Friday, 16 January 2026

Ythrian And Human Avalonians

In "Wings of Victory," Ythrians are a flying, fighting species and it is confirmed that they are intelligent. In the concluding passage, communication is established although off-stage. Thus, in this introductory story, no Ythrian becomes an individual character with a name or a speaking part. That has to wait until the second story, "The Problem of Pain," published ten months later. Although Ythrians retain the status of individual characters from "The Problem of Pain" until the last appearance of an Ythrian, the death of Erannath near the end of The Day Of Their Return, no member of this species ever becomes a recurrent, continuing, series character like Adzel the Wodenite, Chee Lan the Cynthian, Tachwyr the Merseian, Aycharaych the Chereionite, Chives the Shalmuan or Dragoika the land Starkadian.

The definitive human-Ythrian narrative has to be The People Of The Wind which in turn provides the basis for that ultimate future historical volume, The Earth Book Of Stormgate. It is only in these two works that we read about human Avalonians joining choths. Christopher Holm is Arinnian of Stormgate. Tabitha Falkayn is Hrill of Highsky. Holm, when we first meet him, is fanatically pro-Ythrian whereas Tabitha, brought up by Ythrians in her choth, is more balanced and relaxed about inter-species relationships. Arinnian just makes it into series character status since he is mentioned by Hloch in the Earth Book.

We might reread passages of The People Of The Wind not for the entire narrative but specifically for all the details of choth life on Avalon. We are shown almost nothing of Ythri after "Wings of Victory."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kaor, Paul!

Your own comments in the first paragraph, about how there were no continuing Ythrian characters makes me think Anderson himself might think you place too much stress on his Ythrian stories.

Ad astra! Sean

Anonymous said...

Kaor, Paul!

And I still don't like Christopher Holm, who really irritates me. I far prefer Tabitha Falkayn.

Ad astra! Sean