FAQ
The City of Lechance
Lechance is a city of about 8,000 souls and growing.
Map -- This is not all of LeChance, just the central part of the city to use as a common reference point.
Each home in Lechance is wired together for telegraphs within the city with a keyboard attached for the ease of sending messages. Public telegraphs are also available throughout the town. When a telegraph is started and a code is punched in, a series of hidden levers flips and sends message to right household.
Some businesses are outfitted with computers but they're mostly complex calculators: 'home' computers are possible, but like all early computers they're very expensive and very large.
NPCs
Because of the size of the city, we have NPCs; a real city could not survive with the amount of PCs we'll have. Due to that we're going to have a lot of NPCs running around. This post is to note any NPCs you create/mention and the actions you have them take so that everyone is aware of them. It's personality building and world building, but please remember to be gentle with other people's NPCs.
The mod NPC,![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
the_lechance is only movable by Karen or Mecca. We will involve him if you ask us, but do not move him without permission.
Housing
There are a ton of ready-built houses and homes in Lechance. Ascendants have the right to claim them as they please when they arrive, provided they can finance the upkeep.
Unmarried Beloveds are housed in a nice hotel with Ms. Sheedy, a blond, middle aged Two Spirit with an extravagant personality, enormous breasts, and a huge...personality who is very dedicated to making sure that her charges are well looked after in the absence of their parents or an Ascendant to provide for their care. She, like all other two spirits, can serve as a chaperone between Beloveds and Ascendants, both those courting and any who simply have to interact.
Chaperoning
Naturally, unrelated, unmarried Ascendants and Beloveds can't be alone together. It would be scandalous! After marriage, if the Ascendant agrees and/or the marriage contract provides, an Ascendant and Beloved may be together with supervision. Before that, it's impossible by society's standards. Even in the cases of doctors and lawyers, a Two Spirit or married person would have to be in the room.
Married persons can be chaperones, as can any Two Spirit.
Training
Training in one's chosen lifestyle (Ascendant, Beloved Two Spirit) begins at 13 with The Choosing, a coming of age ritual. The ritual has parallels in many of our world's religious experiences, as does the training itself. Training includes:
* A study of history (see timeline things marked in red)
* Responsibilities as an Ascendant or a Beloved to one's partner and to society in creating a Household.
* The fundamentals of a contract (see Contract).
* Morals. (No lying, cheating, stealing, etc.)
* Honoring one's self and one's family.
Training lasts seven years. At the end of that time, they can choose either to continue with their role and be confirmed as an adult at 21 or change their path and explore another way, taking three years to learn the new role instead of seven.
Those who wish to learn a trade do so through an apprentice/journeyman/master system.
Two Spirits
A person who is both dominant and submissive in turns, a Two Spirit holds a special place in society. They form the majority of the government (not all of it, but there are roles that are only performed by Two Spirits.) Judges, Matchmakers, Sheriffs, and the mayor are all Two Spirits. Council members, officers, lawyers, can be any of the positions in society, but only Two Spirits can hold the highest office in each.
Two Spirits are held in the highest respect, however, they cannot marry or have a household, and are outside the normal flow of society due to their unique position.
Pre-marriage Relationships
It's not uncommon to not be a virgin when married: but neither is it uncommon to not be a virgin. Physically. Marriages are formed for emotional intimacy and stability, not for procreation or sex.
That being said: Sexual relationships and intense friendships between Beloved and Beloved or Ascendant and Ascendant are fairly common: sexual experimenting in teens/early twenties. But they're not taken 'seriously' because the theory goes that a real partnership/emotional intimacy that is marriage can only be formed between an Ascendant and a Beloved because they balance each other- yin/yang, perfect harmony, etc. Anything else is just friendship and childhood experimenting -- like 10 year olds holding hands and kissing cheeks. It's sweet.
However, as a Two Spirit embodies both Ascendant and Beloved in perfect harmony inside of them, to form a relationship with either an unmarried Beloved or an unmarried Ascendant endangers their future relationship by beginning the kind of partnership and emotional intimacy that is meant to be only for marriage. Two Spirits, in their training, are really strictly warned against this because it has the possibility to damage society and the community as a whole. If a young person of either inclination can't be trusted, explicitly with a Two Spirit in every sense -- emotionally, physically, spiritually, legally, etc., it can really damage everything -- all judges, law makers, etc are two spirits because they can be trusted to see things from all angles Two spirits have it drilled into them from the time they were 13, Society Rests On Your Shoulders, even if they're not directly involved with law and government.
Two Spirits, of course are more than welcome to have relationships with each other, even close ones, but they can't have families of their own: they're meant to put the community first. If a Two Spirit does have a baby, there's always a family of a Beloved and an Ascendant to adopt.
Courtship
Courtship is very demanding procedure. It determines the course of the rest of a person's life. Long discussions are, of course, a necessity. Common courting activities are walks with chaperons lagging behind, dancing (the easiest way to determine physical compatibility without being able to be alone together), game playing, and, generally, just time in each other's company to be sure one can stand it.
After a courting period of two months (at maximum), the Ascendant and Beloved are allowed alone together, unchaperoned and are expected to create their contract.
Contract
Examples of important things to cover in a contract:
* Housing - Where/Sleeping arrangements/Necessary privacy
* Children - Yes, no, when, negotiate later with an addendum? Adoption, biological, etc.
* Sexual Activity - Between partners, outside of the marriage, approval of lovers before hand, S/M, B/D, D/s?
* Financial contributions
Some relationships are purely Courtly love, some Erotic love, some Platonic, and some romantic without sexuality. Or with sexuality. It depends on the individuals and their negotiated marriage arrangement.
At marriage an Ascendant places a red leather band around his/her Beloved's left wrist, and a Beloved places a Black leather band around his/her Ascendant's right wrist. They're thin and not meant to come off until one of the partners dies or the marriage is dissolved by other means - a very, very, very, very frowned upon practice as it upsets the fundemental balance.
Families and Children
Family units are of great importantance in the society. Adoption and surrogacy are regular and common occurences, especially since gender roles have disappeared and same-sex marriages have no stigma attached. Children are often given the last name of the Ascendant in the family, although they can be given that of the Beloved or a hyphenated version of both. Naming practices are sometimes specified in the marriage contracts.
Lechance is a city of about 8,000 souls and growing.
Map -- This is not all of LeChance, just the central part of the city to use as a common reference point.
Each home in Lechance is wired together for telegraphs within the city with a keyboard attached for the ease of sending messages. Public telegraphs are also available throughout the town. When a telegraph is started and a code is punched in, a series of hidden levers flips and sends message to right household.
Some businesses are outfitted with computers but they're mostly complex calculators: 'home' computers are possible, but like all early computers they're very expensive and very large.
NPCs
Because of the size of the city, we have NPCs; a real city could not survive with the amount of PCs we'll have. Due to that we're going to have a lot of NPCs running around. This post is to note any NPCs you create/mention and the actions you have them take so that everyone is aware of them. It's personality building and world building, but please remember to be gentle with other people's NPCs.
The mod NPC,
the_lechance is only movable by Karen or Mecca. We will involve him if you ask us, but do not move him without permission. Housing
There are a ton of ready-built houses and homes in Lechance. Ascendants have the right to claim them as they please when they arrive, provided they can finance the upkeep.
Unmarried Beloveds are housed in a nice hotel with Ms. Sheedy, a blond, middle aged Two Spirit with an extravagant personality, enormous breasts, and a huge...personality who is very dedicated to making sure that her charges are well looked after in the absence of their parents or an Ascendant to provide for their care. She, like all other two spirits, can serve as a chaperone between Beloveds and Ascendants, both those courting and any who simply have to interact.
Chaperoning
Naturally, unrelated, unmarried Ascendants and Beloveds can't be alone together. It would be scandalous! After marriage, if the Ascendant agrees and/or the marriage contract provides, an Ascendant and Beloved may be together with supervision. Before that, it's impossible by society's standards. Even in the cases of doctors and lawyers, a Two Spirit or married person would have to be in the room.
Married persons can be chaperones, as can any Two Spirit.
Training
Training in one's chosen lifestyle (Ascendant, Beloved Two Spirit) begins at 13 with The Choosing, a coming of age ritual. The ritual has parallels in many of our world's religious experiences, as does the training itself. Training includes:
* A study of history (see timeline things marked in red)
* Responsibilities as an Ascendant or a Beloved to one's partner and to society in creating a Household.
* The fundamentals of a contract (see Contract).
* Morals. (No lying, cheating, stealing, etc.)
* Honoring one's self and one's family.
Training lasts seven years. At the end of that time, they can choose either to continue with their role and be confirmed as an adult at 21 or change their path and explore another way, taking three years to learn the new role instead of seven.
Those who wish to learn a trade do so through an apprentice/journeyman/master system.
Two Spirits
A person who is both dominant and submissive in turns, a Two Spirit holds a special place in society. They form the majority of the government (not all of it, but there are roles that are only performed by Two Spirits.) Judges, Matchmakers, Sheriffs, and the mayor are all Two Spirits. Council members, officers, lawyers, can be any of the positions in society, but only Two Spirits can hold the highest office in each.
Two Spirits are held in the highest respect, however, they cannot marry or have a household, and are outside the normal flow of society due to their unique position.
Pre-marriage Relationships
It's not uncommon to not be a virgin when married: but neither is it uncommon to not be a virgin. Physically. Marriages are formed for emotional intimacy and stability, not for procreation or sex.
That being said: Sexual relationships and intense friendships between Beloved and Beloved or Ascendant and Ascendant are fairly common: sexual experimenting in teens/early twenties. But they're not taken 'seriously' because the theory goes that a real partnership/emotional intimacy that is marriage can only be formed between an Ascendant and a Beloved because they balance each other- yin/yang, perfect harmony, etc. Anything else is just friendship and childhood experimenting -- like 10 year olds holding hands and kissing cheeks. It's sweet.
However, as a Two Spirit embodies both Ascendant and Beloved in perfect harmony inside of them, to form a relationship with either an unmarried Beloved or an unmarried Ascendant endangers their future relationship by beginning the kind of partnership and emotional intimacy that is meant to be only for marriage. Two Spirits, in their training, are really strictly warned against this because it has the possibility to damage society and the community as a whole. If a young person of either inclination can't be trusted, explicitly with a Two Spirit in every sense -- emotionally, physically, spiritually, legally, etc., it can really damage everything -- all judges, law makers, etc are two spirits because they can be trusted to see things from all angles Two spirits have it drilled into them from the time they were 13, Society Rests On Your Shoulders, even if they're not directly involved with law and government.
Two Spirits, of course are more than welcome to have relationships with each other, even close ones, but they can't have families of their own: they're meant to put the community first. If a Two Spirit does have a baby, there's always a family of a Beloved and an Ascendant to adopt.
Courtship
Courtship is very demanding procedure. It determines the course of the rest of a person's life. Long discussions are, of course, a necessity. Common courting activities are walks with chaperons lagging behind, dancing (the easiest way to determine physical compatibility without being able to be alone together), game playing, and, generally, just time in each other's company to be sure one can stand it.
After a courting period of two months (at maximum), the Ascendant and Beloved are allowed alone together, unchaperoned and are expected to create their contract.
Contract
Examples of important things to cover in a contract:
* Housing - Where/Sleeping arrangements/Necessary privacy
* Children - Yes, no, when, negotiate later with an addendum? Adoption, biological, etc.
* Sexual Activity - Between partners, outside of the marriage, approval of lovers before hand, S/M, B/D, D/s?
* Financial contributions
Some relationships are purely Courtly love, some Erotic love, some Platonic, and some romantic without sexuality. Or with sexuality. It depends on the individuals and their negotiated marriage arrangement.
At marriage an Ascendant places a red leather band around his/her Beloved's left wrist, and a Beloved places a Black leather band around his/her Ascendant's right wrist. They're thin and not meant to come off until one of the partners dies or the marriage is dissolved by other means - a very, very, very, very frowned upon practice as it upsets the fundemental balance.
Families and Children
Family units are of great importantance in the society. Adoption and surrogacy are regular and common occurences, especially since gender roles have disappeared and same-sex marriages have no stigma attached. Children are often given the last name of the Ascendant in the family, although they can be given that of the Beloved or a hyphenated version of both. Naming practices are sometimes specified in the marriage contracts.