Myr T

3 ~ Myr T

Myr Tariniel is an awkward name in my head, and translating it is a nightmare. It's got too many bits going on, too many syllables, too many edges, too many parts. Too many possibilities. The city itself might well bear it own 3 part name. But Myr Tariniel means something specific, obviously, we just don't know what. 

It could well mean the Shining city. 

But my jot is going on White Tower.

We don't really need to map out Myr T, Skarpi does that for us

'Sit and listen for I will speak of the shining city as it once was, years and miles away...'

That is an odd introduction. An announcement that almost sounds like an invocation, or legally binding declaration. He has chosen to offer his Talent bet to the unknown owner of the voice who called for a story about Myr Tariniel, but has also acknowledged that Kvothe would get his own answers, too.

We can take much from Skarpi's tale, since we now know who he really is, and thus can treat his words with respect. He was as good as there, after all.

The basic image we receive is that Myr T was built of special white stone and it's Lord lived in a tall tower.

We assume the towers location to be the highest point in the world and it is deemed superior to all the other cities who were then subordinate to it. 

'Eight cities remained. They were Belen, Antus, Vaeret, Tinusa, Emlen, and the twin cities of Murella and Murella. Last was Myr Tariniel, greatest of them all.'

The order in which Skarpi lists them is deliberate. It is not alphabetical but neither is it random.

Why should the greatest come last? Because that statement clearly means that it was the end of the line, the terminus of a great chainline of other cities that started far away with Belen at #1, then Antus at position #2 etc etc. Now Occam's Razor suggests that instead of being scattered like notable 4Corners cities are, Ergen cities were actually built all in a row. A chain of cities running right across the world like a scar, or maybe even a zip? Each with their own little lords and ladies towers we can imagine. They followed the exact same line of the Drossen Tor that is now the Old Stone Road, probably strung out equidistantly in Apple pi order from Imre to Tinüe and it points straight up the mountainside to the White Tower of Lord Selitos... And beyond ?

Diagram tak

We can represent this information in the form of a grid on a board of 8x8. Write the names beneath the numbers in the top two rows. Any problems, guess.

The Amyr are named for it and would hope to emulate the ideal that was. Their symbol is a tower and If the game were chess then I suppose that would make the Amyr the white rook, but they don't play chess in the 4Corners, unless they call it Tirani over there, but they do play Tak!

The rules of Tak are simple and easily learnt. Boards are available in the gift shop but you can hopefully get the gist of this trichapter without them.

Quite how gods play their games is beyond mortal ken. Pr

π ~ Tak

You need an abstract mind to play a beautiful game. One man's love is another man's lust. 

Imagine, if you can, two Gods the god of day and god of night. They watch over the world,one half at a time, and never the twain shall meet. The world in question is their gameboard and it has many squares and many stones. Their board is infinite and thus has Far too many components for the numbers to make any sense to us mere mortals. But for all the difference it is all the same, it's just a question of focus, and it's only a game after all.

Now games have rules and in Tak the objective is to create a pathway of stones right across the board. It occurs to me that if our two gods were also playing Tak, which is the assumption upon with this whole piece rests, then there are some interesting opportunities to apply the same rules of Tak to the shape of the word that is the four corners.

Superimpose the Tak board over the Map of 4Corners of Ergen.

The size of our board can vary but the largest suggested size is 8x8. Mortals are comfortable with this as that is the same size board as chess and chequers. 64 squares.

If we line one up with the length of the old stone road we might imagine this line to show the winning combination of a completed path and thus the endgame position, but who won? The stone of this road today is neither black nor white but is ... well, Stone colour, a nice neutral grey implying the end game to be a draw. 

Now there are rules about draws which come down to the judge counting the amount of flat stones used in it's construction and our road is declared 'straight as a nail, flat as a table, older than god'

So it looks like god won, but which god was that again?

Now, alongsides normal stones, Tak also has capstones. Powerful pieces that can also form part of the winning path. In this recreation I am going to give a name to the white Capstone as being Myr Tariniel. 

In the days of Ergen, Myr T was a city made of white stone which shone after dark, solar stone I suppose, sort of. But when the white tower fell, it fell beneath darkness. It's location dictates it was the last stone in the road therefore the other seven stones that preceded it will have their own given names, Belen , Antus , etc. giving us a board with seven white stones in a line and the capstone makes eight. 

Then came Lanre Day. when the black player made his move that turned seven of the white stones into dark ones. He overthrew the White Castle and replaced it with his own Black Castle. 

Across the lands below six more stones were flattened and burned, as black as the walls of mirinitel, the shadow tower that remained after the shining city that was , was no more. 

But one White stone did not topple and burn. And thus total victory for black was averted.

The only stone still working in a broken land on a broken road.

Seven lights went out that day, never to rekindle, but one lighthouse still shone whilst the others became dark houses.

7 lighthouses upright stones , equals the pure white light of Myr T.if you break light, you get a spectrum giving each lighthouse a colour. Roygbiv. 

Seventh lighthouse remained, = Murella, city of violet, city of Felurian, the ultraviolet queen of twilight. Her light no longer exists in mortal. God took it and created the Fae by lighting a candle in the darkness. Moon link is extra.

7-1=6. Colours in a Temerant rainbow. One person Chandrian.