What address does Machigi accord Ilisidi and have they ever met face to face?
Has Machigi ever met Tabini?
What is the name of the current lord of the Senjin Marid?
What is his capital? I’VE FOUND THIS ONE: It’s Koperna, and his seaport, a distance away is Lusi’ei. Also within Senjin is the home of the troublesome Farai, at Morigi-dar.
What is the name of the capital of the Dojisigin Marid? This one is Amarja.
What is the name of Tiajo’s father? Her uncle is Comari, her mother Mujito, d. of Tori, sister of the infamous Cosadi. Badissuni was Tiajo’s great-grandfather: he is deceased. Is her father alive?
And Mada, a Farai, was mother to Machigi. His father is Cosadi son of Sarini, a ruler of the Dojisigi. And the DOjisigi hate Machigi and vice versa.
And be aware, some of these things may never have been given. I am particularly dubious of the questions on the Senjin Marid.
Chapter 20 of Intruder – Machigi visits the Bujavid and meets Ilisidi, but apparently not Tabini – at least, that isn’t mentioned. (It’s when Komaji is exiled from Shejidan.)
Thank you! And the form of address, if it showed up?
Machigi addresses her as “nand’dowager” on page 370 (hardcover) of Intruder, and she addresses him as “nandi.”
Tabini intentionally did not meet the Machigi at this time because the agreement was between Machigi and the dowager. Politically it was better for him to stay out of it.
We have no way of knowing if the two met since then.
I’m confused about some of the questions.
Cosadi was Saigimi’s (Sarini is the province Geigi is in charge of) daughter in “Inheritor”, chapter 7 (I logically understand that book was 20 years ago, so you change whatever you like,) but Banichi specifically teases Jago about “female conspiracy” during that conversation with Bren, which is why it sticks in my mind.
There is also the given out of “everyone in the first three books was lying to Bren about everything,” which is how I write off a lot of confusing things.
At one point in one of the appendices where the Marid is being discussed (not Intruder, but one of the earlier books), Mujito is given as Mujita and male in on place and Mujito and female in another, and reversed for Cosadi. So I’ll accept either one.
the -o ending tends to be female, but not universally; ditto the -i is usually male. But that tree was hastily written in longhand and it is a mess, partly because it was squeezed onto paper without enough room and partly because the penmanship is not my best. I think this will be the time we regularize some things. You’re right about Sagaimi. Reminds me of that awful pun about two gentlemen who quarreled about the name of an Indian garment, and one wrote back “I’m sari I was sarong.”
One can easily imagine the organizational nightmares. One hardly expects you sat down in the mid 90’s and said “GOSH, I think I’ll make this a 20+ book series!”
The amount of detail in just one book is staggering, never mind 20+ books. I’m impressed at how well you keep it all straight. It would be a full-time job just by itself to make and maintain indices for all the books — who’s who, and what’s what, and what’s where. You could do with a full-time clerical staff like Bren’s.
I wonder … is it possible to make a wiki for the Foreigner series? Or am I hopelessly out of touch and there already is one?
There is a wiki on the Shejidan site: http://shejidan.wikia.com/wiki/Shejidan_Wiki
It’s in need of more contributors, though.
Are the names and information from the Who’s Who (up in the menu for this site) in the Shejidan wiki as well?
I know a few people on here, including me, enthousiastically started putting a book apiece into the Who’s who, but after that it seems to have stagnated with most of the books undone.
I’m not on Shejidan so I have no idea how complete and up to date the wiki there is, and if it would be worthwhile picking up the work on the Who’s who again or if that might as well be closed down as a duplicate effort.
Question re: the Shejidan Wiki: if the text of the book conflicts with the end notes, which is considered canon? For instance, the text gives Geigi’s sister’s name as Tejo (clan Maschi) and Baiji’s father’s name as Dumaei (no clan given). Bren Cameron’s notes at the end, however, give her name as Drudija (clan Maschi) and the father as Kaiati (clan Sulesi).
Also, the text says that Geigi’s last contracted wife was Samiusi, and that her sister married into the Marid. Neither lady is given a name. The notes say that Geigi’s wife was Brueino of the Sulesi, and that she was the one who married into the Marid, to Coidinje of the Tasaigi. They proceeded to have three children, Teimiso, Ahiada, and Muei.
Finally, the text and the notes conflict on the matter of the relationship of the Samiusi and the Sulesi, in which is the sept of the other.
There are other conflicts, particularly around the genealogy of Tiajo, but that appears to have been worked out in other conversations. Might I request assistance with Geigi’s lines, here?
(PS: And I now have the urge to use atevi spelling and address our hostess as nand’Sijei…)
Lol—I don’t think I wrote the end notes: I think that might have been my old friend Bev working from my initial notes, which are kind of chicken-scratchy. Go from the text, definitely. I have a very bad habit of spelling a name one way, then finding its pronunciation wants to be a little different, so I run through it trying to correct all the spellings, but miss the first one.
So what does the copyeditor do? THey must be paid by the correction, because the doofus will change 200 instances that are spelled correctly to fit the ONE instance I missed in my own correction pass. Happens over and over and over. In their heads, the first is always correct; and in mine—look at the LAST spelling: that’s the evolutionary end-all.
Damiri-daja’s mother is another one: Mureino in chapter 7 of Convergence, and Muriyo in Chapter 18.
Merci beaucoup for the previous reply.
Applying the ‘Last is most right!’ rule, then Damiri’s mother should be Muriyo, and Machigi’s representative should be Lady Siadi, correct?
(Nothing like going to the source …)
I remember on your older blog, back when you were probably on Explorer or the one after, you mentioned that the folks at Shejidan helped keep you on track with names, etc. That’s how I found that site, over 9 years ago…..
I’m a veteran reader of the Foreigner series and just started on Resurgence. One of those odd things happened which has really started to bug me but has not bothered me at all over the last 20 odd years. WHAT is the correct pronunciation of “Ilisidi” In my head it’s always been Il-siddy and now it sounds like Il-Lissidee. Help!!!
I think it’s /ih-lee-SEE-dee/, but I might have the stressed syllable wrong, and the first Vowell may also be /ee/.
Typo in the first chapter or two, [ not withstanding ] should be [ notwithstanding ];
Step in any time you like CJ!
Siodi, Machigi’s representative is another, who suddenly becomes Lady Siadi toward the end of Intruder.
And in Protector she’s back to being Siodi.
I’m just going to blame low back unrounded lax vowels. Of which English has three in some dialects. And two in others. And only one in still others. And that’s not counting the ones English doesn’t have at all.
And kanji. Or stuff like kanji, anyway.
I would claim it’s a regional thing or a else a case where the classical versus the vernacular pronunciation don’t always match. So it’s a vowel in between /uh/, /ah/, and /aw/, with maybe a touch of a very short /oh/ thrown in, but mostly between /ah and /aw/, like the “cot/caught” or “pot” as /paht/ versus /pawt/ in English dialects.
The writing system for Ragi might have that same archaic, unclear vowel built in, whether it’s like the Japanese katakana/hiragana or their kanji, or like Devanagari, or some other syllabary with vowels denoted somehow, or even an imprecise and outdated alphabetic spelling system like, say, English and French use, where you have to use memorization and guessing dialects to some extent. Hebrew and Arabic partially show and partially omit showing the vowels in some modes. So whatever Ragi does to write out words….
How’s that for a hand-waving explanation of a typo? 😀
I once saw an instance where Aja Jin is spelled as Aia Jin in one of the Chanur books. I keep meaning to note the page and print edition, but I keep missing it. Maybe on my next reread I’ll finally catch it.
I once recall having seen a typo in a 36 point headline of a major computer how-to manual by one of the big publishers. Early in the manuscript. Someone really missed that before it went to press, and possibly later was doing a major head-desk of “why me?”
But hmm, finding these things is kinda fun in a weird way too. And there could always be some backstory invented to explain it all.
(Hmm, a whole passel of wives and offspring being chased offstage by a big atevi space-bear? I dunno, there could be a plot twist there to introduce a space-bear. OK, now I’m wondering how the alien ursinoids from that Gordon R. Dickson story got in here. Or maybe it’s the three bears on holiday from Goldilocks….)
Heheh, I am in a weird mood, sorry.
Yep, bless my copyeditor in NY, who sometimes wearies and gives up. And myself, who sometimes looks to check and writes it the old way. My copyeditors are a longsuffering lot. OTOH, this is originally written in something like kanji [qv] so (ahem) English transliteration is imprecise. That’s her excuse and she’s sticking to it.
I also see nothing to prevent regional pronunciations, nicknames, or more than one person having the same name.
…
In Deceiver, Pairuti, clan lord of the Maschi, is, among other things, described as being the father of six children by four wives. All of these children lived to adulthood to have marriages of their own. The third wife was Lujo, daughter of Haidani of the Senjin Marid; the union produced a son.
Later in the same book, Pairuti is described as being like Geigi, childless, and that Baiji was the main Maschi line’s best hope of an heir, too.
Might one reconcile these apparently contradictory statements with that time-honored device, the retcon? Retro-active continuity is so useful.
If all of Pairuti’s wives claimed the children of his unions for their own clans, and the contracts were written as such, then technically, Pairuti has no heirs, save Baiji. One wonders why he might prefer such a situation, but doubtless he had his reasons.
And one wonders if Ilisidi’s machinations to get Baiji married off to Maie of the Calrunaidi (whose mother was Ardija clan, which is headed by Drien, Ilisidi’s own closest living relative in the East) might mean she had her eye set a little higher for that worthy young lady than lordship of a western sea-side villa.
Why, yes. I am having fun.
I mentally wince when I get to that bit. All six children exit left, pursued by a bear, obviously.
Forgive me if this is the wrong place, and/or it has already been addressed, but are there Earth plants that the Atevi might like from an edibles standpoint? I’m thinking botanically the Solanaceae family, which includes peppers, eggplant, potatoes, tomatoes, and nightshade (!) among others. Humans don’t care for the green parts, and indeed they can be toxic in sufficient quantities, but the Atevi might find them very palatable. Maybe the humans can cultivate them for the human-desirable parts, and bale the rest for shipment to the mainland.