The Ecchidreams TTRPG Club World-building Project

[IsabellaRose]

I definitely considered the desire for Xiangal slaves when I came up with the idea. They would indeed be among the most sought after concubines and pleasure slaves. I wonder how they feel about being with those who cannot give them the same level of pleasure back. I imagine the best Xiangal pleasure slaves are those who succumb to the darker desires of pain and degradation. Since no other species can give the Xiangal the same pleasure they can give themselves, only those who find pleasure in pain and being controlled, being subjected to the will of another, can find pleasure outside of Xiangalese society.

Or is there some other form of pleasure a Xiangal can experience? Is there something outside of their world that calls to them, makes them search out some forbidden pleasure, some fabled exotic experience that they think can only be found with humans or some other species?

[WritesNaughtyStories]

So, I have a thought about where some of the Xiagalese abductees end up. I think there's some kind of fortress where the Nullhounds take them while the deals are made, but one of the buyers is (human? Could we be the good guys, once? Feels like there are plenty of real humans that are shitty So maybe someone else?) the lord of a palace - opulent and elegant, like a sumptuous illustrated Rubaiyat, that centers on a lapis lazuli tower.

The two shitty names I've come up with are The  Palace of The Blue (Azure) Tower or The Palace of the Ocean Tower (which only works if it's nowhere near an ocean).

Who resides in this palace and what is it called?

[IsabellaRose]

The Palace of the Ocean Tower, its name is a paradox, a whispered promise of something just beyond reach, for the ocean tower has never stood near any sea. Yet its depths are fathomless, an opulent dream turned nightmare, a place where pleasure and surrender blur into something unnameable. It is said that no Xiangal leaves unchanged, if they leave at all.

The lord of the Palace is Ashebel the Unmoored, but many know him by another name: The Abyss Beneath Pleasure. He is not human, nor entirely of this world. His form shifts between elegant and monstrous, like something that was once beautiful but stretched beyond its intended limits. His eyes are as deep as the ocean’s trench with reflections of those who have drowned in his presence, his voice like silk spun from shadow, vibrating beneath the skin, a caress and a wound at once. His body is lithe, sinuous, draped in robes that seem woven from dark water and dying stars. He does not take, he entices. Even those who arrive as prisoners do not know if they are truly trapped, or if they have merely been granted what they secretly longed for.

But it is what the Xiangalese whisper about him that makes him such an enigma. For a people who have only known pleasure, indulgence, and sensation, there exists an unspoken hunger, a question they are not allowed to ask: What lies beyond pleasure? The Xiangalese live for sensation, but some ache to surrender completely, to find the edge of sensation and fall beyond it. In hushed voices, they tell of an ancient legend, a legend some think may be embodied by Ashebel:

“Some say there is a lover who does not offer pleasure, but takes it.
One who does not give, but devours.
A prince who wears the stars upon his skin and speaks in sighs too heavy to bear.
And those who seek him will find not bliss, but oblivion.”

He is the whisper beneath their pleasures, the shadow at the edge of sensation, the final answer to those who have indulged so deeply that they crave something beyond the world they know. 

Those who are brought to Ashebel’s domain are not chained, but they do not leave. Pleasure is not given equally, it is taken, unraveled, twisted into something that makes them forget their own names. Some say the Nullhounds trade the Xiangalese to Ashebel, but others believe the Xiangalese come willingly, drawn by an ancient hunger within them. Those who enter the Ocean Tower do so because they desire something deeper than pleasure. They desire to be undone.

It is said that one Xiangalese did return from the Palace long ago, their body intact but their mind forever changed. When asked what they saw, what they felt, what they had endured, they only smiled, a slow, languid expression of knowing too much, and whispered:

"There is no greater pleasure than to lose yourself completely. He is waiting, if you dare.”

[WritesNaughtyStories]

Looks like we were both posting at about the same time and my question might have sparked an answer to yours.

But, beyond Ashebel, the question of Xiangalese slaves and their pleasure or lack thereof, while Xiangal society hinges on pleasure, and it is foundational to their identity, are they the only people who can use their magic this way?

Could, say, a Ticca learn to use their magic in a similar way? And, if so, does that constitute a different enough experience for a Xiangal to make it alluring? Are other, more mundane pleasures enough to sustain Xiangal, for at least a little while?

Also, is there any kind of feedback loop? Where giving pleasure is pleasurable? I think this might be intriguing for some Xiangal - at least for a minute.

To the point of some Xiangal seeking out subjugation - maybe. I would expect the kind of sensory deprivation that causes makes them unwell - do these Xiangalese individuals end up dying young?

[IsabellaRose]

13 minutes ago, WritesNaughtyStories said:

To the point of some Xiangal seeking out subjugation - maybe. I would expect the kind of sensory deprivation that causes makes them unwell - do these Xiangalese individuals end up dying young?

I think there is a world beyond pleasure and the pursuit of it for any Xiangal, but their society has evolved as a sort of backlash to the lack of it, or to having it taken from them. There was likely a point in Xiangalese society where survival was their only goal, and once they clawed their way back up and out of near extinction, a small subset of their society focused on pleasure exclusively. Eventually, it became their reason to exist. 

But it's not all they can do with their magic. It's just all they know. And others can learn what they do as well, it just comes naturally to the Xiangalese.

[WritesNaughtyStories]

Somehow Xiangal has taken on the elegance and cultural gravitas of Renaissance Florence or Venice for me.

Which begs the question, is there a pleasure house where a master artist, like Florentine clothiers or Venetian glass blowers or Roman painters, craft the greatest pleasures for palaces and princes throughout Xiangalese society? Are there competitions and entrance exams to become the masters' and mistresses' apprentices?

Are there tutors and academies that promising Xiangalese and foreigners hope to be admitted to?

Or does that all formalize Xiangalese culture in a way that is antithetical to them? And, if it is not Xiangal, who is it that has adopted it?