Romance of Nobility
Historical Overview
The Romance of the Nobility is a regional literary style prevalent in the Vinelands, north Vestral Downs, and the core Thewisy portions of the Eastmarches. In its original form, it helped create the foundations of their regional character, giving them the image of lands of chivalric virtue, knights, and quests, an otherworldly and magical portion of Anhara. In its later reincarnation, it represented an attempt at a return to normalcy after the chaos of the Crossing Over, and became both an interest of tourists and a political tool.Third Cycle Myths
The third cycle of the Legendary Cycles of Anhara deals with the founding myths of lesser houses, and from this murky setting comes most of the stories of the romance of nobility. The foremost example is that of Laurent and Mirielle, the founding tale of House Braelea, which has all the literary features recognizable to the genre. Monsters, quests, ladies and noble courts, and even an appearance from Vestria, but most importantly legitimacy. The story of Laurent and Mirielle gives an ancient origin to a noble house that needed to control a large territory, making it more difficult to overthrow them and reinforcing that they are divinely ordained. While that was the main purpose of the original stories, it also served to create an impression of the Blossom Fields as a place of mystical beasts, wandering knights, and mysterious ladies. It, and similar tales, helped give a common identity to the area, as well as examples of heroes to act as moral inspirations in the tumultuous early days of Anhara.Resurgence
In the lead up to the Crossing Over, House Semillon was shoring up its legitimacy in the Blossom Fields in preparation to make a claim for the entire Vinelands. To do so, they sought to co-opt many of the stories of their ancient rivals, the Braeleas, so as to both give their house a more noble lore as well as to bolster tourism in Surlee to increase their influence with other Great Houses. After the Crossing Over came a period of great violence, with the Fall of House Salis seeing the Semillons take over the Vinelands, thrusting the region into another Hedge War. In the Eastmarches, the Desecration of Caerseat saw House Thewisy given the lordship of the whole region, disrupting their small, peaceful holdings and thrusting them into a wider role. This general chaos led to a resurgence of more ancient movements and a renewed interest in the legends and faith of Anhara. With this came a rediscovery of the classics, both the genuinely ancient, and the adapted products of House Semillon's soft power campaign. The Court of Love on Terracetop sprung up as an affluent playground, supposedly in line with the ancient traditions of the Romance of Nobility, but instead somewhere for the wealthy to congregate around House Semillon. The resurgence of the literary movement became co-opted to help the powerful, but also to bring comfort to the war-weary residents of the Vinelands and Eastmarch.Literary Overview
Tenets
Quests
One of the foremost features of the literary movement was that of quests, which has spread to the rest of Anhara as a now common trope in literature. Some sort of mythical or legendary figure almost always bestows a quest, whether formally or otherwise, upon a youth or a party of youths, providing a simple and often uniform beginning and ending to the tale. These quest givers generally fall into two categories. First, some sort of religious figure, be they a mystic, monk, priestess, or even god, being stumbled upon in the wilderness. Secondly, a legendary ruler, with a well-known reputation, who's court is located somewhere in the mists of time. These often serve to establish the noble lineage of the main character, be they of reputable descent, as they almost always are.Youth
Many of the stories in the romance of nobility genre center around a youth or a party of them. In the earliest examples of the literature, these youths are often people of historical significance, having their backstory filled in by later chroniclers. As the genre advanced, however, the main characters diverged into two types. On one hand is the itinerant youth, a young man with a bland enough backstory so as to serve as a proxy for the reader. These were the most commercialized, in a way, of the stories, as they were meant to be read at courts by an increasingly wealthy and bored class of nobles. The others are paragons, young knights held up as examples of moral standards, who serve to teach the readers a lesson. Regardless of the type, both of these go through a coming of age, and often follow the same general formula.Romance
In the earliest works, female characters are often unnamed and serve to move the plot along, or provide a gratuitous break in the storytelling. Often at the end of the story, the main character will woo a noble woman, who often serves as an end goal. Towards the end of the genre's popularity, before its resurgence, the interactions between the male and female characters became more one-sided and less courteous. The resurgence of the genre came before a rediscovery of faith across Anhara, and with it the stories became more moralizing and idealized. This saw not only a reduction of disregard for female characters, especially as noble women became a larger consumer of the literature, but a standardization and improvement in the treatment of women in the works themselves.Morals
The moralization of the early works in the genre was less about good behavior and more about proper behavior, becoming of an early nobility. This was often brutal, disregarding lower classes, and without much nuance. It served mostly to demonstrate an assertive style of leadership, common in the ambiguously placed Anharan past. As the genre advanced, it established standards of chivalry and courteousness amongst the upper class, and served to disseminate it to all its members, often through paragons of virtue. After the resurgence, which coincided with an increase in piety and religious organizations across Anhara, the College of Vestrial Priestesses and various orders of monks took a more prominent role in the works. They served not only to spread the ideals desired in the population by the actual, non-literary, groups, but also to create ideal, moral characters for readers to aspire to and admire.
Important Locations
Old Anharan - Mylsywen
New Anharan - Milsen
"'Where do you head, sir knight, with such a look of distress?'
'Late to court am I, good sir, to Surlee I do progress.'
'A servant of Lord Braelea are you, at his palace you will stop?'
'Indeed, vassal, for a seat I hold, in the great hall of Terracetop.'"
- l'Arbour Knyght, a Semillon Resurgence-era Braelea Loyalist Work
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