Twin Aster

[Glenn]

2. I think zompist wrote in one of his books about how…I want to say it was some faction of the Iroquois?…had this conceit where a man's sister's children inherit, basically because of the principle of "mama's baby, papa's maybe" and how it keeps things in the bloodline. I am trying to figure out how this works in practice with the Tim Ar.

From what I have read, this form of inheritance (matrilineal (although not usually matriarchal) kinship, with inheritance passing from uncle to nephew) occurs in a number of cultures around the world. I have heard about it most often with regard to North American cultures, but the Wikipedia article on matrilineality gives a number of examples from Africa, as well as Asia and South America.

Someone linked at one point to an article discussing the distinction between matrilineal cultures where the emphasis was on the tie between uncle and nephew (i.e., to siblings' children, as you describe), and others where the biological father still played a role in inheritance as well. Unfortunately, I do not recall the author or title of the article; I thought I might have downloaded a copy, but I was unable to locate it.

[Travis B.]

2. I think zompist wrote in one of his books about how…I want to say it was some faction of the Iroquois?…had this conceit where a man's sister's children inherit, basically because of the principle of "mama's baby, papa's maybe" and how it keeps things in the bloodline. I am trying to figure out how this works in practice with the Tim Ar.

From what I have read, this form of inheritance (matrilineal (although not usually matriarchal) kinship, with inheritance passing from uncle to nephew) occurs in a number of cultures around the world. I have heard about it most often with regard to North American cultures, but the Wikipedia article on matrilineality gives a number of examples from Africa, as well as Asia and South America.

Someone linked at one point to an article discussing the distinction between matrilineal cultures where the emphasis was on the tie between uncle and nephew (i.e., to siblings' children, as you describe), and others where the biological father still played a role in inheritance as well. Unfortunately, I do not recall the author or title of the article; I thought I might have downloaded a copy, but I was unable to locate it.

One thing that surprises me is that this sort of inheritance system is not more common crossculturally, because from an evolutionary psychology sense it makes more sense than patrilineal inheritance -- remember the Roman law doctrine of mater semper certa est "the mother is always certain".

[Man in Space]

I’ve just discovered the existence of hemerythrin. Lots of iron in it, makes for violet/magenta-ish blood, apparently. Íröd is lousy with iron, especially in the water. I think the adasar will use that as the bloodborne oxygen carrier.

[Man in Space]

Sudden bolt of idea while I was on the can earlier:

I've previously mentioned that XTC has a sort of construct state function that forces a second-register tone on the second (modifier) noun. It occurs to me that, while I knew that I wanted the city to be called "Mjuy Baong" (ignoring tones), which was supposed to mean "Golden City" or "City of Gold", I wasn't sure how I was going to swing it. Now I can:

Mjǔy Bâong

mjǔy

city

bǎong

gold

²

s.c.

'City of Gold/Golden City'

XTC /mɲoi̯^D2 bɔ̃^B1/
MB [mjyi̯ˀ˨˩ bãˀ˨˩˨]
Gu [mɲac˨˩˨ bã˨˩˨]
Gn [mneː˥˧ bɑ̃ˀ˥˧]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hemerythrin actually makes a ton of sense for the adasar (v.s. about the iron surplus), and it also would lead to a lot of imagery being changed.

- Blood = purple. Pervades everything.
- The Confederation of the Violet Sun can now be the Confederation of the Blood Sun. More metal, while still retaining the tip of the hat to my mentor, Jack King-Spooner.
- The Red Death is now the Violet Death. As the calendrical system was previously referred to as RD, this would mean it would now be VD. This is sub-optimal, so I've decided to go the Latin route and use MP (mors purpura), which has the bonus attribute of providing another, albeit somewhat inadvertent, shout-out to Mr. King-Spooner (whose flagship video game series is Sluggish Morss).

Interestingly, CT only has three color terms: sígna 'light; warm', hûn 'dark; cool', and kiĝ 'red; brown; ruddy, earthy'. This easily lends itself to a color-separated three-humours system:

Isë ekhím Héon ü

isë

three

ekhín

MW.bodily

héon

vapor

ü

DEF

'the Three Humours'

Note the archaic connotation of héon (more literally 'mist, vapor') here (and its coöccurrence with the measure-word ekhín 'bodily function/action').

The éhon were held to be quasi-fluidic, quasi-vaporous humours that had effects on your personality and health in some way. They were associated each with a pair of ela (sg. líḫ, literally 'lacquer' but from an ultimate etymon in PB *ðehiɢ 'sap, resin'), one ir hoĝ ('remaining within') and one ir súł ('going without') based on whether they were supposed to remain inside the body; one Î Gi (< ki 'hand; leaf'), basically which of the three kingdoms of plants is associated with you; one hö (lit. 'brother' but because of the names of the two moons it's kind of here like a catchall for certain astronomical bodies), either one of the two moons or Xi Boötis B; and one kélen 'water', referring to what kind of literal water was yours. Some of the associations may be a bit opaque, so I'll try to explain some of them after the table.

Heón Humour	Líḫ ir Hoĝ Vital fluid within	Líḫ ir Súł Vital fluid without	Î Gi Leafy thing	Hö Astronomical Body	Kélen Water
sígna warm; light	kélen sígna venous blood	íántád semen	díĝkü yellow plant	Hö Kahál Big Brother	ḫîn fresh/potable
hún cool; dark	gîĝ arterial blood	łodká sweat	köglu black plant	Hö Nihír Little Brother	aĝmükní rainwater
kiĝ red; brown	mhûi digestive juices	gáúmaga urine	kóḫreł red plant	Hadál Iénhu n Taád King-of-the-Sky	kélen î réthu seawater

- Venous blood is considered sígna because deoxygenated hemerythrin is, I'm told, clear. When it's oxygenated, it gains its violet color (clearly hún).
- Urine is considered kiĝ because dahsar urine is iron-rich; some google fu says that this is sometimes called 'vin rose' and can occur in chelation patients due to high iron excretion via urine, which the adasar have due to the higher iron content on the surface of Íröd.
- Hö Nihír is closer to Íröd but noticeably darker than its larger but more distant sibling Hö Kahál. Hadál Iénhu n Taád, which is Xi Boötis B, is a K-type star and appears a little orangey.
- The connection of sweat to hún is thanks to the adasar correctly identifying that sweat is water-based. The Beheic Urheimat was in a region of fresh water, which was blue-tinted (blue and violet are both covered by hún).
- Assigning rainwater specifically to hún is not totally understood; prevailing theories suggest that it's due to the association of dark skies with stormy weather. Sensu stricto, it's unusual that potable water is considered sígna when water itself is hún (v.s.). It seems that the association with sígna is due to the clarity of pure water. While heavy water is clear, standard water having a slight blue tint, kélen suú would not be discovered until dahsar science got to the point where it was relevant, many thousands of years after the floruit of CT.