why invent a completely new set of ranks for nobility (for example) when we have a perfectly usable set of English ones (and German ones if you want something a little more outre), never mind you're keeping 'emperor'.
To be completely pedantic, the novel does have an invented term for "emperor"; it's zhas and it's used regularly in regnal names as well as the general sense of the Ethuverazhid Zhas, the Emperor of the Elflands. Zhasan is an empress, zhasanai the widow empress. As Csoru will do her best never to let you forget.
The relationship between Barizhan and the Ethuveraz worked very well for me, especially since it's established early on that Maia is not the sole mixed-race person in his world, just the most politically visible. Touches like his knowing only as much of goblin culture as his mother was able to pass on to him rang true to me. If Monette continues to write in this world, I would like a novel set in Barizhan, but for the time being I appreciate that we see an even more racially-culturally mixed milieu in The Witness for the Dead (2021).
no subject
To be completely pedantic, the novel does have an invented term for "emperor"; it's zhas and it's used regularly in regnal names as well as the general sense of the Ethuverazhid Zhas, the Emperor of the Elflands. Zhasan is an empress, zhasanai the widow empress. As Csoru will do her best never to let you forget.
The relationship between Barizhan and the Ethuveraz worked very well for me, especially since it's established early on that Maia is not the sole mixed-race person in his world, just the most politically visible. Touches like his knowing only as much of goblin culture as his mother was able to pass on to him rang true to me. If Monette continues to write in this world, I would like a novel set in Barizhan, but for the time being I appreciate that we see an even more racially-culturally mixed milieu in The Witness for the Dead (2021).