Plot Post: Of Elves and Dwarrows

[nonesensed]

Ah, fantasy. Elves and dwarves, to be exact. (Quick and small title change).

Characters

Main:

• Jale (male, Jadestone dwarf, young, just got a "real" beard going, in love with Prince Onren, unsure of his place, brother of Warsa)


• Kaaz (male, former Deep Mine dwarf, young-ish, former fugitive, still worried about fitting in, warrior, betrothed to Fanwa).


• Narathriel (male, elf, young-ish, on a quest, clever, magician)


• Warsa (female, Jadestone dwarf, young-ish, mighty red beard!, best friends with Prince Onren, established warrior, dutiful, sister of Jale)

Supporting:

• Beswa (female, Jadestone dwarf, warrior, hot-headed, in an on-again-off-again relationship with Gelame).


• Bjana (female, Jadestone dwarf, both blood-and-true mother of Tura, Deepdigger Clan)


• Droh (male, Jadestone dwarf, criminal, brother of Bjana, Deepdigger Clan)


• Fanwa (male, Jadestone dwarf, warrior, betrothed to Kaaz, brother of Marwa).


• Gelame (female, Jadestone dwarf, warrior and bard, calm, on-and-off-again with Beswa, magical potential).


• Guthra (female, Deep Mine dwarf, cousin to Kaaz, obsessed with status).


• Hreka (female, Deep Mine dwarf, warrior, married to Marwa).


• Marwa (male, Jadestone dwarf, kidnapped and thought dead, great jewel maker, brother of Fanwa, married to Hreka).


• Prince Onren (male, Jadestone dwarf, has an older brother and sister, warrior and leader of a seven man party with special training, terrified of marriage, in love with Jale).


• Tura (female, Jadestone dwarf, daughter of Bjana, friend of Jale, magical potential, Deepdigger Clan)


• Vergar (male, Storm Cliffs dwarf, guard and warrior, magical potential)


• Zurkea (female, Jadestone dwarf, middle-aged warrior, tough as nails).

Minor:

• The Older Prince (male, Jadestone dwarf, older brother of Onren and the princess, not the heir).


• The Princess (female, Jadestone dwarf, younger sister to The Older Prince, older sister to Onren, the heir).


• Queen Luheka (female dwarf, mother to Prince Onren, ruler of Jade Stone Mountain, MIGHTY BEARD!)

Plot:
An unholy mess of action/adventure, romance, fantasy, steampunk and erotica. Long story short, elves are due to backstory reasons not popular with other species and are basically believed to be evil sirens who want to eat your soul. Because of this, they were long ago driven from the land this story takes place in; only they've decided to return. The dwarves of Jadestone Mountain (who're at war with the Deep Mines, over the underground warm water resources in Jadestone) find this out quite by accident: the young guard Jale unknowingly saves the life of one - i.e. he doesn't know it's an elf he's saved until they've already become friends. The rest of the dwarves think Jale has been magically brainwashed by the evil elf, so Jale decides to help said elf (Narathriel) home, to prove his sanity to the other dwarves. Naturally, Jale's sister and friends (*cough*Prince Onren most of all*cough*) are none too happy with this decision of his...

Notes:

• When courting, the dwarves gift each other with previous gems/jewerly/shiny stuff every year on the day of their bethroal. When they finally get married, their closest relatives help them dress in the finest of the gifts, right before the wedding night.


• Only one person of a married couple wears a sign of the marriage (a large bracelet). This is because the person without a bracelet _can_ marry another (though only being the one that gets the bracelet that time). It rarely happens, but it's not completely unheard of; and when married, the third person technically demotes the first person with the bracelet to lover or possibly second-spose to themselves.


• The royal line used to be patriarchal, until a revolution some ten generations back. This is remembered every 20 years with a ritual that I'm heavily borrowing from "Last Night of the Kings" by Van Canto <_< >_>


• Elves don't have any rituals for marriage, they just agree to be married. Dwarves on the other hand have tons of rituals (see above).

Scenes:

• Jale explaining the meaning of braids and how courtship braids can only be undone (for cleaning) by the person's betrothed - or in an emergency a very close relative to the betrothed - (he's explaining to Narathriel)


• Onren mentioning to Warsa that he thinks Jale has a very pleasant voice, when she mentions that Jale plans to become a bard


• Jale deciding to become a bard since he's no warrior-material and few other stations are high enough for him to dare think the prince would marry him


• When Jale goes off with Narathriel (to prove his own worth and that elves aren't soul-eaters). Onren & co go after him. Sadly, so do some Deep Mine dwarves, who're aiming to catch themselves valuable prisoners.


• Onren and Kaaz end up taken prisoner by Kaaz' cousin Guthra. Kaaz is to be married off to some noble (Deep Mines still have those), while Onren is to be given to one of the royals. Lots of hair drama!


• All the six warrior directly under Onren's command (ex: Warsa, Kaaz, Fanwa, Gelame, Beswa and Zurkea) ship Onren/Jale and have been dwarf-subtly trying to hook the two up since Jale came of age.

Comments

Re: The world itself

[nonesane.livejournal.com]

Religion - humans

The humans around Jade Stone Mountain are generally religious. Some of them worship the Twin Gods, others worship the Giver. Either way, religion is serious busniess for some and a mere fact of life for others. Level of faith varies, but few would admit to being atheists due to social reasons.

The religions are organized in the larger cities and in a few villages. Mostly though, among the poorer workers, religion is a private thing or a family thing.

The after life is in the Twin Gods' religion thought of as pretty much more of the same, and you'll get their with different prostpects depending on how nice/not nice you were in this life.

The after life in the Giver's religion is parted in three. One is eternal bliss, where only the most righteous go directly. The second is eternal torture, where only the most wicked go directly. Most people are said to end up in the third world, basically "limbo", where they will dwell until creatures from one of the other two worlds find a way to pull their minds to their realm.

The world itself

[nonesane.livejournal.com]

Religion - elves

The elves don't really have a religion. They are, however, very spiritual. They see the world as a place where balance is needed, both on smaller and larger scale.

They don't really have ancestor worship, but they do look to their ancestors' archives of knowledge for guidance and often meditate to "get in touch" with those who went before. This is not meant in a literal sense; it's more that if an elf several generations back raised you blood-relative, that person's teachings should be left in your linage through how they've raised and taught their children, even though those teachings might have been diluted.

The after life is a riddle to the elves, which they ponder often. No one has as of yet found an answer that's satisfied anyone but themselves.

The world itself

[nonesane.livejournal.com]

Religion - dwarves

The dwarves' religion is and yet isn't one. They believe all the gods are dead. They died in a great war against one another and left the world as it is today, with volcanos, tsunamis and earthquakes (etc.) as the last remnants of the great battle. Thus, the dwarves don't worship anything, seeing as they think the gods were just as savage and noble as the next dwarf, only with more magical powers.

The afterlife for dwarves is a very personal thing. Dwarves who are satisfied with their life are believe to go to the world beyond, where the gods went when they died, and where their is enternal peace because only those ready to uphold such a thing may enter.

Dwarves who aren't happy with their lives, or who doubt the afterlife exists, or have unfinished business of some kind, "get lost in the mines". They can get unlost, but only if they are calmed, and they are believed to be able to appear as ghosts, seeking aid in their way to the afterlife.

Re: The world itself

[nonesane.livejournal.com]

Burial rites

Humans
The Giver's people have cementaries where they bury their dead. The Twin Gods' people have funeral pyres. No personal affects are taken to the after life for the Giver's people, while the funeral pyres tend to have everything you could need in the next world with you. Rituals are attended by family and friends, with politically interested parties showing up at the higher status burials.

Elves
Burial at sea. The dead are only swept in a robe of seaweed, so that the sea creatures won't have trouble eating. They are also weighed down with heavy stones, so the body doesn't float to the surface. All the elf's family, friends and shipmates attend the burial. The body is first given to the sea, and then the funeral itself beings. Songs are sung, there is meditation and each person there tells a story about the deceased.

Dwarves
Sky-burial (i.e. eaten by birds). The deceased is cleaned and dressed up by a mortician, then placed on a stretcher. The stretcher is placed in the largest room of their next of kin, where all family and friends (and others) may visit. There is a wake once the body is in place, which can last everything from a few minutes to an entire day. There is food, singing, story telling and gift-giving to the next-of-kin (usually spouse or childen, but may be parents of a person who died young). Once the wake is over, the closest family travel with the morticians to the place of burial (this can take several days). There they say their last goodbyes and take the clothes the dwarf was dressed in for their final journey, leaving the dwarf naked on a stone table high up in the mountains. The family begin to walk away, the morticians call out to the birds (after generations of sky burials, the local scavengers have learned the dwarves' signals), but leave before the birds begin eating, out of respect for the dead. Dwarves are never buried with any belongings or clothes, since that's believed to tie them to the world of the living too much, risking them getting lost. This is also why the dwarves don't leave their dead to the crows on battle fields and there is much grief if they must.

Re: The world itself

[nonesane.livejournal.com]

Handedness

Humans
Most are right-handed. Left-handed or ambidextrous people are looked upon with suspicion in some human cultures.

Dwarves
Most are left-handed. No one cares if you are right-handed instead (though you'll need to find specially designed tools to use when you work) and people who're ambidextrous are seen as talented.

Elf
Ambidextrous, the lot of them.