2nd Post - Ahman-tahk
Post 2: The Planet, Ahman-tahk
In Post 1, I said I was going to do character studies in this second blog, but as I started to write about Tuyouk, I saw that readers wouldn’t understand his motivations very well if they didn’t know the circumstances of his early life--which is also why I wrote, what eventually became “Book 1,” The Prologue. (1) So, this post will be about Ahman-tahk, and the next will be about Tuyouk.
The planet Ahman-tahk (2) is smaller than Earth. I’m not very well versed in planetary science, but I’m guessing it’s about as small as Mars. It has two continents, one in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern one. All the people live in the northern hemisphere, only going to the southern hemisphere to conduct scientific research or to harvest natural resources. The southern hemisphere is a dangerous jungle, occupied by monsters, demons and trap “doors” that abduct unwary explorers to other dimensions.
The people who inhabit Ahman-tahk, are long-lived, with life spans from two hundred to a thousand years. The more magical a person is, the longer they can expect to live. Ahman-tahkis are distantly related to humans. (3) They are tall--seven to eight-and-a-half feet--with long limbs and necks, large eyes and small ears. The women are willowy, while the men are wiry with extremely broad shoulders. Both genders only grow hair on the crown of their heads. They call this a topknot, and, when unfurled, it looks like a long ponytail. Generally speaking, their hair color matches their skin color.
On Ahman-tahk, skin color is not inherited. If it were, the people would all be a bland sort of gray-beige, but because of the abundant spirit magic on their planet, their neutral-colored babies become the color of the dominant Ascended Spirit of their province. That is the color they’ll have for life. If they move to another province, their color won’t change, although, if they live in the new place long enough, their fingertips might become tinged with the second color.
Here’s a list of the skin colors and corresponding provinces. (4) There are more than these, but these are the ones I’ve used in the books, so far: Shiny black (Sidi), reddish-brown (Namonci), coffee brown (Feecoppeh), lavender (Lauve), pink (Petalo), green (Greevant), blue (Cerule), gray (Gogg), yellow (Reo) and gold (Auric). Oh, and can’t forget the stunningly handsome, but unquestionably dickish, Hex, who was born on a ship crossing the ocean. His rare, mother-of-pearl color is called Seetus.
Everyone on Ahman-tahk is born telepathic and empathic, but some people have more magical talent than others. The highest level practitioners can manipulate their cha-weh (spirit energy) into all manner of magic: healing energy, shamanic skills, the power of flight or shadow travel. They can also use it to transform their bodies into a different physical form. Ultra-talented males can channel their power into the Ahman-tahki version of a feline, fire-breathing “dragon.” Females channel their power into a bird of prey called a raptor. The more magical the person the larger the spirit animal.
Overall, the Ahman-tahki race is loving and peaceful. Since they’re born feeling the spiritual connection between all living things, it’s ingrained in their collective psyche to live simply and in harmony with nature. Unfortunately, no society is a hundred percent homogeneous, and there is some social stratification. About twenty-five percent of the population embraces wealth, prestige and the acquisition of “things” over spirituality.
Still, everything was going well until a hundred years before this story started, when the Lauve empress, Belall, decided to start conquering and annexing weaker provinces. As a tried and true member of the materialistic class, Belall’s two favorite things are opulence and free labor. She and her followers are called witches because they use their magic for dark purposes. There’s no such thing as a good witch on Ahman-tahk; there are witches, and there are shamans. Belall is both. She has always scorned men, thinking them highly emotional and not as intelligent as women, so, when building the army she would use to conquer the other provinces, she only enlisted women. However, the majority of women knew about her, considered her to be evil, and refused to join her. Vindictively, (and short-sightedly), she cursed them with a fatal disease. The Ahman-tahki race is long lived, but slow to reproduce, and this curse ended up causing the population to plunge into a catastrophic descent.
In an effort to stop Belall from taking over the continent, the warriors of the north banded together into a military syndicate. Tuyouk’s province, Cerule, is in the southern part of the continent, abutting Belall’s territory. It was one of the first provinces she’d conquered when beginning her ambitious campaign. The rest of the world pretty much stood back and watched as she poisoned and scorched Cerule’s farmland, making the soil and water barely useable. Instead of coming to Cerule’s aid, the newly formed Northern Provinces Syndicate remained in the safety of the north, more intent on planning how to defend their own territory instead of going to the aid of their neighbors to the south.
This was the world Tuyouk was born into. He was forced to grow up too quickly, forced to take on a leadership role before he was ready, forced to miss out on key experiences that everyone else takes for granted growing up. On the plus side, he didn’t lose his innate generosity, and learned responsibility. More about him in my next post.
Until then, thanks for reading, and questions or comments are welcome.
Notes:
1. I actually wrote The Witch Boy first then later separated out the material concerning Tuyouk’s early life to make the Prologue.
2. The name Ahman-tahk came from a breed of horses. I’m a horse lover, and as I was looking at breed pictures one day, I noted that a certain breed reminded me of the alien race I was writing about. Long limbs, long, thin neck, strong and wiry. The most dramatic-looking specimens have a metallic sheen to their coats. The name of the breed is Akhal-teke, (ah-kahl-TEK-ee), and from that, I got Ahman-tahki. https://www.thesprucepets.com/meet-th...
3. The Ahman-tahkis are related to humans through a common ancestor called “the Shu.” I like to think of the Shu as explorers, the “ancient aliens” who (according to Ancient Astronaut Theory) came to Earth and interacted and interbred with the Egyptians and other ancient peoples. The name “Shu” came from Egyptian mythology. Shu was the prudish father of Nut and Geb. There’s a great website I use, called www.Godchecker.com where anyone can quickly check facts about gods from around the world.
4. I named the provinces words that made sense to me, words that I could remember without having to consult a list, so “green” became Greevant, cerulean became Cerule, and so on.
In Post 1, I said I was going to do character studies in this second blog, but as I started to write about Tuyouk, I saw that readers wouldn’t understand his motivations very well if they didn’t know the circumstances of his early life--which is also why I wrote, what eventually became “Book 1,” The Prologue. (1) So, this post will be about Ahman-tahk, and the next will be about Tuyouk.
The planet Ahman-tahk (2) is smaller than Earth. I’m not very well versed in planetary science, but I’m guessing it’s about as small as Mars. It has two continents, one in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern one. All the people live in the northern hemisphere, only going to the southern hemisphere to conduct scientific research or to harvest natural resources. The southern hemisphere is a dangerous jungle, occupied by monsters, demons and trap “doors” that abduct unwary explorers to other dimensions.
The people who inhabit Ahman-tahk, are long-lived, with life spans from two hundred to a thousand years. The more magical a person is, the longer they can expect to live. Ahman-tahkis are distantly related to humans. (3) They are tall--seven to eight-and-a-half feet--with long limbs and necks, large eyes and small ears. The women are willowy, while the men are wiry with extremely broad shoulders. Both genders only grow hair on the crown of their heads. They call this a topknot, and, when unfurled, it looks like a long ponytail. Generally speaking, their hair color matches their skin color.
On Ahman-tahk, skin color is not inherited. If it were, the people would all be a bland sort of gray-beige, but because of the abundant spirit magic on their planet, their neutral-colored babies become the color of the dominant Ascended Spirit of their province. That is the color they’ll have for life. If they move to another province, their color won’t change, although, if they live in the new place long enough, their fingertips might become tinged with the second color.
Here’s a list of the skin colors and corresponding provinces. (4) There are more than these, but these are the ones I’ve used in the books, so far: Shiny black (Sidi), reddish-brown (Namonci), coffee brown (Feecoppeh), lavender (Lauve), pink (Petalo), green (Greevant), blue (Cerule), gray (Gogg), yellow (Reo) and gold (Auric). Oh, and can’t forget the stunningly handsome, but unquestionably dickish, Hex, who was born on a ship crossing the ocean. His rare, mother-of-pearl color is called Seetus.
Everyone on Ahman-tahk is born telepathic and empathic, but some people have more magical talent than others. The highest level practitioners can manipulate their cha-weh (spirit energy) into all manner of magic: healing energy, shamanic skills, the power of flight or shadow travel. They can also use it to transform their bodies into a different physical form. Ultra-talented males can channel their power into the Ahman-tahki version of a feline, fire-breathing “dragon.” Females channel their power into a bird of prey called a raptor. The more magical the person the larger the spirit animal.
Overall, the Ahman-tahki race is loving and peaceful. Since they’re born feeling the spiritual connection between all living things, it’s ingrained in their collective psyche to live simply and in harmony with nature. Unfortunately, no society is a hundred percent homogeneous, and there is some social stratification. About twenty-five percent of the population embraces wealth, prestige and the acquisition of “things” over spirituality.
Still, everything was going well until a hundred years before this story started, when the Lauve empress, Belall, decided to start conquering and annexing weaker provinces. As a tried and true member of the materialistic class, Belall’s two favorite things are opulence and free labor. She and her followers are called witches because they use their magic for dark purposes. There’s no such thing as a good witch on Ahman-tahk; there are witches, and there are shamans. Belall is both. She has always scorned men, thinking them highly emotional and not as intelligent as women, so, when building the army she would use to conquer the other provinces, she only enlisted women. However, the majority of women knew about her, considered her to be evil, and refused to join her. Vindictively, (and short-sightedly), she cursed them with a fatal disease. The Ahman-tahki race is long lived, but slow to reproduce, and this curse ended up causing the population to plunge into a catastrophic descent.
In an effort to stop Belall from taking over the continent, the warriors of the north banded together into a military syndicate. Tuyouk’s province, Cerule, is in the southern part of the continent, abutting Belall’s territory. It was one of the first provinces she’d conquered when beginning her ambitious campaign. The rest of the world pretty much stood back and watched as she poisoned and scorched Cerule’s farmland, making the soil and water barely useable. Instead of coming to Cerule’s aid, the newly formed Northern Provinces Syndicate remained in the safety of the north, more intent on planning how to defend their own territory instead of going to the aid of their neighbors to the south.
This was the world Tuyouk was born into. He was forced to grow up too quickly, forced to take on a leadership role before he was ready, forced to miss out on key experiences that everyone else takes for granted growing up. On the plus side, he didn’t lose his innate generosity, and learned responsibility. More about him in my next post.
Until then, thanks for reading, and questions or comments are welcome.
Notes:
1. I actually wrote The Witch Boy first then later separated out the material concerning Tuyouk’s early life to make the Prologue.
2. The name Ahman-tahk came from a breed of horses. I’m a horse lover, and as I was looking at breed pictures one day, I noted that a certain breed reminded me of the alien race I was writing about. Long limbs, long, thin neck, strong and wiry. The most dramatic-looking specimens have a metallic sheen to their coats. The name of the breed is Akhal-teke, (ah-kahl-TEK-ee), and from that, I got Ahman-tahki. https://www.thesprucepets.com/meet-th...
3. The Ahman-tahkis are related to humans through a common ancestor called “the Shu.” I like to think of the Shu as explorers, the “ancient aliens” who (according to Ancient Astronaut Theory) came to Earth and interacted and interbred with the Egyptians and other ancient peoples. The name “Shu” came from Egyptian mythology. Shu was the prudish father of Nut and Geb. There’s a great website I use, called www.Godchecker.com where anyone can quickly check facts about gods from around the world.
4. I named the provinces words that made sense to me, words that I could remember without having to consult a list, so “green” became Greevant, cerulean became Cerule, and so on.
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