Rihannsu
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rihannsu, "the Declared", is the name that Romulans of Star Trek use for themselves in Diane Duane's series of books about them. The singular form is Rihanha. Like "Romulan", it comes from the name of their planet, "ch'Ríhan" ("of the Declared"). ch'Havran ("of the Travelers") is ch'Ríhan's sister planet, known to the Federation as Remus.
The series consists of five books:
- (1984) My Enemy, My Ally. ISBN 0-7434-0369-X.
- Diane Duane; with Peter Morwood (1987). The Romulan Way. ISBN 0-7434-0370-3.
- (2000) Swordhunt. ISBN 0-671-04209-2.
- (2000) Honor Blade. ISBN 0-671-04210-6.
- (2006) The Empty Chair. ISBN 1-4165-0891-0.
Another book, Spock's World (ISBN 0-671-66773-4), makes reference to some of the events in The Romulan Way from the Vulcan side of things. Duane's Mirror Universe novel Dark Mirror also refers to the Rihannsu. The 2006 omnibus, Rihannsu: The Bloodwing Voyages (ISBN 1-416-52577-7), reprints the first four Rihannsu novels, with minor timeline and character rank tweaks for consistency with other novels.
These books, as with most of the other Trek novels, are not considered canon.
"Rihannsu" is also the name for the Romulan language invented by Duane.[1]
The main Rihannsu character in the above series is Ael i-Mhiessan t'Rllaillieu. Her sense of honor and duty leads her, paradoxically, to violate her oaths to her government and crew, first helping Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise to destroy a secret research facility, and then stealing the most precious artifact of her people, the Sword from the Empty Chair, using it as a symbol to lead a rebellion against the government, which she comes to feel has betrayed the ideals of the Empire.
[edit] Fan reaction
Duane's creation of the Rihannsu was generally well-received by fans, with some going so far as to lobby Paramount to accept them as canonical.[2]. However, Gene Roddenberry himself is said to have taken issue with the depiction, particularly Duane and Morwood's assertion in The Romulan Way that the Rihannsu "were never Romulans."[3]
[edit] References
- ^ Duane, Diane (January 6, 1996). On Inventing a Romulan Language.... Archived from the original on 2003-12-12.
- ^ Duane discusses Romulan novels. SyFyPortal.com (July 15, 2001). Retrieved on 2008-01-09.
- ^ Richard Arnold, by way of Scott Evans (March 3, 1994). "Richard Arnold responds". rec.arts.startrek.fandom. (Web link).
[edit] External links
- Polowin, Joel. Romulan language generator. Retrieved on 2007-12-31. (based on Duane's original program)
