Jedan Paunene Fareniil

Male Faulfenzair crew of the Willseeker.

Biography

Used to do some teaching prior to his decision to seek the Others. There he trained to be a mechanic/engineer, and was assigned to ship's maintenance duties. Has a younger sister, a scribe, Zaipau. Friends from their modern schooling days on Quapendai with Aunal.

After the RGRV Visionary crash-landed on the Vault of the Twelveworld, he helped Sediryl carry drinking water back to the wreck. He and Sediryl were the first to hear the howling of the feral children of the ancient Chatcaava.

After the War

Is now on Escutcheon, learning alien languages ("with the help of twelve enthusiastic children") and helping test the high gravity devices with Maia and Uuvek.

Quotes

• "I’m not so sure I wouldn’t have said the same, had she showed up in one of my tutoring sessions. ‘Look, children! A real Other! If she stays long enough, perhaps we will be able to watch her construct the Golden Age.’"

• "If there was evidence, there would be no uncertainty, and without uncertainty, there is no free will. And without free will, we cannot love the God. Love requires choice, and choice is only possible if the outcome is not certain."

• "Unlike the Alliance, with its multiplicity of species and philosophies, these Eldritch were more like the Others he'd imagined as a child: homogeneous in appearance and unified in their mores and aesthetics. Which was not to say that he had not enjoyed his travels in the Alliance, but he liked how the similarities among the Eldritch attuned him to details. When people were so varied, one saw their gross differences: this one had large pointed ears, that one had short flat ones; this one had a muzzle and that one didn't. It was only when people were more uniform that one was sensitized to their individual variations. And all people deserved to be seen as individuals."

• "I am working on it," Jedan said, amused. "With the enthusiastic help of twelve children." [Context: the twelve Eldritch children in Benila's classroom, classroom he and his friend, attend. He is better than his friend Aunal at writing, worse at reading alien scripts.]

Trivia

• Can play Cat's Cradle (the Eldritch finger/string game)