Aprēan Earrings and Pendants

Sacred Jewellery of the Aprēans

Aprēan earrings and pendants are pieces of jewellery made from amber, a material of religious significance to the followers of Aprēaq Hūril. They are usually created in the shape of a teardrop and they're worn as pendants using either a silver chain or leather strap which are tied to a silver loop at the tip of the teardrop. Aprēans use these earrings and pendants to express their religious identity and showcase their devotion to Aprēa. In addition to regular folk, various statues and busts of influential religious figures and faithful secular leaders are often adorned with amber pendants to display their eternal devotion.  

Use by Non-Aprēans

Prior to the rapid spread of Hillenēq Hūril—the most influential of the Aprēan creeds, amber jewellery was fairly common across the world—especially along the Gulf and the Great Saralian Lakes, where gaining the core materials was fairly simple. As the faith grew, however, non-Aprēans began to hide away their old amber pendants and earrings, fearing that by wearing them they’d be sending out the wrong message to their fellow countrymen. Many of these old pieces of jewellery were sold off to travelling merchants or bartered in exchange for other precious materials that lacked associations to foreign faiths.
Item type
Jewelry / Valuable
Amber pendant
Amber pendant by Midjourney


Cover image: by Tom Gainor

Comments

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Jul 3, 2019 21:35 by Susanne Lamprecht

First of all: Very well designed article!
I like the formatting and the readability very much, except for a sentence I had to read several times. But that could also be due to the time. For me personally, it would have been more pleasant if the first sentence under Distribution had been kept somewhat shorter and thus more readable.
The fact that you explain how to deal with the jewellery when the original owner has died definitely creates some pictures in my head, which is exactly what such an article should do.
Hats off, Dhelian, a very nice article!

Vampire loving servant of several chaotic forces.

Current Project: Die verlorenen Legionen

Jul 5, 2019 10:45 by Mihkel Rand

Thank you for the kind words! I tried cutting that long sentence into two. I hope that makes it a bit more easily understandable.

Creator of Lethea and Pekkola

Maker of Maps
Jul 5, 2019 10:51 by Susanne Lamprecht

That's much more readable. And yes, now it's easy understandable.

Vampire loving servant of several chaotic forces.

Current Project: Die verlorenen Legionen

Jul 5, 2019 05:45 by TheirGraceGrace

Hello, feedback wizard back at again with the fresh feedback for sale! (just kidding it's free)   It's really fascinating that the jewelry is so heavily regulated! My assumption with something so crucial to the religion of Abreanism is that it would be cheap and widely available. This is not necessarily a criticism, but it's interesting regardless.   I had to look this up to be sure, but earrings heavier than about 4-5 grams can actually do damage to the earlobe, so maybe they should be a little lighter. I'm not sure how much 35 AUR is, but I'm getting the feeling that it's a lot for something that is commonplace for people to own.   Finally, I've got my usual question. This one is in regards to the inheritance of the earrings: who is usually the person to inherit the earrings? What happens to those who don't inherit the earrings? Do they have to buy their own or does the estate of the dead person help with that?   Anyways, I'll pop over to another article of yours and then head to bed. See you later alligator :)

Jul 5, 2019 10:41 by Mihkel Rand

Thank you for the feedback!   The jewellery is s heavily regulated since the clergies want to maintain their monopoly on golden amber. A thing I just realized is that due to these regulations, they have good information about the people. I can imagine someone who is curious about who some of their ancestors were going to the clergy and asking for them to check the books for that information. A fair amount of golden amber does still slip through the cracks of justice.   The 35 AUR or Aurels is somewhat of a placeholder right now. Economics is something I haven't figured out. During NaNoWriMo, I had to write INSERT_PRICE_HERE in my book :D   Good question about the inheritance (why didn't I think of that, I literally asked Ninne about the inheritance customs of her recipe books a few days ago)! The oldest daughter inherits the jewellery. If there are no daughters then the oldest son will get it. If there are no children then the previous owner's siblings will get them. The other children will have to go through the process of buying new ones. Although I don't know about the exact price yet, it's something that most people should be able to afford. The poorer members of society might need to save up money or sell a few goats but they see it as a worthy price to pay.   Sorry for the long reply. You got me thinking about a bunch of things. Thanks again!

Creator of Lethea and Pekkola

Maker of Maps
Jul 23, 2019 18:40

That was a really neat article. I love that the jewellery is so commonplace, although I'm not sure how well does it match to have a really commonplace item so heavily regulated.   I was wondering, at what age do people start wearing the earrings? Do children have to wear them to go to religious rituals (or are they not allowed to)? I also was wondering, since they are a religious symbol, would stealing them be a bigger offence than stealing other types of jewellery/item of roughly the same value?   There was one spelling mistake in the sidebar: forbitten should be forbidden.

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