The Last Fru'wu on Earth

Jack Vance

"Never push too hard at anything; it might start pushing back." - Namour Co-Clattuc

Last year I was sorting through an avalanche of information about the history of Humanity that had been provided to me by Ivory and her clone sisters.

Humans and Fru'wu as subtypes of Sedronite.

At that time, I became aware of the fact that an important part of the transition from the Ekcolir Reality to the world as we know it involved a reprogramming of the nanite endosymbionts that reside inside humans. I'm now able to better understand what Ivory tried to tell me because I've received additional information from Gohrlay.

Asterothrope female

According to Gohrlay, some Fru'wu were allowed to function as Interventionist agents on Earth in the Ekcolir Reality, right on up through the 20th century. However, after Ekcolir was sent back through time to initiate the Buld Reality, no more Fru'wu were allowed to come to Earth.

From then on, human Interventionists such as Parthney were trained at places like Lendhalen for missions to Earth and the other types of Interventionist agents became less and less important.

Off Topic
I hesitate to mention this, but I got into a big argument with Gohrlay about the definition of "human". Apparently Parthney is human because his biological father was an Ek'col. Of course, his biological mother was an alien (an Asterothrope), but Gohrlay says the Ek'col male was designed as a hybrid biological-artificial life form that is able to make certain that his children would meet the definition of "human" that is being enforced under the terms of the Trysta-Grean Pact.

Fru'wu

Artist's depiction of a Fru'wu

I've previously commented on the fact that it has been difficult to find confirmed and verifiable eyewitness accounts of what the Fru'wu look like. Some reports state that the Fru'wu are winged creatures and Gohrlay has confirmed the validity of those reports. Apparently the Fru'wu were genetically engineered to have wings that allowed them to fly in the thick atmospheres of some planets. However, on Earth, the Fru'wu wings are unable to produce enough lift to sustain flight, although a Fru'wu can jump off a cliff and safely glide to the valley floor below.

Vanth by ThaliaTook

Although no new Fru'wu agents were allowed to teleport to Earth during the past 20,000 years, there were a few Fru'wu Interventionists on Earth when the ban went into effect. One of these in particular stubbornly maintained residency on Earth until thons death about 2,000 years ago. Gohrlay says that all the Fru'wu who served on Earth were hermaphrodites, but they were often viewed as female by the humans who chanced to see them in their natural form.

Not many Earthlings ever saw the natural Fru'wu body form because the Fru'wu visitors to Earth were all equipped with nanites that allowed them to alter their appearance. Gohrlay says that Fru'wu wings are definitely mammalian wings, like bat wings, not the bird-like wings that are usually favored by Earthly artists when they create imagined winged creatures.

The Vanth-Vance Connection

Vanth, 400 B.C.E.

According to Gohrlay, the last Fru'wu on Earth was particularly well-known to the ancient Etruscans. The Fru'wu had long maintained a  human breeding program on Earth with the goal of producing human brains that would have the ability to use the Bimanoid Interface. The Vanth (also known to us by other names that were used in other cultures: Wánax, Ansu) collected human genetic material and gestated human embryos. Here I'll follow Gohrlay's lead and simply refer to the last Fru'wu on Earth as Vanth.

In the Ekcolir Reality, the Etruscan civilization flowered under Greek influence and there never was a Roman Empire. In the Buld Reality, time travel was used to put an end to the Etruscan civilization and this intervention resulted in the dominance of Rome.

Artist's conception of Luri.

Ivory previously tried to explain to me the importance of Luri and Thrukta and the roles they played as Interventionist agents. According to Gohrlay, Luri was "composed" by Vanth and could access the Sedronic Domain. Luri's oracle-like abilities began to attract the attention of the Overseers, so Thrukta had to remove Luri from Earth, but she later returned as an Interventionist agent in modern times.

Luri of Tamari by Anney Fersoni

When Vanth died, the Fru'wu effort to breed and protect some humans who could use the Bimanoid Interface was continued by the Nereid Interventionists. Apparently there was at least one Grendel still on Earth who accounts for the name "Vance" as we know it. Gohrlay insists that the reason John Vance was brought over from the Ekcolir Reality to the Buld Reality was because of his genetic makeup and ability to use the Bimanoid Interface.

Gohrlay says that Anney and the Dead Widowers extensively researched the methods that were used to put an end to the Etruscan civilization. However, they were not allowed to publish Luri of Tamari. There is some part of the story of the Fru'wu that is still being kept under wraps by the tryp'At. I sense that Gohrlay is protecting me by not telling me the whole story about Vanth's death.

Related Reading: Fru'wu time travel

Next: investigating the origins of science fiction in Deep Time.

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Planet of the Gods

In the Ekcolir Reality

In the Golden Age of science fiction, it was still possible for wishful thinkers (like Campbell) to imagine that Mars had some plant life, but now it was essentially a "dead planet" where a glorious technologically advanced civilization might have risen and fallen long before humans arrived. And that Venus has living creatures just like Earth. And that planetary systems would be rare in the galaxy. And that Earth-like planets might be found around a young star like Vega. Vega?

Yes, Vega. As one of the brightest stars in Earth's sky, Vega has been a popular destination for science fiction story writers.

Vega was written into Carl Sagan's science fiction novel Contact. Isaac Asimov and Jack Vance also included Vega in their science fiction stories. Sadly, Vega is such a young star that it is unlikely to have an Earth-like planet in orbit.

Interior art by Jay Jackson
Click image to enlarge.

In the December 1942 issue of Amazing Stories, one of the stories was "Planet of the Gods" by Robert Moore Williams. Williams imagined that an expedition from Earth arrives on the Earth-like world that orbits Vega. The planet is populated by human-like aliens who have telepathic powers (see the image to the left).

He Was Dead, Jeb

in the Ekcolir Reality

Just before landing on the Vegan planet, three crew members are killed in a "space battle". The crew lands their damaged ship and buries their three dead crew members. The next day, the three dead men are alive again, having been brought back to life by the Vegans. The Vegans are ancient and have very advanced technology. The "space battle" was fought against one of their automated space forts, long ago left in orbit. Although the Vegan's now live in post-industrial bliss among the forest groves of their world, they long ago traveled to the stars. We Earthlings can trace our origins to the Vegans who long ago visited Earth.

Moore Alternate

Censored in the Buld Reality

In the Ekcolir Reality, Robert Williams became a conduit for release of information about the secret history of Earth. According to Gohrlay, Williams had a "close encounter" with a positronic robot and he came into possession of some infites that provided him with a fairly complete, if garbled, understanding of the fact that Earth had long ago been contacted by aliens.

The World As We Know It
In the Buld Reality, the world as we know it, Williams was one of the science fiction writers who was contacted by the Dead Widowers during 20th century. Once again, the analogue of Williams was provided with a swarm of infites, leading to an attempt to pass forbidden knowledge into our timeline.

Gohrlay showed me a novel that Williams wrote: Planet of the Fru'wu. In 1958, soon after trying to publish Planet of the Fru'wu, Williams was removed from Earth. According to Gohrlay, Williams was replaced by an artificial life form that could perfectly mimic his behavior during the remaining years of "his life" on Earth, but his science fiction writing career was over.

in the Ekcolir Reality

Gohrlay claims that the first infites that were transferred to me were those that had originally been provided to Williams. Williams was an unfortunate "test subject" for the Experimental Interventionists who were trying to probe the nature of the Trysta-Grean Pact during the 20th century. Eventually they realized that no release of information about the secret history of Earth would be tolerated until after the end of the Time Travel Era.

I was forced to carry the "Williams infites" for several decades before I was allowed to become consciously aware of their information content. Early in this millennium, I began writing stories that were set in Exodemic Fictional Universe, but I was still kept under strict restraints until after the Buld visit to Earth in 2012.

According to Gohrlay, the true importance of Vega for Earth is that the rogue planet Yrwerd is now located near Vega.

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Gohrlay

The Exode Trilogy

Last year, I initiated a research project aimed at obtaining information about the fate of Gohrlay, the Neanderthal woman who was the first character created for what has become the Exode Trilogy. Then a strange thing happened: my collaborators began pushing me to recognize the role of science fiction in general and Jack Vance in particular in shaping the world as we know it.

Hypothesis

Gohrlay's brain

I'm forced to assume that Ivory Fersoni and the Atlantis Clones have been trying to do the impossible: pass critically important information about Gohrlay to me without provoking the tryp'At Overseers to step in and block their efforts. I've taken to calling the efforts of Ivory and the Dead Widowers a type of "Experimental Interventionism" that has been aimed at testing the limits of the Trysta-Grean Pact.

I'm further forced to assume that the "critical information" is not really new to me, but rather, it is information that I have previously obtained. However, I have in the past (repeatedly) been given the choice of 1) retaining conscious awareness of the truth and being forced to leave Earth or 2) being made to forget the truth and allowed to stay on Earth.

Original art by William Timmins

Risk Assessment
I'm a blabber mouth. I despise secrets and it is really difficult for me to keep a secret. However, I must face the possibility that there are some truths I can know as long as I keep them to myself.  Armed with that secret knowledge, I can decode the past and tell the secret history of Earth...as long as I restrict myself to telling that story in the form of a science fiction story.

I don't like the idea that I have to constantly estimate the risk of sharing what I know with the people of Earth. I don't want to play the role of an Experimental Interventionist, but I've been forced to conclude that that is the role I am expected to play. I'm too much of a coward to risk getting kicked off of Earth: I now believe that the Buld Reality, the world as we know it, was designed so that the future of Humanity depends on me staying here on this world and telling what I know (or, at least, much  of what I know) to my fellow Earthlings.

Saying What I Can Say Without Saying what I Can't Say

Taivasila

During the past year, I repeatedly asked my collaborators about the fate of Gohrlay. I gradually realized that they all knew perfectly well what had become of Gohrlay and, in fact, they had quickly and repeatedly told me what they knew. And I enthusiastically blogged about Gohrlay here on this blog. And the tryp'At had to step in and censor what I had written. Indeed, they had to censor my memories and make me forget what I had learned about Gohrlay. More than once. My brain must be a web of imposed blockages that have repeatedly kept me from remembering what I have learned about Gohrlay.

Now I've remembered once again, but somehow I've also realized that I must restrain myself. I will be allowed to retain my memories as long as I control my instinctive desire to share what I know with the people of Earth. This does not mean that I must remain silent. I simply must tell the secret history of Earth in the correct way: in the guise of a science fiction story.

What role did Gohrlay play in creating the tryp'At?

I can say this much: Gohrlay is here on Earth, ready, willing and able to share her special knowledge of the past with the people of Earth. Gohrlay is my muse. She has always been a part of my mind, shaping my thought patterns towards the goal that I must play as "the Editor".

I now understand that Gohrlay had to be hidden "in plain sight". In other words, Gohrlay had to be inserted into Earth's timeline where she could function as an oracular source of truth, but she must exist here on the world within the restrictions that are imposed by the tryp'At Overseers and the terms of the Trysta-Grean Pact.

Gohrlay on Earth

The most frustrating thing about all this is that I must resist my urge to reveal Gohrlay's identity. I wasted almost a year obsessing over the idea that Gohrlay, as a Neanderthal, might carry genes that could be sequenced and that would provide objective evidence of the existence of a living Neanderthal on Earth.

However, I now believe that Gohrlay is allowed to stay here on Earth only as long as her presence here, and her physical nature, remain secret. So, the source of information about Gohrlay that I have been seeking is Gohrlay herself, and it is up to me to control myself and use Gohrlay as a source of information without revealing her Earthly identity.

Worse still, I must allow Gohrlay to pour her knowledge of Earth's past into my mind. I am a conduit by which her knowledge can be passed along to the people of Earth. I want objective evidence that supports her claims, I want confirmation of her information from other independent sources. I don't want to be wrong about the secret history of Humanity. But I now recognize that I will not be given the certainty that I desire. This is a fundamental constraint that is imposed upon my by the Trysta-Grean Pact.

Biographical Sketch

Gohrlay adopts the physical form
of a Kac'hin female

Gohrlay was designed and crafted in Deep Time on Yrwerd, a world of the Galactic Core. I suspect that there have been many functional "copies" of Gohrlay, and I can't hope to sort out those complexities. A copy of Gohrlay was used by Orbho Anagro to advance the science of positronics, resulting in the creation of R. Gohrlay and her tribe of positronic robots.

Gohrlay spent some time on Taivasila and became involved with Lili and the creation of the Atlantis Clones. Apparently this was where Gohrlay was "instantiated" as an artificial life form, a life form that is so sophisticated that there is possibly now no available "objective evidence" in "her body" of her Neanderthal past.

Gohrlay most recently lived on Yrwerd where she coordinated with the tryp'At in preparation for placing Earth under the tryp'At Overseers. Before going to Earth, Gohrlay had to be "programmed" so as to fully comply with the terms of the Trysta-Grean Pact.

Next: one link in the Yrwerd Intervention.

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Virgil Finlay

Famous Fantastic Mysteries
art by Virgil Finlay

Virgil Finlay (July 23, 1914 – January 18, 1971) died at the age of 56. From my perspective, as someone who is 56, that seems like a horribly young age for anyone to die. As a contemporary of Jack Vance, Finlay created illustrations for some of Vance's early published stories.

New Bodies for Old

Vance published "New Bodies for Old" in the August 1950 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories. You can read the story here. Roland Mario, lazy, affluent and bored, pays to have his mind transferred into the body of Ralston Ebery, an obese but wealthy industrialist and manufacturer of the Ebery Air-car. An employee of Ebery Air-car company is Letya Arnold, who has invented a faster-than-light spaceship propulsion system. After a year of hard work, Mario gets his old body back and he is ready to head for the stars.

Thrilling Wonder Stories, February 1952

Shown to the right is an interior illustration drawn by Finlay for Abercrombie Station. Relax: our heroine Jean escapes from the alien monsters.

Sjambak

In 1953, Vance published a short story called "Sjambak" in the July 1953 issue of If magazine. The interior illustration by Finlay (shown to the left) is rather whimsical, depicting a man riding a horse in outer space.

The Early Jack Vance

In "Sjambak", some people living on an airless world create a device that oxygenates the blood without any need for breathing. Of course, Vance could not resist pushing the idea to the limit, and so Wilbur Murphy travels into space without a space suit. Sadly, he rides a rocket-bike, not a horse.

Illustration by Virgil Finlay

Vance published "The Houses of Iszm" in the Spring 1954 issue of Startling Stories. Vance wrote giant trees into several of his stories. In "The Houses of Iszm", trees have been selected or engineered to serve as homes. An interior art illustration for the story is shown to the left.

I've been imagining that Isaac Asimov created science fiction as a literary genre in the Ekcolir Reality. Asimov grew up reading pulp fiction magazines and it is fun to imagine that he might have been satisfied to have such magazines as the sole outlet for publishing science fiction. In that Reality, science fiction remained a small obscure genre just for science nerds, a genre of story telling in which the relentless logic of scientific thought and technological gizmos forced stories into a constrained and cramped state space.

Original art by Virgil Finlay

For the Exode Trilogy, I imagine that Grean had higher aspirations for science fiction, so Asimov's replicoid was sent back in time to the middle of the 20th century on a mission that would make science fiction the world's dominant form of story telling. In a sense, Jack Vance (and his twin brother John) became the antidote for the type of science fiction that Asimov had invented and, as a consequence, I get to have fun inventing a scenario in which Vance's imagination creates the world of science fiction as we know it.

For a time, Vance wrote science fiction stories that were set in the Solar System and that centered on some technological advance. "New Bodies for Old", "Sjambak" and "I’ll Build Your Dream Castle" are good examples of this early story style in which Vance conformed to the pulp Sci Fi conventions.

star crystal

Vance eventually liberated himself from Sci Fi conventions that governed pulp Sci Fi magazines and wrote novels that were set in his ‘Gaean Reach’ fictional universe. Many future science ideas like super-dense materials from stars that formed the basis of the plot for early stories like "I'll Build Your Dream Castle", later reappeared in Vance's novels of the Gaean Reach, but they were now introduced only as background elements for a far future setting. Vance had found a way to put the story teller back in control of science fiction.

Duodecimates are mined on Dar Sai

For example, later Vance stories featured "star-crystals" (in Trullion) and "duodecimates" (in The Face), but these future science plot elements served Vance's story telling needs and did not force uncomfortable restraints upon Vance's story telling.

High density "star-crystals" in Trullion.

The second novel in
the Star King trilogy;
cover art by Virgil Finlay

Astrology magazine
illustrations; Buld Reality.
Click to enlarge

In the Ekcolir Reality, Finlay became a leading cover illustrator for science fiction novels and he worked well into the 21st century. Sadly, in the Buld Reality, when the pulp science fiction magazines went into decline, Finlay did less work in the field of science fiction and took up new work such as illustrating astrology magazines.

In the Ekcolir Reality, Jack Vance wrote Star King, then his brother John Vance wrote two related novels, Thumb Nail Gulch and The Star Queen.

The third novel in
the Star King trilogy;
cover art by Virgil Finlay

A prequel to
The Palace of Love

John Vance wrote other Demon Prince novels including The Clones of Sogdian, Return to Dar Sai (A sequel to The Face in which Jerdian and Kirth team up to solve a new mystery on Dar Sai) and The Unmasking at Ott's Resort (a prequel to The Book of Dreams)

John Vance also wrote some spin-off novels set in the Alastor Cluster including The Pier of Departure (a Jantiff Ravensroke adventure).

Related Reading: expanding on Vance's fiction
                            and more Alternate Vance

Original cover art by Virgil Finlay.

Hotel Triceratops

the Hotel Triceratops in Tanaquil, Bethune Preserve

Last year I took a look back at some of the humor of Jack Vance and the theme of that blog post was, "how to have fun with each and every story". At that time, I described six memorable characters that Vance included in stories of his Demon Princes, Alastor Cluster and Cadwal Chronicles series.

For this year's celebration of the life of Jack Vance, I play tour guide for visits to six of the memorable places that Jack Vance invented for his readers.

Hotel Triceratops

The Book of Dreams

In The Book of Dreams, the erratic course of Gersen's hunt for Demon Prince Howard Alan Treesong brings us to the planet Bethune Preserve, with "over 600 game and nature reserves".

Vance kept returning to the idea of an entire exoplanet that, rather than be swarmed by human settlers, would instead be protected and treated like a nature preserve. There is a hint of such thinking in Star King, when after a long "fantastic voyage" to reach Tehalt's planet, the Director of Exploration and the Chairman of the Research Planning Committee for the Department of Galactic Morphology both decide to keep the world secret, as Gersen puts it: "...to preserve the world from desecration".

18 years later, Vance returned to this idea of a planetary nature reserve and gave us Bethune Preserve. Then, 6 years later Vance launched an entire series of novels built upon the idea of the planet Cadwal having been set aside as a world protected from human exploitation. I like to think that the events of The Book of Dreams are located in time several centuries before those of the Cadwal Chronicles.

After centuries of existence as a Conservancy, Cadwal starts going through changes. Like a disease, the Yips (something like illegal immigrants) start to grow from their primary site of infection in the Lutwen Atoll, threatening to swarm over an entire continent.

Ecce

Some of the few legal residents of Cadwal waver in their devotion to protecting the native life forms and begin to dream of setting aside the Conservancy and "civilizing" the planet. The Naturalist Society, which owns Cadwal, is almost extinct and unable to protect Cadwal as a nature preserve.

We can imagine that the Naturalist Society of Old Earth is still quite active during Kirth Gersen's lifetime and its members frequently venture to Bethune Preserve in order to study the native life forms. Among these is the horned Triceratops Shanar, a six legged beast that can grow to at least 20 feet in length judging from the stuffed specimen on display at the Hotel Triceratops in Tanaquil. Some of the beasts that are native to Cadwal's continent Ecce seem to be similar in nature to those depicted on Bethune Preserve.

Triceratops Shanar display at the Hotel Triceratops, a popular tourists inn of Tanaquil, Bethune Preserve

Butterflies and Beasts on Cadwal

Tanaquil is a major port of ingress for tourists. Somewhere between a town and a city, Tanaquil is a small urban settlement by Earthly standards. Vance had fun depicting the residents of Bethune Preserve as being held tightly in the grip of Regulations that were designed to protect the native creatures of the planet.

The entire planet of Bethune Preserve was later re-imagined by Jack Vance as the planet Cadwal, a world completely controlled by the Naturalist Society of Earth. In his series of novels about Cadwal, Vance explored the social dynamics of groups such as Naturalists and Tourists, each with their own competing interests.

Vance lovingly elaborated upon the idea of small tourist resorts that could be integrated into the natural beauty of Cadwal while not disturbing the native life of the planet.

Islands of the Imagination

The Fens (page of Jasper Schreurs)

In Trullion, Glinnes tries to romance his Hussade team's sheirl on a small island near Welgen, in the Fens. Duissane rebuffs his advances, letting loose her tongue: "You're all alike, you Trills! You reek of cauch; your brain is a single lecherous gland. Do you aspire to nothing but turpitude?"

Araminta Station

Writing some 15 years later, Vance brought together Glawen and Wayness on Ocean Island, one of the few sailing destinations for residents of Araminta Station on the planet Cadwal. Unable to put out of mind his irksome duties as a junior police officer, Glawen notes, "It seems foolish to go back. We could live in utter tranquility here, at peace with the elements."

Wayness cautions, "...you might well become bored with me after ten or twenty years- especially if we ran out of soap."

Glawen and Wayness visit Ocean Island.

The World of the Nineteen Moons.

Glinnes simply laughs when he receives Duissane's tongue lashing and he remains fascinated by her. Similarly, Glawen is forced to respect the currents of destiny that he and Wayness are caught up in, currents that hold them apart. Glinnes and Glawen both politely return their island guest to the mainland, but neither gives up their romantic dreams.

The Standing Stones
Wayness is too busy to give into Glawen's charms. She feels that the future of the Cadwal Conservancy and the planet Cadwal rely on her ability to find the Cadwal Charter. After much travail, she and Glawen eventually succeed in finding the Charter and saving Cadwal.

Wayness: Mission to Old Earth

Along the way to the end of the Cadwal saga, Glawen saves Wayness from three dastardly attacks, one among the Standing Stones of planet Nion.

In the end, Glinnes and Glawen overcome the objections of Duissane and Wayness. On the last page of Trullion, Glinnes and Duissane walk together down a beach, Vance leaving readers aware of the fact that finally nothing remains to keep the two apart.

At the end of the Cadwal Chronicles, Glawen and Wayness are building the home that they will live in together and their friend Lewyn Barduys has given them a wonderful wedding gift: a Fortunatus Nine space yacht. After all their flirtations with danger, Wayness and Glawen are ready for some tranquility, but we suspect that before too long they will board the Frotunatus and be off on new adventures between the stars.

Glisten on Dessimo Beach near Balad. Also:
the tiny hut shared by Jantiff and Glisten
near the Moaning Ocean on the planet Wyst.

Dessimo Beach
Vance's stories feature a number of memorable beaches. For a short time, Dessimo Beach, beside the Moaning Ocean, was the home of Jantiff Ravensroke and Glisten, the young Weirdlands Witch. In the Demon Princes series, Gersen frequents Sailmaker Beach, to the north of Avente, on the planet Alphanor, beside the Thaumaturge Ocean.

Wyst

Dessimo Beach is nearly wild, one of the many places in the human universe where civilization has first triumphantly come, but then succumbs to a process of de-civilizing and that Vance depicts as crumbling back into nature. Not far from Balad, a small town at the extreme southern end of the Weirdlands, Jantiff makes his home by sprucing up a decayed fisherman's shack.

Reflecting on his time living on Dessimo Beach, Jantiff says, "As I think back, I was happy there. I had food; I had Glisten to look at; I had goals, impractical though they might have been, and for a time I thought I was realizing them. Yes! I was truly alive!"

The Chailles

On the dunes of Dar Sai, under
the magic light of Mirassou

In the moonlit desert near Dinkelstown, Kirth Gersen and Jerdian Chanseth joined the Darsh in their nocturnal mating ritual.

Jerdian and her party of Methlen tourists were tricked by their Darsh guide, Nobius. Using the Methlen as bait, Nobius wins the kitchet Farrero, who has been positioned on a rocky ledge of the Chailles.

The Face

Gersen rescues Jerdian from the Darsh and together they float over the dunes in Gersen's aircar. Under the romantic influence of the moon Mirassou, Jerdian comments, "The desert is a very strange place by moonlight. Of gives off an enchantment like a dream-place..."

Safe in Gersen's tender embrace Jerdian asks, "Will I be the only one returning with my virtue intact?" Gersen leaves that up to her. Under the magic moon, upon the ancient dunes, they become lovers.

Throy

Bainsey Castle
Vance spent much of his life building his house on a hillside in California. In his stories, he depicted many notable construction sites and castles. In the Cadwal saga, when the character Lewyn Barduys falls in love with Cadwal and its wilderness lodges, he sets out to build his own rustic inns.

Dream Castles

"The first thesis governing every inn was definite: it must be an integral part of the landscape, with no interference from elsewhere in the form of color contrasts, discordant shape, music or other entertainment."

Barduys starts to construct wilderness lodges on the planet Rosalia. For the site of his first inn, he selects the old Bainsey Castle site. Once a sea-side retreat for the Stronsi clan, the Castle lies in ruins, having been toppled by a storm. Felitzia Stronsi (Flitz), the only survivor of the Castle's collapse, becomes the love interest of a charming vagabond, Eustace Chilke.

Bainsey Castle Lodge, Rosalia.

Belrod Castle, Marune.

Eustace and Flitz were made for each other. Chilke happened to come into ownership of the Cadwal Charter. With similar lack of volition, Flitz became the owner of Stronsi Ranch. They are two free spirits and not interested in owning anything, except a space yacht that can allow them to (as Flitz puts it): "...fly off into the far regions of space to track down the drunken tales you once heard in a saloon, while probably more than half drunk yourself and, in general, live a feckless irresponsible life."

Jack Vance 1915 - 2015

At the end of the Cadwal Saga, Glawen and Wayness as well as Flitz and Chilke have all promised to be on Rosalia for the grand opening of the new inn being built by Barduys at the Bainsey Castle site. Vance's fans will always be able to assemble at such far destinations, thanks to the imagination of Jack Vance.
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Related Reading:
More places from the imagination of Jack Vance, including Smade's Planet. The Fens and Airy Gulch. Port Mar.  Stroma Fiord and Stronsi Ranch. 2016 tribute to Vance.

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Next: Jack Vance in another Reality.