The Iron Book

I was looking over the list of Dunad royalty and found an interesting parallel.

Immediately following times of great danger, the new kings and many princes often had names related to the founders. After a couple of generations these names will dissappear and more common Dunad names will take over.

The only conclusion I can draw is that there was a certain Talismatic thinking among the royalty that naming their children great names will make them great leaders.

The problem I get, however, is that this stands in complete opposition to the non-superstitious nature of Dunad supernaturality.

On the Veil.

An interesting question came up recently: why does the veil of Dunateen remain active at all times when the Tikwa of Dargin could only be activated by a collection of men and would only last for a couple of days before running out of energy? I have yet to find any information on this within the Book, nor in any of the fragments I have, though there is one intriguing piece of evidence. A single note in the margin of page 36 mentions the 'confluence of ways' said to be found at Dunateen. If the ways corrospound to the roads of power mentioned in chapter XII it suggest that there is far more inherent energy around Dunateen, thus giving them the power for the veil to use. Intriguing, if true.

Sorry about not posting but I really have little to say. Work has been interferring with progress on the book, so at the moment it is in limbo. When things slow down after Christmas I'll try to get another post up.

Thanks to K. Holm for the work on the meaning of Khira. She reffered me to a work by the poet Karinis published in 511 DoS. The poem in question, 'Turnings' contains the line "Another of the great kings/Carved [khira] in the pillars of time." It seems that Khira is a euphimism for kings becoming great rulers. Once again, thank you K.

I am wondering if their is anybody has a decent dictionary on the Duanteen tongue. My knowledge is falling far short of what I need to complete my studies of the book. The biggest issue at the moment is the translation of Khira. Looking at the word etymologically I can trace it to other words relating to the carving of stone, with its closest cousin being Kher or *Khile. The problem here is that the sentence and paragraph surrounding Khira refers to the coming of the first king of Dunateen. Not once on the page is the word stone mentioned. The only conclusion I can reach at the moment is that Khira is a euphemism involving royalty, but I am unsure.

I made a small error in a previous post. I stated that Dunateen was built in three stages, working inside out. I made this statement based on the fragments I had gathered from the books that I list on that post. Further research has shown that it was in fact built in four stages. The first stage is the same, but the second stage was the completion of the Outer Courts, in DoS 425. Next was the construction of the buildings lining the main thorough fares from the Rock to the Outer Courts. They were completed in 427. The fourth stage was comstruction of the major buildings elsewhere in the city, which was completed in 429. The rest of the information in that post is accurate. Sorry for any confusion.

I found an interesting footnote in the Iron Book. On page 167 the book speaks of the Aldarn infulence on Dunateen military tactics, particualrly in their use of cavalry. The ineresting thing, though, is the small note added on the bottom of the page, clearly entered at another time. The author of this short note, who remains anonymous, suggests that this influence was the first step towards the current brooding unrest between the two Cities. He does not back up his suggestion, but I plan to look into the idea further to see if their is any merit to it.