Dramatis Personæ
This section deals with the characters that populate the Stone Dance - chief among them, Carnelian. Provided are a list of them all and a brief description of who they are as well as a number of family trees for the main Chosen characters.
I would like to make a few comments about the basic scheme that I used to come up with their names. Names are very important to me. Many of them have a meaning beyond the obvious as well as resonances with our own world. Some I have found to have deeper meaning than I had originally understood. Like so many other aspects about the Stone Dance, much has welled up from my subconscious, perhaps even from what Carl Jung calls our 'collective unconsciousness'.
The Masters have two names: their House name and their personal name. The House names relate to their heraldic cyphers and are perhaps more complex than many of the other names used in the books. Thus Suth is the Quyan for chameleon, but Imago is the term used for the adult stage of an insect - and thus only an oblique reference to the dragonfly cypher of that House. Cumulus is from the Latin. Vennel is a variation of venal - and thus an indication of character. So, as you can see, a mixed bag.
Chosen personal names tend to be based on those of jewels and other precious stones or materials - either directly such as Carnelian, or as modified forms: jasper becoming Jaspar, obsidian turning into Osidian. This reflects my notion that such names are loose translations of Quyan forms that over time have slipped away from their original meaning. Aurum is a House name but related to the latin for gold, so is a strange exception to my rule... coming I know not from where. It just felt right. Kumatuya is Quyan and means Green Mountain... or perhaps, Towering Greenness. Ykoriana incorporates a modified form of ichor, but also has a resonance with 'Gloriana' a term used to refer to Queen Elizabeth I of England.
Common names, such as those for Carnelian's half-brothers follow a general scheme of being alternative spellings for common objects: thus grain becomes Grane and keel becomes Keal. I tried to have this done in the languages into which my books have been translated... but, for some reason, the translators chose not to follow my guidance.
Plainsman names reflect their religious beliefs. So men are named after the realm of the Sky Father and women for those things being of or rising from the earth. Some of these I subjected to the same 'slipping away' as some of the names of the Masters. Thus acacia becomes Akaisha, ginkgo becomes Ginkga. Though Whin, Sil and Poppy retain their correct spelling. For the men, storm rain becomes Stormrane, low sky becomes Loskai, raven becomes Ravan.