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Some more
Clothing --
Clothes are hand sewn, but the Brocks have kept the textile mills running -- there is plenty of plainwoven cloth. Twills and ikats are less common, but more valued as outwear. Fancy twills are prefered for any use that they can be used for -- upholstery and blankets.
Adult aughisky typically wear long shirts, trousers or leggings, jackets, and when riding, long coats and boots. The colors tend towards eye-blinding gaudy. A newly adult aughisky (novitiate) will usually wear clothes that are patterned with black and white diamonds -- this is a visual signal for the benefit of the humans, and last only as long as that set of clothes.
Human of both sexes wear long shirts (knee length) and wrap kilts of straight twill (often saffron or madder), with short jackets in winter months, and soft shoes or sandals. Low boots are worn by those with rough work, but they never approach the look of riding boots -- aughisky will challenge people who dress like aughisky on the assumption that they *are* aughisky, so it benefits the humans to dress differently.
Children of both species wear long shirts with vests, and sandals or shoes; children will also wear a bulla necklace to signify to aughisky that this is a child and not really dangerous no matter how weird it acts. Given that aughisky can't tolerate their own children at puberty, it is still better that children and aughisky don't mix much. Adolscent aughisky are often driven out with no more than a tunic and a pair of knives -- especially in summer.
Shirts are generally white linen, with indigo patterns woven or clamp-resist dyed at the borders -- bottom hem and sleeves most common, but collars are often worked as well. The pattern is unique to the holding, and will be instantly recognizeable to anyone as belonging to the holding or not -- an unfamiliar pattern will be known to be off-holding, if not from where off the holding.
Adult aughisky will carry weapons they feel comfortable with -- sabers and lever-action rifles. The rifles will burst if fired by human hands -- magic, don't explain. The Brocks make the weaponry, but the aughiskys are the ones who are mad to use it.
Slavery/serfdom is endemic in the culture, because aughisky are not suited to farming, but their population depends on it. They were the hunter/warrior caste when the Queen lived, and because very few other castes survived -- they lost the Bears (healers, singers, and sages) and the Selkies (artisans) were fractured into a complete social collapse -- they needed to get replacement workers. When they add 'Dog' to the names they give, it isn't an insult, but a caste-maker, and actually a sign that that particular human is considered more valueable than most. The Dog people were the farmers, and they died in the wave of plagues following the death of the Queen; the aughisky are trying to replace that caste with humans, and having limited success; they can't stop trying, because they're limited to roles by their biology.
The half-free human settlments on a holding mostly govern themselves, to the point of having a mayor/headman. As long as the crops come in, and tribute grain is sent to the aughisky, there usually isn't much organized trouble. The holding's slew will patrol and keep raids by Wilder (adolscent) aughisky and cross-border excursions in check, but no human village wants aughisky there for long, simply because trouble generally results when young humans and novitiate aughisky come in contact.
Novitiates -- aughisky that have just come in from the Wild -- grown-up enough to want to be around non-crazy people -- are still hair-trigger and with poor impulse control. Adults spend a lot of time squelching their bad behavior and running them to exhaustion to keep them out of trouble; a raiding slew will have a large number of novitiates, in the hope that they'll fight and fuck themselves into oblivion. Most novitiates settle down at first pregnancy, as the hormonal changes usually result in a brain that isn't hot-wired for aggression.
As always, comment if you want to read the original fiction -- I'll add you to the filter for that.
Clothing --
Clothes are hand sewn, but the Brocks have kept the textile mills running -- there is plenty of plainwoven cloth. Twills and ikats are less common, but more valued as outwear. Fancy twills are prefered for any use that they can be used for -- upholstery and blankets.
Adult aughisky typically wear long shirts, trousers or leggings, jackets, and when riding, long coats and boots. The colors tend towards eye-blinding gaudy. A newly adult aughisky (novitiate) will usually wear clothes that are patterned with black and white diamonds -- this is a visual signal for the benefit of the humans, and last only as long as that set of clothes.
Human of both sexes wear long shirts (knee length) and wrap kilts of straight twill (often saffron or madder), with short jackets in winter months, and soft shoes or sandals. Low boots are worn by those with rough work, but they never approach the look of riding boots -- aughisky will challenge people who dress like aughisky on the assumption that they *are* aughisky, so it benefits the humans to dress differently.
Children of both species wear long shirts with vests, and sandals or shoes; children will also wear a bulla necklace to signify to aughisky that this is a child and not really dangerous no matter how weird it acts. Given that aughisky can't tolerate their own children at puberty, it is still better that children and aughisky don't mix much. Adolscent aughisky are often driven out with no more than a tunic and a pair of knives -- especially in summer.
Shirts are generally white linen, with indigo patterns woven or clamp-resist dyed at the borders -- bottom hem and sleeves most common, but collars are often worked as well. The pattern is unique to the holding, and will be instantly recognizeable to anyone as belonging to the holding or not -- an unfamiliar pattern will be known to be off-holding, if not from where off the holding.
Adult aughisky will carry weapons they feel comfortable with -- sabers and lever-action rifles. The rifles will burst if fired by human hands -- magic, don't explain. The Brocks make the weaponry, but the aughiskys are the ones who are mad to use it.
Slavery/serfdom is endemic in the culture, because aughisky are not suited to farming, but their population depends on it. They were the hunter/warrior caste when the Queen lived, and because very few other castes survived -- they lost the Bears (healers, singers, and sages) and the Selkies (artisans) were fractured into a complete social collapse -- they needed to get replacement workers. When they add 'Dog' to the names they give, it isn't an insult, but a caste-maker, and actually a sign that that particular human is considered more valueable than most. The Dog people were the farmers, and they died in the wave of plagues following the death of the Queen; the aughisky are trying to replace that caste with humans, and having limited success; they can't stop trying, because they're limited to roles by their biology.
The half-free human settlments on a holding mostly govern themselves, to the point of having a mayor/headman. As long as the crops come in, and tribute grain is sent to the aughisky, there usually isn't much organized trouble. The holding's slew will patrol and keep raids by Wilder (adolscent) aughisky and cross-border excursions in check, but no human village wants aughisky there for long, simply because trouble generally results when young humans and novitiate aughisky come in contact.
Novitiates -- aughisky that have just come in from the Wild -- grown-up enough to want to be around non-crazy people -- are still hair-trigger and with poor impulse control. Adults spend a lot of time squelching their bad behavior and running them to exhaustion to keep them out of trouble; a raiding slew will have a large number of novitiates, in the hope that they'll fight and fuck themselves into oblivion. Most novitiates settle down at first pregnancy, as the hormonal changes usually result in a brain that isn't hot-wired for aggression.
As always, comment if you want to read the original fiction -- I'll add you to the filter for that.
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