More Legacies

Two More For Falkayn

The planet Satan remains strategically important in Flandry's time.

The weather stations on Vixen in Flandry's time were funded by profits from the Supermetals company founded by Falkayn.

Two More For Flandry

As pointed out in the combox here, another Flandry legacy was the settlement of two rational species from Starkad on Imhotep, thus saving both species from extinction.

During the Long Night, human beings were able to rebuild interstellar alliances. Later, they recivilized isolated planets. Flandry paved the way:

he strengthened some planets so that they would remain civilized despite the loss of interstellar civilization;

he defeated the Merseians so often that their Roidhunate became demoralized and declined and therefore was unable to move into human space after the Terran Empire fell.

Perspectives And Legacies

Once when I was walking at some height in the Lake District, a sudden gap in the ridge to my left revealed a landscape, a lake in the landscape, an island in the lake, a wood on the island and individual trees in the wood. Similarly, from the perspective of the great historical height provided by Hloch and Donvar Ayeghen and with our already existing knowledge of the Technic History, we can look down at the details. Hloch's Earth Book completes the story of the Polesotechnic League which includes the biographies of Nicholas van Rijn and David Falkayn. The Imperial Age introduced by Ayeghen includes the biography of Dominic Flandry. However, these most important of individuals in the Technic History need not be named when the perspective is long enough.

Van Rijn's legacies include folk tales and a planet called Vanrijn in Flandry's time. Falkayn's legacies include the Merseian Roidhunate and the biracial civilization on Avalon in Flandry's time. Flandry's legacies include New Vixen, a colony from Vixen, and Kirkasanters, descendants of exiled Aenean rebels, in the Commonalty period. And that, unfortunately, brings us to the end of the Technic History.

The Major Turning Point In The Technic History

The major turning point in the Technic History just has to be that moment, at the midpoint of Rise Of The Terran Empire, when Hloch concludes the Earth Book and passes the baton of historical commentary to Donvar Ayeghen. The Earth Book ends with peace on Avalon after the Terran War whereas Ayeghen, although writing many millennia later, backtracks to the violent beginnings of the Terran Empire:

"Now The Earth Book Of Stormgate is ended. From my tower I see the great white sweep of the snows upon Mount Anrovil. I feel the air blow in and caress my feathers. Yonder sky is calling. I will go.

"Fair winds forever.

"-Hloch of the Stormgate Choth

"The Earth Book Of Stormgate"

 

"...the author himself must have lived through that great and tragic and triumphant age...

"-Donvar Ayeghen, President of the Galactic Archaelogical Society"

- from Rise Of The Terran Empire, pp. 323, 325. 

Again On Introductions

In Poul Anderson's "Captive of the Centaurianess," Vallabhai Rasmussen introduces the Galactic Era.

In Anderson's Technic History:

Francis L. Minamoto introduces Technic civilization;

 

Hloch of Stormgate Choth introduces, presents and concludes The Earth Book Of Stormgate;

 

Le Matelot introduces the Polesotechnic League;

 

Donvar Ayeghen introduces the Imperial Age.

Some early 1950s space operas, like "The Star Plunderer," were incorporated into the Technic History, whereas others, like "Captive of the Centaurianess," were not.

The Technic History also features some lesser introductions:

Vance Hall introduces the technology of Technic civilization and the philosophy of Noah Arkwright;

Noah Arkwright introduces sophontology;

Urwain the Wide-Faring introduces Noah Arkwright.

Centaurians

Posting earlier about centaurs, I wondered whether the Centaurians in Poul Anderson's "Captive of the Centaurianess" are centauroid. I can't remember. However, see here. Since I do not remember the story, this might be a good time to reread it partly as a break from the Technic History.

"Captive of the Centaurianess" is introduced by an italicized extract from:

"-Vallabhai Rasmussen,

"Origins of the Galactic Era."

-Poul Anderson, "Captive of the Centaurianess" IN Anderson, The Gods Laughed (New York, 1982), pp. 149-232 AT p. 149.

Thus, we are in the same kind of fictional historical territory as we have been reading. Rasmussen informs us that the events recounted in the story occur late in the twenty-third century so, even if this story is a one-off, it could have been an installment of a future history series. That is all from me for this evening, however.

Historical Authenticity

 

At the mid-point of The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume III, Rise Of The Terran Empire -

"Rescue on Avalon" is:

about Jack Birnam;

narrated in the third person;

written by A.A. Craig in his Tales Of The Great Frontier;

introduced by Hloch in The Earth Book Of Stormgate -

 

"The Star Planderer" is:

about Manuel Argos;

narrated in the first person by John Henry Reeves;

written either by Reeves or by a historical novelist in a document entitled Reeves' Memoirs;

introduced by Donvar Ayeghen, President of the Galactic Archaeological Society.

When originally published, "Rescue on Avalon" was not accompanied by Hloch's introduction which is our only source of information about authorship whereas "The Star Plunderer" was always introduced by Ayeghen who also discusses authorship. Hloch assures us that, although Craig's account is fictionalized, it is substantially accurate. Ayeghen reminds us that, even if the Memoirs are historical fiction, their author lived through that period and tried to give a true picture of Argos.

These layers of interpretation generate the impression of reading an authentic history.

The Southern Hemisphere And The Middle Ocean

Although Corona And Oronesia merely repeats previously posted information, I now have a better grasp of Avalon as a globe.

What do we know of the three large islands in the southern hemisphere? New Africa exports beer. New Gaiila has scorching savannahs. Equatoria is uncolonized because the Ythrians did not want to disturb the evolution of the tool-using centaurs. Also, Equatoria has a lethal environment which is why certain Avalonians manipulated the Terrans into invading there.

Approaching Avalon, Philippe Rochefort saw a chain of islands and crash landed on one. I took this to mean that the islands were the Oronesian archipelago. However, tracking down the crashed ship, Tabitha and her companions fly above the Middle Ocean which implies that they have flown west from Oronesia. We understand that Avalon has many small islands instead of full-sized continents. Details matter. In fact, this island saves Rochefort from drowning.

The Earth Book In The Saga

Recently this blog has become very focused on The Technic Civilization Saga, Volumes I-III, in general and on The Earth Book Of Stormgate in particular. We cannot stay there forever although we can certainly withdraw and return later as we have done before.

The Earth Book provides exactly half of the Technic History installments collected in Volumes I-III:

7 of 11 in Vol. I;

3 of 7 in II;

2 of 6 in III.

Volumes I-III collect 4 novels:

The Man Who Counts in I

Satan's World in II

Mirkheim and The People Of The Wind in III

 

The Man Who Counts is in the Earth Book.

Satan's World and Mirkheim conclude the Polesotechnic League Tetralogy.

The People Of The Wind, at the end of Vol. III, is the companion volume to the Earth Book, providing the background and context for Editor Hloch's Earth Book introductions and afterword.

 

Volumes I-III are like an extended Earth Book, incorporating texts that Hloch either did not have access to or regarded as too well-known to require inclusion.

Centaurs

Quadrupeds can evolve into bipeds and hexapods might evolve into quadrupeds. Thus, intelligence is bipedal on Earth and might be quadrupedal elsewhere. In Poul Anderson's Technic History, Wodenites and Donarrians are intelligent quadrupeds and, on Avalon, the Equatorian "centaurs" have begun to use pieces of stone and bone as tools.

In Classical mythology, a centaur is not just any intelligent quadruped but, more specifically, an organism combining a legless human body with a headless equine body. Such centaurs cannot exist either in reality or in hard sf but do occur in works of fantasy by CS Lewis, Piers Anthony, Neil Gaiman and Mike Carey. I do not know whether Poul Anderson included Classical centaurs in any fantasy works but he could have done.

Anderson would also have been able to derive logical implications from even the most absurd premise. Thus, CS Lewis points out that a centaur has both a human and an equine stomach and therefore would need to eat two kinds of food. No doubt there are other consequences that readers would not think of until an imaginative author pointed them out.

Corona And Oronesia

Poul Anderson imagined many geophysical details of the planet Avalon. Avalonian mountains are lower and erode faster than Terrestrial because the planetary diameter and molten core are smaller and rapid rotation causes violent weather. The highest Andromeda is only 4500 meters high. 

Land masses are smaller. Corona, extending from the north pole to past the Tropic of Swords, is about the size of Australia. In the southern hemisphere, Equatoria, New Africa and New Gaiila are large islands and there are many smaller.

2000 kilometers west of the Coronan city of Gray, the Oronesian archipelago begins. Crossing the Tropic of Spears and almost reaching the Antarctic Circle, it divides the Hesperian Sea and the South Ocean to the east from the Middle Ocean to the west, supports a distinct rich ecology and, in early days, provided refuge for many human or Ythrian eccentrics. Although there are many small Oronesian choths, Highsky occupies a large stretch of the archipelago and controls fisheries around 30 degrees North.

Western Corona and northern Oronesia must cooperate to defend the Hesperian Sea when Terra threatens attack.