#nytheris

[guardian-of-time-if]

I couldn't find anything about this on the blog so I'm gonna have to ask, is there anything to keep in mind about the fashion of the world? I want to draw my MC but I want to make sure I understand the fashion.

thank you!

Hi! I have been waiting for the fashion question, and I am prepared with images.

Long with lots of images:

The Nytherian upper class dresses like everyday is the most important day of their lives. Most commonly women will wear gowns with wide skirts and tight bodices and lots of jewelry. Notably, gold jewelry is rarely worn, and is seen as tasteless or unclassy. Despite the weather, they actually don’t wear a lot of furs or layers to keep warm because most buildings (that the upper class would interact with) are warded against cold, so you’ll actually see a lot of short sleeved dresses even in the dead of winter. Here are some examples of what women might wear,

And yes they dress like this every day. The idea is that a courtier should be able to spontaneously drop whatever they are doing and meet with the emperor if he calls them. The main difference between everyday and event attire for Nytherian women is how much make-up they are wearing. They wear a lot flashier make-up for events, and very little on regular days. (Some forgo it entirely, and those that do wear it in a way that looks as if they are not.)

Peasant women, also wear dresses, but of much simpler designs, something more like this (the jewelry here would be more indicative of a middle class than poor peasants, but it's close enough):

The Nytherian men of the Imperial Court would dress in more layers, like this:

Or some would just wear their armor which would look something like this for a high ranking officer like Luk or Lord Igor, but with a shoulder cape instead of the hood depicted here.

For a lower ranked soldier, it would look something more like this.

While MC is in Nytheris, she's expected to dress like a Nytherian lady, but when she goes to train with the Dragon Seekers outside of the empire, she'll get to dress more practically. Dragon Seekers don't have a uniform, so most people dress similar to their own culture. But it is more practical and often includes armor, so it might look something like this:

Or for something with pants (which will be a possibility):

Male dragons seekers also tend to dress pragmatically, with lighter armor, but almost all of them wear at least a partial set of armor. Some who have combat training will wear heavier, but lighter leathers tend to be more common, for example something like this(ignore the watermark):

[guardian-of-time-if]

I do not understand human courtship rituals

raised by elves...

I'm not sure if you mean he should understand if he was raised by elves, or agreeing that it makes sense. But I will say that Elves do have every different romance conventions than Nytheris so the Elves would not understand the courtship/courtly romance thing Nytherians do.

[guardian-of-time-if]

Igor fought monsters?

Yes he has. Igor has varied experience fighting all sorts of things. Alezyl (Igor's land) is on the Northwestern outskirts of the empire, so they routinely deal wih monster attacks, rebellions, and are one of the first lines of defence against attacks from the West. And House Novikov is a military family that has basically been given the duty of guarding that region by a previous emperor a few generations back because its hard for the military to get out there and maintain an outpost. That's what Igor did before he became Captain of the Imperial Guard.

[guardian-of-time-if]

Oh also would a crown princess (daughter of emperor ) be referred to by majesty like a crown prince would, or would it be highness like a crown princess by marriage would be called?

Sorry for the odd and confusing phrasing I don't know how else to write it

A female heir to the emperor would still be refered to as 'majesty' rather than 'highness'. The distinction for the crown princess is that she's royal by marriage not by birth in most cases. It also works the same for a man married to said female heir. He would have the honorary title of crown prince, but would be refered to as 'highness' rather than majesty because he's not royal by blood, but by marriage.

[guardian-of-time-if]

If a ruling empress can have multiple husbands, can her husbands then have multiple wives like a normal nobleman or are they limited because of their marriage to the empress?

I had not thought of this before, Anon, but I am going to say that it would be opening a legal can of worms that no one is prepared to deal with the consequences of. I would say that it's technically legal, but because its never happened before, no one is going to challenge the precedent and try to have a second wife while married to an empress.

[guardian-of-time-if]

what are gladiators here? what did alina mean by pavel winning enough matches to buy his freedom??

Gladiators in concept are pretty simmilar to Roman gladiators. They're people who fight for sport, sometimes against each other sometimes against animals or even occasionally monsters (although this is rare because it's very hard for the area staff to capture and control).

In Tarken, only The Silver Empire has them, and all gladiators are convicts. When someone is arrested for a crime that would result in life in prision, they are given the choice between prision or fighting in the gladiator arenas.

Most major cities in the empire have them, and it's a requirement for regional capitals. They are funded by nobles and rich people buying tickets to the shows.

what did alina mean by pavel winning enough matches to buy his freedom??

So when a gladiator gets popular enough, audience members can chose to 'sponsor them' which is basically them donating money or equipment to that fighter. If you can manage to raise enough money from sponsors, you can but your freedom, your crime is forgiven, and you are given any excess money/items from your sponsorship fund.

The other way a gladiator can get freedom is being granted a pardon which can only be given by a member of the imperial family or a provincial governor. While pardons may legally be granted on any day, they are usually only given out on holidays as the person signing the pardon must do so publically. Traditionally, this has led to tournament style fights on certain holidays (Winter Solstic and Validation) where the victor will be granted freedom.

Pavel specifically raised enough money from fans because he holds a record for longest streak of being undefeated in matches. That is also why he is the only one in the prologue who has real silver, primarily a currency of the elites, he's had it since he bought his freedom.

[guardian-of-time-if]

does the stuff about dowries work any differently/ exist at all for princesses and women marrying into royalty?

It works pretty much exaclty the same unless the princess is marrying into another country since many countries that aren't part of the empire, don't use dowy systems.

[guardian-of-time-if]

I once heard Sam and Oren argue about the existence of seers

it's kinda funny that the girl who wants to learn wizardry doesn't believe in seers. when they are just wizards with divination specialities. also surprised in a heavily magical nation the existence of certain types of mages is somehow still debated?

it's kinda funny that the girl who wants to learn wizardry doesn't believe in seers. when they are just wizards with divination specialities.

It's these kinds of things where Sam really suffers from being self-taught from out of date reading material. If she had been institutionally educated, like Tzesar, definitions like seers vs oracles vs prophets would have been introductory material. Outside of academic circles the terms are used pretty interchangably because the average person doesn't care about minute differences. So she knows enough to know that the educated people don't believe in *divine* prophesy, but not enough to understand how that's different from a seer.

And that is how the general public ends up debating it, is there such a thing as magic that can see into the future because to them that's what prophesy is, rather than the debate the academics are having which is are there gods giving certain people divine visions with greater accuracy than the divination practices or a regular mage. And yet, most people think they are having the same debate the academics are.

also surprised in a heavily magical nation the existence of certain types of mages is somehow still debated?

I don't think it's that surprising? A country that's dedicated a lot of resources to the study of magic would natuarally attract academics of differing opinions, especially on a subject matter that's as complex as magic.

More specifically though, witchcraft and divine magic are both debated because to prove or disprove their existence requires one to prove or disprove that divine entities are real. So even though Nytheris is the most magically inclined nation in the world, they're also structured around the idea that the gods are dead/dying, so if the gods are dead, whose going around granting divine blessings? 🤨So its religious as much as is anything else.