#nuhuron of the masks

[ykoriana-imperatrix]

I have recently been considering a perhaps-crack theory (well, more of a thought than a fully-fledged theory, but still) regarding the Sardian-Azurea match. The fact is, we know very, very little about the lead-up to it (as pointed out in an older post), including how long it took Kumatuya to convince Nuhuron to allow it, what arguments might have swayed the latter more, what misgivings he might have had, and so on.

So, I wondered if Kumatuya might not have initially suggested to have Ykoriana, and not Azurea, marry Sardian. Now, this may sound preposterous (given Ykoriana's blood-rank and how valuable she would have been to the House of the Masks due to it), but that's exactly my point. I'm saying Kumatuya would have never seriously considered having this match take place, and would only have suggested it to his father because it would make Azurea as Sardian's potential bride seem reasonable in comparison. This would in turn hopefully, from Kumatuya's perspective, make Nuhuron more amenable to the latter match, and the task of fully convincing him easier.

[suth-sardian]

Urothre, Ikoriane, Nuhuron, Ykoriana, Nephron............ or is just me or does one Maskling every other generation have a medical name????

[ykoriana-imperatrix]

SDC Month - December 2022 - Sunday #3

I think you can all guess who is featuring this time...

House Aurum

Here's our now-traditional helpful numbered version of the canon tree. Like @suth-sardian​ once said, it does look quite simplistic compared to the Masks, Imago and Suth ones, doesn't it? It's just that single straightforward line of descent until we get to Aurum's marriages and children.

As you know by now, those God Emperors to the side are ignored for this project's numbering. Unusually, I did include Aurum himself, despite not doing so for Jaspar, Sardian, Carnelian, et al, for reasons which will be explained below.

The wife of this first Ruling Lord is named Chromia (from the element chromium; there’s a bit of a theme there and with other Aurums, since the House is named after the Latin for gold, another transition metal) and she is a fellow Aurum, a second lineage lady, more precisely. (According to the author, those marriages tend to be avoided for the most part, but @suth-sardian​ and I just decided this would be one of those more unusual cases where it did happen due to specific circumstances.) We have her as being born in -190/43 Nuhqanya and dying in -111/41 Qusaqanya.

The Ruling Lord himself is Ferrum (from the Latin name for iron). Since his birth year, death year, date of accession and blood-taint are all identical to those of the Imago lord we named Elbanith in fanon, that is what precipitated the creation of Imago Istra (remember when I said she'd become relevant?). @suth-sardian​ and I decided the years would be coincidental (unlikely it might be, but statistically speaking, there would always be a possibility), but that the identical blood-taints would be a result of Ferrum and Elbanith being double first cousins (like Urquentha and Linarie in the Suth tree). Istra would have thus been Ferrum's mother, and Ferrum's aunt Sideria Elbanith's mother.

The wife of the son of Ferrum and Chromia would be named Sylvana (from sylvanite), from the fanon House Ruhadral. She was born in -128/24 Qusaqanya and died in -64/33 Qusata.

Said son would originally be named Galen (from galena, Galena itself being the name of an historical Aurum lady of note in fanon) but he took the name Iridium (from the element of that name) (which in fanon, would be that of another notable Aurum ancestor) upon his accession to the Ruling Lordship.

The son of Galen/Iridium and Sylvana married Maris (a bit unsure, but I believe her name derives from maricite), from the fanon House Lumi. She was born in -101/51 Qusaqanya and died in -22/11 Nuhuron.

Galen/Iridium and Sylvana's son was Zircon (from the mineral of that name; it seemed only appropriate, since its name derives from a word meaning “gold-hued”).

Zircon and Maris' own son wed Ametra (from ametrine) from the fanon House Naranith. She was born in -89/8 Qusata and died in -6/27 Nuhuron.

Ametra's husband was Pyrite (named after the mineral of the same name; and yes, that is a bit of a jab at the name of the House itself, since pyrite is often referred to as "fool's gold"). Now, he was a character who went through a significant change in terms of dates, because since (as mentioned in an earlier post from this month) the canon Aurum was actually supposed to be 20 years older than in this tree, the dates from the tree weren't compatible with that. Our solution to this, while trying to make as few changes as possible to the dates from the tree, was to have both Zircon and Pyrite become fathers at young ages, and only change Pyrite's birth year, which in fanon is -83/14 Qusata instead of -68/29 Qusata.

Aurum's first wife was given the name Agathea (from agate) and is from the fanon House Akana. She was born in -49/48 Qusata, which yes, would mean she would be yet another character around by canon era (which could actually be canonically the case, I mean, we know next to nothing about her, it's not impossible). (@suth-sardian​ and I don't see her as still living in Coomb Aurum in fanon, though; her match with Aurum was set to a specific period of time, and so she would have long since returned to her birth House.)

Yes, Suth Ruby was already discussed in the House Suth post last week, but given that pesky question mark in place of a death date, I thought I would number her again here, and add that we do see her as being very much alive by the time the events of the story start in fanon.

Not much should have to be said about the man himself, but since he does canonically lack one, @suth-sardian​ and I decided his given name in fanon would be Akriuros (his original name in an earlier version of the story’s development; also that of another renowned ancestor in fanon). And, as mentioned above, his actual birth year, in canon and fanon both, would be -66/31 Qusata.

Aurum (or Akriuros, whichever you prefer) and Agathea's son was named Zircon, after his great-grandfather (whom he actually got to meet, how interesting is that). I did feel we could do with some more namesakes; I think it would hardly be an unheard of practice in such a heavily patriarchal society, even if we don't really see any in canon (but then again, we know few given names of Chosen characters outside the House of the Masks).

Aurum and Ruby's first daughter was named Xineya, which was Urquentha's original name, and still remains as a leftover from that earlier developmental version in the current Suth tree. (And yes, that would mean she is named after her grandmother in a way, which is sweet.)

Their second daughter is Sapphire (after, of course, the gemstone of that name, which is, like ruby, a variety of corundum).

The third daughter is Jacintha (from jacinth, a variety of zircon). (So she would be named after her late half-brother and great-grandfather in a sense.)

Extra notes: As you might or might not have noticed, @suth-sardian​ and I did try to include a few longer-lived people (well, mostly Istra, Chromia, Maris and Ametra, since the elder Zircon's longer lifespan was already canon) among Aurum's fanon ancestors, to have that little hint there that his own longevity might have a genetic component to it.

As always, hopefully you enjoyed this post. Tune in next time for the fourth and last installment in this series!

[ykoriana-imperatrix]

SDC Month - December 2023 - Friday #5

A tragedy in four sentences.

XIII. Xeran

The boathouse is collapsing, he notes with horror, one of his last coherent thoughts. Yarex's eyes meet his, and in them he sees the same burning panic he feels. We will never escape in time. His final act in this world is to cover his lover with his arms in a vain attempt to shield him.

Notes

Xeran is another fanon character, a non-main line grandson of Qusata (born to a son of his via one of the Masks-Great matches mentioned earlier in the month). He was the lover of his cousin (a non-main line son of Nuhuron) Yarex, and the two would die in a tragic accident in the later years of Nuhuron's reign, when the boathouse they had met in for one of their trysts collapsed. With this story, I wanted to focus on their last moments being mostly driven by love rather than terror, with Xeran, even if in vain, trying to protect Yarex.

[ykoriana-imperatrix]

SDC Month - December 2023 - Sunday #1

Hopefully you aren't tired of these already.

III. Uinen

She is a daughter of the Masks, she thinks with bitterness, the God Emperor's own grandchild. Even if many of her kinswomen have blood purer than hers, why should she be matched to a second lineage lord of the Great? It is insulting, almost ridiculous, and she cannot understand her grandfather's reasons. Surely, even a Ruling Lord from a minor House would have been preferable?

Notes

Uinen here is a fanon non-main line daughter of Nuhuron (born during his Jade Lord years). @suth-sardian and I have the headcanon that due to his lifelong friendships with several Ruling Lords of the Great, Qusata had a much more positive opinion of the Masks' rivals than the average individual from his House. This resulted in him arranging quite a few matches between his relations and those of his friends, and also lords/ladies from other Houses. Uinen's match was one such, an atypically favourable match for her second lineage husband (who was from House Irika), which came into being because of the then-Ruling Lord Irika's uncommon fondness for his cousin. While it did not last long, it was a mark of shame for Uinen and her House pride, the only bright spot in the whole affair the eventual birth of her son, Rogen.

[ykoriana-imperatrix]

Something just occurred to me that was not brought up in the what-if post nor the most recent one regarding the Azurdian match. @suth-sardian, I know we've always considered it being negotiated as permanent was the most probable option, but there's still that small chance it wasn't, and perhaps it was just, say, intended to last for a long period of time? If the latter was the case, I could see that as an additional argument Nuhuron would have been amenable to, as Azurea would still have returned to the Masks at some point (and given her youth at the time of the Sardian match, likely at a young enough age to have more children).

[ykoriana-imperatrix]

SDC Month - December 2022 - Friday #5

"I know you not"

IX. Xibia

My son, she wants to say, I missed you so, but the words collapse upon themselves inside her throat, choking her. The truth — the bitter truth — is that she cannot bring herself to fully mean them, not even after an absence of seven years. Not when the youth standing before her is a stranger bearing the perfect likeness of the man who became the Gods, — They who took her from her child, her children — save for his widow's peak, the only trait fully her own. For an instant, she pictures a younger boy, softer of face and features, paler-eyed, running happily in her direction, laughing, and sighs wistfully.

Notes

Xibia is our eighth fanon character featuring this month (if you're displeased with how this month's canon-to-fanon ratio turned out, just remember the randomiser is by nature unpredictable — the situation could be reversed next June, for all we know). She was a non-main line, blood-rank two daughter of Qusata (and thus a half-sister to Nuhuron, Nurpayahras, Nayakarade and Tiye) and his purest-blooded child outside the main line. Due to this fact, she was seen as a highly desirable potential bride by many lords of the Great, but no matches ever materialised while her father was still God Emperor, due to a variety of reasons (bad blood between the Masks and the House(s) in question, better-regarded lords ultimately giving up because the match would be too costly and settling for other brides, etc.). She did, however, have two children within the Masks, two sons both sired by Nuhuron — Olenus, born in the waning years of Qusata's reign (-37/60 Qusata, more precisely), and Laren, born in the later months of the first year of Nuhuron's (-32). And yes, despite the two boys being full brothers, the timing of their conceptions made all the difference when it came to rank; Olenus was at the purest end of blood-rank two, true, but Laren, while still not exactly comparable to his main line kin, had a blood-rank of three. Unfortunately, Xibia's expected happy years with her sons (before they grew old enough to join the world of men) were cut short by Nuhuron's decision to finally arrange a match for her, with his lifelong friend and mentor, Kirinya Prase (yes, this would be the one mentioned in a few epigraphs in the books — @suth-sardian and I decided he would be from the same generation as Qusata, and around a decade his senior). By this point, Xibia, already 30 years old, had become convinced a match with a lord of the Great would never come to pass, and endured being separated from her sons quite bitterly, her only comfort being the fact that Prase was an old man (nearly 77 at the time of the marriage) and unlikely to live much longer. However, the separation would prove permanent in the case of her younger son, when an outbreak of disease struck the Isle less than a year after Xibia's departure, and Laren, then only two and a half, became one of its victims. His death proved to be a traumatic event neither Xibia nor Olenus ever truly recovered from — the former hating Nuhuron, Prase and herself for having been away from her child at the time of his death, the latter (who had been a favoured non-main line son of Nuhuron until Kumatuya's birth) thrown even further into isolation by the loss of his only full sibling. Much like Jord in the matter of Nahanya's naming, but in the context of far more serious a situation, neither could truly turn against the main perceived culprit for their misfortune, so all negative feelings were channelled towards others, including each other — and inwards. Ultimately, Xibia would return to the Masks once Prase finally died in -23/10 Nuhuron. By that point, however, the damage was done; much like Ykoriana in canon (even if their respective circumstances were still quite distinct), Xibia found in then-teenage Olenus a stranger she could no longer bring herself to love. They did both make attempts to repair their relationship during the following years, but it remained extremely strained for the most part, the two forever driven apart by their common trauma. Like so many others in the Masks, theirs was a story with a tragic ending, but I believe that what came next is a story better left for another day, as it is of limited relevance within the context of this ficlet — and remember, Olenus himself has not featured in one of these yet; we need only wait and hope the randomiser chooses him sooner rather than later.

[ykoriana-imperatrix]

SDC Month - December 2022 - Friday #3

“I come as a pair but I'm not socks—”

V. Left-Keru & Right-Keru

Men are all such fools, their half-sister Dajaqea has told them more than once, her tone always a little too contemptuous for their taste. They see you as little girls still, that is all; you need to prove yourselves women, not children. Right-Keru is uncertain, her fears of rejection consuming her even when picturing a short visit to gauge their uncles' feelings, perfectly acceptable even by those who shackle them. “You are the greater fool still,” her sister chides her, however, “we already cannot escape what we are, would you have us live with regrets alongside all that?”

Notes

These sybling sisters are more fanon characters (again, blame the good old randomiser, not me), daughters of Kumatuya born in -15/18 Nuhuron (so 14 years Carnelian's seniors). The Dajaqea they mention is another (fanon) non-main line, blood-rank one daughter of Kumatuya, who would only be 6 days older than them, and thus would have ended up being one of the (non-sybling) relatives they were closest to growing up. (Though as hinted by that first sentence, their dynamic wouldn’t be devoid of the tension related to the usual prejudice all syblings would face.) The subject that concerns the Kerus so is their unrequited feelings for their uncles the Hanuses (a headcanon originally thought of by @suth-sardian not long after we came up with these characters, if I remember correctly). We can imagine (considering the canon case of Ykoriana and Kumatuya) that it is probably not uncommon for Masks ladies to develop romantic/sexual feelings towards male relations, even if they cannot really act on them due to the restrictions of the forbidden houses. Given their own close bond with their sisters the Ikarus, I see the Hanuses (18 years older than the Kerus, by the way, since their fanon birth year would be -33/64 Qusata) having a soft spot for quite a few of their younger sybling relatives, trying to be there for these juniors as the Ikarus had for him. It just so happened that as they got older, the Kerus’ love for their uncles shifted from familial to romantic, while theirs remained solely the former (and there would also be the added issue of the girls' eventual confinement creating distance between them, of course). As Dajaqea implies, the Hanuses are also completely ignorant of how their nieces now feel about them, a situation which both sisters (Right-Keru, as seen, somewhat hesitantly/fearfully) wish to change. Would they be even remotely successful, however? I very much doubt it — @suth-sardian and I tend to see the Hanuses as having their own feelings of unrequited love to struggle with (though that's more of a story for another day), and unfortunately for the Kerus’ hopes and dreams, I think their uncles would always see them as their dear nieces and no more (likely even if the aforementioned unrequited love of theirs had not been at play). So, much like their aunt Ykoriana, the Kerus would be among the characters whose desired love life, to quote the Intersection’s Pretty Boy/Intersection Bishounen (of all fictional characters to reference, I know), would not bear fruit.

[ykoriana-imperatrix]

SDC Month - December 2022 - Friday #1

To quote from The Wicked + The Divine, "once again, we return". And by "we", I mean the classic 4 sentence fic project, which this month will take place on Fridays and Saturdays. You all likely know how this works by now, but just in case there are any new readers coming across this post: all of these ficlets will have members of the House of the Masks (but not necessarily canon ones) as POVs. There will also be no repeats of characters who featured in the past 4 sentence fic projects.

(As with past ones, cut for length and preference.)

I. Pyhia

Almost hesitantly, she caresses her infant daughter's cheek with a fingertip. As always, despite her rosy cheeks and robust appearance, her hearty and loud cries, little Xahua appears almost ethereal to her. She is healthy, Pyhia assures herself, as she has done since the birth, but the deep fear remains nestled in her heart. There will only be true relief when Xahua lives past the age at which she lost her beloved boy, she knows — and perhaps not even then.

Notes

Pyhia, yet another of the many fanon characters already featured in this particular project, is a non-main line daughter of Nuhuron, and therefore a half-sister to not only Ykoriana and her canonical (half)-siblings, but also some of the fanon characters who were POVs in past 4 sentence fics. Like Nahanya, she does have some significant connections to Ykoriana, including being strongly overshadowed by her in many ways (even more so than Nahanya, in fact), though it should be noted Pyhia and Ykoriana never had much in the way of a personal relationship, either positive or negative. That said, those themes seemed too repetitive considering the existence of the aforementioned Nahanya story, so I opted to instead focus on a subject that would sadly be ever-present in the lives of Chosen parents, that of infant and child mortality. Pyhia's firstborn, a son named Kakanxan (sired by Kumatuya), died at only six months of age, and she was only able to find some respite from her devastating grief when her second child, daughter Xahua (sired by Tyatxungo) was born the following year. Understandably, however, even amidst the happy moments spent with her baby daughter, she could never be truly free of the fear that she would lose this child as well (a fear, that, given what we know, would unfortunately be far from unfounded).

(There's another, out-of-universe point I wanted to bring up here: I have been doing genealogical research on a particular branch of my family for a little over a month now, and going through those old records truly brought the reality of how depressingly high child mortality was in past times into perspective. This fic was heavily inspired by the impact of considering the experiences of those bereaved parents, and I would say it very much serves as a tribute of sorts to all the many-times-great-uncles and -aunts, more distant relatives, and all other children who met the same fate in those days gone by.)

[ykoriana-imperatrix]

Random thought but seeing as Osidite are fraternal twins, Osidian apparently has more of a resemblance to Ykoriana than Molochite, and Carnelian thinks he looks like the Hanuses... does this mean Ykoriana (& the Hanuses) canonically takes after Nuhuron in looks? 😮🤔

[ykoriana-imperatrix]

Don’t @ me but

[suth-sardian]

*sounds of Aurum wailing in the distance*

also, u know, technically Nuhuron has good taste, but like Papa Suth is so far out of his league u almost want to feel bad for the guy

[ykoriana-imperatrix]

SDC Four-Sentence Fics, Day 12

On the twelfth day of ChristmasSDC Month—

XII. Urnya

As her boys grow older, Cypris, and Iolus most of all, come to bear an almost-painful resemblance to their father. It fills her heart with sorrow at first, though even that is muted by the passage of years. At the news of Their death, she finds herself mourning dutifully, part of her grieving what could have been, but no more. Her grandmother, she now knows, had been right all along, even if it has taken her fourteen years to realise it.

Notes

Do I even need to say it? Anyway, we have a character from the Nuhuron, Nurpayahras, Nayakarade and Tiye (NNNT for short) generation featured today. Urnya is much younger than these main line Masks, though (actually closer to day 2′s Yarexira in age), and she happens to be the mother of day 9′s Iolus (plus his two full brothers) and the granddaughter of yesterday’s Onara. Being far more sheltered than the average Masks lady (mostly due to her family ties to the well-respected Onara), she was somewhat atypical in the treatment she received as one of Nuhuron’s concubines. At one point in her early twenties, she fell in (unrequited) love with him, something that dominated more than a decade of her life, despite her grandmother’s best efforts to put an end to her impossible dreams (the fourteen years referring to a specific warning at the time of Iolus’ birth). For her fic, I chose to depict the end of these feelings of unrequited love. In keeping with the theme present in many of the previous fics, this would be the moment at which she was set free.

[suth-sardian]

Happy Anniversary, Kumardian! 10/1

When there is a mention of you, the trees begin to speak The season of fall feels ablaze with colour Donning their splendour, my thoughts touch a pen The chorus of the song seems terribly interested

How can I find the words to praise you?

I can find no comparison Whatever I write seems but an insult

At your command the moon seems to rise and fall You have turned it into your slave

Once I had heard a tale of angels Today, I have come to believe in that fable

— Zikr Tera (tl. The Mention Of You)

Happy Kumardian Day, everyone! 🤩❤️❤️

today is the day when, according to our fanon, Kumatuya and Sardian got together at the ages of 17,14, in the year 19 Nuhuron! isn’t that amazing? 😀

^^of course, that means that they were together for 13 years before the exile! interestingly, it also took me 13 drafts to finally get to the art you see today 😆 life imitates art, i guess❓❔❓

also, amazing facts but i realised like an hour ago that i drew earth and sky, which is ofc the heraldry of the Masks, but ALSO earth is the GG’s domain and sky the BG’s, and Kumardian represent those two gods respectively 😳 in a way, this entire art is Kumardian within Kumardian , how meta 🥺

so the very original version i had (RIP that beautiful hair that got discarded) featured Kumatuya sitting, but my friend said the pose was awful & deserved to die, so i made Kumatuya lie down and omg, it looked so much better after you can’t even imagine 🥳

ADDITIONALLY my original plan was to put them in full robes but that ruined the summery, breezy feeling of the plan, so i put them in these open robes. just imagine they made love in the Yden or smth (i mean, duh, look at the hickeys & scratches on Kumatuya’s back) and their full clothes are just here & there. 🤭 canon non-compliant? sure. beautiful? HELL YEAH 😢

also pls not that the hand on Kumatuya’s face is Sardian’s and not his own. the filter ruined the skin tone difference but that’s life i guess 🤔

anyways, happy Kumardian day again! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

[suth-sardian]

shhhh this probably happened

Nuhuron, nude on the bed, rose stem in his mouth: heyyy sexyyy—wait fuck Suth, what are you doing here, where's Aurum??

Aurum, gagged and tied at the bottom of the stairs: uHhgHJsgd, i'm here Nuhuron, leT mE OUT!!!

Legions's Masks/Suth shipping ass, holding binoculars over his homunculus: now kiss!

[ykoriana-imperatrix]

SDC Four-Sentence Fics, Day 18

Six plus six plus six, the number of the beast?

XVIII. Tiye

She has always stood between her sisters, in temperament if not in age. Now, as their House is split in two, as her world crumbles, she casts the role of peacemaker aside for good. What Nurpayahras and Nayakarade might resort to in order to save their sons no longer matters. Her child is gone, and she will not rest until she has avenged her.

Notes

Canon has returned in the form of Tiye. Honestly, there is so much that I could say here in terms of headcanons, but I’ll try and keep this short. I have always imagined Tiye as being a calm, practical, sensible sort (though very much a troublemaker in her childhood), often assuming a role of mediator in conflicts between her two sisters, with their more strongly opposing personalities. Azurea’s marriage to Sardian would have put an end to what peace she might have known, though even then she would have clung to the hope of having this marriage dissolved in the future (a scenario far more likely to occur if Tyatxungo were to succeed Nuhuron), and her daughter returned to the Masks. The death of Azurea in childbirth would have been the cruellest blow of all, rendering everything else insignificant in comparison. With Azurea gone, only the hope for revenge on Kumatuya and Sardian mattered, and driven by this one remaining purpose, she would (as per canon) have joined forces with Ykoriana. Unlike her niece, Tiye would for the most part be successful... though of course, to paraphrase Ykoriana herself, vengeance pales in comparison to joy.