Angel with The Sword

APPENDIX

THE history of Merovin is a history of mistake. There was from early in Alliance and Union history (2530 AD) a proclamation colloquially known as the Gehenna Doctrine: it declared as a matter of policy that no Terran genetic material should be introduced into any compatible alien ecology; and that humanity should not contact any alien species onworld, and should not land on any planet unless invited by a dominant sapient species. The practical sense of it was this: that humanity would keep to space and leave developing worlds free to develop without contamination traveling in either direction; and that humanity would contact no species that had not advanced into spaceflight. The theory behind this was that such a species had (1) avoided blowing itself up with advanced power systems and (2) learned enough about its own planetary ecology to devise protections against contamination at critical levels. The Gehenna Doctrine guided humanity in the twenty sixth century; by the twenty seventh, it was suffering some erosion. Humanity spread out not in a coherent sphere from Earth, but outward from Tau Ceti and in the general direction of Vega and Sinus in thin threads of lanes along routes ships could use, to stars humankind could use; and the lack of centralization spelled lack of central control.

Of the two human superpowers, Alliance (near the center of human space) was more nearly a coherent territory and actually had a coherent government. Union spread outward in a series of threads that more resembled a network of corridors of diminishing cohesiveness; Union realized early on that it was never going to be a coherent, compact government, that it was doomed to sprawl. It had taken certain educational measures with its citizens to assure an underlying conformity (Alliance called it mind-washing) and simply shrugged as the lines of colonization extended outward beyond its reach or understanding. Union asked peace of its component parts; and violated the Gehenna Doctrine not as collective policy (it had none) but locally. In effect Union applied the Gehenna Doctrine to humanity more than to alien contacts: it cared very little what went on within a local unit, down an isolate star lane, or on a particular world—as long as what exited that unit and came into another unit's space left its neighbors alone and generally obeyed Union law.

Merovingen was an example of the kind of accident Union was prone to: a wildcat colony launched in 2608 by someone far from Union's capital at Cyteen, at a little G-class star with an earthlike planet—just too attractive for certain economic interests to resist. It was a general period of expansion, and in the confidence of new science, worlds were no longer exempt.

The expedition moved in haste at all levels, worried about attracting attention from upper levels of the Union super-government (under the general apprehension that the Government tended to take interest in anything that went on too long and with too much local disruption). This haste had a foreseeable consequence: hasty geologic reports, hasty climatological studies, objections from field officers stifled by superiors whose superiors might be distressed if schedules were not met. Hasty zonal survey.

And a very illegal coverup of what the colonial officials tried to call a natural formation; fracture patterns. A geologist objected and found himself grounded. No archaeologist was consulted at all; it was quite evident that whatever it was, was deeply buried, thoroughly abandoned, and of no consequence to the colony. Someone a long time ago had colonized the world and abandoned it. That was the opinion behind the most securitied doors in the survey mission. And basaltic formation was the word that got beyond those doors. Listening scan of nearby stars picked up no aliens and no activity. The world had none. It was all very safe. The people and the higher echelons did not have to know, until, well—later. After the colony was in place.

Things went quite smoothly—like a fall over a cliff. The colonists debarked, built and built, the crops thrived, the colony achieved level II industry, the space station added new sections, the shuttle port enlarged its perimeters, the promoters became rich, and the companies back at the parent star were all smiles and complacency.

Then the former landlords showed up.

Sharrh was the name they called themselves. They communicated with humans in 2652: they permitted no contact from the other direction, and used their (quite excellent) command of human language to deliver an ultimatum. The colony at Merovin was to be removed. Or they would remove it.

This was a disturbance that promised real trouble. The central government might be involved. The companies scrambled to disentangle themselves, which compromised any defense that might have been made; and in the scramble, all in the hasty tumble of events that brought Cyteen kiting in with warships—some minor functionary whose head was on the block had stolen some microfiches and spilled the whole business to interested Cyteen officials. Other heads rolled—figuratively. And me government at Cyteen realized that the whole colonization effort was a monumental series of coverups that meant no records could be trusted.

Now the colossus that was Union central government could move with amazing dispatch in crisis. Around this time Union's attention was on another discovery, in that period of prosperity just preceding the Mri/regul Wars. It wished to be rid of an embarrassment to prevent a souring of its relations with the Alliance. So it simply advised the sharrh that the colony was not authorized and resurrected the Gehenna Doctrine to assure the sharrh that if the sharrh wanted no contact, no contact would occur. End of statement. No sharrh to enter human space. No humans to enter sharrh space. They were dealing with xenophobes and an alien government with unknown parameters and exigen ties; and dis-contact was the operative word. Discontact; disengagement; dismantlement.

Human warships arrived with transports, stripped the space station, stripped the cities on world of all documents that might benefit the sharrh; and ordered the colonists to board shuttles for transport to human space.

Colonists rushed the spaceport, and with the first few loads, there was more difficulty restraining the boarders than coaxing them.

Then it came down to the colonists who had other ideas. Troops landed to scour them out. Cities were torched. Independent-minded colonists took to the hills and fired back.

That was the end of it. Union had another policy: not to spend the lives of its troops protecting people who shot at them. Union ordered its forces off world in 2655, pulled its ships out of that region, packed up and left, with a final word to the sharrh that humanity would accept a peaceful contact but would regard that contact henceforth as the sharrh's business—if the sharrh cared to make it.

Union effectively slammed the door on that corridor and went on about its affairs, carefully skirting the whole region thereafter, but not without listening in that direction. The sharrh were territorially smaller than Union. Union might win a war. But there was no percentage in fighting it. If there was one lesson Union had learned, it was that its component parts tended to erupt in internal disturbance whenever the central government was tied down to a prolonged problem in some other area; and Union simply avoided conflicts unless it was cornered or its authority was questioned. It chose to regard this incident not as a questioning of its authority but as a chance to chastise a few companies which had gotten beyond themselves. The blame went to them. And Union, the central body of the octopus that was Union, simply grew a little and controlled that corridor of access a bit more tightly.

Merovin's problems, alas, were only beginning.

Note: Some dates are given for general reference and time frame; Merovin-pertinent dates are asterisked.

AD LOCAL EVENT

2600* Erosion of Gehenna Doctrine.

2608* Merovin colony lands.

2623 First Alliance/Union contact with majat of A Hyi II (Cerdin). Crew eaten.

2652* Sharrh demand removal of colony from Merovin.

2653* Union/sharrh treaty cedes Merovin.

2654* Union troops remove colonists.

2655* Merovin exodus complete.

2657* The Scouring of Merovin.

2658* 1 AS Sharrh withdraw; elsewhere the first Gehennan to leave his world reaches Fargone.

2659* 2 AS Minor quake in Det Valley, Merovingen. 2672* 14 Calendree of Nev Hettek organizes Det Valley militias: beginning of Re-Establishment.

2679* 21 Merovingen defies Nev Hettek.

2680* 22 Merovingen joined by other militias rejecting Nev Hettek rule.

2690* 32 Great Quake in Det Valley.

2691* 33 Flood in Merovingen.

2695* 37 Flood in Merovingen.

2698* 40 Flood in Merovingen.

2699* 41 Flood in Merovingen.

2700* 42 Flood in Merovingen; Angel of Merovingen found.

2701* 43 First contact of Alliance with the regul and the mri; dike breaks in Merovingen.

2702* 44 Flood in Merovingen.

2703 45 The Mri Wars begin: generally throughout this period, since the regul/mri assault came from a side of Alliance not involving Union, the Alliance fought alone. The Alliance, moreover, in its long distrust of Union, feared an attack on its flank from Union, The Alliance security organization (AlSec) founded 300 years previously by Signy Mallory proved all too powerful against the constitution framed by Damon Konstantin. Alliance became a police state on the home front, repressive and suspicious. Union, while worried, was not able to intervene across Alliance space until the war worsened.

2710* 52 Adventist riots on Merovin; Nev Hettek intervenes in Merovingen and the original Angel is lost.

2712* 54 The Angel of Merovingen is set on the bridge. Nev Hettek is expelled from Merovingen.

2720* 62 Merovingen's harbor destroyed in major quake; sea gates jam open; boats are sunk. Miraculously the Angel continues to stand. A sandbar forms above the wrecked boats, completing the devastation.

2721 * 63 The New Harbor is begun in Merovingen.

2722 64 Alliance government center removed to Haven from Pell, to bring the government center closer to the war zone and improve reaction time. Pell is reduced to a regional capital, but remains the cultural, if not the administrative, center of the Alliance.

2724* 66 The Faisal Rebellion; ends Re-Establishment.

2730 72 Fall of Haven to the mri: Alliance finally appeals for Union help. The help is debated in the Union Council while Haven falls, and Union forces when they do arrive are met with distrust and anger by Alliance forces who do not understand what restraints have operated on the home front. It has been AlSec policy to keep the war out of the home territory at Pell; but there is now intense economic suffering and the loss of life can no longer be concealed.

2743 85 End of the Mri Wars: Haven retaken.

2748 90 Regul reach internal crisis because of hu man contact and go totally xenophobic.

2749 91 The Alliance suffers revolution as AlSec is curtailed and the Konstantin constitution is restored. Union observes prudent silence during this period.

2779* 121 Earthquake in the Chattalen. 2805* 147 Minor Det Valley quake. 2907* 249 Major flood in Merovingen.

3141 483 Massacre of the Meth-marens of the Hydri Stars.

3187 529 The Hanan break from the Alliance in a minor fracas limited to a narrow string of stars, but the struggle will last a thousand years. Union is not involved.

3241* 583 Altair Jones born on Merovin. 3243* 585 Minor quake in Merovingen. 3253* 595 Retribution Jones dies in flood.

Sharrists

Sharrists believe that if humans can become more like the sharrh the sharrh will relent and let Merovin back into space. The sharrh, of course, are not supposed to be bothering the humans of this world at all, except that there are some of their number with piratical inclinations and no scruples whatsoever about using their worshipers.

It should be noted that the humans involved with the Sharrist cult range from denominations which have no religious aspects, to those which have very metaphysical beliefs that they can become sharrh physically, or be reborn as sharrh, by becoming more and more like the sharrh.

Adventists

Adventists expect humanity to return with superior weapons and defeat the sharrh and take Merovin into the human community by force. Adventists have an aggressive outlook and are often involved in forbidden technology and plots. They give their children tech-names or star names; or names like Hope or Retribution. By this can be seen their philosophy. Those of mystical inclination hope to hasten the day of Advent by prayers and believe in a God of retribution. They do in general believe in karma, but view karma as a collective karma of all Merovans, which must be purified to enable the Retribution. A subcult, the Immaterial Adventists, often known as the Preachers, believe that the Retribution will be more metaphysical and look for human life to improve only after humans have acquired virtue enough to atone for their past sins of greed and corruption. Another subcult, the Sword of God, trains its members in martial arts and devotes its energies to gaining temporal power, obliterating sharrist influence, and preparing for war, and in the belief that God will subject the world to a second Scouring before the Retribution, and will reward only those humans who join in obliterating the sharrh all the way back to their world of origin. From these two subcults various other cults depend, each differing in some point of dogma; but these are the two extremes of Adventist thought.

Many governments have laws restricting Adventists, but they are officially recognized in Soghon and Nev Hettek.

Revenantists

This religion believes in reincarnation, that Merovin is a testing-place for souls or a place of punishment (denominations differ on this point) and that by virtue it is possible to win rebirth higher up the scale of society on Merovin and ultimately to another human world, in a long progress of karma acquired and ties to Merovin diminished.

Revenantism is the most formal of Merovan religions, and the most widespread. It is the majority religion of Merovingen and Canbera.

It has elaborate rituals and ceremonies, particularly revolving around birth, death, and majority.

Church of God

This cult claims to follow the old human ways of worship based on revelation and documents rescued from the Scouring. They are mostly a Wold entity, but maintain a religious seat at Gothhead and are strong among the Falkenaers. They are divided into numerous denominations. Most believe in an afterlife of all species, sharrh as well as humans.

New Worlders

This cult is an offshoot of the Church of God, which maintains that true belief has been lost and that God must be reapproached and rediscovered without reference to documents or cult objects. The New Worlders have three denominations: the Scholiasts, who believe this approach should be intellectual; the Ecstatics, who seek revelation; and the Revisionists, who try to apply both theories. They are predominant in Megar.

Janes

Followers of Althea Jane Morgoth, generally polytheists who practice magic and healing rituals. Jane Morgoth was a farmer from the Upper Ligur who convinced a large following of her powers and led the Ligurian Riots until she was arrested and executed in 432. Her followers be lieve she became a spirit of two sorts: healing for believers and retribution for nonbelievers. This belief was encouraged by the deaths of three of her judges in the same year; and it is said that no member of the jury lived beyond the decade. Detractors claimed that this was due to assassination by members of the cult, and in three cases by heart failure which may have been attributable to harassment.

Janes are predominant in the rural Liger but not unknown in Suttani and the Isles of Fire.

The concept of time on Merovin is based on twenty-seventh-century practice, which looks back to military timekeeping of old Earth, all of which was modified by the exigencies of the Scouring.

The result is a twenty-four-hour clock and a twelvemonth year.

The months are (from a numerical origin modified by history and agricultural practice): Prime; Deuce; Planting; Greening; Quartin; Qinnte; Sexte; Septe; Harvest; Falling; Turning; Fallow.

The months have twenty eight days, excepting Fallow, which has twenty nine, There is also the Day of the Turn, which serves as an intercalary unit to trim up the irregularity of the year. This day may actually be more than one day in length; and is set by the Astronomer of Merovingen, decreed by the governor, and by all other governors. In practice however, it is well known in advance that such a decree will be made, so the event is virtually simultaneous despite the slow speed of communications, there being more than one Astronomer in the world. This Day is celebrated variously: Revenantists consider it a time of meditation; Adventists consider it a day without record, and no act without permanent consequence is forbidden: it is a carnival in Adventist cities. In Merovingen it is said among Adventists that the Angel sleeps on that one day; Revenantists call this heresy.

The weeks are a uniform seven days excepting the last week of Fallow, which has eight. The days of the week are Sunday; Monday; Tuesday; Wensday; Thursday; Friday; Satterday. The origins of the names are forgotten.

The days have twenty-four hours on the civic clock; but popularly (going back to the Scouring and the Restoration when time was reckoned without the benefit of precise clocks) the day consists approximately of hours between six or so in the morning and runs down to the eighteenth hour or so, until dark, after which a variety of regional time descriptions take over. A Merovingian speaking other than officially will describe the dark hours as Watches, of which there are six before the dawn—as, for instance, the top of the first watch is the beginning of full dark; the bottom of the fifth is a couple of hours before dawn; the bottom of the sixth is the first perception of sunrise.

The most universal holidays are 24 Harvest, which is the date on which the Scouring began, and 10 Prime, which is the generally accepted date of its ending. The 24th of Harvest is a day of mourning and sober reflection for all religions. The 10th of Prime is a day of celebration, sometimes of licentiousness. The 24th of Harvest is a particularly tense time for police in cities where there is a strong Adventist presence, as the melancholy as Merovans refer to it, may result in overindulgence, which in turn leads to hallucinations or to religiously-inspired and quite cold-blooded decisions on the part of groups or individuals to take direct action against real or imagined enemies. On one famous occasion a band of twenty Adventists from Soghon set out to destroy the sharrh ruins at Kevogi and fought their way through three companies of militia from Soghon and Merovingen who set out to stop them. They cost a hundred and fifty-two lives before the last of them was subdued. The sole survivor of the action was a twenty-two year old man named Tom Caney, wounded in the final assault and later hanged at Merovingen. The incident is generally referred to as the Faisal Rebellion, after its chief instigator.

Other holidays are pertinent to certain religious groups and are celebrated in certain locales but not in others; still others commemorate local events, such as the Festival of the Angel on 20th to 25th Fallow, in Merovingen, which unites a number of religious observances in a mutually agreed date. The general tenor of the festival is a purification and absolution in memory of divine intervention; but sects differ considerably in interpretation. The practice among almost all sects involves the giving of gifts and the mending of broken friendships and lapsed vows before the year's end: there is a belief in Merovingen that this festival is pre-Scouring; and that therefore it is the one festival which intervenes in the period between 24th Harvest and 10th Prime. There is even a legend that in the Det Valley, during the darkest day of the Winter, when sharrh were hunting humans up and down the valley, a band of starving humans decided to celebrate this ancient festival, and in a cave deep in the hills, with the attack going on in the valley, they gave each other gifts that became a miracle— since each of them had secreted things that, brought into the open, helped the whole company survive. The story is perhaps apocryphal; but the festival is observed by all sects and across sect lines throughout the Det Valley in some form; and the practice and the legend have been picked up by the Falkenaer, who devoutly insist that the site of the miracle was the Falkenaer Isles.

The Angel, which is a copy of one which did predate the Scouring, was set in its present position in the year 55 After the Scouring, precisely on the 25th Fallow, in a civic ceremony. The original, discovered in about 22 AS in the ruins of Merovingen, disappeared when it was stolen by the governor of Nev Hettek in the intervention during the Adventist riots of 53 AS; the barge transporting it sank in the Det, some believe as a result of Adventist sabotage; some say that the barge was struck by lightning during a storm; and the implication is that the lightning was divinely directed.

Legend states various things about the Angel, which is a gilt figure twice lifesize, of a winged figure in flowing robes either drawing or sheathing a sword. Adventists say that the Angel's name is Retribution, and that he is in the act of drawing. Some say that the sword advances and retreats into the sheath by tiny degrees at each act of humankind that either advances or retards the day of Retribution. Of course this is immeasurable because of the number of people in the world, but some Adventists insist there has been measurable movement.

Revenantists state that the Angel's name is Michael and that he is sheathing the sword which caused the earthquake.

The Church of God agrees in the name and says that he is a divine witness to human affairs, and will remain to guard the world from the sharrh until the Church is restored to its former purity.

The Janes and the New Worlders incorporate him into their own beliefs as an entity of divine wrath which defends humanity from the sharrh: Janes call him the Watcher and New Worlders call him simply the Angel. Replicas of the Angel are venerated in Suttani, the Falken Isles, the Goth, and Kasparl.

There is an event referred to as the Little Scouring, which was the purposeful demolition of structures and removal of dangerous information offworld by human forces in the face of the sharrh advance and in compliance with the sharrh-human treaty. This demolition was also designed to compel surrender of the holdouts.

It did secure some further compliance. It further and accidentally ensured human survival by driving the colonists into the hills to escape arrest; it also hardened the attitudes of the most determined resistance, the hard core of which was convinced (after repeated betrayal by authorities) that the whole alien threat was concocted by either the companies or the government to take their land.

But on 24th Harvest in the year 2657 of the old reckoning (still used for religious purposes and in official documents) the sharrh came down to eradicate the last remnant of human settlement on Merovin.

The first strike took out the space station, which by then was only a ransacked and stripped hulk. It also hit the major cities with C-fractional strikes, not, fortunately for the ecology and the remaining survivors, with atomics. Subsequent attacks were at close range with beamfire and finally with demolitions and air-to-ground missiles or with rifles as sharrh hunters carried out a site by site search for survivors, and perhaps, though sharrh motives remain obscure, a search for records.

Humans lost ground steadily, and finally devoted most of their energies not to attack but to evasion. This continued through the Long Winter of 2657-58, during which humans suffered from exposure and starvation.

By a time generally accepted as 10th Prime, the sharrh stopped shelling the hills and withdrew their patrols. After that, the sharrh left the world.

It was not until full spring that the first humans ventured out into their former lands. Some of these were true insistence fighters; others were human predators who were as apt to turn on other humans as on the sharrh. And for the next several years, that was the condition of the Det Valley and Megar and Kaspar River.

Eventually places like Kasparl sprang up, freewheeling trading posts founded on ruin; and places like Merovingen, Soghon and Nev Hettek, where farmers and traders reestablished themselves; and the hardy Falkenaer, who stripped their isles of trees in the making of boats of quite different sort than they had used in colonial days; but they had been fisherfolk from the founding of the colony.

This period of rebuilding is called the Re-establishment. It stretched on over fifty years before human life on Merovin achieved any feeling of permanence. These were rough years in which there were numbers of locally notorious bandits and leaders and would-be leaders who rose and fell and left little legacy. Noted in the area around Susain was the bandit Sager, whose band faded away into the elusive desert-dwelling folk who live mostly by trading and by petty theft in the outback around Susain; while in the Det Valley, Nev Hettek took its militia and marched south in 2672, sweeping up local militias by persuasion and threat until they reached the sea and Merovingen, using the Det as a highway for supply and communication which the bandits could not prevent. Generally this military action was hailed with relief, and it gave the Det Valley settlements the earliest start of any in the world in the Re-establishment of human trade and culture. Nev Hettek thereafter made a bid to be capital of the whole valley, but Merovingen refused to bow to its authority, and Merovingian resistance encouraged the militias to remember their regional loyalties, which more than any other factor served to put term to Nev Hettek's dream of being the world capital.

Among disasters associated with the Scouring was the Great Earthquake. Merovan opinions differ as to whether the sharrh activated the Det Valley fault, or whether the calamity was merely a spectacularly unlucky natural disaster. In any case, quakes were known from the year after the Scouring, but subsided by 2662.

Then in 2690, an earthquake of great magnitude caused severe damage the length of the Det from Nev Hettek to Merovingen, with less disastrous effect for Merovingen, which had been among the most prosperous post-Scouring cities, building on the ruins of the Ancestors. There was a tidal disturbance and flooding in Merovingen, while Nev Hettek suffered extensive damage, but Rogon was completely leveled and abandoned.

The stubborn survivors rebuilt; but nature reserved a particularly cruel turn for the inhabitants of Merovingen. Less troubled by the aftershocks than Nev Hettek and certainly than miserable Soghon, they sent aid north to the relief of Soghon and the survivors of Rogon even in the midst of their own flooding.

But the area remained prey to seismic upheaval for years afterward; and there were floods in Merovingen in the summer of 2691, in 2695, in 2696, in 2698, 2699, and 2700, generally just a flooding of the streets, but in 2696 and 2700 the floods came high enough to cause extensive damage. The early floods were attributed to slight subsidence and unseasonal rams, which had indeed been known during and after the sharrh attacks. It was theorized the fires which attended the quake denuded the land and prevented the retention of water upland. Minor diking and sandbagging took care of the problem in most years.

And there was one curious incident, when floodwaters revealed the Angel of Merovingen, which appeared from forgotten (some said miraculous) provenance, washed to light in the clearing of rubble from the original governor's residence. It was seized upon as a sign of hope by the desperate citizens and contributed to the resolve of Merovingians to stay on the site of their city.

But in 2701 the dikes broke and the floodwaters stayed into winter, shallow enough to wade in most districts, Desperate Merovingians filled basements with nibble, built bridges, and in general survived as best they could.

So Merovingen began to be a city of bridges, but the full extent of the calamity was not evident until 2702, when flooding became worse. Merovingians, prevented by fear of Nev Hettek and by inhospitable conditions to either side of their harbor, stayed put.

Conditions grew worse gradually, men seemed to stabilize by 2710, when Nev Hettek intervened in a flooded Merovingen and proved unable to hold it.

Nature, however, was not through with Merovingen, for in 2720, a quake and a subsequent storm combined to alter the contours of the harbor, which had been undergoing silting and which already had numerous difficulties. Many ships in the harbor were swept from moorings and ground together to their destruction, forming a sandbar that finished the harbor in the years that followed. A new, deeper anchorage was established on the other side of Rimmon Isle. The construction of massive dikes and the eventual lessening of the rate of subsidence helped stabilize both city and harbor.

Legends persist that drowned dead rise from the harbor in the worst storms and crew the ships buried in the shallows of the Dead Harbor, which are occasionally said to rise and sail in particularly bad storms. Further superstitions say that the dead recruit sailors to their midst; that all who die at sea are bound to sunken ships, and that at the final departure of the last human from Merovin, the Ghost Fleet will follow.

The Dead Harbor remains the refuge of the lost and the desperate, the outcasts of every city up and down the Det.

Generally Merovan names reflect the frequency of names in the area of space from which colonists came: that area itself was a frontier and had, like most frontiers, a fairly polyglot and polyethnic population.

Many original place names honored a discoverer, for example the name Merovin itself: or were the whimsy of mapmakers or colonists; or were historical referents to geographical features of other worlds; and finally, some were sharrh names attached only after the initial terse communique identified certain sites in evidence of sharrh claims.

During the Re-establishment two forces operated within the language: first, a breakdown of formal education and the fact that a few groups were bilingual, using the ground-based equivalent of ship-speech: some small, remote areas were actually dominated by these family-languages, derived from Terran origins. Second, there was a realization in the latter part of the Re-establishment that a great deal had been lost, and there was a conscious attempt to restore original forms both in nomenclature and in speech and to adhere to them.

At the ordinary rate of linguistic change in a society without telecommunications, deepteach, or even minimal literacy in a great deal of the population, six hundred years of life on Merovin might have seen Merovin a patchwork of regional dialects so divergent that average citizens from widely separated regions could not understand each other. But to this tendency of language to change rapidly there was a counterbalance: the profound interest of Merovans in regaining contact with humankind, or in preserving their culture against these changes which Merovans of the Re-establishment saw accelerating in their own time.

The influence of religion on this preservation is extreme but varied: Adventists, believing that humankind will come to rescue them, believe that there is a very substantive reason to preserve the original language, so that they can comprehend instruction from their deliverers, who, they trust, will speak something unchanged: they preserve a recollection of deepteach. Revenantists on the other hand do not believe in an intervention, but believe that preserving the ways of the Ancestors gains merit and that a sort of collective karma or sympathy toward the rest of humanity increases the likelihood of rebirth on another world.

In practice, the priests and the wealthy religious speak an educated, conservative language of forms current six hundred years ago; while there exists even among the upper class educated a vernacular which changes much more rapidly, new words which pepper a more conservative speech and which generally disappear as out of vogue.. There is therefore change, but it is slow. The trades, on the other hand, have evolved a vernacular of their own to handle work and business with implements the Ancestors knew only in principle. And the illiterate (or the functionally illiterate, since some learn their letters for religious motives but cannot read with any skill) have a vernacular which is held to the conservative mainstream only by the necessity to communicate with the upper classes. As oper ative within the illiterate community is the tendency of alienated populations to develop jargon or cant specifically designed to shut out unwanted listeners. In some areas this has become impenetrable dialect; and in others, where Terran languages have compounded the problem, there might be said to exist new evolved languages. An example of this is the Falken Isles, where the original neo-Terran language and the creation of an entire new wooden-ship technology have created a language no outsider can understand.

Likewise a canaler from Merovingen or a fanner from the upper Det can lapse deliberately into an accent so extreme that an outsider might hear few intelligible words; and might misunderstand the contextual meanings of those.

Generally personal names and family names have withstood changes far better than place names. This link with persona] Ancestors is a tie which few Merovans will abandon, particularly in the surname. More flexibility appears in the personal name, which is religiously influenced; but even many sharrists are reluctant to abandon the advantages of an Ancestor-name: some names in particular have social or financial advantage, establishing ties to wealthy families or heroes of the Re-establishment, or establishing ties to privileges which have attached to certain names. In Nev Hettek the Schuler name entails the right to the first booth in the main row of the autumn fair, and in Merovingen the Ebers have the right to direct petition of the governor without going through the Justiciary.

In general the world runs on the gold standard, each bank or city able to mint its own coin.

Merovingen and other cities of the Det have a basically standard monetary system, although the coinages differ in imprint.

Examples of such, their colloquial names, and their values in ounces arc as follows; and reckoning gold at $425 and silver at $8 an ounce, a comparison in late 20th century coinage is appended.

gold coinage sol(dek) 1.60 ounces $680

demi (dem) .70 ounce $297

dece (tenner) .35 ounce $148.75

gram (piece) .035 ounce $14.87

silver coinage lune (silver) 1.60 ounces $12.80

half (half) .70 ounce $ 5.60

dece silver (silverbit) .35 ounce $ 2.80.

gram silver (libby) ,035 ounce $ ,28

bronze coinage

(bronze and copper are reckoned as portions of a silver lune, and fluctuate with the value of the lune.)

penny 1/10 lune $1.28

halfpenny (pennybit) 1/20 lune $ .64

cent 1/100 lune $ .128

copper coinage copper (bit) 1/10 cent $ .0128

Chattalen Coinage

gold coinage credit (cred) 1.60 ounces $680

demis (derni) .80 ounces $340

dekas (dek) . 16 ounces $ 68

silver coinage standard (round) .35 ounces $2.80

silver penny (skimmer) .035 ounces $ .28

copper coinage penny (flor) 1/10 standard $ .28

halfpenny (half) 1/20 standard $ .14

cent 1/100 standards .03

Some idea of the true value of currencies may be gained by knowing the value per ounce of gold and silver on the current market; but where living standards vary widely or where there is a great difference in technological level or a wide gap between rich and poor, a good measure is the cost of a staple such as a day's supply of bread.

In Merovingen 2 cents will buy a loaf of bread or a decent fish; but you would pay 2 or 3 lunes for a pound of imported meat; and while a sweater on a canalside (a better measure than a pair of shoes, since shoes are a luxury there) might sell for a halftone, the very same sweater might go for 8 lunes in an uptown shop; and a silk scarf (imported fabric) could go for a gold dece or 4 lunes silver, There is a vast difference between luxury and necessity in Merovingen.

Each city stamps its own coinage, in gold, silver and base metal. There is also scrip, as traders and bankers exchange letters of credit which are very like banknotes—transferable with appropriate seals and signature—to avoid physical shipment of gold and other valuables from city to city with attendent risks of loss. But a clever thief with a good fence can manage to steal and negotiate letters of credit: corruption does go high up. The common thief, unless well-placed, does not receive near face value: this is the principle deterrent to thievery of such paper. It does not stop those high enough to wash it illegally through cooperative agencies.

There are some heavy manufacturing centers on Merovin, Most such industry is located well away from population centers. Some few industries such as the iron and steel mills, the few refineries and the small plastics industry are well organized with permanent employment of skilled staff, but it is considered a hazardous occupation and there are fewer people anxious for employment in what might become prime targets in another Scouring—than might be imagined. Cities generally will not tolerate such centers near them, so they are isolated, which further diminishes the number of job-seekers.

In Merovingen as an example, there are traders, there are cottage industries and small operations like goldsmithing; there are services like taverns; a small iron foundry; there are tiny breweries and distilleries and importers and exporters. There arc those who move freight on the canals. There are the bankers and rich landlords and there are the latecomers and the victims of disasters like flood or political upheaval. And in this economy many transient and many poor live from hand to mouth, in the tradition of their spacefaring ancestors who well understood the benefits of recycling. Anything thrown out is sorted and claimed down the line until very little is actually thrown away.

Merovingen exports fish, salt, and what comes in by sea; artworks, crafts, lace and leatherwork, some drugs and medicines, and many cottage industry items; some weapons; fine metalsmithing; fertilizer.

It imports: petroleum products, some drugs, textiles, grains, meats, leathers, raw metals.

In various adjustments for local abundance (Nev Hettek, for instance, is in the grain belt for the whole Det Valley and has grazing animals, but imports some fish and produces some little amount of petroleum) this is representative of Det Valley trade; and quite representative as a unit of other areas.

The tropics produce other items which arrive at Merovingen, among them raw materials and exotic luxuries and exchange is for the petroleum the Chattalen totally lacks.

Since the technology of Merovin was mid-27th century gone backward, Merovan technology is a hodgepodge of the modern and the makeshift. Merovin has forgotten a great deal that it once knew; certain areas of the globe remember things that other areas have forgotten due to the presence of a particular group of individuals who retained the knowledge, due to the preservation of records, or due to the prevalence of an industry elsewhere in disuse—an example of the latter being the petroleum industry in a few areas around the globe.

It is an advanced technology reduced to an earlier technology and hindered by an artificial cap, ie, that advanced technology is frowned upon.

The tendency in furnishings and dress and even in manufacture is toward the baroque: ornament for ornament's sake, but founded on a Classic age (the 27th century) which was austerely simple and high-tech. So in many respects this tendency to the baroque wars with the Classic ideal, and the result is a combination of 27th century pragmatic simplicity—for example the idea that clothes and furniture should be comfortable above all else; and the tendency of Merovan craftsfolk to embellish and complicate what they produce. Fashion exists in a few larger cities, and particularly in the Det River cities, where the river affords more than usual movement of ordinary citizens (as opposed to traders) from one city to the other, and where there exists considerable social division. In the Det Valley and also (but differently) in the tropic Chattalen, exists a concept of modishness, with all the attendant expenditure on changing fashion.

There is, underlying all of this concept, that persistent Classic ideal, which looks back to the sleek, simple comfort of 27th century dress which relied on advanced materials, and which had no particular gender-distinction. So whatever local dress has become, it is worldwide from the same origin. Since the prosperity of the Colonial period established itself in the popular mind as the epitome of human development, the tendency was to preserve the basic garments and to add accoutrements and ornament.

In Merovingen-below, certain economic factors bear on style of dress. There are terrestrial cattle on Merovin, imported along with humans, but the term also includes native animals down to some the size and habits (but not the taste) of swine. There is no refrigeration except such amenities as rootcellars and springhouses, ice in the southlands being a very rare commodity. Most meat is smoked, dried, or preserved in brine or by canning. A city like Merovingen, with abundant fish, imports little meat, except for the palates of the rich; a few small towns to the north supply Merovingen with the little amount of fresh meat it gets. The fact that both Nev Hettek and Soghon are cattle-raising areas which supply most of their own needs combined with the problems in refrigeration and Mero vingen's own reliance on local beef, tend paradoxically to discourage the development of any major cattle industry in the north of Megon. If refrigeration were common it would be a different matter. As it is, the only animal product which does come downriver from that industry in any great abundance is leather; but again, scarcity, relatively high price, and the very mundane realities of a city on canals dictate that the majority of Merovingians who live on the canalsides go in wooden clogs for work, even though they will keep a pair of leather shoes for going off the premises or otherwise go barefoot more acceptably than wearing clogs onto the noisy bridges and balconies of Merovingen-above. Canalers on the other hand go barefoot in all but the coldest weather, simply because footgear is more often soaked than not: the worst weather usually sees an amazing variety of footgear, which varies from leather boots to (more commonly) ropesoled canvas. The only leather item a canaler will generally possess is a belt. Middletowners wear practical, heavy leather articles which are expected to last for years; and only the very rich remain to keep the cobblers well-to-do. But the rich as a class are not enough against other difficulties, to encourage a vast meat and leather industry to the north—all of which serves as a very small example of the intricacies of economics, trade, and Merovingian style.

A great deal of knowledge of textiles survived the Scouring. There is no industry supporting synthetics and in the abundance of local natural fibers and materials, and the universal fear of technology, there is no driving impetus to create a large plastics industry. In the Det Valley, as an example, there is some wool industry, the majority of which is used in the colder north; there is abundant cultivation of a local flax-like plant which produces a very serviceable linen or cotton-like material; and on one occasion angry Revenantist farmers burned a barge of a Nev Hettek refinery which experimented with sheet plastics, which they saw as a threat to their livelihood and a Provocation against the sharrh.

Weaving is a very advanced art, using some power looms; jacquards and corduroys are not out of reach. There is a very tough sailcloth-derived weave called chambrys. Chambrys is dyed a variety of colors (mostly indigo and brown and black) and is universal among working classes: of a fiber tougher and more resilient than cotton, it resists abrasion and takes amazing abuse. The same linen fiber is also widely used, though differently prepared, for knitting. There is silk, imported from the Chattalen, of high quality. There is felt and fur; and there is (another import) an airy vegetable-derived fiber very like fine combed cotton which is rarely seen in the lands of the Sundance. Waterproofing is accomplished generally by oil and wax, though the Wold is beginning a rubber industry which has met several setbacks similar in nature to the incident of the Det Valley farmers.

The mode of dress almost universal in the Det Valley is a pair of durable trousers and a sweater, be it Merovingian canal-rat or hightowner from the uppermost ranks of society, or a citizen of industrial Nev Hettek. But while the northern lands favor knee-high boots in all seasons, the Merovingian poleboatman will go shod as a rule, and have his trousers no longer than mid-calf; and wear black or brown stockings which show no effects of an occasional wetting or of dirt. The skip-boatman will go barefoot; the canalsider will dress much the same except for stockings and clogs or occasionally leather shoes; while the uptown resident will maintain a certain flair of fashion, fine knee boots, a scarf, a sweater designed to expose an embroidered high collar, or one flared silk sleeve, always with a certain coordination of color, usually dark, which distinguishes one of the gentry going casual: and not uncommonly accompanied with a very utilitarian sword-belt or belt-knife. A scarf for the head, tied bandanna-fashion, is not improper in Merovingen, where seasonal fogs wreak havoc with careful coiffure; and not uncommonly this is crowned with a hat, usually of sweeping brim which serves a practical purpose in inclement weather. Hats are a practical development in which a great deal of local character manifests itself; a few are of traditional form, like the canaler's cap; but vanity runs rampant among the gentry.

There is one gender distinction which was present in the Classic period and which still remains, in the Det Valley and in most other places: women of the upper classes particularly, but generally of all classes, use cosmetics. There are communities particularly among those dominated by certain Revenantist sects, where this is not the case. Cosmetics among both men and women are common in the Chattalen. Jewelry ranges from elaborate (the Chattalen and the Suttani region) to the stylishly restrained (Mero-vingen). In Merovingen, ringer rings are virtually universal, a solitary earring is not uncommon in either gender, and necklaces for formal occasions are a throat-encircling collar sometimes worn over a shirt's self-collar (either gender) but among the truly elite the jewelry is actually stitched to the collar—so that one is obliged to have quite a lot of jewelry to maintain a wardrobe. Many an aspirant to the upper society may tax his or her servant in the constant transfer and re-arrangement of jewelry to a variety of shirts.

The ordinary dress of the Merovingian hightowner is boots and close-fitting trousers, usually dark but not always; and a shirt of white (or in some years, almost any color) linen or silk usually hiplength and belted, having flaring sleeves embroidered about the cuffs and about the high, throat-circling collar with floral patterns; in modification this is also the pattern of the workman's shirt, which is of more durable fabric.

There are, more formally, two other styles of shirt, both designed to be tucked in, one wide-sleeved, by convention, with the collar open to the third button—often worn with a bright scarf somewhere about the person; such shirts are frequently of bright colors or of patterns; a second type with more conservative but still generous sleeves, serves as an undergarment for a sweater; or if made of silk, frequently has lace cuffs and lace up the front, concealing the buttons. (It is a peculiar circumstance that Merovingians wear very little of the lace for which their craftspeople are famous, though it is a staple of Nev Hettek fashion—in Merovingen it is mostly used in table linen and curtaining, except for a very few fine pieces.) This more tailored shirt is worn in society in those seasons where a coat is re quired; and that in Merovingen means a tailored waistlength coat with lightly padded shoulders; or more rarely, a kind of frock coat appropriate even for the most formal occasions. For daytime wear any fashionable footwear is acceptable; for evening wear the trousers must be long and the footwear light pumps which currently have a moderate heel.

All of this keeps the clothing industry in Merovingen quite busy: fashion can be set in an evening by the tiniest change by the governor's tailor, who naturally makes such changes minute but frequent, and who in the case of the current governor has an elegant but aging client whose figure needs increasing flattery: thus go the cycles of style in Merovingen, from the daring and experimental to the conservative and more concealing in periods dictated by the aging and eventual replacement of the chief trend-setter.

Additional garments are the poncho worn by the canalers and by the poorest of the poor, often manufactured out of a blanket or tarp which has had a number of years of service. Finer ones are made of oiled wool or canvas and have some water repellent qualities.

A variety of cloaks are common among the middle and upper classes, ranging from utilitarian oiled wool to very fine grades of wool which are light and flowing.

Clothing is a fairly accurate indication of social class and, among the working classes, often an indicator of occupation. There are few uniforms: the notable exception is the uniform of the local police or militia. (See: Uniforms and Blacklegs)

The uniform of the police or militia (in many cities the terms are interchangeable) in Merovingen, Nev Hettek, and traditionally throughout the Det Valley, is a brown waistlength coat over a black shirt, brown trousers down to the knee, and black stockings and black, lowcut shoes— hence the name blacklegs.

Originally this was the militia which during the Scouring saw to guerrilla operations and food procurement. The uniform (and the tradition and rules on which modern police departments are organized) arose during the Re-establishment when there was some inter-human conflict and a need to protect citizens against banditry. It was based on what was actually worn in the hills—knee length trousers were less readily soaked in dewy grass; and boots or even socks and shoes were a luxury in those hard days. The knee socks and the uniformity of color arrived when Calendree of Nev Hettek organized the first formal militia/ police force and swept down the Det clearing the region of bandits and establishing local defense regions.

The militia was not well-equipped: the black socks were cheaper than bootleather and the brown uniform in those days was of every shade and every fabric, the accompanying weaponry whatever the individual militia member could come up with on his or her own. Joining the militia in those days was a way to eat regularly. It remains such: the blacklegs enjoy a good salary, and still purchase their own uniforms and weapons, which are now dictated by statute, except in the small towns, where the militia may consist of a handful of individuals who are far less formal; or in villages, which may have a single officer who deals with the local characters more by force of personality than by force of arms, and whose uniform is a matter of his or her own discretion.

The equipment of the modern police is regulation: usual on the street is a rapier and a stick and a pair of handcuffs. Guns exist but are brought out only on certain occasions: public executions, state funerals, and in times of unrest. Guns have a certain ceremonial mystique, partly due to fear of the gun and partly due to fear of the sharrh; and even more attributable to the dread of cult violence. That police go armed is a public and solemn reminder of authority of last resort.

There are no restrictions on carrying weapons in Merovingen, and likewise in most settlements and cities throughout Merovin: it was an armed populace who formed the cities, a good portion of the Det Valley's citizens in particular arc Adventist and believe with religious passion mat they may have to take up weapons on the Day of Retribution (See: Religions), so they would resist disarmament with armed force. So might some Janes. In fact, there are not many citizens of Merovin who would agree to be disarmed, whatever their religion, since some are nervous about the sharrh, some are nervous about the thieves, some about the law, some about fanatics, and many others are just not willing to give up any advantage to their survival should there be a second Scouring.

There are: guns, mostly revolvers; some antique muzzle-loaders from the Scouring; some rifles; occasional explosives. Swords, mostly of the style of the terrestrial epee, rapier, or occasionally cutlass; and knives that range from the stiletto to the shortsword, depending on locale and opportunity. The art of fence is one-handed or two-handed (rapier and main-gauche in some cities, the devotees of which do travel). The reason for the reinvention of the sword as a weapon is the same reason as other low-tech options: ease of production, silence, and the general fear among the populace of all persuasions that the sharrh might intervene if the tech level should grow too ambitious. Swords and daggers have popular acceptance because they are "nonprovocative" weapons, with reference to the sharrh.

There are rumors of Old Weapons, but rumors of this kind have never proved valid.

There are also poisons, garrotes, and various martial arts, particularly among Adventists and Janes, and the Sword of God in particular.

The river and canal and sea-craft of Merovin have an array of tools and implements readily turned to mayhem: barrel- and boathooks are particularly deadly; there are also knives, martin spikes and belaying pins, cutlasses and occasional firearms, and now and again a springloading grenade launcher that substitutes for cannon. The "grenade" may be anything from a firebomb to real explosives on a variety of fuses.

The Governor lives in in the Signeury (original spelling: Signeurie), which is a large fortified isle on the Grand Canal. His position is sometimes hereditary, often usurped, often won by political connivance, assassination, coup or other upheaval, including the bribery of the keeper of the Seal, who once forged a will.

Sentences are carried out inside the Justiciary, and occasionally at the Hanging Bridge, which is not named for its architecture. The blacklegs are the officers of the Signeury and are its police: they carry guns. See: Weaponry. The court is in the Signeury, executions in the Justiciary, with rare exceptions.

Over all is the governor; and directly responsible to him are the Keeper of the Seal and the Astronomer.

Responsible primarily through the Keeper of the Seal to the governor are the heads of house and the Chief Justi-ciar, who heads the Justiciary. Likewise the heads of the trade associations are responsible through the Keeper of the Seal; but the harbormaster is independently responsible to the governor and to the Astronomer.

The Justiciar has under his or her authority the Executor, who runs the prison; the council justiciar, or parliamentarian and legal aide to the council; and the advocate justiciar, who is the attorney general; likewise the Justiciar is over the chief of records of the Council; and of course, all functions within the Justiciary.

The Priest of the Revenant College is a religious figure not responsible to any of the above but supporting them in their offices and through the services of the College, nota bly the keeping of relics and records, advising on cleric law, and investigating instances of Provocation. Directly under the Priest is the Advocate of the College, the legal arm; and the Librarian, who is the archivist. All operations within the College rest under Priestly authority.

The Chief Militiar (Mi-LI-ti-ahr) is responsible to governor and council, and governs the militia, commonly called the blacklegs. He or she is therefore both military and police chief; and has some independent functions in crisis. Beneath the Chief Militiar are the Chief Armorer, in charge of weapons and quartermastery; the chief of works, who is the chief civil and military engineer (the chief of works also reports to and from the harbormaster and the astronomer); and there is finally the legal arm, the Advocate Militiar, who handles military justice.

The legislative branch is headed by the chief councillor, who is chosen from among the Council; which is in turn composed of the heads of houses and trades and whatever other interests have been voted a seat.

Either governor or council may invoke the Chief Militiar, whose responsibility is only to the Governor or the Council, but not to the Chief Councillor.

Heads of houses may appeal to the Governor and own position within the Council.

The Chief Councillor is elected biennially from and by the Council.

The Chief Militiar is appointed by the Council and approved each five years, though it is usually de facto appointment for life.

The Governor chooses his own successor but the succession must have the approval of the Council, the Chief Militiar, and the Astronomer. The Governor holds office for life or until resignation or impeachment, the latter of which must originate in Council and command an 80 percent majority vote of both Council and Militia rank and file.

No document of law is official without the Seal; the Keeper of the Seal is de facto vice-governor, and functions for the governor in many capacities.

Sea-going

The sea freighters are by and large sail-craft with diesel engines which they use sparingly. The most common routes are coastal, up and down the Chattalen or the settlements of Canbera and Savajen; a few cross the Cape of Storms to Wold; and a great variety of craft ply the the Inner Sea of Wold. The Falkenaers are the most daring seafarers of Merovingen and Falkenaer ships carry a great deal of freight and most of the passengers willing to commit themselves to sea travel. The rocky isles of the Falkenaers are only the port-of-convenience for these sailors, the focus of loyalty. Falkenaer crews are born to their ships and may live birth to death never having set eyes on the Falken Isles, to which, nevertheless the Falkenaers maintain a staunch devotion.

The Praesi of Wold South and the Jakkinin of Sirene are noted also among sea-farers: but the livelihood of the Praesi is fishing, and their months-long voyages return to their home ports.

Navigation on the Sundance south of the Chattalen is rare, except for coastal craft. The southern Sundance is given to contrary winds and typhoons.

Riverboats

The boats that ply the Det vary from small blunt-bowed barges about 25 feet in length, used by locals, to the big passenger packets, of which the most famous are the Obligation and the Sundancer; triple-decked, hollow-hulled, screw-driven, about 250 feet in length and 30 feet beam to beam, they offer cabin space and deck passage. The ill-fated Det Star was larger, at 300 feet and 35 feet beam; and relied on sail as well as engines.

The majority of Det freight moves on motor barges, many of which also accept passengers.

The felucs of the Goth River of Nevander are similar, but use a triangular sail.

The smaller waterways of Wold and Megon use craft of similar design but smaller size.

The Boats of Merovingen

Some Det-river craft can come beyond the Harbor, most freight, however is transferred to small canalboats, which are of design too eclectic to set forth here: but the notable types are:

1. THE SKIP: a flat-bottomed, blunt-bowed craft about 5 feet by 22 feet, with a very small inboard engine.

The living arrangement is often a tarp awning set with a couple of poles and guys, but it is not practical to have up while using the pole, which requires a lot of walking back and forth.

The bottom is slatted for water drainage; the rear has a cubbyhole forward of the engine mount under a sort of raised quarterdeck on which the poler can walk. It is common to shelter in this place, though it is tight quarters. The cubby (canalers call it the hidey) is about 5x5 with 1.2 feet of engine wall to the rear and about 1.5' overhead clearance. So there is about 16 feet of free cargo room on the slats to the front plus the deck surface, A good deal of gear is stowed to the sides of the cubby, which makes the centerspace quite tight.

The deck has a shallow rim that keeps things from going overboard and the pole, about 12' long, with the boathook, lies along the rim in a special rack. Other large items are stored in the open and shifted about at need. Ropes and tackle are stored along the sides of the forward well and down in the well, where needed.

The bow is not truly square but rather a blunt rounded affair. This type of boat is the most common craft in Merovingen,

2. The CANALER: about a third larger man the skip, confined to the main waterways and used for heavy cargo.

3. The POLEBOAT: a motorless gondola-like craft, long and slim and used commonly for hire, the taxi of Merovingen.

4. The CATBOAT: catamaran, a boat confined to the bay and usually propelled by paddle or sail, for small fishing and harbor freight.

5. The LONGBOAT: a 10-oar gondola-style craft used for state occasions and funerals.

6. The COASTER: one of the fisher-boats, high-sided and broad of beam for its length. It sails the edge of the Sundance.

7. The FANCYBOAT: a motor launch for the rich, generally used only in the uptown area.

8. The YACHT: a large motor-sail vessel used primarily by the wealthiest for transport either on the river or along the coast.

The Ancestors of Merovin were not spacers, but station-dwellers and employees of the founding corporations some of whom were planet-based. The original Merovans were polyglot, with some influence of spacer-culture, with which they worked.

Events combined to break down linguistic conformity: the Scouring and the lack of formal education.

Other factors tended to prevent breakdown: the religions.

And there was the necessity of coping with new professions and new environments, which meant new vocabulary.

Old French, Italian, Turkish, English, Russian, Hindi, German and the Slavic-influenced Union Standard station-speak of Fargone were among the predominant influences.

Add to that the abbreviated grammar and musical lilt of ships peak.

Merovan languages vary considerably, particularly the trade-languages, the languages of profession, which deliberately seek to exclude outsiders to the trade.

An example is the jargon of the Merovingian canalers, which, like many unwritten languages, is highly contextual: one word may have a dozen implications depending on situation and tone of voice.

Ware! Look out!

Ware hey! Calamity! Alarm!

Ware port Watch boat's left.

Ware starb'd Watch boat's right.

Ware deck! (sometimes just Deck!) Hit the deck.

Scup! Object about to roll overboard.

May be combined with direction, as aft, port, starb'd.

Bow a-port, a-starb'd! Turn left, right.

Hin Put the pole on the bottom.

Ya-hin You put the pole in.

Hey-hin I put the pole in.

Hup Lift the pole from the bottom.

Yoss Steady as she goes.

She's a wash There's a washout (hole) here.

Double pole Two people poling: (starboard poler sets pace and starts call).

Tie-up Any tie made to shore or boat; (2) a metal tie-ring for mooring.

Night-tie Mooring fore and side for stability.

Full-tie Same procedure as night-tie.

Jury-tie A quick tie to one point.

Hof Off! Back away!

Haw Stop! hold it!

Get aslant of Take objection to; blockade; oppose

Ne (neh) (1) Now. (2) Wait.

Ney (nay) No.

Yey (Expresses agreement, consent ac knowledges an order or request).

Yey and haw (lit. yes and stop) Give yey and haw: tell someone what to do.

Not know hin from hey (lit. not know turn-signal from collison-warning) Varies according to application: (1) of a canaler: he's stupid; (2) of a landsman: he's ignorant.

The Merovan oceans cover a great portion of the globe and abound with life both bathic and free-swimming. Some of the creatures are legendary, such as the many-armed Kra-ken, alleged to inhabit the deeps of the Sundance. Others are merely rare, such as the seaflower, which spreads jelly-like polychrome veils over a good three meters of surface.

Certain areas such as the Falken Isles and the Wold Sea and the Black Sea support major fishing industries.

The Det estuary is heavily reliant on fish but does not export much in the way of fish products. Known in Merovingen are, of sea fish caught by Merovingian coasters:

The whitetail: a slender, silver fish with a notable white streamer flowing from its topmost tail fin: delicate of flavor, rare, and expensive. Rarely tops five kilos in weight.

The silverbit. a prolific breeder and common foodfish with a rich, oily flavor. About a handspan in length and caught by trawling in great abundance.

The sailfin: a green to silver cartilaginous-skeletoned fish two to three meters in length, caught by hook. The meat is flavorful but has a toxin requiring care in the preparation.

The sea eel: as the name implies, an eel-like creature with impressive teeth, brown to black in color, edible, but difficult to take. Top size is two meters, top weight 13 kilos.

The whale: a slender-bodied, large mammal with a catlike face and numerous teeth. General color is ink black. It is forbidden to hunt this creature, which occurs primarily in antarctic waters, but in some seasons ventures to the equator. It is predatory toward other sea mammals and fishes. It is not known to attack humans. Top size, reported 100 meters. Weight unknown.

The sherk: a quick-moving, primitive fish known to travel in schools. Up to 15 meters long, but most specimans are from two to five meters, and a known hazard to fishermen. The sherk will attack anything less than its own size. Its general color is green to black. The meat is palatable if heavily seasoned.

An estuary fish travels freely between salt and fresh water. The Det River has a wide variety of such fish perhaps due to the complex nature of its estuary, which ranges from still, almost stagnant shallows, to deep harbor.

Notable are:

The freshwater eel: brown to black and about a meter or less in length, flourishing in the worst water. A food staple among the poor.

The razorfin: a voracious, spiny, needle-toothed fish needing careful handling. Top weight is 5 kilos. It is lively on the line and a destroyer of nets. A good food fish with a white, delicate meat.

The yellowbelly: a mild toxin in the fins and a painful bite makes this fish another difficult one to handle. Sometimes taken in nets, it tops 10 kilos and provides a bland if pleasant meat.

The prickleback: bony, with a good assortment of spiny fins which lay fiat until grasped. A fat, toothless bottom-feeder of about 3 to 6 kilos, excellent food fish if properly filleted.

The fathead: a big bottomfeeder with a conspicuous fleshy prominence above the eyes, toothless but voracious and omnivorous. It may top 30 kilos and tends out to sea past its first few years, where it grows above 100 kilos in weight.

The redfin: named for its beautiful red-orange tail and dorsal fins, this small fish (about two handspans in length at maximum) is an excellent but troublesome foodfish. Its bite is notoriously painful.

The deathangel: most beautiful of estuary fish, with trailing fins of black on a yellow and silver body, the deathangel is aptly named. The three banner-spines and the ventral spine carry a toxin so lethal and so long-lasting that the dried spine of a deathangel can kill a victim weeks afterward, if the poison sac at the ventral side of the spine is intact. If the spines and the internal glands are removed, the deathangel, about a kilo of platter-shaped fish, is delicious and mildly intoxicating, though overindulgence can lead to toxic reaction. In a few sensitive individuals this reaction comes much sooner, and one fatality from the meat alone has been recorded in Merovingen.

Music on Merovin has the same roots as language, [see Language] both ethnic and popular. It is also influenced by the spacer-chanteys, which are both ethnic and varied, and which are a ship's living history.

Some songs survived the Scouring; others are hero ballads out of the Scouring and the Re-establishment [QV] which relate tales of the resistance and the rebuilding.

There are love songs and a rich and varied liturgical music; marches and work-songs and working sea-chanteys and popular dirties which come and go by fashion, many of which are disguisedly political.

Principle instruments are: the horn, a brass, lip-modulated instrument of increasingly complex shapes and tones.

The drum: drummers are a popular holiday street entertainment; and drums also signal executions and solemn occasion.

The gitar: a stringed, long-necked instrument

The sither: another variety of gitar but much larger, having drone-strings and a round sounding-chamber: this instrument is Merovan in origin, by extensive modification of a Terran instrument. Common in the Chattalen, and known in the north and in Nevander, it plays often in accompaniment to drums and chimes.

The harp: a vertical stringed instrument of ancient origins, reproduced on Merovin in imitation of traditional description.

Chimes: all sorts of bells.