Sunday 3 December 2023

Individuals In History

Individuals live in historical contexts and history is made and recorded by individuals. Thus:

after the Babur War, Nicholas van Rijn and David Falkayn moved many data units from Earth to Hermes;

centuries later, Rennhi transferred the molecular patterns of these units to Avalon where they were deciphered shortly before the Terran War;

after that war, Hloch and Arinnian extracted from the data an account of the trade pioneer crew's mission to Merseia and reworked this account as a narrative that was published in The Earth Book of Stormgate.

Here, either explicitly or implicitly, are five historical events:

the Babur War, ended by van Rijn and Flandry
the League mission to Merseia, led by Flandry
the founding of Avalon by Flandry
the Terran War on Avalon
the publication of the Earth Book on Avalon

- and five individuals:

van Rijn
Falkayn
Rennhi
Hloch 
Arinnian

van Rijn and Falkayn are characters in the Polesotechnic League Tetralogy and in the Earth Book;
Arinnian is a character in The People of the Wind;
Rennhi and her son, Hloch, feature only in Hloch's Earth Book introductions.

Thus, an outstanding combo of historicity and individuality.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Yes, but it's not really correct to say "the Terran war on Avalon," because that obscures the fact the campaign at Avalon was only a part of the larger war between the Empire and the Domain of Ythri. A war which the Empire won.

THE PEOPLE OF THE WIND was inspired by the German siege of Belfort during the Franco/Prussian War of 1870-71. Even after France was defeated and surrendered to the new Reich, a determined governor refused to surrender Belfort to Germany despite a long siege. Which was why Bismarck did not insist on Belfort being ceded to Germany with the rest of Alsacel/Lorraine in the Treaty of Frankfort.

Ad astra! Sean