Having read this tidbit (fortunately saved from the bin and hosted on backstage in the last site changeover) I adopted the term Khaldari. Interestingly enough, it’s only a few days ago other roleplayers seemed to comment in surprise at this term, as if it was new. Turns out I’ve been quite the solitary flagbearer, given a quick search seems the last explicit references stretch back to 2010.
So, what’s the deal with this thread? Well, I want to use this as a means of sharing ideas and reviving this lost bit of player lore. I want to explore what Khaldari might be, who would fall under it, what differences of opinion IC some factions in the Kingdom and Empire might have about what it is to be Khaldari, or identify as such, rather then Caldari. In short, I’m crowdsourcing ideas for a fictional pseudo-melting pot culture in order to breath new life where others once walked. Feel free to throw whatever ideas you got in here, let’s churn things up.
Ok, to kick this off, let’s look at the word itself.
Khaldari. It’s a simplistic “Khanidification” of the word Caldari. But what could it’s IC origins have been? People have, since atleast the dawn of writing, localised the sounding and spelling of foreign words to make them more suitable to the native language, but there’s no great lack of hard C’s I would imagine in the regional tongue. It seems too much of a stretch to think of this as some lazy borrow-word localised by a very, very, very broad population.
Instead, perhaps the term started much like Roma or Gypsie did. An insult. Perhaps native Khanid, maybe True Amarr and Khanid Holders, living near Caldari Enclaves came up with the term as a derogative for those migrants who started adopting the ‘local fashions’? Maybe upstart Caldari were starting to take on a taste for silvery threads in clothes, or Golden hulls, or a passion for barbecued Boar meat with a twist influenced by their native styles in the State? Perhaps the label “Khaldari” reflects this rise of pretentious wannabe citizens, an insult later taken on and owned by the very folk under attack themselves?
Honestly I think the origins would actually be in the word Ammatar, and I expect it would have arisen in articles exploring the growing prevalence of Caldari living in the Khanid Kingdom. So I don’t think it would have originated as an insult, just a way some writers used to identify Khanid Caldari by copying the same form as Ammatar, which then spread into somewhat common use.
The reason I say that is because, aside from the obvious comparison, Caldari and Khaldari sound the same. So obviously it’d have come from a purely written medium. And while writing can be critical, and I’m sure the word has been used in a negative fashion, it seems more likely to me it’d have come up more often as just a way to easily distinguish Khanid Caldari from mainline ones when talking about them in general, not just in negative contexts.
To keep things moving, let’s jump over to some other aspects of culture. Fashions!
So the wiki article describes the Khanid as being pretty heavily Caldari in styles and tastes. This makes sense in one hand, but on the other those that have converted to the faith and are looking to integrate into Khanid society I’d imagine to be much more ‘native’ in clothing. Perhaps some fusion styles and architecture could have evolved by now, akin to the fashions of 2nd and 3rd generation migrants within Britain (especially the Brixton and Camden areas of London)