#aristasia.com

[tellurian-in-aristasia]

[tellurian-in-aristasia]

A Somewhat Condensed Timeline of Aristasia.

Aristasia is sometimes very difficult to grasp, because there are many parts in motion, and it's been many different things, either at the same time or in different eras. In Aristasian lore, time and space are one. Western Aristasia butts up against our reality, and the further east you walk, the further back in time you go.

The sun rises in the East. The early-to-mid 1970s is where it began with a group of girls in their twenties who were deeply into the idea that the earth had an ancient, secret, matriarchal history and that God was a woman. Several different groups with this same belief got together to publish a magazine that explored these beliefs, writing as if they were part of an ancient and secret matriarchal society. There were scriptures, songs, holidays, and personal histories being presented in this magazine as an attempt to legitimize their belief.

By the early 80's some of these people had formed something of a hippie commune in Ireland, and attempted to live what they had preached in their magazines for the better part of a decade. These were called the Rhennish. They were a little bit like Amish hippies, rejecting modernity and living spiritually. Their spiritual beliefs were referred to as Lux Madriana.

Only a couple of years later, by the mid 1980s, the men had been kicked out of the club and the aesthetics had turned very Victorian. In this era they still claimed to exist without electricity, but they also published a number of text-based adventure games for computers. This was the St. Brides era. This was the name of their publishing company, as well the name of their "school" that ran week long events. It was a bit like a role-playing game or a LARP. Women would pay about £ 120 to spend the week reliving their school days for fun. The inhabitants of the St. Brides School called themselves the Silver Sisterhood.

The late 1980s saw an Aristasian off-shoot that included men called "Romantia". They held similar anti-modern values to the Aristasians. They produced some newsletters and zines about their world view and perhaps hosted events. Aesthetic wise, they tended to drift further into the 20th century than the Silver Sisterhood's pseudo-Victorian role-play. The groundworks for what would later become familiar in Aristasia were laid here, but they referred to themselves as "Olympians" when they didn't call themselves "Romantics". What would later be known as "The Pit" or "The Void" was known as "Babylon".

The early 1990s saw the end of the St. Brides School. They seemed to have had some disagreements with the landlords, stopped paying rent, and then left one day, leaving a lot of their stuff behind. The early 1990s also saw an assault charge against the woman who would become Miss Martindale, for some whipping her live-in-maid, who was acting as a maid in order to learn about the female-divine religion that they popularized in the mid-70s and still seemed to practice behind closed doors. Newspaper articles came out about some very problematic materials found in the house, including correspondence with National Party members and anti-semitic publications, as well as BDSM pornography, catalogs, and equipment. They largely denied this had anything to do with the Sisterhood, and insisted it was junk mail sent by perverts and things their boarders brought into the house without them knowing.

Things were quiet for about a year, until the girls came back in full force in the mid 1990s. This was Aristasia's first big day in the sun and the height of the Wildfire Club, their lesbian publishing company that leant heavily into BDSM and master and servant relationships. A large portion of their most well known books were published in this era, which were largely erotic stories interspersed with Aristasian lore. There was a lot of push and pull between releasing racy material, calling attention to it, and then insisting it has nothing to do with sex. I believe this was the first time they called what they did "Aristasia". Aesthetics in this era largely shied away from the Victorian and focused more on the glamourous 30s-50s. There was a big focus on vintage stockings. Aristasians began setting up early websites in this era. The infamous "A Weekend with Miss Martindale" was aired on late night BBC.

This era kept on rolling into the late 90s throughout the early 2000s, with Aristasian nights at local lesbian bars, as well as fetish clubs. They sold fetish supplies, vintage clothing, vintage style stockings, as well as their own books and other fetish books. This was the height of Aristasia-in-Telluria, with several households of Aristasians living together as Embassies. Girls could schedule appointments online to meet with Aristasians to see if they were a good fit for their world. The woman who was known as Miss Martindale was something of a celebrity and had gained international renown for the brief BBC documentary about her from 1996, although she had perhaps moved to America in the late 90s.

The mid-2000s put a screeching halt to Aristasia-in-Telluria and their embassy was moved almost entirely online. The girls gradually seemed to move away from real-world events, and perhaps each other, and they moved their Aristasian adventures to forums, chat rooms, and the Second Life game, where they set up their Aristasia-in-Elektraspace. Operation Bridgehead was announced in late 2005, which seemed to make a very big statement about Aristasia: It was a real place, Aristasians are aliens from that planet, and all that spanking stuff was just a big misunderstanding and not that serious at all. This is the era of Aristasia Pura. The game got very serious: the religious parts came back out in the open, the world building got elaborate, more websites popped up, and more girls started showing up to play in their sandbox. A mysterious girl known as The Mushroom Princess was the Aristasian welcome committee on Second Life and seemed to play a big part in charming new girls and directing the game. The mysterious Mushroom Princess was, in fact, one of the girls who played a major part in creating the religion that was the underlying belief that linked all of these eras together.

The mid-2000s also saw the Miss Martindale BBC documentary go online, being uploaded to early Youtube, seeming to attracting a mixed group of people to Aristasia. Some people saw it as an intense group of friends where they could create a fantasy world together online, complete with a built-in spirituality, and others were seeing the racy 1990s erotic and stylish club of ladies in vintage clothes aggressively rebelling against modernity with their femininity. Something of a fanclub for Miss Martindale popped up online, completely separate from the true Aristasians, with a big emphasis on their Romantia and Wildfire Club days. Small Romantia revival meetups pop up in the UK after people online, particularly men, discover the old Aristasia and want to experience it for themselves. The old Romantia magazines are put online. These new groups were completely unaffiliated with Aristasia.

Things chugged on, more or less the same, through the late-2000s with the Aristasians-in-Elektraspace becoming more and more interested in Anime and learning Japanese language. The fall of Second Life perhaps shrank their numbers, because in this era they seemed to put out a lot of sites attempting to entice people into their belief system, without outright calling it Aristasia. You see them making "femmekin" blogs to attract otherkins, multiple Filinist/Deanist religious blogs, several sites about Amazon warriors, and other "all girl world" websites.

Things start to get rocky in the early 2010s. The last remaining true UK Aristasians, who seemed to have receded completely into elektraspace at that point, sell their vintage school girl supplies on Ebay to fund a move to America. Anime and Japan becomes more and more important to every conversation they have. Their aesthetics change to the kawaii. Discussions in the forums often take place in Japanese. However, despite this, they start Sun Daughter Press, and publish two fiction sci-fi adventures that seem to harken back to an the early days of Aristasia Pura.

In 2013 the boat is thoroughly rocked, the seas are stormy. Old-style Aristasians, and the Miss Martindale fan club, are sick of talking about anime and kawaii things, they have noticed the gradual change and don't understand why the game has changed so drastically. They miss the old Aristasia and notice the name of their homeworld is hardly ever mentioned any more and their old ways are downplayed or utterly erased. Critical blog posts are made. "Turncoat" and "traitor" accusations are made. There's evidence an Operation Bridgehead Version 2 was in the works. The old URLs that were allowed to lapse were bought by Aristasian purists, perhaps the people that had come in from the mid-2000s, who were looking back to the 1990s. All their old archived sites were put back online to preserve the old ways. Even the near-pornographic sites that were associated with the 1990s Aristasian empire are back in the Aristaisa Preservation Project. Almost immediately after the APP goes online, Aristasia changes its name to Chelouranya. Operation Bridgehead Version 2 is, presumably, cancelled. The old Aristasia is dead, and is claimed it never really existed, Chelouranya reigns supreme. Those who have been shut out of the new Aristasia suggest starting "Nova Aristasia" to revive the old ways, but it never comes to pass.

Chelouranya is quiet throughout the mid-to-late 2010s. It's a small group of girls who are devoted to Japan. Or rather, to the Aristasian version of Japan. They learn Japanese, The Mushroom Princess visits Japan and has something of a religious awakening where she realizes that Japan is as close to their lost Motherland of Aristasia as they're ever going to get, they speak in Japanese. They start teaching Japanese to outlanders and it's surprisingly successful. The early proto-Vtuber Cure Dolly is created for this purpose and controlled by The Mushroom Princess. She has a successful patreon. If any more Aristasian world-building happens, it's done privately. The woman formerly known as Miss Martindale lives in America, her husband (for that's why she left for America) dies in the mid-2010s, she dabbles in hosting non-Aristasian spiritual retreats in California, she does some art, hosts some plays. Meanwhile the mysterious mushroom-shaped figure who brought anime into Aristasia continues teaching outlanders to speak Japanese and the former Miss Martindale helps her out, and perhaps even lends her her home. In the late 2010s and early 2020 there is a bit of a revival of the Filianic beliefs, with several independent Filianists, some of which used to be involved in the offshoots in the 1980s. Through some intense research they make all of the old 1970s religious works available online, release their own version of the scriptures, and untangle the complicated web of the authorship of the early Filianic works.

In late 2021, the Cure Dolly Patreon made a vague announcement implying that the little Mushroom alien controlling Cure Dolly has died. There is some debate amongst her online patreons, who have probably never heard of Aristasia and couldn't tell a Blonde from a Brunette, whether or not she has really died. Shortly after this the woman who was once Miss Martindale hosts a meetup called "Wonder Woman's Island Society Recreated", with an emphasis on the ancient knowledge of the Amazons. The sun has set in the West, and is rising in the East again, but Aristasia very well may be empty of loyal subjects.

[tellurian-in-aristasia]

The Ribbon Test Girls new to Aristasia sometimes seem to find difficulty in being sure whether they are blonde or brunette. The old question "do you see yourself as kissing or being kissed" is rather a good one, but I think we may have found one even more effective. It certainly seems to work with the girls in our District - that is, the ones who come to Aristasian activities in London.

You may be aware that it is our custom (at least when we remember) for blondes to wear pink ribbons on their wrists to distinguish them from brunettes, since in Telluria hair colour is not a secondary sexual characteristic.

Our newest brunette at school Margueritte said feelingly that she was very glad she didn't have to wear a pink ribbon. Rebecca has said something similar, and as for Diana, I imagine a pink ribbon would be one of the most effective punishments she could receive (though it might be considered cruel and unusual)! On the other hand most blondes rather like it and most brunettes seem to like it on blondes.

SO - when a new girl is uncertain of her sex. Perhaps one should ask her how she feels about wearing a pink ribbon. If she turns a peculiar shade and says, "Do I really have to?", she is a brunette. If she says "Oh that sounds rather nice," she is a blonde.

It is really as simple as that.

I think.

Source

[tellurian-in-aristasia]

You heard it here last, pettes, Aristasians might not even have vaginas. Combined with last post’s little Easter egg (pun intended) that most mammals in Aristasia Pura lay eggs, perhaps they have cloaca. It will forever be a mystery.

A shockingly frank take about Aristasia Pura anatomy from the intemorph also known as Miss Martindale.

She links to this post, which doesn’t really have any answers and can be summed up with “sex can mean gender, and platonic friendship is very important” with just a whole lot of words.

Relationships, Amity, and Marriage

The question of close and intimate relationships in the “sex-centered” culture of late West Telluria is one that concerns us not so much fro

P.S. Aristasians often got outlanders questioning them about their opinions on gay rights or gay marriage, as if to try to catch them in some sort of gotcha moment, and I’m always a little surprised when the Aristasians don’t feign ignorance and pretend they don’t understand the meaning of “gay” and act like they only understand the olde fashioned definition of “happy”. Oh, how I would have loved to see just one say “Of course I support the right to be gay, every one deserves to be gay! Any marriage that isn’t gay is a marriage that was never meant to be! I hope every girl one day finds herself in a gay marriage!”. How cheeky! Any future/current Aristasians watching this, please feel free to steal this idea and use it as much as possible, because I think it’s very funny.

[tellurian-in-aristasia]

You see back home everyone talks about “Quirridips” which means mad, feckless Quirinelle people, and I was rather expecting to see lots of outlandish crazy people and Teddy-girls and such. It wasn’t a bit like that. In terms of decorum, it was more like Trintitiana with brighter colours. In terms of aesthetics it was quite exotic and raher a mixture. Those wide flared skirts gave it and almost Arcadian look (not that I have been to Arcadia) and the slim pencil skirts had an East-Novari sort of austerity and severity about them. No Teddy-girls at all. No rock-and-roll blaring from the airport speakers. In fact they played rather soupy renditions of the latest Trentish songs, that sounded rather less “hot” than the Trentish versions. Sigh. My Wild Quirrie Adventure was looking less wild by the mome. Source

Editress note: This is of interest because it mentions Teddy-girls! A short-lived Tellurian 1950's subculture that I had seen previously mentioned in the Aristasian archives and brushed away as being a bit too harsh of a style even for the roughest brunettes. I see someone was determined to get Aristasian Teddy-girls to stick!

[tellurian-in-aristasia]

BLONDE AND BRUNETTE The Aristasian Sexes

There are two sexes in this world, Alice Clarke Marshall, blonde and brunette. Brunettes are like me: dashing, adventurous, strong and all that sort of thing. Blondes are like you: beautiful, delicate, weak, nervous and simply adorable. Hair colour, in case you are confused about that point, has absolutely nothing to do with it.

-THE SERVING-GIRL

LEHNYA was young. As a matter of fact, she had never taken a blonde to the cinema before. She knew very little about blondes, except that they were a wholly different order of humanity; so frail, some said, that one might break their bones by holding them too roughly. Certainly frail of heart and delicate of limb; swept by unpredictable moods and tempestuous passions; beautiful, sensitive, thrilling, mysterious and utterly, utterly different from oneself.

-CHILDREN OF THE VOID

IN ARISTASIA there are no men. All the inhabitants are feminine. There are nevertheless two sexes in Aristasia: blondes and brunettes.

Aristasian brunettes are about as feminine as a normal human woman—that is to say, about twice as feminine as a human woman in the last quarter of the 20th century. Aristasian blondes, on the other hand, are ultra-feminine.

On the question of blondes and brunettes, it should be understood that, as with men and women, the two sexes are mentally, physically, emotionally and psychologically different. And, as with men and women, the differences are greater rather than less than they superficially appear to be. Brunettes are very much stronger physically than blondes (the difference is rather more marked than that between men and women). They are in many respects more practical and more "steady". The emotions of a blonde are a surging torrent, her perspective often quite unworldly.

To say, however, that brunettes are the "dominant sex" is a considerable oversimplification. Blondes are regarded with the highest respect, and are often considered to be the custodians of a higher wisdom. They are often Princesses and sovereign rulers of nations and principalities; they are often priestesses and philosophers (philosophy in Aristasia being far from a dry academic discipline). In the practical affairs of life they usually (but not always) take second place—but practicalities, utilitarian matters, work, money and material are not nearly so highly regarded in Aristasia as they have long been in your world. In many ways brunettes can be regarded as the more useful but less important sex. If this last statement is a shade unfair, it is certainly no less incorrect than the assumption that blondes are the "inferior sex"—it is probably on the side of blonde rather than brunette superiority that Aristasia is prone to err.

Nevertheless a blonde will tend to be submissive to her own brunette, and perhaps submissive in general. In Aristasia submission is considered a spiritual quality. At the same time Brunettes will pay respect to blondes, standing, for example, when one enters a room. There is a delicate and charming interplay of respect and submission between the two sexes.

It is partly because of their sacredness that blondes are treated more strictly than brunettes under many circumstances (though as with many generalisations one may make about Aristasia there is also a converse side: a brunette may often receive severer punishment as the party who ought to have been more responsible. Much can be forgiven blonde frailty and the highly emotional nature of blonde psychology). We will encounter throughout this book the idea that frequent chastening is a necessary part of the upbringing of a blonde and helps her to develop gentleness, purity and a delicate ætherial sensibility.

Those unfamiliar with the Aristasian mind might fancy that they detect here a trace of the dogma of "social conditioning" so dear to the doctrinaire masculinists of your post-Eclipse.—The dogma, that is, that there are no real mental or psychological differencesbetween the sexes (women being but men in differently-shaped bodies) and that everything we know by the name of femininity is only "social conditioning" forced upon women by men. It is a curious dogma, especially in view of the fact that the copious scientific research conducted in recent years in your world shows incontestably that the mental and psychological differences between men and women are inborn, ineradicable and if anything more wide-ranging than even the Victorians imagined. However, your post-Eclipse world never allows scientific facts to interfere with its official social mythologies.

The truth is that femininity is a natural and vitally important aspect of human existence which has been undervalued and undermined in your world for millennia, and the ultimate consummation of this process is the extirpation of femininity from its last refuge: the heart of woman herself—a process which is only possible because woman has been tricked by the subtly twisted arguments of a false "feminism" into collaborating with her own de-feminisation.

Since Aristasia knows nothing of these matters, it goes without saying for an Aristasian that the upbringing of a blonde—however it may vary in different places—is not a question of inculcating an artificial consciousness, but of coöperating with nature, of developing her inborn sensibility, of creating a perfect blondeness; an image of the Archetype of femininity; a marriage of nature and art.

Source

[tellurian-in-aristasia]

The splash page for Femmeworld, one of the first Aristasian sites in elektraspace. So perhaps from 1996 or so. You can view it archived here.

[tellurian-in-aristasia]

Perhaps I need to actually read Children of the Void sometime.