“Consider I have no intent of pleasing Ovi’ in order to attain their vote,” said Corvin. Esor kept his gaze upon his knees through this exchange, but looked up when Corvin reached over to take Esor’s hand. “U|tarso:d has shown limitless loyalty to the Kovemiser. We will remember after my accession.” We, he said, because Esor was now one of them—a lovely figure in draped black whose food was served by servant hands and grown by enslaved blood, like any Kovemiser.

#Writing #Excerpt #AmWriting

"Every one is many. The many are one." -Dwarrow proverb

udae äzas
äzae udas
-Dwarrow proverb in Hillancornik

This is one of the first things I wrote for my epic fantasy book, #AtopTheTreesBeneathTheMountains, just about three years ago now. I did the worldbuilding for this book conlang-first: I thought about what I wanted to say about #elves and dwarves, and then I designed the languages around their culture, and even the book's themes.

The translation was initially into Lo:sa'lvaren, but the language developed as I developed the #book, and these words (udae a:zas etc) no longer mean what they used to. But earlier iterations of the language have been kept as "archaic" or dialectical alternatives. This particular early iteration was assigned to Hillancornik, the language of the now-extinct Thicket Elm Halflings who once occupied the Great Thicket where a Lo:sa'lvaren capital now stands.

The TE Halflings were a nation eliminated by the A'lvar Republic, along with their language. In fact, a great many tribes and nations were destroyed by the Republic. But empires can destroy nations without fully extinguishing the customs of a people, so I have left this proverb in use, as-is, to indicate the surviving descendants of TE Halflings in a region.

Dwarrow speak nachi|, by the way, but I don't yet have a fully formed nachi| to talk about. I know the rules I want for speech, and a few words, but you just don't "see" nachi| in the book the way you see Lo:sa'lvaren because they're used for different narrative purposes. High-class A'lvar should seem scary, aloof, distant, and impenetrable; their language is confusing and readers are held at arm's reach whenever it is used. In contrast, Dwarrow are meant to be approachable and accessible, so I almost exclusively write in English for them simply so readers feel cozy.

"Udae a:zas, a:zae udas" is a proverb ultimately representative of the most central theme of my book. "Every one is many. The many are one." The philosophy I present is that all living beings are so intertwined as to be a unified organism (regarding ecosystems as organisms too, tbh) and that when we hurt each other, we hurt ourselves, much like cancer. The story is screaming into the void, "We have to stop doing this to each other! The only way we can stop is to LOVE OURSELVES, because we are EVERYONE!" It feels a lot sillier put that way, but I promise it's really cool when it plays out over 300,000 words with #gothic intrigue. :)

#AtopTheTreesBeneathTheMountains