#lineland

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CHAPTER 1 - LINELAND

❤️ ⟪"We divided the Purity Heart into eight pieces and hid them in different dimensions. We hid them for their own protection, waiting for the day the hero would arrive... (...) It is up to you to find the Pure Hearts, for they are our last and only hope. Go forth, hero, and save the worlds... We are all depending on you!"⟫ ❤️

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(Alternative version below the cut:)

Lineland is heavily focused on hearing and singing, with it being the primary method of understanding your neighbours. The music from two mouths of a male linelander allows for their length to be determined after all. Touch is possible in this dimension, though like the line segments in flatland, it is lethal. So at level two, we have no sight, poor/lethal touch, and excellent hearing.

In Flatland we understand that the basic method of understanding is touch. I'm of the opinion that if the flatlanders evolved differently, they could theoretically perceive the way the linelanders do, however they just don't. Perhaps the addition of a new dimension is a problem here. Sight in Flatland is also learnable, but very hard. In my opinion, Abbot added these differences purposely, but I'll get to that in a minute. Level three has poor sight, excellent touch, and poor/no hearing (as a means of percieving the world around you).

Finally we have spaceland. Our own world, where we perceive primarily by sight and need a completely different method to get around in the event of blindness. So in my levelling system, we as humans don't often get around by hearing or touch, and have excellent sight.

this is the version that's not actually accurate to the book. I wasn't even supposed to be making an animation but I got carried away.

the volume is a bit quieter than it should be since I forgot I have to have the microphone right in front of me.

[Video description start: A short video animation based on Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, with built in subtitles and a voiceover from a single person, showing the narrator of the book, drawn as an orange and gold square, interacting with the King of Lineland.

At the top of the screen is a long grey rectangle, with two black lines representing Linelanders on either side, each with a white eye on their points. At the bottom of the screen is a box labeled, "The King's View", which starts out filled in with light grey, marching the eye on the smaller line across from the king.

The line on the right is longer to represent the King, and the Square stands below him on the screen, demanding, "Hey, Woman! What's wth this weird line you're all standing in?".

The two lines visible think to themselves in parenthesis, "(I thought I heard something...)" "(Huh?)".

The narrator demands again, "Woman! Why do you ignore me? Answer my question!".

The King wonders to himself, "(What is that weird sound??)".

The narrator snaps, "Answer me when I speak to you, woman!".

The King things, "(Okay I know I heard something that time!)".

"Ugh! Unbelievable!" the narrator says in anger, "I'll show her to ignore me!" He moves forward and puts his face in front of the King's, saying, with sarcastic annoyance, "Excuse me!".

At the bottom of the screen, the box showing the King's view is now the same gold as the narrator's outline.

The Linelanders exclaim, "Woah," and "Agh!".

The narrator demands, "What are you all doing standing in a line like this, woman? I've asked three times!".

The King responds, "I'm not a woman! I'm the King! And where the crap did you come from?".

The narrator says, "I'm sorry for mistaking you for a woman, Your Majesty, but you didn't answer my question. Why are you all standing in a line like this?".

"Nevermind that," the King says, "Where did you come from?".

The narrator replies, condescendingly, "From the side, obviously.".

The king replies, "You didn't come from the side, you're not my neighbor!".

"Not in front of you, I came from your other side. Your South side.". The Narrator says.

"South? What does that mean?" the King asks.

"You know, South! You're facing East, I came from your South.".

The king says, "I'm facing East and West. You didn't come from the West.".

"South doesn't mean West, it means South.".

"Then what does South mean?".

"What do you mean you don't know what South means? Just turn and look!"

"Turn? What does this mean?".

"You don't even know what turning is?? Okay, look, watch, I'll demonstrate which way South is.". The narrator moves over to the side, closer to the center of the screen, saying, "Let me move over first so I don't hit you by accident.". When he is in the center of the screen, so that his sides won't hit the king he says, "Okay, are you watching?".

"Yes..." the King says skeptically.

The narrator moves forward a little, towards the top of the screen, saying, "I Nove north...". Then he starts to move backward, saying, "And...I move South." As he says this, he moves backwards out of Lineland entirely. The box at the bottom turns grey again as the narrator is no longer in the King's line of sight. The narrator says, "See?".

The King demands, "See what? you've disappeared!".

The narrator says, "I moved South. You saw, didn't you?".

The king replies, "You didn't move at all! You're using some kind of trick to hide! You are a liar!"

The narrator pushes himself back into Lineland to say, "I'm not a liar! You're just too One Dimensional to see all of me at once!".

The kind exclaims, "Of course I'm One Dimensional, there is only One Dimension!".

"No, there's two!". the narrator says.

"Then prove it!" says the King.

"I already did!".

"You didn't do anything! Stop talking nonsense or leave my Kingdom!".

"Make me why don't you!" the narrator shouts back.

The King shouts, "Maybe I will! Men! Charge!"

The King and his neighbor behin to rush towards the narrator, with other lines followin them. The narrator says quietly just a moment before being hit, "Oh crap.".

The screen goes black, the voicover says, "Boom", and two white stars slowly expand and then contract again to show the narrator being hit by the Linelanders.

When the stars fade, we see the narrator asleep in his bed, which is a purple cushion with arms wrapped around him to cover all but one of his points.

An exclamation mark appears over his head as he wakes up in alarm, then bursts out of bed, shouting, "Aagh!" in shock.

Then he spins in place, saying, "Huh? Wha?" then he subsides, sinking down sligtly towards the bed again, saying, "...huh...I guess it was just a dream..."

He sinks back into the bed and pulls one of the blanket sections over him, saying, "I'm going back to bed..." then pulls the other blanket half over, saying, "That was weird...".

[ID: Lineland, a white line with Linelanders in it as shorter colored line segments inside of it. The Linelander on the far left is blue with both endpoints (eyes) as lighter blue, the one on the middle is light orange with darker endpoints, and the last and rightmost Linelander is pink with only one endpoint colored a darker pink. /End ID.]

Lineland. There isn't much to say beyond their singing, is there? How else could life persist? Well.. i have a few thoughts i've been thinking on Lineland and it's inhabitants. Not very complete or coherent, but fun bones to gnaw. Also some fun placeholder not-very-developed Lineland conlang words. I like using apostrophes in conlangs, sorry.

I'm allowed a bit of "its kinda magic" on some of these because, you know, 1d world.

Linelander dimorphism.

The 'females' aren't actually points. They're called points because they only have one eye (which qualifies as one point, in contrast to the 'male' that has two eyes/endpoints)

they can still look at both directions. They'll usually default to one side (the soprano to the left and the contralto to the right?) but can simply move their eye through their body

Lines are called "aauu'l" (front and behind face/two faces) and Points "aa'l" (front face/one face)

Color

Linelanders don't identify colors such as "green" "blue" etc. They instead see "front-color" (aa'ki) and "behind-color" (uu'ki)

All Linelanders are different colors but there's no way for them to know of colors beyond those that they see without trampling another Linelander or waiting for them to die to see what's beyond them and so on.

They don't see their own color even when their eyes are retracted inside of them - they can only see when their eye is exposed to air

Interactions of matter

Linelanders do eat! Where the food comes from, that's what I'm less sure of - likely the corpses of past Linelanders or other creatures of different lengths that coexist with them.

As said before, the eye of a Point can travel back and forth within the body.

Basically, an object can pass through another by swapping places with it - each cell swapping places with the other. This is easier when its a short thing trying to pass through, and also why it is pretty taboo to touch another Linelander outside of specific actions because passing through eachother is just a hassle because of said length.

Certain structures are harder to pass through (like it might take a bit longer for food to pass through the eye and then go really fast through the length of the stomach)

Linelanders always feed eachother (much like ants)

Miscellaneous things

The entire universe shrinks during their songs so that every Linelander alive is connecting with their neighbors at the same time, eye to eye (in the few seconds it takes, all Points take their eye from their front-side neighbor to their back-side neighbor), then it suddenly expands to give some constant space between all Linelanders (especially so that more can be born, even if they aren't even born near their parents)

That's why they can reproduce from so far away.