My mind is a bottomless pit of details. Over 3+ years of world-building you can dredge up an awful lot of them. (Linguistics happens to be a fetish of mine however.)

Not just learning different languages, but learning about how languages work. One of the best ways to do that is to make up your own, and in tinkering with that you learn just how complex (and amazing) language really is.

For the record, English and French are my only fluent languages, though I can usually muddle through a German newspaper or movie or conversation. Otherwise when I was first in college I set out to learn all the languages of my ancestors, so I studied Irish & Scottish Gaelic, Dutch, and had a glance at Swedish. Ancient Egyptian is in there, along with a familiarity of other ancient Semitic languages like Nabatean and Aramaic and Hebrew and stuff. *shrugs* The more languages you learn, the easier it is to pick up bits of other ones.

Lothere, whatever happened to Midra?

I don't know if this has ever been asked before BUT who names kisor children? Do they have a Shalla-like figure who names the kids?

I did, Devin? That doesn't sound right. Do you mean the kisór men? The khírrón men don't seem to give their kisór children much -- if any -- thought.

Pen, their culture has been overturned in the space of the last two or three generations. In the past it was organized very strongly around nuclear families and they didn't have much in the way of "leaders" of any kind. They had elders -- the last of these (males) died earlier this year -- but even those weren't treated with an especially sacred reverence. Maybe they were only particularly important to their own actual descendants, I don't know.

In any case I think the kisór did not have religious leaders in the same way the khírrón do -- they're more like Quakers than Catholics. (Heheh. *imagines Lar dressed like the Quaker Oats Man*.... *yup still hot*)

Nowadays, of course, the "wild" ones live in groups of women descended from a common grandmother, and I'm going to guess that these elder ladies are of increasing importance because (lacking men) those elves don't have the same depth of religious ritual as the kisór of the underground. So I figure they have to have something to revere.

The other important point is that the kisór generally can't name their babies the way the khírrón do. (Unless Saralla is faking it, of course.) They do not have the ability to see into the "nature" of other elves the way we have seen Paul do. Maybe Paul's a little special that way (heh, that would be interesting, I never thought of that...) but there is obviously some belief that the Shalla and other elves with great magic can name you by determining your exact nature, rather than just by picking something pretty. That's why everyone was so startled when she named Vash and when she named Iylaine's baby, and why everyone is WTF'ing about Osh's name to this day (except for Aia apparently).

There's also a belief that elves with great magic shouldn't go around looking into the natures of other elves, but Paul does it anyway. He's a nature pervert or something. Or a curious guy.

Anyway, I just told you all I know, since I don't know exactly how the kisór name their babies. When Lar did it, it was a special occasion, since he wasn't even the kid's father. (Unless it was because the kid's father was dead.) I'm going to guess that the males name their own legitimate children and probably -- to the extent they ever see them again -- their illegitimate children in the above-ground as well. Since simply having a father is such an honor, I can see being named by your very own father as being an extra sign of your specialness.

For those who don't, I guess either the elders do, or the mothers do. The current crop of elders is dominated by ladies with no magic at all, so they must come up with their names based on other factors. Maybe really just what sounds pretty, or what superficially seems to suit the baby. (Naming a pale kid "Snow" or something.)

And... that was definitely more than you wanted to know.

Saralla named Osh too? She was the oldest living khirron elf even back then? At 40 or 50-something? Yikes.

I Want Maire Dead before 1086 fund - Please kindly support

Was it a coincidance that Sela was given her name which ment "flowing water," since she has water nature.

I Want Maire Dead before 1086 fund - Please kindly support

Was Sela like flowing water then?

This might be a little off the wall but did Nimea have er- special feelings for Druze?

Oooook. I just always assumed that "Druze" meant our Druze.

Heheh... he wasn't always old and stinky you know.