stonedance Archives - Page 26 of 29

Chosen Pomp and Ritual

Ricardo on 14th September 2015

a procession of the Chosen with retainers

Osrakum is a theatre in which the Chosen play out their rituals of power. Display and grandeur are at the heart of these rituals and yet, except at the ceremony of the Rebirth that is held annually in the Plain of Thrones, these are rarely witnessed by their subjects. Their households bear constant witness to this pomp, but it is not they whom the Chosen have in mind as being their primary audience

This picture attempts to capture a procession of the Chosen and is in two registers: the Chosen above, their inferiors below. The two castes are separated, not only by the masks the Chosen wear, but by the difference in height (often exaggerated by ranga). Contrast the serenity of the Chosen with the strain and labour of their servants. Their conversations occur, in every sense, above the heads of their slaves

Most of these gatherings of the Chosen are rituals performed for magical reasons: symbolism of movement through sacred spaces dynamically complementing the static symbolism of their costume. But the pomp, with its display of wealth and beauty, is intended for the eyes of others of the Chosen. It seems to me that the audience sought is always those who have power. So the Romans put on their triumphs and games for the people of Rome because they feared them. The pomp of Versailles was restricted to the king and the aristocracy, in whose hands all power lay. In our modern democracies the people have ultimate power, so that all display is for them. Imagine how different would be the election in the Chamber of the Three Lands depicted in The Chosen had it been televised…

House Imago Family Tree

Ricardo on 13th September 2015

The reason that I explored the Imago family tree in such detail was because I wanted to understand how a House came to lose its first lineage. Such a loss occurred in House Imago—95 years before Carnelian was born—when a father and son (shown in orange) were involved in the succession crisis of the God Emperor Qusata. Their blood-taints were close enough to his that they were sacrificed at his Apotheosis. Many other Houses lost their first lineages at this time. Jaspar is a descendant of an offshoot of that first lineage that, before the crisis, had been destined to be a second lineage.

House Imago gave a bride to the House of the Masks, Urkare, who was Carnelian’s great, great, great, great, great grandmother.

Note also the link between House Imago and House Suth: Jaspar’s great aunt became Suth Sardian’s grandmother.

House Aurum Family Tree

Ricardo on 13th September 2015

This is a portion of House Aurum’s family tree. Note the sad matter of his only son who died at the age of twelve. Subsequently, Aurum managed to procure Suth Sardian’s sister (Carnelian’s paternal aunt) for a wife. Though she has given him the incomparable treasure of three daughters—who can be traded as brides with other Houses—she has not supplied him with the son he needs to continue his lineage.

House of the Masks Family Tree

Ricardo on 13th September 2015

This is the family tree for the House of the Masks—the Imperial House.

Though brides are sometimes brought into the House of the Masks from the Great, for reasons of maintaining blood purity intermarriage is predominantly sought within the House itself. Thus the prevalence of incestuous unions: mothers marrying their sons; sisters their brothers

Whatever his initial blood-taint, a God Emperor’s blood is believed to become perfectly pure at his Apotheosis. This zero taint has a purifying effect on the blood of Their offspring, whose taint is thus determined by the purity of its mother’s blood

The execution of all males whose purity of blood falls close enough to that of an elected candidate means that there are never many males in the Imperial House of high blood rank. This tends to give its women a pre-eminence in the election of God Emperors

It is in this context that the very special favour gifted to Sardian—by the God Emperor Kumatuya of his own sister, Azurea, as wife—can be best understood. Among the Great, Carnelian is thus possessed of particularly pure blood

House Suth Family Tree

Ricardo on 13th September 2015

This is the family tree of House Suth. Note the intermarriages with other Houses: Sardian’s grandmother came from House Imago; his wife from the Imperial House; his mother either from another House or, possibly, from a different lineage within House Suth; and his sister was given to House Aurum

Note also the presence of the Second Lineage headed by Spinel. House Suth has a third lineage but this is not shown.

Of interest is the complexity of the marumaga, or half-blood, members of Carnelian’s household: Crail is Sardian’s half-brother; Brin and Fey his half-sisters. Carnelian has three half-brothers by different mothers: Grane, Keal and Tain. While Grane’s mother was already a member of the household, Ebeny came directly from the flesh tithe.

Chosen Family Trees

Ricardo on 11th September 2015

detail from the family tree of the Imperial House

In this detail from a family tree, females are shown in red and males in blue. Vertical lines between boxes indicate lineal descent. Horizontal links indicate pairings resulting in offspring. The numbers in a name box show that person’s blood-taint. Males who have gone through the Apotheosis are shown with a “0” taint to indicate that their blood has been transubstantiated into ichor. The number of coloured dots above a name box indicate blood-rank. The number above a name box indicates the age of an offspring’s mother at the time of their birth. Numbers in curved brackets beneath a name box indicate the year of birth followed by the year of death. Numbers in square brackets indicate the year when a candidate achieves his Apotheosis. All years are given relative to the reign of Kumatuya

Carnelian’s Blood Taint

Ricardo on 11th September 2015

quoting from The Masters:

‘Zero, zero . . . three, ah . . . ‘ Vennel was reading out his father’s blood-taint, ‘fifteen, ah . . . nineteen, another fifteen . . . ten . . . two, no, three, now two, a final ten.’
‘Is that what is inscribed on Lord Suth’s ring?’ asked Aurum.
‘Exactly,’ said Jaspar.
Carnelian felt the fingers lift away. He waited, grimacing. Vennel’s hand was there again, to the left of his spine.
‘Zero, zero, zero, two, one . . . three . . . nineteen, ah . . . nine, sixteen, ah . . . seventeen and a final . . . ten.’
The eleven fractions of his mother’s taint.

Thus Suth’s blood-taint is: 0, 0, 3, 15, 19, 15, 10, 3, 2, 10 which can also be written 249/2¹⁹ [that is, 249 divided by 2 to the power of 19) = 0.0004749 [as a decimal fraction].

Carnelian’s mother’s blood-taint is: 0, 0, 0, 2, 1, 3, 19, 9, 16, 17, 10 which can also be written 27/2²¹ = 0.0000129 [as a decimal fraction]

thus Carnelian’s blood-taint = 0.5*(0.0004749 + 0.0000129) = 0.0002439

or calculating it precisely = (249/2¹⁹ + 27/2²¹)/2 = 1023/2²²

which produces a blood-taint in Quyan fractions of: 0, 0, 1, 19, 0, 9, 14, 16, 9, 13, 15 = [0/20 + 0/400 + 1/8000 + 19/160000 etc]

Calculating Blood Taints

Ricardo on 11th September 2015

A child’s Blood-Taint is calculated by averaging the blood-taints of its parents. As an example, see the calculation of Carnelian’s blood-taint.

To my surprise, when I worked out the general form for a blood-taint, I discovered that, because of the way in which all Chosen blood-taints ultimately derive from a God-Emperor, every such taint can be expressed as an odd number divided by a power of 2 as is shown in the calculations displayed

Blood

Ricardo on 11th September 2015

The Chosen believe that their blood sets them apart from other beings. It is in their blood that their semi-divinity resides, derived ultimately from descent—however partial—from a God Emperor. The Chosen believe that, at his Apotheosis, a new God Emperor receives the ‘essence’ of the Twin Gods, transmuting his mortal blood into pure ichor: the divine, burning blood. A child fathered by a God Emperor receives the gift of this ichor intermixed with the blood of its mother.

Deriving ultimately from a God Emperor, each of the Chosen carries a proportion of this ichor in their veins. The fraction of blood that is not ichor is called their Blood-Taint and is calculated in quyan fractions by the Wise, who record it in their Books of Blood. A person’s blood-taint is inscribed along the edge of a blood-ring that they are given when they comes of age. This ring is made of precious iron, whose smell and rust symbolize ichorous blood. Such rings can be used as seals with ink and wax

Further, each of the Chosen has the blood-taints of their mother and father marked on their back with scarring combs. This marking is carried out by the Wise at the child’s birth. The father’s taint is put on the right side of the spine: the mother’s on the left.

A blood-rank is the number of serial zeros in a blood-taint fraction before a non-zero is reached. Anyone with at least one zero (in the first position) is considered to be of the Great. One zero confers blood-rank one; two zeros blood-rank two and so on. A blood-rank of three is rarely found outside the House of the Masks—the God Emperor’s own House. Blood-rank four is very high indeed and indicates a blood-taint with zeros in the twentieths, the four-hundredths, the eight-thousandths and the one hundred and sixty thousandths. Ykoriana is the first woman for generations with such pure blood

Masking Law

Ricardo on 11th September 2015

The wearing of masks is at the core of Chosen culture, and their use is controlled minutely by codicils of the Law-that-must-be-obeyed

This table shows how Masking Law works. The ranks of individuals—given along the top—reference a compulsory state of masked [M] or optional state of unmasking [UM]—indexed against a list of ranks of those present—listed down the right of the table

More precisely (quoting from the epigraph that begins chapter 8 in The Chosen):

The Categories of Concealment are: first, the offspring and the consorts of the God Emperor; second, the Ruling Lords of the Great and the Grand Sapients of the Wise; third, other Lords of the Great and the Ruling Lords of the Lesser Chosen; fourth, the remainder of the Chosen and the Wise; fifth, the ammonites of the Wise.

The Protocol of Concealment states that those in a lower category must unmask whenever those in a higher category do so unless this contravenes the second Law of Concealment.

The Categories of Seeing are: first, Lords of the Great and Ruling Lords of the Lesser Chosen; second, the remainder of the Chosen; third, a Lord’s own household or the ammonites of the Wise; fourth, the household of another Lord; fifth, marumaga; sixth, all other creatures.

The Laws of Concealment are: first, that the God Emperor must always remain concealed; second, that the number of a Category of Seeing determines the Category of Concealment in which concealment may be waived; third, that, for the Unchosen, a Category of Punishment is referenced according to how much the Category of Concealment exceeds the Category of Seeing.

Below is a detail from one of my notebooks showing my original scheme for masking law.

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