Post by Darth Xaos on May 23, 2016 3:44:41 GMT
Verrill had still not quite grown used to how thick the incense smoke was, even at his current elevation. The Marauder stood, as he had once every month for the eight months which had passed since the civil unrests on Lao-mon began, on a balcony in the temple of Nyx. The reasons for his regular visits had nothing to do with any affection for the Shi'ido native religion but instead on the focus of the current rite: his daughter, Ziva. The ritual bathing of the reigning monarch on the full moon and the heir apparent on the new moon was an important aspect of the traditional ties between the royalty and priesthood. It was also the only time when Ziva left the palace grounds. Since the instabilities Lao-Mon was suffering started Verrill had insisted on accompanying her procession between the palace and temple.
"Maybe it's actually thicker up here because the smoke goes upwards?" Verrill pondered, noticing as he always did that Ziva seemed unbothered by the incense as the infant princess was carried by the high priestess and her attendants along the temple floor below towards the great doors which led down into the temple's secret heart. Verrill, of course, would remain on the balcony. Though as prince-consort, Verrill was part of the Shi'ido royalty, only priestesses, the reigning monarch and their heir were allowed onto the temple floor, let alone inside the temple heart. That did not worry Verrill much though, the entire priesthood were unabashed in how they doted on and fawned over Ziva. It was a far cry from the oft-chilly political relations between Rhaenona and the high priestess. He imagined those baths were particularly awkward. So, as he always was, Verrill was left to gaze down at the mural and relief covered walls of the temple below and contemplate what little he understood of the strange Shi'ido culture and how it played into the current crisis.
The first thing Verrill always noticed about the figures in the paintings was that, though they were all meant to be Shi'ido, none were depicted in their native forms. Instead they were in what Verrill had for a long time mistaken for the default Shi'ido shape: human-like with pale, grayish skin and unusually angular facial features. But he had discovered while dwelling in Lao-Mon that this was not their natural form but the one that Shi'ido seemed to take most often. Indeed, Verrill had only ever seen Shi'ido children who had not yet grown into their shapeshifting in the native form. He thought perhaps Shi'ido were embarrassed of the bizarre contours of their natural shape and that it was like some exaggerated nudity taboo that adults never wore it. Indeed, he'd seen his wife wear many different shapes but never the one inherent to her species. He wondered if that was why the priestesses were so enamored of his daughter. Though the royal doctors were sure she would be able to shapeshift as an adult, the form she had been born into strongly resembled the Human-Zabrak hybrids of Dathomir. These Dathomirians bore more than a passing resemblance to the Shi'ido culture's preferred form. Verrill remembered hearing tales about how one of the gifts Nyx gave the Shi'ido was their shapeshifting powers, so perhaps there was a religious reason for this preference as well.
More comprehensible to Verrill was the current political conflicts since he had been here almost since their inception. At first a cabal of Ultra-Royalists (Shi'ido who wanted a return to male monarchs and priests) had transported mercenaries onto Lao-mon and attempted to seize power. Verrill had dealt with this insurrection personally, crushing them utterly. But what happened next was not so simple as to allow the Sith Marauder to face it in open contest. The Democratic Republican movement (which wanted a return to the democratic system that had existed between the fall of Lao-Mon and the Shi'ido's return under Rhaenona) had begun to demonstrate daily. As they were peaceful a violent repression would have only deepened the problem. Rhaenona had not left the planet for the past six months trying to find some resolution to the protests and strikes which were grinding the engines of trade to a halt. The protesters wanted an elected parliament to define laws, elected judges to interpret them and gendarmes to enforce them instead of the current immutable laws, said to have been given by Nyx herself, ruled upon by the priesthood and enforced by the temple guards. The disputes had seen no progress and Rhaenona was torn between the diametrically opposed priesthood and popular movement. As the situation wore on tensions grew hot and skirmishes emerged between supporters of the Democratic Republican, Royalist (Rhaenona's partisans), Orthodox (advocates of the priesthood) and Ultra-Royalist camps.
And it was because of those skirmishes that Felran Natri was presently positioned outside the temple grounds' gates along with a squad of temple guards. Humidity hung oppressively in the jungle world's evening airs. The Iridonian fumed inwardly and paced impatiently as he kept watch. When his master had brought him to this planet, which he'd said was in turmoil, Felran had hoped for action and to test out the Force Powers he had been refining through training. Instead here he was swatting blood-drinking insects as he walked back and forth in front of gates and two meter stone walls that seemed barely suited to a garden. He actually felt excited when he first heard the angry shouts approaching.
From the jungle path emerged a mob of some twenty Shi'ido chanting and calling out.
"Maybe it's actually thicker up here because the smoke goes upwards?" Verrill pondered, noticing as he always did that Ziva seemed unbothered by the incense as the infant princess was carried by the high priestess and her attendants along the temple floor below towards the great doors which led down into the temple's secret heart. Verrill, of course, would remain on the balcony. Though as prince-consort, Verrill was part of the Shi'ido royalty, only priestesses, the reigning monarch and their heir were allowed onto the temple floor, let alone inside the temple heart. That did not worry Verrill much though, the entire priesthood were unabashed in how they doted on and fawned over Ziva. It was a far cry from the oft-chilly political relations between Rhaenona and the high priestess. He imagined those baths were particularly awkward. So, as he always was, Verrill was left to gaze down at the mural and relief covered walls of the temple below and contemplate what little he understood of the strange Shi'ido culture and how it played into the current crisis.
The first thing Verrill always noticed about the figures in the paintings was that, though they were all meant to be Shi'ido, none were depicted in their native forms. Instead they were in what Verrill had for a long time mistaken for the default Shi'ido shape: human-like with pale, grayish skin and unusually angular facial features. But he had discovered while dwelling in Lao-Mon that this was not their natural form but the one that Shi'ido seemed to take most often. Indeed, Verrill had only ever seen Shi'ido children who had not yet grown into their shapeshifting in the native form. He thought perhaps Shi'ido were embarrassed of the bizarre contours of their natural shape and that it was like some exaggerated nudity taboo that adults never wore it. Indeed, he'd seen his wife wear many different shapes but never the one inherent to her species. He wondered if that was why the priestesses were so enamored of his daughter. Though the royal doctors were sure she would be able to shapeshift as an adult, the form she had been born into strongly resembled the Human-Zabrak hybrids of Dathomir. These Dathomirians bore more than a passing resemblance to the Shi'ido culture's preferred form. Verrill remembered hearing tales about how one of the gifts Nyx gave the Shi'ido was their shapeshifting powers, so perhaps there was a religious reason for this preference as well.
More comprehensible to Verrill was the current political conflicts since he had been here almost since their inception. At first a cabal of Ultra-Royalists (Shi'ido who wanted a return to male monarchs and priests) had transported mercenaries onto Lao-mon and attempted to seize power. Verrill had dealt with this insurrection personally, crushing them utterly. But what happened next was not so simple as to allow the Sith Marauder to face it in open contest. The Democratic Republican movement (which wanted a return to the democratic system that had existed between the fall of Lao-Mon and the Shi'ido's return under Rhaenona) had begun to demonstrate daily. As they were peaceful a violent repression would have only deepened the problem. Rhaenona had not left the planet for the past six months trying to find some resolution to the protests and strikes which were grinding the engines of trade to a halt. The protesters wanted an elected parliament to define laws, elected judges to interpret them and gendarmes to enforce them instead of the current immutable laws, said to have been given by Nyx herself, ruled upon by the priesthood and enforced by the temple guards. The disputes had seen no progress and Rhaenona was torn between the diametrically opposed priesthood and popular movement. As the situation wore on tensions grew hot and skirmishes emerged between supporters of the Democratic Republican, Royalist (Rhaenona's partisans), Orthodox (advocates of the priesthood) and Ultra-Royalist camps.
And it was because of those skirmishes that Felran Natri was presently positioned outside the temple grounds' gates along with a squad of temple guards. Humidity hung oppressively in the jungle world's evening airs. The Iridonian fumed inwardly and paced impatiently as he kept watch. When his master had brought him to this planet, which he'd said was in turmoil, Felran had hoped for action and to test out the Force Powers he had been refining through training. Instead here he was swatting blood-drinking insects as he walked back and forth in front of gates and two meter stone walls that seemed barely suited to a garden. He actually felt excited when he first heard the angry shouts approaching.
From the jungle path emerged a mob of some twenty Shi'ido chanting and calling out.