Koorime

The floating island of Makai

For as strange as it seems, within the fiery and wild realm of hell,
there is a place that has the appearance of heaven.

The island of Koorime floats high above the southwestern corner of the youkai lands near the western portion of the kitsune forest. From the forest there is a long and twisting path up the mountains to a very high suspension bridge that threatens constantly to break, but the way is so dangerous few travel that route.

In fact, almost no one enters or leaves Koorime, the race of ice demons secluding themselves for as long as anyone can remember. Those who did leave were outcasts from their society, banished and not allowed to return.



In Koorime society it is the women who rule. The Seven Houses make up the Council, each High Lady suceeding to the family seat upon her mother's death or resignation. The High House is the most important family in Koorime, the High Lady of this House sitting at the head of the Council. The other Houses hold their positions unless one falls out of favor, and then other Houses of the aristocratic class get voted on by the Council for the open position.

The aristocratic class constitutes only ten percent of the population, but lower classes live fairly well. Farmer houses can become rich enough to move up to merchant class, and successful merchants now and again join the aristocrats. The system also moves the other direction if a House has dishonored themselves in some way, but for the most part the classes stay as they are.



In the lower classes the women still hold the power of the House, but males hold a little more equality. Sons can choose the House they marry into or allow their mother to arrange it. They cannot, however, hold positions of importance or run their own businesses.

In the aristocratic class, the status for a boy is much more rigidly defined. High Ladies rarely bear their own children, and will always prefer a girl child, going to extreme measures to ensure they bear a daughter. Servants for the House are all males.

Koorime have a large market of boy servants. There are special shey houses to breed shey, the reference for a boy servant. Bloodlines are meticuously kept and used to determine the price of the boy when selling him to an aristocratic House. The House then trains the servant using a variety of teachers, educating the boy in all that's necessary for their duties, including household care, proper manners, defensive magic, physical combat, healing, and sexual methods to please the Ladies of the House.

Not all shey are given the full training, there are classes of shey as well. Shey can be bought by the lower Houses for farming or manufacturing work, or by the Council for construction and upkeep of the city, or for the small defensive army. There are shey who are trained exclusively for the care of children, those for basic housekeeping, those for gardening and then the highest class, the companion shey. These high-valued shey are bought as companions for daughters or for the pleasure of guests or to marry to another House to gain favor for the family.



Shey are most often sold from the shey breeding house before they reach the age of ten. Basic language and manners were learned in the breeding house, and these are immediately continued and expanded on by the shey's new House. Often there is a single Terin or trainer for all the boys of a House. This female directs the boy's education, hiring Telin as needed. Telin often train a shey in a single area of study since a Terin is often too busy to handle all aspects herself.

A companion shey is given a broad education in history, religion, language, and the fine arts such as music, dancing, and playing instruments. Usually this training is focused on until the boy reaches the age of twenty. Then magical training becomes high priority as the shey's magic is often needing refinement by this age. Magic training always begins with the art of healing, in which almost all Koorime excel. Definsive and fighting magic come next, parallel to weapons and physical fight techniques so the shey may defend his Lady and House if necessary.

Between the age of thirty and fifty, the shey enters training for sexual pleasure at the discretion of his Terin. Other aspects of training continue, and this is often an extremely busy time for the shey.



At intervals, the shey is tested by the Lady of the House, his value determined and plans laid out for the rest of his life depending on that value. Negotiations with other Houses about marriages or changes of ownership begin, or plans of the marriage to the suceeding daughter. Marriages occur between the ages of seventy and ninety, followed by seven years of chastity for the shey. At a hundred years of age the shey can either be declared a shai - an adult servant, or a shtesh - a male equal to a female, which is extremely rare.

Until the marriage of a shey, he is not allowed to cut his hair. The braids of a shey are complex and each one has a different context or meaning. The ritual hair-cutting is done before a wedding, the braid presented to the Lady or to her mother if she is still High Lady. When the shey reaches maturity, the High Lady passes ownership of him to her daughter. The now shai is mostly responsible for his own actions, but still serves his wife. He isn't obligated to the orders of other females, but usually obeys because of the training instilled in him.



Koorime are an extremely peaceful people. The island is entirely self-sufficient. The ice fields produce plenty of food for the city and the system runs smoothly. Having to rely only on one another, they are more than eager to help those of their own in need, but tend to be extremely guarded even as they now open up a little more to other peoples. Seen as snobbish and unfriendly to outsiders, they are actually kind and loyal.

Koorime Language Glossary
(by no means complete)