A great cultural exchange has been occurring over the past decade as our Pelratha colony continues to grow into a formidable state. We have participated in Cirathan holidays and festivals, and they have joined ours.

One such holiday, Serbaeti, or translated literally ‘costume vision’, is a festival where the participants dress up as characters real or fictional and act as they would. The goal is to try and emulate them so perfectly that others are tricked into thinking they’re real.

At a party in the city of Korgathen last month’s end, three peldaks chose to dress as warriors from east coast history. Anko The Conqueror, Jute of SlaughterHill, and Baak The Merciless.

The first letters of their names are AJB.

When translated into ECML, this is roughly pronounced ‘aavazheb’.

The Eastern Cirathan Merchant Language is one where new compound words are easily made from root words. Aavazheb is a compound of aavaz, which is a braided hair style in the Pel League, and heb, which means field. Aavazheb therefore means something like ‘braided hair field’.

This year is the 200th anniversary of when The Sauroobi Dominion conquered much of what is now the Pel League and, as a test of loyalty, forced their subjects to be shaved bald and regrow their hair in the Sauroobi style. The hair clippings were then collected in a field and burned.

Because Serbaeti is a festival about paying attention to small details and drawing conclusions, everyone at the party assumed the three peldaks were threatening to shave them all bald. The party goers told their friends about the threat, and soon all of Korgathen was furious.

The Governor of Pelratha quickly apologized for the misunderstanding but pointed out that no peldak would have threatened them in such a roundabout way.