Postscript - Notes on the Grand Duchy of Upper Danubia as a society
(the stuff that didn’t
make it into the novel)
Readers have commented and asked me questions about my imaginary country, the
Grand Duchy of Upper Danubia. Here are some details to give you an idea of what
this imaginary society is like, of what I envisioned when I created it.
I want to emphasize that Upper Danubia is not my
personal vision of "Utopia". Instead my fictional country is a literary
effort to create a society that is not perfect, but one that is
plausible and interesting, and also very different from any real society
that exists in Europe today. There are many details about the culture
and values of the Danubians that I would like if I had to actually live
there in real life, but there are also many injustices and social
restrictions that I would find hard to accept.
Geography
Language
Social Class
Morality, Sexuality, and
Protocol
Insults in Danubian Society
Courtship, Marriage and Family
Danubian social
values and fashion trends
Braided Hair and "A Woman's
Honor"
The Danubian legal
concept of "custody"
The Danubian Pillory
The final years of Tiffany Walker-Dukovna
Geography
The country has a population of roughly 5 million people, all of them
ethnic Danubians. In terms of size, its land area would be roughly the same as
the territory occupied by Slovakia. The country is landlocked, with the only
major trade route to the outside world being along the fictional East Danube
River. Upper Danubia is cut off from its neighbors by mountains to the north and
east, and by thick forests to the south. The only way in or out of the country
is through major railroad and highway border crossings near the river, or
through a single airport located near the capitol. As far as links to the
outside world, that's about it.
The only large Danubian city is the capitol, Danube City. Of course, in Danubian
it would be called "Danubik Mostk", but I always refer to it as Danube City in
my narrative. Danube City has a population of roughly 800,000 people. The
only other sizable city in the country is the eastern provincial capitol of Rika Chorna, with a population of 350,000. No other city in Upper Danubia exceeds
200,000 residents.
There are two major geographical regions in Upper Danubia: the Eastern Valley
and the Danube Valley. The Danube Valley is the older section of Upper Danubia,
settled for over 3,000 years by ethnic Danubians. The eastern section of the
country was settled after 1512 by refugees from Lower Danubia fleeing the
Ottoman Empire. Separating the eastern and western halves of the country is a
range of low-lying heavily forested mountains. The central mountains contain the
only sizable body of water in Upper Danubia, the Rika Chorna Reservoir.
Language
Danubian is supposed to be a unique European language, such as Basque. In reality I based many of the made-up Danubian words on actual words
I know from Russian and Ukrainian. Danubian is not supposed to be a Slavic
language, but I borrowed some words and altered them to make up the phrases of
Danubian dialogue that appear in the story. The same goes for characters' names.
Most Danubian names are based on real eastern European names, simply because I
wanted them to sound at least somewhat realistic.
Social Class
Like most European countries, class played a huge role in Upper Danubia’s social
development until the late 1700’s. Included in these classes were the Grand Duke
and his Court, the “Outer Nobility”, the Danubian Church, various guilds, and
two classes of criminals. However, the Grand Duke’s Reform of 1780 reduced the
number of formal social classes to just three: Public Officials, Common
Citizens, and Criminals. For a while members of the nobility were considered
Public Officials, but after 1830 only persons actually holding a paid government
position were Public Officials.
The formal class system is an anachronism and causes some confusion, since a
police officer fresh out of the National Police Academy is a Public Official,
while an established business owner is a “Common Citizen” and thus in theory
socially inferior. Even more confusing was the status of three of Kim’s
university professors, who, although working in a position normally held by
Public Officials, also were convicted criminals serving long sentences and
wearing collars. The unspoken protocol of Kim and her classmates was to ignore
the criminal status of the professors and treat them as Public Officials, even
on the days they show up to class with welts from a judicial switching.
Morality, Sexuality, and Protocol
Morality and Protocol are extremely important elements of every
Danubian's daily life. Protocol is a loose translation of the Danubian
term "haráshkt jettít" which is perhaps better translated as "the proper
way to live". Protocol determines how Danubians of different classes
greet and interact with each other, how family members and in-laws greet
and interact with each other, and the correct daily behavior of a person
within his or her place in society. The rules are very specific, and a
person who ignores them will "lose honor" and be shunned by his peers.
The issue about public morality that tends to confuse foreign visitors
in Upper Danubia is public nudity. Most Danubians are not particularly
modest about their bodies. Danubian women, like their male counterparts,
typically sleep, sunbathe, swim, and exercise nude. During warmer days
in the school year it is common to see classes of naked high school or
university students jogging in public parks or performing calisthenics
in groups segregated by sex. During the summer it also is common to see
middle-aged and older people gardening in the nude, or during the
hottest part of the day, wearing nothing but work shoes and a
traditional wide brim farmer's hat.
To a Danubian the sole purpose of clothing is to protect the body from
the elements. Going naked in public is permitted in Upper Danubia and,
in fact, is required at all public beaches and swimming pools. Being
naked in public is a required condition of any criminal sentence. Nudity
also is required during all gym classes and swimming sessions in
Danubian public schools.
The presence of naked bodies in public is not an indication of loose
morality in Upper Danubia, but instead a different definition of
morality. Being naked is not viewed as a sexual act, but wearing a
swimsuit, provocative clothing, or any other item designed to draw
attention to a person's body is. To wear expensive items, or dress to
draw attention to oneself is considered a sin by the Danubian Church and
inappropriate for the country's values. For example, the only accepted
jewelry for women is engagement jewelry. Danubian women do not wear
earrings or bracelets, and men do not wear jewelry at all. Make-up,
deodorant, and perfume also are items that are rarely seen among the
Danubians.
In the 1920's swimsuits temporarily became popular among young women who
were wearing them to flirt with young men. Danubian priests were
offended by the use of such clothing as a means to flirt, and viewed the
swimsuits as much more provocative than the naked body. Furthermore, in
a nation concerned about maintaining its values and cultural identity,
swimsuits were looked upon as an unwelcome foreign influence. The result
was a law passed in 1931 that made importing, producing, selling, or
wearing all swimwear and most athletic clothing illegal.
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Danubians place a huge importance on the traditional family. Young men
and women are under great pressure from parents and peers to marry by
the time they are 24. Family formation is part of a person's "path in
life". As a result of the social pressure, there is almost no tolerance
for "alternative lifestyles", which makes life extremely difficult for
anyone unable to fill the society's expectations of family living.
A reader asked me about homosexual relationships in Upper Danubia.
Homosexuality among Danubians exists, but is not tolerated nor
sanctioned by either the society or the Church. As a result, the
country's homosexuals and lesbians must endure a 90-minute train trip
from Danube City to cross the southern border where they can meet and
socialize. Immediately on the other side of border there are several
bars and discos frequented by Danubian gays and lesbians. Prior to
Vladim Dukov's government, the gay bars also were frequented by the
Danubian Secret Police. One of Prime Minister Dukov's reforms was to
order the Secret Police to stop collecting information about the bar
patrons and to destroy all records about gays and lesbians collected
prior to his administration. He did not approve of gay relationships,
but he argued that it was not the role of the government to enforce
protocol on Danubians socializing outside the country. Prime Minister
Dukov's views on homosexuals, although conservative by US standards,
were quite tolerant by Danubian standards and were met with resistance
from many of the religious leaders who had supported his candidacy and
his other government programs.
The worst humiliation for an average Danubian is to have his or her genitals
touched by a person of the same sex. For example, Danubian doctors are
always the opposite sex from their patients. Men are seen by female
doctors and women patients by male doctors, to prevent the shame of
having the patient's genitals examined or touched by another man or
another woman. The younger Danubian male police officers who were
fondling male criminals prior to Vladim Dukov's reforms were doing so
not for sexual gratification, but to inflict the worst form of
humiliation on their victims. When Malka Chorno touched and aroused
Kimberly Lee prior to her second punishment, what she actually was doing
was insulting Kim as a woman. At the time Kim did not know enough about
Danubian culture to understand she was being insulted, nor comprehend
Officer Chorno's true intentions.
Verbal Insults
in Danubian society
The most common verbal Danubian insult is the adjective “dishonored”. To
call someone “dishonored” is to declare that person contemptible and
pathetic. It is an insult frequently used by a person of higher social
status against one of lower social status. For example, it is common for
a police officer to insult a criminal by calling him a “dishonored
little bastard”. Also, poor preparation or poor performance can earn a
person the term “dishonored”. A high school coach, if truly annoyed by a
student’s performance on the playing field, might call him a “dishonored
sloth” or say “your laziness has dishonored you”. To call someone
“dishonored” insinuates a demand for altering personal behavior. A
person who is accused of being “dishonored” is expected to change to
regain his honor and his place in society.
In Danubian culture, to call someone “dishonored” is not nearly as bad
as calling someone a “liar”. If a Danubian dares to call another person
a “liar”, he needs to base that accusation on fact or on a specific
incident. “Liar” is not a term taken lightly in Danubian culture.
The absolute worst verbal insult a
Danubian can use against another person is “dishonored liar”. The
statement has a much stronger meaning than anything that could be
expressed with words in Western culture. To be called a “dishonored
liar” goes way beyond a taunt: it is an utter condemnation of a person’s
soul and a statement of absolute contempt. To use such a strong term
signals that, in the eyes of the person making the statement, the person
being accused is spiritually dead, there never can be forgiveness, and
no further relationship or interaction can ever take place.
A Danubian would never call another person a “dishonored liar” without a
very good reason. For example, Vladik Dukov’s ex-fiancé felt justified
using the term on him only after she actually witnessed him making love
to another woman. Regardless of her suspicions, she never would have
dared to call him a “dishonored liar” before being absolutely sure he
was cheating on her. To hear the term used on him devastated Vladik much
more than being caught, because it was true. He had lied to his fiancé,
and in doing so dishonored himself before his father’s household and the
Creator.
If the words “dishonored liar” are spoken in a personal dispute, the
society demands that someone involved in the incident immediately report
to a member of the Danubian Clergy and request permission to perform
public penance. Once the shock of the confrontation with his ex-fiancé
wore off, Vladik knew that the only way he could begin restoring his
honor was to present himself at the Temple of the Ancients and surrender
custody of himself to the Danubian Church.
If it turns out the accusation is false, then the person making the
statement must submit to public penance instead. Falsely accusing
someone of lying is a very serious matter. During the Middle Ages a
false accusation was considered a capital offense, although the victim
of the false accusation had the right to commute the sentence if the
offender was willing to serve him as a collared slave. In the more
tolerant and lax society of modern Danubia, the only result of a false
accusation is a period of public penance lasting several years.
Courtship, Marriage and Family
Young people may meet at school, church, or work, or they can be introduced by
their parents, as was the case with Vladik Dukov and his first fiancée.
Courtship normally is a two-to-three year process, with the expectation that the
first year is "dating" before the formal proposal, and the second year is
"serious engagement" after the proposal. Choosing the correct partner is
extremely important because the Danubian Church does not permit divorce. It is
expected a couple getting married have taken the time to know each other well
enough to understand what they are getting into.
The couple must formally court each other's parents. No proper young Danubian
woman may spend time alone with a young man who has not had dinner at the house
of her parents or guardian. A courtship normally begins when a young woman asks
her parents to invite a young man to a formal dinner on Sunday afternoon. If the
parents approve of him, the daughter may begin seeing him alone, as long as he
returns to her house for dinner once a week. If the parents withdraw permission
for the suitor to come over for dinner, then the relationship is suspended. In
such cases the daughter has the right to demand an explanation from her parents,
which must be reasonable and specific. The young woman also may consult with a
priest who can attempt to arbitrate, but if her parents insist on denying the
suitor permission to sit at her table, she will obey and end the relationship.
Once the young man has the approval of the young woman's parents, then he must
seek his own parents' approval of his girlfriend. This once again is done
through dinners. The young man's parents also have the right to deny a young
woman permission to sit at their table, but in practice denials from the man's
parents are very rare.
The final stage of a courtship is a formal proposal. A Danubian man proposes by
giving his future fiancée three articles of jewelry: a ring, a traditional
necklace, and a silver hair comb. The man presents the items one by one. If
accepted the couple is formally engaged. If she accepts the items the woman must
wear them to show herself as committed to the marriage.
Danubian social values and fashion trends
Throughout most of their history, Danubian women wore off-white linen
dresses and men wore gray linen pants with dark linen tunics. During the
winter women wore shawls and men wore outer tunics. Both sexes wore
sandals at home and in the city, but put on heavy boots while working in
the fields. Public officials wore clothing similar to clothing used by
common citizens, but with a gold griffin embroidered on the chest.
By the time Kimberly Lee and her friends went to Danube City as
tourists, very few people were wearing traditional clothing on a daily
basis. Casual and business styles were not very different from clothing
worn in Western Europe, although Danubian clothes tended to be more
simple and straightforward.
Danubian fashion underwent a profound change starting around 1970. Until
1970, almost all women wore traditional dresses and men wore either
suits or tunics whenever in public. However, as the population increased
and the price of Danubian linen went up, middle and working-class people
began wearing imported cotton clothing and reserving their dresses and
tunics for formal use. By 1980 Danubian factories were producing casual
dresses for summer and denim clothing for winter. Many politicians in
the Party of the Duchy lamented the change, but the truth was that
traditional linen had become too expensive for daily use. The new
fashion was due to economic necessity, not a transition in over-all
values.
Danubians' attitude towards wearing underwear is ambiguous and largely
depends on a person's situation. Men normally do not wear underwear
unless dressed in an expensive business suit they want to keep clean. It
is common for women dressed in casual clothing not to wear underwear,
especially if en route to the beach, a pool, a picnic, or any other
physical activity. Women normally wear panties while dressed for work,
but bras are completely optional.
Public schools are much stricter; underwear is a required part of the
school uniform for both boys and girls. However, boys normally ignore
the rule about underwear if they feel safe that no one is going to check
under their pants. Girls usually obey the rule (at least about wearing
panties) because their skirts make it much more likely they will be
caught if not properly dressed underneath.
Tattoos and piercings are completely unheard of in Danubia, because
permanently marking the human body for decoration is considered a
serious sacrilege against the Creator. Only once did Kimberly Lee ever
hear about a Danubian who got a tattoo. The culprit was a university
student who spent a year on scholarship in Belgium and returned with a
medium sized tattoo on one of his upper arms. Upon returning to Danube
City, the man was arrested by the Secret Police, stripped of his
Danubian citizenship, and ordered to leave the country immediately.
Following his expulsion, his parents and two sisters considered their
household dishonored, and presented themselves to the Temple to perform
public penance to atone for the disgrace he had brought upon them. The
case caused a sensation in the Danubian press and horrified the Clergy.
There was general sympathy for the dishonored family, but no one argued
that they shouldn’t perform public penance for their son’s actions.
Braided Hair and "A Woman's Honor"
The tradition of women’s hair braiding goes back to the origins of the
Danubian nation. Since the emergence of the Danubians as an ethnic
group, braided hair has been an important part of the national identity
of Danubian women. 2,500-year-old frescoes and wall carvings portray
Danubian women with their hair braided in the traditional manner. In a
chronicle of his travels northward written in 350 BC, a Greek explorer
described Danubia as a “barbaric land of arrogant and immodest women all
dressed in long white robes and all wearing tightly braided hair”.
Christian missionaries from Constantinople described the Danubians with
nearly identical words 1000 years later.
Proper hair is much more important to the average Danubian than
clothing. Tightly braided hair is considered essential to a “woman’s
honor”. While appearing naked in public is no big deal to a Danubian
woman, to appear in public without having her hair properly braided is a
considered a horrible disgrace and a severe violation of protocol. The
importance of a woman’s braids holds true even for sentenced criminals.
The Ministry of Justice might deny a convicted woman the right to wear
clothing, but would not think of denying her the dignity of keeping her
hair properly braided.
In traditional Danubian village society, the first braiding marked a
female Danubian’s passage from a girl to a woman eligible for marriage.
Before the advent of universal education during the early 20th Century,
the first braiding always was given to a young woman by her parents as
one of her 15th birthday presents, along with a new linen dress,
gardening tools, a cow, and a set of dishes.
Urbanization and universal education changed the custom of braiding. In
contemporary Danubian society a girl is not allowed to braid her hair
until she has finished high school. Braiding became a young woman’s
graduation gift instead of a gift for her 15th birthday. The day before
graduation the school principal issues legal certificates to all female
seniors permitting them to braid their hair for the final ceremony. High
school graduations thus are very emotional events for parents, because
not only are their daughters graduating, but also they are presenting
themselves in public as adults with their hair braided for the very
first time.
Women need assistance to braid their hair properly. Hair braiding is an
important bonding ritual between Danubian females. For example, when
Anyia Dukov agreed to braid Kimberly Lee’s hair, she was granting her
American housemate an important gesture of friendship. The women of
“Socrates’ Mistresses” always braided each other’s hair before
performances. All of the singers agreed that fixing each other’s hair before
going on stage greatly helped them overcome stage-fright.
Normally women wash and re-braid their hair each Saturday afternoon.
Because it is considered improper for a man (even a husband) to see a
woman with unbraided hair, husbands and sons usually leave home while
the women are washing and re-arranging their hair. Saturday afternoons
are when high schools have their soccer tournaments. The games give men
and boys expelled from their houses something to do while the women are
fixing their hair.
Just as it is shocking for foreign tourists to see Danubians naked in
public, it is equally shocking for Danubians to see foreign women with
unbraided hair. Over time the sight of foreigners with unbraided hair
became less of a concern to the residents of Danube City and Rika Chorna
as the number of foreign visitors increased. However, that never became
true for the rest of the country. If a female tourist visits a village
or one of the smaller provincial capitols, she can expect to be
constantly stared at if her hair is not done up properly.
If a foreign woman plans to spend more than a couple of weeks in Danubia,
her hosts eventually will pressure her to braid her hair. Kimberly Lee
did not braid her hair until she had been in Upper Danubia for nearly
seven months, but that was partly because her hair was too short to
braid during the summer she was sentenced. When she finally did ask
Anyia to braid her hair, everyone in Kim’s life was enthusiastic about
the change.
During her first year in Danube City, Jennifer Thompson did not braid
her hair because she still was in high school. However, when she
graduated she attended the ceremony with her hair properly done up
alongside her classmates. After the experience of being switched by her
counselor in the school gym, she knew better than to outwardly challenge
the values of her host country.
The Danubian legal concept of "custody" and its role in the
lives of criminals
"Custody" is a key concept in the Danubian legal system. A person deemed
undesirable by the Danubian courts automatically is placed under the custody of
another person, who has the right to tell him what to do and is legally
responsible for his behavior. A Danubian criminal officially is placed under the
custody of his or her Spokesperson upon being sentenced. The Spokesperson
becomes the criminal's legal supervisor and holds rights similar to the rights a
parent has over an under-aged child. A Spokesperson has the right and duty to
supervise everything a criminal under his custody does. The Spokesperson can
grant or deny permission for a criminal to change jobs, study, have personal
relationships, and conduct purchases. The criminal normally kneels before
speaking to a Spokesperson, given the importance the custodian has in his or her
life. The punishment for any disobedience against a Spokesperson is for the
court to double the length of the criminal's sentence.
The Spokesperson has the authority to tell a criminal where he can live. In
practice, most criminals return to live with their families. The only time a
Spokesperson would order a criminal to live away from home is when the official
believes the criminal's family is a contributing factor to his behavior. Having
criminals remain at home is the cheapest and most practical way to house them
and keep track of them. Living at home also provides the Danubian government
with a means to inflict punishment not only on the criminal, but also the
criminal's relatives. Having a member of the household forced to live naked and
collared brings public shame upon the entire family, which is considered a
serious violation of Danubian social protocol. In many cases a criminal's family
will not allow him to eat at the table, but instead make him sit alone in the
kitchen during meals. It also is quite common for family members to force a
criminal to kneel when talking to them, given the social stigma he brought
against the household.
The Spokesperson is required to officially surrender custody of a criminal
during a switching. For the duration of the corporal punishment, the police
officer holds temporary custody over the criminal, which is why a Spokesperson
is powerless to assist a client while he is on the switching table. On the
occasion Officer Vladik Dukov took control of the eight women from Eloisa's
group, what he did was secure custody to prevent them from being placed under
the custody of officers who wanted to abuse them.
When most people think about custody they are thinking about Spokespersons and
convicted criminals. However, criminals are not the only people who can lose the
ability to run their own lives unsupervised. Danubian law states that anyone
with an identified addiction has forfeited any rights to exercise free will, and
thus must surrender custody to another person. The most common example of
non-criminal custody is an alcoholic who is placed under the custody of his
wife. In such cases the wife assumes the role of the alcoholic's Spokesperson
and must periodically report to the court about her husband's progress. The wife
can run the life of her husband and even request judicial punishment if he
disobeys her. Danubian men have a very strong incentive not to become
alcoholics.
A final note on criminal sentencing. A reader asked me what happens in a
situation where a person actually enjoys being naked in public and periodically
switched. What if the person is a masochist and enjoys the conditions of a
sentence? The answer is that in Upper Danubia there is no such person. The
social stigma of being a criminal and the embarrassment it brings on the family
far outweighs any possible enjoyment the subject might feel from being
constantly naked. As for the switchings... the pain, the terror, and the utter
humiliation go way beyond what a typical masochist might find enjoyable.
A person who wants to be publicly naked would have the option of performing
public penance. Penance does not carry the same social stigma against one's
family that being a convicted criminal carries and has no corporal punishment.
However, a person wishing to perform public penance must discuss his situation
with a priest, given that he is surrendering custody of himself to the Danubian
Church as long as he is wearing a Temple collar.
The
Danubian Pillory
Earlier in Upper Danubia’s history, collaring was not the only way criminals
were punished. Prior to the early 1900's, the Danubian police frequently used
pillories to punish petty criminals whose crimes were not serious enough to
warrant a formal sentence. The Danubian pillory was different from the ones used
in England. Instead of restraining the offender’s head and hands, the Danubian
version was designed to force the criminal to stand with his or her arms and
legs spread, leaving their body completely exposed to passersby. The offender
was stripped and restrained, usually for about 8 hours or so on Market Day.
In
this picture a female cop guards a young woman accused of stealing fruit from an
orchard. Besides being naked, the young woman's braids were undone and her hair
loosened. In traditional Danubian society, the worst humiliation a woman could
be subjected to was having her hair loosened in public. Having her hair loosened
was even worse than being stripped naked.
If a criminal was subjected to the pillory, usually he or she was not switched.
However, the humiliation was considered just as bad or worse than wearing a
collar. Normally a person subjected to the pillory was expected to perform
public penance for several weeks following the punishment.
The major cities quit using pillories after World War I. However, many villages
continued to use them until the introduction of electronic monitoring of
collared criminals during the 1970’s. The last pillory sentence was given to a
village shoplifter in 1978.
As foreign tourism became popular during the Dukov administration, interest in
Danubian history, including pillories, renewed an interest in old judicial
practices. Several towns frequented by tourists rebuilt their pillories,
complete with the original chains and cuffs. Guides dressed in nineteenth
century police uniforms explained the tradition to visitors.
Tourists could experience the pillory for themselves, by volunteering to get
undressed and be restrained for 30 minutes. For many foreigners it was an
intensely erotic experience to be chained naked and immobilized for a half an
hour, completely exposed in a public location while crowds took their picture.
Pillories became so popular with tourists that Danubian guidebooks always
mentioned which towns had reconstructed pillories open to the public.
The life of Tiffany
Walker-Dukovna after her sentence
A reader became interested in the fate of my character Tiffany Walker
following the completion of her thirty-five year sentence. He asked me
how, after spending most of her life naked and collared, she would adapt
to life following her release. Of course, at age 56, Tiffany’s two sons
would be fully-grown and have children of their own, while her custodian
Kimberly Lee-Dolkivna would be approaching retirement age. So what fate
awaited Tiffany following her release?
The way I envision Tiffany’s life unfolding during her final years is as
follows:
At the time of her release her husband Vladik Dukov was the Director of
the Danubian National Police, after working his way up through various
positions as a cop. During the administration of his father, Vladik
became the Chief of Police for Danube City, and shortly before his
father retired, Director of the entire Danubian police force. From that
position he moved up to becoming the Minister of Defense, largely due to
his father’s lasting influence on Danubia’s politics. However, Vladik
always saw himself as a cop, and within a couple of years left the
cabinet to return to his job with the National Police where he finished
out his career.
As for Tiffany, she spent three decades working directly under her
Spokeswoman and taking orders from her. She felt perfectly comfortable
with her position in Danubian society as a criminal and official
assistant to her Spokeswoman. Tiffany’s role in Kim’s office was mostly
supportive, but Kim’s job would have been much more difficult without
having another American as her assistant. Tiffany also had some clients
of her own and was raising two sons, so she felt useful in life.
The prospect of not being under the custody of her Spokeswoman terrified
Tiffany as her release date approached. She felt that she was not suited
to live without a custodian, so she began to search for a solution to
her situation. She did not feel confident placing herself under the
custody of her husband, because she felt that Vladik was too close to her to
control her behavior, discipline her, and keep her out of trouble.
Tiffany finally settled her dilemma by placing herself under the custody
of the Danubian Church. On the day of her release, she made special
arrangements to not receive the traditional dress, but instead to
exchange her criminal’s collar for a Temple penance collar. The day of
her release a priest accompanied her to the courthouse and collared her
as soon as her criminal’s collar was taken off. Tiffany immediately went
from being a criminal to performing public penance. The court officially
transferred her custody from Spokeswoman Kimberly Lee-Dolkivna to the
Danubian Church.
Tiffany’s professional life and her work relationship with Kimberly Lee-Dolkivna
faded after she put on the Temple collar. She continued to work with the
clients she already had, but took no new ones. Instead she spent more
and more of her time at the Temple of the Ancients in religious
training, with the goal of becoming a Temple Attendant.
Upon retiring from his post at the Danubian National Police, her husband
Vladik Dukov joined her. The couple handed over their house and
retirement savings to their sons, took a vow of poverty, and spent the
rest of their lives sleeping on a mat on the Temple floor. (They never
considered turning over their house to the Danubian Church, because the
religion does not allow members taking a vow of personal poverty to
dispossess their children.) The couple remained in the Temple during the
final years of their lives, permitted to leave only to see their sons,
grandchildren, and growing number of great-grandchildren during holidays
and family reunions.
Postscript
II - Notes on Danubian history
