HHB worldbuilding questions/comments thread
Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 3:17 am
(So, I was listening to the Focus on the Family Radio Theater presentation this evening, and just had some questions/comments stick out in my head. Anybody want to either answer or add some ideas to the pile, feel welcome.
)
-Are “all Calormens” actually dark-skinned? Because you would think that if that were the case, then a) NOBODY would buy Arsheesh’s line about Shasta being his son, not just the Tarkaan Anradin, and b) Shasta’s appearance would be a giant beacon for anybody looking for Anradin’s new property. “Oh, it’s the one Northern boy in the countryside.” Also, “accursed but beautiful barbarians of the North,” from a Calormen nobleman to a Calormen fisherman? Southern beauty-standards don’t exclude the appearance associated with the Northern countries.
-How much of Calormen culture has Shasta been picking up? He makes a big show of how he’s Not Bothered by stories of ghouls in the tombs, how “you don’t have to say that now” about the ceremonial follow-up to the Tisroc’s name – but he’s been living here all of his life. What assumptions is he bringing to life when he goes “home”? Do we have any clashes with the people around him on that one? (Yes, I know there are at least a couple of talented fanfiction writers who have already taken on that last one. ^_^)
-The Horses’ names. Bree was called something all these years – but he introduces himself by a phrase Shasta isn’t able to pronounce, that he doesn’t know Shasta can’t pronounce – a name he hasn’t heard since he was a Foal. Aravis still thinks of Hwin as her property on some level – giving her orders and expecting obedience, referring to her as “my mare” – but she calls her Hwin. A syllable we already know is used in Narnian Horse names, because it is also in Bree’s. Not whatever name she was calling her “property” before a mare who was a Mare refused to stand by and outed her identity as a Talking Beast rather than let her “owner” commit suicide.
-Bree thinks of himself as a war-horse, and expects to continue being the same in Narnia. He still wants to fight, still wants to use his training, and wants to claim it for himself – to fight for someone he wants to fight for, not someone who is making him fight. A) Who all is Calormen fighting? B) Is there any military effort for him to be joining in Narnia right now – against Giants (That would be a change of pace from human armies!) or other nearby countries—or is he going to need to adjust to being a War Horse with no wars?
-“A fine blood mare” – “then you can call me a cobb”—are there ranking for Horse-breeds in Narnia, or is Bree defaulting on some level to thinking of himself and Hwin through a lens of what market value horses have in Calormen?
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)
-Are “all Calormens” actually dark-skinned? Because you would think that if that were the case, then a) NOBODY would buy Arsheesh’s line about Shasta being his son, not just the Tarkaan Anradin, and b) Shasta’s appearance would be a giant beacon for anybody looking for Anradin’s new property. “Oh, it’s the one Northern boy in the countryside.” Also, “accursed but beautiful barbarians of the North,” from a Calormen nobleman to a Calormen fisherman? Southern beauty-standards don’t exclude the appearance associated with the Northern countries.
-How much of Calormen culture has Shasta been picking up? He makes a big show of how he’s Not Bothered by stories of ghouls in the tombs, how “you don’t have to say that now” about the ceremonial follow-up to the Tisroc’s name – but he’s been living here all of his life. What assumptions is he bringing to life when he goes “home”? Do we have any clashes with the people around him on that one? (Yes, I know there are at least a couple of talented fanfiction writers who have already taken on that last one. ^_^)
-The Horses’ names. Bree was called something all these years – but he introduces himself by a phrase Shasta isn’t able to pronounce, that he doesn’t know Shasta can’t pronounce – a name he hasn’t heard since he was a Foal. Aravis still thinks of Hwin as her property on some level – giving her orders and expecting obedience, referring to her as “my mare” – but she calls her Hwin. A syllable we already know is used in Narnian Horse names, because it is also in Bree’s. Not whatever name she was calling her “property” before a mare who was a Mare refused to stand by and outed her identity as a Talking Beast rather than let her “owner” commit suicide.
-Bree thinks of himself as a war-horse, and expects to continue being the same in Narnia. He still wants to fight, still wants to use his training, and wants to claim it for himself – to fight for someone he wants to fight for, not someone who is making him fight. A) Who all is Calormen fighting? B) Is there any military effort for him to be joining in Narnia right now – against Giants (That would be a change of pace from human armies!) or other nearby countries—or is he going to need to adjust to being a War Horse with no wars?
-“A fine blood mare” – “then you can call me a cobb”—are there ranking for Horse-breeds in Narnia, or is Bree defaulting on some level to thinking of himself and Hwin through a lens of what market value horses have in Calormen?