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Imperial Culture
• Gender norms in Imperial society

Well, I can't make a single list that will encompass all of Porcelain society. First of all, there are different subcultures (just like any other culture.) And then there are many different possible archetypes that are accepted by society. For example, in our society, it's acceptable for men to style themselves after Joe Sixpack, an aggressive CEO, an intellectual professorial type -- different situations may be more or less friendly to each of these archetypes, but the man wouldn't be viewed as "acting like a woman." You know?

Porcelain tend also to be accepting of diversity, as the 5-Name elemental system is built right in to their society. But for mainstream Imperial society, I can generalize by saying:

Males should be submissive, dutiful, and loyal. This doesn't mean they're expected to be passive doormats, but they should promptly obey their superiors' orders. They're not expected to just sit around waiting for these orders, though; they're also expected to be more energetic, emotional, passionate, and excitable than females. Breaches of propriety due to strong emotion are more tolerated for males than females, as males are viewed as being unable to control themselves.

While females are the ones who choose their mates, males are expected to court the girl(s) they like in order to increase their chances, not just to sit around waiting for their princess to sweep them off their feet. (Males who do this, like Setsuka or Setsushi, tend to get married late or never at all. xd )

Most males go through two stages in their professional lives; first, while they are unmarried, they pursue the career they like and have been trained for by their mother. After they are married, they may have to move, or their wife will direct them to change careers to something that complements her own. So unmarried males tend not to be promoted that much, as they're expected to leave their jobs fairly soon.

There aren't a lot of careers that are forbidden to males; they can enter pretty much any type of field they like. But they are usually only promoted to high ranks within the military, the beautiful (performing) arts, and the priesthood. A male could also be the head of a small artisan's shop, and no one would find it strange.

Females? Females don't have many restrictions on what they should do. They are held to more stringent standards of propriety, as they are supposed to be more intelligent and composed than males. However, they can pursue almost any sort of career they like, display any kind of personality (an excessively masculine one might be viewed as strange, but would not be shunned,) and choose their own husband, residence, the number of children to have, and pretty much anything.



...These norms are modified by the age and Lucidity of the groups involved. Dreaming and Sleeping Porcelain tend to remain submissive to Lucid Porcelain. Young girls don't have authority over their fathers. And so forth.

And, of course, there are many subcultures that view genders differently, and within a family any sort of power dynamic might evolve among its particular members.

I had a few questions so I barraged the poor woman with them and figured I should post them here for reference to others as well.

Q: There was a lot of emphasis on the ranks of sleep/dream/lucid, so does that play into society by limiting them on jobs, or is it just a sort of undercurrent prejudice kind of thing?
A: It's an all-pervasive sort of prejudice. It limits them on jobs, because "everyone knows" only a Lucid could do this, or that Dreaming Porcelain intrinsically like to do that. And it isn't challenged much. But, basically, if you get told that you're Sleeping, the psychic/social pressure will probably convince you that you are.

Q: What kind of jobs would nobles have? I'd assume any lower class would be more artisan type?
A: Bureaucrat, overseers of guilds, diplomats, bankers... Lucid males are usually pushed to do at least a little "military" as Dreaming Porcelain have a much harder time overcoming their harm-inhibition.

And all the sciences and other scholarly arts that require a lot of logical thinking. You don't have to spend all your time in court to be a noble... if you're Lucid, distinguished in your field, and your name is known, you're effectively "noble" because there aren't many people who meet all those qualifications.

Q: Out of character, what would be the chances of earning a lucid? *curious*
A: Well, I'm still thinking about how Lucids will be gotten this time around, and I'm thinking that I'll kind of allow anyone who RPs really hard to claim, ICly, that they're Lucid. In terms of custom graphics Lucids, I don't know how much I will give them out XD;

Q: What would the society's views on same sex couples be? (since they're prejudice about ranks and genders it made me wonder how they'd react) I'd assume boyxboy would be really hard since less influence in society, but what about girlxgirl?
A: It depends on the situation...And very highly on the Lucidity of the people involved. Lucid Porcelain are almost always the children of Lucid Porcelain, and so are semi-nobility, and are under pressure to "marry the right person and breed good babies," so this would be a huge transgression.

It's not possible to have same-sex lovers on the side, either, as Porcelain have very tight mate-bonds that are traumatizing to break. But for Sleeping Porcelain, or Dreaming Porcelain who aren't of particular prominence, or children of mothers who have already married off most of their children might be more tolerated.

I think, though I can't say for sure, that this view frames homosexuality as irresponsible, but not immoral, so backlash would occur mostly within the family, not within larger society.And then, of course, there are the various subcultures that take different perspectives, like the Sorcerers...

They are so problematic to the Imperial system that they're not really accepted for long-term connections like a marriage. Among the Sorcerers, they usually accept that they are going to have great power, knowledge, and amazing experiences, but that they'll probably lose their minds and die young as a consequence... so they don't tend to think about children much. This, and the fact that they're all male and generally live in seclusion or with masters/apprentices, allows male-male couples a safe space...

Yaruka has a question, too.

How do the five elements relate to their magics that Porcelain can perform? In other words.....what sort of magic does each one entail? I'm sure that the ones like water, fire and earth are fairly self explainatory but wood and heaven are the ones I'm somewhat confused about.

Oh, thought of something else.

What happens to the current Dragon Knights if a new Empress comes into power? Does she replace them all, or do they serve until retirement? Or does it depend entirely upon how that new Empress came to power?

Quite helpful indeed. Thanks Setsu! I figured I'd ask since at some point Tsubei will approach a time where she has to name her element.

Women can go through as many husband as they like if there's a socially appropriate grieving period between them, at least two years (but five years if you really want to avoid suspicion.) Women past reproductive age can absolutely marry again for companionship (but she should marry a male who is also non-reproductive.)

Failing to die with your husband doesn't prove callousness; it proves strength. And even if a woman did marry right away after her husband died, people could still understand that as an effort to assuage her own loneliness. But if the same woman did it a couple of times, people would begin to think she was sick. (After all, the techniques to prevent a mate-bond from forming aren't publicly shared and are considered evil by a lot of people.)

The Empress, though, has more license than usual to go through husbands. She is considered higher-than-Lucid, and so is expected (among other things) to grieve less. Furthermore, it reflects badly on the nobles if they let the Empress go for a long time without a husband. Still, if an Empress doesn't grieve at all and even disposes of her husbands in nasty ways (like Rishi) people will begin to think she is evil.