Follow OCaC here:
Glossary of Huzsan terms:
agni Agni literally means clan mother. This is a title given to the leader of a clan. Clans are structures with the size and population of a small to medium country.
am- Am- is a prefix added to the first syllable of a name to turn it into a diminutive (ex. Ragu --> Amra). Or two syllables if the name is long (ex. Ulmarei --> Amulma).
fringe Fringes are people who are not considered adults but also have slightly different rights then small children. More on fringes can be found in the 'Cultural guide' section.
Gdezsu Gdezsu is one of the clans. Ragu and Zenwu come from there. The list of everyone from Gdezsu can be found in the 'Characters' section.
Haibne Haibne is one of the clans. Uene and Fuzs come from there. The list of everyone from Haibne can be found in the 'Characters' section.
hed Hed is the official title of the oldest son of an agni.
hym Hym is the official title of the oldest daughter of an agni. The hym is the heiress of the clan.
ignaf Ignaf is the official title of the top strategist in a clan. In terms of power the ignaf is usually the second or third person in the clan.
locyin Locyin is a vocational organisation that groups and trains professionals, often without a locyin membership people can't legally do certain jobs.
Mbozs Mbozs is one of the clans. Tamna, Fuzs and Uene's ninak is from there.
ninak Ninak literally means the mother's brother. An in most cases it refers to the brother(s) who live(s) with the mother of the household and help(s) her bring up her children. In the ruling families it may also refer to a bonded mate of the clan ruler, with whom she has her legally recognised children. In a sense an equivalent of a father because it means the person who takes care of the children together with the mother.
ses u Ses u means a trainee of. This is the first step in most careers in Huzsa.
the Tent The Tent is the official term for the upper echelones of the military of a Huzsan clan, you can find more information on the tent in the "military" section of the cultural guide.
zsy Zsy means honourable. It is put in front of a name of title to show respect.
zsyni Zsyni means honourable mother. It's a very formal and respectful way to address one's mother. Most people use diminutives nini or amni.

Summer 2021 Bonus

To conclude the summer break we give you this splendid meme with the chests from the OCaC cast, from top left: Gamizs, Zenwu, Tanma, Madu and Flowerboi

We also got a question on instagram from tamarhestringrader:

Could you perhaps explain the marks on the face and arms? I noticed siblings have the same face marks, but what do the arm marks signify? Why did young Igbem gash up only one arm? Is there a difference between Huzsan and Imperial marks?

We answered a similar question some time ago, the brands are a feature of their species. You can read more on their nature here, you just need to click the second image in the gallery, sorry we can't produce a more direct link the way the gallery is set up. As to the Igbem part of the question. Members of a clan usually wear a band on their arm with the symbol of their clan, especially if they travel outside the area where they are well known. In their times travelling isn't that typical for an average person. Having a band like this proves that you're not an escaped prisoner or temporary slave. In the Huzsan legal system temporary slaves are people who committed crimes that aren't deemed to damning, these people instead of going to prison have to work for free for a time that the court ordered them to - it's usually work like working as a servant or farmhand. The crime of invading a Huzsan clan, like Ruiso's friends and fam did is a serious crime and for that those who didn't get bought out became life long slave, sent to do hard and dangerous labour. So to come back from this tangent, Igbem couldn't find any way to survive in his own clan. So he travelled to a neighbouring clan and pretended he lost his armband in the river and the nice merchants helped him to get to the town and "replace" it (or in actuality get the citizenship of a different clan). That was really a pretty risky move, if these guys were shady they could've brought him to the authorities and try to get some reward for catching a fugitive from the law, claim that he's not legally a kid any more, at Igbem's age then without the armband it would've depended on the honestly of the authorities. To sell it he cut his arm, he wasn't trying to obscure the brands, he was trying to make it look like he was actually attacked.

In the Empire, where fatherhood matters, brands of children sometimes get tattooed over to hide bastard children. It's a tricky business because the artist needs to produce 12 convincing and almost identical images, and actually adjust them as the kid grows. Out of wedlock kids have it rough in the Empire.

image



If you can, please support OCaC on Ko-fi.

image

Reader comments

comments powered by Disqus