Planha Terminology

After watching the second Avatar film with my daughter and granddaughter, I told them that I would prefer to see a film adaptation of Poul Anderson's The People of the Wind. Attempting to share with them the wealth of Anderson's Technic History, I mentioned, e.g., that Avalon is jointly governed by the Parliament of Man and by the Great Khruath of all the choths. It is sometimes necessary to explain Planha terminology to the uninitiated:

choth

Khruath

Wyvan

Oherran

deathpride

"God the Hunter" (different from "God")

"Deathpride" has been translated into Anglic for us but still requires elucidation. Oherran is a deathpride matter. Thus, if a Wyvan's call of Oherran against an individual or group is not heeded, then that Wyvan has no alternative but honourable suicide. Blog readers who are unfamiliar with these terms might:

deduce some of their meaning from the way that I have used them here;

search this blog for previous uses of these terms;

read Anderson's The People of the Wind and The Earth Book of Stormgate.

I describe a choth as the equivalent of a tribe or nation. In fact we are told:

"'...choth.' The Planha term designated a basic social unit, more than a tribe, less than a nation, with cultural and religious dimensions corresponding to nothing human.'"

-"Lodestar," p. 650.

Regarding the religious dimension, Tabitha Falkayn/Hrill says of her choth, Highsky:

"'Most of us keep to the Old Faith, you know.'"

-Poul Anderson, The People of the Wind IN Anderson, Rise of the Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, March 2011), pp. 437-662 AT VI, p. 502.

- whereas the funeral of Ferune, Wyvan of Mistwood Choth, is conducted according to the New Faith. When the new Wyvan has spoken the words, Ferune's sons tilt his litter and his body falls from a height. He fought God the Hunter well and his spirit will be always remembered.