rainbowlounge | Writers' Salon!

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writer's salon

Writers' Salon!

All right, guys, let's get this started.

This is a post for members to post their burning questions to each other. They can be simple, like "when is Character X's birthday," or not so simple "how would you define the relationship between Character X and Character Y?" If there's a story you want that author to talk about, throw in the title (and some points you'd like covered!) and if said author's willing, they can write their answer in a separate post, since I have no idea what the comment word limits are.

Here's how it'll work: an author who's up for answering questions/writing commentaries about stories will leave their name in a comment. Readers who want to ask questions or request stories reply to that comment, and hopefully we'll have some good conversations going!

If you guys request stories, it may be best if you limit them to

rainbowfic for the time being, unless the story you've got archived outside the comm is in a public entry.

EDIT: If it's not already obvious, you can ask authors more than one question in however many comments you like. The point is to have a discussion, and it wouldn't be very lively if it stopped at one question per author! Just give the author a chance to finish answering your previous questions, of course.

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This looks like fun. Ask me anything!

I want to know everything there is to know about the salkiys, and possibly the care and feeding of Merrus.

Hooooooly crap. I guess I deserved it, asking you such a broad question!

Okay, salkiys. They are the original inhabitants of the Catan continent (humans started settling it approximately two thousand years ago, after coming over the sea from Maston. They are only found on Catah, which the salkiys once called Rath.

There's a whole lot of salkiy history that's been lost or mangled beyond recognition in the form of stories that have mutated wildly over the years. Contrary to popular belief, salkiys do have a written language, though it has been largely forgotten by all but a few arain.

Once there were salkiys all over the continent, but knowledge of the western salkiys has been lost. They were the first ones the humans coming over the sea encountered, and it is believed they were all slaughtered. The eastern salkiys, meanwhile, built themselves an impressive civilzation, palaces and all that, and a highly structured education/religious system that ensured every salkiy child was able to properly control their Gifts. The salkiy lands were split up into a number of domains, sort of like kingdoms, who were mostly ruled over by the most respected families in the area. Each domain mostly did its own thing. The only one every salkiy answered to was the Araithus, who lived in the grand temple Lenthyn. The previous Araithus always chose the next, and it was allegedly supposed to be the most talented individual of his/her generation. But no one really knows how the Araithun went about making their selections. In cases where the Araithus could not choose a successor for whatever reason, the job fell to the Circle, a group of salkiys that served as sort of advisors to the Araithus. This was not the preferable option, as many salkiys believed the Araithus' selection was driven by the will of the Goddess (more on her later), a divine connection that the Circle did not possess. So no one could be sure the Circle's choice was the right one. Which had a tendency to lead to power grabs and in-fighting.

The salkiys call their Gifts "ethestras," and the path required to learn how to wield it is divided up into levels called Ethrets. A salkiy child starts their education at the age of four, and is expected to have completed the Third Ethret by the age of twenty (most don't take that long to complete the Third). Most salkiys end their education at this point, to start families or put their skills to use in the daily running of the village. Some continue on to the Fourth Ethret, at which point they start learning more advanced uses for their abilities.

There are seven Ethrets. Only the first six are obtainable by mortal salkiys. It is believed the Goddess grants the Seventh to deserving salkiys upon their deaths. The Araithus is accorded a special rank called the High Ethret. The Araithus is the only living salkiy who may have that Ethret. A salkiy who reaches the Sixth Ethret is called an arai, and they tend to be the healers/leaders/scholars/wise people of the village.

Back in ancient times (before Border Glory), this education system was highly, highly codified, and what Ethret a salkiy reached determined the course of their entire life. Upon completing an Ethret, a salkiy was obligated to wear a token that showed their rank to all.

First = Copper armband
Second = Silver armband
Third = Gold armband (all worn on the left arm, in the order they were given--so copper highest up, then silver, then gold)
Fourth = Silver ring on the right thumb
Fifth = Gold ring on the left thumb
Sixth = Gold earring in the left ear
Araithus = Second gold earring in the left ear

This jewelry was enchanted to grow with the wearer (so very convenient for children who would quickly outgrow their copper and silver bands otherwise) and not tarnish (so no green skins from the copper!). Back in the ancient days, the Third Ethret was the barrier to adulthood. A salkiy who had not yet reached it was not permitted to start a family, own a dwelling of its own, or have a vocation. Those who could not complete it (because of physical/mental disability, mental illness, lack of talent, whatever) were cursed to be considered children for the rest of their lives, dependent upon their parents and adult siblings. As you can imagine, this carried a major stigma and such salkiys were shunned.

Now, Border Glory. This happened about a thousand years before the beginning of The Myrrosta. At the time there were many different salkiy domains, but the two most powerful and prominent were Saldonia and Lynt. Lynt* was the much more liberal of the two--it had, for example, eased up quite a lot on the "Third Ethret or no adulthood for you" rule. The two domains were such rivals that it was widely feared war would break out between them. After appealing to the current Araithus, Farras, for help, Farras decreed that the daughter of the ruling family of Saldonia and the son of the ruling family of Lynt be bonded, so that there would be an everlasting alliance between them. To mark this great occasion, a new palace was built on the border between Saldonia and Lynt, to serve as the seat of the new couple's rule.

Now, humans were around in salkiy lands at this time, but they were primitive and the salkiys just saw them as animals who were trying to be like salkiys. They were amusing at best and a nuisance at worst, and most salkiys didn't think about them at all. BUT! The salkiys, not being the exploring type, had no idea about the great kingdoms the humans in the west had been building in the thousand years since they had come over the ocean. And these were much more technologically advanced humans, with steel and siege machines and highly trained armies and all that good stuff. And one human in particular, King Mongemt of Arkijt, was busily conquering and pillaging his way through the continent in an attempt to get to the gold-rich mines of the north, currently held by the enemy nation of Kandel. His planned path took him right through the valley holding Border Glory.

The king made a deal with the ekalaps, the eternal enemies of the salkiys, and together the two forces swarmed through the valley, killing and burning everything. It was a moment of pure luck for the ekalaps, who could not ask for a better chance to strike at the heart of the salkiys: every ruling family and the Araithus were gathered in the same place to witness the wedding. They all died. The temples were sacked. The few surviving salkiys were driven underground, while the ekalaps roamed around at top, mopping up pockets of resistance. The ekalap plan backfired, though, because the humans turned against the ekalaps next. So the salkiys were mostly destroyed, the ekalaps pushed back into the mountains after suffering heavy losses, and King Mongemt ended up conquered almost the entire continent.

Salkiy life continued, but many of the old traditions and rules were deliberately discarded. Most salkiys believed they had been divinely punished for becoming too lax in their vigilance against the dangers of the world. Salkiys became much more parochial and even more isolationist than before. The old system of Ethrets and tokens showing the levels survived, but it was much more lax. The temple at Lenthyn was abandoned and eventually the knowledge of its location was lost. Farras Araithus and his entire Circle died at Border Glory and a new Araithus was never named.

Salkiys live mostly in forests, in dwellings well-hidden from human eyes. Their villages generally don't have names, and you will not find any on a map. They trade with humans on a regular basis, but they will always go to human villages for that, never bring humans to theirs. For the most part humans and salkiys have gotten along in recent years, with the exception of a bloody series of wars a few centuries ago that started when humans got scared that the salkiys were slowly taking them over, due to the number of human/salkiy halfbreeds running around. That just drove the salkiys further into isolation, and since then coupling with a human has been considered highly taboo (though of course it still happens).

More of the old ways of the ancient salkiys have survived in the north, near where Border Glory used to be. There, the salkiy written language has been more well-preserved, while southern salkiys are more likely to learn how to read and write the pidgin language of the traveling human merchants, since that is far more useful to their daily lives. Southern salkiys are more lax in their rituals, and the oldest stories mostly forgotten. They get along with humans a lot better than the northern salkiys. Southern salkiys are very much looked down upon in the north, for trying to be too much like humans (how times change).

Ancient salkiys were strictly vegetarian. Northern salkiys still are. Most southern salkiys are as well, but eating fish is common and eating other kinds of meat is not unheard of. Salkiys lack some of the dehydrogenase genes to deal with alcohol, so they cannot ingest more than a tiny amount without getting violently sick.

Salkiys are natural homebodies, rarely straying far from their birth villages. It is very unusual to come across a traveling salkiy, and those who do have a right to be wary, as a salkiy away from its village is likely that way because he/she has been exiled for some heinous crime. There is no capital punishment among salkiys, as exile from their home is seen as a fate worse than death. Murder and rape are among the crimes punished with exile. Lesser crimes require the giving up of property, or a period of servitude to the wronged party. There is no such thing as prison, as those thought too unsafe to be allowed among the general population are cast out of the village (there is not much thought given to the welfare of other villages the criminal may end up at, but since strangers are generally shunned anyway, maybe that's not a big deal). Punishments are decided by the majority opinion of the other villagers, though the final decision rests in the hands of the village arai. The arai and his/her assistants are also the village's teachers. There is no centralized government to speak of anymore, and salkiys rarely even speak to salkiys from other villages, should they happen to run into each other.

Salkiys are etremely family-oriented, but "family" is more loosely defined than in human societies. There are no orphans, as salkiy children whose parents die will immediately be adopted by relatives or someone else in the village, and there is little distinction between an adopted child and a biological one. Salkiys do have a marriage ceremony that binds together two salkiys for life (gender is not an issue). Marriage between two is a very, very sacred rite. Two souls can bind together, but only two. A salkiy may go through the marriage rites once in its life. If the spouse dies or leaves, there can never be another marriage. A salkiy cannot be married to more than one salkiy.

Good news is that many salkiys are not monogamous. Marriage is not a barrier to taking other lovers or even having children with other salkiys, though coming to an agreement about such activities with the spouse is generally just considered polite. Some salkiys choose monogamy with their spouse, or with a salkiy they are otherwise not married to. It's generally all okay. Just don't treat the marriage/binding ceremony lightly.

Salkiys are, on average, a little shorter than humans. There is a little less sexual dimorphism between male and female salkiys than among humans, but their "parts" are generally the same as humans. Clothing is worn, or not worn, as is practical. They have white skin and do not burn or tan. They have four toes on each foot and long fingers with an extra joint. They have pointed ears and a thick strip of hair that runs down their back. Hair colors come in generally the same colors as humans, but there is a wider variety of eye colors among salkiys. Everything below their neck is naturally hairless. Most salkiys cannot grow facial hair like beards, but some can (things like that and freckles are usually seen as evidence of a human ancestor, but that's not always the case). Salkiys can sense when other salkiys are using the ethestras. They cannot sense it when it is not being actively used.

As an aside, ekalaps are almost physically identical to salkiys. Humans cannot tell the two species apart, even though ekalaps are, on average, slightly taller than salkiys (basically the same average height as humans). But it's impossible to tell based on that, because that's just averages and there can be wide variations. For example, Mynlai, a salkiy, is unusually tall, taller than even most human men. Merrus, being half-ekalap, is one of the tallest salkiys in his village, but only comes up to Atro's (whose mother is Mynlai) shoulder. Salkiys and ekalaps can sense each other when they are using their abilities, and the "smell" of the other race is generally repugnant to them (Merrus does not know what other salkiys sense when he is using his abilities. He's too scared to ask).

Is that enough about salkiys? :)

*I may be mixing up which is Saldonia and which is Lynt because I don't have my notes on me. But it ultimately doesn't matter.

Oh, good God. I knew what I was getting into when asking that question. I am awed at how complex your customs are, and somewhat ashamed that my coverage of the Serpent Folk are lacking. I am deeply, deeply impressed, really. You should be proud. :D

Wow, thank you! I'm just surprised any of it was coherent, since I was just writing stuff as it came to me without much order to it.

There's more, stuff that I was going to put and then forgot to.

Like, I never got back to the Goddess like I said I would. Salkiy religion is basically pantheistic, with several different gods representing various aspects of the world, but the Goddess is above all the others. The Goddess does actually have a name, but it is something sacred that salkiys just aren't going to ever tell outsiders.

Uh, there was more stuff about the roles played by Fourth and Fifth Ethret salkiys, but I think it would have been too long and boring. Basically, in the old days there were distinct paths of knowledge salkiys could take beyond the Third Ethret based on their talents and vocational desires, so for example one could become a Fourth Ethret warrior or a Fourth Ethret scholar or healer or whatever. Again, pretty highly specialized. After Border Glory, most of the salkiys who continued past the Third Ethret did it as part of training to become an arai, and there was no separation of different areas of study (since much of the original knowledge and spellwork had been lost anyway).

Also, your comment above about Serpent Folk life spans reminded me: salkiys live on average about twice as long as humans, so the oldest salkiys might be in the vicinity of two hundred years old. They go through puberty at about the same age as humans, but relative aging slows down after that.

And, because I say so, left-handedness is dominant among salkiys. :)

Haha, it makes me hang my head in shame that my Serpent Folk answer wasn't as rich and complex. I do appreciate the additional stuff in this comment, though, even if you didn't put it in the original! I don't think life with the Serpent Folk is necessarily as complex as the salkiys--I think I got as far as village elders and possible designated roles, but that was about it. They were a bit more old-world/tribal in that sense.

Ooh, so does that mean Merrus is most likely left-handed?

I'm really curious about the development of Unusual Florida. Was it always supposed to have a fantasy element, or did that develop in time? Or vice versa--was it supposed to be more heavily fantastical than it ended up being?

It definitely did not have a fantastical element in the beginning. In the very very very first version, which I wrote years ago (the story is really just a complete retool of an idea I had a long time ago that I never finished), it was a YA piece about a family reunion in Florida, where the kids had adventures and got up to general mischief. When I went back to the story originally, I added the Breakers, who were refugees from a different story that never went anywhere (I do that a lot, scavenge characters I like from failed stories). The Breaker kids had weird abilities--like James reading minds--and that stayed. So the story became a YA with a whiff of fantasy.

My problem was I really had no plot. So I turned it into a mystery, with one of the kids being kidnapped and the others saving her. Still not enough. It needed to be weirder. So I started getting into some darker stuff with it, to the point where I was uncomfortable with thinking of it as YA and having teenagers as my main characters. So I set the original mystery in the past, aged them all up, and then had the (unsolved--in this version the girl is never found and is presumed dead) mystery come back to haunt them.

The pieces I've posted here, I think, have actually wandered into too heavily fantastical at points. I think I got too caught up in the weird stuff, which is ultimately not what the story is about. I'm still trying to find the right balance there.

(I'm writing a streamlined version of the story--with most of the subplots cut out--for an original fiction big bang. Many of the fantastical elements have been cut from this version. The full version may be heavier on them, or maybe even have fewer, depending on how the current version turns out.)

How are ekalaps related to salkiys? Obviously they're quite similar species-- are they even different species?

They are very closely related! Different species...eh, well, maybe different sub-species? I'm a biologist, what constitutes a species is a fraught and controversial question and I can't seem to turn that off even when talking about fantasy creatures.

So you can call them different species or different subspecies or whatever you want. They are very closely related. They can interbreed (quite a bit more easily than either can with humans), they both have magic abilities that are roughly the same (but not exact, and they can tell each other apart by that), they look mostly identical. Salkiys believe ekalaps were once salkiys who strayed from the path of the Goddess and are forever cursed because of it. Ekalaps believe the salkiys follow a corrupt form of their own religion and that they, at some point far in the past, stole the land that rightly belonged to the ekalaps. Both sides have been trying to rectify the "problem" of each other since forever.

Ekalaps live in the mountain forests and salkiys live in the forested lowlands, but that's probably more of a self-selection thing done to avoid each other than any kind of particular altitude preference.

I was wondering if they were like, different names for the same species or sub-species, and I am not anywhere near a biologist so I will trust your judgment on what they are to each other. But yeah, I figured they were fairly closely related but I wasn't sure HOW close, and this sort of makes it... more tragic, in a way.

How does Merrus come to be half-ekalap? Does that get addressed in the story?

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Writers' Salon!

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