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The Door of the Moon

Southeast of Kondolhonc, near the banks of the Kuetravyas River, there is a town called Troistobala, which means Door of the Moon. The name is derived from the fact that at a certain time of the year the moon seems to rise from a naturally occurring notch in the ridge running east of the town (the outline of which is clearly seen at sunset).   Though the town is presently occupied by Kuetrans, it was at one time the home of a kindred folk related closely to the Birviodish. The dialect spoken there is very close to Birviodish. The ridge, a continuation of the hills that come down to Kondolhonc from the Bearpaw Mountains, is often called Ent Fata, ‘long back.’

The etymology of the Kuetran words kalkala, kella, and vankal.

The Kuetran words for city and town, kala and kella, are derived from the word kal (fence) which in turn comes from the archaic term akiala (forbid, refuse). Interestingly, the Kuetran word for chaos is vankal (related terms exist in all Vyasgalo-Kuetran languages) which, one might think, derives from a meaning referring to outside the city or town (van is an old version of den (out) and kal is ‘fence’). But this derivation would be incorrect. The problem is it does not consider the history of the Kuetrans. The word vankal originated at a time when Kuetrans did not live in towns, per se. However, they certainly did at that time resort to fortified enclosures when attacked, and which were otherwise uninhabited. The idea behind the original word was that if you are being attacked the area “outside the fence” would certainly seem like chaos, hence, vankal. Of course, in Varšambekon and other large cities in Vyasgalea – ironically, many Kuetrans would say vankal (or, more properly in Vyasgalean, ‘fencale’) means both chaos and countryside. By city dwellers there, rural folk are called ‘fencaleá (fen-CALL-yay), ‘those of chaos.’ Rustic visitors to such places as Bolnora or 
Varšambekon might have a different view of which place represents chaos.







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    Ron Leighton

    I am the author of the Tales of the Shining Lands, as well as an artist and occasional commenter on things.

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