Alicornutopia

If Kappa is right, -aki is a cranberry morpheme.

(Also, hi, first post I actually got around to writing, long time lurker/fan, blah blah.)

Dragons respond in a perfectly sensible way to extended regularizations of things. In general, unless prescriptivism about shrens is concerned, you should not ever assume that they are less able than you to finagle any tricks of language.

Draconic does reuse morphemes very little, but -aki is now serving as a cranberry morpheme within Reform Draconic.

Cranberry morphemes are interesting; I hadn’t heard of them before. Naturally, the emergence section of the article doesn’t apply for Draconic, but I could see -aki being one.

I was assuming there would be other words with -aki, perhaps (looking through the Siaddaki ToC for ideas, because it’s the most complete Draconic lexicon I know) uennaki. ekua-aki, kezzaki, muekeaki, yoara-aki, belsmiarraki, or icainnaki. I’ll assume they get other words which would have the English translations of “awesome, glorious, spectacular, cool, in the particular way characterized by [hugs/grandparents/books/teachers/this type of friend/that type of friend]”, even if the connotations aren’t as strong because they aren’t as cool as dragons.

I've been translating "siaddaki" as though the "aki" is a fairly generic transformation applied to "siad", but it's not. Books don't do awesome in the same way that scaly quadrupeds do awesome, so the same transformation doesn't work for "kezzaki". The word "siaddaki" communicates - if you are a siad, it is right and proper and encouraged that you experience pride now. You have a people of which to be proud. Holy shit, you can breathe fire, are you aware that that is kickass. You could fly to the moon if you felt like it. You are versatile and powerful and you have acquired or are set up to acquire tons of wisdom and learning and you are, or are going to be, titanically huge. You're sooooo pretty.

This is not something you say to a book.

A particularly excellent and bookful book, even a book that could in fact breathe fire, would get a different word which might or might not include the syllable "kez".

I figured it would be something like that when you said “aki” wasn’t used elsewhere, though your explanation makes it clearer. I guess shrens are similar enough to dragons that -aki still applies (or would if the language weren’t prejudiced) even though you’d want to put something about pain in there instead of something about flying.

All of that can apply to grandparents, teachers, and friends, but mostly to the extent to which they are actually dragons, so it makes sense to not have other words for them like that.

Now for unrelated questions. I thought I’d seen this first one asked before, but can’t find the answer: are there double-mages who can control multiple elements (presumably 4% or less of the mage population if they exist)? What about mage-lights, mage-sorcerers, etc?

Are Korulen and Saasnil going to be relevantly idiots in Amounts of Dragon? If so, will they summon Rhysel, or somebody else? I guess it wouldn’t cause as many problems here, with Milliways and miracles, but I expect it would become plot-relevant if it happens.

I keep trying to come up with a paragraph that explains "shrennaki" as well as that paragraph explains "siaddaki" and I totally can't, but for the record, it's not quite as simple as substituting pain for flying. The emphasis is very different.

I don't remember if I've ruled on double mages before. My inclination right now is that you can have multiple potentials at whatever rate you'd expect statistically from potentials varying independently but a single person can only activate one. Mage-lights, mage-sorcerers, sorcerer-lights, and mage-light-sorcerers all happen at statistically normal rates; the traits vary independently.

There is not currently a plan for Korulen and Saasnil to summon anybody within Amounts continuity but we may do it in a different multithread Elcenia box.

Kappa wrote:I keep trying to come up with a paragraph that explains "shrennaki" as well as that paragraph explains "siaddaki" and I totally can't, but for the record, it's not quite as simple as substituting pain for flying. The emphasis is very different.

After thinking about it more, would this be correct in sirasiahr:

• Siaddaki means about the same thing as in sirasiad, with perhaps more emphasis on flying (such a connotation naturally arising out of the existence of the word siahrraki). Presumably this meaning, and the one in sirasiad, include more clauses like “You can turn into almost whatever you want, and some of your people can turn into even more and/or cooler stuff!” or “Some of your people can even do most of that underwater, leaving practically nowhere inaccessible!”. As various types of siahr diverge, this word will probably get more siad-specific connotations in sirasiahr.
• Siahrraki means about the same thing, but with flying relegated to one of those presumed “some” clauses.
• Shrennaki, although it technically includes most of the stuff above, puts most of its focus on ways shrens are awesome that other siahr generally aren't: you have faced pain, prejudice, and discrimination from both within and without; your struggles have made you stronger, you are tough, you can face pain and ridicule head-on without flinching, you can probably face many other challenges similarly, etc.

Am I on the right track here? Also, is inside shrenhood purely psychological in the “for 20 years you were completely forbidden from leaving, and now that it's allowed thinking about it is still painful” way, or is there something else about shrens that makes them more likely to want to stay inside?

I'm pretty sure inside shrenhood is psychological/environmental in that way rather than something more inherent to shrens.

Shrennaki is about like that, yeah. More or less. But I'd also say it's something like... "this is immunity cat, you are absolved from ever feeling inferior to siads". Or maybe that's just a secondary effect arising from its existence. It's hard to separate that out. XD

Inside shrenhood is not an inherent risk of being a shren but it is more likely to happen to (house) shrens than it would be to others who simply happened to stay indoors for two decades. "You were completely forbidden from leaving for excellent reasons having to do with that intrinsic inferiority problem of yours. You could leave now. You're still intrinsically inferior though. Which is a reason not to leave. I mean, you could leave, but remember how you couldn't leave because you were intrinsically inferior?"