Before you enter, please keep the local customs of Aristasia in mind. Eastminster is not officially an Aristasian territory as yet, however, the women who dwell here are of Aristasian descent and live as Aristasians.
First, men do not exist in Aristasia. Discriminatory? Perhaps - were it not for the Fall, "discrimination" would not have the negative connotations that it does in present day Telluria; one uses one's sense of discrimination to make ethical judgements, does one not? However, there is another very real explanation for why men do not exist in Aristasia, and that is the fact that Aristasia lies in another universe altogether. Some time ago, a group of courageously feminine settlers turned their back on the Pit that Telluria had become, and entered the dimension in which Aristasia is located. Men cannot likewise immigrate because the fabric of that dimension does not support their existence. They have no more reality in Aristasia than the Easter Bunny has in this universe. The conditions are too feminine to support the existence of men. Therefore, male visitors to Aristasia cannot be admitted, and should a male Tellurian find himself in feminine Elektraspace, he would perchence float in the ether like an unseen, disembodied spirit.
This is not to say that Aristasians are not sexed. There are two sexes in Aristasia: blonde and brunette. A woman's hair colour has nothing to do with her sex. Brunettes are forthright, practical, strong, brave, dashing, and very feminine (think of Katherine Hepburn, Nancy Drew, or Amelia Earhart); blondes are sweet, adorable, highly emotional, yielding, ultra feminine, and at their most extreme, about as practical as a chocolate teapot (Marilyn Monroe, for instance). When most people think of femininity, they think of blondes, and usually attach the negative stereotypes to the quality of femininity. This is erroneous and bongo. None of the brunettes mentioned above are at all unfeminine.
Both sexes are expected to conduct themselves in a seemly and ladylike manner, both in public and in private.
Therefore - and this brings us to the second point - in accordance with the rules of public decorum, please do not bring with you anything that smacks of the vulgar Tellurian, commonly referred to as "bongo" or "Pit." (Telluria is the universe in which "reality" exists. The Pit is what Telluria has become. It is to be hoped that this Age of Kali will come to an end soon)
Eastminster is located somewhere in the northern Shadowlands between the Tellurian and the Aristasian, but Eastminster is inhabited by relatives of Aristasians and her sympathies lie very definitely with Aristasia. Cultural references that reflect on anything after about 1964 or so are almost certainly too brutal for this climate. Behaviour that reflects such cultural change is likewise bongo. This is the sort of environment your grandparents probably lived in, and your parents remember from their childhood - not as it really was, of course (for Tellurian history has already been rewritten by the victors, and so perforce has Tellurian cultural memory) but as it should have been. In general, only that which is innocent, wholesome, and sound is permitted public approval.
Please note that in Aristasia, violence is almost unheard of - in Arcadia, there are knights who tourney and quest for dragons to honour their ladies, but Arcadia is very far off indeed and in the other provinces of Aristasia there is no war (Infra-Quirinelle is a strange island containing the early 1960's, Quirinelle contains the 1950's, Trent the 1930's, Kadoria the 1940's, Vintesse the Roaring Twenties and perhaps some of the earlier part of the twentieth Tellurian century, Arcadia the Edwardian and Victorian eras and earlier, Amazonia far-off Eastern realms as well as ancient matriarchal territories; there is also another province, Novaria, which harbours settlers from the late twenty first century, which saw a return to the Golden Age and an end to the Pit in Telluria). The only war in Aristasia is that which is waged on Telluria, and it is a very cold war indeed. Although no battles are fought with guns or blunderbusses, there is an Iron Curtain through which trade goods seldom pass, and Aristasians boycott most Pit goods anyway because they are tainted, therefore, an atmosphere of relative scarcity exists in Aristasia. When real goods (such as nylon stockings or up-to-date phonograph records) make it through the Iron Curtain, it is a cause for much celebration indeed.
No crime exists in Aristasia; Her Imperial Majesty's discipline is too sound for that! Vulgar language, clownish clothing, and harsh music are never permitted. Here, dignity, courtesy, and community are gold.
More information on Aristasia can be found at Belladonna or, of course, within Aristasia's Elektraspace itself.
If you wish to enter, pass through here.
