Back in Strayway, in the parlor with the dismal couch, and a party which we had prepared in honor of Jyondre and Yerenthax before we set out, and felt obliged to have anyhow so as to avoid insulting the cooks and/or skipping treats.
Denial
Yerenthax:“False family fled, each foetid fang / bruised by bells that ’round them rang!”"
Jyondre:“What on wood are you talking about? I didn’t see any bells!”
Yerenthax:“Forgive me, my love. Though this be the hour of your gravest distress, I, too, am rattled, and my normally peerless staves are, while still peerless, not strictly correct anymore!”
Jyondre:“It’s quite all right. I love you for many reasons, of which staves are not the first, nor the second, nor even the third.”
Wrongfolk:“How sweet!”
Yerenthax:“My staves are not so bad!”
Couch:“Your staves are harbingers of the emptiness of all things!”
Anger
Me:“I’m so sorry, Jyondre. That’s a horrible way for family to behave.”
Jyondre:“I’m rather used to it, actually. I guess you’ve never seen me particularly upset — I do it too.”
Me:“You resort to execrations?”
Jyondre:“I say very rude things when I’m upset, anyhow.”
Me:“You’re quite polite now.”
Bargaining
Jyondre:“Well, I’m not very upset now. One thing though — could you check and see if that curse actually was the kind of cursing that does things, or just a nasty poem?”
Me:“Of course, Jyondre.” I inspected him with all the means at my disposal. “There’s no magical or physical force behind it that I can detect. Any twigs that find their way into your boots are probably just due to carelessness or squirrels the usual way.”
Jyondre:“Well, that’s not the only force. I don’t know how my old friends will react to me any more. Or my banker, for that matter… I may be relying on my girlfriend for support for a while.”
Phaniet:“Well, seventy lozens a month from Eigrach isn’t shabby either.”
Me:“And Castle Wrong, wherein you will always have a home if you want one.”
At which point Jyondre started crying. So a dozen assorted wrongfolk climbed onto him and hugged and petted him ’til he stopped, .
Depression
Inconnu:“What did you think would happen, going and kissing Yerenthax in front of everyone like that?”
Jyondre:“Why do you think I kissed her with the whole Eigrach city guard between me and my parents? I picked my moment most carefully!”
Inconnu:“Oh! You were expecting it!”
Jyondre:“Can you imagine the slaughter if it was just Yerenthax and me and them, and they discovered the awful truth? They would have mobbed me, and Yerenthax would have scattered them like chaff and flensed them fur from flesh as a falcon flattens a flaccid flounder! I was being nice to my family, actually. “
Acceptance
Inconnu:“Your ex-family! And does a falcon flatten … what you said …?”
Jyondre: [sighing] “My ex-family. I don’t know. Trying to keep the Gormormor happy; she’s all that’s left to me now.”
The Gormoror looked rather happy, at least at the moment.
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Blood relations do not a family make.
Jyondre still has quite a lot of non-blood family left, at least. Also, yay for extra treats. :9
So… does anyone else get the feeling that this is the end of his relationship with Yerenthrax?
I’m not sure *why*, but I get that vibe.
Otters and Heavy Family action/hatred is not something I would put together. Hmm. New type of music. Heavy Otter…
I wondered where the Soul of Marvin had gotten to, and now I know.
(By the way, Bard, I got a copy of the sourcebook and have been slowly reading it as time permits. Makes a bit more sense – the Tree is much much larger than I had thought initially, and the innate unfairness-to-monsters of what it means that there are Primes is offset by learning that there are enormous areas where there are NOT, and even more, realizing that there are most likely a LOT of other civilizations over the thing. And … in one place, it is revealed that up is up and down is down, but what does that mean?
Up is crownwards, down is rootwards, or up is away-from-tree?)
I suspect this is in contrast to common walking directions, which are relative. The navigational directions are polar, which is difficult enough for most people on Earth (used to Cartesian directions – North, South, East, and West being orthogonal, even if North and South do wind up converging thanks to the curvature of the earth) to comprehend.
Walking directions are worse – walkward and outward twist and bend as the branch does, and rollward and roll’gainst(the walking directions, not the similarly named navigational ones) are perpendicular to them. They are not easily reconciled between two places – even if a spur from one branch comes closer to a spur of another than their respective main branches are to either at that point.
Thus, the navigational directions, which are always relative to the main trunk of the Tree; you can, thus, keep heading inward or outward and not have it change on you, but rollward and roll’gainst still cannot be strictly followed in straight lines – they are circular. There is a simple Kennoc spell(Find the World, I believe it’s called) to tell you which direction is the main trunk – but, of course, Kennoc spells are not entirely reliable. Those who live nearer the main trunk than any others have it easier; they can navigate by sight.
In contrast, and barring odd Locador magic, “up”(or, on the same axis, “down”) is the same direction wherever you are, and won’t change no matter how far you go in ANY direction. The “root” of the Tree, if it has one, is down; Ketheria is the uppermost ring of branches, or at least was(more seem to be growing above it); the upper side of each world-branch is dished.
Hm. This means that anything living UNDER a branch has to cling tenaciously, or fall? until it either reaches “bottom” or is moved by the forces of twisted vectors and air currents into some sort of collision with (most likely) another part of the Tree.
There are enough branches and side-branches that anything falling is going to eventually hit SOMETHING; even once you get twenty or so rings of branches down, seeing the sky is difficult, and when you get to sixty-plus, the sky cannot be seen at all save for occasional gaps in the world-leaves(p 7, “Prime Territories”). Those leaves are themselves sturdy enough to present a hazard – though not much of anything lives on them; sometimes, individual leaves do drop(although not seasonally).
Given the fast distances between branches, anything that falls that far without some means to slow its descent will be very, very dead. And the physics of air are strange enough on the World Tree that simply being small might not be sufficient.
In any case, things that live on the sides or undersides of the world-branches are well adapted to life there. Sleeth may live on the Verticals(the sides), but even they are likely to move into, or at least closer to, cities when ice makes the footing treacherous; more commonly, things like jacks o’ hooks(which have great numbers of cable-like tentacles, very strong, good at gripping the sideways trees) or things that can outright fly are more likely denizens. As you get underneath, this becomes even more true.
At any rate, I’m pretty sure even Sleeth don’t live on the Underneaths. Too many very dangerous beasts do, with not enough places to run and jump.
Re-read the first chapter in detail for a little more information; for details on some specific beasts that live in the Verticals, see helletumug, jack-o’-hooks, and jaran-jabow on pp 271-273, in the Bestiary. Jacks at least are tough enough, and good enough at handling vertical spaces, that they might be found in the Underneaths; they are also very alien to our concepts, which can pretty much be expected of anything that lives there.
[Wow. I go away for a bit, and Veritas has answered the questions in far more detail than I was going to -- and quite correctly. Up is crownward and skyward; down is rootward (or whatever is down there).
The Underneaths are extremely wild and dangerous, and their ecology is strange and upsetting. I don't think there are any Underneaths-beasts in the rulebook, though nendrai can live there comfortably if they like -- Vae does, IIRC, back in Vheshrame. A Marriage of Insects shows off some other Verticals-beasts: ororosti like strings of eyeballs, floating tetrahedral vorwi, and mighty-winged nycathath as you have seen in Sythyry a little.]
A tendency toward being a pedant sometimes does come in handy.
As I recall, Vae’s home, while more underneath than not, is actually inside other things(a galangal root, a cleft in the world-amber)… but then, Vae herself is unusually good with Locador, even for a nendrai; she has a quarter-inch high treasure room that can comfortably contain a ten-foot-high armoire, and a demonstrated ability to redefine the local meanings of “up” and “down”. She is probably one of the more normal-looking things that can live comfortably in the Underneaths, and she can do so at least in part because she makes them not behave as though they ARE underneath.
The less mighty-in-magic things, relatively speaking, that naturally live there presumably look more bizarre – Vae’s odd self-transformations notwithstanding. Though I am envisioning collective creatures – not so mighty as a chromodon(although there may be some such mighty things that favour the Underneaths), but, say, something akin to a swarm of spiders or other surface-clinging creatures, with a single mind.
Some inspiration might be had by looking at cave creatures – the lack of light, the harsh surroundings and difficulty finding food – except that there is, of course, NO ground worth the name, nor running water.
Some further inspiration might be had from the Lovecraft or Giger mythos… witness the ororosti(which, granted, I haven’t seen much detail about; can’t yet afford Marriage, sigh).
I believe I know the vibe, but I don’t feel it. While this could be an issue in their relationship if not dealt with, I would say that his dear ursine is all the more devoted to him for this; he literally chose her over his family. Let’s not forget, for her, this is heaping heroism on heroism; Jyondre saved lives, and soon after would not be denied his love by his family; she’s been quite honored. If there are problems, it won’t come from her.
More likely is, depending on how well he’s come to terms with his disowning, that it will be a topic brought up much later if they have rough times. I do not believe him foolish to get disowned, then abandon her whom he was disowned for.
After the touching scene, I am left impressed. I admire the loyalty of the lovers, the forethought of Jyondre, the tact of the mayor, and the tremendous power of little blue dragons to say just the right thing to bring out tears of joy in Orren.