Talonstain

Though no dragon has initiated a conversation with a human since the years of the Dragon Emperors, they will still converse with Fireminds who engage them in the Firetongue. As the Firetongue can only be heard or spoken to another's soul, it is impossible for bystanders to glean direct insight from these conversations, and of course the Fireminds do not speak of what they have learned. However, Fireminds often pick up unusual linguistic habits, including some telling additions to their vocabulary. The most common addition is the draconic swear word "talonstain." No precise definition is needed, I think, to understand what is meant of the person so labelled, as well as some hints as to how the noble ones judge a person's worthiness. But we do find some interesting usage among the authors of the Codex Ingenuous (who were, of course, all Fireminds, with the obvious exception of Kelorna the Extremely Confused), some examples of which I share below.

In the Chronicles of Wayn, the anonymous poet writes (ln 45,559-45,562):

As falls upone the Foe, with mightie furnace-breaths, / So did great Pulchroon, deep-tyrant, reduce to / Talonstains the manlings' fears. (This comes, of course, from the Steingaärd translation.)

We see here that the word "talonstain" carries connotations of a thing reduced to nothing, usually in the context of a violent struggle. (This framing is shared with depictions of the dragon therapist Pulchroon elsewhere in the Codex.) The word easily makes the jump to the metaphorical, as seen in Jeminus's "Rout of the Philosophies" (CI #782, p. 27):

And Dragon-King Goortros spake, saying, Ye fools, knoweth ye not that your wisdom is but talonstains? Lo, Thraxmanides accosted me, saying, all is that is and all is not that is not, but where are his words now that I have eaten him?

But of course the word sees simple pejorative use in the Codex as well, as per the Elder Fürth's Commentaries on his earlier Transgressive Dialogues:

All you talonstains need to just shut up and let the actually enlightened folk do the talking. Okay? Okay. (CI #1445, p. 394)

As a personal note, the above quote hangs above my door.

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Yedevek Ilron, Bardslayer 2nd class