Saturday 31 May 2014

Cynthians In Space

"...the Empire purchased Llynathawr from its Cynthian discoverers..."
-Poul Anderson, Young Flandry (New York, 2010), p. 400.

Hence, the planet's Cynthian name.

"Vor had been discovered early in the age of exploration by Cynthians but colonized by humans..."
-Poul Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (New York, 2012), pp. 316-317.

"[Ramnu] was discovered not by humans but by Cynthians, early in the pioneering era. Intrigued, they established a scientific base on its innermost moon and bestowed names from a mythology of theirs. Politico-economic factors, which also fluctuate, soon caused them to depart. Later, humans arrived..."
-Poul Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (New York, 2012), p. 70.

So how many places did Cynthians go and stay? There is a Cynthian in one of van Rijn's trader teams and another in the Terran fleet that attacks Avalon and a Cynthian colony on Daedalus. Cynthians are pure carnivores with a trading culture that modernized quickly. Although the spacefaring Cynthians do not economically support any other Cynthian societies, thus causing the latter to join the Supermetals alliance of underdeveloped races, Cynthia as a whole seems like a good prospect to lead a renaissance of civilization during and after the Long Night.

2 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, Paul!

I've also thought Cynthian names have a Welsh or Gaelic look to them.

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
Definitely.
Paul.