Etymology of “Blood Mark”
Meaning of and difficulties in translating my book series’ title from Kral into English
If you aren’t familiar with my most recent book (Blood Mark: The Liar), here’s a quickie.
WARNING: POTENTIAL SPOILERS
The series takes place on the foreign planet of Areth within the two-hundred year old Conostal Empire whose official language is Kral.
Though the Empire is officially secular, one of the most popular creation mythos tells of a time when people were spirits who flew in the heavens. One day, a spirit stole a piece of Vi’s (Death’s) power, but was unable to control it. The chaos that ensued resulted in various other spirits coming together to create the universe as a way to contain Vi’s power. Those contaminated by it were cast down to live on Areth, and could only return to the heavens once they’ve purged themselves (i.e. died individually or post-apocalypse judgement, depending on the religious denomination).
In modern era, the Empire is a highly advanced society and has a special type of people dubbed “Genetic Variants” (or “Variant” for short). These are people with often superhuman abilities caused as a side effect of the genetic alteration era, a time period where rich and upper-middle class individuals had their children’s DNA manipulated for better traits before the Conostal Empire came about.
One of these abilities became legendary, inspiring a wave a lore and literature before it was lost to time.
This was the salo tecares.
The blood mark.
Those who had it were cursed to kill. But nothing, in turn, could kill them except each other. Those who tried only made the cursed one more powerful. Their blood was rumored to be alive, each cell a soldier at the beck-and-call of its king, sworn to protect them by any means necessary. Their heart was believed to be hollow and frozen, for they could take the life of friend and foe alike with no remorse. But no one could truly know who bore the curse, for they appeared normal. Except for one minor detail. Every person born with the blood mark had a large, black dot appear somewhere around their neck before their first birthday.
But, to be less poetic, we could also go with the Conostal Empire’s official records:
The salo tecares is a genetic variation where the host possesses a pseudo-intelligent and hyper-sensitive immune system that allows them to survive “by any means necessary.” Should the host feel threatened, the immune system will react in its defacto manner by removing the source of the threat. This threat can be internal or external.
Those who have the salo tecares are known to have a single black marking that appears around their neckline, similar to a birthmark. It’s believed to be an extension of their reflex system due to the tendrils that extend and wrap around the host’s upper spinal-cord. However, this theory has many skeptics and further research has not been possible.
But how exactly did this variant ability come to have the name: salo tecares?
It seems like an easy answer. After all, both blood and a black mark are involved, even if the mark isn’t classified as part of the cardiovascular system. Salo is blood. Tecares is mark. Right?
Well, translation isn’t actually that easy. There is a massive amount of cultural connotation and history lost when written in English, not to mention there are multiple ways it can be interpreted.
Let’s break this down.
Salo
Kral actually has two words for blood:
- Sa is the general term for blood, often implying blood in the physical sense. It’s the word you would use if you were writing a paper on blood cells or discovered a crime scene.
- Salo is a specific instance of blood, with greater possessive or metaphorical weight. It’s the word you would use if you were to talk about your own blood, describe your family as your blood, or say someone’s life is defined by bloodshed.
Another way to look at it is sa is about biology while salo is about identity.
Teca
Tecares (or te-kha-res) is a little more complicated.
The noun teca originates in folklore literature, referring to tattoo-like symbols that appeared on a person’s body if they made a contract with a daemon to grant a wish.[1] The wish required a payment. The greater the scope of the wish, the higher the cost of payment. Extreme cases included sacrificing other people. As a result, those who bore the mark were not perceived in very high regard.
Various stories revolve around the resulting mark’s size, appearance, and meaning of permanent. Each daemon is said to have their own signature seal. They would not make a deal with someone who has a mark already. Supposedly the mark remained even after the wish maker passed away. When there was no longer skin to show it, it etched itself into their bones. Another method was that children inherited the mark of their parents.
Per superstitions, birthmarks were also attributed as teca, especially if they ran in the family. With the discovery of DNA, teca then bubbled into genetic traits, especially by those trying to prove certain ethnic groups and races were inferior, cursed, or otherwise dangerous.
In modern day, teca has come to mean a physical, unremovable mark with a negative connotation, such a brand, scar, or a burn. However, the early usage of salo tecares itself can be traced back three hundred years. In documents where the phrase appears, it’s almost always used similar to a name or title and without further context. Thus, it’s unclear what the intent behind the choice of teca is supposed to be. All that is known is that it is to be feared.
Combining Conjugation
To further complicate things, teca conjugated to be a descriptor of salo by adding the suffix –res.
The English translation “blood mark” can easily be assumed to be a mark made by blood, like a blood stain, the correct term for that could either be teca sares/salores. It is also not a possessive property, such as Blood’s mark. That would be teca ko salo.[2]
An alternative English translation would be to add the suffix –ish, –esque, or –like (or markish blood, markesque blood, marklike blood, respectively). Obviously, this sounds strange. But one possible interpretation is that a person’s blood or family has an irremovable curse/brand, like that of a teca (or mark of Cain or Scarlet letter, for comparable Western mythos).
It might also be helpful to consider that, by default, many Kral words aren’t boxed into a specific part of speech. Words are basic means of describing something that exists. How they are conjugated or used determines whether they are noun, verb, adjective, etc. Thus, adding –res can equally denote a descriptive verb and salo tecares is “marking blood,” blood that marks things, or blood that makes marks.
Conclusion
Extrapolating it further, one can conclude salo tecares is some sort of bloodshed that physically and eternally brands someone. Battle scars come to mind, but that can imply pride instead of shame. Blood-stained hands would be more accurate, if not quite physical.
While tempting, given the nature of the blood mark, this is not the same as physical blood that goes around killing people.[3]
An alternative is to put greater weight on the word salo as an identity. Salo tecares is almost always used in reference the third person, so it can’t be a reference to ones own blood. As family and the history of genetic variants tends to pop up, it might be best to assume salo refers to a specific bloodline/family who makes teca. This is interesting, depending on the intent of teca.
If we assume the one who coined the term was trying to be poetic and took the mythos interpretation, salo tecares could be a indirect claim this is a family line of daemons. Daemons themselves are immortal. Though they can easily kill, they cannot be killed by anything except each another. They are also distinct in that they are not the same as the spirits of heaven in Conostal creation mythology, not even the contaminated ones. They originate in a different mythos (though the mythologies did selectively merged) and daemons would not have existed until the universe came into existence (ie. they would have been created by the heaven spirits/gods). Thus, salo tecares could also be a means of saying this family line can’t even be counted in the same lineage as people. They’re something else entirely, possibly something which people created in their question to reclaim their place in the heavens as “gods.”
But suppose we drop the mythos and revert to teca being used in a derogatory context as those with inferior or cursed genetics. A teca isn’t a brand or birthmark on a person, but the person themselves. A negative “mark on society,” if you will. Thus, claiming someone has the salo tecares would be akin to saying they’re from a family of bastards who only make more bastards. Except worse.
However, as it’s known those with the blood mark do have a physical mark that appears on their bodies, it can also be concluded salo tecares denotes those born into this family have an ability which physically brands them. Aka, the black mark that appears on the hosts neckline isn’t the actual blood mark. It’s caused by the blood mark. Perhaps it’s even an actual teca and a deal was struck with a daemon for their special power at a terrifying price.
While we my never know for sure, it’s certainly fun to think about. How do you think “blood mark” should be interpreted?
Kai Austin is a writer, software developer, and nerd. You can keep up with his latest projects on his Facebook page or Twitter. If you like what he makes, you can also hire him to make stuff for you.
Footnotes
[1] Daemons are nature spirits, neither benevolent or benign. However, they tend to be either very mischievous, very bored, or very empathetic. While their job is to oversee the laws of nature, they may decide to deviate from them to answer wishes for those who prove themselves sincere in their desire.
Different daemon types answer wishes in different ways and under certain conditions. Usually there is a rule of three. Some daemons are better to ask for things than others. For example, if an earth daemon agrees to revive a deceased loved one, the person making the wish must provide three ground bones of their loved one (skull, pelvis, heel), the three bodies worth of blood from three people of equal value, and threes type of clay. The earth daemon would then combine these things and revive the deceased within a golem body. An air daemon would simply reanimate the deceased one’s corpse (in whatever composition state it was) at the cost of the wish maker’s voice, hearing, and smell.
[2] This specific phrase actually refers to the cuts and bruises indicative of domestic/child abuse, so be wary of usage. Teca still has negative connotations.
[3] Remember sa vs. salo. Also, the Kral word for kill is either ceist (murder, violent) or shan (self-defense, food, non-violent), so blood that kills people would either be sa ceistires or sa shares.
