#dioraden

(Sung to the tune of Hellfire - hunchback of Notre dame)

Oh, lady Cacilla

I call upon your guiding light

The dark has come and I have lost my way.

Oh,lady Cacilla

I crave your touch, your warm embrace

Your ward, your bright protection is my shroud.

Oh, save me Cacilla

Give me your eternal fire

Turn your smold'ring gaze upon my heart

I call you, I need you

The dancing of your crimson hair

Is blazing in me out of all control

Hell fire

Black pyre

Inferno in my brain

This burning

Desire

To see the world aflame

Am I at fault?

Can I be blamed?

This is your holy gift

I share your sacred flame

Is this your wish?

is this your plan?

To purify the world

Sinful world of man.

I worship, Cacilla I give my body and my soul I give you smoke and fire, and blood and bone Destroy faithless pagans Give to them the fires of hell! For I am yours, and yours alone

Hellfire

Dark pyre

My lade, I Proclaim

I serve you

Cacilla

The mistress of the flame

Give to me your power

Give to me your wrath

I will bring your flame

My homebrew DnD setting that I've been building since I was ~17 ☺️

I've been haphazardly posting lore dumps under the tag #dioraden

Only senior university staff may enter, and only in the company of an Archivist. None of the books are permitted to be removed from the room, those wishing to use them must take what notes they can within the permitted time

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The Book of Sands

On a high shelf, resting under blanket of dry dust you find a slim volume, barely thicker than your little finger and bound in yellow leather. On the cover is a faint imprint of an alien script that you do not recognise. Only a single word. It's meaning comes unbidden into you mind, *Psammos*, the Desert.

It's warm in your hands. As if it has been soaking in the light of the sun all day and is only now releasing the heat. like sand on the beach as the sun sets.

Each page is thin, so thin it's almost translucent, and the edges are gilt trimmed.

You try to open it to the first page, but a handful of pages at the front seem stuck to the cover. You flip the pages back, trying to get to the title page, but you seem able to turn only a single page at a time, and there always seems to be more pages. You flip towards the back instead and the same thing happens. No matter how far you turn you can never reach the end.

As you go you catch glimpses of the contents, of spell diagrams and ritual words, the names of gods and demons, eldritch invocations and ancient lore.

Half way down one page, a title catches your eye; The Eyes of the Rune-Keeper. You can't help but stop, and read what this odd book has to say on such an unusual topic.

It starts with a fairly dry description of the power. The ability to read abf understand any written word as if it were your own language. The prose is rather purple, and not at all academic. But it goes on, and it starts describing a summoning ritual. A spell thats meant to invokenthe power from your patron whether they will it or no. It earns of potentially dire consequences for performing the ritual, but gets no further than the third line. Eagerly you turn the page and read on…

…And rapidly descend into confusion. The words seem to be nonsense. A complete non-sequitor. You make yourself blink and scan this page again. It's a completely different spell, a ritual for 3 mages to combine their power for a single casting,nbut for what end you cannot tell as that description is cut off.

Clearly the pages are misprinted, or out of order. But- maybe it's deliberate? Perhaps there is a puzzle, a key to finding the right pageand unlocking the books secrets.

You turn back to look again at the invocation and- the page has changed. The text is completely different, still coherent but not at all related to either of the first two texts. And still incomplete!

The Yellow Emperor

A sheaf of papers, wrapped loosely in a protective oil cloth. Reading them through reveals it to be the script for s play. The first act is a perfectly ordinary court drama set in the imperial capital of the Draconic Imperium, and follows the antics of a young concubine.

The second act though, takes a sudden turn to the absurd when the eunuch deutagonist turns to the audience and begins delivering a monologue. The words are confusing, and increasingly detached from the rest of the play, but strangely compelling, almost charming…

ok, so. my approach to building this conlang is that language and culture are inseparably intertwined. so I find i cant build one without the other. as with everything Dioraden, this is a WIP. there are bits missing and things may get shuffled around to fit, its not meant to be perfect or idealised, and there are deliberately problematic elements of the culture that are reflected in the language.

getting my thoughts on the dragonborn approach to gender sorted out is proving difficult to do using notes in a spreadsheet, so im writing it down here. if anybody want to make any comments or suggestions, or ask any questions: please, please please do! it helps my process immensely.

bear in mind also that this is entirely for a fantasy race in a fantasy setting and is not meant to be directly representative of any real world identities or groups. that said, i am open to learning new things.

the view-link to the entire g-sheet is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15rrKWM-kTKqSK7uD7AWxeXxnSvli9CwyIu9vJrs_H6o/edit?usp=sharing

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the dragonborn have a far more complicated relationship to gender than is typical of the other races in the setting.

the first dragonborn were hybrids created via magic from human stock to be servitors for the last true dragons, who they worship as gods. they live in a matriarchal clan-based society with two biological sexes born in a 2-1 ratio of male to female. they are hatched from eggs rather than born as live young.

those are the biological circumstances that underpin the culture. sex and gender are, of course separate but related, and this is where the greater part of the complexity comes in:

dragonborn are gender-trinary. meaning their culture has 3 basic genders; the Feminine, the Masculine, and an as-yet unnamed third gender.

given the matriarchal nature of their society, the feminine is the default gender, in much the same way that in english, the masculine is often treated as the default. e.g. the dragonborn word for mankind is more literally translated as woman-kind. their word for "woman" is "Rodoki" which is also their own word for their species. etymologically, it comes from the words "Rodeigo" - dragon/god (these concepts are synonymous) and "kidoh kidoh" - child/descendant. (Kidoh - child of my brood, as opposed to Ohaki - person who is a child. the repetition of Kidoh indicates multiple generations, with a third optionally being added for emphasis of a distant ancestor.)

thus the word "Woman" can be literally translated as "child of the gods" or "descended from dragons" - Dragonborn.

most biological females are women, and most women are biological females.

Rosika and Rodeka are the words for the other two genders but i havent decided which will be which, once thats setled ill just refer tot he third gender by that word. etymologically they are derived from "woman+river" and "woman+hard+fast"

most men are biologically male. but only about 60% of biological males are men.

the vast, vast majority of non-cis* dragonborn belong to the third gender. about 40% of biological males and a few percent of biological females belong to this gender. it becomes readily apparent in early childhood if a child is 3rd-gender, and it is incredibly rare for a biological make to identify as a woman or vice-versa.

*the semantics of how the terms cis and trans might best be applied here are beyond me, discussion is eagerly welcomed. im being careful with my language here because i really dont know how to translate these concepts properly. the closest analogous concept in humans is enby, which we dont consider to be cis, but also, all of these people conform to their AGAB, though even AGAB doesnt fully apply because a. they hatch from eggs, and b. they aren't considered fully people until they start to speak, so it would be 'Assigned Gender At Speach' i guess? a biological male identifying as a woman, or a biological female identifying as a man would be undeniably trans, as would anyone who was assigned man or woman in childhood and later identifies as third-gender. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

an additional layer of complexity is added by a fourth genderless identity, similar to our a-gender. with it/its pronouns, though these are distinct for people vs objects.

i haven't created the words for this yet, but it exists, and its on my list of gaps to fill.

a dragonborn of any gender may choose to take on this genderless identity at any time, for a limited period or as a permanent state. often, but not always, this is done as a sign of dedication to a task or creed. however people who are simply agender do exist.

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finally, there are 3 gender neutral singular pronouns. the primary one is Li (pronounced lie) which directly translates as the singular "they" in english. with the plural "they" being Linah. the second singular they is Linoh, and the thrid is Litah.

the 3 singular theys exist only to allow the speaker to easily distinguish between multiple unidentified people in casual conversation. e.g. instead of "the first one said [X] and the second one said [Y] so they hit them," it would be "Li said [X] and Linah said [Y] so Li hit Linah."

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so, in conclusion:

Overview of the ages the various cultures and religions of the world frequently disagree on the exact starting point and end point of each age, as well as naming conventions, but in the broad strokes they agree.

The Dawn Age: Age of Myth. Age of the Gods. Age of Creation. - Start: the beginning of all creation - Length: Unknown

The First Age: Golden Age. Age of Magic. - Start: the birth of the Elven and Dwarven civilisations. the founding of Enothas and Torum, the first Elven and Dwarven cities. -Length: aprox. 10,000 years.

The Second Age: Silver Age. Age of Men. Age of Stone. - Start: the birth of human civilisation, the founding of Cathel, the first human city. -Length: aprox. 2800 years.

The Third Age: Bronze Age. Age of Monsters. -Start: the creation of Orcs, Goblins, and several other monstrous and demi-human races. -Length: aprox. 2200 years.

The 4th Age: Iron Age, Age of Blood. Age of the Dragon. -Start: the empire of the Dragonborn invading the west. Death of the Last Prophet, creation of the Grand Inquisition and the start of the Great Purge, Retreat of the Dwarves. -Length: 1250 years.

The 5th Age: Steel Age. Age of Heroes. Age of Rebirth. -Start: the birth of the Messiah (see: Vathism), End of the Jarethe Dynasty. Length: 970 years

the known world comprises a 120° slice of the northern hemisphere, and thus represents one 6th of the globe.

the above map is a representation of the terrain and biomes. dark green for rainforest light green for temperate plains pale green deciduous forest. yellow-green for arid land yellow for desert. grey for mountain ranges.

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Excerpt from Geography_Overview.doc

There are 3 continents in the known world. Evisa to the west. Bekik Okathrel to the east, and the belt to the north.

Geography of Evisa.

The continent of Evisa varies from tropical jungle in the far south, through flat grass plains and into temperate forests. 

The western coast is dominated by a mountain range called the blue mountains. The western slope is dominated by temperate evergreen forests. The eastern foothills are dominated by deciduous forests. Elves and dwarves are both native to this continent, The only reptilian race native to this continent is the Yuan-ti.

There are 7 countries, 2 to the east of the blue mountains, 5 to the west.

Geography of Bekik Okathrel

The continent is mostly desert, with small areas of arable land around the coast, the exception is a fertile peninsula in the south-east of the continent.

The central desert is divided by a large mountain range consisting of 3 volcanoes. The Yariuda Derruna (red mountians).

Dragonborn, Lizardfolk and Kobolds are all native to this continent, as are most reptilian races.

The continent is divided into two countries. One on either side of the mountains.

Geography of The belt.

This continent is a long thin band of land running from east to west, it is largely unexplored and theorised to completely encircle the world. Largely composed of low, rolling hills and very few trees, the only notable settlement is the humorously named Buckle town, which is situated on the southern coast at one end of the Buckle canal.

Halflings, gnomes, and various other smaller races are native to this continent. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------