Ars Arcanum, ShahTand (Fan-made Selish Invested Art)

[Cocoa]

ShahTand is an invested art from Sel which uses plant-based wedding stain/makeup as a conduit to manifest its effects. The makeup is worn by the female relatives of the bride and groom, as well as the bridesmaids, and is applied in special geometric patterns on the hands and feet the night before the wedding. Sometimes, the stain is also used to dye the hair of both the bride and the groom (as well as the groom's beard, if he has one), though this has no bearing on the effects of ShahTand.

The most basic effect of ShahTand is to increase the rate at which inter-personal Connections are formed and strengthened during the wedding, and this effect is especially pronounced between the bride and the groom.

After the wedding ceremony is completed (including one or several traditional dances that follow certain geometric patterns) and the marriage is consummated, an investiture bond forms between the newlywed wife and husband. These bonds universally confer enhanced emotional fortitude to both parties, with additional effects determined by the exact patterns used in the bride's makeup, called "blessings." These blessings encompass a variety of good fortunes wished for the couple, including but not limited to faithfulness, good health, safety, fertility, and success in business ventures. While the benefits conferred by blessings are real, they tend towards the subtle.

Extreme care is taken when applying the bride's ShahTand makeup, since it is believed that poorly drawn patterns will not only fail to work, but actually call down misfortune on the couple. These beliefs are held strongly enough that it's considered perfectly acceptable and reasonable to delay a wedding entirely to give the makeup a chance to wear off entirely and be reapplied if something disrupts the application process and results in poorly-drawn lines.

The bond conferred by ShahTand and any benefits it offers can be weakened or even break entirely if the couple's devotions to one another wavers enough. The bond also weakens the further you are from ShahTand's land of origin, though in this case its effects will return as you draw back towards it.

ShahTand is inspired, in part, by the various traditions from around the world that use henna dye.

Edited November 4, 2021 by Cocoa

[Kingsdaughter613]

Doesn’t the groom also get Henna done? I know he does in some Jewish henna traditions.

[Cocoa]

4 hours ago, Kingsdaughter613 said:

Doesn’t the groom also get Henna done? I know he does in some Jewish henna traditions.

In some traditions it's both the bride and the groom, in others it's just the bride, and I didn't particularly pick any one irl tradition and stick with it when looking for inspiration. In the case of ShahTand, it's considered a feminine right/tradition/duty, so its use is focused on the female relatives and the bride herself. That could be for predominately cultural reasons as opposed to something hard-coded into the system, but then at that point you get to deal with fun things like Intent and whether or not it would even work on the groom with the people drawing it expecting it not to.

Partially, I was influenced by the fact that ShahTand is a heavily Devotion-slanted invested art, and seeing as we know Aona was a woman (and Skai is usually presumed to have been a man, from what I've seen), it felt natural to make ShahTand something that 'belonged' to the bride.

Edited November 5, 2021 by Cocoa