Notes from the A Stitch in Time audiobook

[Arpy]

Some of my notes (hastily organized) from the audiobook for the top-shelf A Stitch in Time by Andrew J. Robinson – Summer '23:

Unabridged, read by the author/Garak himself.

What is it to be a Cardassian?


Cardassian Myth and Culture:

• The Mogrund: a phantasmal creature from Cardassian myth described as a spiky lump with several red eyes that occasionally returns from the spirit world to correct the moral balance of ours. Children are warned that their bad behavior would guarantee a visit from the Mogrund — that takes bad children to a subterranean city. Barkan Lokar’s “gruff voice” was described as halfway to the Mogrund’s.

• Calyx: a whirling muscular beast of many appendages from childhood fables. Capable of blinding displays of fighting prowess yet at rest could appear as remarkable as a rock.

• Sleg corgan (gorgon?): huge crawling beast that in certain seasons would barely move at all.

• “There were other still nights, respite from what Bamarren insists and demands from you, but this was the one he’d take with him to the Hall of Memories.” (Nights of stillness and contentment.…) “Died and gone to the Hall of Memories. Where they all go in the end.”

• Haburritic Code (Code of Hammurabi): studied as part of the foundations of Cardassian Law and for its relevance to covert intelligence missions.

• "Second coming of Gul Minok.” Gul Minok was the legendary hero of the early Union. “On the eve of the celebration Gul Minok’s victory over the Samorian invaders, which traditionally ushers in beginning of the longest Cardassian holiday period…”

• The Brangwa: extinct mountain canid whose hide early Cardassians from the mountainous regions of Rogaran used to record the poetry and stories of their culture.

Cardassia and Space:

• The Telluvian Constellations: seen from Cardassia Prime, legendarily pulsing secret messages yet to be deciphered.

• The Blind Moon: the third and weakest moon of Cardassia Prime.

• “…one of my favorite subjects: the wormhole funnel that connects the here and now to seeming infinity. The mystery always fascinated me and those people who dedicated their lives to its expiration were among my heroes..........There was Joran Kyne who had camped outside the Prime Moon Wormhole in an old Galor Class shuttle and waited for the next turbulent opening. He believed that he had decoded a cyclical regularity and that the next opening would give him time to enter the wormhole, move through to the other side, do some exploration, perhaps collect some samples, and return before it closed. It was like saying you could come back from death. Everyone thought he was on an insane suicide mission. They didn’t believe he could succeed. And when he did and he reported his findings the scientific community didn’t want to believe him. His description of the journey thrills me even to today........But when others tried to use his cyclical calculations and were lost, Kyne was discredited. He eventually died in disgrace.”

• Progressively deeper into space from Cardassia Prime:

Loval
Celtris III
Lamenda Prime
Kora II
Orious III
Tzenketh​

The Hibetians:

• First Hebetians: they were the first peoples before the climatic change. They had primitive solar technologies, when the rainforests, and grasslands were taken over by deserts they died off. They couldn’t adapt, is the story.

• "The First Hibetians: an advance culture that was sophisticated on every level. Their technology was solar based, but they were able to support themselves, and this is what their part of the planet look like. (Tarlak grounds, soft and green areas).

• Cardassians have become hard and dry like the desert around them. Hibetian remains outside Lokarian city. Crumbling walls and piles of stone and pulverized tile. Carvings on the side of a wall. Winged creature with a Cardassian face turned toward a sun-disk. Extending down from the creatures body were several tentacles that divided just before entering the bodies of several people looking up. The tentacles went through the people and into the globe below it. Sold to Romulan art dealers who placed pieces in various museums and collections throughout the quadrant. All that’s left now is dust. They valued the soul Elim. They were organized (they had to be; they had determined enemies), but their energy wasn’t devoted to the conquest of others, to accumulating resources they couldn’t produce themselves. They were able to support themselves and this self-sufficiency allowed them to celebrate their group soul with art and culture. Who were their enemies? We were. We are descended from those people.

• Racial policies forbid joining with conquered planets. Hebetians were the envy of the surrounding planets – the Cardassian Union. Their planet they were able to withstand any attempt at conquest. Cardassia Prime was healthy and self-sufficient, but when the climate began to change and resources began to dwindle, its weakened people began to lose their faith in the old ways. Disease killed millions it was just a matter of time. The ones that were left surrendered to the invaders. Who brought their organization, based on military conquest and expansion, and blended with them. We come from both these peoples."

• I have been taught that they were a primitive people and had died off in the climate catastrophe. That’s a survivor spell, a new civilization that became superior and in all ways.

• Recitation mask that Hebetians poets wore it at festivals that celebrated Oralious, their spiritual leader. A spiritual entity and presence. Guided higher ideals they were encouraged to live by.

• The power that makes the plants and flowers grow.

Cardassian Mores:

• Having a child without an enjoined mate marked both mother and child as outcasts. A child needed both parents, otherwise he or she was designated an orphan and taken away to a service institution. The mother was publicly vilified and the father if he was ever identified was severely punished. The Cardassian family is a strictly defined unit, and any corruption of this unit is considered a real threat to our society.

• Appetite for using and disposing of people, especially women, tyrannical excesses visited upon friend and foe alike were well documented. As long as his stewardship produced such successful results no one cared. He became an integral part of the easy corruption that give the highest levels of system and give the low to our stern and moralistic facade.

• Be a man and fully submit to opportunity

• I’ve learned that appearances deceive and that the purity of my thinking creates a sure path to the truth.

• No lapses of a sentimental nature.

• He didn't want to be an "air man." “No grip, no focus. How can you find your strength if you can’t hold your place? Living in your dreams is like living in exile.”

• Cowards are killed but only if so in battle. “Cowardice and madness are considered flaws in the Cardassian character that can never be redeemed." He told the Federation spy and hated him for believing it. That's true [of their view on] cowardice but madness was looked upon as a mysterious disease and those who suffered were isolated and treated well.

• Junior Probe/Probationist. Garak first job. Research analyst in the Hall of Records. No longer go home other than for name days and holidays. Refer to parents by first name and treat them as any other service worker.

Cardassia City:

• Coranum Sector: stately old buildings dating back to the Early Union faced wide thoroughfares. They weren’t cramped and pushed together as in the Tor [Sector]. The care and craftsmanship lavished on the façades made even the fine homes of the Paldar Sector look boring and drab. These were the homes of the families who had ruled Cardassia for generations. And they were built to reflect solidity and continued longevity of that rule.

• The Lokar house in Coranum: Foot traffic was minimal. A three-story, newer version of the Early Union Style, but with the same classic angles and high windows. Heavy door.

• The streets narrowed and the houses were older. This is the earliest settlement in the city. A narrow passageway almost hidden by an outer wall led between two houses, and opened up into an unexpected public grounds that was remarkable for the mature size of the shrubbery and plantings. It was a small grounds, but the profusion of growth give it an insularity that reminded me of another place.

Cardassia and Literature:

• …first part of Cylon Pareg’s The Eternal Stranger. Saga spanning several generations of a Cardassian family during the Early and Middle Union.

• Maren Bri male Cardassian poet critical of the Bajoran Occupation:

Ghosted light colored by the gas and dust of the Corilian Nebula dances in my dreams and descends like a shimmering wave where it fills the space between sleep and waking and clothes my loneliness with your naked birth​

• Maren Bri’s Pean to Kundera:

The price they paid in blood is returned by your healing kiss my matriarch keeper of the mysteries and companion to those heroes who stood between us and eternal night​

• “Kundera unfavorably contrast the celebrated victory against the Klingons with the Bajoran occupation.” – What is this?

Cardassian Bits:

• Song: “Cardassia Forever.” To which you would cry: “For the Empire!”

• Yadic: what young children call their fathers.

• Saying: “And the screech craik has a pleasant voice”

• Bultar War Memorial Day

• Morfan Province was a popular vacation area.

• One billion dead on Cardassia Prime at least.

• Janitors are referred to as hygiene drones

• Garak liked to drink Rokassa Juice.

Other Aliens:

• Bajorans like solar baths

• Romulus. Gray, humid, and lush. Sometimes I’d stand up from my gardening work and feel my head bump up against the low Romulan sky. Vegetation thrives in this climate. Everywhere you look shrubs, trees, flowers all all grow in a profusion. I’ve never seen before. And it’s that very side that produces the most amazing reversal of expectation. At first, I was convinced that there was something wrong with my eyesight. Instead of being predominantly green, Romulus is gray.

• Cardassian animal: the poisonous plaktar — longer legs and flatter body than a tortubual. Easy to confuse the two. One lick of the plaktar’s tongue depending on how much saliva deposited… (is lethal). Native to the rainforests of the Ba'aten Peninsula, Morfan Province, Cardassia.

 

[Markonian]

That's a lot of lore!

 

[Arpy]

Arpy's Notes from the A Stitch in Time audiobook, Summer ’23:

Part II:

Institutes are boarding schools for upper class Cardassian children as well as for those from lower classes who exhibit exceptional ability. There are different institutes for art, business, academia, politics, war, etc.

The Bamarren Institute for State Intelligence is located in the Highlands adjacent to the Mekar Wilderness — a hot and arid area with sublimely beautiful rock formations and an endless network of subterranean caverns where maneuvers and tests are conducted.

Students stay at Bamarren for 9 years — 3 years each of 3 Levels. Graduates are then installed in elite positions to run Cardassian society. Those who wash out before completion find positions above non-institute goers but never elite.

Three Levels:

• Each lead by Third Year students at each Level.
• Each Level is divided in to Groups of 10 students.
• Each student is assigned a designation in each Group mostly according to their social status and in part to their individual ability. (Garak as the lowest in his was Ten Lubak)

Bamarren Saber: the symbol of student leadership

The Institute lead by the First Prefect and Lower Prefect — though adults were rarely interacted with.

Calyx — our martial docent was a gnarled old man with one glass eye. It was rumored that he was an infantry Gul who was demoted because he’d refused the privilege of executive status and had put himself in danger along with his men. It was after his demotion that he later devoted himself to mastering the stratagems (Cardassian martial arts all Level Ones learned in the Pit). Of course, we called him Calyx behind his back. Since that was the name of the whirling muscular beast of many appendages in our childhood stories. Like the fabled calyx, our docent was capable of blinding displays of fighting prowess yet at rest he was about as remarkable as a rock. Gentle voice was jarring. Half smile revealed broken and missing teeth. Acrid breath.

Palestra Building where Second and Third Level Agonistics (the advanced training phase after the Pit) trained.

Docent Rilon — gave Ten Lubak (Garak) special dispensation to study in the Archival Center (Library) without which, as a First Level, he could not do.

First Level Groups:

• Tarnel (third-year group)
• Lubak
• Furtan(?)

Second Level Groups:

• Charaban (top male group)
• Ketay (top female group)
• Drabar

Third Level Groups (Third Level students are called interns):

• Ramaklan

Lubak Group:

One Lubak:

Blue blood, came from the highest echelons of our society. To keep low-born Eight in his place One immediately recruited Three and Nine. Not only where they of the same class, but One could mentally dominate them.
​

Two Lubak:

Two went along with this group but his political adeptness enabled him to remain on good terms with everyone.​

Three Lubak:

(on 10's team in the Competition) Large, pronounced ridges, blue blood. Biggest in section. Three wasn't much brighter than Nine but his physical size and strength, as well as his family’s connection to power, gave him a higher place. Lost his eye in honge attack during the Competition.​

Four Lubak:

(10-team) Clever, observant. Also went along with One's group but the only thing that captured his interest was finding a way to make contact with the women. This preoccupation and his well-developed shoulder ridges made him seem older than the rest of us. Betrayed Pythas (by then One Lubak) in his Third Level competition. —— Ended up on Bajor as one of Barkan's chief assistants and promoted to Gul. Gul Toran. Visited the station (where he was killed by Garak) in "Profit and Loss." Also the one who wasn't going to negotiate with the escaping Bajorans from Garak's Elim stories in "The Wire" necessitating the destruction of the shuttle. Toran blew it up. It was full of escaping Bajorans some of whom were ones he gave money to to fuck back to their miserable lives. Dickhead.
​

Five Lubak:

(8-team) Alon Ghemor. First day in the Pit he made a move to tend to a fainted Six and got spit in the face by Calyx. Compact…his trained athletic body moved carefully in anticipation of a trick…An athlete who also did well in class…Attracted to Eight. As indeed, I was. Future castellan/democratic leader of post-war Cardassia.​

Six Lubak:

Studious, excelled in a classroom situation. Although not as slight in build as Eight, he didn't have the latter’s stamina. For a while he was near death and spent nearly two months in recuperative care. When he wasn't recuperating preferred his books and kept his distance. He wanted desperately to succeed at Bamarren but he was vexed by his physical limitations. Washed out.​

Seven Lubak:

(8-team) Youngest and most unformed of the group. Another service merk and his allegiance went to whatever person he spoke to last. Don't say it.​

Eight Lubak:

Pythas Lok: only student who outperformed Garak in most/all classes. Should have been designated One Lubak but humble/low born to service family. Quiet. Short, slender, dark eyes, and long lashes made him look younger than rest of them. Almost too delicate for a Cardassian. Brow ridges unusually pronounced cast shadows over his eyes; something about him was strange and impenetrable. But gifted, shrewd and taciturn. Had what Cardassians called a "ferocious spirit." Shy as anyone Garak had ever known. Whatever I had found in the Wilderness (stealth), he had found in the Pit (martial arts). The Most Interesting Man in the World.​

Nine Lubak:

Blue blood but dim. One Charaban's cousin. Pinched inbred face. Came from an important political family, but was as dim as a moonless night —— Real name: Krim Lokar. See: Mission to Romulus in Part III.
​

Ten Lubak:

Garak. Nickname as a child was "Sleg" after the Sleg Corgan, a huge crawling beast that in certain seasons would barely move at all.

Was studying the Barzan Wormhole at the Archival Center (Library) at Bamarren …one of my favorite subjects: the wormhole funnel that connects the here and now to seeming infinity. The mystery always fascinated me and those people who dedicated their lives to its expiration were among my heroes. (...DS9 = Kismet)

After Bamarren:

First real job (and his cover while on Cardassia) was Junior Probe/Probationist (research analyst in the Hall of Records). Told to no longer go home other than for name days and holidays, and to refer to his parents by their first names and to treat them as any other service drone.

When not accepting assignments, Garak's pastimes became growing Edosian Orchids or walking Cardassia City. On Garak's long walks:

1. I found a place to plant Edosian orchids.
2. I learned to talk to all kinds of people.
3. And I fell in love with the city, and all its various sectors.

(From Memory Beta: )

• The Coranum Sector was the oldest and most prestigious residential sector, populated by stately buildings and wide thoroughfares dating back to the early Union. Residents have included the Lokar family.

• The Paldar Sector was the second oldest sector, home to the bureaucrats and civil servants who worked in the Tarlak Sector. It was not uncommon for homes to pass down through families for generations. Residents of this sector included Enabran Tain and Rokan Du'Lam.

• The Akleen Sector was a military area full of garrisons and training areas. Pedestrians are often challenged when travelling through the area. The sector was named after the founder of modern Cardassia, Tret Akleen.

• The Munda'ar Sector was a storage area filled mainly with large warehouses. The Obsidian Order have used warehouses here as discrete places to hold cell meetings.

• The Torr Sector was the largest and most densely populated sector. It was originally designed to house the service houses but over time grew to be the cultural centre of Cardassia City, with food, entertainment, artist displays and public performances of music and dance. It has two main districts, North Torr and East Torr.

• The Barvonok Sector was a business and finance area with a gridplan street layout.