David said:
>DC: I am quite sure that Greg thinks recent Dara Happan architecture has a
distinctly classical bent (more on this in
disgusting detail if anyone cares - just let me know).
Pam responded:
As always, please send all disgusting detail my way. (Unless it
involves Vadeli.) I had envisioned DH architecture more like Persian or
Assyrian. It could have evloved, I guess.
*(*(*(*(*(**
Pam *was* right, in Greg's view, traditional Dara Happan architecture looks a
lot more like ancient Assyria and Persia. No arches, no concrete. Ziggarauts
and cities walled with brick.
So why does Peloria and Dara Happa look a lot more like classical Greece these days? Well, Carmania, the mixing zone between the West and Dara Happa, has Greek-style architecture, but that's not the cool part of the explanation. . .
I believe the following *cool* explanation owes much to Harald Smith, who has been working on Saird and its environs, among other places. The reason Dara Happa no longer looks like Assyria/Persia is that Sheng Seleris came in and destroyed most anything he found standing.
The second time Sheng conquered the Empire, when he went up to the Moon and carved the scars onto the Goddess' face, very little Dara Happan architecture survived in his wake.
But Sheng didn't damage Carmania much. And he never managed to touch the Conquering Daughter's temple at Jillaro on the Rock, which is mentioned on page 39 of the Genertela Book (volume 2).
I think it's Harald's view (and it's certainly Greg's!) that Jillaro on the Rock ends up functioning as the Dara Happan Acropolis. The Dara Happans needed to rebuild, so they took the "beautiful old style" that got used on the temple at Jillaro, the temple that survived Sheng's devastation, and they spread it out across the empire.
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