#ulsei

[writernopal]

7 Snippets 7 People

Tagged by @talesofsorrowandofruin and @mariahwritesstuff, thank you both! See their posts here and here, respectively.

Tagging (gently): @captain-kraken @tabswrites @sarahlizziewrites @outpost51 @dragonedged-if @thewardenofwinter @thelivingdeceased and anyone else who'd like to do this!

One (Axtapor's POV)

Perhaps many would be intimidated by the sight of Lord Rojundrog, Seer of Clan Oxlo, laying eyes on them like this, but to me, he was just a crooked old man with a talent for making himself bigger than he ought to be. He was born from my grandmother’s first clutch and had unusual crimson scales, or rather, unusual for Clan Oxlo. While we lizards came in a variety of colors, certain clans tended to favor certain shades. Ours were hues of blue, black, gray, and purple with the exceedingly rare orchid pink that appeared once every few generations, so his crimson was, at the very least, curious.

Two (Axtapor's POV)

“That is why the start of each social season begins with a reading of rites. A stupid commemoration of those ineffectual ones who fail to consummate their union in that place, the way true Dreamers should, and instead end up with their brains splattered all over their marriage bed. However, it is a rather effective culling tool to eliminate those who should not be trusted with our power or with the duty of representing our House.”

Three (Axtapor's POV)

“I could bore you with the details, but I doubt you are all that interested when it comes to ladies’ fashion, so I will spare you.” She responded, folding her hands neatly in her lap.  “I be plenty interested in lady clothes when it be on the ground...” I remarked under my breath. Egra and Ulsei both eagerly slapped my head, while Idhi and my grandmother shared similar looks of dissatisfaction.  I frowned as I rubbed the warm spot of impact and turned my focus back on Lord Haphrex. “How will ye be gettin’ to the Hefredies?” “I’m afraid that is where we will have to impose on your expertise at sea, my lord.” He said, “Fisla has told me about how talented you are at sailing.” “Has she? Ye’s be right familiar usin’ given names...” I muttered. Egra kicked me and shot me a frown. I growled at her. “Ye wee bitch.” “Grandmama!” She whined. “Settle down.” My grandmother admonished us both with a frown.

Four (Axtapor's POV)

“Well, now that we are on the subject of my beau.” She teased, “What is your opinion of him?” I sighed, not really wanting to provide her with my thoughts about him. I didn't dislike him, but it was still odd for me to see them so close to each other all the time. My grandfather had never been tender with my grandmother the way that Lord Haphrex was. The most I’d ever seen my grandfather do was kiss her hand, and that was only because we’d been at a social event where he was obligated to do so. I supposed Lord Haphrex’s intimacy with her was strange because I wasn’t yet accustomed to seeing someone be so openly affectionate towards her in a romantic way. There was something sad about that.

Five (Axtapor's POV)

“Then, if you can’t say, please, look out for yourself. You know that I care for you very much. But how you worry me, you troublesome boy—!” She let out a strained laugh in a poor attempt to hide the glittering of tears in her eyes. I squared my jaw and did my best to hold her gaze, but it was hard to when she cried.  “What be ye on about? I be a man grown now, proper as so, nay a boy.” I teased her weakly.  She let out another laugh, and this time her tears fell. “Oh no, you will always be a boy to me, hatchling. That same little boy who loved eating sweets from all the town stalls. When was the last time I treated you to something like that, hmm?” I laughed softly this time and pulled her into an embrace. “Right, long while.”

Six (Fay's POV)

Their coin was clean, and if the knights were pleased with that merchant’s quality of goods, they would certainly return with their business and that of other knights. And knights were easy to swindle. They paraded around in their fancy armors and capes, blithely unaware of how absurd they looked, dragging their velvets through piles of shit and stepping in vomit with their ignorant boots. They didn’t care for their belongings; that much was clear, so for a greedy merchant, they were endless fonts of gold.

Seven (Axtapor's POV)

“Lord Haphrex.” I greeted him with a small dip of the head.  “Lord Axtapor.” He responded with a similar gesture. “Tendin’ to business?” I asked as I saw him fold what looked like a bill of sale into his pocket. “One could say so.” He said, gesturing that I follow him with something of a busy look on his face.  I didn’t really want to have an extended chat with him, but I followed along anyway. “Fisla is saddened that you will be leaving us so soon, my lord.” He voiced as we took a leisurely pace toward one end of the harbor. It still irked me that he used her name so casually, but there was no real reason why he shouldn’t be able to, given their involvement. “Aye. I know.” “I do not like seeing her distressed, my lord.” He shot me a sidelong look this time. “That be...good.” I replied somewhat awkwardly.  What was he getting at? And what was that look from before? I hardly knew him well enough to be able to guess. He halted his advance and turned to face me. “So your mind is made up? You will not stay?” I sighed. “Did she put ye up to this?” “A man never reveals what a woman says to him in confidence, my lord.” He said with a slight frown. I pushed the leaves to the other side of my mouth impatiently. “I nay have time to be waggin’ tongues as so, my lord. What be it that ye want?”

[everythingstarstuff]

www.behance.net/ulsei

[ndtvindia24hrs]

Out of the Sea with Ulysse Nardin

Out of the Sea with Ulysse Nardin

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Earlier this week, the Swiss watchmaker launched an eco-friendly diver’s watch, called the Euless Nardin Diver Net. Utilizing renewable…

[shrimpcolour]

thinking about jarvis😅

[13lionz]

trust the process. #Repost @the_law_of_one with @get_repost ・・・ How does one know what the right service is? We say to you that this is an unskilled question. The skilled question is to find the love and the service will follow. When the heart is open to the extent it was open in the three individuals mentioned(Gandhi, Jesus, MLK), there are no questions of what is of service. There is merely service. The heart leads the way. The faithful servant follows. And the love appears. The light shines through. When you ask what would be of service you are removing faith, and instead you are using the intellect to replace your faith. You are not moving love but trying to emulate love. One can try to cultivate love, but we would suggest in the way we see it that this is a temporary result, perhaps an inspiring model but not the end result, not a permanent objective. Love cannot be cultivated by will or logic. Love is cultivated by allowing it to accumulate naturally as the seeker continues to seek, continues to give thanks, and continues to point his or herself ever toward the light. In this way love arises naturally. And when love arises naturally and fills the heart, and the mind lets go of its judgments and turns itself over to faith and true service is performed, this is not easy. It is not something one can achieve by practicing this or that skill, but that which will come as it will; come with patience and dedication to the task of being a servant of the light. -Q’uo -The Law Of One This transcript found free for your inspiration at www.LLresearch.org/transcripts (Dated: 2009 Oct 3) ❤️🍊💛💚💙💜💗 ☥☥☥💚☥☥☥ #TheLawOfOne #LawOfOne www.lawofone.info www.LLresearch.org 🎨ARTIST🎨: @ulsei (Elena Ukolova) (at Los Angeles, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/BsB86OpA3Wd/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1lbh2lpbo6i1j

[writernopal]

Nopal! Please, please tell me more about lizardfolk women - I don't recall seeing them on page that much?

What's the current fashion? What's their typical role in the society? Anything else about them you want to share?

Sam! Thank you for the ask!!

Oh my Lizardfolk ladies! This is going to be SUPER LONG because this topic is so loaded and you are getting me so STARTED on it lol so I'll put most of it under a cut because I have A LOT to say! i think you may have just unlocked the longest info-dump/unprompted close reading of my own work so congrats lol Before we get into the meaty lore, I'll address this point!

I don't recall seeing them on page that much?

This is both intentional and something that happened as a by-product of who the main characters are in AASOAF. Let me explain.

CW: misogyny, aggressive patriarchy, mentions of enslavement

AASOAF is primarily told through the lens of Mariel and Axtapor, joined later by the POV's of Fay and Wilkes in AASOAF 2 and 3, but of that cast, Axtapor is the closest to typical Lizardfolk society and experience. But here's the thing: he's a male and because he was brought up in the highly patriarchal system of Lizardfolk, he (and we as readers) start the series from that perspective. That is, mostly blind or flat out ignoring the experience and role of women in Lizardfolk society aside from reciting the surface effects that directly impact him and his experience as a man.

To quote him from AASOAF 1:

[My grandmother] had always resented my grandfather for turning her children into cruel, unfeeling people. Her daughters were not that way, but she never saw them again after they were wed. That was customary since a wife should live with her husband to raise his children and support his clan. As a result, she was left surrounded by her sons, and sons were rarely influenced by their mothers in The Empire.  Most men saw them as a bother more than anything. I know I certainly did. My own mother was a stifled, sad creature who had to simper and bow just right lest she offend my father. It was exhausting to bear witness to. And grandmothers were, more or less, nonexistent to their grandsons, making the relationship that my grandmother and I had a strange one. They didn’t form connections with them, let alone write and visit with one another as we did. I was well past marrying age too. If there should be anyone I should be spending time with of the opposite sex, it should be my wife.

There are a few other instances where in AASOAF 1 when he speaks about women in a pretty derogatory/selfish and frankly, misogynistic way that reflects his upbringing:

In the past, I’d never imagined a woman doing anything for me beyond being intimate. And it had never mattered to me if a woman enjoyed being in my company or if she wanted to spend time doing simple things with me. Their opinions of me also didn’t matter too much so long as I was satisfied...

I narrowed my eyes in her direction. She wasn’t even in half-mourning. Husbands had the option to be in half-mourning after the passing of their wives, but wives weren’t given such a choice.

This, along with the intentional omission of their mention is not only meant to construct Axtapor's character, especially because these criticisms are largely omitted when he speaks about his grandmother, but the Empire as a whole since we don't physically visit that location in any significant way until AASOAF 2.

So the absence/narrow representation of Lizardfolk women is there precisely to make you ask the question that you posed and to make you uncomfortable. You are forcefully put in the shoes of someone who has benefited from that position in the overall hierarchy and presented with his view which is taken and supported as fact in the context of the story. His grandmother, Lady Fisla, tries to knock some sense into him but he mostly brushes her off and decides shutting up is easier than having it out with her. This contributes to the overall narrative of the female experience and unseen struggle that is both a prominent theme and undercurrent throughout the work.

Snippet of that here:

“And your luck is much better than that of your sisters’, who, despite being born into the same family as you, have no choice but to live under [your father's] thumb until they are married. At which point, they are to be crushed by their husbands instead. You, Axtapor, have the world laid at your feet because you are male and because you are nobility. You have the great fortune that your legs can simply walk you to freedom. Those around you are not the same. They are not your equals. Never forget that and do not use it as a weapon or measure for which you pass judgment upon others.” I didn’t know how to respond, so I just nodded instead.  She so rarely lectured me and was usually rather calm, even unbothered, but for those few moments, she changed completely. I wondered how such a transformation might be possible given her usual demeanor, but I supposed I had stricken a nerve.

This starts to change in AASOAF 2 and definitely in AASOAF 3, with the introduction of Lizardfolk women to the cast and the perspective of an eye-opened Axtapor who has become more aware of their struggles and circumstances due to the events of AASOAF 1. In AASOAF 2 especially, we start to examine how the nature of his upbringing is also harmful to him via his internal monologue and interactions with Mariel and in AASOAF 3 things come to a head and a lot of his core values are challenged along with that of other Lizardfolk men around him. But I won't get into that here!

DEEP BREATH NOW

What's the current fashion?

So I talked a bit about fashion here but I'll pull the more relevant bits out of that!

Each house has a style they prefer. House of War prefers styles similar to traditional Thai dress, the House of Law prefers styles similar to 17th-century Japanese garments, and the House of Dreams prefers styles similar to Mughal period Indian fashion. Their winter wear, when they have need of it, is heavily inspired by Mongolian fashion. Additionally, corsets are favored by women of the Holtep Empire. These are not the undergarments you might imagine for human people, nor are they worn all the time, usually only for special occasions and usually only by the nobility. They are worn with special robes that expose the midriff and are made of steel. They are more like armor than anything else, and unlike human corsets are meant solely for aesthetic purposes; they don't support breasts (bc they don't have any) and are intended to emphasize how small a woman's waist is. It is the most desired of traits in the Empire.

Those of nobility would of course wear finer, more elaborate garments than those of the lower and working classes.

What's their typical role in the society?

Their role is seen exclusively as a method to continue lineages, to form clan alliances via marriage, to raise her husband's children (no, they are not considered hers), and support his clan. They have little to no agency over their own affairs or lives unless they are widowed or otherwise "socially encumbered" (I'll come back to that in a second).

To quote Axtapor from AASOAF 2:

Daughters did as they were commanded in The Empire. They married the man her father selected for her and popped out as many clutches as her husband demanded of her. The practice didn’t bother me for a long time; it just seemed like a fact of life, but that was no longer the case. It wasn’t right; how could it be?! But unbelievably, to every man here, and quite possibly every man in The Empire, it was. It was as right as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. These women were not living beings with feelings; they were playthings, pawns in their game to move upwards, being crushed over and over and expected to smile like they were grateful for it!

So despite being awarded, lands, titles, and wealth upon completing their ikismals, they are mostly named as custodians of those things to hold them as a kind of dowry to be absorbed completely by her husband when she marries. I should note, even the ikismal ceremonies for women are unbalanced against those for men.

Men are instructed to survive in the wilds for five days with nothing but a knife and bring back a kill by the end of it. Women are symbolically thrown out into the desert to survive, by way of being placed in a hut where she must meditate for the whole of the five days. By the end, she is expected to have shaken off her girlhood mentality via this meditation and is deemed patient and rational enough to enter society properly. They are left without food or water though, just like the men, so it is possible that they can perish during this time as the men do. Once they enter society the expectation is that they fully support their husband's endeavors and largely remain silent about it.

NOW

This is not the case if a woman is widowed or "socially encumbered." If she is widowed, Oepus law states (yes this is for all women on Oepus, not just the Empire) that she observes mourning practices (clothing, rituals, etc) according to her country of residence and that she cannot take another partner for two years. This is the doing of The Pale Kings and their relationship with Priestesses of Shanta which is a separate thing that I won't get into here.

However, in the Empire, a woman is not forced to remarry once she is widowed. The idea behind this is that she has served her "purpose" and as long as she's had children with her late husband, then she is no longer of use. She is typically bequeathed with some amount of wealth and a private estate or residence according to her husband's station and a portion of his slaves. She has no rank and is not recognized as a matriarch of her family, despite bearing the clan name and still being associated with her late husband's station. She may come and go as she pleases and is at the top of the "woman pecking order" because she has done her duty. Lady Fisla falls into this category, and is cited as a great lady by Axtapor and female peers in her circle, but the men of Clan Oxlo still don't treat her with much respect.

Now for the "socially encumbered." These are women that for one reason or another, are deemed not fit for marriage. Either because they don't have a large enough dowry, they come from a clan of low repute, have committed a social taboo, etc, etc. Basically if they have any "undesirable" trait they can fall into this category. This is highly subjective but can be enough to punt someone down several social ranks. Other women in this category are those who are considered caretakers to other members of their family, be that children, the disabled, or injured. This means that professions like nursing, teaching, and childcare provided to those outside the home, including extended family, are frowned upon and not considered feminine or proper for a lady to engage in. Axtapor's cousin, Lady Idhi, falls into this category.

She, however, is not afforded any wealth or other luxuries as her grandmother is due to her widowed status. Instead, she thrives off her own dowry, another thing which is seen as taboo because it's considered theft. As a result, she is largely excommunicated from Clan Oxlo goings on and does not have the 'rights' to enter the marriage market. This status essentially means you're invisible which can be a good and a bad thing because you're pretty much isolated from any help if you ever need it.

Anything else about them you want to share?

They are incredibly shrewd and bold, something that you can see in almost all of the Lizardfolk women mentioned in the series including, Lady Fisla, Lady Idhi, Lady Phreldra (Axtapor's mother) and historical figures like the woman behind Solas Week, Mother Mazvah, and Lady Maliah, First Empress of The Holtep Empire, more on her here. As experienced members of society, they understand that to get ahead in their world they must operate underhandedly and silently, gaming the system in their favor where they can. This is pretty apparent in the beginning of AASOAF 2 and will play a pretty big role in AASOAF 3. As a side note, this shrewdness is also demonstrated by Fay due to her closeness with her adoptive Lizardfolk family.

Axtapor's sisters, Lady Ulsei and Lady Egra, don't fall into this category and are portrayed as quite transparent and lacking substance but this is because the two of them are used to explore the effects of their upbringing in the wider world of Oepus similar to the way Axtapor is used throughout the series. What I will say is that these two are key players in the latter half of AASOAF 3.

And finally, we have Alma, Fay and Wilkes' adoptive mother, who is more representative of the lower/working class experience of Lizardfolk women that I didn't even touch on in this post. I might make a separate one about her with that context in mind since there is a lot to her story that deserves to have it's own place.

[writernopal]

Happy STS! If your OCs had social media account, what would they have and what kind of things would they post?

Happy STS, Kraken!

I answered something like that here for the MC cast of AASOAF and then here for Jace and Rapheus so let's just keep going down the list because I LOVE this question! This time we'll look at Axtapor's sisters, Egra and Ulsei.

To start, they bicker A LOT, but if there is one thing they can easily bond over, it's their love of talking. Specifically gossip and generally giving opinions on things when no one is asking for them lol. Seriously, it's like air to them. They could go on for HOURS, so a podcast would be a natural fit, but they get sidetracked SO easily that I think it would end up being something like UNHhhh LOL.

For the uninitiated, UNHhhh is this show that drag queens Trixie Mattel and Katya do where they have a topic as a starting point, but they sort of just take it and run. There isn't a lot of structure to the show itself, and they're mostly just cracking jokes, telling weird anecdotes, taking digs at each other, etc. And the editing is TOP TIER. Seriously it makes everything like 100x funnier. The episodes are on YouTube if you're curious!

Anyway, I think they'd end up running something like that. I imagine that instead of filming it in a studio, they'd film it in the living room of their grandma's house and then get Axtapor to edit it. In this universe, he's a Twitch streamer, but he probably uploads his stuff to YouTube too, and makes his VODs really annoying and over the top, which is exactly the vibe for this!

[writernopal]

WIP Filenames: RQ 1253 and UO 1253?

The numbersssss, Preciousss, what do they mean?

The numbers are not all that interesting (or maybe they are idk haha). They are the year in which that short story takes place. To further contextualize this, all of the short stories in that list are related to the original telling of AASOAF (and there is more that I came across earlier in a different folder bc I'm very organized, oops lol), which spans from 1246AD to 1275AD in which Fay was the main character though she's quite different in the original telling. Now, onto the WIPs themselves!

RQ 1253

Okay, I'm so excited that you picked this one because it is one of my absolute favorites and is significant for several reasons, but the big one is that it was my first time writing a male POV ever. This story actually centers around Qantar, a crewman of the Angel's Lyre (who exists in canon), and his struggle to adjust to married life when he is someone who wants to die hermited and alone. The main reason for this is that he fears intimacy, as he was abused by his partners in the past. 😿

UO 1253

Another one of my favorites! (Who am I kidding, I love them all!) This one centers around Ulsei, one of Axtapor's sisters, and was mainly written for me to explore the experience of being a woman in The Holtep Empire. For context, The Holtep Empire is aggressively patriarchal and, in both tellings, is characterized secondarily by the POVs we are placed in, but we never get to 'live' it, so to speak. A lot of the worldbuilding that I did for The Holtep Empire actually comes from this story. Some of the passages are even plucked from it and put in the AASOAF we know and love today.

[writernopal]

Ten First Lines

Rules: share the first sentence of your last ten stories. If you haven't written ten stories, share as many first sentences as you have.

Tagged by @thewardenofwinter find their post here! Something that might be evident from the collection of lines I have is that they're really plain. That's 100% intentional because the feeling I want all of my works to have is similar to that of a random book found in an old library or antique store. You don't know where it came from, who wrote it, or why, but it pulls you in and in the end, you're glad you read it even if you're not really sure what it is. That said, anything not marked as unfinished or original telling can be found in my pinned post if you'd like to read any of it!

🦎 As A Stranger Or A Friend?⏳

Oepus was once called the Cradle of Death.

🦎⏳As A Stranger Or A Friend?: The Swallow And The Drowned Sailor 🔮🌌

Hello, my sweet one.

⏳🔮🌕 As A Stranger Or A Friend?: Children Of The Broken Star 🦎🌌☄️ (Current WIP)

Is this proper, my lady?

☕ Bowl Of Brown ☕

Heat.

🐺 Pare 🐺

There, upon my knees, head craned toward the sky, I spotted that familiar one-eyed giant.

🥀 Fetch 🥀

Flitting of insects.

🌅 As A Stranger Or A Friend? (Original Telling)🔮

It was a calm starry night overhead as we sailed through those quiet seas.

🦎 Anise (Unfinished piece) 🏴‍☠️

I had been waiting outside the council room for them to conclude their meeting, and to say that I felt pathetic for doing so, was an understatement.

🦎 Ulsei (Unfinished piece) 🏴‍☠️

I buried my head into my pillow and further shimmied under the blankets. It was getting colder now, and even though the cold didn't bother us as much as it did the humans, I was still sensitive to it having lived in the desert my entire life.

🦎 Celesta (Unfinished piece) 🏴‍☠️

The man called Xaxxix sat up quickly, making me giggle loudly. "Seems you're waiting for something important!" I declared as I handed him his usual stack of correspondence.

Tagging (gently): @captain-kraken @crowandmoonwriting @liv-is @outpost51 @lassiesandiego @mysticstarlightduck