The Riddle (60 page)

All their fears were confirmed by Enkir’s extraordinary Edict of Loyalty after the Burning of Norloch, which demanded their allegiance in terms that entirely rewrote the old alliances. The Kingdoms began to arm themselves against Norloch. Annar itself, with Schools and Fesses across the realm differing sharply in their responses to Enkir’s Edict, seemed to be dangerously close to the brink of civil war. Massive forces from Dén Raven marched against the fortress cities of the Suderain with the aim of taking Baladh, Turbansk, and Car Amdridh, and acquiring bases from which to attack Annar itself. Sharma, the Nameless One, was marshaling his armies to war against Annar and the Seven Kingdoms at a time when the forces of the Light had never been more bitterly divided.

The Pilanel
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(or the Pilani, as they referred to themselves) were a nomad people who inhabited the northern land of Zmarkan, a wide tundra that stretched north of the Osidh Elanor. No records exist of when they first settled the Arkiadera, or Mother Plains, but it was probably before the time of the founding of Afinil, after the end of the Elemental Wars.

The Pilanel, having an almost completely oral culture, did not keep written records as the Bards did, and so it is much less well documented than Annaren culture. They did invent a system of runes, which the Bards adapted and extended into the Ladhen runes. Unfortunately, all we know of the Pilanel writing is what remains in the Ladhen runes, since no examples have so far been found; it seems likely that the Pilanel runes were simply scratched at need into trees and stones, to be read by other travelers. Such knowledge as we do have of the Pilanel peoples comes mainly from those Pilanel
Dhillarearën
who became Annaren Bards, and wrote about their own people in Annaren script. However, even those records are full of elisions, as it was forbidden for Pilanel to reveal many of their customs and beliefs to non-Pilanel.
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The extant records portray an extremely resourceful and adaptive people who possessed a rich and ancient visual and oral culture of their own with roots that went back, unbroken, to before the Great Silence. They had their share of
Dhillarearën,
some of whom, like Maerad’s father, Dorn à Triberi, went south to the Schools to be trained in Annaren lore. Those who went to the Schools seem to be the exceptions, rather than the rule, and Pilanel with the Voice (as they referred to those born with the Gift) held honored places in Pilanel culture. These roles were similar in some ways to those that Bards held in Annar and the Seven Kingdoms. However, the Pilanel did not have the system of dual authority that held sway in the south, and it was not unusual for the chieftains of the tribes to be
Dhillarearën.
Lineages of the Howe leaders recorded by Anarkin of Lirigon, himself a Pilanel Bard, mark about half the Pilanel rulers as
Dhillarearën.
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The Pilanel divided themselves roughly into two major populations, the Northern and the Southern Clans, who were identified by the Howe — Murask in the South or Tlon in the North — to which they traveled to spend each winter. There was no clear division between the Northern and Southern Clans, as intermarriage was common, and some clans would regularly swap between the Howes. A clan was a loose grouping generally, but not necessarily, related by blood, which traveled together during the summer months; it varied in size from perhaps half a dozen people to several dozen. Moving between clans, through marriage or need or inclination, was also not uncommon.

The Southern Pilanel were famous horsebreeders and trainers (most of the Bard horses were bred and trained by Pilanel), but they also pursued a bewildering range of crafts and employments during the summer months. Some were traders, selling goods made during the long winter months in the Howe, and would also travel as far as the Suderain to buy goods in the markets, which they would then sell in Annar; some were hawkers and tinkers, repairing household goods; some became itinerant laborers and worked on Annaren farms during the summer. The Northern Pilanel traded furs, textiles, and carved goods, and also herded and bred the oribanik deer, which they used for milk, skins, and meat.

The Howes, giant earth and stone fortresses capable of housing several thousand, were some of the most ancient structures in Edil-Amarandh, dating (like Turbansk, the great city of Suderain in the South) from the Inela, the time after the Age of the Elementals and before the Dawn Age. There is an extremely detailed description of the Murask Howe’s sophisticated heating and water system by Belgar of Gent at the Restoration,
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and there is every reason to believe that the Schools borrowed and adapted the Howe systems for their own use. The Murask Howe is described in detail in the
Naraudh Lar-Chanë,
as is the Pilanel’s communal style of living.

The Jussacks first appeared in Zmarkan in the mid-N800s. It is thought their arrival coincided with Arkan’s return to the Trukuch Range — his original home, from which he had been banished after the Great Silence — and that they originated from the shores of the Ipiilinik Darsk (Ice Sea), in the area known as Norsk. Arkan was forbidden by the Elidhu to venture farther south than Norsk, and he made himself a stronghold somewhere on the eastern side of the Ipiilinik Darsk. The relationship between Arkan and the Jussacks is the subject of some debate, but it seems generally agreed among the Bardic authorities that the Winterking exerted authority over the Jussacks and used them for his own purposes, including that of revenge: many believed that the Jussacks’ hatred of the Pilanel was fostered and encouraged by Arkan, as retribution for the Pilanel resistance to his power during the Great Silence.

The Jussacks, a fair-haired and fair-skinned people regarded as barbarians by both the Pilanel and Bards, made an aggressive move south to Unt, colonizing the eastern reaches of the Arkiadera and slaughtering without mercy any Pilanel clans they encountered. By N900, the Jussacks had established a number of settlements around Lake Zmark and the Trukuch Range, of which the chief center was Ursk. From there they mounted regular attacks against Pilanel clans in the Arkiadera, and also mounted offensives against the Howes.

Nothing is known of the Norsk people from whom the Jussacks are believed to be descended, and so it is impossible to know whether their warlike mores predated Arkan’s influence. Jussack society in N945 was almost totally militarized: boys were trained as warriors from the moment they could walk, and they were feared as ruthless and merciless fighters, slaughtering or enslaving anyone they defeated. Women held little authority in Jussack society, being regarded as little better than slaves. In the summer months the Jussacks ranged across the Arkiadera on horseback in small bands, sleeping in tents, and pillaged and slaughtered any Pilanel clans they came across. There is no evidence that they developed anything but the most rudimentary of agricultures, depending for most of their supplies on what could be won by hunting or force of arms.

At this time, the defenses of both Howes were strengthened, although Murask, being much closer to Lake Zmark, was attacked more regularly than Tlon. Pilanel resistance to the Jussacks was fierce, but over the decades their traditional summer grazing grounds were steadily pushed farther west and south. By N900, the southern Pilanel clans no longer traveled northeast to the shores of Lake Zmark in the summer, and after negotiations with Lirigon, began to graze most of their herds on the Rilnik Plains, making the arduous journey through the Gwalhain Pass, rather than risking their traditional grazing grounds in the Arkiadera.

Of the peoples who lived in the deep North even less is known than of the Pilanel, who after all had frequent dealings with the peoples of Annar and the Seven Kingdoms. In the
Naraudh Lar-Chanë,
Dharin à Lobvar speaks of at least twenty distinct peoples speaking different tongues who lived along the coastlines of the northern continent. “The Pilanel tell of at least twenty different peoples who live on the coast of Hramask, from Orun to Lebinusk,” he tells Maerad, “and there are probably more. And you must not think that one group is the same as the next: they have different customs and they speak different languages. The Wise Kindred are understood to be the oldest of all. Their name for themselves, Inaruskosani, means ‘those who first walked on the earth.’”
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Unfortunately, this mention in the
Naraudh Lar-Chanë,
and the description of the Wise Kindred, is the most comprehensive reference to the peoples of the North yet to be discovered. That more was known at the time is evidenced in the detailed maps of the North the Bards left among the Annaren Scrolls. Perhaps such teasing hints will be fleshed out as more documents come to light, since a great percentage of the Annaren Scrolls remain undeciphered and this is still a very new area of study.

THE Elidhu, also called the Elementals, are the most puzzling and elusive entities of Edil-Amarandh. Among the extant scrolls are literally thousands of references to Elidhu, but apart from a couple of notable exceptions it is hard to reach any concrete conclusion as to who they were, or even what they represented to the peoples of Edil-Amarandh. The Bards who wrote of them after the Restoration of Maninaë spoke of them mainly with distrust — as dangerous, unpredictable forces who needed to be either controlled or avoided — and often argued that the downfall of Afinil was brought about by its close association with the Elidhu. There, for the only time in Edil-Amarandh’s history, it was said that the Elidhu mingled with the Bards of the Light in human form.

One of the more intriguing aspects of the
Naraudh Lar-Chanë
is its unusually detailed portrayal of Elidhu. If we accept, as most scholars do, that the
Naraudh Lar-Chanë
was in fact written by Cadvan of Lirigon and Maerad of Pellinor rather than later chroniclers, then we must accept that it records firsthand Bardic encounters with the Elidhu for the first time since the Dhyllic civilization of the Dawn Age. Most references to the Elidhu in the post-Restoration scrolls are hearsay or legend, and many Bards in the later years frankly doubted their existence. We must remember that it was very unusual for the Elidhu to be the architects of decisive interventions in human affairs, as both Ardina, Queen of Rachida, and Arkan, the Winterking, are in the
Naraudh Lar-Chanë,
and that these Elidhu were consequently far from typical. In this tale, the fate of the Elidhu and their relationship to human affairs take center stage.

All the documents portray the Elidhu as representations or personifications of the forces of the natural world (as is reflected in their Annaren name,
Iltaranaeren,
which I have translated as Elementals). Every Elidhu is linked either to some natural phenomenon — Ardina, for example, is a manifestation of the moon — or to some feature of landscape or place (the Landrost, the Elidhu who captures Cadvan at the very beginning of the story, is, for instance, synonymous with the mountain he inhabits; another aspect of Ardina is as a forest Elidhu). It is also generally agreed that they have supernatural powers and are immortal, that their eyes have irises like those of a cat, and that they are capable of manifesting in different forms, both animate and inanimate. After the beginning of the Great Silence, most of the Elidhu withdrew from the human world, a withdrawal that persisted after the Restoration, although whether this was their own choice, or because after Arkan’s alliance with the Nameless One they became distrusted among Bards, remains unclear. It seems most likely that the breach was a result of both.

Thus far all the documents agree. But beyond this it is very difficult to draw conclusive interpretations of who or what the Elidhu were. It is difficult to characterize precisely how the Elidhu were regarded by the peoples of Edil-Amarandh — it is tempting to see them as personifications, for instance, of an animistic religious sense, similar to the pantheon of Greek gods, but this seems to me to be not quite accurate. Elidhu were linked with local superstitions and customs all over Edil-Amarandh, and were often called on like votive gods in specific circumstances — to find lost property, for example, or to bless a venture. However, the peoples of Annar and the Seven Kingdoms were used to asking Bards for similar blessings or charms, and Bards, for all their spiritual status, were not by any means regarded as gods. Despite their immortality and supernatural powers, there are no records in Annar or the Seven Kingdoms that speak of the Elidhu being worshipped as gods, or of shrines or rites accorded to them that could in any sense be recognized as organized religion,
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and the rise to prominence of particular Elidhu is not anywhere traceable to the rise of particular families or regions to power (as the importance of Athena, for example, rose with the importance of Athens).

The Winterking’s assault on Edil-Amarandh in the Age of the Elementals can be read as a parable of an Ice Age and as an explanation of certain natural phenomena, such as the Osidh Annova, but again this seems not quite satisfactory in the context of later writings about the same Elidhu. The casual references in the Afinil documents to conversations with Elidhu, the portrayal of Ardina and Arkan as real entities in the
Naraudh Lar-Chanë,
and scores of other references can only lead us to conclude that to the people of Edil-Amarandh, the Elidhu were real and present in ways that we may find difficult to accept.
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