Melissa Fitzgerald <meersan at mn.astound.net> writes: > At 08:48 PM 7/19/02 -0400, Thomas Yan wrote: > >It sounds fine. What I'm wondering is why Paarfi is calling attention > >to "in the wings". Paarfi isn't necessarily as clever as he thinks he > >is, but why does he think this is clever at all? > > > >For example, if a tiassa were a bird (like a phoenix) instead of a > >cat, it have wings, so it would be a small play on words to say a > >Tiassa has "wings". > > Perhaps Paarfi believes he is clever because, if my understanding is > correct, the tiassa is indeed a winged cat. ! Then "waiting in the wings" is especially appropriate, since there is the implication "poised like a cat to pounce/strike". > I was able to find a link, > http://www.math.ttu.edu/~kesinger/brust/houses.html which apparently refers > to information provided in _Dzurlord_. Good find. (I knew there was such a page; I should have looked for it and checked what it had to say. Shame on me.) > There may be more canonical > evidence available, however. According to the page, the tiassa is a "large > panther with batlike wings--represent[ing] catalyst and inspiration." Textev would be most welcome. Tangent: Looking at the page, I'm reminded that issola represents courtesy and surprise. If gracefulness counts as courtesy, then it is interesting that Aerich, a Lyorn, has been at least twice described as fast yet graceful (p10 and p94 or p95), which seems more characteristic of an Issola than a Lyorn. Dunno if that is signficant or I'm ignoring Noish-pa's advice (viz., I'm getting distracted by shadows). - tky