Olmund Posted January 19, 2022 Posted January 19, 2022 (edited) Avast, ye scurvy dogs! So, both Tanavast and Koravellium Avast both end in "avast," despite hailing from different cultures and being members of completely different species on Yolen. They also happen to be confirmed lovers before ascending to shardhood. Coincidence? Probably. But that won't stop me from a bit of wild speculation: Explanation 1: Chance. "Avast" was a common morpheme (or phoneme sequence) in Yolish languages, and the two characters had similar names by pure chance. The most likely -- and most boring -- scenario. Explanation 2: Name Change. Before ascending, one of the two took the surname (or family affix) of the other, as one might in a traditional marriage -- despite being members of different species. This theory is a bit iffy, because it would require them to have two separate naming conventions (one where the name is added as an affix, the other where it is considered a separate name) -- which is possible, given that they hail from two different cultures/species -- but it does add some needless complexity. Explanation 3: Inter-species Cultural Ties. For example, if the "Avast" dragons were revered as deities by Tanavast's tribe, and Tanavast's parents hoped he would join the priestly class of his society, they might have given him the name "Tanavast" as a pious-sounding name (especially if "Tan" meant something like "Defender" in their language, so "Defender [of] Avast"). That would mean that Tanavast could have been a priest or guard of Koravellium Avast at some point, which would explain how they came to form a relationship despite being members of different species. If someone more familiar with WoBs (or Dragonsteel Prime, perhaps) can add any insight or refute some of these potential explanations, be my guest. Edited January 19, 2022 by Olmund 6
+mdross81 he/him Posted January 21, 2022 Posted January 21, 2022 Cool ideas @Olmund I don’t know of any WoBs on this and haven’t read Dragonsteel, but I tend to think that “avast” is going to mean “dawn” for the reasons that I laid out in this post: It’s somewhat attenuated, but the basic gist is that Cultivation is similar in some regards to the Greek goddess Persephone. And one of Persephone’s alternative names was kore or kora, which essentially means “she” or “maiden.” Add to that the Sanskrit word “vari” which means water or rain and you can see where this is going I think. If Koravari, the Rosharan version of Koravellium, gives us she and water/rain (dew), then the only part missing is dawn. So that’s why I think avast is going to end up meaning dawn.
Nesh he/him Posted January 21, 2022 Posted January 21, 2022 (edited) Given that we know from WOBs that Koravellium and Tanavast were romantically involved in some fashion. Given the names, I assumed they were married, and that Avast was a surname. It could be that Tanavast's human name was corrupted over time, and he was actually named Tan Avast. Edited January 21, 2022 by Nesh
CryoZenith he/him Posted January 21, 2022 Posted January 21, 2022 3 minutes ago, Nesh said: Given that we know from WOBs that Koravellium and Tanavast were romantically involved in some fashion. Given the names, I assumed they were married, and that Avast was a surname. It could be that Tanavast's human name was corrupted over time, and he was actually named Tan Avast. I feel like if Tanavast's real name was Tan Avast, then Hoid would refer to him as Tan Avast, not as Tanavast, since he knew him pre ascension. 2
Nesh he/him Posted January 21, 2022 Posted January 21, 2022 1 minute ago, CryoZenith said: I feel like if Tanavast's real name was Tan Avast, then Hoid would refer to him as Tan Avast, not as Tanavast, since he knew him pre ascension. Their could be a number of reasons for that, but it is a fair point I don't have an immediate answer to.
+Oltux72 he/him Posted January 22, 2022 Posted January 22, 2022 23 hours ago, CryoZenith said: I feel like if Tanavast's real name was Tan Avast, then Hoid would refer to him as Tan Avast, not as Tanavast, since he knew him pre ascension. Tanavast may just mean "Head of House Avast" and he is from a culture that drops given names for somebody in that position. 1
CryoZenith he/him Posted January 23, 2022 Posted January 23, 2022 15 hours ago, Oltux72 said: Tanavast may just mean "Head of House Avast" and he is from a culture that drops given names for somebody in that position. That sounds very intuitively... correct. I might adopt it as my most likely guess too.
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