Character Keteks

[ccstat]

I've been trying to compose keteks for various SA characters. (I'm thinking to include them in karaokeang's WOR tour scrapbook.) Some are still giving me trouble--hopefully I'll be able to tweak them into presentability and post them later. These three are pretty close to final revision, though.

I'd love to see what others come up with if you want to compose some too.

Szeth

Unheard screams

own my life,

still Truthless,

still living,

my own screams unheard.

Shallan

Lies held close

dangerously hide

self from self,

hiding dangerous

closely held lies.

Kaladin

Protected, trained to heal;

betrayed and wronged, overcome.

Choosing honor, by honor chosen,

overcoming wrongs and betrayal

healing to train, protect.

[Argent]

Kaladin's last line sounds a little off, but I love the other two.

[Kobold King]

Szeth's ketek gives me chills. I like the others too. Brilliant idea and execution!

Edited March 24, 2014 by Kobold King

[Khyrindor]

You just blew my mind!

[Khyrindor]

For the last line, how about "Healing and Training to Protect"

Edited March 24, 2014 by Khyrindor

[ccstat]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I agree, Kaladin's isn't quite there yet.
Here is an alternative Kaladin, and one for Mr. T. Both have room for revision, and both contain potential WoR spoilers.

Kaladin
Failing again, never protecting,
Oaths betrayed.
Renew honor,
renewing betrayed oaths,
protecting, never again failing

Taravangian
Brilliance without compassion
required this action today
for salvation, yet salvation
for today's action, this requires
compassion without brilliance.

[Cromptj]

This isn't a criticism, I love the ideas, but I'm not sure that you can turn nouns into verbs for the keteks.

[Khyrindor]

It allows for alterations. I don't know if it mentions that.

[Khyrindor]

Also, most Keteks are written like "words/words/words/words/words" Not a judgement, but...you know.

[ccstat]

 I'm not sure that you can turn nouns into verbs for the keteks.

This is a good point, and something I've worried about. The official description "allows for variation in verb forms," but I've got verb-->adjective, verb-->noun, and adjective-->adverb shifts here. When I analyze it, I feel comfortable with everything except verb-->noun, as you say. I think the others are justified. For now I'll leave it (I think it's just the one in Szeth's right?), but I am looking for other ways to have more non-redundant meaning in repetition.

 

Also, most Keteks are written like "words/words/words/words/words" Not a judgement, but...you know.

That's also true. I guess I'm just too used to line breaks in poetry. Having seen the beautiful way Navani wrote hers out into a single glyph, though, I'm becoming sold on the single-line version for keteks. 

[Khyrindor]

What's harder, Keteks, or Sonnets?

[Aleksiel]

Wow, this is really great! Szeth's is amazing, Taravangian's is my next favorite, then Kal.

 

healing to train, protect.

 

Perhaps change it to 'healed to train and protect' if you want to change anything that is. 

[Mysty]

Maybe you can fix the noun to verb on szeths by changing "still living" to "still alive". Life to alive isn't too much of a strech is it?

Great job, by the way. I like them better than my ketek for Hoid, though to be honest I created half of it while falling asleep.

Hoid is where trouble starts

World hopper

Roamer

Hopping worlds starts trouble

Where is hoid?

[Delightful]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I agree, Kaladin's isn't quite there yet.

Here is an alternative Kaladin, and one for Mr. T. Both have room for revision, and both contain potential WoR spoilers.

Kaladin

Failing again, never protecting,

Oaths betrayed.

Renew honor,

renewing betrayed oaths,

protecting, never again failing

Taravangian

Brilliance without compassion

required this action today

for salvation, yet salvation

for today's action, this requires

compassion without brilliance.

WOW, these are just....perfect. 

[ccstat]

Mysty, I like your Hoid one. The final "Where is Hoid?" made me think of us here on 17S poring over a gigantic cosmere Where's Waldo. Which is kind of what happens.
Live-->alive is n-->adj, and therefore much better from a grammar rule POV. I do still like the sound of living better, but I think this is the fix I'll go with.
 

What's harder, Keteks, or Sonnets?

Ooo, good question. My immediate thought was "Keteks, for sure," but on reflection that's not really true. I think it is easier to write a bad sonnet than a bad ketek, but a good sonnet is at least as hard as a good ketek.

For me, at least, keteks are harder to write because the constraints take so much thought and revision before I get a workable version, good or not. Sonnets have fewer rules, so it's easier to pound one out that obeys all the "this is what makes a sonnet" guidelines. But my first-pass sonnets are almost invariably terrible, and it takes a lot of work to make them into worthwhile poems. I'm going with sonnets as harder because there is a lot more substance there, more words that have to work together.

That all may have to do with familiarity, though. I generally write blank verse, but there was a period about two years ago where I was writing a lot of haiku and related forms. I then tried to experiment with cinquains, which are of about the same length but with even syllable counts instead of odd. It was so much more difficult to make the mental transition than I thought it would be.

When I've written a sonnet or been reading Shakespeare, the next sonnet comes a lot easier than if I've just read Green Eggs and Ham. The same was true for the keteks: once I got going with them they started to form themselves much more easily in my mind. (Still haven't come up with more to post here, though.)

Edited March 27, 2014 by ccstat

[Seloun]

Jasnah:

 

Forever voyaging mind / Radiant, seeking / Teaching Ethics / Teaching seeking Radiant mind / Voyaging forever

 

 

Szeth:

 

Truthless / Never free / Death bringer / Death frees / Never Truthless

 

 

Events:

 

Stick / Am I dying / Still freezing / Still dying / I am a stick

 

Broken sole / Not truthful / Together falling / Together truthful / Not sole broken

 

Bereaved friend / Fallen king / Rescued Oaths / Rescued king / Fallen friend, bereaved

 

Edited March 28, 2014 by Seloun

[Mysty]

Mysty, I like your Hoid one. The final "Where is Hoid?" made me think of us here on 17S poring over a gigantic cosmere Where's Waldo. Which is kind of what happens.

that is exactly what I was thinking when I wrote it! But it applies just as well to the cosmere's 17th shard.

@seloun, those are good! I especially like szeth's ketek, so minimal, but captures him exactly.

[Seloun]

It definitely feels like there are standard templates or rules to make forming keteks somewhat easier. Sort of an analysis on the structure...

 

One thing is that the 3rd and 4th phrase are often easy to put in the form of [1] / [2][x] / [something] [singleton word] / [something] [x] / [5]; that form basically gives you two phrases which are mostly independent of the other phrases.

 

The second thing is that there's an 'inverting progression' form, where the first word of [2] and [5] are a negating word; this makes it easier to set up a 'progression' through time (i.e. something is true, stuff happens, something is now not true).

 

So for Lopen:

 

Apply structure pattern #2: Missing arm / No ... / ... / ... / No arm missing

Apply structure pattern #1: Missing arm / No [x] / Funny Herdazian / Funny [x] / No arm missing

 

[x] = Stormlight => Missing arm / No Stormlight / Funny Herdazian / Funny Stormlight / No arm missing

 

Obviously [4] doesn't work too well, but there's a fair bit of flexibility after that structure for more tweaking; in particular 'funny' and 'Herdazian' are independent of the other phrases, and can be replaced without worrying too much about the other phrases. 'Funny' could be replaced with 'Breathes' (though now 'Herdazian' probably has to be replaced); etc.

 

Missing arm / No Stormlight / Holds Elhokar / Holds Stormlight / No arm missing (can probably do better...)

 

This is certainly not the only way to form a ketek, but it seems like a pretty general and flexible pattern to start with. It might be interesting to think about other analyses of the form.

 

Edit: Adding spoiler tags

Edited March 28, 2014 by Seloun

[Mysty]

@seloun, this thing, you make it sound easy. You are not airsick like other lowlanders. You must be cousin! If you come to the peaks, I will make you family!

[Edgedancer]

Nice. My favorite ought to be either the Kaladin Ketek for or the third event one.

And while I´m here might as well try your Ketek-guide. No quality guarantee given.

 

Lift:

forgotten/ never love/ healing lonely Thief/  lonely healing love/ never forgotten

 

Now we only need to get someone to draw these as Glyphs.

[Seloun]

@seloun, those are good! I especially like szeth's ketek, so minimal, but captures him exactly.

 

Thanks! I was actually trying to avoid making keteks for the characters already covered before, but Szeth's came out so naturally that I wanted to include it.