Who are the Tel'Ôrim?
Who are the Tel'Ôrim?
Hello everyone! I'm Stephen, and I'm excited to take you into the rich culture at the core of my new novel, Aubrey Aurelio and the Mishmar's Loom. I want to explain how every stitch and color choice connects to the fates of my characters.
The Tel'Ôrim are a dignified and noble people. Colors carry great meaning and importance in their world. For instance, men often wear silver; it symbolizes both the Moon and their soul. During their exile, it serves as an act of defiance. The ceremonial colors and detailed embroidery worn by men are given to them by the Weaver.
The Cherev'Virgaî are Tel'Ôrim women and fierce female warriors; they wear crimson and gold, showing their role as bearers of Avoregâr’s sacred flame and A'shirâh’s sword. Just as the men are the weavers of fate's threads and keepers of creation's rhythm, these women are the protectors of that spark of creation; they guard the very threads from which the cosmos is woven.
The Tel'Ôrim worship a god who was once whole, now splintered due to jealousy. The holy name Avoregâr-A'shirâh is so sacred it is only whispered in times of great trouble.
Marks are also important among the Navârî caste, the High Priests. Each Tel'Ôrim man has a Crown on his chest, sacred chest hair that is a symbol of the covenant between them and their god. It mirrors real-world religious practices regarding hair found in Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. The Crown for a Tel'Ôrim male is akin to a Jewish man’s beard; just as the beard is a symbol of holiness, so too is the chest hair for a Tel'Ôrim. This culture has developed intricate grooming, prayers, and rituals that revolve around it.
But for the Navârî, their marks are not superficial. Avoregâr the Weaver has marked each one with divine artistic skill, etching a birthmark on their skin that seals their fate. This holy lineage has faced great loss. The Navârî High Priests once created the sacred laws of the Tel'Ôrim, but those traditions are now gone.
In my book, Aubrey Aurelio and the Mishmar's Loom, you will meet Alejandrô, a young Navârî High Priest who embodies this spirit of defiance. He is broken, cast aside for being attracted to another man—something that is accepted by his people. Navârî are celebrated as the most holy, known as the brothers and sisters of the Loom. They care for orphans, and in the past, they wove the very laws and religious rites of their people. Now, the Tel'Ôrim are refugees. Their homeland has been destroyed, and they live under the yoke of an empire that does not know the meaning of sacred, seeking to mold them into something they were never meant to be.
Those few Navârî who remain are brutally mistreated by the people who should be helping them.
The Tel'Ôrim, through no fault of their own, are forced into a life filled with struggle and sorrow simply because they are different.
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