Detritus meaning

[Atusiff he/him]

I started a new term of classes today, and one of them is a class about trash.

The teacher assigned some reading today, and as I was reading I noticed the word detritus.

That sparked my attention as I’d heard of it in these books. So I looked it up out of curiosity since I didn’t already know it’s meaning. According to Google,

de·tri·tus

/dəˈtrīdəs/

noun

waste or debris of any kind.

 

I like the meaning behind this planet and how (possible spoiler, blurred)

Spoiler

the Human race is seen as unnecessary and a waste to the Superiority.

I like the use of this word, and just wanted to point it out. Touché, Sanderson.

Edited October 12, 2021 by Atusiff

[Shard of Reading he/him]

I thought that it was called Detrius because of the space junk orbiting the planet. (Okay, not space junk, ruins of the planetary shield. Same difference.)

[Atusiff he/him]

4 hours ago, Shard of Reading said:

I thought that it was called Detrius because of the space junk orbiting the planet. (Okay, not space junk, ruins of the planetary shield. Same difference.)

Well, I thought about that, but (spoiler again) the junk used to be working machinery for another human civilization, until they were killed.

But then again it was probably named that by the newer generation on that planet, to them it was always junk.

Edited October 13, 2021 by Atusiff

[+Invocation]

5 hours ago, Atusiff said:

But then again it was probably named that by the newer generation on that planet, to them it was always junk.

I wonder what the name was before? We have confirmation it wasn't always called Detritus, and I wonder when it was changed and what it was initially. Did they change it after the delver incident turned it into trash for their purposes? Maybe that's why it was avoided as a planet, the name had some reminder of the massacre from attempting to harness the delvers. Surely if whatever other name the planet had in the past was registered in the Defiant or somewhere in the memory banks of the fleet. Surely it wouldn't have been abandoned so entirely after only the 75-80 years since the Defiant's crash. 

I guess that's another question to add to my pile to ask BSandy.

[Edward!]

Brandon's recent newsletter mentions the recently-published book "Defending Elysium" that is "the tale of a universe that wasn’t ready for humankind to be unleashed upon it" that "was the inception of the Skyward books." I haven't read it, but I think the title may imply that Elysium is the original name of the planet. Or I could be totally off… I'll have to read it!

Edited December 7, 2021 by Edward!

[cometaryorbit]

Defending Elysium is set in our solar system. In the story, Elysium isn't the name of a planet; Jason uses it as a reference to the state of peace that the aliens have. (Or, well, that he believes they have...)

And this is a re-publication of the story/re-branding as part of the Cytoverse, the story itself is significantly older than Skyward.