Golden Age Culture

The Naja Dynasty period is known for a flowering of high culture which developed among the nobility and leisured classes.

Aesthetics

Aesthetics were highly prized in all aspects of design including fashion, architecture, landscaping, pottery and other craftworks in a way they had not been previously. Elegance took precedence over functionality.

Musicians, poets, bards and actors were also held in high esteem.

This was a period of peace and prosperity, when the Kingdom of Long was united and Hu had not yet grown into a rival power. In the modern era, those who are more martially or practically minded often refer to the Naja aristocracy as decadent.

Femininity was prized, with noblewomen actively participating in the enjoyment and creation of art, design and leisure activities. The masculine warrior ideal waned and noblemen began to clothe, groom and comport themselves in a genteel manner closer to their female counterparts.

Romance and Sexuality

“Garden and mansion romance” became popular ideal— trysts in quiet spots, male playboys, women deciding between several suitors, adulterous affairs, doomed love stories.

Loving even romantic relationships between friends of the opposite sex or the same sex were idealized. Sexual mores were liberal however physical affection was expected to be carried out discreetly in private (to do otherwise was considered vulgar). Homosexual relationships among both men and women also figured into this landscape. There clearly was no taboo, but it is difficult to gage the degree to which sexual relationships between members of the same sex were accepted given the imperative that affairs be carried on out of sight.

Games and Leisure

The creation of games and leisure activities was fashionable: recitation and identification of poetry, cards, Long “chess,” hide-and-seek. Many inventive games were conceived during the Naja dynasty some of which are still enjoyed today. Others have fallen out of fashion or are only found in books (books cataloguing games or explaining rules, as well as simple allusions to the game in literary works).

This aristocratic Naja lifestyle was ephemeral and quickly vanished once unity and peace were disrupted. Today, many admire the romance of the Naja golden age but only a few, among the high Long nobility are able to come close to recreating it.