Inspiration: The Invention of Scotland
Sosaria the Brave
The civic anthem of Sosaria, Sosaria the Brave, is remarkable both for its content and the response that it provokes from Sosarians.
The anthem was lifted from Alexandrine (19.34), to the extent that it still refers to Sosaria’s ‘industry renowned and manufacture cunning’, does not mention cattle at all, and at one point rhymes ‘city serene’ with ‘Sosaria’.
The reaction wherever the anthem is played is mixed. The mostly-immigrant elite leap to their feet in their traditional kashik robes, and assume the daggith stance of absolute submission. The poor, mostly of old Sosarian stock, grumble, laugh or ignore the song.
The song, the kashik robes and the daggith stance are products of the Rediscovery, a Sosarian renaissance that occurred two decades ago when Sosaria justified its independence from the Bergolasti Reformation by arguing that Sosaria had a unique cultural heritage, much of which they proceeded to make up or appropriate from the customs and folkways of Sosaria’s poor, who mostly did consider themselves Bergolasti and wanted to participate in the Reformation.
These days the conflict plays itself out in feast halls, theatres and operas across the city, where first or second generation Sosarians perform ‘millennium-old’ Sosarian cattle chants while families that go back to the days of Bergolast attend the latest play from Shuttered.
Hooks
- Tell us more about the Reformation. Does it survive today? Did it have much success? Who participated?
- Was all the Rediscovery made up? Or was there some truth to it?
- What sort of plays are being performed in Shuttered?