Cue Some Timeless Theatrics

[mosthonest]

There's a strange breeze in the plaza. That's not that weird, there always seem to be odd air currents rippling through it, but this one feels warm and Mediterranean--smells like hot sand and heady spices. And if you listened hard enough you might be able to hear the sea birds and polyglot babble it carries in from the jostling marketplace in Cyprus.

It seems to wrap around Iago, sitting at a table on which there are a few empty cups. From all outward appearances, he's no one exceptional. A seasoned, weary soldier on his off time. Simple well-worn tunic, rough hands, wide and honest face with a few scars. Simple, open smile. He gestures to the seats across from him. Classic Nexus set-up, just another soul looking to share a drink.

"I am often long away from my native land. And often do my thoughts linger on it, some parts of it I miss dearly as my heart would miss blood, as my body would miss breath." He's already offhandedly pouring wine into a cup for himself from a drawn leather sack, and now some for you.

"Knowest thou that feeling? Come, tell. I have learned the taste of wine is richer seasoned with tales of home."

[*waves* Old, old timey occasional player here. So glad to see these communities are still popping!]

Comments

[mosthonest]

Iago bows his head to her for a moment. Indeed he has not met a skeksis before, though he may have seen a few passing through. As he lifts his head, his eyes linger on her. In this place, he has always been unashamed of admiring and examining the many strange and beautiful nonhuman beings that he encounters. So much of the way he conducts himself requires trying to read the tiny expressions and movements and changes in voice of the person he's talking to. Adapting that to nonhumans has been an interesting past time. Though some creatures did not take kindly to prolonged eye contact, he'd had to learn that lesson too.

"I know well how the fetters of duty may bind to one place or person. A pleasant sort of bondage, if you like well enough the work. I too have no head at all for the games of lords and ladies, but am well-suited to their service." Yup, yup, that's Iago. Bad at politics. Would never ever toy with other people and their little interpersonal relationships. Nope not at all.

"Sailor skekSa, I am Iago, a soldier of Venice and bannerman for her first general, the noble Othello. I too have traveled far and often. Is it not strange, to feel bound to one place though all together I've spent more than half my life's span away from it."

[silverseamariner]

"I enjoy the presence of my clan, and it's good to have some measure of power away from my people's Emperor. He is the master of the land, and I the master of the sea. We deal with each other when we have to." There's a slight sniff of distaste. skekSa knew skekSo of old, knows the way he rules over his own people. "I don't care for politics, really. It's an unpleasant business and it's a shame I can't avoid it completely."

skekSa is an interesting case - all skeksis called themselves Lords. While the majority of them are male-identifying, skekSa and skekLach the Collector identify as female and still use the title. Honestly, it's more obligation than anything else. "Captain" suits her better than "Lord", and she went out of her way to be more approachable than the others who ruled over Thra from the Castle of the Crystal and kept their affairs in secrecy.

"We, too, have a general, skekVar. There used to be three military commanders - the Conqueror lost his taste for violence and defected, the Spy-Master was banished because the Emperor feared his ambition, and the General remains. But I know little of your home world, or how human leaders rule." She twitches her beak. "I consider my home the Silver Sea, beyond the shores."

[mosthonest]

Could he even properly articulate the many fine threads of power and capital, and the grease of politics that both hold the Venetian state together, kept it operating smoothly, and constantly threatened to collapse it under its own bloated weight? Probably not. And that's not even touching on the intricate web of class and position that affected everyone's day-to-day lives, down to the meanest servant. People knew their place, they knew how to behave. And once you understood that, that everyone was just performing steps in a dance, you could learn to trip people where they stood or lead them where you wanted them to go. People like skekSa may talk of the complicated lives of those at the top in power but when you live smack in the middle, life is infinitely more difficult.

Best stick to the basics. "There are many esteemed generals in my land. They serve at the pleasure of the Duke who himself is ministered by many a noble lord, general, wise scholar and saintly padre of the church. We are now at war with our Saracen enemy whose great empire oft threatens to outreach our own."

He shrugs, "I know not for what great end we spill so much heathen blood, but I am well-practiced at the doing of it."

[silverseamariner]

"We have a Chamberlain, a Ritual-Master, and a Scroll-Keeper. Skeksis are few in number, so each of us are given a duty by our Emperor. I was given the title of Lord Mariner. It was probably his way of sweeping me off to the side, since he doesn't trust me, and I simply choose not to return unless called."

It sounds as if humans and skeksis aren't so different in how they wage war and conquer others. Not surprising. War and faction-fighting seem common among intelligent species. skekSa merely closes her beak and hums. She doesn't know Iago well enough to assess him properly, but this soldier does not seem at all like the brash, vicious General she knew.

"They always enjoyed that sort of thing more that I did. We skeksis were the ones who outreached - skekGra was the Conqueror, and it's not difficult to imagine what his job was." She was there to see campaigns against the other species of Thra, and it's why she dislikes skekGra even after his change of heart.

[mosthonest]

"If your numbers are few, how fare you in battle? How fill you your table?" It was a question Iago could already guess the answer to. Slaves most likely, as the Ottomans had. And Venetians too, in their fashion. Reaping the profits of an elaborate trade network was only a step removed, and no better. The doings of skeksis and humans indeed weren't very different at all.

He certainly could be brash and vicious, in the right moment. For the right people. But he'd often found that placid geniality was a better mode in which to operate. One can't be a good listener if one was too loud. "Only one Conqueror? What strength and skill in battle he must possess to do the conquering for all your kind. We Venetians are conquerors all, in our little ways. We spread such a great effort out to make work light amongst us, and have more time each for counting money and feasting and prayer." Which also, in their little ways, were all part of the conquering.