Orson Scott Card - Homecoming 5 - Earthborn

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Orson Scott Card: Homecoming volume 5 - Earthborn

v1.0 [18-dec-01] 4i Publications. OCR'd 300DPI, Finereader 5, layout, quick

proof inW2k . The original hardcover was good quality so only a few OCR

errors expected. Most common OCR errors have been corrected. If you proofread

or change this document, please retain the existing version information. Also

indicate what has been improved (proofreading, layout etc). Just reformatting

and changing the version number doesn't mean that the actual text has been

improved.

We're missing #3 in the Homecoming Saga, so the series will remain incomplete

until someone scans it.

CHARACTERS

Note on the Conventions of Naming

Among the Nafari humans, it is the custom for persons of distinction to add

titles of honor to their names, as honorifics. Formally, the honorific is put

at the beginning of the name, so that on state occasions the king of Darakemba

is Ak-Moti; but most commonly the honorific is added at the end: thus, Motiak.

Some honorifics are altered in order to combine with the name, and some names

to combine with the honorific. Thus when Jamim was heir, he was Ha-Jamim or

Jamimha, the normal pattern; but as king he was Ka-Jamim or Jaminka (compared

with Nuak/Ak-Nu and Motiak/Ak-Moti); and as former king he is spoken of as Ba-

Jamim or Jamimba (compared with Nuab/ Ab-Nu and Motiab/Ab-Moti).

The honorifics for men that show up in this book are: Ak/Ka, which means

"reigning king"; Ha/Akh, "heir"; Ab/Ba, "former king"; Ush, "mighty warrior";

Dis, "beloved son"; Og/Go, "high priest"; Ro/Or, "wise teacher"; Di/Id,

"traitor." The honorifics for women that show up in this book are: Dwa,

"mother of the heir" (whether she is living or dead); Gu/Ug, "most-honored

wife of king"; Ya, "great compassionate woman."

In addition, the syllable da is used as an all-purpose term of endearment, and

is inserted at the end of a usually shortened name, but before any added

honorifics. Thus Chebeya, in private, calls her husband "Kmadaro," which is

(A)kma + da (endearment) + ro (honorific meaning "great teacher"), and Akmaro

calls her "Bedaya," which is (Che)be + da (endearment) + ya (honorific meaning

"great compassionate woman").

The sons of a prominent man are regarded collectively as his "tribe" and are

referred to that way. Thus the four sons of Motiak are sometimes called "the

Motiaki"; the four sons of Pabulog are called "the Pabulogi" until they

repudiate the name.

It is also worth pointing out that there are several terms for the different

intelligent species. The sky people, earth people, and middle people can also

be called angels, diggers, and humans, respectively. The former three terms

suggest formality, dignity, and equivalency among the species. However, the

latter three terms are merely informal, not necessarily pejorative, and

members of all three species readily use both the formal and informal terms

for themselves.

Humans (Middle People)

IN DARAKEMBA

Motiak, or Ak-Moti-the king, conqueror of most of the Darakemba empire

Dudagu, or Gu-Duda-Motiak's present wife, mother of his youngest son Toeledwa

[toe-eh-LED-wah], or Dwa-Toel-Motiak's late wife, mother of his first

four children

Jamimba, or Ba-Jamim-Motiak's late father

Motiab, or Ab-Moti-Jamimba's father, who led the Nafari out of the land of

Nafai to unite them with the people of Darakemba, forming the core of the

empire

Aronha, or Ha-Aron-Motiak's eldest son, his heir Edhadeya, or Ya-Edhad-

Motiak's eldest daughter and second child Mon-Motiak's second son, third

child; named after Monush Ominer-Motiak's third son, fourth child; the last of

Toeledwa's children

Khimin-Motiak's fourth son; the only child of Dudagu, Motiak's current wife

Monush, or

Ush-Mon-Motiak's leading soldier

IN CHELEM

Akmaro, or Ro-Akma-a former priest of King Nuak of the Zenifi, he now leads a

group of followers of the teachings of Binaro/Binadi; his people are sometimes

called

Akmari Chebeya, or Ya-Cheb-Akmaro's wife, a raveler

Akma-Akmaro's and Chebeya's son and oldest child

Luet-Akmaro's and Chebeya's daughter and youngest child

Pabulog, or Og-Pabul-former high priest of King Nuak, and now a particularly

vicious leader among the Elemaki, with an army at his disposal

Pabul-Pabulog's oldest son Udad-Pabulog's second son Didul-Pabulog's third son

Muwu-Pabulog's foruth and youngest son

AMONG THE ZENIFI

Zenifab, or Ab-Zeni-the founding king of the Zenifi, for whom the tribe is

named; their fundamental belief is that humans should not live with angels or

diggers, and they tried to re-establish a pure-human colony in their ancestral

homeland of Nafai after the Nafari merged with the Darakembi

Nuak, or Ak-Nu; also Nuab, or Ab-Nu-Zenifab's son and recent king of the

Zenifi; in speaking of the time when he reigned, "Nuak" is used; in referring

to later times, he is called "Nuab"; there is always some confusion for a

while in changing over from one honorific to another

Ilihiak, or Ak-Ilihi-Nuak's son, who was never expected to be the king, but

had the office thrust upon him in the crisis after his father was murdered

Wissedwa, or Dwa-Wiss-Ilihiak's wife; she saved the Zenifi after Nuak's

cowardly retreat

Khideo-leading soldier of Ilihiak; he refuses all honorifics because he once

attempted to kill Nuak

Binadi, or Di-Bina; also called Binaro, or Ro-Bina-condemned to death and

executed by Nuak and Pabulog, he was officially designated a traitor (thus

Binadi); but among Akmaro's people, he is called Binaro and revered as a great

teacher

IN THE STARSHIP BASILICA

Shedemei-the starmaster, a brilliant geneticist, she is the one survivor

from the original group of humans who were brought back to Earth

from the planet Harmony. Among the diggers, or earth people, she

is known as the One-Who-Was-Never-Buried

Angels (Sky People)

Husu-commander of the spies, a sort of "cavalry" composed entirely of sky

people

bGo-Motiak's chief clerk, head of much of the bureaucracy of Darakemba

Bego-bGo's otherself, the king's archivist and tutor to Motiak's children

Diggers (Earth People)

Uss-Uss, or Voozhum-Edhadeya's chambermaid, a slave; but something of a sage

and priestess among the other digger slaves

GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES

What used to be MesoAmerica and the Caribbean were transformed by a single

geological event under the Earth's crust-the formation of a fast-flowing

current in the mantle that plunged the Cocos plate northward at an incredible

rate. Behind it, more than a hundred volcanos formed an uninhabitable

archipelago extending hundreds of miles to the east and west of the Galapagos-

dozens are still active. At the leading edge, the Cocos plate attacked the

Caribbean plate far faster than it could be subducted. The result was dramatic

uplifting and folding; by ten million years after the departure of the human

race, there were several whole ranges of mountains above ten kilometers in

height, with some peaks reaching higher than eleven kilometers. Between

erosion and the slowing of the Cocos plate to merely three times the speed of

any other plate on Earth, the highest peaks are now only some ninety-five

hundred meters above sea level.

Besides the massif of high mountains, the Earth's crust behind the mountains

was also forced upward, causing Cuba, Jamaica, and Haiti to be connected to

the torn and distorted land mass of Central America. Millions of years of

flooding from the great mountain rivers created a vast plain of fertile soil

from the Yucatan to Jamaica.

Even farther north from the Cocos plate, the general uplifting (and the same

current in the mantle) hastened a process that had begun long before-the

rifting of North America at about the line of the

Mississippi River. The eastern (Appalachian) plate began rotating

counterclockwise and shifting northeastward; the western (Texas) plate

continued its northwestward drift. (Northern South America [the Orinoco plate]

was also gradually dragged along to drift somewhat northward, with a rift

opening in Ecuador.)

It was the sudden rapid movement of the Cocos plate and the accompanying

earthquakes and volcanism, not the limited nuclear exchanges that took place

around that time, that made the Earth uninhabitable and forced humankind to

abandon its birth planet. Nevertheless, all human emigrants carried with them

the story that human actions had caused the destruction of the world.

MOUNTAINS

The gornaya (GOR-na-ya) is the great central massif lifted by the surging of

the Cocos plate, with perpetually snow-covered peaks that are higher than any

oxygen-breather can climb. Because most peaks are constantly invisible in

clouds, they are not used as landmarks and are almost never named. Instead,

rivers and lakes are used as landmarks, with their deep valleys forming both

the highways and the habitats. The border of the gornaya was determined,

before the return of the humans, by the lowest elevation where the

digger/angel symbiosis could survive.

SEAS

Because the folding of the land into the ranges of the gornaya left most

ranges running southeast to northwest, the rivers also run in those

directions. This, rather than sunrise, the north star, or magnetic north,

determined the cardinal directions of the diggers and angels (they had no

compasses and even on clear days could rarely see the north star and could see

sunrise or sunset only at the edges of the gornaya). Thus "north" in the names

of various places means northwest of the gornaya, "west" means southwest,

"south" means southeast, and "east" means northeast.

North Sea-the remnant of the Gulf of Mexieo, a narrow sea jammed between the

Texas/Veracruz coast on one side and the Yucatan coast on the other.

East Sea (Gulf of Florida)-a new sea opened in the straits between Cuba and

Florida by the new rotation and northeastward movement of the Appalachian

plate.

South Sea-the remnant of the Caribbean Sea

West Sea-the Pacific Ocean

WILDERNESS

On the Atlantic side, the gornaya gives way to a great fan of lowlands, much

of it raised up from the ocean floor, covered with rich soil eroded from the

gornaya and carried by great rivers which deposit new soil during flood

seasons every year. The jungles there are rich with life, but since vast areas

spend part of the year under muddy water, most of the fauna is arboreal.

Diggers and angels who lived near the edges of the gornaya often sent hunting

expeditions out into the wilderness, but they never went farther than the

distance they could travel to carry game home before it spoiled. Three great

regions of jungle are distinguished by the angels and diggers; their names

were translated into the language of the Nafari and Elemaki and eventually

those names replaced the names in the digger and angel languages.

Severless (SEV-er-less)-The great north wilderness, including the land that

used to be Chiapas and Yucatan. The great rivers Tsidorek and Jatvarek flow

through it; the Milirek marks its western and Dry Bay its eastern boundary.

Vostoiless (voe-STOY-less)-the great east wilderness, including the land that

used to be Cuba, which forms most of the northern shore and a mountainous

peninsula running eastward. The Vostoireg and Svereg Rivers flow through the

lowland plain. The Mebbereg, the third great river of the east, is generally

regarded as the southern boundary of the Vostoiless.

Yugless (YOOG-less)-the great south wilderness, which includes a low, wide

isthmus between the Pacific and the Caribbean and reaches eastward to include

a mountainous peninsula made up of what were once Jamaica and Haiti (or

Hispaniola). The Zidomeg flows out of the land of Nafai down into the heart of

the Yugless, and the northern boundary is the land of Nafai and the land of

Pristan, where the humans first landed.

Opustoshan (oh-POOSS-toe-shahn)-in contrast to the well-watered jungles of the

three great wildernesses, the fourth uninhabited land was called "desolation"

by the diggers and angels because, being in the rain shadow of the gornaya,

the area just west of the Milirek is desperately dry, to the point the vast

regions are nothing but blowing sand. Soon the land rises to the old Mexican

plateau, however, but the diggers and angels regarded it all as uninhabitable.

LAKES

An anomaly in the gornaya consists of a region of subsidence running on a

north-south line, where rivers, whether flowing "north" or "south," formed

lakes. As the rivers wore deeper channels into the mountains, the lakes

subsided incrementally, forming fertile terraces up the canyon walls, so that

the shores of the lakes have fertile land ranging from a few meters to as much

as five kilometers in width. The seven lakes are named, from "east" to "west"

(as the angels and diggers thought of them; we would say from north to south):

Severed-fed and drained by the Svereg

Uprod-source of the Ureg

Prod-source of the Padurek

Mebbekod-fed and drained by the Mebbereg

Sidonod-source of the Tsidorek, which flows through Darakemba and, farther

downstream, the eastern reaches of Bodika. Issipod-source of one branch of the

Issibek Poropod-fed and drained by the Proporeg

RIVERS

There are thousands of rivers in the gornaya, running in every canyon and

valley. Though the entire gornaya is within the tropics, shifting winds and

the extremely high mountain ranges cleft by long, deep valleys cause adjoining

watersheds to have completely different amounts of precipitation at different

seasons-of the year. Rivers are highways, landmarks, and, where the gornaya

opfcns ap into wide valleys, they are the source of life in all seasons. Seven

great rivers flow out of the gornaya and, after passing through wilderness, to

the Atlantic. Four great rivers flow into the Pacific. In addition, some of

the rivers have major tributaries. In the religion of the angels, rivers have

varying degrees of holiness; the rivers are presented here according to their

order in their hierarchy of sacredness (though the names are now a mish-mash

of human, angel, and digger names and forms).

The Seven Lake Rivers

Tsidorek-the holiest river, flows north from the lake Sidonod. Because the

lake comes near the top of the river valley, there is no major river flowing

into it. Therefore Sidonod is the "pure source" of the Tsidorek, and it also

has a tributary, the Padurek, which flows from a pure source (Prod), making

the water twice pure. Darakemba, the capital of Motiak's kingdom, is located

near where the canyon first widens into a broad valley where intensive

agriculture is possible.

Issibek-flows north from lake Issipod, a pure source. It has a major south-

flowing tributary, only the two rivers don't so much join as collide head-on.

They once formed a lake there, which filled the long canyon for fifty

kilometers before it spilled over the lowest pass in the oceanside range. But

the lake eventually found an outlet through a system of caves and drained

completely. Now the rivers seem to collide head-on, and since they flood at

opposite times of the year, there is always enough water that the outlet is

underwater. The result is that the river seems to flow downhill from the lake

until it comes to a tumultuous low point, whereupon the valley goes up and the

river continues, flowing in the opposite direction. The outlet runs

underground for kilometers until it erupts from a cave on the other side of

the range and flows into the Pacific. The outlet once had another name, but

before the coming of the humans, a digger proved that it was the outlet of the

Issibek. However, the river that flows north from lake Issipod and its

tributary that flows south to join it are still considered to be the same

river, but with two sources, one pure and one not. It is this strange river

that Ilihiak's expedition to find Darakemba followed by mistake, leading them

past Darakemba (several giant mountain ranges over) and eventually down into

the desert of Opustoshen, where, on the shores of a seasonal river (bone dry

at the time), they found bodies and weaponry suggesting that a devastating

battle had been fought

there. The corpses were so perfectly preserved in the desert that they could

have been five or five hundred years old. Nearby, they found written records

in an unknown language.

Mebbereg-Flows south from the lake Mebbekod. Not itself a pure source (the

river flows into the lake from the north and then out of it on the south), but

it has a pure source as a tributary (Ureg, out of Uprod). Akmaro's first

settlement, Chelem, where his people were kept in captivity, was along the

Mebbereg.

Svereg-Flows momentarily south from Severed, the "easternmost" (northernmost)

of the lakes, then bends east and drops down rapidly from the gornaya into the

vast jungle of the Vostoiless. Not a pure source.

Proporeg-Flows south from Poropod, the "westernmost" (southernmost) of the

lakes, and drops rapidly to the West Sea (Pacific Ocean).

Padurek-A tributary river, but a pure source, it flows north from lake Prod

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OrsonScottCard:Homecomingvolume5-Earthbornv1.0[18-dec-01]4iPublications.OCR'd300DPI,Finereader5,layout,quickproofinW2k.TheoriginalhardcoverwasgoodqualitysoonlyafewOCRerrorsexpected.MostcommonOCRerrorshavebeencorrected.Ifyouproofreadorchangethisdocument,pleaseretaintheexistingversioninformation.Alsoi...

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