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Oct. 20th, 2012 03:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
northerntwilightFirst there was nothing but chaos, which was incredibly boring, so the Primordials decided to make the Exalted universe, literally called Creation. But maintaining it wasn't very interesting, so they made a bunch of gods to run it for them. The gods, in a fit of "do as I do, not as I say," decided they wanted to slack off, too, so a handful of them each took part of their power and made a bunch of divine sparks, binding them to the souls of mortals and creating an army to rise up and challenge the Primordials. The five Elemental Dragons created countless Dragon-Blooded Exalts (aka Terrestrials), the least powerful but most numerous to serve as footsoldiers with power over a select element (fire, water, air, wood, earth). The Maidens created 100 Sidereals, spies who manipulate Fate itself in their schemes and disappear from people's memories (Incidentally, Arianna has a great deal to learn about astrology, because in Exalted, that's a Sidereal thing, and she does not remember the Sidereals). The Unconquered Sun created 300 Solars, the most glorious of the Exalts, to lead the war against the Primordials and to rule Creation. Luna created 300 Lunars to be their counterparts -- guardians and mates. Among the Solars were figures such as Bright Shattered Ice, a Twilight sorceress who named herself after the shards she collected from a Primordial she slew.
The Exalted won the war -- but when the Primoridials were defeated, they cast a Great Curse so that the virtues of each Solar would twist into vanity, decadence and cruelty. The Solars became rulers and ushered in the First Age, a time of epic wonders and terrible atrocities. Seeing the Solars transforming into tyrants, the Sidereals persuaded the Terrestrials to betray and slaughter them, imprisoning the Solar's divine sparks so that as the cycle of reincarnation proceeded, the Solars would not be reborn.
Without the strength of the Solars, Creation slipped into various levels of chaos and destruction. Many of the greatest artistic, scholarly, engineering and even sorcerous achievements of the First Age have been lost. Luckily, evil forces trying to steal and corrupt the Solar divine sparks happened to free them, and the Solars began to be reborn into the world. Unfortunately, the Terrestrials now organize into Wyld Hunts, bands of warriors who gather whenever signs of a new Solar crop up so they can overwhelm the fresh Exalt while he or she is still uncertain of their power. The average person has been taught to believe that Solars are unclean anathema, possessed by demons.
We are now in the Second Age of Creation -- the Age of Sorrows. Currently, the prime bastion of civilization is the Scarlet Empire. The Great Contagion had swept across the land, killing many; this was followed promptly by an invasion by the Fair Folk from the unshaped chaos that is the Wyld lying beyond the world. Between the Contagion and the Fair Folk, things were looking pretty grim. That's when a female Dragon-Blooded soldier went into the inactive Imperial Manse, managed to survive the many lethal traps within, and claimed its massive power, using it to rally the Terrestrials and put a halt to the invasion. That was the birth of the Empire, aka the Realm. Since then, she has disappeared, and the various dynasties of the Empire are squabbling to try taking the reigns, with a poor harried regent trying to keep everything from falling apart. This is the world Arianna is born into, the reincarnation of Bright Shattered Ice.
When we're first introduced to Arianna, we're hit straight-up with Arianna angry over gender issues. I feel it's important to talk about this, particularly because I know there are people out there that don't like Arianna because this -- they feel it doesn't belong in the Exalted setting, where there's things like an Empress in charge of the world's dominant power. Arianna was not accepted as a scholar at the library she went to because of gender; so she took to wearing heavy clothing that mostly concealed gender features. She spent her days as a servant, her nights studying, and throughout she was extremely disgruntled because she felt the scholars were wasting their privilege. She was just as good as them, maybe better. Word of god is actually that when her character was created, they wanted to show that sexism did exist in Creation.
. . . but that's as far as gender issues really go for her. She draws her Second Breath and becomes a Solar, and suddenly she's above all those societal rules. She goes on a power trip, and her privilege issues shift from gender to Exalted politics -- she wants to tear down the Dragon-Blooded social structure and replace it with a new Solar social structure. She feels the privilege belongs with her, not the other way around.
I want to address a few things anyway. Sexism is a genuine issue for Arianna to hold a grudge over, despite some detractors. I saw someone call the Realm a matriarchy -- that's not true. The power structure belongs not with a woman and her successors; the Empress is the Empress because she had the guts to grab the power needed that no one could dispute her reign. The regent ruling since her disappearance is male, and if someone were to wrest control of the Empire, it would not necessarily be a woman. In fact:
What is not accepted in Dynastic culture, though, regardless of sexual orientation, is weakness is women or effeminate behavior in men. Such softness is never tolerated, and is often harshly ridiculed and even punished. Whatever else they might be, the Terrestrial Exalted are warriors, and there is no room for those who assume effete mannerism or deliberately portray themselves as "soft" in any way." (Manual of Exalted Power - Dragon-Blooded, page 21)
In other words, even though in many areas of Creation women can do the same things as men, there is still a sexism problem. Society among the Dragon-Blooded celebrates masculinity over what has been deemed feminine traits. So when the men go out and put themselves in danger for the cause, but tell Arianna she has to stay inside in The Carnelian Flame, it is totally valid that she protest it as being dumb. Yes, they were doing it because she'd been identified by the enemy and needed to stay under the radar, but it still smacks of the sexism she's struggled with.
Arianna still identifies as female, but she will at times deliberately avoid attire that shows off her body. Likewise, it does play a part in her presentation. She doesn't like to be seen as soft. Makes sense.
Depending where you are in Creation, the approach to sexuality is different. There are cultures where sex is only for procreation; others, such as Lookshy, attach no stigma to other arrangements. In some places, beings only marry long enough to conceive and then it's all off. Frankly, the best way to sum up sexuality in Creation is "Hey, if you're sure that's what you want rubbing on your genitals..." Arianna is actually even depicted as engaging in an affair with one of the Fair Folk -- not even human.
For the record: her canon love interest is Swan, a fellow Solar. In the First Age, he was Desus, married to the Lunar known as Lilith. Back then, Arianna's past life, Bright Shattered Ice, frequently engaged in affairs with him; when Desus inevitably went back to his wife, Ice would turn her attentions to her Lunar mate -- who was literally relegated to the role of "rebound fuck." In this age, Swan and Arianna still feel this attraction to each other, and their interest is their predominant romantic possibility (though she treats him like a sidekick, and he's pretty unsure about the whole prospect, describing her as . . . "pretty intense"). Lilith is still in the equation, but the Lunar has gone mad and half the time she is literally trying to get him killed, so Arianna's ahead in the running. Arianna still doesn't like her.
Anyway! There's some issues. In the Realm, love is considered a mild form of madness. Falling in love still happens, and frequently, but way Exalted tend to be highly emotional beings, it's a little accurate to say it tends to be problematic. In the Realm, instead, people are encouraged to marry for strength and social climbing; love is not a legitimate excuse to ruin long-planned political alliances. Now granted, this is what's detailed for sexuality for the dynasties of the Terrestrial Exalted in the Realm, but in that social structure, if you aren't Dragon-Blooded, you want to be Dragon-Blooded, so it still informs your average person's attitudes.
Now, sex -- that's different. It's considered a physically gratifying activity, even a common pastime. Homosexuality is actually widely accepted as "a kind of noble, intimate camaraderie -- with benefits." In many ways it's actually preferred when a person might be sleeping around, because it cannot yield illegitimate children that would wreck political alliances. It's actually even public knowledge that the majority of the Scarlet Empress' lovers were women. Birth control also exists in Creation, but not in the form of condoms -- they use an herbal mixture called Maiden Tea.
So, yeah. Just as Arianna's opinions on gender are based in the context of sexism existing in the Realm, so is her sexuality informed.
The Exalted won the war -- but when the Primoridials were defeated, they cast a Great Curse so that the virtues of each Solar would twist into vanity, decadence and cruelty. The Solars became rulers and ushered in the First Age, a time of epic wonders and terrible atrocities. Seeing the Solars transforming into tyrants, the Sidereals persuaded the Terrestrials to betray and slaughter them, imprisoning the Solar's divine sparks so that as the cycle of reincarnation proceeded, the Solars would not be reborn.
Without the strength of the Solars, Creation slipped into various levels of chaos and destruction. Many of the greatest artistic, scholarly, engineering and even sorcerous achievements of the First Age have been lost. Luckily, evil forces trying to steal and corrupt the Solar divine sparks happened to free them, and the Solars began to be reborn into the world. Unfortunately, the Terrestrials now organize into Wyld Hunts, bands of warriors who gather whenever signs of a new Solar crop up so they can overwhelm the fresh Exalt while he or she is still uncertain of their power. The average person has been taught to believe that Solars are unclean anathema, possessed by demons.
We are now in the Second Age of Creation -- the Age of Sorrows. Currently, the prime bastion of civilization is the Scarlet Empire. The Great Contagion had swept across the land, killing many; this was followed promptly by an invasion by the Fair Folk from the unshaped chaos that is the Wyld lying beyond the world. Between the Contagion and the Fair Folk, things were looking pretty grim. That's when a female Dragon-Blooded soldier went into the inactive Imperial Manse, managed to survive the many lethal traps within, and claimed its massive power, using it to rally the Terrestrials and put a halt to the invasion. That was the birth of the Empire, aka the Realm. Since then, she has disappeared, and the various dynasties of the Empire are squabbling to try taking the reigns, with a poor harried regent trying to keep everything from falling apart. This is the world Arianna is born into, the reincarnation of Bright Shattered Ice.
When we're first introduced to Arianna, we're hit straight-up with Arianna angry over gender issues. I feel it's important to talk about this, particularly because I know there are people out there that don't like Arianna because this -- they feel it doesn't belong in the Exalted setting, where there's things like an Empress in charge of the world's dominant power. Arianna was not accepted as a scholar at the library she went to because of gender; so she took to wearing heavy clothing that mostly concealed gender features. She spent her days as a servant, her nights studying, and throughout she was extremely disgruntled because she felt the scholars were wasting their privilege. She was just as good as them, maybe better. Word of god is actually that when her character was created, they wanted to show that sexism did exist in Creation.
. . . but that's as far as gender issues really go for her. She draws her Second Breath and becomes a Solar, and suddenly she's above all those societal rules. She goes on a power trip, and her privilege issues shift from gender to Exalted politics -- she wants to tear down the Dragon-Blooded social structure and replace it with a new Solar social structure. She feels the privilege belongs with her, not the other way around.
I want to address a few things anyway. Sexism is a genuine issue for Arianna to hold a grudge over, despite some detractors. I saw someone call the Realm a matriarchy -- that's not true. The power structure belongs not with a woman and her successors; the Empress is the Empress because she had the guts to grab the power needed that no one could dispute her reign. The regent ruling since her disappearance is male, and if someone were to wrest control of the Empire, it would not necessarily be a woman. In fact:
What is not accepted in Dynastic culture, though, regardless of sexual orientation, is weakness is women or effeminate behavior in men. Such softness is never tolerated, and is often harshly ridiculed and even punished. Whatever else they might be, the Terrestrial Exalted are warriors, and there is no room for those who assume effete mannerism or deliberately portray themselves as "soft" in any way." (Manual of Exalted Power - Dragon-Blooded, page 21)
In other words, even though in many areas of Creation women can do the same things as men, there is still a sexism problem. Society among the Dragon-Blooded celebrates masculinity over what has been deemed feminine traits. So when the men go out and put themselves in danger for the cause, but tell Arianna she has to stay inside in The Carnelian Flame, it is totally valid that she protest it as being dumb. Yes, they were doing it because she'd been identified by the enemy and needed to stay under the radar, but it still smacks of the sexism she's struggled with.
Arianna still identifies as female, but she will at times deliberately avoid attire that shows off her body. Likewise, it does play a part in her presentation. She doesn't like to be seen as soft. Makes sense.
Depending where you are in Creation, the approach to sexuality is different. There are cultures where sex is only for procreation; others, such as Lookshy, attach no stigma to other arrangements. In some places, beings only marry long enough to conceive and then it's all off. Frankly, the best way to sum up sexuality in Creation is "Hey, if you're sure that's what you want rubbing on your genitals..." Arianna is actually even depicted as engaging in an affair with one of the Fair Folk -- not even human.
For the record: her canon love interest is Swan, a fellow Solar. In the First Age, he was Desus, married to the Lunar known as Lilith. Back then, Arianna's past life, Bright Shattered Ice, frequently engaged in affairs with him; when Desus inevitably went back to his wife, Ice would turn her attentions to her Lunar mate -- who was literally relegated to the role of "rebound fuck." In this age, Swan and Arianna still feel this attraction to each other, and their interest is their predominant romantic possibility (though she treats him like a sidekick, and he's pretty unsure about the whole prospect, describing her as . . . "pretty intense"). Lilith is still in the equation, but the Lunar has gone mad and half the time she is literally trying to get him killed, so Arianna's ahead in the running. Arianna still doesn't like her.
Anyway! There's some issues. In the Realm, love is considered a mild form of madness. Falling in love still happens, and frequently, but way Exalted tend to be highly emotional beings, it's a little accurate to say it tends to be problematic. In the Realm, instead, people are encouraged to marry for strength and social climbing; love is not a legitimate excuse to ruin long-planned political alliances. Now granted, this is what's detailed for sexuality for the dynasties of the Terrestrial Exalted in the Realm, but in that social structure, if you aren't Dragon-Blooded, you want to be Dragon-Blooded, so it still informs your average person's attitudes.
Now, sex -- that's different. It's considered a physically gratifying activity, even a common pastime. Homosexuality is actually widely accepted as "a kind of noble, intimate camaraderie -- with benefits." In many ways it's actually preferred when a person might be sleeping around, because it cannot yield illegitimate children that would wreck political alliances. It's actually even public knowledge that the majority of the Scarlet Empress' lovers were women. Birth control also exists in Creation, but not in the form of condoms -- they use an herbal mixture called Maiden Tea.
So, yeah. Just as Arianna's opinions on gender are based in the context of sexism existing in the Realm, so is her sexuality informed.
