Triaxiansilk.com

Well, it does say at the bottom of that page that you linked to, Rigil, that it's from a variety of sources, including the Rihannsu novels of Diane Duane and the old FASA Star Trek RPG, but that the site itself shouldn't be considered canon.

And yes, I'd agree that ch'Havran is the basis for the common language (which they call Rom'lesta). I think Diane Duane did mention something about there being two languages (common and high) in her books, but I'd have to double check them to be certain. It's in The Romulan Way, I've no doubt, if they did get that idea from her.

Speaking of Romulans, if you want an idea what an "honor blade" looks like, Rigil, here's the link to the cover of the book by the same name--

Honor Blade cover

and the link to Swordhunt--

Swordhunt cover

I'm pretty sure that the sword that Ael is holding (besides being the one which usually sits in the Empty Chair) is also supposed to represent an "honor blade".

Feh. A katana. Blech.

I think I like the idea of it being a long gladius, or something. Anything but a katana.

I agree. Just because Vulcan culture tends toward mysticism doesn't necessarily mean that it has to follow Eastern standards of dress and weapons. After all, a lirpa doesn't look much like a naginata does it? I don't remember ever seeing a Vulcan sword on screen anywhere. Does anyone? I recall seeing that executioner's axe on TOS Amok Time. But no sword.

Actually, considering the robust nature of the Vulcan wepons that we have seen on screen, I think a Vulcan sword would be more likely to look like a claymore than a katana.

^
Yeah, but Ael is a Romulan. And S'Task and company basically threw out their original Vulcan culture wholesale when they left Vulcan to establish their own civilization elsewhere, as established in Diane Duane's novel The Romulan Way, so maybe they chose that kind of sword instead of the other. *shrug*

While the sword that sits on the Empty Chair is one of five that were brought from Vulcan (and is one of like two or three still in existence), it was considered the best of the best because of who made the sword (the name of the swordmaker escapes me at the moment--it was something like Shurien--I haven't unpacked that box of books yet so I can't double check), which was someone even the Romulans still had reverence for after a couple thousand of years. Spock had one of those swords in his quarters on Enterprise in My Enemy, My Ally as well.

The sword smith's name was S'Harien.

Man, am I ever an aging dweeb...

^
LOL, well, I was close... only missed it by that much. Just forgot an apostrophe and made it an "u" instead of an "a"...

It's been about 6 months since the last time I read My Enemy, My Ally (when I was getting ready for the final book to come out last December)...

Not sure if this was mentioned but....another good series that explains the Romulan/ Vulcan separation is The Vulcan Soul Series by Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz.


I liked it almost as much as I liked the Rihannsu series.

I also like the Vulcan soul series by Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz they're well written and just as good as Diane Duane's Vulcan and Romulan History in her books.The authors use Diane's character S'Task and other characters they created and and talk about the ancient traditions they decided to keep and and the honor blades and what happened to the swords during the long journey. The changes in their family life and clans the intrigue the poilitics. it's a really great series.

I was always fascinated with the Romulans. I always wanted the Romulans to become what the Klingons became in TNG.

^ If you read the Titan series they seem to have come around. At least they did in the 1st book. I haven't read the second one yet.

Also by the end of Nemesis Riker tells Picard that he would be headed to the Neutral zone for dialog with the Romulans.

I do like, however, that a lot of the Romulan/Federation cooperation was the result of the Dominion War. (There was something sketchy about exactly how that happened, I think.) Anyway, it seemed realistic enough to me. If it would last or not - who knows? Maybe the Romulans only wanted to negotiate at the end of Nemesis to fake the Federation out while they recovered from losing almost all of their government.

^
Yeah, basically the DS9 crew out and out lied to the Romulans about who killed their ambassador, blaming the Dominion, as I recall, in order to get them to agree because they needed the Romulans to be on their side.

(I blacked out the spoiler because I know that Rigil is currently watching DS9 for the first time, and KTR is still waiting for his copy to start watching...)

You know I liked the first two Titan novels. The last two were not my thing.