Stormwaltz Quotes/On Tumerok Titles & Linguistics

November 6, 2001 - [No Link]

Banderling Briber asks:

What is the relation between Arantah and Tonk Huantah?

Stormwaltz replies:

Hea Huantah was the tah of the Hea xuta. Tonk Aranpuh was an outcast child, who'd lost his parents and had no one to guide him back into society... so he sank into adolescent bitterness. After meeting with the Virindi, Aran lead an army of angry kids to overthrow Huan, declared himself tah of Hea, and moved the xuta down to Ahruenga from Timaru.

By virtue of losing his position and his xuta, Huan became a Tonk puh. Although Aran and his followers are viewed as legitimate by the Hea xuta, the Aun don't feel the same way, and often refer to them with the puh suffix.

Aran was loosely inspired by Lord of the Flies. There's little in this world that's more dangerous than a teenager with no demonstrated impulse control and a high-powered rifle given by inattentive parents.

The Overlord is not Huan... Huan is MIA.

Banderling Briber suggests:

Arantah calls the Overlord 'Tonk Huanpuh', which puh means rebel.

Stormwaltz replies:

Technically, puh (literally "closed mouth") means one without a voice in society... not necessarily a rebel. One's mouth can be closed for many reasons - anger, youth, grieving, or enfeeblement. With the actions of Aran and the other young outcasts against the Hea, it's most often used in game to describe rebels, who've been forcibly silenced. But a puh can be as simple as a child who's not yet grown into its societal role, or someone who's "not in touch with their inner tonk" and has lost their way into depression.

Tumerok society holds that you have to contribute somehow in order to have a say in things. No matter how you get it, the status of puh is therefore something one desires to lose as quickly as possible. It's like being a child - you have no rights beyond those which others elect to give you, and those can be recinded at any time.

You get the Tonk label when you have no xuta - i.e. you become a puh for sins of comission rather than omission, and are driven out. You can be a puh and still be part of a xuta. The Aun infant Kua would be called Aun Kuapuh.

Chris "Stormwaltz" L'Etoile