that characters should be white and that the society should resemble the Middle Ages. Languages The people of the Archipelago are united by a single language: Hardic. Though dialects have inevitably sprung up on the various islands, all are mutually intelligible. The Kargs speak Kargish, and on the island of Osskil, the inhabitants also speak Osskili. Dragons talk in True Speech, also called Old Speech, the original language of magic. Earthsea, with the exception of the Kargad lands, is a literate society using a writing system called the "Hardic runes". The name suggests similarity to the Germanic runes, but there are supposed to be hundreds of runes in use (in A Wizard of Earthsea, Ged learns to read and write "The Six Hundred Runes of Hardic"), suggesting a logographic system similar to Chinese. Names Each individual among the Hardic people has several names over the course of their life: a child-name, a use-name and a true name. Up to puberty, a person is known by their child-name; at their rite of Passage, at about the age of thirteen, that name is taken from them and they are given their true name by a witch, sorcerer or wizard. The true name is a single word of True Speech. One's true name is a closely guarded secret, shared only with those whom they trust completely because it grants the knower great power over the person. A use-name is adopted for everyday dealings. It may be an animal (Dragonfly, Hare, Otter, Sparrowhawk), a plant (Alder, Heather, Moss, Rowan), a substance (Diamond, Flint, Ivory, Jasper, Onyx) or something else (Golden, Kurremkarmerruk, the latter having no meaning). Use-names are not unique; there are, for instance, three different characters called Rose. Kargs, who hate and fear magic, do not use this system of naming. They have single names only (Azver, Seserakh, Tenar). History The Creation of Éa is a 31-stanza poem, the oldest part of Earthsea's oral tradition. It describes how Segoy raised the islands of Earthsea from the ocean by naming them in the True Speech. Little is known of the original inhabitants of Earthsea, but scattered legends suggest that humans and dragons were once one race. The ancient Pelnish lore and Kargad legends describe an agreement between them called the Vedurnan or Verw Nadan to separate because of their differing temperaments and goals. The dragons chose the free life of air and fire, while