With information about an upcoming sale AND with the current version of the Table of Contents for the Tuyo World Companion, among other things.
I will mention the sale here when it actually begins, which will be in a few days. Most of these books are not in KU, which means I will have to go into KDP and Draft to Digital and lower prices by hand. That also means I can’t set them to free because that is a serious pain in the neck for non-KU titles. Also, these aren’t exactly series books, so I don’t expect to actually make any money by dropping the prices, or very (very) little. It’s just I never run sales for them, so I thought I would. As I say, in a few days.
However, this part I will share with you now: here is the current ToC for the Tuyo World Companion. This is the brief version, showing all the main headings and most or all of the secondary headings, but none of the tertiary headings, because I bet you can recite the letters of the alphabet all by yourselves and don’t need things like that listed out.
This ToC has been revised heavily many times and is still changing on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis as I move sections up and down, delete sections (and put them back more often than not), and add sections. I’m not putting it here just for you to gaze at it, though I hope you’re interested. I’m putting it here because if anybody has anything that isn’t covered here, a different section that might be added, you can definitely send me those suggestions. People keep saying, “I think there should be a section on the land of the shades,” or “Could there be a section on Ugaro dogs?” and I’m always going YES, WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THAT? and adding a section that includes that topic. So, what I’m saying is, don’t hesitate.
General Notes
Potential spoilers
Internal series chronology
The World
The world north to south
The world east to west
What happens to the Sun when you cross the river?
Does the Moon change phases in one night?
Inspiration for the Tuyo world
The Peoples of the Tuyo world
Sorcery and Magic in the Tuyo world
Metaphysical Places in the Tuyo world
The edges of the world
The vault of the heavens
The land of the shades
Places in the Tuyo world
Social structure
Family in Lau society
Women in Lau society
Gender in Lau Society
Class in Lau society
Warfare among the Lau
Ugaro family and tribal society
Ugaro social roles
Male Roles
Female Roles
Gender in Ugaro society
Warfare and duels among the Ugaro
Family, class, and social roles among other peoples
Marriage
Legal systems and customs
Architecture and material culture
Measurement in the world of Tuyo
Lau astrology
Lakasha astrology
Languages
Recreation
Domestic animals
Food and cooking
The story of the inKarano as Marag inGara told it to Lalani
Letters
From Aras’ wife to his mother
From Aras to Soretes
From an Ugaro mother to her daughter
From Suelen to Prince Sekaran
From Lady Pasolaun to a colleague
From Lucas to Aras
From Selili to a colleague
From Etta to Ryo
Alphabetical Character List
Interview with Rachel Neumeier
Returning Hokino’s Knife
Please Feel Free to Share:
Updated ToC looks great! I’m excited about the new sections, and I think this structure makes more sense than the version I saw.
The ToC looks good. Lots of sections I hadn’t thought about before, but now I really want to know what’s in them.
I have one question about “The World”, which if you haven’t answered already you might consider including: Where does the great river flow, that divides the Winter and Summer countries? Does it have an outlet? Are there any major bodies of water besides the Sunless Sea? Do people ever trade along the river by boat?
Trade would be an interesting topic for another letter by the Ugaro.
Melanie, trade in general is a good suggestion! Your specific questions are answered elsewhere except for one: where does the river flow TO? I don’t think we know and I should say so specifically.
Kate, you should certainly think so, since you’re the one who made me re-order EVERYTHING. I’m still moving stuff around a lot, though.
Lots of really interesting information in there!
I like the new metaphysical places section, will be very interested in reading that.
Yes, to Melanie’s question, but in a broader sense (and maybe answered in that metaphysical section): what borders the “sides” of the world?
North to south we have all these layers divided by specific barriers; a shore, a mountain range, a river, a ravine filled with poisonous fumes, and a curtain of fire. But east to west, the ends are still undefined: a large lake, a desert, a salt flat, an impenetrable jungle or something like that may have hindered out presently-known peoples from expanding further “sideways”, but it’s not stated that those literally form the ends of the earth.
The earth is flat, so it must have ends – but the borders of the present countries might not (indeed, are likely not to) coincide with those obstacles.
So would any people who live beyond those obstacles belong to the same celestial body? Are the people far to the east of the Ugaro we know still Ugaro, or maybe not Ugaro but still people of the Moon?
Are the people who live in the jungle and trade peacocks to the Lau another historical offshoot of the Lau, or a different type of people of the Sun? I could see a Masai-tall Lau people of the Sun on the plains and a pygmy-small people of the Sun in the jungles coëxisting within the same strip of the world that is the Sun’s country, each adapted to their own environment.
Then you wouldn’t need another mystical barrier separating those lands, and just the presently-presented obstacles would be enough to mark the different lands, while you’ld still have the freedom to invent interesting new societies to the east and west, without needing to give all of them different celestial bodies – any of those could be added north or south.
But that sort-of determines that each of the mystical land barriers stretch all the way across, from the eastern edge to the western edge: the river arises from one edge (maybe an unclimbable steep sharp mountain range?), and ends by falling off the other (a sudden and unclimbable steep cliff stretching down “forever”? If you fall off it you end up in the Land of the Shades?)
I don’t like the concept of an unnavigable ocean stretching to the end of the world on one or both sides, for practical considerations. Unless the edge-fall is really near it’s still likely to attract coastal trade, and trade up the border river, making it too ordinary. Harder to handle it intersecting with the other barriers as well: how to avoid it washing into the deep ravine of poisonous fumes would be difficult, and how to keep the ocean filling up again fast enough would be very very difficult.
I also don’t think we really need to know all of the world’s edges just now – these ribbons might stretch out much furter beyond any of the people we’ve met.
On the other hand, long before modern travel and even back into the stone age, people and objects and stories could travel an entire continent, so the chance that stories about at least one of the edges have reached our peoples is definitely not unlikely.
I think it would be useful to ponder if you want similar mystical barriers separating some very different countries east-to-west as well as north-to-south, or want to keep the whole ribbon dedicated to the present celestial body.
Hanneke, those are absolutely for sure not the ends of the world. If they were, Elaro could not have traveled for thirteen years from east to west, not to mention his father and grandfather. No one has ever reached the western or eastern edges of the world … as far as we know. But travelers have definitely gone farther than the basic familiar length of the world and there are definitely stories about that. Some of that is in the Companion already, but not much! It has hardly come up in the novels.
I assure you that the flat world definitely does not need to have actual edges. It can have metaphysically weird edges. Think of Escher, among others. But we’ll see! I do not at this point know whether there are edges or if they are, what they might be.
Will the sections on society and gender include how same-sex relationships and transgender people are viewed? We’ve gotten glimpses indicating that the Lau are mostly not okay with any of this and that the Ugaro are kind of okay with it, but I am hoping for a little more than that.
Are there female warriors among the Ugaro? If so, are they considered to be trans no matter what? (As in, do they have to declare themselves male in order to be allowed to be a warrior? Or can they be both a woman and a warrior? What about trans women who want to be singers, not poets?) Can a trans person just be a regular person like a herder or crafter without having a special reason for it like wanting to be a warrior or a singer? If it’s only permitted among some tribes and not others, what happens when members of those tribes meet socially or in battle? and so on
Just some things to consider!
I just saw this and thought people here might be interested, there’s a very good deal on the Murderbot audiobooks, ending in a bit more than a day from now.
MURDERBOT…
HumbleBundle has 1 through 6 (not including HOME) in audio format (along with other works): “Pay at least $20 for these 20 items”. It looks like the offer ends on Sunday. The bundle supports The National Coalition Against Censorship and you can adjust how your money is spent.
https://www.humblebundle.com/books/marthawells-agriddle-and-more-audiobooks-books
Turtle, this is treated briefly in the sections on gender. You are basically correct: Lau are not okay with crossing customary gender lines — though there is a potential solution there — while Ugaro are more likely to be accepting of that.