The Manticore Gardens

[Rhamnousia]

Added sections for golems, gargoyles, and tulpa. Let me know what you think.

And a few questions for the people who read this: is there anything more specific that you'd like to see? I'm working on the magic and technology (and the technourgy), but do you think there should be a codified social system among the Nobles, with specific titles and privileges? Or does the anarcho-hedonist system I've implied work fine? If I started a lexicon, would anyone have any terms to submit, since I doubt I could construct an entire system of slang entirely by myself.

[Hibou]

Added sections for golems, gargoyles, and tulpa. Let me know what you think.

And a few questions for the people who read this: is there anything more specific that you'd like to see? I'm working on the magic and technology (and the technourgy), but do you think there should be a codified social system among the Nobles, with specific titles and privileges? Or does the anarcho-hedonist system I've implied work fine? If I started a lexicon, would anyone have any terms to submit, since I doubt I could construct an entire system of slang entirely by myself.

I will try and take a look at everything more closely later, but regarding the lexicon you might consider moving it onto the wiki; you might find it easier to organize such a list (or even the whole setting) there once it gets large enough.

[Ghostman]

Rather than rigid titles and ranks, you could go for descriptive honorifics bestowed ad hoc by the Sovereign Babylon as the whim strikes her. Eg. someone might be named as the 'Master of Libations' or the 'Evanescent Harpist' or something. The moniker could stick for a given amount of time, or it could be permanent until bestowed on someone else.

[Rhamnousia]

Rather than rigid titles and ranks, you could go for descriptive honorifics bestowed ad hoc by the Sovereign Babylon as the whim strikes her. Eg. someone might be named as the 'Master of Libations' or the 'Evanescent Harpist' or something. The moniker could stick for a given amount of time, or it could be permanent until bestowed on someone else.

Like the concept, probably wouldn't be Babylon Herself who does it, since even that's a little too official of involvement. I'm more imagining a long roll of titles and positions that'd be determined more or less by popular decision: if there's any real debate over who the bearer is, that's something can be settled by a vote or one sort or another.

[Numinous]

In regards to your questions, I really enjoy your anarcho-hedonist motif.  As you're painting Babylon herself as a Lovecraftian entity, I feel it should be recognized that one of the strongest elements of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos was the fact that the mythology was impossible to pin down, the structure impossible to put clearly in perspective.  This also will allow you to develop specific spheres of the Gardens without having to maintain a coherent view of the entire system.

Also, a bit of a fan of Ghostman's suggestion of fantastically arbitrary yet specific titles as opposed to a structured system.  My image of the Gardens is the court as a solar system, filled with bizarre planets orbiting erratically an abhorrent dying sun.

Hope that helped!

[Rhamnousia]

It's not a whole lot, but here's a few slang terms that're likely to pepper courtiers' speech. If anyone has any suggestions for the list, I'd love to hear them.

Abolitionist: a courtier, usually a Knight or Noble, who disagrees with the use of thralls. Viewed in much the same way as someone who says plants feel pain would be today.

Asura: a disagreeable or unpleasant courtier, typically one who is loud, aggressive, gluttonous, and/or malicious.

Bodhisattva: an unfailingly kind, compassionate, and/or generous individual. Used the same way as 'saint', e.g., 'the patience of a bodhisattva.'

Cannibal: a person who pursues relations exclusively with individuals of the same identity or appearance as themselves. Similar to 'homosexual', but much more broadly applied.

Cherub: a courtier with a child-like form, especially when it contrasts with an aged or jaded personality.

Daeva: see ASURA.

Flesh: a thrall. Not so much derogatory term as matter-of-fact.

Incubus: a lady-killer, an incredibly attractive or sexually-aggressive masculine courtier. Can have either positive or negative connotations. See SUCCUBUS.

Lamprey: used in the same manner as loudmouth and/or cocksucker, often implies the speaker finds them unattractive as well.

Pygmalion: a courtier with a sexual preference/fetish for golems or other automata; if they are the courtier's own creations, the term has vaguely-incestuous implications as well.

Shoggoth: someone with incredible anti-charisma capable of smothering an entire party all at once, the kind of person party-planners feverishly insist will never actually turn up. Something along the lines of 'a bull in a china shop'.

Spawn: a courtier's biological offspring. Used much more commonly than 'baby' or 'child'.

Spider: someone who weaves elaborate social plots, a schemer, a conspirer. Typically used derisively, or much more rarely as an expression of admiration.

Stargazer: a courtier who spends an inordinate amount of time thinking about subjects beyond the bounds of the Gardens, typically to the exclusion of more worldly pursuits.

Succubus: a man-eater, an incredibly attractive or sexually-aggressive feminine courtier. Can have either positive or negative connotations. See INCUBUS.

[sparkletwist]

Asura: a disagreeable or unpleasant courtier, typically one who is loud, aggressive, gluttonous, and/or malicious.

Hey!  :owned: :grin:

No, seriously, I like this list. It adds quite a bit of flavor. :)

[Rhamnousia]

Not so much shameless self=promotion as general interest-gauging, I haven't added anything new to this thread in far too long and I was wondering if there was anything anyone wanted to see added/explained/fleshed-out. I mean, I'll put up something new regardless, but I wanted to answer amy questions you true believers might have before I leave you with any new ones.

[Rhamnousia]

In the Manticore Gardens, the border between what is science and what is sorcery is often hazy and indistinct. While the Great Arts are clearly beholden to no natural laws, even the already-tenuous sort that govern the surrounding lands, the myriad of petty devices and artifacts the average Courtier encounters every day operate according to much subtler principles. Most commonly called telesma, their countless variety of appearances are governed as much by the aesthetics of the courtier in question as by their actual function.

Especially popular is telesma that take the form of jewellery: rings, bands, torcs, brooches, periapts, etc. They are almost invariably constructed from precious stones or metals, often feature intricate engravings or inscriptions, and may even contain minute mechanisms; all of these factors frequently play a part in the telesm's function:

A bracelet that chimes on the hour, hums at dawn and dusk, and sings once every fortnight.

A scholar's signet ring that turns the pages of a book once the wearer has finished reading.

A pair of ear-cuffs that softly whisper the forgotten names of casual acquaintances.

A tongue-stud that grows hot at the touch of poison, warning the drinker before it can enter the throat.

However, not all telesma are worn...or even made from inanimate materials. Perhaps nearly as ubiquitous are those that take the form of small creatures or funguses, rarely any larger than what can be concealed in a pocket or sleeve. Because of their minute proportions and simple functions, their creation does not require a Uranus Loom. Instead, when not in use, their owners typically allow them to breed or multiply, providing their own replacements for when they should wither or break:

A finger-sized salamander that produces a tongue of multihued flame when its back is stroked.

A four-winged songbird able to carry spoken messages between courtiers, in the speaker's voice.

A fangwig, which delicately cleans remnants of food from a courtier's teeth (or otherwise) while they sleep and polishes them with a flavorful wax.

A tailless rodent that gnaws on a courtier's nails, trimming them to their desired length and shape.

A savage, many-mawed bundle of fangs and venom that gleefully tears at any unwanted digits, whether they're trying to infiltrate its owner's purse or somewhere else.

Some artifacts, however, are either too complex in operation or too essential to the life in the Gardens, or perhaps both, to be classed as telesma. In fact, they're generally not categorized at all, their names so ubiquitous enough that every courtier knows of them:

More than a mere enchantment, a Golden Essence is a piece of a Noble's soul taken and transfigured into a thing several orders more potent and robust. To anyone's knowledge, the Sovereign Babylon is the only creature in the Unknown World with the knowledge and skill to create them, though similar artifices may exist in foreign lands. Once adhered, it is a physical, inextricable part of the Noble's being, imbuing several marvelous qualities. They are ageless, never suffering the corruption of senescence or senility. Their physical forms are significantly more resistant to harm and much less susceptible to mundane poison or disease. Lastly, they recover from injury or exhaustion at a profoundly-increased rate. Knights are bestowed with similar blessings termed Argent Essences, which though lesser, still grant them refined attributes and extended virility. While it is impossible to separate a courtier's Essence from their body while they still live, after death, their body can be cremated and a handful of small, nacreous stones or pearls extracted from the ashes. Called sariras, these contain the courtier's consciousness and may be implanted in a new vessel.

Roughly the size of a marble and crafted from silicate minerals, tulpa pearls are engraved with the complicated quasi-mathematical formulae that birth the spirit-forms. When implanted inside the head of a courtier, the bind the tulpa to that individual like a familiar. The bearer of the pearl can see and hear the tulpa, the two of them communicating mentally without need for spoken words. Though the spirit-form can be dispatched to perform a task elsewhere, it takes only a though to immediately summon them back to their master. Purpures are a variation that house tulpa meant to serve as spiritual concubines: they are largely the same, though the spirit-form may be touched, tasted, and smelled as well as merely seen and heard.


[ooc]More to come, always open to suggestions.[/ooc]

[Rhamnousia]

Names, Titles, and Positions

In much the same way as they tailor the aesthetics of their physical vessels to suit their personal sensibilities, Nobles and their Knights have the privilege of selecting whatever name they find most fitting. Many choose an appellation shortly after receiving their Golden Essence and never see the need to alter it further, but there are others who assume different sobriquets with varying degrees of frequency and even an eccentric minority who refuse to adopt any designation for themselves. It is not unheard of for a courtier, especially one at risk of being made a pariah because of some faux pas, to assume an entirely different form and name, but such a practice is far less common than one might expect; in a community as close-knit and incestuous as the Manticore Gardens, having no reputation whatsoever invites the same degree of suspicious as having a poor one.

It is worth noting that even outside of the Garden's byzantine system of sexes, genders, and intersections thereof, names are not considered to be inherently gendered. While foreign retinues might turn their heads and snicker quietly at a male-bodies, masculine-identified courtier named Zareen, none of his peers would consider that particularly out of the ordinary.

By default, all Nobles possess the title of Lord or Lady, or both, but many choose to affect a different style. The majority bear some sort of noble or aristocratic connotations: Baron, Compte, Patrician, Visgraff, Bey, Amir, Shinshaku, Gong, Fidalgo, Navvab, Woizero, Zamindar, and so on. Others, including the particularly-spiritual or particularly-irreverent, prefer titles with religious implications, like Bishop, Vicar, Muezzin, Cardinal, Imam, Pandit, Rabbi, etc. Beyond what they say about a Noble's character, certain titles denote a higher social status than others, creating a loose sub-hierarchy among ostensible-equals. The only titles considered proscribed are those that imply supreme or imperial authority, such as Tsarina, Popess, Sultan, Samraat, and of course, Sovereign.

While there is comparatively-little stratification among Knights, they too sometimes adopt different titles to express subtle differentiations in their roles. For example, among three bodyguards, a janissary may have been raised to be such from spawning, a samurai might be personally-devoted to qir Noble, and a kshatriya probably defines herself entirely in terms of being a soldier.

In addition, it is common for courtiers, especially older or more colorful ones, to possess several descriptive cognomens. The Noble Radovan, for instance, is known as Devouring Radovan because of his obsessively, predatorily-gluttonous character, the Dagger-Toothed Cannibal due to both the shape of his fangs and the exclusivity of his preferences, and the Scourge of the Summer Season after several infamously-intense months of conflicts and conquests.

Manifold Personae

In the Manticore Gardens, there are a number of official titles that are bestowed upon the courtiers, almost invariably a Noble, who most embodies them. Called the Personas, some of these positions change with the season, the year, or according to a more esoteric schedule, while others are ordained for life or, more commonly, until they demonstrate their unworthiness to bear the title. While the trappings associated with each Persona are unique, they all share one common feature: a mask, distinctive enough so as to be unmistakable. Every bearer elaborates or personalizes their mask in some small way, so after countless centuries of changing hands, each is an awe-inspiringly complex piece of art. Note that wearing the mask over ones face is not a requirement: many wear them in any number of inventive ways.

Typically, it is self-evident which courtier should assume a given Persona, but there is sometimes conflict when multiple parties attempt to claim the title. Such matters are typically settled through a duel of some sort, though not necessarily with swords, the results of which will demonstrate the obvious superiority of the victorious candidate or at the very least, cow the loser into silence.

The Margravine is the official protector and champion of the Manticore Gardens, which by necessity also means that they are one of the finest warriors. When someone from without, whether they are a prince or a goddess, threatens the Gardens, which happens from time-to-time, it is the responsibility of the Margravine to challenge them to single-combat.

The Sovereign's Tower is the Sovereign Babylon's personal bodyguard, ensuring that no harm should ever come to Her person or the delicate, arcane machineries that sustain Her.

The Master Calendographice has the responsibility of divining not only when one season should end and the next begin, but which season should succeed the current one; most claim to make their determinations based on astrological movements and the taste of the air, but they may very well make it all up. Generally replaced when their predictions become rote and unexciting.

The Bacchanalian in Rags is characterized by a sort of gluttonous monasticism, rejecting the false beauty of fine clothes and elegant jewelry to focus entirely on the true pleasures of the body. As the name suggests, they dress only in tattered rags that expose their bare flesh in a most deliberately-unfashionable manner.

The Gormogon is the gleefully-anarchistic uprooter of conspiracies, seeking out schemes and machinations, from the petty to the grand, and patiently infiltrating them until finally, violently tearing away the veil of secrecy and exposing them to the searing light of public opinion.

The Aughad fulfills the vital role of the pusher-of-boundaries. Even in a society as permissive as the Manticore Gardens, there are codes of conduct, certain strictures and taboos that should not be transgressed. It is the Aughad's purpose to indulge in the proscribed and forbidden for the sake of doing so. It is a taxing, exhausting role, for as soon as they have succeeded in making the taboo the accepted, they must immediately find some fresh new deviancy to engage in.

[ooc]To come: a more complete list of singular and important titles and offices. Hope you all found this much illuminating.[/ooc]

[ooc]I'm also getting the feeling that a good way to describe the setting would be Oglaf the RPG. Or sort of like Adventure Time: Princess Bubblegum is the Noble, Finn's the Knight, Jake is a gargoyle, BMO's a tulpa, and it's full of weirdly-shaped elementals and animal-people.[/ooc]

[Rhamnousia]

I've added a few (hopefully) evocative titles to the list as well as a section on the new Würme, which I may or may not keep, depending.

[Numinous]

I'm loving the titles, especially the Gormogon and Aughad, who seem to be drawing on the trope of the clown or jester, violating boundaries while immune to reproach for doing so.  Very evocative flavor these days.