Monday 9 February 2015

On Imhotep II

Unfortunately, we do not see anything of the Seafolk on Imhotep although Flandry had visited their undersea cities on Starkad. After being shown the human city of Olga's Landing in Chapter One of The Game Of Empire and the neighboring planet, Daedalus, in Chapter Two, we see Tigery territory in Chapter Three.

The densely-atmosphered Imhotepan lowland is a single green and gold forest with silver lakes and rivers beneath a deep blue three-mooned sky. Near the humanly occupied highlands, the Crystal River enters Dawnside Bay where the seafaring Kursoviki have built their town. Other Tigery societies have settled elsewhere in the lowlands.

Some old Tigeries believe that the dead go to the Land of Trees Beyond, which could almost be a description of the Imhotepan lowlands, but it must be difficult to maintain a literalist understanding of Starkadian myths after being transported across the galaxy. Targovi, son of Flandry's friend, Dragoika, "...was a pagan if he was anything..." (Flandry's Legacy, p. 255) and carries a charm. However, born on Imhotep, he is an interplanetary trader and spy for the Terran Empire so his perspective must be more cosmopolitan that that of his displaced elders.

"Kursovikian religion was a paganism more inchoate than any recorded from ancient Terra - the Tigery mind was less interested than the human in finding ultimate causes - but ritual was important."
-Poul Anderson, Young Flandry (New York, 2010), p. 37.

Dragoika stood at a totem and offered thanks after repelling Seatrolls with Flandry's help. See image.

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