Dragaera

Overcast, clue-by-fours

Fri Aug 2 18:57:20 PDT 2002

"Gametech" <voltronalpha at hotmail.com> writes:
> Jose Marquez wrote:
> > Thomas Yan wrote:
> >
> >> When did you first become aware of the Overcast?
> >>
> >> I think I had already read a handful of books and still managed not
> >> to notice it until it was forcibly brought to my attention on RASFW.
> >> Of course, *afterwards*, I saw that it had been mentioned or alluded
> >> to in many places.
> >
> > What exactly do you mean by "become aware"? Maybe I'm not aware...

Someone mentioned "the Overcast" on RASFW, and I thought to myself,
the *what*?  Since you appear to understand what "the Overcast" refers
to, you're already aware of it.  I wasn't.  Obviously, references to
it in the book had gone in one ear and out the other.

> I believe that he is referring to the color of the sky over Dragaera
> (not all of Dragaera just the area that is part of the empire more
> or less?) 

The sky is clear in Fenario.  From my DbS notes:

_Issola_, p119: -"[spoiler] sky like Fenarian sky: blue, with a
    sun/Furnace"-.

_Taltos_ ch3, p36: [Vlad spent much time with Noish-pa] "tours of his
    memories of his homeland", "clear blue sky", "white puffy clouds",
    [bright] "sun" {typo? "Furnace"?}, "stars" {!},

_Brokedown Palace_

    ch1, p8: "Overcast [in Vlad books]" = "The Hand of Faerie"
    {Overcast: related to mist = energy-conduit in _500 Years After_?};
    p14: {Overcast = "Hand" again}

    ch9, p137: -"blue sky"- {no orange overcast!}

I think it may also be clear over Elde Island (_Phoenix_).

> This effect is created I believe from the greater sea of
> [chaos]? I could be wrong about that.

I don't think there's been anything explicit to confirm or deny
that.

> Everything I can recall suggests
> that it is a reddish or orange hue. I'd liken it to a red-orange
> sunset -- but all the time, well except for night time but it only
> would make a little sense if it affected the night sky as well just
> a little bit.

That reminds me.

In _The Phoenix Guards_, ch16, p159, Paarfi describes a character with
-"brown hair, almost red beneath the natural orangish light of day"-.
True, Paarfi is verbose, but -"natural orangish"- still strikes me as
unusually redundant even for him.  It also makes me wonder about their
sources of light, some of which evidently are not "orangish".  It's
been a while -- what's candle light like?  (I guess Earth's
incandescent light bulbs are yellowish.)


In another message, Joshua Kronengold <mneme at io.com> wrote:
> Gametech writes:
> > I believe that he is referring to the color of the sky over Dragaera (not
> > all of Dragaera just the area that is part of the empire more or less?)
> 
> Isn't "Dragaera" the empire, not the whole world?  

The whole planet is apparently also called "Dragaera".  (I try not to
use "world" because I find it ambiguous.)

> Thus the citizens
> of said empire being referred to as "Dragaerans"...

No, I think "Dragaerans" there refers to the race; I don't think we've
ever seen "Dragaeran" used to mean "subject of the Dragaeran empire".
Thus, inhabitants of Elde Island are Dragaerans, and empire-Dragaeran
subjects who are Serioli or Easterner are never called Dragaerans.

- tky