada & Bryaru would get everyone in trouble. Sometimes they would get other wives in trouble. They were a very convincing pair. The children never had a bad word to say about Brya’ma (except when she got them in trouble).

Weyla

Weyla was similar to Twarxii in that children are usually very taken with their hunt mothers. They are just so cool, literally the coolest thing they have ever seen. Weyla had a calm, cool, & confident demeanor that rarely changed. That made her even more cool. Though in Twarxii’s absence each hunt mother took on different kinds of martial offense, Weyla uniquely taught the children situational awareness. By that I mean she taught them to be aware of their surroundings & to observe before acting. Skills crucial to surviving on Kalee in the jungles or in battle. Not a trait some of the other hunt mothers excelled in. The children had Weyla on the same kind of pedestal as her spouses. They were always trying to impress Weyla’ma. She always indulged & gently supported them.

Blys’aan

Blys’aan was hearth mother ultimate. She was often seen as second in command to Mertenzi. She was large, soft, & welcoming but she would also uphold the rules. Blys’aan didn’t mess around. Even so, the children adored her. A combination of being hearth mother & the head mother in the kitchen made her a constant central figure in all of the children’s lives until she passed away. If you behaved Blysa’ma will give you kisses & FOOD! If you didn’t she might swat you with a spoon or ban you from the kitchen.

Salaen

Although Salaen wasn’t at first sold on herding pups for the rest of her life she warmed up to the idea once she started to help raise them. They were just little guys! And she could help them! The other hunt mothers were, of course, great hunters, but Salaen had practically lived off the land much of her life. Once she was encouraged to teach the children what she knew she became very enthusiastic about it. Sala’ma was a survivalist. She knew all the plants & animals. She would constantly find & catch things to show them. She was awkward at times, like Twarxii, & didn’t really know quite how to express any genuine troubles. The children were generally excited for time with Salaen. She was fun & was sometimes found making trouble with Jyada & Bryaru or scrapping with Twarxii & Kevanru. She did not like being pregnant but she seemed rather impressed with herself both times that she “made this whole kaleesh”.

Kevanru

They were stoked. Kevanru was stoked for everything. They were enamored with the potential of all these babies. If Kevanru turned out this good from their unhappy family, how amazing will these kaleesh be with all the support on the planet? They loved all of the children & tried to treat them all equally. Kevanru most enthusiastically told them all about being a warrior, which captured the spirits of many of the kids. Their enthusiasm made others a bit gun-shy. Kevanru never meant to discourage any other paths, they were just so enthusiastic about theirs that it made anything less than ultimate warrior seem, well less to some. They tried to keep that in mind. Kiki’ma was always nice & meant well. They gave good hugs, good rides, & advice they understood.

Lyx’al

Lyx’al had a bit of a rough start. She felt like she had to learn the rules along with the pups toward the beginning. She would still often hesitate to correct behavior, unsure if she herself knew the correct behavior. Lyx’al was a quiet & timid hearth mother. Kind & gentle, she really tried her best at all times, unable to let go of the fact that this was what she was made for. As a hearth mother she took care of little ones & taught older ones how to craft things during the rain season. As some children got older, bolder ones would try to take advantage of her non-confrontational nature. God help them if any of the other mothers found out about it. It was a lesson the kids growing up had to learn now & again. Don’t be a little shit or Lyxa’ma will cry & you will be in so much trouble.

[accursedkaleeshi]

Ladies & gentlemen, wedding #5. Actually this turned into an informal story about how Salaen lived everybody’s found-family dream despite her apprehension. Character development for some earlier wives that I didn’t expand much on & more Kevanru being a goddamn delight. Self-worth themes. Wife dialogue is (most likely) not typos, I’m just trying to convey how they each speak.

Initially, Grievous had just offered to keep Salaen & Rexavarius on as kind of workhands bc tech support wasn’t really a widely used role on Kalee quite yet. Rexavarius was just not about that life &, respectfully, peaced out to go do outcast things. Salaen agreed to a trial run. Suspiciously. Not only was trusting other Kaleesh hard but she also did not want to let herself rise enough to fall, so to speak. Not accustomed to good things happening to her (girl, same), she didn’t want to get her hopes up if things were just going to fall apart in flames.

She was like, “Okay. But just a trial! Huh! I can leave whenever I want, right?” Grievous was just like, “Yeah, what the hell do you think I’m going to do??” “I don’t know! I don’t know your life, General! What if things get weird?”

Jyada goes, “Oh, nah, it’s too late. Things already weird, girl.” “Eh? What you mean, red eyes? I only been here uh. A uh. (Struggles with maffs) A few months!” “Nah. You /already/ been here a few months.”

Kevanru just coming to stand behind them like, “This is fun, I like you guys.”

To recap the wife & fiancé vibes at the time:

        Jyada: >:}         Bryaru: >:}         Kevanru: :)!!!         Salaen: >:0 ?!?         Taa’yn: ^u^         Twarxii: :/ ? what is even happening right now         Weyla: :l but secretly :}         Bly’saan: :} !!         Mertenzi: >:/ ? Mertenzi is kind of always like this.

If Grievous had not brought Kevanru home, Salaen may not have stayed despite initially feeling SO othered by them. Kevanru was fresher to this situation than her but they brought an entirely different attitude. The attitude was like an excited golden retriever. They were happy to meet new Kaleesh, excited to be there, & very genuine about it. Salaen felt like she was the opposite of them. Cautious, defensive, & most of all small. Not only in stature but personality. What could she possibly contribute to this …family?

Whether she wanted it or not, Kevanru often swept her up into the group as she had already been there when Kevanru arrived. They would forget Salaen was anything but part of the new family. Some of these women were kind & warm, things Salaen had never been. Blys’aan fed her the best food she had literally ever had in her life. She said glow-scales had to stick together. (They both had very brightly, almost neon colored scales). Taa’yn would try to include her with calmer, gentler words despite being even bigger than Kevanru. Taa’yn would try to share with her what she was excited about: the pups. There was three at that point with another on the way. Salaen assumed the other was biased: Taa’yn was pregnant & she carried the oldest pups around when their liimasyr was busy.

Salaen was quite far removed from having children around. “And you're okay with just pumping out pups until you die?” She didn’t mean this in the cruel way that it sounded. But kaleeshi society funnels everyone toward this inevitable conclusion if you aren't lucky enough to die before then. Taa’yn was troubled by this. She looked so sad for a minute that several other wives almost came over to kick Salaen’s ass but Taa’yn shook her head & said, “It is not for everyone,” patting the other woman’s hand. “But to make kaleesh greater than yourself? By just being good to them in such a hard world?” She put Randaja, Grievous’ first child, barely a year old, in Salaen’s lap. Several things converged at that moment: Taa’yn’s genuine care for her fellow kaleesh, the insanely absurd cuteness of this pup clambering over her legs & very seriously babbling reassuring nonsense, how hard & solitary her life had been, & probably hormones. She had to fight back tears, but definitely cried about it later.

Still, some of the other wives were pinnacles of kaleesh. Celebrated warriors, serious & regal. The kind of women she had expected to be married to General Grievous. Mertenzi may have been sailor-folk but she ran the place like any general. Most of these women knew what they were about. Salaen had never been sure of anything in her life. She would sit by the night fire at the entrance to the compound, looking at the stars & wondering what she was doing there. It only took half a week for this to be a group effort. Jyada & Bryaru began to join her.

Jyada could relate. She was just some loudmouth bandit, a gift to Grievous from her grateful clan to fill a vacant hunt wife spot. Now, she joked, she was the least qualified among the hunt wives. “Like Twarxii? Kolkpravis brigadier & sister of Bentilias san Sk’ar? She could kill me in two seconds. Kevanru? Could kill me in two seconds. And did you see Weyla? Not only could she kill me in two seconds but I would thank her for it!” Salaen agreed with this assessment. “Are you all just here to fill spots, then?” Salaen had asked. Again, a genuine question with none of the social grace others had.

Jyada had clicked her tongue & set a palm on her thigh as if she had to think about it. “What about you, Bryaru? You here to fill a spot?” she asked across the fire. Bryaru scoffed. “I am here because my family was keeping me contained in bureaucracy & protocols. I don’t have a warballad or a pillar in society or a tragic backstory, no offense, like everyone else, I guess. Grievous does whatever it takes for Kalee. He took a chance on me! Some politician’s spoiled daughter, not set foot out of Kaleela.” Bryaru sheepishly adjusted her grip on her drink. Bryaru also understood feeling outclassed by these women. She was the smallest & she was from a well-off family. She did not see herself as cool as the others.

“So you just here for the free glory, eh?” Jyada teased.

“No. Stupid. I’m here… well, I’m here for Grievous. The conviction? I want to share that conviction! Ya! Do something about it!”

“Ok, alright, stop fuckin yelling you nerd. Look how excited she get, its cute yeah?” Jyada said to Salaen whom was indeed bemused. The outcast looked down into her cup with a furrowed brow.

“Am I here for the General? For, ah, Grievous? He does not seem to like me?” she said. Both the other women made sounds of doubt through their teeth.

“Of course he likes you. If he didn’t like you he would have told you to fuck off,” Bryaru said as if that were obvious.

“Oh. Grievous liking you is more than him not hating you,” Jyada insisted. She then sat up & looked around, making sure no other ears were around before she leaned in conspiratorially. “You remind him of Ronderu,” she hissed in trying to whisper while lightly intoxicated & excited to share this theory.

Bryaru had let out a little gasp. She didn’t think anyone was allowed to just say her name like that, but if any of them were going to disregard sanctity it was Jyada. Bryaru batted at the troublemaker across from her with no real intent & whispered back, “Did we decide she was real?”

“Was she real??” Salaen echoed. She was mildly concerned that she was being dragged into the middle of what could be trouble but was also very intent on hearing it.

“Of course she was real! Bryaya, you just from the city where nobody believes anything & magic is dead-“

“Wh- I thought she was metaphorical-“

“Twarxii said she met her several times at the head of battles. Would Twarxii lie? About battle? No. Beside. Mer’ma says she must have been real. She says nothing imaginary can ruin a man like that-“ at her last sentence Jyada brought her claws to her heart. An excellent storyteller, the other two had been listening very intently, leaning together. At the conclusion both Salaen & Bryaru let out an identical, “Oh…” stunted & concerned.

“Yes. Our poor sad bastard man,” Jyada followed.

“I did notice him pretty fucked-up-edness…” Salaen said with as serious a look on her face as it got. She continued to furrow her brow at the fire while Jyada laughed hysterically & tried to reign it in. “Is that something…I mean. Is it a good thing? To remind him? Doesn’t sound like great.”

Bryaru frowned & kicked Jyada whom was on the ground quietly wheezing by then. Jiji sat up, blades of grass gently tumbling from her extensive mohawk, & tried to compose herself. “Girl, do I look smart enough to answer that?” was what she said.

“Well I’m not smart enough to answer it!” Salaen snarled. Jyada stuck her tongue beneath front teeth to stop from giggling.

“I think,” Bryaru said with some kind of authority after slapping at Jyada again, “that it is good for him, you know. Not to torment him but to remind him that she was real. Real, physical like you are now.”

“Oh she bust out the city smart-“

“Besides,” she continued over Jyada, “I think you are good for us. I mean, I like you.”

“Ooh! Yeah, I like you too, outback orange!”

“You do?” Salaen wondered aloud as both women at either side of her flung their arms around her shoulders.

Kevanru began coming out to the fire at night if they weren’t dead asleep. They were very busy preparing for a wedding. Jyada & Bryaru thought they already had Kevanru read & catalogued so they would goad them into complimenting Salaen. Even for a dejected war orphan, it was very difficult not to catch Kevanru’s earnest enthusiasm. They even eventually lured Twarxii out to the fire one night like it was some clandestine meeting.

“Why are you two being strange. You will scare them away. Kevanru, I mean,” Twarxii asked them in her commanding voice. Even she forgot that Salaen was here in a different capacity. Jyada relayed to her the theory, that Salaen reminded Grievous of Ronderu. Twarxii uttered a sharp hiss at Jyada for just throwing her name out there like that. But her stony gaze did settle on Salaen who felt immediately intimidated & awkwardly didn’t know whether to make eye contact or not.

Twarxii huffed a sigh & subtly checked the area before she took a seat & leaned forward. “He would not mean to replace lij Kummar for all of the stars in the sky,” she said. She made an incredibly heartfelt sentiment sound like a stern briefing. Then her eyes softened just a little. “But he would not replace a person with a ghost.” As she stood back up, her wives made a small sad sound, “aw-“ & she snapped at them to shut up. “I think he just wants to help you, Salaen. It is up to you whether you want to be helped or not.”

“History-ly. I’m not good at making decisions,” Salaen murmured, feeling suddenly pressured.

“Talk to him about it,” was all Twarxii said as she walked away. The three remaining immediately began to tease Salaen about it. (“Oooo! yeah, Salaen. Talk to him about it.”) Salaen felt more comfortable, not being antagonized specifically, but perhaps being able to speak freely with less fear of saying the Wrong Thing™. “What this even means?” Salaen was inquiring when very suddenly Grievous was on other side of the beacon from her. She jolted on her seat with a, “Holy shit-“

“Are these bullies heckling you?” Grievous asked over the fire. The other three shut their mouths with little grins. He was not sure if some of them actually thought they were being covert but Twarxii had very faintly smiled at him on her way by.

“Yes. Exclusively,” Salaen said with a put upon somber nod.

“Not exclusively, outback. We also bully Grievous! Don’t we baby,” Jyada said as she got up & dusted off her chaps.

“Yes, they keep me humble,” Grievous said sarcastically. Bryaru had giggled & pulled at his cloak as he said this, prompting him to lean down far enough for her to plant a kiss on his cowled cheek before she scampered off.

“Its an important job!” Jyada said to Kevanru as if instructing them on the finer points of being his wife. “The whole planet chants his name. If we don’t let him know he is a sad slut, nobody will.” Kevanru couldn’t keep a straight face while nodding very seriously, their long ears bouncing, as they walked off back into the compound.

Grievous took a seat next to Salaen. She remained sitting up straight while he gently took her drink from her hands, removed his ingdoré, took a sip, & put the cup back in her hands. After a few more seconds of silence she was trying very hard to make awkward, she sighed heavily & dropped her shoulders. She made some kind of disparaging sound at him, like a groan & hiss, as if to concede he won something that she lost. “Why you trying so hard to not want to be here, hm, Salaen?” Grievous had asked after he chuckled. “Because you are afraid?” he said when he received no answer.

“Why you want me around if you so smart?” She shot back. She downed her drink & tossed the cup at him. It bounced off his chest & rolled a bit on the ground while he did not react. “I just want to help you-“

“Yeah, yeh, you just want to help me,” Salaen sneered along with him as he’d started his sentence. “I don’t need your pity, General.”

“No. You do not. But you have my condolences,”

“I don’t need your synomins- synonn- your same fuckin words.”

“All you need is yourself, hm?”

“Yes,” she huffed defeated as she pulled her knees to her chest.

“That is a hard life.” “Yeah.” “Who will reward us for our suffering in ascendency?” “…God or some’t. I don’t fuckin know.”  “Who will reward us for our suffering while we are still living?” “…” “Guess.” “Shut up.”

Grievous nudged her with his arm, leaning on her. “Guess.”

“Fuck off with your deep. Brain. Thoughts-“ Salaen loosely punched him along the length of his torso a few times to accentuate her feelings, warranting of course no reaction.

“I think only you can give yourself permission to be rewarded for your suffering,” Grievous said thoughtfully. Salaen groaned loudly like this were a terrible inconvenience.

        “And you in your infnit wisdom have done this, huh?” she snarled sarcastically.

        “Ew, no. Do I look like a man that knows salvation?”

        “Eh! You look like a man put back together with a few pieces missing inside, General.”

        “That’s because I am. But this,” he gestured with one hand to the compound housing his wives & children, “is as close as I am going to get.” They sat in silence for a few minutes.

        “But. Sharing all the burden…is not selfish?” Salaen asked quietly after awhile.

        “Maybe,” Grievous answered honestly & looked over to meet Salaen’s concerned gaze. “But the alternative? Suffer alone until granted death. Is there honor in that?” After he said this Salaen furrowed her brow, displeased, scrunching up her already close features. This big, dumb bastard really did know what he was talking about & just what to say. She did not like that he was right but she relented that evening to perhaps not be so afraid to have things to lose. Because maybe it was worth it? She’d never had things to lose, only herself.

        “…shit I dunno, man,” was all that she said in response to him. He had laughed & clapped a wide hand on her back, jostling her forward. After that Salaen tried to be more social with the family, or at least tried not to be antisocial. The timed trial she had arbitrarily set for herself still remained a source of anxiety. She had told herself she would leave after the wedding if it wasn’t working out. She thought she would magically feel better now that she opened up the possibility that she actually might not bail. This was not the case. So he would marry Kevanru & then what? She would just stick around awkwardly like an idiot? No way, she thought.

        She was going to have to propose to this fucker. That was the only sensible option, right? Salaen swallowed her pride & asked Kevanru for a drink at the beacon one night. “Kevanru. You just met this guy. Are you 100 percen’ on board with just…marrying him? Like you…you were doing Kevanru things & then BAM, now you are in this family?” Salaen made to throw her fist into her palm to illustrate & sloshed half her drink onto herself. Kevanru gave her their full attention, listening carefully.

        “Well,” they began slowly, to be sure they were saying what they meant, “Yes? That is how kaleesh do. In our lives there are different parts with rites as doors. That is what my mother told me. That is exciting, yes? To open a new door & find a whole new part!” As Kevanru spoke, Salaen’s expression grew more & more suspicious. Not because of their words necessarily, but because of how excitedly they believed what they were saying. It was really, really cute.

        “I open a door once & a man stab me with a bottle for my bottle…” Salaen said apprehensively & literally.

        “Oh…,” Kevanru pursed their lips in thought, the tusks dangling from their piercings bobbed a bit. “That happens sometimes, too. But! New parts don’t erase old parts. They just add. Sometimes you can go back, you know, like through a door.” Kevanru concluded with a nod & a smile, very confident they were helping. Salaen looked apprehensive.

        “There is nothing back there,” she said. She then pressed her lips together as if that had slipped out past her defensive wall of off-putting quips. Kevanru had tilted their head.

        “Oh. And you are? Scared about a new part? So now you feel trapped in a doorway…” Kevanru trailed off with a sad tone. The weight of the best metaphor in their repertoire sunk in. When Salaen merely nodded resignedly Kevanru got even more sad. “Oh! Well. You do not want to stay here with us while you find a new way?”

        “Well I. I do! I do want to stay with you! But I am not…enough.” After she admitted this, the word she settled on hung in the air for a moment in silence.

        Kevanru suddenly grabbed her around the middle & crushed to their chest, nearly double the breadth of Salaen from shoulder to shoulder. “Ohh, Salaen-!” they exclaimed sorrowfully. They were not quite intellectually equipped to fulfill her spirit & so a hug was going to have to do.

        Salaen had screeched in surprise & kicked her legs that were no longer in contact with the ground. “Aiiee! Oi! You’re going to break me, you mumuu!”

        “Are you going to kill her in ritual combat?” came Bryaru’s voice from the seat across from them. Bryaru & Jyada had walked up just as Kevanru had wailed to witness this while Salaen fruitlessly tried to wriggle free. The warrior put Salaen back on her seat & straightened her tunic & cowl while she blinked a couple times, dazed.

        “No, no. Salaen wants to be with the family! But she thinks she is not enough!” Kevanru relayed with an insistent kind of sadness, like they were trying to convince the others to action.

        “Enough of what?” Jyada murmured. “I don’t know,” Kevanru admitted. “She has two whole machetes, that’s more than- Salaen! You have two whole m-“

        “Oh my god, shut up for five seconds,” Bryaru slapped Jyada full on in the chest to get her to stop talking. She then sat next to Salaen, whom was looking bedraggled & defeated. “Why you think you are not enough?” Bryaru asked, putting a hand on Salaen’s shoulder.

        “…Well. You are all so smart & full of. Of feelings. I don’t think I feel feelings so big,” Salaen said, trying not to sound any more pathetic than she was.

        “First of all, I am dumb as hell, so write that down-“ Jyada announced.

        Salaen sniffled a bit while Bryaru shot Jyada a look. “I never been big feelings, you know? Uh,” Salaen stretched her arms out like she were indicating size then pointed to Kevanru, “Kevanru has big emotions,” she said. The others all “Ohhh”’d at the same time. “I don’t have love feelings. I must be broke, you know?” The others looked very thoughtful & serious, digesting this self-diagnosis.

        “Outback, your feelings don’t have to be big for them to matter. You sure got a lot of feelings about having feelings,” Jyada reasoned. Salaen’s frown deepened & Jyada stammered to reword her statement. “I mean! You still have feelings & things! All kaleesh are different, eh? Right Kevanru?”

        “Ah, yeah! That’s right!” Kevanru had already exhausted all the help they had to give. Now they were panicking a bit because of Jyada panicking.

        “I’m gonna just go walk into the jungle,” Salaen suggested forlornly. This was met with a chorus of “No!”

        “Hush now.”

        The three stopped squawking & looked up at the approach of another wife, tall & dark. Bryaru peeked around from behind her skirts & said, “I brought Weyla.”

        Weyla stepped around them & gracefully sat on the other side of Salaen. In a clear, smooth, humming voice with an accent Salaen had not heard much of Weyla spoke, “What is it you want to do, dear? Stay with us?” The outcast nodded vehemently, afraid she would start crying if she said anything. If she cried in front of Weyla she might die. “I think the consensus is that we would like it if you stayed, as well. Why stop yourself?” Weyla asked.

        Salaen took a deep breath to steady herself. “I want to be one of you-“ she started to explain.

        “But you don’t think you meet the criteria?” Weyla finished. Salaen shook her head. “You know what I love about Kalee? That there are so many different kinds of things that live here, so many kinds of kaleesh. But kaleesh don’t always like different. It is intimidating, no?” Salaen again nodded, her good ear pinning itself at a flat angle against her head. “But different kaleesh is why Kalee works. We can work together to achieve things we could never do alone. Grievous knew this. That is why I sought him out. He did not want to marry me when we first met. He did not think he met the criteria.” At this Weyla smiled just a little.

        “Point being, Salaen, no other family on the planet is as well equipped to understand that kaleesh feel things differently. There are many different kinds of love. When Kevanru marries Grievous, he is not the only one getting a new- wife?” Weyla looked up to Kevanru for clarification. Kevanru nodded.

        “Yeah, we all get a new wife! This is a group decision. We outnumber him,” Jyada interjected enthusiastically.

        “Yeah, that’s right. Khaganate wife council possesses the authority to vote in new wives as signed off on by Grievous,” Bryaru said, sounding very official. “Is that true?” Kevanru had asked looking very impressed. “I don’t know, I just made that up but probably?” Bryaru shrugged.

        “Yeah! Saelan, will you marry me? (No homo. Unless.)” Jyada blurted, bowing formally to her. “Hey-!” Bryaru interjected. “Nah, I saw her first so I got dibs,” Jyada said.

        “Yes, Salaen! You want to marry us completely platonically?” Kevanru boomed just as enthusiastically. At this point Salaen couldn’t help but laugh.

        “Sure, I guess. Yeah. Fine,” she said.

        Grievous was caught only a little off guard when his two most raucous wives & his boisterous fiancé approached him in their foyer, shoving Salaen in front of them & presenting him with a piece of parchment. Bryaru had written a formal proposal endorsement. He chuckled once & looked down at Salaen. He put an outstretched hand on her thin shoulder & tilted his head as if to appraise her reaction.

        “Is this what you want, Salla’?” he asked her.

        She nodded, looking determined, but just said, “Yeah, mate, for sure.”

        “Alright, it will be done. Welcome home, then,” he said, dotingly patting the side of her scarred face.

        He was then wrenched off his feet. Kevanru had come up behind & hugged him tightly to their chest, swaying for a moment. “Thank you, Grievous!” they had chimed. Grievous just kind of accepted this after a second of surprise. They were 4 inches taller than him & packed more densely with muscle, so he figured he had probably better get used to it. Bryaru squealed with delight & ushered Salaen off so she didn’t have to be seen crying in front of everybody else.

        Grievous married Kevanru & Salaen in the same ceremony at the end of the kaleeshi season before the rains started, equating to the end of 35 BBY. She was nervous the whole day with all of these very important people attending. She felt stupid being all dressed up except when she was standing with Grievous. Their ceremony attire matched. The other wives had a harder time dressing the brides this go around. There was a debate as to what Kevanru would wear & Salaen didn’t really come from what she felt was a culture.

        “I came from outcast culture, our ceremonies were passing out in the gutter,” she had said. The attending had looked concerned but Grievous had just sarcastically replied, “Happy wife, happy life.” Salaen laughed but he followed, “You are from where I am from, dummy.” “Oh, yeah.”

        Kevanru had family & friends in attendance. Their father may as well have been on a leash between his own wives &, although instructed to be on his best behavior, scowled the whole time. Kevanru ended up wearing pieces of their tarkhan armor with an adjusted version of a traditional bridal sari. Even though they were not adorned in as many accoutrements as Grievous, Bi’kotta’s bitter little heart might have actually grown half a size. Something like remorse may have blinked into his soul for a minute over the little girl he neglected all those years ago. His wives in his ears certainly reminded him multiple times, “Look how happy they are being accepted for who they are. By the Khaganate.”

        Other wives had family in attendance. Grievous drew important generals, leaders, & the Izvoshra out for another party. Even some of Grievous’ actual privkliin were there. Salaen just knew Rexavarius, whom was being the ultimate awkward 3rd wheel at the punch bowl kind of guest. While Salaen was telling Rex all about what happened they were engulfed in a very large shadow. They both looked up to Khagan Bentilias san Sk’ar, a 10 foot tall behemoth of a kaleesh dressed in the hides of entire animals, red eyes peering at them from the depths of his fearsome ingdoré.

        “That’s a huge bitch!” Salaen had exclaimed. “That’s what I said!” Jyada yelled from wherever & was immediately silenced like someone had hit her.

        “Sheelal! Where did you get this one?” Sk’ar boomed across the procession. “She bright but scraggly. You just picking ladies up from anyplace, eh?” he continued, poking at her shoulder with a huge claw. Grievous made his way over to try & prevent a scene, something Sk’ar made anywhere he went. He did like to judge his wives & this was wedding number 5 so he surely felt pretty good at it by now.

        “Mind your own business, you giant brisket!” Salaen he yelled up at him, scratching his hand. Rex had put a hand to his face. Sk’ar looked over to Grievous whom had not quite reached them.

        “Why you like your women so spicy. What is wrong with you?” Bentilias muttered to Grievous.

        “Yeah, she’s pretty great,” Grievous had replied, looking past him. Here came Benny’s sister to scold him. It wasn’t a party if nobody yelled at Sk’ar. 

Salaen did grow to love Grievous in her own way but it was clear she really loved being a part of the family. That was enough.

[accursedkaleeshi]

Blys'aan's Bio Part 2: About Her

Part 1: Meeting

Blys’aan was on the shorter side of average height but was also a bit round. It was not a common shape for Kaleesh, but some would retain their baby fat & store fat more readily (it IS genetic in this case, lol). Colloquially, this was kind of known as hearth wife shape. That was kind of a mean thing to say, implying that hearth wives don’t do much work, & was an even more mean thing to say to your little brother. I digress. Blys’aan was totally fine with her appearance. She knew it made her look more matronly & approachable to everyone. That included most foreign vendors that had preconceived notions about Kaleesh.

In some ways she embodied that stereotype: being thick, jolly, matronly, & a lover of food. Blys’aan exuded comfort. She was top tier quality mom, second only to Taa’yn. Taa’yn couldn’t bring herself to discipline anybody. Blys’aan would put you on blast & kiss your face in the same breath. She would bap you with the nearest spoon. She did most of the cooking. Because Blys’aan was round, green, & always bubbly Jyada announced, perhaps drunkenly, at their wedding that Blys’aan was a maribo. A maribo was a jungle river animal that is best described as if a moss ball was also a turtle. So spouses would call her Maribo when they were being cute.

Blys’aan had three children total but lost her first child young to a fever they couldn’t pull through. She says it isn’t the reason that she took very serious care of the kids when they were sick, but everyone else kind of low-key thinks it is. When you were sick you got maybe the best soup on the planet, even if you had to be quarantined. She boasted a very robust immune system, saying she never caught anything from the off planet commerce. That was until Jyada’s second child (around 7) contracted sap lung which is equates to space jungle tuberculosis.

Kaleesh didn’t have a cure so much as they were just really hardy & extremely good plague control measures. In such close contact so constantly as they are they take illness very seriously. The only other member of the family to catch it was Lyx’al’s (wife 10) second baby, just over a year old at the time. Blys’aan basically quarantined herself along with the children & fully accepted the inevitability of contracting it. Which she did.

It used to be that they could somewhat reliably import medicine from traders who had access to more advanced systems. But it had now been years since the Republic’s retaliation & much of their imports were still being acquired illegally. Medicine was the hardest thing to smuggle. Tight record is usually kept of it & those who get their hands on some know how much people will need it. Dangerous & expensive.

Grievous did a lot of disgruntled squawking around the budding Separatist council but they had never really cared about his problems. In this instance Grievous was like, “Yo, can I get some meds for my wife & children currently literally dying on the planet you are supposed to be helping?” IBC granted him some in an act they thought benevolent, mostly so they had it in writing that they had rendered aid & use that to strip justification from his anger. It was not a gracious amount, just enough for what an appraiser had thought was enough for an adult & 2 juveniles. It was not their problem currently that this would be the only bacterial respiratory Rx on the planet. This did not silence Grievous like they hoped it would. He continued to be a pain in the ass, insisting that he would pay out of pocket for more medical access. San Hill was like, “You work for us, we pay you. You have already paid out of pocket.”

By the time the meds were actually in their hands Lyx’al’s little one was too far gone. Blys’aan gave most of her dosage to Jyada’s boy & could not bring herself to use the rest. The only lung stim on the whole planet? Seemed a level of selfish she couldn’t overcome. It had been many months by then & she was so sick. What if she died anyway & wasted it? So she didn’t use it. She did not tell Grievous, nor did any of the wives ever tell him. Blys’aan died in 27 BBY & had to be burned without any rite preparation. [Hang on shit got too real, gotta cry about it. Okay.] Jyada’s boy survived but was largely crippled & had a (devastatingly ironic) wheeze for the rest of his life.

The fact that he lost a wife & child, leaving another disabled, from something that was perfectly directly preventable was at the core of the seething hatred he had toward, well, everyone really. The Separatists as well as more fuel for the Republic. If anyone on Kalee would have been able to get resources it was him: in direct contact with the Banking Clan, responsible for this contract. His privilege granted him understanding so far as the state the rest of Kalee was in. If he lost direct family in the best of circumstances the global desperation was too much for him to think about for too long. Much to the annoyance of San Hill, Grievous only got louder & more aggressive to deal with.

[accursedkaleeshi]

Part 2 of Kevanru's Bio Family Roles

Go to part one

TL:DR: Kevanru got along with everyone. They were not expected or pressured to have babies but the more comfortable they got the more they warmed up to the idea. They just freakin��� loved being alive & loved being in a caring family. They had 2 children & were fine with being called a mother & wife, as these are more like roles in Kaleeshi society than tied specifically to being a woman. They did mostly mom role things but also some dad things the boys would talk to them about. You know, strictly boy business, no girls allowed.

Kevanru, being a very jubilant & enthusiastic person, did not have to do much in the way of convincing the other wives that they would fit in with the family. They were honored by the Khaganate’s acceptance & were honestly glad to be anywhere their miserable father was not. Kevanru was honestly the model Kaleeshi citizen. The strength & honor of a true warrior, hardworking, adaptable, & readily very social, excited to be part of a new family.

        They explained as well as they could to the others that they were non-binary not to exclude traits from one gender or the other but to include all of them. Everyone seemed to understand this pretty quickly. It took a little while for some more than other wives to completely stop accidentally using female pronouns just because 99% of the time wife was woman. Their vocabulary shifted almost without notice & eventually became more neutral in everything. As it turns out it is easier than meticulously gendering most words. Their children didn’t notice until they were older & got out of the house more.

        The only times this affected how they treated Kevanru was when something that was specifically a female situation arose, which was not often. In most cases family would pause & just ask how they felt about it, seeing as Kevanru was easy to talk to. Sometimes they wouldn’t know themselves & would have to think about it. The main two traditionally female things in Kaleeshi society were, of course, being a wife & being a mother. Kevanru was pretty good so far as wife duties went & so did not mind being labeled a wife. The others said they were their husband-wife, their wife capable of husband role things.

        Kevanru also didn’t mind helping to raise the children. In fact, they were pretty excited about it even before Taa’yn regaled them with the many benefits of being mom. Kevanru was not raised equal to their siblings or even to their sisters. They had worked very hard to be accepted as they were in their home village & it had never happened in their childhood. So, they did look forward to raising great kaleesh just by accepting & loving them unconditionally. When the first pups began to get old enough to differentiate all these moms, it was the other wives that encouraged them to call Kevanru Kiki’ja instead of the –ma suffix. It wound up they would be called any combination of the suffixes depending on who was calling them for what: Jama, Jamama, Jafa, Majafa (which would be like Momdad).

        As Kevanru became more comfortable with the family, they began questioning their sexuality. That wasn’t really something they had put a lot of thought into beforehand. Their new spouses did not put any expectations or pressure on them as far as having children went. They figured they had that covered with, y’know, the 9 other women. Jyada, being Jyada, inadvertently (or purposefully) took every chance to corrupt them, since Kevanru was more curious than anything else about it.

        They knew that wives were expected to bear their husband’s children but the way that they had learned this growing up always seemed…like it were a rule. Kevanru wasn’t sure how they felt about being exempt from what they were told was such an integral rule to being kaleeshi.This family was quite open about it & personal preferences about sex varied from wife to wife. Jyada certainly didn’t brag about it as if it were a rule. Grievous, unlike a few husband stereotypes, didn’t expect it but nor did he seem to like putting it on a schedule (which was expected with so many wives). Kevanru asked around about it.

The general consensus was that, cultural duty aside, Grievous was in this to surround himself with emotional support & his sex drive was for fun before purpose. As was not uncommon in some populations, it hadn’t occurred to Kevanru that you could just do that shit for fun & feel goods. They were already very comfortable with all of their spouses, so they then understood how that could be a natural progression. Their husband’s only concern was if they would be comfortable getting pregnant, bc birth control is morally & spiritually illegal on Kalee.

Kevanru put a lot of thought into this, as much thought as Kevanru puts into things. They decided they were okay with this. They had already given all they had as a warrior, so it only made sense to wholly experience being a mother as well. They had always loved their female body; it had been everyone else that had the problem. So hell yeah! Please imagine the hulking Kevanru, with stars in their big pastel eyes, whispering, “Our children could be the greatest warriors ever.” They bore 2 of their own children, ironically and/or awesomely, one boy & one girl.

Kevanru’s unflappable positivity really worked overtime in this family. Especially early on when Taa’yn passed away. Kevanru made sure the triplets were taken care of in the immediate fall out when it was hard for others to handle it. They were always happy to help & quick to hug. Everyone loved them. The children were always enamored with them. Even before Grievous was merc’d, the boys would go to them if they had felt they needed a dad conversation. It wasn’t usually anything troubling, since their family was as progressive as Kalee gets, but society was still so machismo.

When Grievous was exploded, Kevanru was essentially second husband. Well, Mertenzi kept the family running logistically, ever the captain of the ship. Kevanru kept everyone okay. Their last years, as with many Kaleesh warriors, were slow & painful. Their children took reverent care of them. They did a lot of thinking around then, as much as Kevanru did, & concluded Mertenzi was right. Maybe there was just as much glory in withering away surrounded by life you have given as there was being cut down in battle surrounded by lives you had taken.

[accursedkaleeshi]

Give us an AU where Taa’yn survives and gets to see her babies grow up, coward

[No, I don’t think I will. Oldcaptainamerica.gif. In fact I’m going to make you even MORE sad & tell you about the family temple! 4 paragraphs beneath the cut.]

The family temple was built largely by Taa’yn & Grievous along with whoever dropped by the area to lend a hand. Each of the Izvoshra put at least a few day’s work into it on average. Sk’ar was plied into manual labor with extra food from weddings he would come over to attend. Various members of anyone’s family would come by now & again. This included Grievous’ father, by then all but disabled by the toll a lifetime of battle took on his joints. They had to physically stop him from lifting things & then all agreed that this cleared some things up for them concerning the ceaselessness of their husband.

The temple was nearly finished by the time Taa’yn passed away. Their temple borrowed much from the one Taa’yn tended to before marriage, but as this was intended as a household temple the walls surrounding the center partially covered in names of those close to the family that died without closure. A lot of Kaleesh died without rites in the Huk war. The first name on the wall was Ronderu lij Kummar. The second was Qymaen jai Sheelal. Names of other much beloved followed: mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, cohorts, & lovers.

Taa’yn was the first death in the immediate family. Her bones were interred in a small casket just behind the altar in the center of the temple. Her skull & hunt mask adorned the podium at the altar for as long as the temple stood.

The family allowed people to visit the temple after Grievous was assassinated. The structure was built a few acres away from the compound they lived in & at first this was not a problem. The appeal broadened when Grievous was actually killed at the end of the Clone Wars. By then it had sort of become an unofficial temple to War & Death & all kinds of people made pilgrimages to their temple. Some of the remaining family did not like this as A) people were actively trying to assassinate some of them & B) some of these people visiting were fucking weirdos. If weirdos strayed too close to home or tried to talk to them about shit Mertenzi didn’t want to deal with, she threatened them with her harpoon gun. Their compound was pretty well fortified, weaponized wives aside. Luckily, most that visited had enough sense to not fuck with the personal family temple of General Grievous.

[accursedkaleeshi]

Twarxii's Bio

TL:DR: Grievous' 4th wife at the insistence of her brother, Bentilais san Sk'ar. A very stoic & formidable warrior, she found adjusting to the role of wife difficult. After the loss of a child she gained permission to leave home & rejoin her brother's offensive in 32 BBY. Died during the Empire's reign when Thrawn nuked Sk'ar's Kaleesh colony from orbit.

This is is really long, my bad.

So when Grievous started taking wives several members of his elite militia, the Izvoshra, were insufferable pains in the ass about it. Bentilais san Sk'ar & one other in particular were like, "You're on the market? Holy shit, I am telling all of my sisters immediately." Combining families among the Izvoshra seemed like an obvious thing to do for the clout if nothing else. Sk'ar suggested his highly decorated sister Twarxii. Grievous was like, "Didn't you say that is your meanest sister?" Sk'ar was like, "Lol yeah but you are also a mean bitch." Grievous had, of course, met Twarxii before as she had run several campaigns with them & was generally considered a total badass. He relented apprehensively & agreed on the condition that she was cool with it & got along with the wives he already had at home.

Twarxii also relented apprehensively as it was what was traditionally expected of her. She was honored & Grievous, all things considered, was a catch as far as warriors go. But she was also a warrior. Domestic wife life was completely alien & intimidating to her. After a bit of a grace period Grievous married her near the end of the year (still 36 BBY). When she arrived there was already one baby, Taa'yn was very pregnant, & Jyada was probably in early pregnancy because she has no self control. The culture shift was enough to give Twarxii whiplash but the wives were very welcoming. They all knew who Sk'ar was.

Twarxii became very close with Taa'yn. Having always fought in the shadow of her huge-as-fuck bloodthirsty brother, she was very taken with Taa'yn being built like an ox, waking up every day, & not choosing violence. Taa’yn passing away really hit her hard. Being killed in battle was expected & celebrated. She had not expected death at home to be so viscerally painful nor for the emptiness to linger so steadfastly. Twarxii’s anxieties manifested in her second pregnancy. She would not admit to it, but she was scared. Because nothing good ever happens to Grievous & the Grievous adjacent, her fear was realized when she had twins, a girl & a boy. Tayuja & Jy’karn respectively. The boy did not live through birth. Needless to say, she was extremely fucked up about it. The wives had a hard time parsing out her intentions, as she had always been stoic. They kept an eye out & made sure Tayuja was taken care of.

Luckily Grievous was actually home for all this. After she continued to not take things well, he apologized for pinning her in a role that she was not built for. This gave her pause that he would apologize for doing what was expected of them & maybe insinuate she was incapable. Grievous was like, “Listen, I know the family you came from didn’t talk about their feelings but hear me out. Society? Kind of sucks sometimes. My mother was very obviously a caged pentyur (a kind of big jungle cat) & those around her suffered the consequences of her being trapped in the family. Real talk, I do not want to do that to you.” Grievous, in nearly all regards, knew how she felt & reminded her of that. There was a pause heavy with the absence of Ronderu, whom, unlike the other wives, she had actually known & had no chance to ever live up to. Ya’ll I just hurt my own feelings writing that.

The thing about loving a lot of people is that, statistically, you will have to see some of them die & Twarxii didn’t think she could handle that. Grievous says that’s fair. As far as he was concerned she had fulfilled her duties admirably. Twarxii remained for a few months settling some things, mainly her 2 remaining children, opting to leave them with the family where she knew they would be loved & taken care of. She left the compound in 32 BBY & traveled back west to command one of her brother’s brigades. Sk’ar was like, “Dude what did you do to my sister,” as she was never the same person that she had been. Grievous was like, “Either ask her yourself or I will mansplain post-partum depression to you.” Sk’ar opted to drop the subject because he resented it when Grievous explained things to him & fellas is it gay to ask your sister if she’s ok.

Twarxii remained in her brother’s regiment. She readily mobilized with him to Oben after he miraculously dragged himself out of the Jenuwaa sea following the shuttle explosion that blew up her fucking husband. She remained Sk’ar’s highest ranking bataan (leader of a brigade) on Oben until she was killed in a dramatic display of power from Grand Admiral Thrawn. Then just a Captain, Thrawn glassed the entire colonial Kaleesh population from orbit IIRC. (Bentilais san Sk’ar is an EU canon character that joined the Empire b/c he was so impressed by being nuked. He was eventually killed by the OG trilogy mystery gang when Chewbacca yeeted an entire machine gun turret at his vehicle full force. A good time on Wookiepedia.)

Goddam this is so long. Epilogue about Tayuja: She was always a very serious little girl. The wives would say she had an old soul. When she was old enough, she was taught to use a glaive that her mother had left her & named after Jy’karn. She considered the weapon to contain the soul of her lost brother. She protected to fuck out of the family. Eventually she settled on a hunt mask made from the same type of herbivore that Taa’yn’s mask was crafted from.