Art Exhibition: Etyries Goodears

This is a departure from the blog's usual format, which the translator hopes will be acceptable to the audience. Rather than being more translations directly from Mianmo, this is one of the translator's original works, as she has been tapped to provide a blurb for Seven Mothers, Seven Moons, Seven Wanes: How the Lunars Conceptualized their Past. The translator's work on The Lost Book of Etyries Goodears came to the notice of the curator in charge of the exhibition, and thus came about this commissioned piece describing a gorgeous Seventh Wane icon painting of Etyries Goodears herself.

This icon was recovered from the excavation of the Trader Temple in Furthest. Enough of the original pigments remained that professional conservator-restorer Katrin Dirim was able to recreate the icon painting as it existed during the Late Heortling period. Despite being an icon painting, which were usually modestly sized, this depiction of Etyries Goodears was set into an alcove in the Trader Temple, taking up the upper two-thirds of the alcove.

The Five Flavors

This, too, was labeled as being "From the Cottar," and thus provides a glimpse into culinary culture in southern Kerofinela during the Late Heortling period. It provided interesting challenges in translation; the final flavor could have been translated as "savory," but ultimately the translator's hands were tied in providing a translation for the Theyalan adjective umatheh.

It must be noted that spiciness is not listed as one of the flavors here; this suggests that the Heortlings viewed spice as a different axis of cooking entirely. Certainly, they were not unaware of the role of spices in cooking, given the Issaries manifests that have been recovered from Wilmskirk and Boldhome, detailing the many spices that were brought up from Esrolia, including cinnamon, black pepper, coriander and sweet neem. Elsewhere in Mianmo's notes, she makes reference to having a "five-goddess Sarli curry" for dinner with Mesyllandre Otoros, and her later regret at thinking the two of them could "overcome Ty Kora Tek" is illuminating.

Rat and Cat Have a Contest

This, too, is a piece from the journal that Mianmo labeled "From the Cottar," and as such is likely another rural recitation that she saved for us. Here we have an example of the Just-So Story, a distinctly lesser myth that would likely only have been of interest to children and those few bold souls who walked the path of Yinkin.

Here we see the origin of one of the great rivalries of the granary and the storehouse: the alynx and the rat (whose patron deity eludes current mythographic practices, but was associated with both undermining Krarsht and troublesome Eurmal in the Orlanthi imagination). Here we also see a warning against underhanded dealings, theft from the community, and being unwilling to accept second place. All of these warnings would have been especially important among the ambitious and competitive masculine world of the Orlanthi; the unspoken lesson is that those who betray their clan in the pursuit of glory are cast out.

Given the uncertain divine place of Rat, and the rather childish suffixes given to both of the titular characters, the translator has chosen not to use either "alynx" or "Yinkin" to refer to Cat in the following story. If the reader prefers, "tabby" and "kitty-cat" also convey the meaning behind the Theyalan name given for the tale's protagonist.

The Lunacatalogia

This piece is intriguing and frustrating in equal measure, given Mianmo’s unreliability as an insight into the world she inhabited. If we could trust her Lunacatalogia, it would have major impacts on the archaeological record, given her seeming reliance on the narrative presented in the Lives of Sedenya document (famously translated by G. Stafford) over the more recently unearthed Lunar Way Annals. This is most notable in Mianmo's treatment of the Seven Mothers, particularly relying on its seemingly fantastical details of the Goddess's Descent and the First Battle of Chaos. It can also be seen in her high-mythic presentation of the Crimson Bat, rather than its more naturalistic origins in other sources.

However, she claims in notes elsewhere that this was all vouchsafed to her by her friend Mesyllandre Otoros, and literary analysis has suggested that there are some startling heterodoxies contained within. All we can say for sure is that Mianmo here claims to represent the views of one specific Etyries-worshipper, which means that the arguments about the esoteric religious beliefs of the Lunar Empire will likely continue with the regularity of the Moon’s own phases.

Research into the whereabouts of the text of her once-referenced Lunacatalogia 2: Addi and Send Valu remains ongoing.

Beasts Most Foul: A Report Concerning the Bru

It is currently unknown how this work from the library of Sir Ethilrist of the Black Horse Troop (to use his classical title) came to be in Mianmo's possession. The third page of the work is covered in intricate scrawls, and the conclusion that contemporary researchers have come to is that they once consisted of intricate sorcerous diagrams intended to retaliate against thieves, each one "defused" with precise, decisive movements of a brush; this may be our only clue.

This document was not written in Theyalan at all, but in an archaic Seshnegi dialect, distinct from the Safelstran dialect (itself a Theyalan-root language) that the famous A History of the Black Horse Troop was written in. The translator has here attempted to make the text distinct from traditional Theyalan translation in order to convey the character of the Seshnegi languages. (Purists may particularly take issue with the decision to leave Ethilrist's traditional Seshnegi title untranslated, but please be mindful of the fact that it is suggestive of how it was ultimately incorporated into Theyalan.)

"Truth!" is how the translator has chosen to translate the Truth Rune's incorporation into the text, rather than making a guess at the syllables used in the liturgical sense. It is unlikely that the Rokari literally chanted the Seshnegi word for the Rune whenever it appears in their prayers and services of worship; rather, it is a shorthand for assent and an assertion of divine Truth.

At the beginning of the Fourth Movement, someone-- and the evidence suggests Mianmo-- has intricately placed the three dots of Illusion beside the place where Amergain speaks of Truth.

Introduction to the Lost Book of Etyries, Named Goodears

This is the opening to an exciting new translation of The Lost Book of Etyries, Named Goodears, which tells the story of the life of the Lunar Trade Goddess. Almost all existing materials from the Zero Wane leave Etyries' life before she met Teelo Estara a cipher, saying simply that she was a merchant's daughter (or the daughter of Issaries, which is a more poetic way of saying the same thing). These materials instead put emphasis on her redevelopment of the God Learner's Gamble and her role as the Goddess's Messenger, carrying carefully-worded missives written by Deezola and Irippi Ontor in Her name. This work, instead, contextualizes her in a way that turns the humanocentric narrative of the Hero Wars period on its head.

This work may shed new light on depictions of Etyries cultists wearing orange and red sashes around their midriffs, one end left to trail at their hip or behind them, and the "triangle hoods" that they are sometimes seen wearing in Heartland murals. Similarly, the references to Teelo Estara being distracted by "her Good Ears prancing" in The Ten Rules of Rule now make much more sense if we take this work to be authoritative.

Notes on Heortling Dyarchy

This is yet another excerpt from Mianmo's journals, where she noted down a conversation that (as far as we know) she had with Mesyllandre Otoros, an Etyries cultist from Peloria, about the nature of Orlanthi leadership as it was practiced in the Kingdom of Sartar.

Most scholarship on Orlanthi leadership practices has hitherto focused on the Orlanthi Book, which was written by a Lunar officer gathering intelligence on the tumultuous then-province of the Empire. Within, Dagius Furius notes that, among other things, a clan's chieftain must "know men's magic," can be removed from office by either the council and the people he represents, "must know all customs of giving and gifting [... and deliver] all gifts [...and] lead the defense of the clan against any foe. He must schedule, open, and oversee all clan markets, celebrations, battles, sacrifices, and movement. He must oversee food harvest, storage, and distribution. He must interact with all strangers and foreigners who enter clan lands." (Quotes here derived from G.S.'s foundational translation in the anthropological textbook King of Sartar: The Mystery of Argrath, or, How One Man Became a God.)

Dagius Furius was an outsider looking in on the Heortlings of Sartar. Mianmo, here, speaks as a relative insider with a distinct pro-Earth agenda. Perhaps further research will confirm the assertion here that Heortlings aspired towards mutually-beneficial dyarchic gendered power structures, despite the cultural pressure to define themselves strongly as Storm-aspected and reject the domination of Earth that characterized Esrolia.

Eurmal Stories

These four folk stories concern Eurmal, which was the Theyalan name for the universal Trickster figure (which may or may not have been synthesized into being by the Trickster College of Slontos, a theory which will not be addressed here). While the title of Trickster might bring to mind Mianmo's light-hearted wit and ability to dance around a point, she is here quite clear that the role of Trickster within Heortling culture was to be a negative example of behavior: to show the reason for rules by demonstrating what happened when they were broken.

Eurmal was not a god of Chaos, not inimical to the existence of the world. Indeed, it was necessary in the course of the Lightbringer's Quest, which was carried out by the Seven Lightbringers in order to save and reconstitute all of existence; the world could not have been remade inside of the net called Time without the assistance of Eurmal. But Eurmal is not tame, not good, and not anyone's friend. It is part of the world, but the part that we all would rather overlook and forget: the impulse to be selfish, to take what you do not need, to act without consideration, and to break laws simply because they are there. Such behavior is sadly not unnatural. Eurmal simply is.

Note, however, that Eurmal is allowed to flirt with Chaos, to invite it and its powers of dissolution back into the cosmos. Here we see the origin of a truly horrid Chaos cult (or one of its folkloric origins, at least), after all. This may be reflective of the fact that inside of Time, all of us have the power (should we so abuse it) to invite the inversion of the world back into the world: a world where people eat each other, where what is solid melts away, where broos sing their horrid songs, where Scorpion eagerly clicks her pincers.

The Six Great Predators

This piece was part of one of Mianmo's working journals, labeled: "From the Cottar." Given its rhythms, and its distinctly oral nature, it is likely that this was dictated directly to her, and it never found its way into one of her own works. Here we see a glimpse of what was important to pass on among the lower class of the pastoral Heortlings: direct information on how to avoid being eaten by the predators of Kerofinela, and how to protect your flock of sheep from the same (as sheep were a distinctly lower-class animal to herd; the more affluent carls herded cattle and yoked them to the plow).

However, it's important to note what this, too, omits: there is no reference here to the wolves that we know haunted the highlands of Sartar at the time, Telmori or otherwise, and neither is there reference to the Praxian saber-toothed lion, or to the Lesser Esrolian Tiger, or to the roving packs of scavenging dinosaurs that were a menace to travelers skirting northwestern Sartar. Rather, this hexapartite list serves as an introduction to the elements that formed the backbone of Heortling cosmology, each one attached to a certain creature which displays characteristics of the element. Little wonder, then, that Mianmo felt this was worth noting down.

(Translator's note: while predatory bats may seem laughable, the crag bats of Dagori Inkarth are widely attested as being both large enough to carry enlo riders and ravenous enough to eat sheep, not to mention the humans who looked after them. While scholarship is uncertain whether they ever spread to the Quivini, don't get so lost in the Lunar allegory here that you write off what was possibly a very real fear. For more on this, this translator recommends the paper "BATS ARE BUGS: Third Age Chiropterology and the Politics of Darkness.")

Fragments from the Elura Tales

In these fragments from Elura Stories, Mianmo gives us a teasing glimpse at the stories told about the mother of the sa-elurae, quite possibly told by the sa-elurae themselves. But some historical context is important to understand both the stories and Mianmo herself.

While sa-elurae could be found as enterprising individuals in places as far afield as Glamour and Nochet, archeological evidence suggests that their communities were centered on the northern bank of the Stream, particularly at Duck Point, Quackford, Bayberry and Clearwine. (Note that while these communities were close to Beast Valley, they were outside it; the sa-elurae were distinguished from the elurae of Beast Valley by their choice to live among humans, rather than treating them solely as somewhat dimwitted entertainment.) While all sa-elurae were by birth members of the cult of the primordial fox goddess Vusalka (who was likely the Vuskaratha of Middle Sea Empire texts), they were also strongly associated in Sartar with the trade-cults of Issaries and Etyries, who they called Etyries Goodears and claimed as one of their own; with the cult of Donandar the Entertainer, particularly the Puppeteer Troupe; and Ernalda-Uleria, Ernalda in her aspect as the Great Lover.

These associations, along with their inability to breed with humans (without proper dispensation from Ernalda-Uleria) despite very active libidos, led to the sa-elurae being stereotyped as untrustworthy sex workers among the Heortling tribes of southern Kerofinela. Stories abounded of how sa-elurae merchants would lift their tails to sweeten a deal, and how their musicians were more than happy to accommodate “private performances”; we have records from the Blue House in Boldhome that suggest the priestess “Kellys Brightbrow,” a top earner from 1616 to 1626, was a sa-elurae using a natural talent for mimicry for her scandalous performances. 

In the margin of one of her manuscripts, Mianmo wrote: “my tunic embroidered NOT A MEMBER OF THE CULT OF LANBRIL is provoking many questions already answered by the tunic.” As no such piece of clothing was found in her tomb, it is unclear as to whether this was another one of her jokes— but it is similarly revealing. The thief-cult was associated with Illusion, after all, and the sa-elurae were forced to the margins of society. Would it have been surprising if some turned to the cult as just another way to make a living?

Perhaps it would be surprising in the Kingdom of Sartar, given their loyalty to the kingdom’s legendary founder, a shocking polestar for these mercurial beast-women. (In them we can see a feminine echo of the wild Telmori bodyguards of the Princes of Sartar.) While overlooked by Fazzur Wideread’s Duck Hunt, many sa-elurae risked their hides to act as Duck smugglers, and Lunar tax forms reveal some fox woman pelts were mixed in with the dead Ducks. They are on the margins of the tales of rebellion against the Lunars from 1602 to 1625: as daring smugglers, as spies in Lunar caravans and command posts, as messengers and facilitators for rebel warbands. Perhaps it was in this context that Mianmo had interactions with the Haraborn clan, the core of the famed Company of the Dragon.

(Translator’s note: the use of “sales” below may seem anachronistic; Mianmo used a New Pelorian loanword here, which had developed similar connotations among the Heortlings at the time of her writing.)