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Xaith:
a fantasy play

Author's Note:
Who is Xaith? 

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The story of Xaith is not a real one. The world in which it takes place is equally fictional, but if you stick around things may begin to feel a little familiar...

 Fantasy is a genre that I have always loved for its versatility, creativity, and unique ways of analyzing and discussing current issues in our world. Suzanne Collins in the Hunger Games for me has always been a dazzling example. And so, growing up and reading these books and their stories and warnings I heard my calling, and set out to write something that said something about what I find important. 

As a nonbinary writer I think it is very important to create characters that are nonbinary or queer (or in the case of Xaith’s fantastical world of Oh’Hote the equivalent for them). As I grew up I realized that the world was quickly changing: for the most part it seemed to trend toward more acceptance. But the books that started to come out with queer characters still never felt like me. They were always gay, miserable, male, and painfully grounded in our own real world. Thus, when I entered the Gateway course for the minor in writing I told myself I would write a story about someone who was like me. A person who is often perceived as male, but who did not identify as such; a person who's every thought lived in a different world---one full of new languages and magic. My vision was quickly invaded by bitter conflict. Gender acceptance or not, this other world I imagined quickly populated itself with problems. Which brings us to the world of Xaith, a world I had begun to create for a fantasy Worldbuilding class from my second semester at Umich, but one that still lacked fleshed out characters and plotlines.

Xaith lives in the world of Oh’Hote, where new magical inventions and the following industrialization that they have spawned have plunged the world into a rapid climate crisis. Sea levels are surging, flooding cities, and requiring all citizens (at least the ones who can afford them) to buy thick rubber boots to wade through flooded, muddy streets, knee-deep in industrial wastewater. Oh’Hote is after all a play on the French phrase “eau haute” which means high water. But, the conflict in this world does not stop there.

The inter-kingdom conflict of this world takes centerstage in the stage adaptation of Xaith’s life (forgive the offensively on-the-nose theatre pun). What once began as a third-person narrative of Xaith’s tale---a short story for my first experiment in the minor in writting---I later adapted into a stage play that tells the story of a poor refugee displaced in a foreign metropolis. They don’t speak the language, understand the customs, and certainly not the magic and their bitter life is rife with prejudice and persecution.

Which brings us to my last area of interest that I wanted to explore with Xaith’s tale: interlanguage communication. As a hopefully soon-to-be-declared Romance Languages major, learning about other cultures and their languages is my raison-d’être and thus I wanted it to be the catalytic event in my character's life.

I hate to spoil an ending, but Xaith's struggle ends ubruptly and violently. Their murder comes at the hands of a rich, cruel Royal who hangs them for speaking in a banned language. It is later revealed that Xaith is whispering a prayer for the city’s dead of a raging plague, and not malicious and monstrous words like the Royal believes. Upon reflection I realized that Xaith living through a plague makes sense considering the pandemic my still-developing brain is struggling to process. 

Alas, Xaith’s story is one of misunderstanding, prejudice, and suffering, and I hope it is impactful. Although upsetting, it is important to me as well to show in the play Xaith’s demise, death, and subsequent entrance into urban legend (a trope that I found upon gaining inspiration for my horror play in Victorian England’s 19th century penny dreadfuls). Xaith’s story is twisted. They are made out to be a monster due to their pox-marked skin and blood red eyes: the results of the disease that they supposedly spread through the city of To’el Sayihr (at least according to stories that are written after they are killed).

That is why it is my duty to tell their story as it "truly happened," and to the best of my ability present it upon the stage as well as a magic-less theatre can. I hope you, dearest viewer, will listen and take to heart what happens when our words stolen. When our world falls apart around us, and everyone looks for someone to blame...

The World

Xaith's world is vast, and objectively very confusing...But, here's a helpful abbreviated view of their little corner and the problems it faces!

Oh'Hote is the ancient name given to all the lands that make up Xaith's world. It's western continent is shaped like an elephant and is referred to as such. In it's current age Oh'Hote is rapidly industrializing, and new advances in technology based in unethically cast magic are leading to catastrophic climate change. Ocean levels are quickly rising. Religion, spiritualism, government, and magic all seek to justify, explain, and combat the rapid and deadly changes.

Xaith comes from a small village within the realm of a confederation of 5 city-states in the center of the elephant like continent. 

When a brutal war for power over these wealthy ports finally reaches Xaith's village, they are forced to flee their home to Ey'Tay, far to the west.

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Oh'Hote

The World

The Kingdom

Ey'Tay is found on the far western shore of the elephant-shaped continent. It's culture and language are genderless, creating the necessity for special customs surrounding having children, naming professionals (ex: instead of a king or queen Ey'Tay has simply a ruler), fashion, etc.

During Xaith's lifetime a brutal ruler and their court have resorted to religious extremism and ritualistic sacrifice in an effort to appease their angry gods. As they do, new factions of their religion, Bisilism, duel in the flooding streets. These include the Days of Fire Bisilites: those that believe the raging plague and flooding is a curse from the gods and that austere dress and custom will help get the world back in check, and the Hotai'i (High Tide) Bisilites: those who believe the plague and flooding will purify the sin-stained world and wear little clothing in an effort to be more easily cleansed. Xaith is a member of neither faction and instead follows the Old Ways: the belief that the God's Home is the earth beneath one's feet, the sky is the home of the souls of the dead, and that burning the dead free their souls to join their loved ones as star's in the night sky. Bisilites on the other hand offer their dead to the water, worshiping instead the Son of the Sea, the Gods of Waters' child among men, that preached the New Ways of Bisilism.

Ey'Tay

The City

To'el Sayihr means capital city in Rsuhloo, the language of Ey'Tay. This language is the mother tongue of many of the pioneering magicians who's technology is sending Oh'Hote into chaos. But, the economic benefits and power gained from this new technology has caused rampant prejudice and elitism in the city escalating now to the point that all other languages are forbidden to be spoken. Brutal royal officials arrest anyone heard speaking other languages, and public hangings make an example of helpless refugees from the war in the east. Xaith, being one of these refugees, speaks only their mother tongue of Promanti. They can't even understand the firey surmons of the battling preachers on their soapboxes in the streets. They can't even understand the sentences for the crimes the hanged supposedly have committed.  And all the while the water from the perpetually flooded grand canal continues to fill the muddy streets with the industrial waste of the city. All those that can afford to keep their feet dry keep out the streets, avoiding plague and putrid water alike. Those that cannot shell out their precious coins to buy thick rubber boots.

To'el Sayihr

Inspirations

The story of Xaith has many sources of inspiration. This sliding photo gallery includes visuals that helped inspire the city scape, clothing, and plotlines of their story.

For the city the goal was Turn of the 20th Century London meets old Jerusalem. The crowded industrializing cityscape of To'el Sayihr also features a grand canal inspired by Venice, Italy, that is the source of polluted water that constantly floods the streets.

To play with the idea of gender I mixed various "male" and "female" fashions from the Gilded Age as well as Medieval Europe and the Middle East. I wanted to create the image of traditional cultural fashions fighting against the new mass market industrial-produced designs. 

Lastly, the most important inspirations, late 1800s Penny Dreadfuls: horror and detective stories cheaply produced and distributed as serial pamphlets. They owe their inseption to leaflets detailing public hangings that were distributed to the crowd, and I wanted this visual to be included in the plot. In the original short story version of Xaith the false narrative of Xaith's life is distributed as a "crimson horror" at their hanging. Notable penny dreadfuls include Sweeny Todd, Varney the Vampire, and Springheeled Jack, the latter of which was a great inspiration to the false narrative of Xaith's life, depicting them as a nefarious creature that terriorizes innocent people in dark, shady alleyways.

The Plot 

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I like to call this section The Meat. Now that you've bravely waded through all the thick, goopy background information, now you get to read about what actually happens on stage! (And because you asked so nicely a longer version of the plot as it was originally outlined in my source short story is also deatiled here.)

The Short Story

Part I: Wars

  • Xaith grows up in a small farming village near the 5 Cities. 

  • Xaith is taught Promanti runic magic by their mother and Old Ways theology by their father

  • Xaith watches their first Burning: the traditional open air funeral pyre of Promanti culture and the Old Ways

  • War reaches the village and the villagers are gathered in the town square and executed

  • Xaith escapes and travels west to Ey'Tay

Part II: Whispers

  • Xaith lives among the homless of To'el Sayihr for several years, now pox-marked and red-eyed from their bout with a plague: the Red Death

  • Rumors spread that the Red Death, was brought to the city by the refugees from the east

  • Xaith watches hangings in the square, they cannot read the pamphlets that tell of the hanged-peoples' crimes

  • Xaith follows the wagons that bear the dead to the canal where a water-burial is performed per the Ey'Tay/ Bisilite tradition

  • Xaith whispers The Prayer for the Unburned, a prayer their father taught them meant to help the souls not freed from their bodies through burning to escape the water and join the other souls as stars in the night sky

  • The prosiding Royal hears Xaith's whispers and assumes they are cursing the proceedings

  • As Xaith is arrested, a passerby notices a pox-mark on the face of the Royal, it is the first sign of the Red Death

  • Xaith is hung in the square, their body is cast into the canal. Across the city, the Royal is given a lavish procession and funary rights before they are sent out to sea in an ornate gilded canoe.

Part III: Wails

  • A decade has passed since Xaith and the Royal's death

  • Urban legends link the rumors of the Red Death being brought by refugees to Xaith's hanging and the Royal's contraction of the Red Death

  • A scarlet horror (Oh'Hote's version of a penny dreadful) is published by Kith Xafar detailing the monsterous life of Xaith: fiend of the Quay, a monsterous warped image of Xaith that flies from the rooftops to curse Bisilites, and arrives at hangings to burn the corpses still in the noose

  • Wails and laments are heard when the twin moons of Oh'Hote light the quay alongside the flooded canal. Perhaps the anguished spirit of Xaith still walks there, never free to join their family among the stars?

The Play

Act I:

  • Details of Xaith's childhood are provided by the Red Death survivors in the Chorus (they are similarly pox-marked like Xaith)

  • The Chorus reenacts these scenes as well as day-to-day life in To'el Sayihr

    • A Royal spits at the pox-marked homeless​

    • A parent cries for their child, lost in a pool of the filthy water that fills the streets

    • Two market goers gossip about the Red Death's origins: one saying it's another curse from the Gods, the other blaming the refugees

  • Two Bisilite Preachers, one from the Days of Fire sect that preaches reform and damnation the other a Hotai'i who says the flooded streets are the Gods trying to cleanse the world of sin, battle atop soapboaxes in the flooded streets

  • Xaith goes to see a hanging in the square, follows the carts bearing bodies to the canal

  • The incident with the Royal unfolds as it did in the original short story

Act II:

  • Xaith's trial is shown is great detail

    • members of the chorus tell lies about Xaith as Xatih attempts to defend themselves​ in Promanti

    • The Judge and Jury cannot understand Promanti and so are quick to believe the lies of the Chorus

    • Xaith is sentenced to hang

    • The two simultaneous funerals for Xaith and the Royal take place on opposite sides of the stage

  • After the trial, the Chorus tells us about the new fire that Xaith's trial and hanging have given to the rumors about the Red Death

  • The Chorus tells about the publication of the crimson horror about Xaith

    • As they do Xaith rises up from the putrid water and transforms into the moster the city believes them to be​

    • They fly from rooftop to rooftop cackling as the curtain closes

The Players

Xaith

The "Anti-Hero"

Xaith’s costume is a reflection their foreign culture from the east, and makes them stick out amongst even the poor of To’el Sayihr. Their pox marked skin is an effect created through makeup on the actor’s legs and arms, and solid red contacts give them the monstrous eyes that become the thing of legend after their death. Additionally, false, long, black nails enhance a monstrous look though are meant to be a misinterpreted sign of their inability to groom themselves while being on the streets. Their hair will be a wig, fashioned in the straight haired style of the 5 Cities region in the center of the continent, but their clothes (tattered, and stitched to show their poverty) also reflect the eastern style. They wear the rubber boots of the poor that must brave the flooded city streets, and will wear smudged brown and black makeup to convey the soot-dust and mud of the dirty, industrialized city.

Script Excerpt:

Act II, Scene I: The Court

The Chorus looms in the background, their thick rubber boots half covered by the thick dark water that floods the streets. Xaith hobbles onto the stage, monstrous, pox-marked, eye's crimson. They speak in words no one can understand--the Chorus must speak for them. The trial begins.

Judge (seated at the raised podium): Speak, child! Let us hear your plea.

Xaith (through tears): I have done nothing wrong...please...remove my chains...I only meant---

Judge: Cease that vile dribble! It is for good reason Promanti is no longer spoken here! Who shall speak for them? Let us hear what came to pass!

Xaith: Please...I don't understand...why must I be punished for wishing well upon the dead?

THE ROYAL

The Cruel Persecutor

The character of the royal is meant to show the excess of the royalty of To’el Sayihr the Capital City. They wear lavish shoes that don’t trek through flooded streets, and their unblemished skin shows their ability to isolate themselves from the pox suffering peasants. Their culture is one of androgyny and thus the gender of actors auditioning for this role is of no importance. The Royal is meant to be middle aged and of any race as they are part of a globalizing culture where intermarriage between different cultures/races is meant to solidify political power and not restricted along racial boundaries. Use of a wig will be necessary for their intricate curled hair. Pierced ears preferred for their lavish earrings and possible faux nose ring to be used as is customary in those of royal birth in their culture.

THE CHORUS

The Voices of the City

The Chorus consists of 6-8 actors that play various roles throughout the play. For example, two principal members of the chorus are the two types of Preachers in the city: the Hotai’i Preacher and Days of Fire Preacher. Each represents a different sect of the dominant religion of the city, but both are influenced by the rising water that surrounds them. Each has different advice about sin, burial practices, and magic. The two quarrel, monologue, etc. and help to introduce aspects of the show that may be foreign to the audience (the plague, different people and their jobs, and most importantly the two different versions of Xaith’s story). The other 4-6 actors switch between roles such as the Royal Jury, Pox victims at the hanging, cult members/ worshipers etc.)

Script Excerpt:

Scene I, Act I, the City Square

Enter two rival preachers attempting to introduce us to the play, arguing over who's version is right, and how to tell it. Behind them enter 4-6 other figures.They are the chorus: a sort of hive mind that sways as one but speaks as many. There's the pox marked victim of the Red Death: a vicious fever that leaves the eyes red and pupiless, the skin welted. There's the Days of Fire preacher with a handkerchief to their mouth and the Hotai'i preacher with a a bottle of salt water that they splashe on their holy book as well as the passersby. They tell us the crime that has been committed and where we are. They speak for Xaith...Stealing their story.

DOF Preacher: Our tale of monstrosity begins in the shining city of To’el Sayihr. Great center of industry and luxury. Advances in magic have built great machines—

Hotai’i Preacher: That choke our air and defile our water.

DOF Preacher: Our story begins with a hanging, a common scene in those days of Oh’Hote.

Hotai’i Preacher: The trouble is our Gods’ justice was ignored and royals attempted to speak louder than the powers of the Earth.

DOF: The Gods sent water to drown out our sin and douse the burial fires of our dead.

Hotai’i: The waters were sent to purify our sin. Wet your feet I say, put out the carnal fires of the blasphemers!

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The Set

The Set features a backdrop of the city sites and canal seen through the spaces between ornate, graffitied pillars. Sights include the royal palace, the Bisilite Days of Fire Church, numerous crooked black smoke stacks, and a gondola. The actual stage is flooded with a few inches of water restrained by a lip on the stage. The actors and set pieces wade through this water for the entirety of the show. The two major set pieces are the gallows (which are stationary with their noose for the duration of the show) and the jury box (which is rolled onto the stage during the trial scene in the second act).

A Few Final Words

Dearest viewers and readers, if you've made it this far you've earned my ardent thanks. This story is one I've felt so passionately ever since I began reading penny dreadfuls as inspiration for its creation. From concept, to short story, to play, this story has changed and grown and it wouldn't be without the help of my fellow Minor in Writing members, and Julie of course, who helped praise it, critique it, and help it evolve. Another special thank you to Scott Beal, who's Worldbuilding class helped me create the world that this story exists in. And a final thank you to my parents for their love of nerdy fantasy books and movies that have inspired me ever since they intially traumatized me.

 This bizarre theatre pitch I hope will one day be able to haunt a stage near you! But, until then let it fester in your minds and pollute the internet with just one more terrifying tale!

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