"Callyste's Corner"
Advice on Romance, Love, and Marriage in the Realms
by Callyste

We interrupt this column for a brief, important announcement.

A round of applause is in order! At least, that is what I felt when I saw this lovely gown to which the judges decided to award first place in the wedding design contest. There was a touch of confusion during the judging process but we still managed to pick a winner. A tip-of-the-hat goes to the GMs and wedding crew who had to select but one entry from a field of so many fine examples. Callyste and those of us upon Waerd Aev's staff are now glad we did not have to be faced with such a difficult decision.

The final selection of the judges is Chrysanthemum's wonderful red silk gown. Feast your eyes on this little number, sure to enliven any wedding party's wardrobe:

A gown of rich red Elothean silk patterned with flame lilies.

Tap: The flame lilies on Chrysanthemum's gown shimmer with gold as she adjusts the drape of the rich scarlet silk.

Look: Delicate golden threads twine between the wide flame lilies to form the sleek silhouettes of cats creeping between the blossoms.

Read: One petal's edge half-hides a brief message in gold ink. "We are born of flame: we dream, dance, fade again."

Congratulations, Chrysanthemum! We will be in touch with you shortly to arrange the alteration, and hope that your entry help inspires other creative people such as yourself. For those of you who participated, we greatly appreciate your entries and the samples of artistic design. Thank you!

Respectfully, G.B.

I now return you to Callyste's regular schedule column!

From the Mailbag

Dear Cally,

I have recently proposed to the most wonderful, beautiful, perfect woman in the entire Crossing, but for some reason I have some doubts in the back of my mind. But she did say yes! She is far more experienced in the ways of healing than I am, and I do not wish to be a burden on her. Though I love her more than words can express, I am afraid that I hurt and embarrass her. What should I do?

Signed,
Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

Best Wishes on your upcoming wedding! Personally, I think that if she said yes, she too must love you very much. Though your relationship may face challenges given the apparent difference in your circles, I know many couples who are quite happily married and at much variation in circle. Even empaths that marry a barbarian or paladin can be quite content if they respect each other's limitations and virtues.

As many of my friends will tell you, I believe that perhaps the most important aspect to romance in the Realms is honesty. Here, more so than in the "Outer Realm", people can deceive and hurt each other, with great ease. It is a sad fact that this happens everyday, to very good people. Because you are faceless, and often nameless except in Elanthia, the ability to lie or deceive one who cares for you can occur. There is a very good reference to romance written by Cutter, available in the Information area.

On the other hand, romance here in Elanthia can be a truly wonderful thing that enriches our lives immensely. Truth and care and empathy in dealing with those you care about and love is the only way you will achieve a lasting union. Important advice in whatever Realm you are, I think!

Best of luck to you! Do not forget to send me an invitation!

Always,
Cally

If you have a question for me on love or romance in the realms, please feel free to drop me a letter. You may even see the answer here!

Write to callystea@aol.com

https://members.aol.com/callystea/index.html

News from Tvini

Changes in Assisted Weddings

It continues to be a busy time for the wedding staff. New this month, the web page will cut off signups for the following month once the first of the current month has passed. For example, after April 1st, there are no more May signups, after May 1st there are no more June signups, etc. This ensures that both couples and GameMasters aren't trying to get everything done at the last minute. The wedding staff is now booking weddings into June!

GameMaster Khaydra will be returning to a more active role in weddings again in the next few months, after being pulled away for other duties.

There will be a change in the number of words allowed on engraving wedding bands or rings. It will now be limited to 15 words. Some people want to engrave whole sonnets on those tiny rings! Tvini's poor engravers were losing their eyesight, having to write so much in such a small space! This new policy becomes effective April 1st.

There are no tap descriptions to the ribbons or rosettes. They come in assorted colors and you may not choose the colors you have on the tree or that you get from the tree. It is a surprise what you get from the tree! Go to the wedding with a friend and swap! That's what I do!

We now have tossable wedding bouquets. The bride HUGs the bouquet to make it her own and can then THROW it or THROW BOUQUET AT (person). There's no guarantee as to who'll catch it, though. Tvini says she has seen some burly barbarian guys snatch it out of the air surprisingly well.

The Basics of Item Design

Some background and an important document to read later.

There are many gifted creators of items in the realms, both those who can actually make the items, such as GameMasters, and those of us who create them and then hand our design over to a GameMaster to make. Where the challenges lie, for all, is making something unique that people will like and staying within the guidelines you must use. It sometimes is easy and sometime nearly impossible to make that one item that really stands out and makes your friends drool with envy.

The guidelines are called "The Standard Merchant Contract," and are available to read under Premium 9 within the realms for estate holders. They also are posted at my web site at https://hometown.aol.com/CallysteA/merchantcontract.htm, for those unable to access the premium verb.

Now, this contract is long so I will not recite it here for you. But it is important to note several things. First, they are only guidelines, and you will find there are differences between them and the items that are created for weddings. Each alterer, including the wedding GameMasters, has his or her own preference, and much depends on how you word the item you are creating. Redundant wording and the use of some forbidden words will mean they need to change your design, so it is to your own benefit to get it pretty correct the first time you present it or turn it in to them.

So how do I design an item?

Actually there is no right way, but as I was teaching myself, practicing on numerous friends' wedding attire, I noticed that the items the GameMasters make for all of us, such as those in the Leth bridal shop or festival items, all have a pattern to their design. When I applied this to item creation for wedding, the way I design seemed to make the GameMasters happy with what I had given them.

There are three descriptions available on most items. The first is the tap or "across the room" description.I prefer to use "across the room" here to illustrate my point. Fine detail cannot be seen in this description. You could not see the tiny engraving on an earring unless you were up close. Save it for the LOOK/SHOW where you have more leeway in description. Likewise, anything such as small beading on a gown, small gems, or writing cannot be seen from a distance, so leave it to the longer description.

So what do you include in a tap or "across the room" description? Let's take a design I did for Guri, a young dwarven cleric, and pick it apart shall we?

A white linen shift adorned at the hem with charm-embellished sky blue ribbons.

The first thing you will notice is the word count is 13, a bit more than the 10 allowed in the merchant contract, but here Tvini is using her judgement to allow a few more words. And it falls under the allowed 80 characters and spaces, so it is acceptable. Also note there is no punctuation. Punctuation in the tap description is not allowed.

Now, remember my pattern I was speaking about? This is a perfect example.

A(n) (color) (material) (item) (adjective) (part of garment) (material or design)

Sound like gibberish? Well, let's break it down a bit. We see in color, and for we creatures of Elanthia, items are primarily visual, correct? Well then, the first thing your brains (yes, even GorTogs have brains) see is the color of something. Was it a blue cloak, or was it the color of a sunlit sky? In description of color, always use the most exact hue or shade you can find to describe the color for everyone looking at you. Even in wedding gowns, white is so plain. Guri, however choose a simple color to reflect her simple, unassuming nature. For her it worked.

Now, what material is the item? I will often drive men mad with his question when I am designing. They are, poor creatures, much less oriented to material, and much more interested in the overall look of an item. But being the perfectionist I am, I usually insist on them choosing something.

The type of material you use also will describe you and your item as a person. A simple dwarf girl such as Guri would wear a common material such as linen, whereas a refined lady would wear silk or samite. There is actually quite a variety of materials available. However, for wedding items, most people do choose opulent or refined materials, as well they should.

Details, details, details!

Items themselves are more limited in number and appropriateness for wedding attire than color and material. For instance, I rarely make aprons or hats for weddings. But the list is growing as GameMasters add new items to the list of available options. There are some pitfalls when choosing between items for gowns for ladies. You could design a wedding gown, but you will never be able to wear it to a ball, for instance, if it says "wedding." It would look silly. I do warn my clients when they specify a "wedding" gown that "gown" might suffice, and then I leave the choice to them. Also, there is a difference between a tunic and a tabard, and tunics are generally not formal enough for a wedding. But it, too, is a client's choice.

Now we reach the adjective! Depending on the number of words, the adjective can go in one of two places. It can precede the color or be used to further describe the one main feature of the item you are designing. It could be a long or simple white linen shift. In this case, keeping the gown unassuming, it made more sense to use it to describe the embellishment in further detail. Adorned at the hem, yes, you can see those ribbon there on the shift.

Wedding gowns are by far the hardest single item to get right, as they have many features that often need to be described for the viewer. Most often the difficulty is in picking one or two to highlight in the tap and then describing the others in some way in the LOOK/SHOW. We will work with complex gown and cloak design in my next issue.

Now back to Guri's gown. Where are those blue ribbons? Well, they are on the hem of her shift. But what are those things on the ribbons? You can see them swinging, and they are gold; are they charms? Yes, but from here across the room, that is all you can tell. So the tap/"across the room" description is done! See, it was not that hard! The way you know you have designed an intriguing item is when people whisper to you. "Show me your shift!" Expounding on what you have started The look/show description allows you to describe in more detail the thing you just alluded to in the first description. Make sure you take this description in order. For Guri, I chose to describe the ribbons and charms. Usually a look description is about 2 to 3 short sentences. In this description, you can use punctuation. If there is something written or engraved on your item, make sure you add a word of notice. "There is something written on it."

Here is the LOOK/Show description for Guri's shift. "Elaborately plaited sky-blue ribbons band the hemline and drape in strands from the gathered shoulders of this simple, yet elegant, sleeveless full-length shift. Tiny animal charms, fashioned from bits of gold and gemstones amid the ribbons, depict the gods' aspects and glimmer and dance with any movement."

Notice that the first thing I described in more detail was the ribbons. I added how they were plaited, which is a fancy braid, their exact hue, and talked about how they also were used on the shoulder of the gown, which is a design detail I did not get to bring out in the tap description. I saved telling about those tiny charms for last and described the material and the design of each charm in a general way. Lastly, the way they moved was added to give the reader a sense of how they would dance when Guri walked down the aisle. These charms also told you that Guri is probably a cleric, considering the design of the charms.

The READ description

The read description is your chance to make the item truly yours. You may add names, dates and messages to most items. Jewelry can be engraved or have a maker's tag added to it. Cloth items such as cloaks or pouches can be embroidered or also have tags on them. For items I design, I will ask for one label to be placed on the item of my choosing stating I designed said item for that person. Like any designer, I am proud of the things I create, and by placing a label, I am signing my work.

It is very important to consider WHAT you want to write carefully. I prefer using it to say something nice or unique about the person, but I generally will not write read descriptions on items I design for others, unless I am making them for someone I know very well. I have sources I can suggest where people can look for help, though usually it is the wearer's own thoughts and sentiments that make the item special.

Well, I hope this has helped you all understand item design a bit better. Next time we will tackle something that is often eaten without even being admired: The wedding cake!