#honestly I haven't touched 1984 for at least 5 years so idk why I thought of this

[poisonhemloc]

Okay I’m rambling for a bit about Masquerada and since I can’t tell if I’m being pretentious or not I’m putting it here rather than on the Discord channel. 

Some spoilers for the game under the cut, also this turned out huge.

Basically for some unknown reason after finishing the game again I got a subplot from 1984 stuck in my head cause I think it applies to Ombre pretty well. Specifically, the “cutting down the language” bit.

Those of you who have played the game might know where I’m going with this; Kalden, aka the only responsible parent of the group who Does Not Deserve What Happens/Happened To Him, is Talios; in game, this is the single overarching term for Masquerada who do not bear blood related children to continue their Legacies. And obviously in Ombric culture it’s seen as extremely bad (Side note: I don’t think the Contadani are included in the whole “Ombre dislikes people who are Talios” thing; they don’t get Legacies or really seem to have as much of a reason to carry on family lines like Masquerada so I don’t think they care as much).

So, here’s my thing; Talios is the single overarching term for people who will not continue their families Legacies, and we see it applied to a gay man. And the only information we get for it throughout the game is all in the context of “Kalden, who is a man attracted to other men, is Talios.” But, the codex entry says it applies to anyone who doesn’t have blood related children, meaning that gay/lesbian people fall under that umbrella, and so do bi and pan people who do not have a different sex partner (see the below bit about trans/genderfluid/agender folks below, it got too long), or ace people who don’t have or want a partner, or anyone who is infertile or cannot have kids for medical reasons. That’s a big list and I know I’m missing people in that. And there is one single word: Talios. That all being said, Kalden was in a devoted relationship with another man, ran an orphanage, and basically was the father to eleven kids. He has a family, and judging by Vint, his oldest, they all consider him and Jaxus as their dads. But they are not related by blood so he (and Jaxus) are Talios. His brother Razitof, on the other hand, had no partner (he never mentions anyone in his journal) had no children, and never seemed to want any, but is not considered Talios. So it’s possible that Cicero was tiptoeing around the actual definition of Talios in his codex entry with “will not continue the family’s Legacy” and it is the only term for Ombre’s queer citizens; but since I’d have to ask the development team that directly and I don’t want to right now, whether Cicero was beating around the bush or not is something we can also discuss, since that’s an interesting possibility.

So, to go back to 1984, no one under the Talios label can talk about their experiences specifically. You have one word to try and fit a dozen separate identities and some of them are because you’re queer and we can argue that some of them are because you don’t want kids or because you can’t have kids but the one word covers it all. In 1984, language is being cut down so that you cannot express ideas the state determines to be dangerous; it doesn’t matter if previously something was terrible, awful, a serious threat to one’s health, and so on; now it is all double plus ungood and none of those other words exist. In Ombre, there is only has one word to start with but there is no interest in expanding the vocabulary. If you have someone who is attracted to multiple genders and someone attracted to the same gender and someone who isn’t attracted to anyone and lump them under a single label with, and this is important, no other words to use, they are going to have a hard time talking about their experiences. As an example, it would be like if the only word we had to describe every identity and orientation was queer. Now, currently queer is a useful umbrella term; if you don’t want to explain to someone you’re a genderfluid panromantic asexual because that explanation will take a while if they don’t know the terms, queer covers it all handily. But if queer is the only word, and it’s covering you and you haven’t changed, but also it’s the only word for the man who is only into other men across the road and also the only word for the woman two houses down who doesn't do romantic or sexual attraction at all and all of you are very different but you are queer and that’s it? None of you can talk about your different experiences because there’s just the one term.

I’m not entirely sure where I want to go with this, beyond a deep wish to sit down with Kalden (...and Cicero, honestly, dude’s not straight. I’ve seen people say he’s aro/ace and I think he’s closer to homoromantic ace everyone’s head cannon is valid here) and talk about the words we have, if only so someone has the vocabulary to talk about this stuff and tell other.

Now, the trans* bit I promised: We don’t know how trans people are treated in Ombre. They are not brought up in game at all, which, I understand you’re not gonna out yourself while the Inspetorre is running around chasing Fey, but no mention in the slightest unless I missed some side characters talking to each other. Personally I’m leaning towards trans(and nonbinary, and agender, and gender fluid, and if I’m missing groups of people please tell me) people get a don’t say anything kinda situation and as long as you have kids you’re good, if you’re in the Masquerada. Honestly I think the Contadani and Mask Runners are going to have different views on everything compared to what the Masquerada think, if only because they don’t have Legacies to uphold and therefore, why care? Especially with no religious anything to misinterpret and use to attack people. They might have their own words, meet up places, their own culture but since we play the game with four members of the Masquerada and a (former) Mask Runner, we don’t get to see that.