Proverbs and Sayings
The spoken folk-register of Elshore: the everyday sayings of the Maan People Maan The most numerous people of Elshore and the baseline cultural reference of the age., the Bar People Bar Towering, massively built, and engineered for high-load work and vertical terrain, the Bar are the strength line., and the Erg, alongside the weightier Proverbs of Randenism Faith Randenism The Flame Doctrine, dominant faith of the Maan and state religion of the Maan Empire.. Each people turns the same world into its own idiom, and the faith of shaping lends its own moral grammar to the rest.
Key traits
- Origin: the common peoples of Elshore - the Maan, the Bar, and the Erg - plus the faith of Randenism.
- Register: everyday speech, market talk, kin-counsel, and devotional aphorism.
- Maan sayings lean on animals, places, and the texture of preparedness and reputation.
- Bar sayings are blunt, riverine, and quick to disown what is not theirs to guard.
- Erg sayings are spare and restless, fixed on rootlessness and the rush of time.
- Randenist proverbs sanctify silent labor, shaping, and the worth proven in death.
- Performed conversationally rather than ritually; the Randenist lines edge toward liturgy.
The peoples of Elshore carry their wisdom in the mouth before they ever carry it in writing. A saying is a small machine for judgment: it settles an argument, marks a fool, or blesses a parting in a handful of words. Three peoples - the Maan, the Bar, and the Erg - keep distinct stocks of these, and over all of them lies the devotional register of Randenism, the faith of shaping, whose proverbs read less like banter and more like law.
The Maan speak in animals and places and in the long shadow of preparedness. They say:
"You can't beg with a broken pot." - You cannot begin a journey or a plea without being ready.
"As skinny as a Patraghy Natural History Patraghy The Patraghy is a small crawler of the forest floor and undergrowth, its slick pillow-feather coat and perpetually half-starved appearance belying a wiry, tenacious survival ins...." - Lean as hunger, wiry as a marsh-runner. And in the same breath, "As slender as a Thornstrider Natural History Thornstrider Thin and long-legged, the Thornstrider picks its way between broken stones and thorn-clumps of the desert on trembling limbs, every bone speaking of hunger and caution.," graceful and sharp-limbed, like the reed-dweller that vanishes in a blink.
"Spins like the wind." - Turns with every breeze, never holds one truth longer than a breath.
"In Utsuk Amman they don't step as in Udhafa Place Udhafa The old capital of the Maan empire and one of the great inhabited ruins of the world, an ancient Iru-founded city in eastern Tarkdaara, carved into the bedrock below the Claw Pe...." - Customs shift like soil; what is sacred in one place is folly in another.
"Even Inarin built too high." - Ambition without wisdom collapses under its own spine.
"Like a Bar dwelling." - Clear as river glass, easy to read through even when it pretends to be shade.
"Spits Whisperwings." - Spreads poison-light words, soft and stinging. To be "Hoarding the Stone Skimmers Natural History Stone Skimmers Tiny flecks of aquatic life that scatter from footfalls like shattered beads, skittering along riverstones in the shallows of riverbanks.," by contrast, is to be well-connected and never alone, a whole web of friends.
"May the Vaelen Natural History Vaelen The Vaelen is a towering quadrupedal apex predator standing 320 to 340 cm at the shoulder, massively muscled yet agile, with a broad wedge-shaped head crowned by raised needle f... avoid you and a Trif Natural History Trif The Trif is a heavy-set, low-slung quadrupedal predator standing 170 to 190 cm at the shoulder, its barrel chest and massive forelimbs built for ambush and brutal holds. kiss you." - May death pass you by and strength find you in kindness. It is the warmest blessing the Maan keep.
The Bar speak plainer, in the idiom of the river and the bank, and they are quick to disown what is not theirs. "A Caeran Natural History Caeran The Caeran is a stocky, endurance-built quadruped standing 140 to 160 cm at the withers, its broad shoulders and wide splayed claws suited to the moist floodbanks and fern-grass...'s piss away" is just nearby, not worth a second thought. "The Silt-Crawler Natural History Silt-Crawler Boneless, eyeless, and featureless, the Silt-Crawler is a slip of pale flesh that writhes through the thick silt of rivers and swamps, feeding without pause on whatever death ha... is near the shore" warns that danger looms beneath the calm. To "Graze the horsetail" is to keep the eyes open while the mind wanders; to "Pee while running" is to do a task while already leaving, with no care and no finish. And when a Bar shrugs off a burden, they say, "Not my land, not my tree" - not mine to guard, not mine to mourn. To "Give a Raki Natural History Raki The Raki is a small egg-laying desert creature closely related to the Socly species, nearly identical in body shape and facial features to its gliding cousins but entirely wingl... for a Bramblehound Natural History Bramblehound The Bramblehound is a ragged-needle scaled, heavy-shouldered scavenger-predator of scrubland edges and forest margins, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions." is to return rot with a gift, a mercy that may be rare or merely foolish.
The Erg keep few sayings, and the ones they keep are restless. To "Act like a Pik Tree Natural History Pik Tree A towering marshland species reaching up to thirty metres, the Pik Tree is clad from base to crown in overlapping scale-plates of wood and fibre fitted together with architectur..." is to rush to grow tall and forget the roots, as if death were catching up fast. To "Look for his place like a Ghost Flier" is to be uncertain and unanchored, never landing where one means to.
Over all of this lies Randenism, the faith of shaping, whose proverbs sanctify silent labor and the worth that only death can test. They hold that "The hand that shapes without witness is already seen by the suns," and that "When the work sings, the world remembers." They warn that "To rest without completing the shaping is to leave the door unbarred," and that one must "Praise no man before the flame burns his labor."
Their gods divide the moral weight between them. "Liir Cosmology The Two Moons Two moons attend Elshore: Liir, the near and swift one, and Ressor, the far and slow one. lights the truth, but Ooliel holds the weight" - courage reveals, duty bears. "Ressor watches the thought behind the shaping," for intention matters. "Only in the shaping does the flesh earn its return," they say of the journey toward the Traveller, and "Gold walls crumble, stone walls crack, shaped labor remains." Even the divine are not exempt: "Even Namii Cosmology The Binary Suns Two stars share the sky of Elshore: Uhiel, the warmer and steadier light, and Namii, the smaller and more ominous companion. wept when Uhiel slept," they say of duty abandoned, and they close the circle with "The flame forgets no name carved in sweat."