~Damaelauras~ - Why Be A Lashunta When You Can Be An Elf?

One of my earliest assumptions about this creative worldbuilding project for the Lashunta and Castrovel was to explore social conflict as a development framework for worldbuilding. It doesn’t mean that the social inequalities and injustices my characters encounter are right (they’re not right), but that their existence helps define the culture and the larger world. Thus I took a blended approach between PF1E’s approach to the Lashuna, which assumed under a Damaya Matriarchy that all Damaya were female and all Korasha male, and Starfinder’s different take, in which individuals choose in adolescence whether they become Damaya or Korasha (with a hint that in more traditional areas Damaya still hold higher social status). In my version, although a majority of Damaya may be female and a majority of Korasha may be male, there are also distinct ~Rahyathalma ~ - cross-clade - minorities of male ~Damayas~ and female ~Korashe~. My worldbuilding story thus becomes a point in time in the evolution of Lashunta Society, toward the greater degree of equity and inclusion represented in Starfinder. Under the Damaya Matriarchy, both these cross-clade minorities get socially marginalized. Here we will deal with a subculture group stemming from the male Damaya.   The Damaya-Elves choose to live as Elves, mainly in Qabarat but also other Lashunta cities that may have significant Elven populations. They do so to escape the stigma of being cross-clade male Damaya, but also to take advantage of Elven culture’s greater androgyny (let’s face it: from a PF1E standpoint, Lashunta have a dickens of time telling male Elves from female!), and also because it liberates them to pursue a set of arts unique to Elves, thus providing them opportunities they may not have as Lashunta. They learn to speak Elvish, dress in Elven gossamer silks and linens, and, if they can’t practice a distinctly Elven trade, at least pursue one that supports their community. They have experimented and crafted various pointed ear prostheses: some painted to flesh tones, others of made of jewels, and have grown adept at makeup to alter some of the more exotic Lashunta skin colors and patterns. Many also ubraiding their antennae into their hair to conceal them, which is painful and can only be done for limited times (and may cause a detriment to inborn psychic powers).   In this lifestyle, I see rough parallels between Damaya-Elves and possibly some LBGQTA+ communities within our own mundane world. They identify with each other, support and protect each other, and perform and celebrate each other, against the stigmas they may encounter when dealing with ~Difithalma~ - Rightkind, as Lashunta call themselves conforming to the Damaya-female, Korasha-male paradigm sanctioned by the Damaya Matriarchy, whether with the Elves’ approval or without.   So what do the Elves think of this Elf-living Lashunta subculture? Whether they approve, support, deride, or something completely else, stays behind the carefully polite, ambiguous reserve and subtly light humor in which Elves prefer to hide their true thoughts from anything but close friends or the most direct psychic probes. Decorum requires that they at least ignore these attempts to pass as Elves, which in itself provides a cover of reasonable doubt further out among the ~Difithalma~. Thus small neighborhoods of Elven-style wineyards, danceyards, and songhalls, along with associated shops and houses, have cropped up along and within the Elf-Farthing’s edges in Qabarat, where Damaya-Elves serve their own needs.   The above state, however, does not mean friction doesn’t exist between the city’s various groups. Hard-line matrons and agitators complain that the Damaya-Elves’ existence attracts similar people from other cities, with Qabarat’s Elven population providing the biggest opportunity to blend in, and thus increases the male Damaya minority beyond natural levels. This unsurprisingly attracts bigoted propaganda (I can hear it now: “Cross-clade males beget cross-clade children!”). Thus there is probably some movement to restrict immigration or even to ban them from the city: a Shotalashu-whistle some matrons will blow to dance up election support. Meanwhile the Elves, despite their willfully generous ignorance on a personal level, may not be so willing to support politically. They deem it a matter internal to Lashunta and keep their hands tucked within their gossamer robes.   Despite this hardship, the Damaya-Elves may not be without allies. Along with personally sympathetic allies (such as my narrator Lady Vaeol), there are more casual ~Valazelaura~ - lovers and aficionados of Elven art, who may commend and support the Damaya-Elves in making the art their own. Then again, nothing is stopping a female Damaya from likewise donning Elven garb, underweaving her antennae, and taking the lifestyle. Although maybe less invested in the lifestyle, they have a standing within the Lashunta matriarchy that is harder to sideline.