{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/6624", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "urth", "thread": { "id": 6624, "subject": "Short Stories 94 and 95: The Green Rabbit from S'Rian and\n The Choice of the Black Goddess", "messages": 1, "voices": 1, "first": "2014-08-17T07:07:25+00:00", "last": "2014-08-17T07:07:25+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Marc Aramini", "address": "marcaramini at gmail.com" }, "date": "2014-08-17T07:07:25+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Stories 94 and 95: The Green Rabbit from S'Rian and\n The Choice of the Black Goddess", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "“The Green Rabbit from S'Rian” appeared in the shared world anthology\n*Liavek* in 1985, and the sequel “The Choice of the Black Goddess” appeared\nin its sequel *Liavek: The Players of Luck* in 1986. They are both\ncollected in *Storeys from the Old Hotel.*\n\nSUMMARY:\n\nThe Green Rabbit from S?Rian\n\nCaptain Tev Noen decides to appeal to self interest to recruit a crew of\nrowers for his ship serving the Levar of Liavek's Navy and is astonished at\nthe success of his second mate Dinnile in filling every available position\nwith Nomads from the Great Waste.\n\nAs they are about to leave, Noen is commissioned by an admiral to retrieve\na relic which has disappeared and might have gone to sea, a jade rabbit\nreputed to contribute to luck, fertility, and wealth which has been stolen\nfrom a wealthy jeweler named Serkosh in the city. Two of his crew, Syb and\nSu, want to go aground after being paid so they can give money to their\nfamilies, who survive by fishing but live in poverty.\n\nNoen's first mate, Oeuni, spots the trireme *Zhironni* they are after with\nits mast raised, and they engage it in combat. The magician has not had\ntime to raise a wind to make it sail, but creates illusions such as a sea\nserpent to dissuade Noen's *Windsong* from attacking. Windsong attacks\nusing its culverin named Poltergeist and rams the other vessel, at which\npoint Noen is able to board the hold and find the Green Rabbit. A female\ntempts him, saying they can rule an isle in the Sea of Luck or beyond\ntogether, and then the leader of the Nomads, Myllikesh, enters and tries to\ntake the Green Rabbit so that he can return as ruler of a land of\nprosperity — for one has only to throw down the rabbit to create fecundity.\nThe female attempts to seduce him, and succeeds in stabbing him, at which\npoint Noen knocks her unconscious and the illusion dissipates - she is\nrevealed to be an elderly male illusionist. In the struggle, the Green\nRabbit falls into the sea and runs away, and Myllikesh dies believing the\nrabbit was wasted. Noen knows that it will bring prosperity to the\nfishermen in the area, fulfilling the dreams of Syb and Su. When he\nreturns, he speculates how rich the sale of the *Zhironni* will make him.\nHis first mate is in his cabin, her arm bandaged, wishing to tell him how\nbrave she was in the battle, and reassuring him of his own bravery as she\nkisses him.\n\n“The Choice of the Black Goddess”\n\nHaunted by the loss of first mate Oeuni's hand through infection when the\ninjury from the first story was not treated in time, Noen has also lost any\nprofit from capturing the enemy ship in the first story, which was returned\nto the Ka Zhir because Liavek is not currently at war with them. The\n*Windsong* is leaking after being damaged in a magical storm (produced by\nthe villain of the story), and spots a distress flag on a ship flying the\ncolors of Liavek. The ship is becalmed in a bay with a small island and a\nlarger coast. After insuring that the water is deep enough for the\n*Windsong*, they approach and spot a building in the distant forest. They\nalso see a large tower with artillery on the coast, so Noen takes a small\ncrew ashore. While he is in transit, he watches a black bird land on the\n*Windsong*.\n\nThere, they encounter an acting troupe whose current leader, Baldy, is\nserving as stage magician to maintain the illusion of the tower that Noen\nand his crew saw earlier, though it is just a prop. He explains that the\nship they were traveling on was losing one crew member a day mysteriously\nwhen a storm forced them aground. The captain and his two crew members went\nto investigate the building Noen also saw through the forest, leaving the\nacting troupe behind. Two of the actors are Nordread and Marin Monns, who\nindicates that he is in fact the leading woman of the troupe and only\ndresses as a man. Baldy tells Noen that somehow their normal stage magician\nXobbas has become three magicians, probably impostors, and that the real\ntroupe leader is missing.\n\nLater that night, one of Noen's crew brings in a sailor who claims to have\nbeen hidden on the becalmed ship they found in the harbor, but soon enough\nNoen and Oeuni realize he is a “woman”, or at the very least not a sailor.\nIt is Marin once again, and Marin indicates that it seems that all of the\nmagicians are fakes, as the real Xobbas was an elderly, kind, and somewhat\nnaturally self-pitying man, and these ones are alternately cruel,\nfrightened, or just too mobile to be the elderly man. Oeuni reveals to Noen\nthat she found a fresh grave marked with an X where she believes the wizard\nXobbas was buried.\n\nNoen decides to go up to the building and follow the missing captain and\ncrew. The troupe comes as well, interested in the fate of their real\nleader, Amail Destrop. When they finally arrive at the temple, a nomad\nstill working for Noen reads the Tichenese writing, which says “The Black\nWarrior Woman, Precious Helper of Men”. The vines have been cleared away so\nsomeone could read it in its entirety, and a trail of ants leads them to\nthe fate of the captain of the becalmed vessel and his two remaining crew\nmembers: skulls which have been desecrated so that the brains have been\nextracted or eaten. Inside, a huge shah board, a game like chess, sits on\nthe floor, with only a large piece, the black sultana, remaining.\n\nSeeing the symbols on the floor, they decide to place their members on the\nappropriate chess spaces to fill up the board. Oeuni and Noen will control\nthe Black and White sides, respectively. After placing the crew and actors\non the board, they realize they need four wizards. Baldy takes one\nposition, and Noen realizes they need three more wizards. One of the Xobbas\nimitators appears (Amail Destrop in disguise) and stands upon a space. They\nnotice that a third, silent wizard has also appeared, smaller than the\nsecond but dressed in the same fashion. Finally, a fourth materializes (the\nvillainous Pardoner who probably stowed on the becalmed ship in the hopes\nof pillaging this temple and who killed Xobbas), rubbing his hands in\nanticipation.\n\nThey are trapped in their respective spaces on the boards. The silent\nwizard only says, “It would be better, perhaps, if you were not to ask to\nknow too much,” then the statue of the sultana begins to rock like a\npendulum and moves, revealing a space beneath it. A dark thing from\noverhead (Kakos, a demon kept by the pardoner) swoops down into the hole,\nand Oeuni runs forward to confront it. Her hooked hand emerges with an\nemerald necklace, her right hand full of gold, but the crowned demon grabs\nher hand and pulls her downward — she digs her hook in to keep from being\npulled into the pit. A black slab from the wall seals the pit as the large\nsultana disappears into a far wall, going through it as if it was\nnonexistent. Noen tries to free Oeuni but cannot, even breaking his sword\non the demon's arm.\n\nThe fourth wizard gloats that they will all die and admits that the demon\nis his. The black sultana reappears from the other side of the board and\ncrushes the wizard “to a broken doll whose crimson blood splattered — The\nblack statue had reentered its own temple through the door like the\nfigurehead of a galley that flies before a glae, and it had struck him like\nthat galley's ram”. The demon's arm is severed as the slab falls into\nplace. Here Noen notices that Oeuni's hooked hand seems to have switched\nsides, and she whispers, “I had to choose. Lose my other hand, or the demon\nwould have killed you and Dinnile and everybody. It wouldn't have killed me\n— it told me that.” Baldy notices that the remains of the hook is merely a\nprop — Oeuni has regained her hand after making the choice put to her by\nthe Black Goddess.\n\nAmail Destrop reveals that he found the corpse of Xobbas and disguised\nhimself as the wizard to try to find whoever killed him. His wife,\nNordread, has been dressed as a man the entire time, but abandons her\ndisguise here. The third wizard has disappeared, save for a single black\nfeather resting upon the wizard's space in the shah board, and they\nspeculate that the villain was a Pardoner who sacrificed the crew of the\nship daily to his demon, who required one sacrifice a day, but saved the\ntroupe in order to play the requisite game of shah in the temple and\nplunder the Black Goddess' treasures. Marin reveals himself to be a man,\nand Oeuni leaves the emerald necklace on the statue of the Goddess.\n\nCOMMENTARY: Set in a shared world, the *Liavek *stories are standard\nfantasies inspired by the success of *Thieves' World*, unlike most of\nWolfe’s other work up to this point. By and large, Wolfe stayed within the\nguidelines established for the world in tales which were primarily\nstraightforward adventure stories, but there are still a few subtexts of\nnote, and by the end of the second story identity and gender ambiguity\ndefinitely surfaces.\n\nAt first it seems that the Green Rabbit has in fact brought prosperity to\nTev Noen — granting him a crew to search for it (some of whom are still\npresent in the second story) and wealth in the form of a magnificent\ncaptured ship, which, when sold, would entitle him to a quarter of profits.\nAlas, we see this undercut by the second story completely, with the ship\nreturned to its nation of origin because Liavek and Ka Zhir are not\ncurrently at war, and Noen left with no profit from his efforts.\n\nRather than emphasize the magic in the first story, the primary brunt of\nWolfe's specific research shows a naval battle with guns and sails. The\nspecific terms like luffing (steering so far to windward that the sail and\nairflow are disrupted) and transforming the ship into something closer to a\nxebec to ram the enemy are the most dense portions of “The Green Rabbit\nfrom S?Rian”. This meticulous attention to nautical detail and the features\nof the ship continues in the second story, flowing from the engineer's love\nof detail and process.\n\nThere are a few seemingly throwaway lines such as “It was beyond belief.\nToo good to be true. For a dizzy moment [Noen] wondered if it were his\nbirthday — could he have forgotten” No. Dinnile's perhaps. No. Or — of —\ncourse — one of the nomads'. What better luck could the poor devil have\nthan seeing himself and all his friends fed and safe aboard the *Windsong*?\nOr what worse? The rules of Liavek’s magic system are based on birthing\nhours and labor — on the anniversary of a mother’s labor, the individual\nborn has a significant portion of unusual luck. Magicians in Liavek can\nharness this luck on their birthdays into an artifact or phylactery, which\nthen serves as the focus of their magical powers. The risk is death. The\nGreen Rabbit is one such artifact, designed to grant prosperity when it is\nthrown down. It falls into the sea and brings to life the dreams of Syb and\nSu, so that their fishing families can be prosperous.\n\nThe other salient feature of the *Liavek* shared world is that it is based\non gender equality. Wolfe almost plays fair here, especially since the\nfirst mate, Oeuni, is seen to have eyes that never cry even when she loses\na hand and ultimately makes a choice which saves everyone. However, the\nsubtext of both stories actually manages to create some further thematic\nconfusion between the sexes which probably shouldn’t be ignored in an\nanalysis. It is almost as if the dissolving gender roles creates a kind of\nuncertainty in identification, almost farcical by the end of the second\nstory.\n\nTev Noen, while effective and hands on as a captain, is plagued with almost\nself-deprecating doubts and catches himself easily influenced and swayed by\nfemale attention, even recognizing and agonizing over the fact that he\ncertainly gives his first mate Oeuni preferential consideration. This only\nseems a slight, perhaps subliminal commentary on a setting which places\nfemales on the front lines of battle, whether in a commissioned naval\nvessel or on the field — constant consideration for Oeuni monopolizes his\nthoughts: “Noen found that he was thinking of Oeuni drowned, helmetless,\nthe green sealight shining on her shaven head, arms and long legs tossed in\ndeath’s parody of swimming. Oeuni whom he would never possess, drawn down\nto the dark by her cuirass. Ler Oeuni lost.” Her final choice, to sacrifice\nher other hand so that her crew and the thespians may live, grants\ncredibility to her presence in battle and as first mate — she is the hero\nof the second story and is rewarded with a new hand.\n\nNoen's inadequacies before women occurs throughout both stories, especially\nas he loads his gun in front of a female crew member who is more\nexperienced with incendiary weaponry in the second story as his small\nlanding party approaches the island of the marooned thespians: “Eitha, the\ncockswain of the jolly, had her gun loaded and ready long before Noen (only\ntoo conscious of the eyes of the four men at the oars) had rammed a handful\nof musket balls down the barrel of his own and fixed the match in the\nserpentine.” Even at the conclusion of the first story, when the\nduplicitous elderly male magician masquerading as a female casts her\nattention on the nomad Myllikesh, Noen “was surprised at the pain that gave\nhim.”\n\nNoen is definitely susceptible to the charms of women, but there is some\nlatent sexism inherent in some of his thoughts, as he says of the actually\nmale Marin Monns, “I don’t know why, but I like her.”\n\nThe first story quotes Shakespeare’s Henry VII in its presentation of\ngunpowder as “villainous saltpeter” — Shakespearean plays were famous for\nthis kind of cross dressing, and the thespian troupe in the second story is\nno different.\n\nWhen Noen first arrives at the shore and comes upon the group of actors, he\nis shocked when “the white plumed disputant” in “a very masculine coat”\nkicks aside her sword to curtsy and proclaim herself the leading woman.\nNoen even mentally challenges Marin's gender: “The ?leading woman” sighed.\n(Noen decided the second disputant was a woman, though a woman as tall as\nhe). Later Marin disguises himself as a sailor as well, and even his\nblushes are contrived. Yet beneath that — Marin is a man pretending to be a\nwoman playing a man, while Nordread, the other disputant, is actually a\nwoman who deceives him completely in her masculine disguise, and Noen never\nthinks twice about her. This gender confusion is disconcerting and\nubiquitous, and one cannot help but wonder how much of this is simply\nthespian and nautical tradition and how much an authorial commentary on a\nsetting established with more or less absolute equality between genders. If\nMarin were not a man pretending to be a woman pretending to be a man, I\nmight say that the commentary was perhaps subconscious, but that level of\nimitation speaks of something a bit more intentional.\n\nThere is little other ambiguity in the tales save for the apparent murder\nbut subsequent duplicate (or triplicate) presence of Xobbas the troupe\nwizard, famous for disguising himself, and the identity of the third wizard\nto appear in the game of Shah. Fortunately, there are really only two\noptions for his identity — he is either the spirit of Xobbas or the goddess\nherself in disguise, and the text of course hints that the goddess is\nprobably responsible for bringing Xobbas back for one scene. The fate of\nthe original crew of the *Lady of Liavek* is fairly straightforward —\nsacrificed to the demon Kakos by the Pardoner who killed and tried to\nreplace Xobbas.\n\nWhen Noen is heading to the island, he spies a bird “as black as any crow,\nyet lovely with its long wings and tail and its elaborately ruffled head:\nnot a carrion bird, Noen though, nor even a predatory one, though he was no\nstudent of such things.” It settles on his ship, and he remarks, “Smaller\nwith its wings folded.” Later, the depiction of the goddess shows her helm\nwith the wings of a bird, and this feather is left behind in the place of\nthe third wizard to appear on the Shah board. For this reason, we know that\nshe has been acting throughout the story and has perhaps even aided Noen\nand the troupe by returning Xobbas to the board for one final move.\n\nNAMES AND SETTING DETAILS\n\nWhile most of the names seem to be standard fantasy world inventions, some\nof them have real world meaning — Marin Monns, for example, could mean sea\nmountain or even a mount of Mars, of which the most prominent is Mount\nOlympus, named after the home of the Greek Gods.\n\nThe demon of the pardoner, Kakos, has a Greek name which means “inner\nmalice” or “rotten”, “poisoned”, and this is certainly an intentional\nnaming.\n\nBelow are some background details from the appendix in the first *Liavek*\nanthology.\n\nThe Kil which are mentioned briefly in both stories are another part of the\nLiavek setting as a vague threat on the sea, possibly climbing up the side\nof ships, and at one point Noen asks if they are responsible for the\nmissing crew members in “Choice of the Black Goddess” — they are mammalian\nsea folk who can breed with humans.\n\nThe Pardoner who serves as the villain in the second story is a member of\n“a sect of mendicant priests who will intercede with any god on anyone's\nbehalf — most people like them but consider them a little crazy — they are\nthe jacks of all-trades of the preisthoods, and often come from those who\nleft or were cast out of other faiths.”\n\nThe Black Faith, also called the Kin of One Path, believe in absolute\ngoodness and is primarily monastic in nature. Whether the Black Goddess is\nrelated to the Black Faith or not is ambiguous.\n\nS'Rian was an older town on the hills overlooking Liavek, conquered and\nmostly destroyed long ago.\n\nKa Zhir is the large trading city across the Sea of Luck from Liavek, and\nLiavek won a recent war against them.\n\nTichen is a large expansive nation with a strong army and weak Navy.\n\nUNANSWERED QUESTIONS:\n\nDoes the bird which lands on the Windsong represent the Black Goddess\ntaking an interest in Noen and his crew, specifically Oeuni? The feather\nthat is left behind after the shah game definitely seems to be the symbol\nof the Goddess, but the quote about cylindrical shah seems to invoke the\nidea of a cyclical existence outside the standard board (ie — the return of\na piece after death) - “you pretend the board's a cylinder, that it wraps\naround the whole world, so to speak. Then a piece that goes off one side\ndiagonally appears in the net row on the other — You see, while we thought\nwe were playing conventional shah, the gods were playing cylindrical shah.\nI think there's a message there, though I'm not sure I know what it means.”\n\nWith all the cross dressing going on, can we expect to see the Black\nGoddess manifest as a man? This and the feather point towards her as the\nthird wizard on the shah board ( her crest is “a bird with outspread\nwings”), but the talk of cylindrical shah and its message probably\ncontributes to a reading in which Xobbas has been returned to the board for\na brief time by the Black Goddess.\n\nCONNECTION TO OTHER WORKS:\n\nI feel that these stories are distinct from just about everything Wolfe has\nwritten in that they are classifiable as standard commercial fantasy, and,\ninsofar as there is a subtext, it seems to be one on gender and leadership\nrather than on plot elements. *Pirate Freedom* shares the nautical setting\nand perhaps *Wizard Knight* is Wolfe's closest return to the fantasy\nsetting, though his inclusion in the* Liavek* project, according to the\ncreators of the setting, was based on *Book of the New Sun* and its fantasy\nfeel." } ] } ] }