The Diral-Seii

[sdfgeoff]

I stumbled across Outsider late last night - and stayed up till 1am reading it. When coming across page 161, I went "woah, I haven't made anything out of bone for ages", so today...


After grinding the bevel I looked at the source material again and face-palmed. The part of the blade I have as the spine is meant to be the edge and visa-versa. I also struggled to find a Taben leviathan tooth, so made do with a chunk of cow femur (IIRC) Clearly I am not a Loroi.

It was quite a fun project and was a lovely way to spend 3 hours on a Saturday afternoon. It was my first time dying bone (done with ... tea!) and I think I could do better. I didn't polish it because it's meant to be used/worn. Heck, it's meant to have been pulled out of a fire, but I'm not at the point where I'm willing to do that yet. (Evidence suggests that I therefore have not come of age).

Has anyone else made a diral-seii? Or any other physical objects from the comics?

@Arioch, if you want one, drop me a DM.

[Arioch]

Very cool!

[avatar576]

Nice work! Looks like it was a fun project. Maybe you could recreate the charred look by smearing it with some ashes or charcoal? And for true authenticity, the yarn needs to be genuine Loroi hair.

Shows you how brutal the diral training can be. If it took you 3 hours to make using modern tools, imagine what it took a band of young teens to do using only what they could find.

[DevilDalek]

Welcome! And awesome!

[sdfgeoff]

Maybe you could recreate the charred look by smearing it with some ashes or charcoal?

Hmm, I'll have a think about that. I'm also curious as to what happens if I hold it in a flame. I think I'll have to find another piece of bone and give it a try.

And for true authenticity, the yarn needs to be genuine Loroi hair.

Things learned this morning: "ARRRGH, my hair is so curly!"


While I don't have any friendly neighbourhood space-elves to harvest hair from, my own hair is fairly long at the moment. And seeing as how humans have been making cordage from hair for centuries (and I've always wanted to know how) I thought I'd give it a go. Turns out that after ~20 minutes you kinda figure it out and while it's still fiddly, there's nothing stopping you watching a TV show/listening to an audio book and putting out a bunch. I made ~1.2m of 2-strand over an hour or so and then doubled it over into 4-strand to make it a bit thicker.

Shows you how brutal the diral training can be. If it took you 3 hours to make using modern tools, imagine what it took a band of young teens to do using only what they could find.

Yup, sure does! And there's also the fact that I have free access to the internet to learn how to do this sort of thing (and food to eat while fiddling around). I wonder if they were taught these skills as part of their training, or if they had to "figure it out"?

[avatar576]

Maybe you could recreate the charred look by smearing it with some ashes or charcoal?

Hmm, I'll have a think about that. I'm also curious as to what happens if I hold it in a flame. I think I'll have to find another piece of bone and give it a try.

And for true authenticity, the yarn needs to be genuine Loroi hair.

Things learned this morning: "ARRRGH, my hair is so curly!"


While I don't have any friendly neighbourhood space-elves to harvest hair from, my own hair is fairly long at the moment. And seeing as how humans have been making cordage from hair for centuries (and I've always wanted to know how) I thought I'd give it a go. Turns out that after ~20 minutes you kinda figure it out and while it's still fiddly, there's nothing stopping you watching a TV show/listening to an audio book and putting out a bunch. I made ~1.2m of 2-strand over an hour or so and then doubled it over into 4-strand to make it a bit thicker.

Shows you how brutal the diral training can be. If it took you 3 hours to make using modern tools, imagine what it took a band of young teens to do using only what they could find.

Things like this make me wish I'd devoted a little more time and energy to creative arts while growing up. Always feel like I'm too busy now to develop artistic skills.

Yup, sure does! And there's also the fact that I have free access to the internet to learn how to do this sort of thing (and food to eat while fiddling around). I wonder if they were taught these skills as part of their training, or if they had to "figure it out"?

There's a lot of background info about the Outsider-verse on the Insider pages. My understanding is that Loroi girls are raised in communal creches starting as soon as possible after birth up until about age six, when they become eligible for diral training. Just about every aspect of a Loroi warrior's childhood is designed to prepare them for life as a warrior, so I envision the creches as kind of a boarding school where they receive both a basic education and preparation for the next phase of their training, which is the diral. So they'll probably have some idea (if limited) of what to expect for the next two years of their lives and will probably have learned some basic skills for survival, which they'll hone and build upon through experience.
While in the diral phase, they do have limited contact with elders who may provide some guidance as needed and assign tasks or challenges to complete as a group. But for the most part, they are left to their own devices.

[Cthulhu]

A great item. Hopefully, and contrary to Taben superstitions, it will bring you luck.

Now, however, you need to do what's expected of a diral leader.

SpoilerShow

[Keklas Rekobah]

Merch!

[Krulle]

Wonderful!

Also, welcome sdfgeoff

[Demarquis]

Do you do requests?

[sdfgeoff]

Things like this make me wish I'd devoted a little more time and energy to creative arts while growing up. Always feel like I'm too busy now to develop artistic skills.

I believe that everyone is actually secretly amazing at the creative arts - but most people judge themselves as unworthy before giving it a shot. Nothing is instant (anything 'creative' takes at least a couple hours), but don't be afraid to give things a go, and if you judge the result as 'crap' try again, give it a few more hours etc. etc.

There's a lot of background info about the Outsider-verse on the Insider pages....

Oh man, there went the evening.

Merch!

Do you do requests?

This is Arioch's design, and while I'm fine with making things for myself from other peoples designs (if there aren't ways to get them that support the author/creator), I'm not happy selling something someone else designed - at the very least not without their permission.
So .... no Merch.

But if you have other cool things you've designed, I may be happy to have a shot at bringing them into the real world.

[Demarquis]

That's what I meant. I don't self-identify as a warrior-anything, so this particular design isn't appropriate for me. Are you familiar with the "Chaos" symbol?

[sdfgeoff]

That's what I meant. I don't self-identify as a warrior-anything, so this particular design isn't appropriate for me. Are you familiar with the "Chaos" symbol?

.... google .... .... wikipedia.... .....

This one?

[Demarquis]

More or less, except with a circle in it. I actually wanted a pendant with a compass rose on it, but the chaos symbol is easier to carve, I think.

[Keklas Rekobah]

 
@ARIOCH: You have said that the seii is "most often a wood or bone dagger"; but what if it is something else?

Like, maybe a hand-made comb . . . does the comb that Cloud gave Alex have any signs of damage from heat or fire?

Did Cloud pass this "seii" to Alex to "salvage the essence of her group" and to "ritually absorb some of the spiritual misfortune" she was about to undergo?

(Or have I just been drinking too much absinthe again?)

[G. Janssen]

That's what I meant. I don't self-identify as a warrior-anything, so this particular design isn't appropriate for me. Are you familiar with the "Chaos" symbol?

.... google .... .... wikipedia.... .....

This one?

Furniture movers call that the "woman symbol".
"Perhaps a little more to the left. Mmh, no. Try more to the right. Ugh, that's not it either. Let's put the cabinet over there. Eew."

[gaerzi]

More or less, except with a circle in it. I actually wanted a pendant with a compass rose on it, but the chaos symbol is easier to carve, I think.

I think the arrowheads would make it more complicated than a compass rose, actually. Typically a compass rose (like the one on the NATO emblem) is four segments per direction (two long outer, two short inner that are shared with their neighbors in the heart of the rose so they count for half, and one in the middle to divide the white and the black side of the branch). If you have more than four points to your compass rose, the intermediary points only need segments traits each (outer and middle, no inner parts for them). Meaning that an eight-point compass rose will have 28 segments.

With the chaos symbol, you get six segments per direction: two per arrow shaft, and four per arrow head. Meaning it has 48 segments.

[sunphoenix]

... I think I'll go and cry alone now.

[Arioch]

@ARIOCH: You have said that the seii is "most often a wood or bone dagger"; but what if it is something else?

Like, maybe a hand-made comb . . . does the comb that Cloud gave Alex have any signs of damage from heat or fire?

The seii can be anything... but the comb Cloud gave to Alex was not a seii. It was just a comb.

Giving a seii away to someone who was not a member of the diral kind of defeats the purpose of the object. Your misfortune does not benefit the diral if you aren't holding the totem (or so it is believed). You might pass the seii to someone who had become a close companion, especially if there were no other diral members on hand... but probably not to some alien you just met.

[Keklas Rekobah]

Ah, well… at least Alex has something by which to remember Cloud’s kindness.

While at a recent wedding reception, I realized that we Humans have a similar custom to the Diral-Seii -- The Toast.

Think about it … we consume small amounts of poison (ethyl alcohol) to ensure the good fortunes of the ones we are toasting. In essence, we are each consuming a portion of their “bad luck”.

Even when we are toasting to our own future success, we swallow a little bad luck now to allow more good luck later.

To your health, Arioch!