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Yalka

Page history last edited by Tim 15 years, 11 months ago

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Yalka

Yalka is a village in Terle. It is famous for its thousand-foot deep marble quarry, Locin's Fastness, as well as the great skill and subtlety of its tinsmiths. Millet and rapeseed oil seem to play a large role in the economy as well as the local diet (but see below).

Most of what we know of Yalka is unfortunately narrated by the young Asana Millytopthought in the beginning of Book 8. She is incurious of histories and law (at least until her visit to Captain Tev in chapter 18), and thus though we have a good snapshot of everyday life in the village -- including what some felt to be far more vivid description of the latrines than was strictly called for -- we don't have very good encyclopaedic knowledge of the village.

During her brief stay in Yalka, Asana is kidnapped by Hazard's Guess, a quartet of wild Hatstands of the Totem let by Hazard Shibboleth, unofficial ambassador to The Rogue Brewers of Kelembad, and held by them for four days in a large wicker basket, where she is forced to subsist on milk, cheese, honey, venison, persimmons, grapefruit juice, mincemeat pies, banana splits, and root beer floats while each of the hatstands spends a day regaling her with sung tales in an ultimately futile attempt to convince her to give up her quest.

From this we can discern that Yalka produces a great many different types of foodstuffs, or at least has access to many fresh foods through trade. It can be assumed to be inhabited by expert grassweavers, an influence of the Cohoris invaders that held sway over these lands for a time. We can assume at the very least that the honey was native to the village, since we have evidence of significant apiculture through Asana's descriptions of the "net men" and the "great hum".

While many of the tales appear at first blush to be fanciful, we are told one which is explicitly stated to be historical, and luckily takes place in Yalka itself. This is, of course, the story of Elibor the Insane, whose attributed artwork appeared on the cover of the first printing of Book 8 (which was, as we all know, subsequently recalled due to binding issues and page misnumbering).

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