Graydal from Kirkasant (= Holy Church?) enthuses about:
sudden sunsets in the Rainbow Desert;
star-crowded nights;
auroras dancing and whispering above stark hills;
great flying flocks with thundering wings and fluting voices rising from dawn mists above salt marshes;
banners above battlements;
new year folk dances -
- whereas, to Laure, the planet would be grim, dry and stormy.
Believing that each human body should be inviolable, the Kirkasanters have hindered the development of medicine but have also become dignified and self-reliant. Because they believe that each individual should have a private side, the mask has become an important symbol in their culture.
We learn this much from conversations between Laure and the Makt crew. None of the narrative is set on Kirkasant.
2 comments:
I'm a little doubtful about the Kirkasanters being descendants of the McCormack rebels.
Why go so far, and why settle such a bleak planet? In the Technic history, habitable planets are fairly common, and the Terran Empire was only 200 light-years across.\\
Why not just go 2 weeks travel -- 200 light years at top pseudospeed -- and find something agreeable to settle on?
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Your raised good questions hard to answer. I do recall mention in "Starfog" of the Kirkasanters having legends of their ancestors arriving with only one ship. And Graydal herself speculated those forebears may have been thieves, bandits, or...? That led me to thinking the ship was too worn out or damaged to go further. And the first Kirkasanters may have defected from a larger group or gotten lost.
Ad astra! Sean
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