The Crow (66 page)

Their number theory had intriguing parallels with that of the Greeks, leading some to speculate that Turbanskian mathematics may have survived into the classical Greek era. Like the Pythagoreans, Turbanskian Bards linked numbers with harmony: one was the primordial unity from which all else is created, two was the symbol for the female, three for the male, and four symbolized harmony (because two is even, so four – two times two – is "evenly even"). Four also symbolized the four elements out of which everything in the universe was made (earth, air, fire, and water). The Suderain Bards, after Lilora of Turbansk (N230), also theorized prime numbers, and held the prime factor theorem – that every whole number can be expressed as a unique product of prime factors – in great reverence. Lilora's proof of this tenet used a nonlinear logic that has parallels with that of Brouwer and the intuitionists, in which any mathematical object is considered to be a product of a construction of a mind and that, therefore, the existence of an object is equivalent to the possibility of its construction.
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Dén Haven and the Rise of the Nameless One

The Nameless One, known most often in the Suderain by his usename Sharma, was the king of Den Raven before he became one of the most adept mages in Edil-Amarandh. When he studied with the Bards of the Light in the Dhyllic city of Afinil, it was said his innate powers rivaled even those of Nelsor, the legendary Bard who invented the first Bardic writing and who is also credited with creating the Treesong runes. The story of Sharma's journey to Afinil in A1567 is well known; what is more puzzling is why he traveled hundreds of leagues north, rather than to Turbansk, where it might be surmised that he would find such knowledge as he desired closer to home. The answer seems to lie in a mysterious animus against the Bards of the south; the Bard Nindar remarked on Sharma's commonly expressed contempt for the Bards of Turbansk, "It was said that his face would darken at any praise of a Turbanskian Bard, and but for courtesy, he would spit," he wrote. "Some said they had never seen such bitterness in another human being, without seeming reason or foundation; and if anyone asked him the reasons wherefore his black feelings, he would look so threateningly that no more questioning was ventured."
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Nindar also records Sharma's fascination with the Elidhu who visited Afinil, most notably the Winterking Arkan, later known throughout Annar as the Ice Witch and reviled by the Bards for his alliance with Sharma. While Nindar appears to believe that Sharma's primary interest was in the Elemental Wars, it seems likely that he was more interested in the Elidhu's possession of endless life. In the
Naraudh Lar-Chane
it is strongly suggested that it was at this time that Nelsor, who may have been Arkan's lover, captured the power of the Elidhu Treesong in the Treesong Runes, inscribing them on a Dhyllic lyre and a tuning fork (in connection with this event, it is worth remembering that one of the magical qualities of Dhyllic lyres was that they never needed to be tuned). We can conjecture that Sharma, suspecting that the secret of the Elementals' eternal life was held in the power of the runes, stole the tuning fork from Nelsor and immediately left Afinil for Den Raven. His abrupt disappearance certainly caused speculation in Afinil, enough for it to be recalled later, when the extent of his ambition became evident. However, as the existence of the Treesong Runes was a secret known to very few Bards, perhaps only to Nelsor and Sharma, it was not until much later, when Maerad was called to fulfill her quest for the Treesong, that Sharma's theft became clear. Given that Sharma did not steal the whole Song, it seems fair to speculate – with many Bards who wrote later about these events – that his knowledge of the Runes was dishonestly gained. "There were many who distrusted Sharma, even before he cast aside his Name and revealed his dark design," wrote Callachan of Gent."
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It was said that he would spy on his own shadow, and that his right hand would cheat his left."

How Sharma used the Treesong Runes to make the Spell of Binding that ensured his deathlessness is unknown; but many Bards speculated that the lack of half the runes meant that the spell was only partially successful. Although the spell gave Sharma eternal life, it was eternal life in torment; it seemed that the magery he exerted in the Spell of Binding was too powerful for his human body to sustain. Certainly, the few extant descriptions of the Nameless One all mention his physical anguish, and it was often claimed that his form was unimaginably monstrous.

After his return to Den Raven, nothing more was heard from Sharma in Annar or the Suderain for another three centuries. It was during this time that he began the transformation of Den Raven into the vast prison camp and armory that it became in Maerad's day, and set up strategic alliances with powerful Elidhu, including Arkan in Zmarkan and Karak in Indurain (perhaps the same Elemental known later as the Landrost, although this is by no means certain). In A1810 he began his campaign to defeat the Bards of Annar with an invasion of South Annar, and in A2041, after many grievous wars, succeeded in his aim of conquering Annar and completely destroying the civilization of the Dhyllin.

Few documents exist to record the Great Silence, which lasted for more than a millennium, until Maninae cast Sharma out of Annar in A3234 and began the Restoration of the Light. Those few that do remain record an absolute militaristic tyranny, in which entire populations were enslaved – the archetype, perhaps, of a totalitarian regime. The Light continued undefeated in the Seven Kingdoms, and even continued to flourish in the Suderain, but was nevertheless under constant attack from Sharma's powerful sorcerers, the corrupt Bards known as Hulls who had given up their Bardic Names for a shadow of Sharma's immortality. Unlike Sharma, Hulls could be killed, even if only by magery; but they did not die of normal physical wounds or disease or age. Most of the time they used glimmerspells to disguise their horrific appearance. Callachan of Gent describes them thus:

The bodies of the Hulls do not remain youthful, but as the centuries pass, show the depredations of their extreme age: they appear as withered skeletons clothed with skin as dry and yellow as parchment, and their eyes burn with a red light in the hollow skulls of their faces. And with their comeliness, so any pleasure in living vanishes; and they are filled with a hatred for anything fair or good, or that flourisheth in its innocence and joy in the gentle meadows of the world, and all that they make in their cunning is designed to hurt or to do ill or to cause despair, even when it seemeth that to do so makes little sense. For there is a wantonness in how the Hull makes others suffer that is beyond most human cruelty, that taketh an active joy in the pain inflicted, even in its seeming indifference; and this evil joy and indifference together seemeth to me to be the very essence of the Dark.

A Hull employs the Speech, as doth a Bard; but in its mouth the Speech hath not its true virtue, and it is a hurt to hear it twisted so that it signifies often the very reverse of what it should intend. Thus Bards call it the Black Speech, to differentiate its use from our own; for if the
words
are the same, the
meanings
and
powers
summoned by the Black Speech are as if torn from the grace of the Balance, and an injury to the fabric of magery. This is the Dark Art of Sorcery, which draweth from our powers, only in order to destroy them.
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After the Restoration, it was widely believed that Sharma had fled Den Raven, taking refuge in the southern deserts. For some five hundred years Den Raven was free of Sharma's tyranny, although his shadow did not pass from the kingdom: there had been much hurt done to the land by his sorceries that even the Suderain Bards were unable to heal, and later it was discovered that some Hulls secretly remained, working for the eventual return of their master. The isolated kingdom opened up relationships with its neighbors, instituted a system of parliament, and founded several Bardic Schools. However, after millennia of absolute rule by Sharma these institutions and reforms were fragile, and the coup by the Hull Imank in N654 under the kingship of Ukbra led to the slaughter or banishment of all Den Raven Bards, the destruction of the Schools, and the return to petty tyranny and isolation.

By N750, under the apparent leadership of the Hull Imank, a powerful sorcerer in his own right and also Captain of the Black Army, Den Raven began to make aggressive forays against the eastern reaches of the Suderain. When the great School of Jerr-Niken was sacked and burned to the ground in N939, many in the Suderain began to fear that the Nameless One had indeed returned. In the face of widespread skepticism from Annar, the Ernani Har-Ytan and First Bard of Turbansk, Juriken, began to prepare their defenses for the invasion that eventually occurred in N945.

Unlike most of Annar and the Seven Kingdoms, where the influence of Bards meant that social status was usually a fluid concept, Den Raven society was strictly hierarchical. At the apex, beneath the authority of Sharma himself, were the Hulls, but even within the Hulls there were strictly observed rankings. During the Great Silence, the Nameless One had instituted a system of Circles, each of different status. There were nine Circles of the Dark, ranging from the Sick (or Sickle) Moon – to which belonged all the most powerful Hulls, including Imank – to the Eyes – Hulls who were in charge of surveillance in Den Raven and were greatly feared (the Hull known as the Spider in Sjug'hakar Im was most probably an Eye) – to the Circle of Insects – the lowest rank, from which were drawn petty officials such as slave masters. Beneath the Hulls was an intricate caste system, kept in place by fear: the Hulls used their sorceries for both surveillance and punishment, and employed a wide system of spies. Any sign of rebellion among the populace was crushed with terrifying ruthlessness. The most powerful class beneath the Hulls were the Grins, fabled for their greed and cruelty, who ruled the small towns and often ran the huge farms and mines and armories. The Grins were invariably extremely wealthy. Below them were artisans, valued for their skills; these trades were usually hereditary and each had its own status. Below them, at the bottom of society, were the numerous slaves who were required to labor in the industries of Den Raven and to serve in its huge armies.
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T
HE
E
LIDHU

Probably the most fascinating and ambiguous entities of Edil-Amarandh, the Elidhu have been the focus of intense speculation in Annaren studies. Literally hundreds of references are scattered through the available literature, but many are so contradictory that it is difficult to decide definitively who or what the Elidhu were. Sometimes they seem like gods, mythic personifications of natural forces or events, as the Winterking can be seen as the personification of a possible Ice Age; at other times (as in many Thorold stories) they are protagonists of folktales; at still others they are presented matter-of-factly as any other historical figure taking forestage in human events. Yet it is not the variousness of the reports about them, but their remarkable consistency, that gives us pause. However they were regarded – as gods or as actual people, as allies or as unpredictable and dangerous foes – every reference to the Elementals since the beginning of written records in every region of Edil-Amarandh remarks on their slotted, inhuman eyes, their immortal status, and their ability to change their physical form.

One difficulty in understanding these entities is the nature of the Elidhu themselves – they are held to be mysterious beings who generally are little interested in human affairs. Of course, the irony is that the records we are likely to find are only of those Elidhu who
did
associate with human beings. The two Elidhu who feature most in the earlier books – Ardina and Arkan – are often said to be atypical of the Elementals, and certainly appear more humanlike than otherwise, especially as both of them have taken humans as lovers.
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Books IV and VI of the
Naraudh Lar-Chane
(translated as
The Crow)
fill out further our picture of the Elidhu. In
The Crow,
Hem encounters Nyanar, an Elidhu (who appears to be a forest Elemental) associated with the regions of Savitir and Nazar in the eastern Suderain, bordering on Den Raven. Nyanar's name has been the subject of some philological speculation.
Nyan
in the classical Suderain tongue (circa A1000, some three millennia before the events of the
Naraudh LarChane)
is the word for "change" or "transformation" (hence
nyanil –
'ritual' – a word with religious connotations not found farther north in Edil-Amarandh), and also is related to
nya,
'blossom' (as in English, a noun as well as a verb). However, others argue that the name Nyanar must be derived from the so far undiscovered language (NAB-1) spoken by the mysterious peoples of Nal-Ak-Burat.

Nyanar brings a somewhat stranger dimension to the Elidhu than we have heretofore seen in the
Naraudh Lar-Chane.
In Maerad's meeting with Ardina in her various guises as wood Elidhu, moon avatar, and otherworldly Queen of Rachida, there is a current of understanding and a sense of kinship; even her unsettling dialogues with Arkan the Winterking only suggest things beyond what can be humanly understood. Arkan questions human polarizations and morality. "What is the Light without the Dark? It cannot be. And the Dark was first..." he says, confusing Maerad's certainties. "Only humans lie, because they think that language can give them another reality," he declares later, claiming that human beings, hampered by language, can understand nothing of what he calls truth.
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Although he is described in the Annaren as
inikuel
(literally, "double-faced," a word that does not have our connotations of hypocrisy but instead invokes strangeness, beyond the Knowing), Arkan seems in many ways humanly legible: he claims to love, and displays sadness and anger in ways that Maerad can understand, even if she objects to them and ultimately rejects them. Nyanar is not nearly so recognizable, and might therefore be closer to a "typical" Elidhu than either Arkan or Ardina.