Top Posts Tagged with #zengat

Luck in the shadows

I remember reading this book for the very first time. I felt at home. There is something about the way that Lynn Flewelling writes that is so incredibly compelling to me. I've read a couple of other people's reviews and found them critical of the things I love most about this book. About all nightrunner books. The way the point of view changes in combination with an omni-present narrator, apparently is jarring to certain people, but I love that. I think it fits so perfectly with the story and the characters. It's very much that sort of story. Fast and rickety. It flows. You know the feelings and thoughts of characters consistently yet the story surprises you. It follows no pattern, these point of view-changes. But it works, it fits the story. The worldbuilding is also critiqued. This I don't agree with whatsoever. What I think many people don't realise it's that Nightrunner is seven books and that there is also The Tamir Triad - three books. Ten books set in the same world. And The Tamir Triad being set several centuries before Nightrunner. I've read all ten books, probably ten times, so to me the world seems incredibly clear. Through all of the books we visit most of the lands (except Zengat which is regrettable as they seem very interesting, which we learn most in The Bone Doll's Twin) and we meet all the different peoples of the lands. Except Zengat again, I reckon that we encounter some Zengati characters but none play actual important roles. Except notably for Eirual who is part Zengati and of course a beloved, lovely amazing character, even though she does not play that huge a part in the books. Other than that we do encounter people of all the different races. We even get a sympathetic Plenimaran in the seventh book, Doctor Kordira. And the Retha'noi! Oh gods, they are interesting. We donät encounter them that much in Nightrunner but they really take center-stage in The Tamir Triad (Lhel, my beloved). The way of their religion and their magic, it's different and very refreshing! I also appreciate how the issue of colonialism is adressed in The Tamir Triad although I reckon they could stand to adress it in even more detail. But I understand why it's left out. We meet the dravnians and the aurënfaie and the mycenians - with their soft accents as well as of course the skalans. We are given a clear view of how the common religion works and how it is linked to the religion of the 'faie. Also the history, with the hierophants??? and the oracles, it's oh so interesting!! And when I say "clear" I don't mean that it is spelled out I mean that it is clear enough it in no way inhibits the flow of the story. It is instead woven into the narrative in an incredibly natural and unusual way. Religion I find is mostly an afterthought in many fantasy novels. The way the different countries are run I also find very interesting. Skala is a matriarchy with it's ruler being a queen. Plenimar has an overlord. Aurënen has a clan structure with a council of elders and Mycena is apparently a Stalinist republic according to the wiki (?????good for them, is there textual evidence??) . What this is to say is that the worldbuilding is great. Narratively it is also stellar. What people critiqued there was that Luck In The Shadows seems to be both a coming of age story and a mystery, foreshadowing another arc. This I don't see a problem with. Instead it is interesting. It is not a cohesive decided recycled plot but instead layered complicated intricate. And personally I adore that. Those are my thoughts as of now.

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Some more fun notes abt Zengati gender system:

The da’rán children born to clanless nonbinary Zengati usually remain with the parent who birthed them, whether they are da’rán or not. A da’rán can remain w/ their birth clan, and if the father is of the birth (or other) clan, they can raise their kids normally and the kid will usually be regarded as their birth sex, although some clans treat them as uenmuller until they can choose, reasoning that with a nonbinary parent raising them, they may assume a nonbinary identity easily.

if the kid is born to two da’ráns or the parents choose to leave them with their da’rán parent, or one non-da’rán parent relocates to a da’rán clan, then the child is immediately uenmuller. When the child is older, they’re usually sent to live with a clan they have some relation to, so they can understand what a masculine or feminine gender role entails, and so they can choose. Most children choose to join the da’rán.

Erati, the main Zengati-Khatme ya’shel in my head who interacts w/ Alec and Seregil, is kind of the most odd one out in this society. They’re trans even in this queernom culture because they’re not really da’rán, they’re a permanent uenmuller who belongs to the Sabaarí clan but cannot take a masculine/feminine role since they abandoned clan chiefdom for spying and nightrunning. Originally they were groomed to take the masculine role from their father. Once this goes out the window due to Seregil’s betrayal, which impoverishes the Sabaarí and makes them return to slave trading, and Erati to leaves in protest, Erati develops their own gender identity based on ambiguity. (It doesn’t help they’re a mind clouder who can make themselves pass as anything and anyone.) Whether Erati can somehow rejoin their clan and attain clan chiefdom in the future, and what that would cost, is a question mark. The Sabaarí clan greatly respected their father, and if Erati succeeds in achieving a peace deal with Aurënen, then they might accept them as uenmuller, permit them to remain Sabaarí, and elect masculine and feminine chiefs, so the Sabaarí clan would be the first to be ruled as a trio. Whether Erati even wants this versus remaining as a nightrunner is anyone’s guess.

#my lore #Zengat

Since flewelling left the Zengati culture as a vaguely Arab society, ive had fun developing them in my head thru my frequent walks in the museum, and this is what ive come up with:

The basis of their gender system is this: the gender roles themselves are rigid and change very little, but individuals can freely move between roles

Namely they have 4 genders: woman, man, uenmuller and da’rán, and they’re all strictly tied to what sphere you have in the society

Women are relegated to the domestic, but the thing about this is that in a clan-based society, the domestic is pretty much everything inside Zengati borders. So women dictate the lion’s share of economics and trade as the ones who keep households (or Zengat) running. A woman, it is thought, is the one who best knows how much bread the family needs. So logically a woman must know how to best plan and arrange the harvest. That’s a common Zengati saying.

Men are relegated to the “outside” so usually the ones undertaking wars, trade and exploration etc.

Clan governance is made up of two leaders, a woman (domestic/economic) and a man (outside the domestic sphere) who are usually cousins. Governance usually stays in the same families but is not determined by the oldest child of the chief. Rather the elders examine the children as they grow and decide who is best fit to assume masculine and feminine roles. So for example, a male chief has three children: two boys and a girl. The boys aren’t fit to be heirs to the masculine role, but the girl is deemed fit to become the feminine chief, and she assumes that role. Thus chief status remains in the family regardless of gender or primogeniture

Uenmuller gender is what happens when a clan chief only has one child. The elders don’t want to immediately strip them of attaining chief status, but since they’re an only child, it’s dangerous to assume they will be more fit for the feminine or masculine role based on birth sex. The elders don’t like to impose, so the child becomes uenmuller, a nonbinary identity, until they choose one role and assume it for the rest of their life.

the da’rán gender is a sort of permanent uenmuller where the person is stripped of clan status and instead serves as an adviser or outside voice to governance. The da’rán can retreat into their own clan or remain in their birth clan, but they are no longer seen as a clan member, but as a member of all of Zengat. It’s a position of honor and people defer to their wisdom since they have the full knowledge of Zengati society by essentially being all genders and no gender simultaneously. A lot of da’rán are wizards as well since like the Skalan wizards, the Zengati are usually celibate

Importantly though is that Zengati society is pragmatic in its approach to gender. For example, its generally frowned upon for women to travel with men for trade, since women aren’t supposed to leave the domestic (that is Zengat) sphere, except for leisure travel. But a woman can assume a masculine role just fine and will be treated as a man and can do men’s tasks for the period of travel or beyond. Men can assume feminine roles and remain in the household as well.

Same-sex partnerships are hard to define precisely because gender is so porous to the Zengati.

Everyone else in the Nightrunners world finds this complicated gender system absolutely baffling.

#nightrunner #my own lore #Zengat #In a sense its a sort of matriarchy due to women ruling economics but do NOT tell the zengat that #They like their balance thru opposites too much