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On the Body
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Taboos, Swearing, and Metaphors.
This public article was written by [Deactivated User] on 19 Jun 2017, 19:04.

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The Kashith are a species steeped in magic. Their genesis on the planet Tek -- now abandoned -- taught them to respect the rules of arcanology. One such rule is that, if you know the true name of something, the name bestowed upon it by someone else, you have the power to control it.

It is this particular belief that has led to the taboos on which the Kashith swear. Common swearwords revolve around the internal organs of the body. To say the uneuphemised name of a body part is to risk calling down a curse upon it. In everyday life, few people worry about this with such body parts as the fingers or the leg, so euphemisms for such body parts have largely fallen out of use.

However, a lingering horror of injury to the secret parts of the of the body, such as the organs, which cannot be seen and are much more difficult to treat, remains. In everyday speech, these parts are referred to with circumlocutions -- for instances, the organs are khethæ, 'innards.'

Using the true name for body parts (such as zesa, 'organs') serves as a type of profanity by violating taboos. The taboo loading can be increased by swearing on the gods' body parts: Neyri ngghæhym, 'Neyri's guts,' for instance. In addition to the word zesa, guts (ngghæ), lungs (pama), and liver are for some reason popular. Blood (ksekh) is another popular choice, as it serves in metaphors to represent the whole of the person. To use words like ksekhyp (bloody) or fesassksekh (blood-drinker) is to suggest that a curse might afflict the whole body.

This provides a view into many other Kashith underlying metaphors and attitudes. For instance, fights for honor are common, and injuries commonplace, but such fights only go to first blood. This is partly because it is not particularly conducive to a society to have people going around killing each other. It is equally, however, because to shed someone's blood is to metaphorically kill them. The blood, it is considered, contains the essence of a person, their spirit. When you draw blood from someone, a little bit of their spirit dies. This is quite sufficient to satisfy the point of the battle.

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