Plot synopsis
Lady Averie Agatha Winston, known as Averie, is thrilled to finally leave Aebria, where she grew up, and visit Chiarrin, a colony of Aebria, where her father and her fiance work. Her father, the general who oversees the colony, and her fiance, a captain in the military, are much less thrilled and very protective. They warns her of the dangers of Chiarrin, and also tell her that the people here are not happy with Aebrian occupation. But Averie can see nothing but beauty in this new land she gets to explore.
She befriends a Chiarrin local named Jalessa when she buys traditional Chiarrizi dress, headscarf, and sandals, who teaches her the meaning of the colors of Chiarrin headscarves. However, Jalessa is injured by a bombing on the market, carried out by rebels who refuse to submit to Aebrian rule. Averie brings Jalessa back to her house and offers her a job as her maid. Jalessa accepts, and the two become good friends. Averie pushes the boundaries of the strict older Aebrians who are also in residence, but her peers are infatuated by her unwillingness to follow the rules if she doesn't think they are good rules. Averie also begins to fall in love with another soldier and realizes that she may not be in love with her betrothed anymore. Averie learns that Jalessa doesn't speak Aebrian and offers to teach her, expressing regret that her new friend has been unable to understand their conversations. Averie's uptight governess Lady Selkie helps Jalessa learn Aebrian. The boldness of the rebels increases and Averie starts to see a darker side to the Chiarrizi culture. Jalessa teaches her about their gods, all of whom have been crippled in one way or another, yet still stand tall. Their gods, Jalessa says, cannot be held captive.
Averie wakes up to smoke one morning. The entire city is burning. Chiarrin has sacrificed itself to drive out the Aebrian military. Jalessa reveals that she is a member of the rebels, and was the one who signaled the bombers when she was injured. The plan was to kill the Aebrian women until the men left. Because Averie taught her to speak Aebrian, she was able to spy on General Winston's plans. Averie realizes she knows nothing about Jalessa's family or anything important to her. She asks Jalessa if she will just let her die, and Jalessa tells her to get out of the city.
Averie returns home. Most of the officers she had befriended are dead, and she broke up with her fiance. Her father was killed getting men out of Chiarrin. She claims her fortune, and tells the man she's fallen in love with, Lieutenant Ket Du'Kai, that she's going to follow him until he marries her. He agrees to let her come with him as he goes back home to Xan'tai, another Aebrian colony.
Chiarrizi culture
Chiarrin is somewhat similar to the Middle Eastern or Indian cultures on Earth.
Headscarves
The headscarves worn by women in Chiarra relate various messages depending on their color:
- White - worn by young girls until their first menstrual bleeding
- Blue - worn by fertile, unmarried girls
- Blue entwined with green - worn by women who are engaged to be married
- Green - worn by married women and women whose children are grown and married
- Green entwined with gold and/or blue - worn by women with children: gold for boys, blue for girls
- Purple - worn by widows
- Green edged with purple - worn by remarried widows
- White edged with black - worn by women who have left their abusive husbands
Men also wear head coverings with meaningful colors. The meanings are the same, with two exceptions:
- White - worn until the boy reaches fifteen years of age
- Gold - worn after the boy reaches age fifteen; the equivalent of the female blue
General meanings of colors:
- Black - the color of danger
- Purple - the color of death
- Red - the color of celebration
Marriage
Chiarrizi usually practice pre-marital sexual intercourse. This is to determine whether there is a comfortable fit between partners and if they are able to please each other. In addition to this, property, looks, and personality play key roles in the selection of a marriage partner.
Language
Mua - means "my". Lota - means "heart". Dei - means "thanks". Sova - means "friend".
Cuisine
Meals are taken in the maroya, a long open room containing much furniture. Diners eat on foldable tables which are stored in a cache against a wall.
- Wikberries - bulbous purple fruits with a juicy, sweet taste.
- Bumain - squat yellow plants that resemble gourds. Soft to the touch. Peeled before eaten.
- Hodee - hodees are goatlike animals. They are raised as livestock by the Chiarrizi and provide meat and milk.
- Bread - mealy but tasty.
- Fish - not as common as hodee meat, but also part of the diet in Chezsa.
Religion
The Chiarrizi worship three gods:
Seena
A female predacious bird who has been wounded by an arrow through her chest. She rules the air and is the most popular god among women.
Kayla
A male fish whose eye was gouged out by a fisherman's hook. He rules the seas and is a popular god among the citizens of Chesza.
Doena
A male wolf or dog who was caught in a hunter's trap. Rather than let himself be caught and skinned, he gnawed his foreleg off and escaped. He rules the land and is the most popular god among men. The Chiarrizi pray at the temple, the Mualota fountain, or at home, where they may keep small statues or charms of their favorite god.
Lakshmibai, the Rani of Jhansi, was an Indian queen of the Maratha princely state of Jhansi in North India currently present in Jhansi district in Uttar Pradesh, India. She was one of the leading figures of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and became a symbol of resistance to the British Raj for Indian nationalists.
Madam, or madame, is a polite and formal form of address for women, often contracted to ma'am. The term derives from the French madame ; in French, ma dame literally means "my lady". In French, the abbreviation is "Mme" or "Mme" and the plural is mesdames.
A governess is a woman employed to teach and train children in a private household. In contrast to a nanny, she concentrates on teaching children, rather than caring for their physical needs. Her charges are of school age rather than babies.
Randolph Frederick Edward Spencer-Churchill was a British journalist, writer and a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Preston from 1940 to 1945.
Kathleen Helen Summersby BEM, known as Kay Summersby, was a member of the British Mechanised Transport Corps during World War II, who served as a chauffeur and later as personal secretary to Dwight D. Eisenhower during his period as Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Force in command of the Allied forces in north west Europe.
Kabuki is a comic book series created by artist and writer David Mack, first published in Razor and Shi Special July, 1994 by London Night Studios and soon after by Caliber Comics. It is a story of an assassin who struggles with her identity in near-future Japan. The 2009 miniseries, Kabuki: The Alchemy, was published by Marvel Comics under its imprint Icon Comics. The series has been collected into several trade paperbacks, which include several one-shots and spin-off limited series.
The Puritan, or the Widow of Watling Street, also known as The Puritan Widow, is an anonymous Jacobean stage comedy, first published in 1607. It is often attributed to Thomas Middleton, but also belongs to the Shakespeare Apocrypha due to its title page attribution to "W.S.".
The Daughter of the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce is a series of two novels set in the Tortall universe. It is centered on Alianne of Pirate's Swoop, the sixteen-year-old daughter of Tortall's legendary lady knight, Alanna the Lioness, who was the subject of The Song of the Lioness quartet. The novels take place approximately 24 years after the last book in the quartet, Lioness Rampant.
Helen Violet Bonham Carter, Baroness Asquith of Yarnbury,, known until her marriage as Violet Asquith, was a British politician and diarist. She was the daughter of H. H. Asquith, Prime Minister from 1908–1916, and later became active in Liberal politics herself, being a leading opponent of appeasement, standing for Parliament and being made a life peer. She was also involved in arts and literature. Her illuminating diaries cover her father's premiership before and during the First World War and continue until the 1960s.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1952) is a British film adaptation of the 1895 play by Oscar Wilde. It was directed by Anthony Asquith, who also adapted the screenplay, and was produced by Anthony Asquith, Teddy Baird, and Earl St. John.
Garden of the Purple Dragon is a children's fantasy novel by Carole Wilkinson, published in September 2005 by Macmillan Publishers. It is the second in the Dragonkeeper series and the predecessor to Dragon Moon. It is set in ancient China, during the Han Dynasty, and continues the story of Ping, slave girl turned dragonkeeper.
No Name is a novel by Wilkie Collins, first published in 1862. Illegitimacy is a major theme of the novel. It was originally serialised in Charles Dickens' magazine All the Year Round before book publication.
Gao Guiying 高桂英 was a female Chinese revolutionary, rebellion-leader and army-commander.
Samia Sarwar was a Pakistani woman, who was shot dead in her lawyers' office in Lahore in an "honour killing."
Joan Bright Astley, OBE, born Penelope Joan McKerrow Bright, organized the Special Information Centre (SIC) for Winston Churchill during World War II. As a young woman, she dated Ian Fleming and is believed to be one of the three or four women whose attributes were used by him for the character of Miss Moneypenny.
Ek Veer Stree Ki Kahaani... is an Indian historical drama based on the life of Lakshmi Bai, the Rani of Jhansi. The series was directed by Jitendra Srivastava and written by Rajesh Saksham, Ila Dutta Bedi, Malavika Asthana, Mairaj Zaidi and Virendra Singh Patyal. It premiered on 18 August 2009 on Zee TV with Ulka Gupta playing Queen Lakshmi Bai. On 8 June 2010, the story moved on several years and Kratika Sengar portrayed the Queen from there on. The last show episode aired on 19 June 2011.
Lady Kai (甲斐姫), speculated to have been born in 1572, was a Japanese female warrior, onna-bugeisha from the Sengoku Period. She was the daughter of Narita Ujinaga and granddaughter of Akai Teruko, retainers of the Later Hōjō clan in the Kantō region. She is known as the heroic woman who helped her father's resistance at Oshi Castle against Toyotomi Hideyoshi's army during the Siege of Odawara. After the war, she became one of the wives of Hideyoshi. She was known for her bravery and beauty. According to the chronicle of Narita clan, she was praised as "The most beautiful woman in east Japan".（東国無双の美人）
Ishq Zahe Naseeb is a Pakistani mystery drama television series co-produced by Momina Duraid and Moomal Shunaid under MD Productions and Moomal Entertainment which started on Hum TV from 21 June 2019. The series focuses on dissociative identity disorder, portrayed by Zahid Ahmed along with Sonya Hussain and Sami Khan in lead role whereas Zarnish Khan and Jinaan Hussain in pivot roles. It also has Yumna Zaidi and Azekah Daniel in an extended cameo appearance. The show had positive reviews and ended up being one of the most popular HUM serials of 2019. It was very popular in India as well. It was the fifth on-screen appearance of Zahid Ahmed and Yumna Zaidi after Jugnoo, Zara Yaad Kar, Pukaar and Choti Choti Batain.
