Please, forgive my rough english. You know: French people and "foreign" languages... :p
About nandani and vingan, I have a more magic/runic/(cosmic ? mythic ?) point of view.
Do you remember the telmori ? Wolf people, sons of Telmor. I suppose a sartarite would see t Telmori as men acting like wolves, with wolves. But telmori all know that they ARE wolves. Four-legged wolves and two-legged wolves, but wolves. They are wolves in nature, magic nature, runic nature (soul or spirit if you want)...
In my point of view, all orlanthi males (which mean 85%) are deeply connected to Storm (Storm magic, Storm rune, Strom soul... whatever). They ARE Storm, just like telmori ARE wolves. And female orlanthi are all deeply connected to Earth. They ARE Earth. But sometimes, a male orlanthi was born with a deep connection to Earth. She feels she is Earth, no matter her male body. Like a twolegged telmori is wolf, no matter his "human like" body. Nadani are "women who have the shape of men". A nandan "must be a woman born in man's body". "She is exempt from attending the clan fyrd".(ST p. 224). Not because she's not strong enough, but because she's Earth, that kind of Earth that knows and teaches "there is another way".
Vingan are trickier.
- I would say that initiates of the Defender Storm were women with
strong connection with Storm. They ARE Storm. They feel they are men
born in the shape of women. Just like nandani are women born in the
shape of men. Those vingan are men and proud of it.
- A Red Woman was a woman born in the woman shape. She was Earth and
she knew it. But someday, someone or something stormed her life. And
because she felt so stormed, she gave up the "there is always
another way" credo for the "violence is the option" (that is:
revenge). And the day she feels at peace, no more stormed, she steps
back to the Earth way, her TRUE way. Those vingan are stormed/hurt
women. And who could be proud of being hurt ? (Anyway, the "vingan
defeats" thing could help them to endure it)
- Now, the Spearwomen have obvious strong Earth connection. These
kinds of Earth connection that make them act like protectress. Of
course they are cunning (tricky, as I said :p) and surely smarter
than many men. They are women and proud of it, and they are right to.
My two (rough and maybe not that shiny) pence...
Best regards
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