Rihannsu, not Romulans

Rihannsu Names

Sat, 15 Sep 2018 19:57:48 GMT

Posted by: sheliak

This is a list of all canonical Rihannsu names, with notes about meaning and usage when applicable. Please let me know if I missed anything!

( General Notes )

( First Names )

( Second Names )

( Third or House-Names )

( Fourth Names )

( Other Names )

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Complete Rihannsu Lexicon, v. 0.5

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 22:23:29 GMT

Posted by: melannen

I was playing with Rihannsu-verse crossover fic awhile back, and I discovered that there are no good sources for the Rihannsu language on the internet - the sites that are up tend to take the glossary from the end of Romulan Way, add in a bunch of words from other sources, and mix them together with no good citations. And none of them include all the new vocabulary from Sword Hunt through Empty Chair.

So I made one. It's downloadable in .ods and .xls format from this page, and also as an html table under the second cut (I highly recommend downloading a spreadsheet version, though, if you're going to use it as a source for something.)

( About this lexicon )

( Lexicon as HTML table )

Download: Rihannsu Lexicon in Open Document Spreadsheet format

Rihannsu Lexicon in Microsoft Excel format

¹ Look! I resisted the temptation to use the phrase 'hapax legomena'.

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Is it just me?

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:40:46 GMT

Posted by: rembrandtswife

I was just leafing through my notebook journal and noticed that I started re-reading The Empty Chair back on June 4th. I am not yet halfway through it; I'm a fast reader, but I read some and then put it aside for a few days. Has anyone else found this novel to be slow going?

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Fic: Precious Things: Ghost Ship

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 03:17:56 GMT

Posted by: meallanmouse

Title: Precious Things: Ghost Ship
Setting: Star Trek 2009
Note: Many thanks to elanya & rexlapinii for the beta-ing! This is set in my Precious Things 'verse, but can be easily read as a stand alone. I based myself on the Diane Duane "version" of the Rihannsu to write this (because really, after reading her books I could not see them any other way.) Also? Woo! I am thrilled at having found this community. ^^
Summary: Sometimes, that which is broken cannot be mended.

They are all mad, Ayel knows.

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The treatment of Vulcan mind powers in the Rihannsu Saga

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:58:50 GMT

Posted by: rembrandtswife

I'm still re-reading The Empty Chair, but I've got through the first three (or four, however you wish to count 'em) books in quick succession, and so for the first time I've been able to sort out what Duane does and does not say about the Vulcans' telepathic abilities and why the Rihannsu seem not to have them.

1. In My Enemy, My Ally (henceforth MEMA), Ael tells Jim, Spock, and McCoy that the Rihannsu do not have telepathic abilities because the use and control of telepathy was not developed in Vulcan culture until *after* Surak's Reform. If telepathy had been in common use before Surak, she says, it would have been used for violent ends and domination of others, just as the politicians behind the Levaeri V project intend once they have the ability.

This seems *very* unlikely to me. The general agreement seems to be that Surak flourished about two thousand years before the present day of TOS. For a people to have telepathic ability, yet not have it enter widespread use until thousands of years into their history, does not make sense. It also contradicts the implications of "Amok Time", that the Vulcan marriage ritual, of which mental bonding is an intrinsic part, goes back into the most distant past that Vulcans remember.

2. In The Romulan Way (henceforth TRW), the historical chapters give a much better suggestion: That telepathy died out in Rihannsu culture because the most gifted telepaths, the adepts, died out on the long journey. In particular, the "bootstrap" jump to near lightspeed, accomplished telekinetically by the adepts, tended to kill them, so the most efficient and resource-saving method of travel cost the emigrants their most powerful telepaths. With fewer and fewer adepts to train new students, the traditions were lost. The Rihannsu retain the potential for telepathy, but its use did not become part of the new culture they established.

On the other hand, the chapter on T'Rehu says that she has "mind-changers" who can brainwash people into thinking her way. To me that implied telepathy rather than The Manchurian Candidate.

3. Now I've forgotten what I was going to say for #3. There are some remarks about telepathy in SwordHunt (henceforth SH)... anybody? Bueller?

In addition, there are a few indications in The Empty Chair that certain elements of Vulcan intimacy that derived from the mind bond, such as touching of hands, remain in Rihannsu culture even though the telepathic content is no longer active.

Discuss?

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How to write in Rihannsu!

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:45:24 GMT

Posted by: rembrandtswife

Just put your fingers on the keyboard one key to the left of where they actually belong....

*thwaps self*

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Rihannsu icons

Thu, 21 May 2009 00:16:59 GMT

Posted by: melannen

(x-posted to starry_sea)

Under the cut, 30 textless icon bases from the original covers of the five Rihannsu novels by Diane Duane. I was planning to scan all my copies to make icons from, but I had not stopped to think that my copies of the first two are way, way too battered to get art from, so I had to make do with low-quality web images for those.

These are all free to take, use, share; the covers for the first four books are uncredited, the artist for the Empty Chair was Tom Hallman. If you feel the need to credit someone, credit the original source, please.

( 30 icon bases, with text descriptions )

I really like a lot in these covers, though I'm picky as usual - the individual elements inSwordhunt, Honor Blade, and Empty Chair are lovely, even if I don't much care for the overall balance of the designs they put them in, though that may just be because they use an Ael who looks and dresses a lot like me. Romulan Way is probably one of my favorites of the old-style Pocket Books covers, if only they'd drawn Arrhae with green blood! And My Enemy, My Ally is just a good, old-fashioned pulp cover.

Huh. I should probably go ahead and icon the anthology's cover while I'm at it, shouldn't I? Okay, fine.
( Four textless icon bases from the cover of 'Rihannsu: the Bloodwing Voyages' )

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Re-reading My Enemy, My Ally

Fri, 15 May 2009 13:49:39 GMT

Posted by: rembrandtswife

I finished my re-read of the first book in the Rihannsu saga this morning. I haven't read it for a couple years, and my first thought was, "Hmm, it's not as good as I remember it." (Actually, my first thought was more like, "When did the damned print get so small and faded?") I think there's a simple explanation for that reaction: This book is twenty-five years old. Duane has written a lot of novels since then, and MEMA has to be counted among her early works now. She's a good enough writer that in those two and a half decades, she's gotten better, as a writer should.

That said, it's still a damned good read. Even in the old days of watching the Original Series, I thought the Romulans were more interesting than the Klingons; after all, they were related to the Vulcans, who were obviously the coolest of the cool. Then the movies came along and gave the Klingons nifty makeup and TNG got caught up in the saga of Worf's family and Klingon politics. But I still wanted more of the Romulans.

Ael remains for me one of the most engaging female characters in Trek, or in science fiction: a warrior, a widow, the mother of a grown son, a father's daughter (she never mentions her mother--did she perhaps die when Ael was very small?), and a ship's commander who's even smarter and crazier than James T. Kirk. I've had dreams about Ael and other characters from this series, that's how much it has penetrated my psyche. I look forward to reading The Romulan Way, because Arrhae is my second favorite character in the series.

And ENSIGN ROCK RULEZ!

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OH HAI NOO MEMBERZ

Tue, 12 May 2009 11:08:33 GMT

Posted by: rembrandtswife

Good morning, and welcome to the community!

Is there anyone out there who can make Rihannsu icons? I'd like to have one as the community default that says "Rihannsu, not Romulans", and I am totally incapable of making a text-only icon that looks good.

I'd like to request that fanfic and fanart be put behind a cut, for size/length as much as anything. We will evolve necessary policies as we go.

Let's all uphold those wonderful Star Trek values of curiosity, openness, and respect for diversity, and this comm will be a splendid time for all.

Thankyew.

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Tue, 12 May 2009 00:39:34 GMT

Posted by: trouble

Truth be told, it's been a really long time since I read these books - and I just learned there were more after The Romulan Way that I missed.

What was your favourite Rihannsu book?

Mine was My Enemy My Ally - I read my copy to tatters. I really fell in love with Ael, and her sense of honour.

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