High ranking Crown Cynozepali kingslek concubine displaying regalia. Motifs here include multiple solar crosses (standard depiction of the sun, evoking rays), lunar eggs, a bellowing male camala on the headdress, and a member of the stellar lek (the stars, the thousand wives of the solar dragon, represented as a caelin with a bird's wings and tail) on the wattle plates.
Body piercings in general are regarded as beautifying, and piercing and stretching of the cheek wattles is common across class lines, used as decoration and as an indicator of female sexual maturity (drakes mostly stretch the base of the throat wattle instead). In most cases, these plates are small and carved out of lightweight wood so they do not have to be removed in flight.
The act of flight in of itself bears connotations of class in Crown Cynozepali culture. The majority of serfs will have to fly extensively to perform their labor and meet their daily needs, and serf housing is built high up cliffs. Other members of the lower classes may not have to fly as frequently or as far, but will still need to take to the air on a regular basis. The lifestyles of nobility requires no flight whatsoever, and having the option to wear jewelry and/or body modifications that temporarily or permanently renders one flightless is an indicator of class status. Very large metal plates decorated with precious stones such as these demonstrate material wealth, elevated beauty, and the wearer's class-based relation to labor.
Wearing wing plates is forbidden to all but royalty, a privilege that is framed as indicating the wearer's semidivinity, likened to the appearance of stars. They also render the wearer permanently flightless, stretching large gaps in the wing membranes. While high ranking, this hen is only a concubine- the wing plates of kingslek wives will be nearly twice this size.
"I saw the stars darken
and I saw wings that cupped the sky, heard each beat like thunder across the plains
and I saw an eye of sun-fire, burning a path to the western horizon
til it was swallowed by night and I saw no more.
And when it was gone I fell into the grass, (laughing and crying), for what are we without the sons of the stars? What will become of us that were left behind?
Hi! I love your work! I’m curious about Cynozepali architecture and social structure?
Just going to go with the Crown Cynozepali people here.
Crown cynozepali culture can be described as a feudal system. It is not even remotely territorial contiguous (and exact territorial boundaries mean little to flighted people) but rather are scattered habitations built on cliffs and mountain ranges.
The social structure is as follows
King and the kingslek (a king's wives, usually dozens). Historically the region was divided into many kingdoms, but is currently united under one royal family. The royal family only rules with the support of their lords, who provide them with labor and warriors. This position is historically fraught, and it is quite common for royal families to be overthrown by discontented nobility.
Nobility- ruling class who 'own' cliffs and prime grazing lands and are also considered the owners of their herds and the serfs who tend them
Mercantile- this could be subdivided into several classes but generally speaking are free laborers and traders who are paid for their services. This class has the most upward mobility, and some especially rich mercantile families become noble houses.
Warrior- a difficult social class to place. They are sworn to service of their lords and do not have freedom of movement, but are paid handsomely and provided upper class homes and occasionally obtain lordships.
Servants- people who directly serve lords (and rich warriors/merchants) in domestic roles. They are paid for their labors.
Serfs- the lowest class, who tend their lord's herds and fields of textile crops. As with most forms of serfdom, these are not paid for their services and are functionally slaves, and are considered attached to their lords. It is imagined and excused as a compact where service to their lords and king is repaid in protection, food, and 'safe' places to live. They are sometimes conscripted into battle as footsoldiers, wherein one of few possibilities for upward mobility (VERY occasionally) lies- serfs who prove skilled combatants may be enlisted as warriors, with all entailed benefits (and consequences)
Monks- Lunar emissary monks exist somewhat outside this social structure. They have few possessions and live in small nests in white pines on high cliffs among the serfs, but are highly respected figures.
Social class is indicated most strongly by 'height', with the upper classes building homes nearest to the ground and serfs building homes high on cliffsides (not having to fly is considered a privilege and show of wealth). It is also indicated by the ability for polygamy. Caelin social structure is naturally polygamous, but male serfs are typically only allowed (or can only afford) one wife. Having multiple wives/being a wife with many others is a strong indicator of wealth and class.
Crown cynozepal is an interspecies culture, though built by and for caelin. The caelin majority does not translate directly into social structure. Nobility is restricted to only caelin and delkhin due to interfertility (though upper class delkhin are rarer), while most crown qilik are merchants or servants. The serf population is almost entirely caelin. Delkhin serfs cannot fly and mostly live in tents on the outskirts of their communities.
The homes of Crown Cynozepali serfs are built into cliffsides, taking advantage of naturally occuring outcrops and niches in the rock. The basis of the structure is usually built around the roots a tree (often the white pine, which grows on cliffsides and is sacred). A thick structure of twigs and grass is woven amid the roots as a foundation and forms the skeleton of the home. Clay, lime, straw, guano, and other materials are mixed to form the walls and are flown up mouthful by mouthful.
These houses are usually very small and crowded, formed of two narrow levels (an 'upstairs' where a fire is kept and food is cooked, and a 'downstairs' containing the sleeping quarters and a 'bathroom' window)
Cliff homes are relatively resilient (especially given most of the region has infrequent rains) but still require constant and endless maintenance. It is not unknown for heavily populated areas to experience mass deaths when the weight of dozens of homes collapses a cliffside.
The homes of Crown nobility and royalty are built on the ground, usually at the base of the cliffs in a naturally shielded area (such as in the mouth of a cave or under an outcropping. These are predominantly large, domed structures made out of bricks and reinforced with clay and plaster and richly decorated with fine pigments and frescoes.
The homes of the middle classes tend to be built higher up, but on solid ground (rather than cliffsides) and are structurally similar to those of nobility.
First Goose of Spring, (39th Girlchild to the Diving Dragon, Lady of Jadehall) (right) and her Mouth, Honeythief (left), who flee from the imperial Cynozepal after her dynasty's obliteration and pull lore friendly advance-pay schemes on people
Goose is one of the 43 children of the former Diving Dragon dynasty of Cynozepal, and possibly the only to have survived their explosive demise and the aftermath of the coup.
She loathes her usurper bastard half-brother (Haresluck), and is looking for a princeling with an army to wed so that she may retake the throne as a kingmother. She is also (the equivalent of) a preteen, rather spoiled, and not the brightest, having been sheltered from many realities of the world in her pampered upbringing.
Honeythief is a disgruntled former Mouth (a servant and translator) to the family who fled Cynozepal with Goose in his care. He is rather vain and proud of his (former) status, clever but not quite as clever as he thinks, and constantly seeking upward mobility.
He knows there isn't a chance in hell that Goose will retake the throne, but realizes her story as the last princess of a doomed dynasty and her credibility as such could become quite profitable if they used it to dupe the right people into aiding their 'cause'.
They end up wandering around with a troupe of Lunar Travelers (a disguise to shield them from their 'enemies', though pretty much no one is looking for Goose) and pulling scams on credulous foreigners, Goose all the while certain that she will soon be returning to her homeland with a husband and army.
Rock art depicting the primordial battle between the Stellar Lek and the World-Serpent over the (soon to be) Broken Moon (while the Moon-Thieves, the first delkhin, look on). This particular painting is made by the contemporary Cutface Mountain people who base themselves in the hills that border the Singing Steppe in southeastern Cynozepal.
The World-Serpent here has the head of a dog or jackal, a common motif among scavenger-nomad caelin populations (especially of the Singing Steppe and other related southeastern groups) who believe dogs to guide the earthbound dead into the underworld.
Representative depictions are rare in the region's rock art, most of which is abstract patterns and symbols that have both aesthetic, instructive (such as in maps) and magical functions. A mythological scene such as this is typically restricted to shrines commemorating religiously significant parts of the landscape, such as pieces of the broken moon.
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The Stellar Lek are the thousand wives of the Sun-Dragon in Cynozepali dualism. Depending on the source, the Sun-Dragon travels through the underworld, or is eaten by the World-Serpent, or merely orbits the world every night. The Stellar Lek, in the form of the stars, watches over the world and heavens in the darkness of his absence.
Each star represents a single member of the lek, and significant stars are named and worshipped as minor deities. Constellations are known as "sisters", being closely related members of the lek joined in formation. The mating of the Starry Lek and the Sun Dragon is believed to have created the now extinct dragons (while all other life hatched from matings between the Sun Dragon and World-Serpent).
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The stylistic depictions of caelin and delkhin in this painting closely mirror the basic pictograms that most Cynozepali written languages derive from.
A beardog snoozes with a resting infant and lounging child of the Dragonbeak Pass shepherds.
(CW for mentions of dog death)
The cynozepali beardog originates in the cold northwestern Singing Steppe. This breed was originally developed from local landraces for their meat, pelts, and 'wool'. Pelts are luxurious and warm (dogsmane is a valuable commodity) and the meat of a grain-fattened beardog is considered a delicacy, but they are valuable animals and typically harvested only for special occasions. Most are kept for several years, being shorn of their continuously growing hair to produce dogswool textiles.
Beardogs are known for their gentle dispositions and low prey drive, making them excellent babysitters and playmates for young delkhin. Delkhin kids can walk and run soon after hatching, but cling to their mother's fur when traveling distances. Clinging to a dog instead frees the mothers for other tasks, and to focus attention on training the older children in driving goats and horses.
Dogs with good dispositions will assist in the rearing several generations of the lek's children throughout their lifetime, often becoming well loved by the lek (some peoples consider their prize herding and babysitting dogs to be family members). A child's first dogsmane collar is usually taken from one of their dogs upon its passing, worn through cold winters as a reminder of their beloved pet.
a Lunar Emissary and a Lunar Traveller, priests that work as psychopomps, ferrying the dead to the afterlife. An Emissary only wears their traditional headdress (streamlined for flight), their skinning knives, and a sheath. Travellers rarely fly, and dress warmly (and often flamboyantly)
Lore below
The dominant religions of the north of cynozepal centers around sun worship, ancestor veneration, and appeasement of restless spirits, and the balance between an evil cthonic earth creator-god and a benevolent sky god.
The solar dragon travels from east to west every day with the sun on his beak. He is a loving god, but cannot come down to the earth to intercede with his people directly, as it is the realm of a greedy underworld serpent who seeks to devour the sun at the end of time (some variants hold that he is devoured every night and reborn each morning).
The moons are the lands of the blessed dead. In order to reach this afterlife, one’s soul must be delivered to the solar dragon. This can be potentially accomplished by all flying flesh eaters, (even flies may be psychopomps) but only proper ritual handling will ensure the dead safe travels to the lunar lands. Those who miss out remain earthbound as wandering spirits, which can cause troubles for the living. Most such souls will wander restlessly until the world’s ending, but will be reincarnated (and given another chance at salvation) in the next world.
Multiple religions follow variations of this core belief, and almost all of them utilize Lunar Emissaries in their funerary practices.
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Lunar emissaries are an ancient all-caelin priesthood who serve the solar dragon by ferrying the newly dead to the afterlife, and appeasing and soothing wandering spirits. They take strict vows of nonviolence, and will not knowingly harm even the tiniest of insects. As caelin are obligate carnivores, Emissaries must consume meat, but will refuse any meat slaughtered intentionally for their sake (they take gifts, or find carcasses in their travels).
When serving the dead, they process the body in preparation for its journey. The skin is removed and burned along with the ‘unclean’ organs, the soul-vessel organs (the brain and liver) are eaten by the Emissaries, and the rest is given to sacred vultures. The skulls are cleaned and preserved for the family shrine. Whatever is left behind is deposited in open air graves far from the settlements. This ritual is completed before dawn, at which point the priests will follow the sun in its journey across the sky, thus delivering the souls to the Dragon.
This method of elaborate sky burial is thought to be the best guarantee of reaching the lunar lands. A body left to open air serves a good chance, should it be eaten by flies and birds. A body too decayed to be eaten will be burned so the soul can travel via smoke, though this method is not ideal. The worst possible death is to be buried or drowned, as the soul will be claimed instead by the world-serpent and become twisted into an evil spirit.
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The Lunar Travellers or ‘Missionaries’ are an annihilationist offshoot of the Emissaries, originating as a folk tradition developed in the Singing Steppe. They focus on the religion’s eschatological aspects, believing that any wandering spirits left at the end of the world will cease to exist, and that the extinction of dragons heralds the world's imminent doom. They believe it’s an imperative to take the religion to other lands in order to save other peoples from impending annihilation.
They travel along trade routes outside of Cynozepal, and spread their message and perform rituals at battlefields. They are far flashier than their emissary counterparts and their rituals are accompanied by costumed performers dressed as spirits of horses and khait, (frightens off evil spirits). Like their counterparts, they take strict vows of nonviolence, but may hire mercenaries as guards in foreign lands. They will recruit anyone regardless of species, and rely more heavily on vultures as psychopomps (to make up for many of their number being flightless).
a small troupe of Lunar Travellers arriving onto a battlefield in procession. The cacophonous sound of boomsinging and the costumed performers wearing khait and horse skulls are meant to dispel evil spirits, and go a ways towards dispelling potentially hostile onlookers as well.
