Context and Communication Part 2: The Language of Veils
Previously on the Worlds Unending blog…
...I focused a little bit on high and low context communication. But if you’re a native English speaker, chances are good you are from a lower context culture and while the theory of what a high context culture might include may make sense, how to apply it to building interesting and complex roleplaying game worlds in ways that matter to the game might not be as clear.
So, I thought I’d provide an example from a world I have helped build to show you what I mean. The inspiration for what I’ll be describing below was reading about Ancient Assyrian sumptuary laws (i.e. laws about clothing). In Assyrian culture, it was actually illegal for married women of good social standing to go outside without a veil, while on the other hand, it was also illegal for prostitutes or slaves to go out with a veil. I thought about how to play with that idea of veiling being tied to social statuses (but decoupled from gender) and that slowly led to building out the example below.
Let us return to a country called Maezam. About 2,500 years ago, five distinct regions were united by conquest into the modern country of Maezam. Each region had a distinct culture of its own, but over the years, those cultures have meshed and grown. One of the places this trend became most noticeable is in fashion.
The south of Maezam is largely a sandy desert cut with some lush river valleys and oases. If you’ve never been caught in a sandstorm or exposed to desert sun, then you won’t know quite how much fun the elements can be in such moments. The southern culture, then, had a practice of everyone wearing light cloth around their necks and heads to help protect themselves from the environment when needed. After the country was unified, this tradition slowly spread and evolved and in time became codified into the Language of Veils.
The Language of Veils has two aspects. First, Maezam is socially organized into a caste system. The caste you are born into is ordained by the primary and only god legally worshipped in the country. There’s no fighting it--it just is. While there are seven castes, there are technically five ranks among them, as some are considered the same rank, socially. They are, in order:
Nobility
Bureaucrats
Merchants, Artisans
Servants, Farmers
Indentured Servants
Indentured Servants, it should be noted, can theoretically come from any caste--it is the one rank that is temporary, as an individual sells themself into servitude for an amount of time in exchange for cash up front. In reality, it’s mostly the lower castes who fall into this situation and, sadly, the system is all too often abused.
Back to veils--everyone in society except the Indentured Servants wears a veil. But how you wear your veil indicates to the people around you what your rank is. So, Servants and Farmers wear their veils around their necks. Merchants and Artisans wear their veils so that they cover their mouths. With Bureaucrats, you can only see their eyes. And Nobles cover their entire face.
So if you’re walking down the street, you can easily see what social rank the people around you have without anyone saying a word.
But does that mean you have to wear a veil even at home?
Good question! You do not! In fact, what rank you wear your veil at depends on the context of the situation (see...high context…). What is most important is the differences between the social ranks, not the actual wearing of the veil. So, if you’re a Noble, but in a room with only Nobles, you all wear your veils around your necks (or not at all if you’re at home). If you’re a Noble in a meeting with some Bureaucrats, the Bureaucrats will all wear their veils around their necks and you’ll wear yours so it just covers your mouth. If an Artisan walks into that meeting, everyone will adjust their veil up one rank, while the Artisan leaves their face uncovered.
That sounds like a lot of work, but it comes pretty much as second nature for people who make these adjustments all the time. What happens, though, if you don’t know someone’s rank? Chances are, the quality of their clothes will be a giveaway, but if not, you default to your “public” rank until it is clear.
There are, of course, some exceptions to these rules. The Aqame, the leader of the country, always covers their face entirely, and everyone who is in session with the Aqame will drop their veil entirely, regardless of who is in the room. Priests will often wear their veils around their necks, regardless of their birth caste, to demonstrate their humility and subservience to their god’s will. Some branches of the temple will allow priests to wear their veils at their caste ranks when not “on duty,” others not so much.
In addition to the above, there are some other exceptions. Rules go out the window in the case of being treated by a healer or chirurgeon. During funerals, everyone removes their veils regardless of who is present because “all are visible before the dead.” During marriages, even if they are of the same caste, those getting married begin the ceremony with their faces fully covered and only drop their veils at the end, to signify that you often don’t know your spouse(s) as well as you’re going to. Finally, in the event of an actual sandstorm or similar phenomenon, everyone is permitted to fully cover their faces, which has given rise to the saying, “Sandstorms make nobility of us all.”
But wait, there’s more!
There’s a bit of context in there, which might leave a foreigner a little confused, but the Language of Veils has an entire other layer that makes it go from being a medium-context form of communication to a full-blown high context one.
Colors matter
In Maezam, as in many cultures, colors are often associated with emotions. While the colors of your clothing can be merely an expression of personal taste (mostly), the color of your veil on a given day is an expression of your mood. For example, if I am angry, I will wear a red veil. Or, more correctly (and this is where it gets really fun), I will wear a red veil if I want you to think that I am angry. But then again, you also know that, so maybe you believe I’m actually angry and maybe you don’t.
Even more fun is that rather than having a strict “one color equals one emotion” language, each color can mean a multitude of things, some of which directly contrast with one another. To wit:
Red: Anger or passion, high energy, eagerness, sorrow (if more maroon)
Orange: Displeasure, amusement, anxiety
Yellow: Joy, friendship, indifference, optimistic (if bright), lost or wandering (if more golden or orange-ish)
Green: Playful, short-tempered, stubborn, determined, lucky
Blue: Serious, wistful, idealistic, visionary, full of longing, calm (if pale)
Purple: Love, mourning for veils, a longing for adventure or excitement
Brown: Solid, dependable, caring, apathy
What about black and white, you ask? Well, those, as well as shades within any of the above colors, add another layer of meaning. Wearing a black veil indicates that you think that you are, in some way, superior to the person or people around you. The Aqame, for instance, always wears black veils. But if I am a Bureaucrat meeting a Noble, I will wear my veil at the appropriate rank, but a black or dark shade of veil indicates that while I acknowledge they socially outrank me, I really don’t think (or want them to think I don’t think) that they do. It’s a nice way to slight someone. By contrast, white or light shades means you want to portray yourself as more humble. If I outrank you, but wear white, I want you to feel open and welcome and that we are as close to equals as god allows. If you outrank me and I wear white, I am very clearly humbling myself before you by noting our great social distance. Or I am making a show of humbling myself, which might in fact be the opposite.
Oh, and then there’s the military! Each branch and specialty in the military wears a specific color while on duty. Blue is for the naval forces, brown for infantry, red for the cavalry, orange for intel, and so on. The most famous (or infamous) are the special operations forces, who wear yellow and are often culturally referred to as the “Yellow Veils.,” even when no other specialty is called by their veil color.
Complex enough for you? That’s the fun of high context communication, saying things without actually saying them and expecting the other party to be able to read your true (or intended) meaning.
It seems like nice lore, but how does this matter in game?
There are so many things you can devote yourself to in worldbuilding, so it can sometimes be important to really know where to put your attention. “Will this impact or come up in game play at all?” can be a good metric. In our games, the Language of Veils comes up all the time. Characters who are more roguish may cheat a bit with their veils and doing so may give them an advantage on being spotted—people in Maezam are so used to defining people by their caste that just changing that veil rank can make them miss you entirely. If you’re having an intense roleplay moment, the colors and ranks of the veils can provide social cues as to who or what you’re dealing with. Rolls on social and interpersonal skills may help you decipher whether that’s a “serious” blue or a “full of longing” blue, which might impact how you interact with someone. Or (as may or may not have happened in game…) if you happen to be traveling in a foreign country where no one understands veiling practices, it can be a good way to sneak your friends out of town without anyone being able to see their faces...
FAQ
How many veils does the average Maezami have, if all those colors matter?
Depends. Richer folks will have an extensive collection of shades, colors, and even patterns for good measure. Those who live a little more humbly may have just one in each shade.
How do you keep the veils up?
Everyone in Maezam, to include Indentured Servants, wears a circlet whenever they leave home. Veils have little hooks that you can attach to different points on the circlet to achieve the appropriate rank. As a side note, circlets have their own language—members of the military or guilds will wear symbols of their organizational rank on their circlet. Circlets can be plain or intricate, but those that contain gems are always used to indicate someone who is married.
How many veils to you have?
Let’s go on to the next question, shall we?
This is a neat idea, but I have some questions. What should I do?
Feel free to shoot us an email at info@worldsunending.com! They’ll get directed to me, and I’ll be happy to help!
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