The Gryphon Clerks: Mike Reeves-McMillan

Archives: Wiki Pages

  • Hidden Orders

    The hidden orders have no official existence within Asterism. They had their start in the days before the Fall of the Elven Empire as cabals or conspiracies, organised on patterns drawn from more conventional Asterist orders, and are sometimes (though certainly not always) religious in nature and Asterist in belief.

    They exist to promote particular philosophies, ways of life or viewpoints which are not currently acceptable or legal in society at large. As long as they are not plotting treason or other crimes, they are technically permitted under the Code of Willing, which is not to say that they don’t have an easier time of it when they keep their existence secret.

    Some hidden orders exist within an actual Asterist order or other socially sanctioned group (such as a merchant venture or Workers’ Co-Op).

  • Head Clerks

    Jubilation Carpenter (Gnome Affairs)
    Courteous (Dwarf Relations)
    (Announcements)
    Peacefulness (Realmgold’s Agents) – swishing noise as she walks and her thighs rub together.
    Gracious (Deputy Chief Clerk) – M

  • Gestures and Body Language

    Gnomes have a rich language of gestures as well as a “hand language” for use in noisy environments. Some of this is shared with the dwarves, while some is specific to gnomes. Gnomes use it both to conspire against the dwarves or keep conversations private, and also to express emotions that they can’t, or don’t dare to, express verbally.

    Gnome gestures mentioned so far:
    Putting a hand horizontally across the lower half of the face and glaring over it: a joking rude gesture, such as one would use to a friend.
    Waving a hand past the ear on the same side: “What can you do?” Like a shrug.
    Tugging on one’s ear: expresses frustration with one’s own stupidity.
    Wriggling the fingers: dismissal of concern.
    (Not strictly a gesture): a sibilant sound indicating skeptical dismissal.
    Backtilt of the head to acknowledge and greet someone.
    Opening a fist: “no”. Closing the hand into a fist: “yes”. Fist pressed to the forehead: “yes, sir”.
    Scraping the thumb along the side of the pointing finger: distress on behalf of someone else.
    Tapping the thumbs together: eager anticipation.
    Striking palms: a bargain concluded.     

    Human culture also has several gestures, including:
    High Golds clasp one another’s elbows in greeting.
    Other humans press palms together.
    The military salute is an open hand over the heart.
    Putting a hand to one’s forehead is the equivalent of raising a hand in class.

    Among Coppers:
    Bumping the sides of one’s fists together (palm side upwards) indicates self-congratulation.
    When sitting, the relative vertical position of one’s head and one’s conversational partner’s head indicates claims of status: higher, equal or lower.

    In the Islands, touching the thumb rapidly twice to the other fingers indicates “grab and hold on”, a mark of approval, particularly of a potential mate.

    Among the beastheads, pointing with the hand is rude and considered aggressive; one points with the eyes or by a gesture of the head.

    Eye contact is considered important among beastheads, and a sign of trustworthiness.

  • Furniture

    Among Asterists, furniture has long legs and is basically similar to European furniture. Earthist furniture, however, is low to the ground, more like, say, Turkish or Japanese furniture – floor cushions, low tables, low beds.

  • Food

    Lanka: an island delicacy.

    Fish done in a rub or crumb of spices, a favourite of Bucket.

    Stew in a loaf, the specialty of Honey’s Tavern.

    Stuffed loaf, the equivalent of pizza in that it’s a popular, fairly inexpensive but filling takeaway meal and can contain various meats and vegetables. The fillings are stuffed inside a large cob loaf after being mixed with the removed crumbs from the centre of the loaf and cooked with a broth.

    Dumplings, Rosie Printer‘s favourite meal, sold at Leaf’s near the lab.

    Chick-pea rollups, sold by a takeaway bar near the lab.

    Sweetcakes and calliver juice, Rosie’s favourite snack as a child.

    The Order of Westfields is a dietary plan used by the Gold class, in particular, to maximise their health and vitality.

    Nine Treasures Soup: has three sky, three earth and three water elements, and is traditionally served at Asterist oathbindings. It’s considered auspicious if everyone gets all of the elements.

    Byesh: a staple of the beastheads, a mushy, mealy substance pounded out of a large tuber.

    Hotbark: a spice.

    Crumb bread: a coarse gnomish bread with the crumbs of the previous batch mixed through it.

    Mister Bucket for Assembly spends considerable time on food and who gets to prepare it; in gnomish/dwarven culture, preparing food is the domain of gnome women, and gnome men only do so in all-male environments such as a trading caravan.

  • Folk Songs

    Folk songs include:

    “Soldier Lad”, the lament of a young woman whose lover is going off to war.

    The unnamed song that Hope at Merrybourne sings in her audition for Honey Taverner begins:

    When I grew old enough for love
    And promises, I whispered to my friend
    ‘As I grow old, I promise you, my love,
    My love will grow and will not see an end.’

    But…

  • Flora

    The following plants have been mentioned:

    • meadowbonnets: a flowering plant, known in Elvish as siora. They have a pattern on them in the ultraviolet colour known to the Elves as lia.
    • redvein: a plant used in practical lifemagic, which burns with a pungent smoke.
    • whitebark: a kind of tree similar to an aspen, which forms groves around a central “mother” tree.
    • snakebranch: a tree with branches which writhe and intertwine as it grows over many years.

  • Festival

    The year’s end festival takes place over the spare four days (one shift-round) that aligns the calendar with the solar year at the end of Late Fallow. This shift-round doesn’t fall within a shift-cycle.

    In the Islands, one traditionally decorates with strings of colourful wooden beads.

    Universally, it’s a time of feasting.

    Most of the traditions, even the Asterist ones, are ultimately Earthist in origin.

    One typically asks of friends at Festival, “what’s happened this year that you’ll remember? And what does the coming year hold?”

  • Fauna

    The following exist in the setting (in some cases, they may be analogues of Earth creatures rather than the creatures themselves):

    Birds:

    • ravens
    • finches
    • diver-birds (like cormorants)

    Mammals:

    • cats
    • horses
    • cattle
    • goats
    • sheep
    • camels
    • dogs
    • badgers
    • rabbits
    • mice

    Fish:

    • mawfish (similar to sharks; native to the Sea of Turfrae
    • toothfish (known to the gnomes)

    The following do not exist in the setting:

    • pigs
    • elephants

  • Farviewers, Farspeakers and Farwriters

    Long-distance communication devices invented by Hope at Merrybourne and Dignified Printer. They were instrumental in the quick resolution of the Unification War.

    The farviewers are similar to the “magic mirrors” of folktale. The farspeakers are the same thing, but only transmit sound, and are much easier and cheaper to manufacture.

    They work on the principle of sympathy induced between two near-identical devices. Each device has a specific 8-digit (hexadecimal) code.

    They can broadcast, as well as going point-to-point, and some people have started shows. Among these are Victorious Fuller on 88836, a student at the University of Illene, who speaks in a nasal monotone and keeps saying “I mean” and “all right”; and Cog.

    Later in the development of the technology, recording is made possible on copper cylinders driven by clockwork (like Edison phonographs).

    The farwriter works on a similar principle to the farviewer or farspeaker, but transmits text in the form of codes which can be printed or transferred to punched cards or tape.