Tear (Template)

[bcxanth]

<i>Tear's flag is three white crescent moons across a half red, half gold field.</i>

 

Tear is thought by many to be based in part on Spain during the height of the Spanish empire; the nobles and soldiers of Tear bear a particularly strong resemblance, while the common people more closely resemble the peasants of China and Korea.

 

<h3>Location</h3>

 

south-east corner of Randland

To the North is 'Haddon Mirk'

To the East is 'The Spine of the World'

To the South is 'The Sea of Storms'

To the West is 'The Plains of Maredo'

 

<h3>Balance of Power</h3>

 

Tear functions solely on Class. It is lead by the High (Great) Lords in concert, governing the land and its economy, while whoever holds the Stone of Tear is the Lord of Tear (or Land (LotL)). There are at least 8 High lords governing at a time along-side the LotL. Tairen's don't like the idea of being ruled by a single man or woman, which initially set the stage for the Higher Classes.

 

Similar to Cairhiens, the Tairen's play the Game of Houses (Daes Dae'mar) in a cruel fashion to gain power and prestige. They are well known to be schemers. For example, Tairen High Lords had held First of Mayene as prisoner in all but name for several months to try and bend her to their will. Because of this Mayene dares not anger Tear too openly. However, Tear and Andor have a good relationship.

 

 

<h3>Economy</h3>

 

Tear is the greatest port located in the 'Sea of Storms', as well as one of the richest nations in the land. The majority of this wealth comes from the oil produced on the countries many olive farms, there is also a great deal of trade in grain and fish which brings money into the nation as well. They also have excellent horse breeding and they take a lot of pride in this. Unfortunately Tairen lords tax according to their own needs and wants, not taking into account crop failures or other such problems. Some feel that the Tairens rule poorly, as the poor have little dignity or pride and bitterly resent the rich.

 

There is nothing larger than a village in Tear outside of Tear and Godan (See Below). The Tairen High Lords keep towns small by heavily taxing new construction. They allow the city of Godan to thrive on the Bay of Remara to threaten Mayene.

 

<h3>Tear and the White Tower</h3>

 

Channelling is outlawed in Tear, though Aes Sedai are tolerated as long as they don't Channel while within its borders. If a woman known to be associated with the Tower will be watched as long as she's in Tear. If a Tairen girl displays the ability to Channel, she is shipped off to Tar Valon that very day.

 

<h3>Facts and Numbers</h3>

 

<h3>Military</h3>

 

<h2>Culture</h2>

 

<h3>General</h3>

 

Wisdoms are referred to as either Wise Women or Mothers. Tairen Wise Women don't listen to the wind, that is too close to the use of the One Power and would draw negative attention towards them and they advertises her shop by hanging herbs in window. Also, Ogier are not an uncommon sight in Tear.

 

Tairen use woven, dyed straw mats as coasters and low-backed chairs are quite popular and commonplace. The men dance to a clapping rhythm, with their arms around each other's shoulders and stepping quickly. Tairen women are considered "forward" by some other cultures, (possibly including Saldaea).

 

<h3>Clothing/Appearance</h3>

 

<!-- | Basic Male Dress | Basic Female Dress | Nobility Dress | i can make a 'code' for this to make the smaller text for 'contributions'. -->

 

| Appearance |

Taller than an average Cairhien (by at least a good head taller), Tairen are not overly tall but have slightly thicker build. They are known for their darker skin hair and eyes. It is rare for a Tairen to have either fair hair or blue eyes.

 

| General |

Because of the muddy ground around the city, the people (especially the poor) often wear raised clogs over their shoes. Widows can be spotted by shimmering white clothing. Women usually wear thick curls down the sides of their heads. Although some women like to wear their hair braided and coiled about their heads.

 

| Upper Class |

The Middle and Upper Class men wear heavy coats made of padded silks and brocades with satin strips, the sleeves are often puffy and striped. Breeches are usually worn tighter and are topped off with peaked hats and silver-worked boots (very common with the High Lords).

 

The Women's dress is usually of bright colors with broad lace ruffles and close fitting caps sewn with pearls or gems and longer skirts. Their cloaks are similar to the Men. They are also known to carry small porcelain bottles of smelling salts and painted silk fans.

 

| Lower Class |

The poor dress similarly to the Upper in style but lack in the fineries like Silks, Satins, and Lace. It is more often that they use ties to fasten their clothing instead of using buttons.

 

| Occupational |

 

Innkeepers are known to wear Blue.

 

The servants in the Stone of Tear are found to where either red and gold livery, or black and gold livery. Outside the Stone servants wear clothes of wool.

 

The Defenders of the Stone wear rimmed helmets, breastplates and plump coat-sleeves striped black and gold. Officers and under-Officers of the Defenders are to wear coloured plumes on their helmets, and the rest of them wear colors of their lords on their sleeves. A Captain of the Defenders has two short white plumes in his helmet to indicate his rank.

 

Officers and nobles both carry gilded cuirasses, and have white plumes on their helmets.

 

<h3>Crime and Punishment</h3>

 

Channelling is outlawed in Tear, though Aes Sedai are tolerated as long as they don't Channel while within its borders. A woman known to be associated with the Tower will be watched as long as she's in Tear. Justice in Tear usually depends on class, with the lower classes being persecuted where the upper classes wouldn't be. One of the punishments for criminals would be working the channel dredges in the Fingers of the Dragon.

 

Only the Defenders may go armed within the Stone. No one may enter the Stone of Tear without the permission of the High Lords, and only the High Lords themselves may enter the Heart of the Stone itself. Only foreigners passing through the city, the wealthy and the lords may go armed within the city of Tear. Tairen lords couldn't be summoned to a magistrate by a commoner but after the Dragon Reborn, this has changed.

 

<h3>Food</h3>

 

High Lords have ice packed in sawdust brought from the Spine of the World. You can also find sausage, fruits and vegetables (that are not seen in the north) olives, nuts, and cheese served as snacks in the Stone.

 

<h3>Phrases and Sayings</h3>

 

- By the Stone (III: 361)

- or I don't know a bar knot from a running hitch (V: 596)

- squealing like a spawning grunter (V: 596)

- catch minnows (catch flies - for having one's mouth hang open) (VI: 265)

- Lurks (Fades) (IV: 189)

- An anchor is not demeaned by being used to hold a boat. (II: 130)

- A full net on the first cast. (III: 179)

- Mudfish don't school with silversides. (Birds of a feather flock

together.) (III: 566)

- Do not trouble trouble until trouble troubles you. (Maule) (IV: 289)

- A flapping tongue can put you in the net, instead of the fish. (V: 33)

- Caution gets the boat home, but boldness brings back a full hold.

(V: 171)

- as sulky as a fisher-bird in winter (V: 314)

- A fish in the boat is worth a school in the water. (A bird in the hand

is worth two in the bush.) (V: 326)

- An Aes Sedai is ten women in one skin. (VI: 592)

- When there are fishheads and blood in the water, you don't have to see

the silverpike to know they are there. (???)

- Trust is as slippery as a basket of eels. (???)

- If you are going to gut a fish, no need to wait until it rots. (???)

 

<h3>Tairen Falsehoods</h3>

 

Many Tairens think that Trollocs and how many Shienarans become warriors to fight them are stories. Also, Tairens think that Aiel live in "caves". The general consciences is that anything a Borderland would say, a Tairen would not believe it and consider it a 'myth' or a 'tall Gleeman tale'.

 

<h3>Commonly Used Names</h3>

 

<b>| Female |</b>

Ailhuin, Alteima, Anaiyella, Arie, Belyne, Cian, Dara, Fionnda, Ines, Ivara, Leitha, Majhere, Mara, Medore, Meralda, Rasoria, Rosana, Salita, Sareitha, Selame, Siuan


 

<b>| Male |</b>

Alger, Aracome, Astoril, Baran, Bili, Carleon, Carlomin, Cavan, Darlin, Dermid, Edorian, Estean, Estevan, Furen, Guyeam, Harnan, Haviar, Hearne, Huan, Istaban, Juilin, Jurah, Leuse, Lopin, Maraconn, Meilan, Melanril, Nalesean, Perelean, Reimon, Rodrivar, Rovair, Simaan, Surnamon, Tedosian, Tirhira, Tolmeran, Torean, Weiramon

 

 

<b>| Surname |</b>

Admira, Ajala, Alharra, Domanche, Guenna, Haellin, Haret, Lopar, Mallia, Mandair, Mulan, Novares, Sanche, Sandar, Tarou, Tihera, Tirado, Tomanes, Tomares, Toranes

 

 

<b>| Nobility |</b>

Andiama, Aldiaya, Annariz, Asegora, Damara, Emares, Medrano, Mendiana, Saniago, Selorna, Sisnera

 

<h3>Side Note</h3>

- Almost everyone in Tear suffers from nightmares because Be'lal doesn't shield his dreams.

 

 

<h1>History</h1>

 

<a href="http://freelanders.aliciawilkerson.com/?page_id=154">More info on the History can be found here</a>

 

<h2>Places of Interest</h2>

 

<h3>City of Tear</h3>

 

<i>The location of the city of Tear is unclear. At the beginning of Chapter 48 of The Dragon Reborn, the city docks are said to be on the west bank of the River Erinin, but at the beginning of Chapter 50, Perrin, Moiraine, and Lan arrive by ferry from the west. At the beginning of Chapter 22 of The Shadow Rising, Rand leads the Aiel "out of the Stone and eastward."</i>

 

Tear is Ogier-built, although the Stone is Aes Sedai built, and is the greatest port on the Sea of Storms. Tear is as large as Tar Valon or Caemlyn, built on flat land. Near the warehouse district, the houses are built of wood and stone on muddy streets. Deeper into the city is a wall of dark grey stone, and beyond that towers, balconies and white-domed palaces. The city wall is only a pace wide, but ten spans high, with stone buttresses supporting it. Some houses are built right up against the city wall. The city has an outer wall, with simple stone houses and shops built beyond it. Large numbers of ships moor at the Tear docks near their many warehouses. When docks busy, ships have to anchor and wait their turn at the docks. The streets of Tear are not especially crowded or busy. <b>Tavar</b> is the name of the farmer's market in Tear, and the <b>Maule</b> is the port district, the <b>Chalm</b> is filled with warehouses and inns. There are hundreds of inns in a city the size of Tear, maybe a hundred more outside the city walls proper. The smallest would have only a dozen rooms.Only foreigners passing through the city, the wealthy and the lords may go armed within Tear. The Ogier stay in the Stone when they come to work in Tear.

 

<a href="http://freelanders.aliciawilkerson.com/?page_id=153">More info on the City of Tear can be found here</a>

 

<h3>The Stone of Tear</h3>

 

The city of Tear is dominated by the <b>Stone of Tear</b>, which towers above the city like a small mountain. It is believed to be the oldest stronghold of mankind, erected shortly after the Breaking of the World. It was built by Aes Sedai using the One Power, Earth, Air, and Fire fusing stones together without joint or mortar.

 

<a href="http://freelanders.aliciawilkerson.com/?page_id=152">More info on the Stone can be found here</a>

 

<h4>According to Winkipedia</h4>

Deep within the Stone is the Heart of the Stone. This is where the crystal sword Callandor sits, waiting for the Dragon Reborn to claim it. No one except the High Lords are allowed to enter the Heart, and even they rarely do so: four times a year for the Rite of Guarding there, and also to raise a Lord of the Land to the office of High Lord. Indeed, if the High Lords could manage to forget that the Heart of the Stone and Callandor existed, they undoubtedly would: Tairens of all classes have an avowed fear of anything to do with the One Power. This is due partly to the fact that it is prophesied that the Stone of Tear will never fall until the Dragon has been Reborn. The High Lords like to think that by protecting Callandor, they are protecting the world from the Dragon Reborn.

Ironically, the Stone also houses a collection of angreal and ter'angreal second only to the White Tower. It is unsure exactly why the Tairens have collected such an array; perhaps to prevent their use by Aes Sedai, or maybe to diminish by comparison the knowledge that they possess one of the greatest of them, Callandor, whose drawing by the Dragon Reborn will herald the coming of another Breaking of the World.

 

<h3>Maerone</h3>

 

This small town is across the Erinin from Aringill. Maerone is unwalled, an overgrown village with brick and stone buildings, with roofs of wooden shingles, thatch, slate and tile, most of the streets are hardpacked dirt. The village is a transit point of trade between Cairhien and Tear, and has almost as many inns and taverns as it does houses. There are over 17 inns in Maerone.

 

Inns: the Fox and Goose, The Wagoneer's Whip, the River Gate, the Erinin Inn, the Three Towers, the Silver Horn, and Golden Stag inn. A well-established road leads south out of Maerone, piercing through forest and open country.

 

<i>It's about 20-22 days from Maerone to Tear.</i>

 

<h3>Godan</h3>

A coastal town in far southeast Tear on the Bay of Remara.

 

<h3>Bay of Remara</h3>

A large bay at the far southeast corner of the Westlands at the end of the Spine of the World. The Drowned Lands lie to the east. Tear ends at the western shore at the city of Godan. The city-state of Mayene lies on the peninsula to the southeast.

 

<h2>Artifacts of Note</h2>

 

<h3>Redstone Doorway (1)</h3>

 

Tairen redstone door ter'angreal - three sinuous lines from top to bottom of each upright. Within the Tairen Redstone doorway, one can get three answers to three questions about the past, present or future. (Two ta'veren within the land beyond the doorway simultaneously could have torn the connection between the two worlds and left both trapped there.)

Rules and dangers of using Tairen doorway:

- Each person can only go through the doorway once. All three questions must be asked and answered before you can leave. Questions of frivolous consequence to the questioner are punished. Questions that touch the Shadow in any way can be very dangerous, with the questioner not returning from the doorway, or going mad. A person stepping through the door sees blinding light and hears the sound of a roar. If you go through the doorway a second time it acts like any ordinary arch.

About the Snakes Within:

The snakes speak in the Old Tongue. When needed, one is brought to interpret, he speaks the way an old book would read. The snakes feed off of people's sensations and experiences. The answers given by the snake people are true in regards to one's own future, but they are often obscure in phrasing.

 

<h3>Portal Stones</h3>

 

There are 4 known Portal Stones in Tear.

 

 

<h4>References Used:</h4>

 

45.0 TEAR - GENERAL CULTURE - http://www.drosi.de/wot/wt_conco.htm

Winkipedia

Warders.org

 

<h4>Researcher for Tear</h4>

Andrea Collet (Arie Ronshor)