the Draenei tail-ring code

This week’s episode of From Draenor With Love reminded me of something I was thinking about a few months ago.

On the planet Beta in Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga, everyone wears earrings, and the style of an individual’s earrings symbolizes their sexual preferences and relationship status. Although Draenei tail-rings are undecorated in-game, I wondered if perhaps they (or the chintacle-rings) might serve a similar purpose.

There are undoubtably as many variations of Draenei tail-rings as there are Human finger-rings. In-game, a male’s tail-ring is always golden, but the color of a female’s tail-rings depends on her skin tone. In an RP description, however, the metal of the band may be any of several elements or alloys and be worked in many designs. A ring may have one gem or several, small ones or large ones, in any pattern. The important, meaningful component of the tail-ring code is the color of the stone(s), and any mineral of the appropriate color may be used to convey a specific status.

I am positing this code purely hypothetically; neither my past nor my future Draenei artwork will necessarily be consistent with the ideas shown here.

“Seeing Someone” could range from “casual, still keeping my options open” to “it’s complicated” to “very serious, but not yet committed to something long-term” and everything in-between; the type of metal used in or the base design of the band might signify these nuances.

“Bereaved” isn’t necessarily the death of a lover — it could just be a bad breakup.
I chose to designate the plain in-game tail-rings as “Not Interested at this time” because Draenei children also wear tail-rings.

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