The Lokili are a group of individuals within the Asatro faith who have performed the roles of certain Wyrms during plays and theatrical events ever since the days of the Grannrormrlen.
History
When plays began to be made about the Ormr and the Fyrstbairn, it became traditional for the part of Wyrms to be performed by someone that presented as the same gender they did. The Wyrms did not have physical sexes after all, being incapable of biological reproduction, and so had only begun assuming gender roles when they first started to involve themselves with humanity, as a way of attempting to bring the two races closer. Therefore, they were not thought of as having roles based on sex in the same way that humans did, and so this seemed the natural way of portraying them within performances.
The issue came the first time someone attempted to make a play which involved depicting one among the Fyrstbairn who presented in a manner considered to be evocative of both the male and female genders. In their human form, they possessed an androgynous body with a lithe and slender frame, devoid of any hair save upon their head, and spoke with a voice many described to be as smooth as a song thrush's call. They wore their hair down to their buttocks like a woman, but their chest was as flat and solid as a board. They were referred to at once as a man, and at other times as a woman, and never seemed concerned which term was used to describe them.
It seemed inappropriate to the playwrights to have either a man or a woman represent this Fyrstbairn, and so for some time they found themselves at a deadlock. The solution came to them when, by chance, a human with the same presentation as that Wyrm happened to stroll by them in the city. Their golden blonde hair stretched half way down their back and they adorned themselves with woman's clothing, but they spoke with a man's voice and stood over six feet tall.
It was decided from then on that Wyrms who could be classified as neither male or female would be represented by humans who occupied the same space within gender presentation. These individuals who stepped up to perform the roles of these Wyrms within plays would come to be known as the Lokili, and would be celebrated as playing an integral role in the celebrations of the Grannr. Some were people who had been born as men but later wished to be seen as women, others the reverse, and some something in-between, or neither at all. They were not necessarily understood by those who did not stray from the role assigned to them at birth, but they were accepted and valued for what they could contribute nonetheless.
Present Day
In the regions where the Ormr tradition is still followed, such as Heralya within Landamar, the Lokili are seen as a remnant of an old and dying age. As the strict gender roles perpetuated by Shahru continue to diffuse throughout the continent, there becomes less and less space for those who try to make space for themselves somewhere in-between, and the Lokili have become targets of religious persecution by Rukhmarites living within Heralya. Despite this, they continue to persist, for to them it is better to be shunned than to not be themselves.
Comments