Dynastic Dining Arrangements
Within Dynastic society, there is a great deal of complexity when it comes to eating: what is eaten, how it is consumed, within what surroundings and at what times. Seating arrangements are as complex as any other element in this convoluted tapestry of traditions and conventions.
Peasant Style: Peasant Style seating is the style of the poor and of soldiers on campaign… it involves no furnishings at all, with diners sitting cross-legged on the ground with their dish(es) laid out in front of them. This style of seating is considered disgustingly uncivilized by most Dynasts.
Country Style: Country style is the style of dining seen amongst many merchants and artisans, as well as those who haven’t the rooms or funds for separate work and dining surfaces. The dining table is raised from the floor, and diners sit at chairs. Amongst many Dynasts, this is the manner of reading, writing, and related work… to use it for EATING is just uncivilized!
Scions of House Ledaal have a reputation for ignoring civilized convention and simply dining country-style at their study desks, while otherwise proper Tepets in the Legions often dine in this manner alongside their men… this has caused those of other aspects to sometimes disparagingly call this eating arrangement ‘air style dining.’
Formal Style: In Formal Style dining, diners kneel at a low table, often placed upon a raised dais. At long meals, circulation can be cut off, causing some unavoidable discomfort. Formal style was rendered dominant in the Dynasty by the Scarlet Empress, who some think enjoyed forcing her nobles to kneel. Over the seven centuries of Her rule, it has become permanently ingrained in the minds of Blessed Isle society as the most civilized form of eating.
Immaculate monks were permitted to sit Peasant style, with legs crossed… for non-clergy to sit this way is considered incredibly rude.
Reclined Style: A style of dining popular amongst the Dynasts of House Cynis, House Sesus, and those of embarrassing obesity. The low table of formal dining is retained, but the dias is replaced by individual couches or cushions upon which diners rest on their sides or backs. Many Tepet Dynasts (at least before their fall) refer to this style disparagingly as ‘orgy style’ due to the tendency of the couches to find use as beds for sexual liaisons, coupled with Sesus officers often including folding couches in their campaign paraphernalia.
New Style: Less than a century old, New Style dining seeks to achieve the aesthetic of Formal Style without the discomfort. Appearing to be a Formal Style setting, the table is placed to conceal a compartment in the raised dais, in which the legs of the diner can rest unseen.
In RY763, the Scarlet Empress at last relaxed a bias against New Style dining, permitting the Blossoming Orchid Pavilion of the Imperial Palace to close for Calibration so it might renovate from Formal Style settings to New Style. The ultimate reasoning behind this change of heart remains unknown, as when the Pavilion reopened with its new arrangement it faced the new reality of an Empty Throne.
