#carpetunin

[lawyernovelist]

An easy one (hopefully!) to compensate for the last one. It is mentioned in Border Crossing that the four races of elves are related to wood, stone, water and fire respectively. It's clear who the Wood-elves are, stone would be the Mountain-elves, and water would be the Sea-elves, which have not appeared but are mentioned together with Wood-elves as the ancestors of the Mixed-bloods. Who or where are the fire elves? Are they some sort of desert-dwelling elves? And which race did the Irnianam/Valley-elves originally come from?

Happy Christmas and New Year :P

That is a myth, but there were originally four races of elves, which is where it arose from, and it's very wide-spread. The Mountain-elves are actually the ones associated with fire; they were known for metalworking and smithcraft, which formed something of a cycle with the fact that they tended to be warlike (underlining the fire association, since fire is associated with danger and destruction as well as homely images such as the hearthfire - like fire, Mountain-elves made good allies and bad enemies!).

The Valley-elves are actually the ones associated with stone or earth, from an ancient association with the land and farming that they've moved away from since, as well as some associations around unwillingness to change or, as they'd prefer, stability and reliability. It's also stuck because of their long tendency to hold themselves apart from the others and their ability to survive disaster - whatever sweeps over the land, land will still be there.

There are desert elves a long way off from Duamelti; I don't know how much of a factor they'll become!

(A link to the books for anyone playing the home game!)

[lawyernovelist]

Now something new! About the differences between humans and elves in the Swordmasters universe. So far, we've seen that elves don't die or age (in general), they are more resistant to diseases, and they can walk on snow (hehe ;). Are there any other differences between the two? Do humans have some characteristics that could be considered an advantage over elves?

Elves can still be killed, of course, and their bodies can actually really struggle with foreign objects - if it goes deeper than the skin and isn't dealt with properly it can start triggering a very nasty immune response. Humans tend to be more fertile than elves, so can have more kids more easily (I know YMMV on whether that's an advantage!).

Also, all else being equal humans don't hold grudges and run feuds the way elves can; not being so long-lived they can forget and move on from problems more easily. Not to say they always do, but it's easier. Trauma and similar psychological wounds heal more easily for humans than for elves. On the timescale of the books that's less obvious since it's mostly scaled to elves!

Humans actually also tend to be more flexible and better able to cope with having their lives thrown off the rails and better able to deal with mental illnesses* which, because of the way elven mortality works, can cause much more of a problem for elves.

So while elves get a lot of physical advantages, humans get a lot of psychological ones! I have ideas for later stories in which humans feature more, so hopefully that will start coming out more as time goes on.

*(Physiologically, not necessarily culturally, since humans being more flexible also means a lot more cultural variation)

[lawyernovelist]

In the Swordmasters novels, Melannen is a very minor character, but I like what I've seen of her so far. I am wondering if she has an active political role, or what is her real power or authority. What got me intrigued was that scene between her and Hurion in Chapter 19 of Border Crossing (no spoilers, you know the one), where she tells him the group came to her specifically for that crucial matter. Also, in an earlier scene it is implied she doesn't usually participate in council meetings but can attend if she wants to.

As queen of Duamelti, Melannen has the right to a role in government, but what that means depends on the ruler and consort in question (there haven't been any ruling queens since Duamelti was founded, but Tishlondi had them and this is something that was carried over, especially since the first king of Duamelti had a female regent until he came of age). She can attend council meetings to stay abreast of what's happening in the kingdom and is empowered to speak for Hurion on any issue unless he's said otherwise (and that would be very unusual). Since generally the consort can speak for the ruler, it's not uncommon for petitioners to go to the consort about issues they don't want to go directly to the ruler about for any reason. In that case, Hurion was a little bit too intimidating - and going directly to him was a psychological hurdle in the circumstances, especially not knowing what reception they would get - but Eldaron had done his research and they could trust Melannen would get the message there!

Melannen actually has an unusually small role because of her stammer - she really doesn't like to speak in public, so her role tends to be more as a discussion partner and supporter/private critic rather than a spokesperson of any kind. She can accept petitioners, speak for Hurion in his absence, etc. and she attends councils sometimes to listen.

(And a link to the books for anyone playing the home game!)

[lawyernovelist]

Why is Weyrn's title "the Linnet"? I can't see any link between him and these cute little birds.

Love of music! Unfortunately I didn't incorporate that aspect of his character as much as I'd have liked to in hindsight, but he plays the flute and had started teaching Seregei before, well... you know.