Kayani ~ stage 1
Dec. 16th, 2009 12:25 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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yrae
This idea for a new kingdom in Tsyllaes has been festering for about a month, then I voiced it to Sallie and it's predictably started growing more. And so, ladies and gents, the Kayani.
They initially spawned from an amalgamation of Gar og Nadrak, from the Belgariad by David Eddings, and Japanese geisha. In Nadrak culture, women are bought and sold, but they take half the profits of their sale and have a lot of freedom themselves, certainly not slaves. Then the geisha bit is how the girls go to school and are trained in the various arts that help them to entertain men. Kayani girls are taught the same sort of things--dance, music, how to entertain men, as well as the sort of more glamorous home duties, like cooking or sewing.
So that's the base of Kayani culture. From there on, all from my head :D To the Kayani, beauty is everything. They value the arts over sciences, and everyone tends to fall into one (or maybe more) of four forms: making music, storytelling, dancing or making images (2D or 3D, either works). If you're not good enough at either of those four, then you focus on the more domestic ones, like cooking, sewing, making furniture or something like that. They're not as easy to show off, but if you're an exceptional cook, well, that's an art form too. And if you can design and make beautiful clothes that those gifted in dancing will wear, then you're going to do well, too. The arts are everything to them.
They're sort of vaaaaguely tied to the four elements (with wood replacing earth because they live in trees). Dance is fire, like dancing flames. Music is air, like the whistling wind. Storytelling/painting and water/wood I'm not sure on. I'm thinking storytelling = water for the flowing storyline, and they can carve sculptures or paint on wood so that'd work. But yeah, this is only vaaaaague and I don't think will have any bearing beyond inspiration for what stuff looks/sounds like. No dancing to control flames or singing to control the wind or anything like that.
As I said up there, they live in trees rather than on the ground, but I haven't really figured out how advanced their culture is. They have HUGE trees in the same vein as redwoods only with branches to match. Probably never touch the ground in their lifetime. No idea what their houses look like, I'll get to that later.
Their religion of sorts is in the form of muses :D They're encouraged from a young age to get to know their muse, paint/draw/sculpt/dance/sing about them, all that sort of stuff. This is where that fabulous ambiguous magic thing I like to do comes in. They live in their heads, they have conversations with them, and they're the ones that help them to create all the beauty that enriches their lives. Any of you people with characters of your own will understand, I'm sure, how real they are to you. Imagine if you could talk to them without people thinking you're insane, rather people encourage it. That's the Kayani. So yeah, their muses are just as real as any of their other thoughts :D
Currency, I have no idea how that'll work. I'd like them to have no money at all, rather just trade in their art, but that'd provide issues for the buying women thing--she can't take half the profits if it's only one painting. So yeah, I'll think on that. Maybe they have some form of currency that men can only use to buy women, but women can use for anything, I dunno. They're a work in progress, so something will solidify =3
They're veggies, so only eat fruit and nuts of these giant trees and whatever other plants grow off them.
Dunno about their language, except that it's all spoken, damnit. No more unspoken magic communication except with their muses, and sure as hell no muteness or sign language =| Names~ I think come from nouns. Colours, aspects of nature, more intangible things like speed or memory, anything that sounds pretty :D
As for where they are... Yeah. Somewhere on the other side of the Tsaythi-Llayan desert. Yan will have found them, but that's a whole can of worms I don't want to touch until I've figured the people out. I highly doubt they'd take to his manipulation and weird ideas, and therefore they're useless. Yan likes playing with people's minds, but the Kayani aren't going to buy into that at all.
I think that's all I've got to babble about, now onto the pictures!
Not human, nup. I've taken this as my opportunity to create myself a species, because I've already got plenty of humans. So yes, this is the male of the species, clearly based on this old design but updated to be more realistic and fun :D Since they're veggies, eyes go on the side of the head, roughly where we've got our temples. No depth perception, but they can see pretty much all around themselves. ... Despite the... um... the ears are in the way. Piss. Okay the ears move down a few centimetres, closer to the jaw, so they can see past them. Ahaha well done, self.
ANYWAY. Yes. Their feet are hands! Like ours rather than like their spindly normal hands, because they live in trees. Naturally, they'd be palm down, flat to the ground, and indeed the kiddies do walk that way. But obviously, it's more elegant to walk like that, on your toe-tips. See high heeled shoes if you disagree with this X3 Most often they'd be gripping the branch they're on, anyway, but if the branch is big enough for it, walk like that.
Hair is long~ and beautifully braided in some fashion, more intricately for women than men.
I dunno how their clothes work yet or how practical they'd actually be. I mean, Llayan clothes aren't exactly practical, but they get on fine without being eaten by lions or falling down stairs, so it's not unrealistic that they'd value beauty over practicality. Just gotta work out how much. I'll figure out their culture properly first, then let that dictate their clothes.
And the ladies~ :D Who have an identical bone structure except for the face, which has a finer nose and jaw, and more slender eyes. They also have a rounder hairline and little flicky bits on their eyebrows that sorta look like eyelashes. And they have boobs a little bit. The body's the same because I suck at drawing males, mostly because they have no curves and it's just awkward. I keep wanting to give them hips instead of just a straight line down from armpit to ankle as they should be. So yes, still slender and not very curvy, but enough so that I don't tear my hair out trying to draw my own species.
As for colours, I'd really love to give them a skin pattern of some kind. I'm thinking something like markings on cats, especially big cats like leopard spots and tiger stripes. Probably not as vivid as real cats, though, because that'll get too busy and messy to draw. Wait til I actually colour one to see what that'll look like. It might look crap and they'll just go with solid colour *shrug*
And that's all I've got so far :D
They initially spawned from an amalgamation of Gar og Nadrak, from the Belgariad by David Eddings, and Japanese geisha. In Nadrak culture, women are bought and sold, but they take half the profits of their sale and have a lot of freedom themselves, certainly not slaves. Then the geisha bit is how the girls go to school and are trained in the various arts that help them to entertain men. Kayani girls are taught the same sort of things--dance, music, how to entertain men, as well as the sort of more glamorous home duties, like cooking or sewing.
So that's the base of Kayani culture. From there on, all from my head :D To the Kayani, beauty is everything. They value the arts over sciences, and everyone tends to fall into one (or maybe more) of four forms: making music, storytelling, dancing or making images (2D or 3D, either works). If you're not good enough at either of those four, then you focus on the more domestic ones, like cooking, sewing, making furniture or something like that. They're not as easy to show off, but if you're an exceptional cook, well, that's an art form too. And if you can design and make beautiful clothes that those gifted in dancing will wear, then you're going to do well, too. The arts are everything to them.
They're sort of vaaaaguely tied to the four elements (with wood replacing earth because they live in trees). Dance is fire, like dancing flames. Music is air, like the whistling wind. Storytelling/painting and water/wood I'm not sure on. I'm thinking storytelling = water for the flowing storyline, and they can carve sculptures or paint on wood so that'd work. But yeah, this is only vaaaaague and I don't think will have any bearing beyond inspiration for what stuff looks/sounds like. No dancing to control flames or singing to control the wind or anything like that.
As I said up there, they live in trees rather than on the ground, but I haven't really figured out how advanced their culture is. They have HUGE trees in the same vein as redwoods only with branches to match. Probably never touch the ground in their lifetime. No idea what their houses look like, I'll get to that later.
Their religion of sorts is in the form of muses :D They're encouraged from a young age to get to know their muse, paint/draw/sculpt/dance/sing about them, all that sort of stuff. This is where that fabulous ambiguous magic thing I like to do comes in. They live in their heads, they have conversations with them, and they're the ones that help them to create all the beauty that enriches their lives. Any of you people with characters of your own will understand, I'm sure, how real they are to you. Imagine if you could talk to them without people thinking you're insane, rather people encourage it. That's the Kayani. So yeah, their muses are just as real as any of their other thoughts :D
Currency, I have no idea how that'll work. I'd like them to have no money at all, rather just trade in their art, but that'd provide issues for the buying women thing--she can't take half the profits if it's only one painting. So yeah, I'll think on that. Maybe they have some form of currency that men can only use to buy women, but women can use for anything, I dunno. They're a work in progress, so something will solidify =3
They're veggies, so only eat fruit and nuts of these giant trees and whatever other plants grow off them.
Dunno about their language, except that it's all spoken, damnit. No more unspoken magic communication except with their muses, and sure as hell no muteness or sign language =| Names~ I think come from nouns. Colours, aspects of nature, more intangible things like speed or memory, anything that sounds pretty :D
As for where they are... Yeah. Somewhere on the other side of the Tsaythi-Llayan desert. Yan will have found them, but that's a whole can of worms I don't want to touch until I've figured the people out. I highly doubt they'd take to his manipulation and weird ideas, and therefore they're useless. Yan likes playing with people's minds, but the Kayani aren't going to buy into that at all.
I think that's all I've got to babble about, now onto the pictures!
Not human, nup. I've taken this as my opportunity to create myself a species, because I've already got plenty of humans. So yes, this is the male of the species, clearly based on this old design but updated to be more realistic and fun :D Since they're veggies, eyes go on the side of the head, roughly where we've got our temples. No depth perception, but they can see pretty much all around themselves. ... Despite the... um... the ears are in the way. Piss. Okay the ears move down a few centimetres, closer to the jaw, so they can see past them. Ahaha well done, self.
ANYWAY. Yes. Their feet are hands! Like ours rather than like their spindly normal hands, because they live in trees. Naturally, they'd be palm down, flat to the ground, and indeed the kiddies do walk that way. But obviously, it's more elegant to walk like that, on your toe-tips. See high heeled shoes if you disagree with this X3 Most often they'd be gripping the branch they're on, anyway, but if the branch is big enough for it, walk like that.
Hair is long~ and beautifully braided in some fashion, more intricately for women than men.
I dunno how their clothes work yet or how practical they'd actually be. I mean, Llayan clothes aren't exactly practical, but they get on fine without being eaten by lions or falling down stairs, so it's not unrealistic that they'd value beauty over practicality. Just gotta work out how much. I'll figure out their culture properly first, then let that dictate their clothes.
And the ladies~ :D Who have an identical bone structure except for the face, which has a finer nose and jaw, and more slender eyes. They also have a rounder hairline and little flicky bits on their eyebrows that sorta look like eyelashes. And they have boobs a little bit. The body's the same because I suck at drawing males, mostly because they have no curves and it's just awkward. I keep wanting to give them hips instead of just a straight line down from armpit to ankle as they should be. So yes, still slender and not very curvy, but enough so that I don't tear my hair out trying to draw my own species.
As for colours, I'd really love to give them a skin pattern of some kind. I'm thinking something like markings on cats, especially big cats like leopard spots and tiger stripes. Probably not as vivid as real cats, though, because that'll get too busy and messy to draw. Wait til I actually colour one to see what that'll look like. It might look crap and they'll just go with solid colour *shrug*
And that's all I've got so far :D
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Date: 2009-12-15 03:09 pm (UTC)Damn you and your awesome race creations! I envy them so bad :x
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Date: 2009-12-15 03:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-15 03:11 pm (UTC)Tippie-toes!
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Date: 2009-12-15 03:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-15 03:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-19 05:20 pm (UTC)