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The Feast of Saint Victoria-Postponed
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Erin Savonarola
Doomheim
#1 - 2014-01-05 05:56:05 UTC  |  Edited by: Erin Savonarola
Most faithful subjects of the Empire,

On 0100, Feb 8, the Contessa di le Solfete will be hosting a formal dinner in honor of the patron saint of Solfete, Saint Victoria. Formal invitations with details will be issued within the week, however, this shall be considered an unofficial notice. Please note that invitations shall be extended only to Imperial subjects.

Warm regards,
The Contessa di le Solfete

Whereas this is a formal gathering, the following guidance has been put forth by the protocol office for those that might not have attended one before.

The dress code is evening formal. For the ladies this means a full length gown that does not bare the shoulders and full length evening gloves. The colour of the gown shall be restricted to either silver, blue, white or some combination or variant thereof. Noble women shall wear a tiara.
Men shall wear a dark coat, of either black or midnight blue with matching trousers. The cuff of the coat shall come to the wrist. The style and cut of the coat is left to the discretion of the guest, but any layer under the coat covering the torso shall be white or silver. Black leather shoes shall be worn and polished to a high gloss. Males shall wear white gloves. Holders and other nobility shall wear a sash of the main colour of their house and holders specifically shall display the house emblem on the sash near the shoulder.

Members of the clergy whose vows require them to wear certain vestments will be accorded an accommodation, with the understanding that every attempt shall be made to conform to the otherwise applicable dress code.

All attendees are expected to have an escort or date for the evening. Furthermore, the escort or date shall conform to the criteria for admission (that is, an Imperial subject). There is no requirement that the escort or date be a capsuleer. Furthermore, it is acceptable for two persons otherwise invited singly attend with each other. Members of the clergy whose vows prohibit this will be afforded an accommodation.

A full pamphlet of the rules of the dinner will be published and made available to all invited guests. Additionally the protocol office will host a short class a week before the dinner for those invited that need it.
Lasairiona Raske
Itsukame-Zainou Hyperspatial Inquiries Ltd.
Arataka Research Consortium
#2 - 2014-01-05 12:26:23 UTC
Best of luck with your event. I find advertising a formal event closer to the date more practical, though.

Are you a devil or an angel

Sent here from heaven or from hell?

Sweet temptress, I'm wrapped in your tangles

Can't find my way out of your spell
Katrina Oniseki
Oniseki-Raata Internal Watch
Ishuk-Raata Enforcement Directive
#3 - 2014-01-05 16:22:33 UTC
Lasairiona Raske wrote:
I find advertising a formal event closer to the date more practical, though.


Two weeks is a good middle ground in my opinion, but I've seen plenty done months ahead of time.

Anyways, best of luck.

Katrina Oniseki
Lady Melisande Galena
Voluptatem
#4 - 2014-01-05 19:34:20 UTC
Fondest wishes and blessings for your event, your grace.
Erin Savonarola
Doomheim
#5 - 2014-01-05 23:56:00 UTC
Thank you all for your kind well wishes. I hope to hold another formal event in a few months that will be open to polite company outside of the Empire.
Normally you would be correct; formal invitations are delivered three weeks in advance of the date. However, as commoners will be invited, the advanced notice is to allow them to speak to their tailor or modiste and ensure they have a suitable outfit. Additionally, since attending a formal event alone is considered a faux pas, it allowed guests to organize accompaniment for the event, be it a date or escort.
Erin Savonarola
Doomheim
#6 - 2014-01-14 09:12:09 UTC  |  Edited by: Erin Savonarola
It took me a while to condense a few codices and the ever useful, but quite lengthy Formal Etiquette for Young Women. (Nordar customs are in volume VII of the YC 87 printing.) This is the bare minimum that commoners will need to understand to attend and maintain decorum.

The Feast of Saint Victoria is a formal event. The traditional guests are the Contessa di le Solfete’s thirty two vassals, plus a small assortment of luminaries and civic leaders of the city. The feast celebrates the life and Miracles of Saint Victoria, the Patron Saint of Solfete.

For formal dinners on Nordar III there are certain customs which each guest should be familiar with. Firstly, they should be aware of the two principles of the feast. These two persons are responsible for ensuring that decorum is not breached and that the feast is orderly.

The Lady of the Feast is the Contessa di le Solfete. She will arrange the invitations and the guest list as well as proposing the first toast and introducing any speakers. While she presides over all aspects of the feast, the actual conduct of the feast resides in the Lady or Lord Executor.

The Lady or Lord Executor is responsible for running the feast. They will open the bar for cocktails prior to the first course and instruct the servants on when to sound the dinner chimes. The Lady or Lord Executor will also taste the main course and announced that it is fit for consumption.

There are two distinct areas that will be set up in the grand ballroom. The first is the cocktail lounge. Before and after the dinner the lounge will be open for informal discussion. The second in the dining area. At the sounding of the first dinner chime, guests will move from the cocktail lounge to the dining area, not before. Each guest will have an assigned seat. All guests will be seated with their companion for the evening. There will be tables of six with one or two tables of four as needed.

Entry
Guests will wait at the doorway to the ballroom to be announced by the seneschal. After being announced, the guest shall proceed immediately to the contessa for a greeting. Please note this is not a conversation, greetings are no more than a few words and an introduction to any honored guests, who will be with the contessa and will be greeted at the same time.
After that, guests should make thier way to the cocktail lounge for drinks and conversation with other guests.

Toasting
It is appropriate to make toasts at a formal feasts. The contessa will make the first toast. After that designated guests will make additional toasts. Each invited guest will receive a pamphlet of toasts and the proper responses prior to the feast.

There are two rules for toasting:
Do as the toastmaster does. The toastmaster is the person offering the toast. If he stands to propose a toast, then everyone joining in should stand as well.

Never drink a toast to yourself. Since toasting is done to show respect or appreciation, it is inappropriate to drink when a toast has been proposed for you personally. Therefore, even when the toastmaster is standing, if the toast is to you, you should be seated.

Order and Decorum
The contessa will have a small bell and hammer. Three tones signify a demand for the attention of all the guests. Two tones is a call to rise and one signifies that all should be seated.
For those that wish to speak while guests are seated in the dining area, with the exception of a toast, they must have the permission of the Lady or Lord Executor. The procedure for such is as follows:
The guest shall stand if not already doing so.
They shall announce to the Lady or Lord Executor they wish to be heard.
The Lady or Lord Executor will use the full title and name of the guest and then give permission for the guest to speak.
The Guest shall then speak directly and pithily.

There are several rules and customs associated with a formal dinner on Nabor III. These are the pertinent ones:
Guests will not be tardy.
Guests will not be out of dress code.
Cocktails are not permitted into the dining area.
The toasting glass is used for toasting only. (Note, this was corrected from a previous version.)
Slave are not to be spoken to, of or acknowledged in an fashion. Should an issue arise, the seneschal shall be the person spoken to.
No discussion of business is allowed; this is a formal feast to honor a saint.
Drinking is mandatory, however, intoxication is not allowed.
There shall be no drinking from the toasting glass until the first toast.
There shall be no talking during any comments by the Lady of the Feast, the honored guest or speaker, or the Lady or Lord Executor.
There shall be no foul language, obscene jokes, offensive remarks or use of a language other that Amarrish.
Any other breach of decorum that the Lady of the Feast or Lady or Lord Executor deem fit.

Failure to follow the rules will result in the Lady or Lord Executor, or Lady of the Feast levying a pecuniary liability against the offending party. The monies collected will then be donated to a worthy cause.

Schedule for the evening
Guest Arrival: 0100
Cocktail Period: 0120
Dinner Chimes: 0200
At this point no further guests shall be admitted.
Invocation
Opening Toasts
Introduction of Guests
Toasts – to the guests
Dinner
Break
Desert and Coffee
Guest Speaker
Closing Remarks
Final toasts
Benediction
After dinner libations and entertainment.

God bless.
Anslo
Scope Works
#7 - 2014-01-14 13:13:15 UTC
Are you hosting a dinner or building a warp drive? Man that's a lot of rules..whatever. Good luck have fun.

[center]-_For the Proveldtariat_/-[/center]
Erin Savonarola
Doomheim
#8 - 2014-01-14 13:41:14 UTC
Anslo wrote:
Are you hosting a dinner or building a warp drive? Man that's a lot of rules..whatever. Good luck have fun.

Well, my dear, we are Amarr. This is kind of what we do. When I was sixteen, my mother sent me off to finishing school. For a year I learned nothing but protocol, etiquette and manners. I am as much for levity and informality as anyone, but certain times the utmost formality is called for.

Holders and the upper nobility are rather accustomed to this. The main reason for all the rigidity and rules mostly has to do with Amarr life spans. As a holder, without cloning or capsuleer tech, I could reasonably expect to live around five hundred years. After enough time, predictability is comfortable. The amount of rules force that predictability.

That said, after the feast there will be an informal dance with techno-industrial rock, at least I think that is was it is called in Federation. Changing rooms will be provided.

Perhaps the next feast will be more open in the guest list. I would suggest brushing up on your place setting knowledge now.
Constantin Baracca
Societas Imperialis Sceptri Coronaeque
Khimi Harar
#9 - 2014-01-14 13:44:17 UTC
Anslo wrote:
Are you hosting a dinner or building a warp drive? Man that's a lot of rules..whatever. Good luck have fun.


Welcome to the Amarrian semi-formal engagement, Anslo!

If you'd like, I can send you the full 500-page book on the Amarrian formal dinner. If you are interested, it contains rules such as:

"Awards and honors worn on the sash of the captain's uniform should be clearly displayed in a row, flat to the chest, so as to provide polite viewership of all awards and honors within 60 degrees of angle from all sides. Care should be taken not to draw attention to the awards and honors. No embellishments should be worn which have not been conferred by Imperial decree. To provide maximized viewing without attracting undue attention to one's awards and honors, if one's chest is not sufficiently flat, it is best to place a card behind the sash to which the awards and honors are to be pinned. Care must be taken that the card cannot be seen poking from behind the sash, nor should the card be discernible through the sash whether by shape or color. It is thus a good idea to cut a new card for each award gained to the exact footprint to be taken up by the awards and honors and to choose a card in a color which blends into the uniform beneath, not the sash. Arrange all awards and honors in the chronological order in which they were earned, and arrange them so that one could lay a pen crosswise through their midsections and touch each from center to center, with all awards perfectly bisected through the center. Never place more than eight awards or honors per row, even if your sash or awards dictate that you could fit more. Care should be taken that the awards are not presented, by any body motion, in an effort to make them more visible or to impress upon one's colleagues their impressiveness. This is best done by practicing the formal stances earlier described, to keep the shoulder from being tilted in the general direction of someone to whom you are conversing. The awards and honors should sit squarely upon the left breast, aligned to the floor. If your sash tends to migrate or move during the course of the evening, upsetting the alignment, consider pinning the sash discretely to the shoulder and waist, or more if necessary. Great care should be taken not to make these pins visible in any way, so pin them close to the neck and belt as possible and conceal them by using pins which match the color of the sash, have no undue sheen, and hide beneath the sash if at all possible, preferably using a dress clip. Maintain the correct posture to keep these awards aligned to the floor, not elevating one fully above the other for any appreciable length of time."

I imagine the Contessa is using the semi-formal because there will be people from other cultures who may not have had a class in etiquette every single day of every single year for as long as they were in school.

In all honesty, though, there is a classic text called, "A Brief History of the Dipped Shoulder" which details how historical events in Amarr history were sometimes influenced by these somewhat obscure, rude slights. Duels have been fought and battles wages because of these subtle, accidental insults.

In any case, trust me, this list of affairs is nothing compared to what we have to go through if, God forbid, we're invited to a formal ball.

"What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?"

-Matthew 16:26
Erin Savonarola
Doomheim
#10 - 2014-01-14 15:18:10 UTC
Actually, bishop, this is going to be categorized as a formal event, but with certain considerations made for the fact commoners are attending. I've loosened the dress code a bit and eliminated a lot of hassle by declaring military uniforms off limits and simplified a lot of the rules set. I'm not going to republish chapters of books.
If I were holding this event for the nobility, as I have in years past, the invitation would just be sent detailing the time and the date with the indication this is a formal event.
Also, your aforementioned 500 page book, please tell me that is not Tassadof's. He's a hack and I am not sure why people still read him.
Kithrus
Imperial Academy
Amarr Empire
#11 - 2014-01-14 15:23:58 UTC
Are attendees required to bring a gift? I would not want to be the one who does and everyone else get upset.

Darkness is more then absence of light, it is ignorance and corruption. I will be the Bulwark from such things that you may live in the light. Pray so my arms do not grow weary and my footing remain sure.

If you are brave, join me in the dark.
Erin Savonarola
Doomheim
#12 - 2014-01-14 15:28:13 UTC
Kithrus wrote:
Are attendees required to bring a gift? I would not want to be the one who does and everyone else get upset.

No gifts. As this is to honor Saint Victoria, she should be considered the guest of honor or hostess in the traditional sense. So, yes, normally a small token gift to the hostess is appropriate, but not in this case.
Anabella Rella
Gradient
Electus Matari
#13 - 2014-01-14 15:47:40 UTC
No offense intended but, with all those rules and regulations I think I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry honoring your saints. We sinners have much more fun (and are dressed more comfortably).

At any rate best wishes for a successful event.

When the world is running down, you make the best of what's still around.
Erin Savonarola
Doomheim
#14 - 2014-01-14 15:57:41 UTC
Anabella Rella wrote:
No offense intended but, with all those rules and regulations I think I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry honoring your saints. We sinners have much more fun (and are dressed more comfortably).

At any rate best wishes for a successful event.

It's all a matter of balance. Not every weekend can be spent in Caille visiting nightclubs and doing shots with Jin Mei twins. If it was, then that would become bland and boring, would it not?
Thank you for your well wishes, though.
Constantin Baracca
Societas Imperialis Sceptri Coronaeque
Khimi Harar
#15 - 2014-01-14 18:11:25 UTC
Erin Savonarola wrote:
Actually, bishop, this is going to be categorized as a formal event, but with certain considerations made for the fact commoners are attending. I've loosened the dress code a bit and eliminated a lot of hassle by declaring military uniforms off limits and simplified a lot of the rules set. I'm not going to republish chapters of books.
If I were holding this event for the nobility, as I have in years past, the invitation would just be sent detailing the time and the date with the indication this is a formal event.
Also, your aforementioned 500 page book, please tell me that is not Tassadof's. He's a hack and I am not sure why people still read him.


Well, my lady, in the service of the Family Ardishapur, we know our Tassadof backwards and forwards! He may have been dead for over three thousand years, but that's no excuse to slim down the definitive textbook of formal behavior by the... what is Strahd's book now? A hundred pages?... four hundred pages you lot seem to have slimmed down to! I'll bet your menfolk don't even know the proper way someone of their particular profession and station should tie a cravat!

Seriously, I can chant passages from that book like psalms. It drills deep into your head so that no matter where you are, you've got an instructor you haven't seen in a decade or two screaming at you, "Shoulders equidistant, Lord Constantin! Do you think that spot on your shoulder that your nonexistent Metropolitan's filigree would be is something to be proud of?"

On the positive side, I don't know many places outside the Ardishapur that still teach four semester classes worth of ballroom dancing as required curriculum. I was only average at it in my school, but apparently, compared to the rest of the Empire, I am professional grade.

"What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?"

-Matthew 16:26
Erin Savonarola
Doomheim
#16 - 2014-01-14 21:44:43 UTC
I think you mistake me for a Kor-Azorite. I'm a Kadorite holder. You know the keepers of tradition in the Empire? The Institute for Noble Girls, the best finishing school in the Empire-on Kador Prime. Formal Etiquette for Young Women the definitive guide, now on it's 30th printing and up to X! volumes--printed on Kador Prime. "Guricheq's Formal Dining Codex", two volumes 800 pages in total--printed on Kador Prime.
And if you've had four semesters of ballroom dancing, you might be able to keep up with me. There will not be any ballroom dancing at the feast, but I will find a time for us to dance.
Constantin Baracca
Societas Imperialis Sceptri Coronaeque
Khimi Harar
#17 - 2014-01-14 22:42:43 UTC
Erin Savonarola wrote:
I think you mistake me for a Kor-Azorite. I'm a Kadorite holder. You know the keepers of tradition in the Empire? The Institute for Noble Girls, the best finishing school in the Empire-on Kador Prime. Formal Etiquette for Young Women the definitive guide, now on it's 30th printing and up to X! volumes--printed on Kador Prime. "Guricheq's Formal Dining Codex", two volumes 800 pages in total--printed on Kador Prime.
And if you've had four semesters of ballroom dancing, you might be able to keep up with me. There will not be any ballroom dancing at the feast, but I will find a time for us to dance.


Well then, it isn't often I've heard boasts that lofty! It may be a squeeze to get there in time from my convocation, but I think I might be able to dash back in time. Let me see if the laws of physics shall allow it.

"What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?"

-Matthew 16:26
Erin Savonarola
Doomheim
#18 - 2014-01-23 03:46:01 UTC
The time has been pushed back to 0100 to better accommodate certain guests. I understand that some people might not be able to make the new time and extend my apologies.
Odelya d'Hanguest
Order of St. Severian
#19 - 2014-01-27 23:27:49 UTC
Can one imagine anything more boring than this? One wonders if ennui and monotony will eventually outweigh the rottenness of the decaying Empire.
Leopold Caine
Stillwater Corporation
#20 - 2014-01-28 08:02:31 UTC
Odelya d'Hanguest wrote:
Can one imagine anything more boring than this? One wonders if ennui and monotony will eventually outweigh the rottenness of the decaying Empire.



Searching for something more... thrilling again, Lady d'Hanguest?
  • Leopold Caine, Domination Malakim

Angels are never far...

Stillwater Corporation Recruitment Open - Angel Cartel Bloc
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