#askyerimmor

[loominggaia]

I'm surprised the Cresent cult actually followed through on killing Warud's king. How much power do they have? Do the other kingdoms make deals with them?

They actually do crap like this all the time! Mostly in Yerim-Mor Kingdom though. They have a much harder time getting away with it in the other Great Kingdoms. That's just because Yerim-Mor is such an unstable mess and the cult already has a strong foothold there.

But yes, the Crescent Cult has small branches in foreign kingdoms as well. These foreign cultists are usually pretty discreet and do the cult stuff on the downlow, living secret double-lives. So, the cult has some soft power here and there. They can meddle in politics, embezzle money from corporations, stuff like that. But in their homeland of Yerim-Mor, they just burst into government buildings, arrows flying and swords swangin'. If they pulled that crap in Zareen, they'd get their shit pushed in by dudes in power armor.

The Karenzans and Retaliators are the main forces keeping the cult at bay in Yerim-Mor currently. The Morite military...kinda tries to defend the kingdom? A little bit? But they're being cucked so hard by King Roz and his "don't poke the bear" strategy, they can't always go as far as they'd like.

I would say the Crescent Cult actually could take over all of Yerim-Mor at this point, if only its leaders would learn to cooperate better. Alas, they're a bunch of traitorous, power-grubbing degenerates who constantly fuck each other over to get ahead in the cult hierarchy. They are ironically their own biggest roadblock to success.

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[loominggaia]

Arg my weakness, trans men in fantasy settings! I can feel my brain latching onto Prince Jaq already haha. Does he think of himself as fully male? Or are things more complicated (perhaps by childhood memories)? Would he and Jeimos get along? Aaahhh there’s so much rambling I want to do that won’t fit in an ask! XD I hope we get to find out more when you have time. :)

By all means, ramble away! These are the type of questions that really help me develop these characters! You guys breathe so much life into them with questions like these because they force me to think about things I may not have considered otherwise.

I imagine Jaq probably has complex feelings about his body and identity. He has had a male body since childhood, but it was not something he chose for himself, it was something his father forced on him to keep him safe.

Jaq understands he's safer in this male body and he appreciates the extra freedom it gives him, but I'm sure he also feels some level of discomfort with it because it doesn't match the way he feels inside. If he had the freedom of choice, he'd probably choose to be female again. He is male-attracted, which complicates his love life, and he has always wished to birth his own children which is not an option anymore.

So long as his kingdom is infested by terrorists, skorpius, criminals, and other shady characters, existing as a male is definitely the better choice. Maybe one day Disgrace will get pushed out and conditions will improve for women, and if Roz is still alive, perhaps he'll transform Jaq back into a female. It's hard to say what will happen in the future. Roz already lost 2 children and he's just trying to protect his last remaining one, even if it causes that child discomfort.

Since he prefers the company of animals over people, I imagine Jaq is a shy individual with a deep connection to nature. He didn't fit in with his peers even as a girl, but he clearly loves his family a lot, considering the lengths he'll go to save his shithead brother. He strikes me as a reserved person who doesn't give his trust freely, but if you do manage to earn his friendship, he's the most loyal friend you could ask for. This is a guy who will never flake on you, he's a true ride or die mf.

Jaq and Jeimos would have a lot to talk about. I can imagine some fascinating conversations between them, and yeah, I think they would probably be friends. Although Jeimos is grounded in hard logic to a fault, and I think Jaq is more of an artsy abstract thinker, so they may have moments of misunderstanding between them. But ultimately, Jaq would respect Jeimos' intellect, and Jeimos would respect Jaq's integrity. They're both misfits in their own ways.

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[loominggaia]

Why doesn't Mankind's disgrace just take over Yerim-mor if it's already about to collapse? Is he stupid???

Yes, he is stupid.

BUT ALSO...

Disgrace has no allies. None. Literally every faction on Looming Gaia hates his guts, and his bases are constantly getting gangbanged by multiple enemies at once. That's why it's so hard for him to build up his forces, and why they're always stretched so thin. He can't spare large armies for offense because he needs them for DEfense. And every time he dies, he bleeds resources, bases, and troops, which sets him back even more.

What I'm saying is: the second Disgrace's asscheeks touch the Morite throne, the other Great Kingdoms will gang up and wipe Yerim-Mor off the map. Disgrace held that throne once in the past, and ain't nobody wants to deal with that nightmare again. They're prepared this time.

At the same time, nobody like provoking divines, especially the Divine of Hate. They just let him do his thing for now, because for the most part he keeps his bullshit contained in Yerim-Mor territory. The Morites act like a sponge, soaking up all his abuse. But the second his forces leak into foreign places, they get stomped like roaches, whether by kingdom troops, tribal natives, or wild nymphs. Like I said, everyone hates the Cult of the Crescent. Nobody wants them to get a foothold in their territory, so they nip it in the bud.

As for Yerim-Mor, it's simply too late for them. Disgrace got his foot in the door after the Gold River War, when the kingdom was too weak to defend itself. Now he's established tons of little fortresses out in the Serkel Desert that are constantly churning out soldiers and oppressing the Morites. The cult is like an infection, and Yerim-Mor is fighting for its life. Meanwhile the other Great Kingdoms are standing around with gloves and Lysol like, "Nah you keep that nasty shit to yourself, Yerim-Mor..."

Anyway, Disgrace can't just walk in and plop his butt on the throne just yet. He knows he's going to get dogpiled the moment he does. So, his plan is to build up a respectable empire around Yerim-Mor until he has enough resources and troops to fight off the inevitable dopile.

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[loominggaia]

Among the 8 Kingdoms, which country has the most extreme political factionalism/partisanship?

Yerim-Mor Kingdom, hands down. They've got the Order of Love and Light and the Cult of the Crescent duking it out over there, it doesn't get more divisive than that! These two factions are so intertwined with the region's culture, they're both considered religions, ideologies, and political factions all in one.

Yerim-Mor also has two modern political factions that were born in response to the Gold River War. They are known as the Risers and the Retaliators.

Retaliators believe the Morites should fight back and reclaim their land from the Matuzan colonizers. Prince Jaq considers himself a Retaliator. They are tired of seeing their kingdom get kicked around by other powers and curse King Roz for "letting" it happen. They also want to fight back against the Cult of the Crescent by sending specialized troops to wipe the cult off the map once and for all.

The Retaliator party is criticized because they are often hateful towards Matuzans. Their policies can be described as aggressive, bigoted, radical, and impractical. Retaliators support invading weaker territories to strengthen their kingdom, such as independent tribes like Taybiya. They want the majority of taxes to go towards the military, police, and offensive campaigns.

Risers are the opposing party. King Roz himself is a Riser. They take a more pacifist approach, and believing fighting back against the Matuzans will just lead to a swift defeat or never-ending war. They see more value in diplomatic compromises and self-sufficiency to rebuild their kingdom, rather than raiding and plundering foreigners. They don't like to provoke the Cult of the Crescent, believing that each time they do, it only makes the cult stronger (since the cult gains strength from agony, death, and hatred). Instead they opt to do "damage control" whenever the cult invades. This means investing in strong infrastructure like walls and power grids that can't be destroyed as as easily, and civil services like hospitals and disaster bunkers, so they can recover more quickly when they're raided and become more resilient over time.

The Riser party is criticized for their soft approach to their enemies. Their policies can be described as naïve, cowardly, passive, and unambitious. Risers support investing in their own people and industries to strengthen their kingdom, rather than war. They want the majority of their taxes to go to infrastructure, education, and defensive campaigns.

Morites are heavily divided between these two parties currently, and it's pretty much an even split. But there are two smaller parties wedged between them, and those are the Unifiers and Deserters.

Unifiers believe the only way to restore the kingdom is to unify Risers and Retaliators, and combine both of their policies into one system. Exactly how to do that is debated among them though, and the infighting ironically stunts this party's growth.

Deserters believe it's too late and the kingdom is doomed no matter what. They think the best move is to stop wasting resources on it and just let it collapse so that something new can grow in its place. Many of them have already left the kingdom, are planning to, or wish they could.

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[loominggaia]

You say In the odazi part of the human article that the obelisk that they built became the centerpiece of settlements so any of these settlements still exist and prosper?

Yes! Duali and Edelrhun are such places. There are also many smaller settlements that don't appear on the map, and so they are still unnamed in the series. They appear as villages, either compact or sprawling, in a radial formation around a central obelisk.

The obelisk towers high above all the other buildings and can be seen from far away. They are made from stone, usually polished to reflect light, or lit with a flame or magical glowing orb at the top. These measures increase visibility.

There are no roads out in the Serkel Desert because they quickly get covered in the shifting sands. Instead, it's these massive obelisks that help travelers find their way around. These constructs helped Yerim-Mor Kingdom ascend as a world power, as they opened reliable trade lines in regions where it wasn't possible before.

Today, those trade lines are plagued by bandits and Crescent Cultists...but that's a whole other story.

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[loominggaia]

I'm surprised Yerim-Mor kingdom is homophobic. Don't they have worse problems to worry about?

Most Morites actually aren't homophobic, this issue in this case lies specifically with the Cult of the Crescent. The cult uses Yerim-Mor Kingdom to farm victims they can kidnap/torture/recruit/whatever.

They intentionally sabotaged this kingdom's educational system, economy, and safety to keep its people poor and desperate, which leads to a lot of excess births. More births = more victims.

I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this...The Cult of the Crescent views Morites as livestock and wants them to breed as much as possible. Same-sex couples usually don't result in children, and the cult doesn't like that, so they discourage homosexuality by targeting these people and "making an example" of them.

Of course this will vary depending on region; the cult has a stronger hold on some territories than others. They get away with wilder, crueler behavior in more rural Morite territories, while the urban ones tend to be better protected by the kingdom guard.

Same-sex marriage is perfectly legal in Yerim-Mor Kingdom and most of the citizens take no issue with it (like you said, they have much more important things to concern themselves with) so LGBT people don't have to fear the law or society here. It's that damn cult they have to watch out for.

Then again, that's what everyone else has to watch out for too, so...bottom line: this place totally sucks whether you're LGBT or not.

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[loominggaia]

I’m surprised Yerim Mor is the lowest, below even Evangeline! I’m guessing it’s mostly due to the Skorpius being legally allowed to exist and do whatever they want to the woman?

Yerim-Mor has a long and storied history, its culture flip-flopping through many different phases with time. It has had times of misogyny and times of egalitarianism. Currently this kingdom is suffering from many serious problems, and a side effect of those problems is a swing back into misogynistic ways.

Women are givers of life, so to control women is to control the population at large. The Cult of the Crescent has been using Yerim-Mor Kingdom as a farm to generate sacrifices and terror to feed their leader, Mankind's Disgrace. They have created an environment that strips women of their freedom, and without the freedom of choice, Morite women end up with too many kids and not enough education. Both of these things burden women, and with these burdens they are less equipped to fight back against the cult. They are treated like livestock in a factory farm.

The skorpius have had a hand in these policies as well. It benefits them if women are afraid, uneducated, desperate, and considered disposable by their culture. They are easier to steal this way.

All of this has spiraled into other practices, such as child marriage. Feredil's younger sisters, for example, were sold to much older men when they were children, and this is not uncommon for this region. In their culture, girls are considered more like products than people. These kinds of policies arose from the sheer desperation of the people, and that desperation comes from the rampant poverty inflicted by decades of war and terrorism. Morites have been conditioned to have little regard for life, as it is taken from them so brutally and so frequently.

Long story short, Yerim-Mor Kingdom is a goddamn mess and its once egalitarian culture has been desecrated by evil entities. Life is rough for everyone here, but for women it is especially terrible. I mean, you know it's bad when the king transforms his last remaining daughter into a son...

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[loominggaia]

razzek I hope dings work out for Jaq (and by extention Yerim-mor heh) but also future Queen or Monarch Jaq where his body is as his father transformed it but she/they live how they want to would also be awesome. My brain is jumping to a few historic figures  who did this. Although it sounds like Jaq might not even relish the thought of ruling, but also like he would do what's best to save his kingdom and continue his father's legacy of putting it back to rights. 

I agree with you, I don't think Jaq is stoked about ruling this kingdom either. At least not at the moment. He sees Yerim-Mor as a sinking ship. All he's trying to do now is grab his loved ones, throw them in a lifeboat, and get them the hell out. But with his father desperately clinging to the past and his brother succumbing to evil, that isn't as easy as it sounds.

Let's say things improved though, and the ship stopped sinking. It would take a lot of work, but let's say saving it was clearly in the cards. I think this ray of hope might inspire Jaq to take the throne on his own volition and do what has to be done. By restoring Yerim-Mor's former glory, he might even start to enjoy his position and finally understand where his dad was coming from for all those years.

Jaq may or may not seek help for his sex incongruity, it's hard to say. He's been male for longer than he's been female at this point, and he fears switching back might be too jarring. He's grown to know and understand this male body over the years, and by changing it so dramatically, he would have to relearn its strengths, weaknesses, quirks, and not to mention the difficulties of the social transition. It would take years for him to adjust.

Jaq strikes me as a "selfless to a fault" type. A "silent sufferer" type. He might hurt inside, but you'd never know it because he never complains. He always puts the needs of others before his own. I feel like he may not transition back to a female because it would require him to pour so much time and energy into his own needs, when he could be using it to benefit others (his brother, his kingdom, his family, etc.)

But hey, maybe someone special will come along one day and convince him that his own needs matter too. If so, Jaq would be happy to transition back to female, live out his dream of having children and finally feel at peace in his own body.

Considering how hard he fights for his brother, we also see that Jaq is definitely no quitter. If he thought Yerim-Mor Kingdom could actually be saved, he would pour his whole heart and soul into the cause, and god help anyone who tries to stand in his way.

That's just my early take on his character though, he still needs more development and I may change some things in the future!

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