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Well, sorry for the long absence again. No need to explain it, just go back a reread my note from last chapter.

I'm thinking seriously about retiring now. It's a big decision though, since I'm about two and half years from when I planned to retire. But my health might force it on me.

At any rate, I'm having trouble finding a way to concentrate on writing through this. Thank you to everyone for your patience while I sort this out.

A couple notes about this chapter. The bit of Dorian theology featured here is actually inspired by a song by Christopher Tin called "Wayolo Yomoni". If you don't know who that is, he's the guy that did "Baba Yetu" for Civ IV a while back.

Just like Baba Yetu, the words aren't his own. Baba Yetu is actually the Lord's Prayer in Swahili. "Wayolo Yomoni" is similarly a prayer, but it's a prayer for rain.

If you can find a good translation of it (there's a bunch of bad translations out there), you will find it works just like what Tiana/Hiléa describes here. Not once does the text actually ask for rain. It just tells whoever it is addressing how great it would be and how everyone would rejoice.

After I read that, I imagined the reason to be what I described here, and decided I would make it a facet of Dorian beliefs.

By the way, "Spirit Wood" is one way to interpret the kanji for Cleyera japonica, the plant called Sakaki in Japanese, which is often used as a sacred object for Shinto prayers.

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