Lexicon/Ourinesse
Ourinesse
Silence Shattered into Echoes writes...
As you have requested, my lord, the results of my research:
Ourinesse is best known as the form of government proposed by alik-Lord Tirinnan, though in fact it was not invented by him -- he was merely its greatest proponent. The honor of its invention goes to Wandering Willow, a noted agitant and member of the Sidereal Exalted. In its purest form, ourinesse is simply government by destiny, in a manner similar to that of the modern Varang City States. Children are tested at birth for their probable influence and course in life, and those whose destinies show the greatest promise are nurtured and groomed to become leaders later in life. It was never designed to be used with Exalted, as the Essence-manipulation would have made it untenable from the start, but it was Wandering Willow's view that the Exaltation alone was a significant indicator of destiny. The government, had it been implemented, thus would have changed little except for the mortals.
The word itself is not familiar to me, despite my knowledge of pre-Usurpation language. It is possible that it is a corrupted form of the word urineshi, meaning "Of the favored," with the honor prefix attached. It is also possible that it is derived from two words -- Orine, meaning "to watch over, guard," and Eshei, meaning "stars." As the word does not entirely follow the grammatical rules imposed by the Council of the Forthright Tongue, I am some loss to explain its derivation. One of the Sidereal Exalted could hardly be suspected to have resorted to debasing the language in order to develop a term for her system. I do wonder, however, at the fact that ourinesse was first proposed just after (before? during?) the Iridescent Decade. It is probable that with the confusion of time flowing from that event, Wandering Willow hoped to "utilize the power of the future to secure the present" (a quote from one of Tirinnan's treatises on the subject).
In one of her most well known treatises, entitled Reflections on a More Upright Government, she writes, "It is necessary to consider the effects of destiny on the lives of those in power, for while destiny is a strand of smoke for those gifted by the power of the gods, it is a chain for those of lesser station. A beggar may not become a king unless the Loom dictates that it be so, or unless a god so raise him up, and failing to consider this when implementing a government is foolishness. Better to take into account what can be accomplished by one's servants before appointing them to a station than to have them fail at the task and so drag down others with themselves. No, it is folly to fail to account for the stars."
I remain your obedient servant.
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