Canaan

Canaan is an Agarthan village governed by a matriarch, where the remembered violence of the Topsider invasion informs both communal caution and Shin’s duties. The village’s authority is concentrated in its matriarch, while its history of being attacked and plundered gives its dealings with the surface a lasting weight.

Setting and Authority

Shin is received in the matriarch’s chamber, a majestic room lit by watch fires. Two fabric banners hang behind the chair where the elderly matriarch sits, flanked by two guards. The scene establishes her as the village’s ultimate authority: she acknowledges Shin’s efforts to retrieve the Clavis and speaks to him as the person who assigns his next duty.

History and Customs

Canaan’s people remember being shot, murdered, and robbed by Topsiders. They lacked the military strength to defend themselves and depended instead on their wisdom; the power lost in the invasion was described as rarer than military might. The matriarch insists that this suffering cannot be carelessly forgotten, making historical memory a reason for continued vigilance toward outsiders from the surface.

The village also recognizes abilities connected to the Quetzal Coatls and the Clavis. The matriarch reproaches Shin for being unable to see through the Quetzal Coatls’ eyes or sense the Clavis’s breath as his coming-of-age ceremony approaches. By contrast, his elder brother Shun could see through the Quetzal Coatls’ eyes at six and became the youngest person in history to receive a public duty. The comparison places Shin’s development within Canaan’s customs while underscoring the exceptional nature of Shun’s early ability.

Shin’s Duty

After the matriarch assigns Shin another duty, he tells Seri that he must track down Topsiders and take their Clavis. Seri’s worried response shows that the order is troubling to her, while its target reflects Canaan’s wary relationship with the surface. The village’s past thus informs a present mission: the Clavis is both an object Shin has already helped retrieve and the focus of a new pursuit beyond Canaan.