A couple random and unrelated things I'd like to see in TK*

[LordWeirdo]

(*but will by no means protest or really even care much at all should they not occur)

Just throwing these out there. My mind wandered to TwoKinds the other day and I struck upon a couple ideas that I am surprised I hadn't thought of before.

1. Mekkan Creation Myth (Note: If I messed up the name of the TK world, then sorry.)
What first came to mind was that we had no origin story for the world or species of TwoKinds. (Or if we do, it's not in the main canon or any side stories I've seen/read.) Thus, I'd really like to see a character telling how the people of Mekkan (particularly Keidran) believe their world came to be, and how the different species were made. Since we have the Masks, I feel there should at least be some legend of questionable validity to be found.

I recognize that this would be a particularly poor fit in the current story arc and would likely be an unnecessarily long diversion wherever it would be placed. But I was raised on Tolkien and am a big fan of tiny details that are largely irrelevant to the plot yet are fundamental to how a canon works.

And now, abrupt change of subject!

2. Natani's Linguistic Ability
From Natani's first appearance to today, there has seemed to be little progress in her understanding of the human language. Now, I get that she's an adult, and that it's harder for older people to learn anything, particularly second languages. But Natani has been immersed in a human-speaking environment for months now. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I should think that she would at least be trying to some extent to learn, and even if not, she would at least have picked up a good bit from being in said human-speaking environment.

And for all my low-attention-to-detail self knows, she has learned a lot and it has either not helped in the situations we see as readers or I just haven't noticed.


And I just realized I was obsessing over details in the first part of this post and admitting to skimming details in the latter part. This is the paradox that is my existence, pay it no mind.

[NiWo21k]

2. Natani's Linguistic Ability
From Natani's first appearance to today, there has seemed to be little progress in her understanding of the human language. Now, I get that she's an adult, and that it's harder for older people to learn anything, particularly second languages. But Natani has been immersed in a human-speaking environment for months now. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I should think that she would at least be trying to some extent to learn, and even if not, she would at least have picked up a good bit from being in said human-speaking environment.

And for all my low-attention-to-detail self knows, she has learned a lot and it has either not helped in the situations we see as readers or I just haven't noticed.

You have to see it this way: When did Natani really had the chance to learn a little bit more - there was always something that happend. Mostly when there was a conversation then they talked keidran (also in conversations with Keith) and when they talked human it always was so quick or it was so sudden that Natani never had a chance to get what was going on. Also if i recall correctly Natani knows some words. And i dont think she would be someone who openly admits she would like to have some training, she tried (at least at first) to keep a distance to the others.

[amenon]

Yeah, Natani doesn't really socialize at all. Even if he did, it's pretty much only Trace he wouldn't be able to talk to.

For the creation myths, if avwolf were around I think one of the places he would point you to is here. So I will do so in his stead. (And being myself, I will point out that that's a very long time ago and doesn't necessarily mean much of anything anymore )

[LordWeirdo]

Of course I didn't think of the socialization aspect. I feel dumb now. xD

And that's about what I figured as far as the general creation idea, but I want something a bit more elaborate. Oh well. xD

[avwolf]

Yeah, Natani doesn't really socialize at all. Even if he did, it's pretty much only Trace he wouldn't be able to talk to.

On top of that, most of the time people switch to Keidran when they address Natani, which makes immersion learning even harder. It's difficult to develop language skills when everyone switches to your native language when they hear you struggle with theirs.

I'd also like to point out that Natani hasn't been immersed in Human culture for especially long, even barring how little Natani interacts with "not Keith." It's really been a matter of weeks at best (depending on how long you consider the time on the ship, which was also when Natani was the most sequestered). Natani's really only been immersed in an environment that speaks almost exclusively Human for a day or so (Wreathwood). Everywhere else, Natani either hasn't been "immersed" (Edinmire) or they don't predominantly speak Human (the Basidian Isles), at least around Natani (the Na'rella).

1. Mekkan Creation Myth (Note: If I messed up the name of the TK world, then sorry.)

I made one of those up, once. It is, however, no longer fully accurate to what we know, as it doesn't properly cover "the old gods," leaning instead on a very Tolkien-esque arrangement. We know that the Old Gods created the dragons and the Masks (and maybe other things), and the Masks made the Races, but beyond that we know little. Who created the rest of the beasts? *shrug* I don't personally think Tom enjoys the nitty-gritty details; I believe he prefers to tell dramatic stories about people and places. Nothing wrong with that, but it's very different from Tolkien's approach to world-building.

[aitaituo]

I know a guy who has lived in a foreign country for over a decade and knows less than a hundred words of the native language. If you can get by, you don't need to learn more and people are most inclined to fulfill their needs.