The Reissu are inspired off of French culture during the late Rococo period. This comes through more in the fashion and the room designs more than anything. The palace is based off the Palace at Versailles, with the frilly shirts and suits being as period accurate and while I didn’t really describe the dresses all that much, they are as well as period accurate as I could manage with the resources I could acquire. Manners and appearances are also as period accurate as I could get them, such as Lady Oglin covering her face with her fan, and her and Queen Mirgen being caked with makeup.
The Interior is the Reissu’s homeland, the actual country’s name has been lost to time. The Interior is a landlocked country, with Diatessia to its east, a country to its west, the Northern Territories to its north and the country that governs Port Riverwhistle to its south. It's a lot more temeperate in climate than the Southern Isles with wet winters and mild summers. As was mentioned by Innin, Diatessia has recently had a coup with a complete overturning of its government. This has caused many refugees to seek asylum in the Northern Territories, and in the Interior as Queen Mirgen had been friends with the disposed ruler of now-Diatessia. The Reissu have a strict immigration and asylum policy in place, so the most she was able to do was keep them short term as she helped them make it safely to the Northern Territories. In recent years the Diatessia have been pushing their luck and hope to swallow the Interior into their little empire. Instead of going to war with the Reissu, where they would have to admit defeat to their military might, they chose to try and kill the royal family instead. As Queen Mirgen and Ezollen are still alive, it failed, however the assassins they sent did not let the two of them leave unscathed. Queen Mirgen was blinded, and Ezollen’s left wing will never be able to support his weight in flight again, outside of short bursts. Innin murdered the assassins, beheading them and going to the Interior-Diatessia border to show off his spoils and send a message to the new leaders: The Reissu will not roll over and be conquered.
While not yet said in the story what the Reissu actually are, they do belong to one of two flighted races. In the past, they were considered demons with their horns, tails, and leathery wings. I did model them somewhat off western ideas of demons and dragons. They possess little innate magical ability, for reference, magic is what allows the Aeces to assume human forms on land. The magical ability they do possess is to be able to hide their wings. They are, however, able to harness certain magical materials in a scientific way, such as the light producing crystals in Ezollen's room.
The Reissu are not matriarchal in nature, the only times a queen is head of state is when her husband dies, and the prince is not old enough or experienced enough to take the throne. In the past, sole queens have only happened a handful of times, as the political instability of their eastern neighbors sometimes spills over into their borders. To keep up the appearance of having a man helping the queen make decisions, the man put in charge of the prince is elevated. In this case, Innin was given a major promotion while still caring for Ezollen until it came time for him to take the throne.
The Blue Moon Beautillion is the coming of age ceremony for the Crown Prince of the Reissu. It’s to formally introduce the prince into society, and to send a message to the nobles who was picked to be his wife. A Blue Moon Beautillion doesn’t necessarily have to fall on a night with a blue moon, it has more to do with what the blue moon represents to the Reissu: power and prosperity. Prior to the Blue Moon Beautillion the prince was not to leave the palace unless absolutely necessary, and in those cases he was to hide his face and identity. It was to keep him safer that way. However, Queen Mirgen took this to the extreme after the king was killed. If something were to happen within the palace, the prince could be passed off as one of the servant’s children until he came of age and could take back the palace. Ezollen was only able to travel to Port Riverwhistle due to his constant begging after his Blue Moon Beautillion date was set. It is customary for the image of the prince to be put out to the general public after the Blue Moon Beautillion by the palace, but in the cases of a coup, the image is to be put out by someone connected with the palace and agreed on beforehand to put out the image of the prince when he comes of age.
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