And the process has continued.  As the incidents grew, evolved, changed, the meanings they suggested also became clearer to me.  One of the first most important issues was that any narration made no comment except to convey the action, settings and the mood.  Meanings emerged through the characters themselves—they could at times narrate their own adventures, or their memories and dreams could evoke past incidents–for all three main characters dreams evoke the past and their responses to it, for example.

The huge scope allowed, against the differences of societies, mores, and beliefs over the three thousand years, an examination of many common human behaviors and relationships, and can suggest their significance.