Aristasia Nova Behind the Scenes #1: Language and Philology
Webmistresses’ Note: This is intended primarily for maids who are already familiar with Aristasia Antiqua’s specialized vocabulary. Newcomers, casual travelers, and anyone who has limited awareness of how the citizens of Aristasia Antiqua used to talk will probably be slightly confused, but our askbox is always open to answer any questions!
This is an "out-of-character" developmental post and will thus be written in a somewhat naffer (see below) style than usual.
Anyone who spent great amounts of time in Aristasia Antiqua or who has researched or befriended Aristasians of that earlier generation will be extremely aware of their highly specialized vocabulary. Words like intemorph, schizomorph, and racinated will come to mind immediately. We at Aristasia Nova intend to preserve some aspects of this linguistic tradition and we are working on a vocabulary list as of posting, but as we develop a new way of speaking we have to acknowledge that Marianne and Priscilla were truly, inescapably prejudiced in how they spoke and how they imagined others speaking. Their racism is most relevant here, particularly with words like bongo (ouch!) being used derogatorily to describe non-Aristasians. We aren’t going to tolerate language like that in Aristasia Nova.
We also have serious qualms about the ways “blonde” and “brunette” are used, both because of the racism inherent in imagining that roughly half the population will be naturally blonde and because of the fact that blondes-as-demure-submissives/brunettes-as-assertive-dommes is a trope that comes from lesbian porn intended for an audience of cishet em-ee-en (“men”, as if spelled aloud in English). It’s both deeply insulting and deeply creepy to insist that brown and black Aristasia Nova participants must LARP as white people and cater to white aesthetics and beauty standards and deeply lesbophobic to ask lesbians to shape their sexual identities and desires around pornography catered toward a cishet man’s expectations.
If this is where you’re finding out about blonde = submissive, docile, hypersexual / brunette = frigid, intellectual, calculating as porn tropes, we're sorry. It’s present across multiple kinds of fetish material and also present in ordinary films to some extent. Priscilla and Marianne probably got it from From Russia with Love, where both a blonde bombshell Bond girl and a brunette frumpy assassin played with lesbian coding.
To that end, we’ve developed a number of changes to the traditional Aristasian vocabulary. The old words will still be tentatively allowed in some cases (for example, “blonde” and “brunette” are iconic of Aristasia, and anyone who wants to use them may do so until further notice) and will be outright banned in others (no one is calling anyone a “bongo”.) We’ve also changed some terms that, while not explicitly racist in etymology, come across as racially insensitive for sonic or false-friend reasons.
Bongo -> naff. Equally British in origin and use, but significantly less offensive. People can be naffs, or they can do something that is naff.
Brunette -> fore. Indicating a dominant position in society subtly, with a fair degree of variation in how it can be applied.
Blonde -> mizzen. Behind the foremast nautically, and blessedly free of any implications around raceplay.
Racinated -> retroplanted. The original word is constructed from deracinated, meaning “uprooted”, and thus technically unobjectionable. However, rather than hanging onto unwanted sonic connotations we elected to construct a similar meaning with a different sound.
Eclipse, Pit, Void -> retained but use optional-to-discouraged. We feel that these terms are excessively connected to the cosmology around "Aristasia Pura" that we are discouraging in favor of an Aristasia that is imaginative play. However, maids who have Madrian-derived religious beliefs, or feel for other reasons that that way of describing Aristasia's relationship to History is important to them, may continue to use them in their Aristasia Antiqua senses. For maids who wish to discuss concepts of cosmic decline without inviting the specific theological and political connotations of the "Eclipse" framework, we suggest Occultation, a word of similar meaning but more technical and thus less loaded sound and etymology. We also want to acknowledge that for nonwhite and non-Western Aristasians, the point at which History becomes irrevocably tainted may vary, and certain eras or periods derided by Aristasia Antiqua may be incredibly important when viewed from a different perspective. For some it might be 1619, for others 1492 or 1948 or 1839, for still others a thousand different years or decades, and tethering the concept to one specific (white, English) point of view excludes any differences or diversity of opinion. The Occultation took place whenever your Real World ended.
Hestia -> retained. One retroplants one's hestia on account of the Occultation, as one might have racinated one's hestia on account of the Eclipse.
Schizomorph, intemorph, masculi, femini, etc. -> retained. Having a specialized way to talk about em-ee-en, when we must, is helpful for setting boundaries and stating our identity and values as Aristasians!
Atomisation -> retained. This is a venerable sociological term and even naff, unplanted, schizomorphic social scientists would agree with parts of Aristasia Antiqua's critique of how it is fostered in the post-1960s world.
Decades of Darkness -> retained, use optional-to-discouraged, please start the clock at 2013 (or, rather, 2010) rather than 1965 (or, rather, 1960). We chose 2013 as the last Real year for entirely personal reasons related to the experiences and traumas that led us to develop Aristasia Nova, id est exactly the same reasons for which Priscilla and Marianne chose 1965. 2025 is the Sixth Year of the Second Decade of Darkness, or 2D6.
Silly monkeys -> no. Most of us are probably going to be kinky lesbians. It isn't naff to say so.