I hate videos.
I’m ready to admit this, I just hate doing videos. They freak me out, I’m not good at them, and the picture part usually isn’t important anyways. So, after MANY failed attempts at making these into two separate videos, I finally just turned on my voice recorder on my phone and babbled at it–rather successfully, to my surprise. Below is the “script” I hashed out for what I meant to be the combo video, with sound links embedded where I intend to keep them in the Appendix post. Below all that is a link to the SoundCloud album I made of all the babbling. Enjoy a sneaky peek into the messiness that is my brain.
Pri’mn, as an almost universal language, is very mutable and subject to context. Variations between shapeshifter races, as well as within individual tribes, can lead to horrible misunderstandings,so words of the utmost significance have become rooted in rote and tradition, to serve as signposts in what could be otherwise very murky exchanges.
When Naj meets his fellow dancers, he uses a traditional pri’mn blessing.
“Li’Daea’mn yt ki’n, ÿ’arieÿ’ehna.” May the Goddess’s blessings sing to your souls.
Yet when Nica greets him, she uses a different phrase, one she hopes he’ll recognize and answer.
“ra’prine’ra, ce’ceres.” “Etren l’ramn.”
So what’s the difference between these two ritualized greetings?
The greeting Naj uses is actually NOT dancer specific, though it is one dancers often gave to people they met. It invokes the presence of Li’Daea, a goddess whose worship is primarily found in fire and dance. Serpent dancers*, then, see themselves as sort of emissaries for Li’Daea, being inherently closer to her by virtue of dedicating their lives to her art and service. Li’Daea’mn yt ki’n, ÿ’arieÿ’ehna is meant to invoke the music of Li’Daea’s presence within, inspiring dance and therefor favor on those being blessed.
Between themselves, dancers hardly find such an invocation necessary on a daily basis (Naj’s use of it indicates the gravity of this situation—he is hoping his addition to the nest is favored by Li’Daea, and is in line with her will). Their internal greeting of “ra’prine’ra, ce’ceres.” and “Etren l’ramn.” is a prayer that dance will never leave them, that they will always have the gift of dance and that the dancers’ tradition will pass on and on down the generations, stretching as far into the future as it does into the past.
*This is not necessarily true of all dancers. Serpents in particular favor the worship of Li’Daea above all other Daeos. They believe themselves to be her chosen people, having been drawn by her hand from her fire of creation, so serpents hold a certain significance on dance that other cultures might not share.
In Search of Asylum 