Peoples
The body reads class and history, not blood.
In Cross, a man’s height tells you what he ate at nine years old and where his grandparents were in 1790. It does not tell you what people he came from. Two men from the same valley, one a canon’s son and the other a miner’s, stand twelve centimetres apart — more than any difference between blocs.
What tells people apart at first sight is not the face: it is the hands, the teeth, the legs and the way they breathe.
15 cm of spread in Brytonia
4 cm of spread in Kantonal
+4 cm the pact-bound over the Christians
Male stature — 1890
The average is not the figure. The spread is.
| Bloc | Average | Elite | Base | Spread |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bloc Königsmark | Average 172 | Elite 178 | Base 169 | Spread 9 |
| Bloc Heptarquia | Average 171 | Elite — | Base — | Spread — |
| Bloc Kantonal Confederation | Average 170 | Elite 172 | Base 168 | Spread 4 |
| Bloc Vykhradia | Average 169 | Elite 176 | Base 166 | Spread 10 |
| Bloc Brytonia | Average 169 | Elite 178 | Base 163 | Spread 15 |
| Bloc Clerical Order | Average 167 | Elite 172 | Base 162 | Spread 10 |
| Bloc Velinia | Average 166 | Elite 170 | Base 164 | Spread 6 |
| Bloc Meridia | Average 164 | Elite 169 | Base 162 | Spread 7 |
Marks of trade
What stands in for “race” in this world.
| Trade | What the body gives away |
|---|---|
| Trade Hashmalite miner | What the body gives away arc eye — an opaque halo at the edge of the cornea. Turns the whole head to look sideways |
| Trade Purificador | What the body gives away a fine permanent tremor in the hands. A face ten years older than the age |
| Trade Medium White | What the body gives away a pupil that does not answer light · a veil worn for pain · no mark of metal anywhere on the body |
| Trade Limes soldier | What the body gives away deafness on the stock side. A buckle callus on the hip |
| Trade Brytonian worker | What the body gives away bowed legs — grew up under coal smoke and never saw a whole sun |
| Trade Fiandeira | What the body gives away loom deafness and fingers with no prints left |
| Trade Junker de Königsmark | What the body gives away a duelling scar on the left cheek, made on purpose |
| Trade Vykhradian serf | What the body gives away teeth worn to the root by mill grit in the rye |
Flags
| Bloc | Flag |
|---|---|
| Bloc Clerical Order | Flag Choir-Cross in gold on blood-red, a circle of seven points |
| Bloc Königsmark | Flag a double Nordic cross in silver on cobalt, off-centre |
| Bloc Vykhradia | Flag eleven white bands — one per magnate, and two belong to extinct houses |
| Bloc Brytonia | Flag Solar Cross — the Choir-Cross with a disc at the crossing |
| Bloc Meridia | Flag a cinnabar mountain under seven rays, counted from the bottom up |
| Bloc Velinia | Flag a bridge arch with an eye in the keystone |
| Bloc Kantonal | Flag one bell per canton. The only flag designed to grow |
| Bloc Heptarquia | Flag seven sigils in an open wheel, because it does not close |
| Bloc O Inferno | Flag it has no flag — seven incompatible court standards |
The full texts
The almanac gives you the figure. Here is the reason behind it — contradictions included, and everything the Curia would rather not explain.