Sometimes the life of the Senetha is about dead ends that leads nowhere, it is through their tradition of perseverance and willingness to accept new ideas in solving problems that gives them a chance to survive adversity. It sounds easy but there is a lot of debate among the average person in the street or the officials of the tribal council. When one solution doesn’t work another direction is sought again, there are people with opposing viewpoints, the elder council members who see things differently, and the younger members that may have at times, a more radical departure to solving problems. It’s as if the past and future are clashing as well as different individuals who could have a very unique way of problem solving, its like a ship at sea that has to weather the storms, and the calm waters; waves that go up and down which is what life is about in times of adversity and harmony. There were some problems that the Senetha had to face that was unsolvable for the time, such as earthquakes; because of this they built bracketed frames of a material that resembled pliable plastic that would sway with a quake, because they had interlacing roots like bamboo that reached far below the ground. A later generation would come along and solve many other problems, especially suspended time chambers that would keep time away, thus keeping seeds, food and harvested crops the same as the day they were put into the chamber. Yes they had freezing technology but they wanted a better way to preserve things. The Senetha had perhaps looked in the wrong directions. Before, there had been arguments in the council as to the way some rivers are paved with stone, and metals or should they be naturally built up with soil planted with trees and grass, these rivers flooded constantly so no decision was reached. Hundreds of people were killed by the overflowing river. Something was telling the Senetha authorities to act but they didn’t. Sometimes there are dead locks; this is where they hit a dead end. The council should have found a way to end the impasse to go in another direction and find creative ways of dealing with problems; think beyond the confines of their traditional factions, that had been based on ethnic, spiritual beliefs, occupation and generation gaps. The Senetha are not a homogeneous people, they are of many ethnic groups, belief systems and occupations, the warriors, scientists, politicians, and scholars think of the craftspeople, farmers and engineers below them. So there are conflicts among the tribes members, the word tribe means that the Senetha are scattered over a vast distribution of land, that includes villages, towns and small cities, Tenashar lives in a village. As the Senetha youth are advocating to thinking outside the box, and when they create this box, they again break out of it and go beyond what has become conventional. The young people and villagers complain that once the elders were people who sought out solutions beyond convention but their ways had become passé. At times it had become a challenge for the Senetha to break out of outmoded confines.
The Orbs were a problem for the Senetha and other people of the world; to the warriors, the Orbs were an enemy to be defeated, but no matter what efforts were put into this, the Orbs were a so-called enemy that couldn’t be defeated. This has happened in our own world in history. Then the next task is to find another way to think creatively, to harmonize with the so-called enemy or to find many solutions to the same problem. Actually, the Orbs are a symbol of humans creating their own monsters. The solution doesn’t exist somewhere else, they are within us. The Senetha must break out of tradition, the young people are starting to think that they are not the sum total of their traditions or solutions that once worked generations ago, in fact, the technology that was used long ago has not yielded any workable solution against the Orbs or other problems. For the Senetha and the rest of the world ethnic traditions or spiritual beliefs are beginning not to work, the young people and farmers, craftspeople and engineers are devising new philosophies. The world is changing for the Senetha well as other people on the continent. The world had changed long before the Orbs came, the earthquake, floods and other natural calamities. It’s in the Senetha soul to be achievers, they understand that all societies evolve, but some Senetha never practice this philosophy, these Senetha love the comfort of the convention, with danger coming there is progress as the Orbs are coming. This is a time for the Senetha to find solutions they never thought of or perhaps never to considered. There are societies that create their own monsters, meaning the Orbs; devices that were created by a remote civilization in antiquity and the neglected public works. Later they would be forced to find solutions to these so-called enemies. A long-ago civilization called Cashmaikil created a labor-saving device; the Orbs to do much of the work that the people of this city didn’t want to do. The civilization of Cashmakil tried to solve the problems but with all their technical achievements they had a very difficult time controlling the Orbs because like all natural organism the Orbs kept on evolving and they soon developed a sentient intelligence superior to humans, the reason why the Orbs evolved is that they were biological machines. But for the Senetha it was time to send Tenashar as some of the council knew that he was an Aura-Laei-I of high rank but on his long journeys across the continent and oceans to the Sahaynaivium archipelago he couldn’t find all the answers. It was later made clear to Tenashar that the Orbs had to just die off. This is what was happening, as a result of the Orbs, all the land was being destroyed, this forced the Senetha and other people to build their lives underground, it was fortunate they had the technical examples of Nainashari and Heitac caves. The Senetha had been building their dwelling half on the surface and half underground and they had for centuries built underground storages. So in a sense some of their answers were already there.
There are times when Tenashar and other the Senetha knew that there was opposition to what they wished to do to help their people and this was the time to act although permission isn’t granted. Although the council was reluctant, they gave Tenashar the go ahead, but he would have gone anyway as there was an, urging by others who supported him. There was something deep within Tenashars heart that made him feel that certain problems would never be solved by just saying, he had to take risks; problems are solved by taking a path into uncharted territory and experimenting. There might be dead ends along the way, but other solutions could present themselves at unexpected times. There are situations that require patience to be solved, Tenashar understood this well, but patience was a difficult thing to aquire, it was very elusive.
There are answers that have to be found Tenashar consulted with a Rock and Mushroom for answers of his own, confidence and the Orbs, he debated within his own mind if he should go ahead, asking to himself if his inanimate companions were right, this made him go through a lot of anguish. Tenashar was simply not sure if what they are saying was true so he tested their suggestions out for himself and only gradually in his mind did he start to believe the Rock and Mushroom. The Rock and Mushroom were symbolisms of himself debating if he is on the path or if he should trust their words. He found himself in a complicated maze that often times couldn’t always be solved, that could lead into another dead end, where he would have to change direction and find another answer. Only through his long experience of trial and error that were teachers of experience, he learned about himself and where he solved his own dilemmas.
Tenashar’s relationship with other people brought him much difficulty, he had a hard time trusting people like Eirshiquanai who appeared from nowhere and she claimed that she was from the future, but did he really believe in what she told him? He began to feel that his mind was playing with him and that Eirshiquanai didn’t exist. Eventually, he comes to believe that she is real, but there were still hidden doubts that lingered in his mind. Again he begins to trust that she is perhaps real. Some problems are solved gradually over time. And this was the situation he had with Nainashari; Tenashar didn’t know what he was or what to think of the old man, he was an anomaly who came into his life. Tenashar never experienced anyone like Nainashari. Only through gradual warmth, sincerity, through trials, did Tenashar begin to trust Nainashari. This trust would take Tenashar into new directions of thinking. Conventional thoughts may exist in the mind when confronting new experiences, but it takes effort for Tenashar to do away with his preconceived thoughts.
Tenashar had found that not only the world of his time had problems, but other distant time periods dealt with the destructions the Orbs had caused, the desert lands of the future were recovering the problems of cultivating and seeding the land had been solved but these lands were still having problems that were unique to that time. After centuries the lands were yielding growth, they are being fertilized and things were growing the people had found ways to recharge the land but tradition stood in the way, the deserts weren’t to be touched because their beauty of the sands was mesmerizing. So some people wanted to keep things the way they were, others wished for complete change, while others suggested a compromise, the desert, and cultivated land and forests. There was no easy solution to this, factions on either side wanted their way or nothing, plus the population was on the decline it wasn’t easy for couples to have children. There are problems to be solved.
In book II, Journey to the Grassland and Sea, Tenashar finds people he had never seen before. He had to readjust his life and thinking and try to integrate old experiences with new ones; he meets people called aeronauts from a flying ship that came from a land called Sahaynaivium, an archipelago of islands to the east. The islands are dying like the continent. But it seems at a much faster pace, this is partly due to the chaos and the destruction the Orbs have wrought and the Sahaynaivium is relentless lust to build; yet there is the drive of the people of the islands to preserve the natural beauty of their island home. There is constant bickering in the Sahaynavium council. Intellectualism has become so inflated that nothing gets done to solve the problems facing the island people. The flying ship or aircraft is sent to the continent as a way to find the answers away from home. Many people have done this, seeking to run away, to ignore the problems at home, but the problems are in themselves. People of every age had looked for a paradise, but it’s in their own backyard, they just have to look within.
The Sahaynaivium council is unable to solve problems concerning the Orbs because of the bickering. The head of the council the Salseth dismisses the council, Tenashar tries to find another way, at the advice from his friends. He finds an Aura-Laei-I hidden in the forests away from the so-called civilization named Cleiadomph. He suggested ways to deal with the Orbs, but even he wasn’t always sure about his solutions, so he consulted with another Aura-Laei-I Lothob. Tenashar realized there were so many suggestions but no true solutions, even if an idea seemed to work, when solving one problem another problem comes in its place. In the end, it was understood that the Orbs would die, as this was already happening. The answer was that people would just have to live underground to build and plant their crops. It was planned later, that in centuries when the world was nourished once again the surface of the earth would be reclaimed. For the present, the cities and tribes would hide away from the Orbs, the Sahaynaiviums would create walls of impenetrable water rotating at high speeds; the Senetha and other peoples would create walls of illusion that give the impression that nothing was there.
