#myflags

-> This is another project I'm working on alongside Espada (my living weapon story) and that will still get prioritized, but I can have twice as much fun now :) i love my wips #mywips. Here is the glossary I posted a while ago also✨✨

-> for starters:

The name of the country the story is set in is "Somar". The setting here just to give you a vibe is like- sort of slightly futuristic. Alternate Earth, different calendar, fancy techy stuff, the whole pack. A far cry from what I would actually call sci-fi though.

People who live in Somar are called Somish people, and things related to Somar are called “Somish” as well. (Ie. Somish passport, Somish citizenship, Somish government, Somish territory, Somish law.)

-> languages

The two languages spoken in Somar are “Common” and “Chiran”, also called “Comum” and “Tirão” in the latter’s vocabulary. Common is just in-universe naming for English and so is Chiran for (Brazilian) Portuguese, since, well, those are the languages I speak and it makes things easier for me u_u

Relevant informaton: Only Common is legally recognized as the country’s official language.

Somar deals with a problem of linguistic hegemony, in which Chiran-speaking communities are sort of a social minority. Largely neglected by the Federal government; most of its official resources are available only in Common, laws are only acessible to Chiran-speaking people by lazy summarizations. Socially, high-budget movies, fancy cultural resources or valued art are all typically produced in Common as well — Chiran as an idiom is seen as crudish, less sophisticated and lazy. It is not uncommon for Chiran-speaking people to become bilingual and learn Common just for the sake of having more access to resources and opportunities — it, in fact, directly influences a person’s quality of life. The national school system features mandatory Common classes in all institutions, but, especially in public schools in Chiran-speaking areas, the curriculum is crude, raw and awkward, hard to understand or not very useful for understanding a new language. This measure was taken about two generations ago as a policy to "take steps to better integrate the whole population into the national identity", but it has proven to be, mostly, useless.

In areas known as being more “urbanized” or “civilized” (none of which are particularly true), like popular centers and important cities for national commerce, postcard locations, etc, (think São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Washington D.C.) Common is most widely spoken. Bilingual Somish who learned Common as a second language often move there. Cultural assimilation is a common phenomenum, and many change their Chiran surnames for something more Common. This is often known as “padronization”, in reference to, well, the language itself is called "common".

In other areas — Somish “outskirts” — far away from these centers, the situation is not of assimilation in order to fit in, but of people who have little access to many resources and culture and art due to not knowing Common; something the Somish government has long failed to address beyond weak and half-hearted attempts to “include them”, using the mandatory featuring of the Common language in school curriculums.

As one of the consequences of that scenario, for example, high-budget art (ie. films) produced in Chiran is very rarely invested in, advertised or encouraged, but it (and lower-budget media such as books or indie comics) still exists. It is also not always one finds dubs in Chiran, perhaps a subtitled version at best, but on the other hand, all art and media originally made in Chiran is 100% guaranteed to have been dubbed, subtitled, adapted or otherwise made available in Common.

Piracy is rampant for this reason — as it is, in this landscape, a form of cultural preservation — but it is also widely disencouraged and harshly met by the Law.

-> provinces

Somar is a Federative Republic — which means its territory is divided into smaller, semi-autonomous parts (“states”, “districts”, etc.) with their own local government and cities, all subordinate to the central (federal) government. Its land is divided into six provinces, of varying cultural and economic background, each with their assigned two-letter code, referencing their names.

They are: Neste, Açasa, Soren, Fana, Aika and Arei.

NESTE (NE)

Neste (abbreviated as NE) is located on the northeast of the country, and its name comes from the mix of the Chiran words “Norte” (north) and “Leste” (east).

Some nestian cities are: (pending)

AÇASA (AC)

(The "Ç" has an "S" sound, and the "S" after sounds like a "Z". It sounds like "ah-sah-zah")

Açasa (abbreviated as AC) is an important trade and commercial center (think of the Brazilian state of São Paulo). It is one of the largest Somish provinces and most of the açasian population speaks Common. Several big enterprises are based here and many migrate to Açasa for better work opportunities.

Açasa is also known for having a very sturdy and organized internal prison system. Its bulk is made up of four central facilities: July, Autumn, Elijah and Ippa. Each has access to records from nearby facilities, can help mediate stuff in them and are quite large and well-secured. Often, when inmates from other areas need to be transferred (even if across states!) they go through one of Açasa’s four as a temporary stop. It is such a common reocurrence that the four facilities even have designated temporary quarters for these cases. They are four in order to cover all of the province’s territory.

Some açasian cities are Eleanora (where A.E.G.I.S.* [*the evil corporation doing most of the whump in the story]'s headquarters are located) and Timothy.

SOREN (SR)

Soren (abbreviated as SR) is more demographically sparse than Açasa, and is popularly known for being a “peaceful and rural countryside”, despite being fairly urbanized as well. Most of its population also speaks Common, but there are areas in which Chiran prevails.

Some sorean cities are: Sabrina.

FANA (FN)

Fana (abbreviated as FN) is situated in the Somish coastline, and has much of its land meeting the sea. Its population mostly speaks Chiran.

Some fanian cities are Sophia and Noah.

AIKA (AI)

Aika (abbreviated as AI) is also situated in the Somish coastline — directly facing Fana, only separated by the sea. It has a more mixed linguistic map. The country’s capital is located here.

Some aikan cities are: Carol (national capital) and Aaron.

AREI (AE)

Arei (abbreviated as AE) is mostly habitated by a Chiran-speaking population.

Some arish cities are: (pending)

Arei and Fana are the places with the most dense Chiran-speaking population, followed by Aika and Soren, with Açasa and Neste featuring the largest Common-speaking (as a first language) population. (Worth noting that hese are only general statistics, and each province has several communities and locations in which language predominance varies.)

-> carceral system

The Somish carceral system is regulated by the Federal Comittee of Penalty Policies (FCPP), an important department of the Somish Ministery of Justice (government organ). It stands out for two specific characteristics: The constant sentence adjustment system, and the criminal rehabilitation system.

Sentence adjustment

In Somar, if a person commits a crime and is sentenced to a given time in prision, that time can be easily increased if the convictee commits certain "infractions" during their custody period in jail. Each prison facility has a mandatory department with the specific and explicit role of keeping track of inmates’ infractions and increasing their sentence time. This system is often rigged — an inmate’s popularity (or lack thereof) with prison staff, especially higher-ranking personnel (or, say, said personnel's counscious or uncounscious bias against certain demographics), can easily influence if their infractions are met more harshly or not. Pissing off a guard might very well earn them more two years of extended sentence, and it is actually quite rare to fulfill one’s sentence in Somar without earning any sort of aditional time. So fun.

Useful terms:

Infractions (which might range from fighting and causing ruckus to breaking curfews and being “non-compliant” to requests or dress code rules)

Initial sentence (the one that they are initially sentenced with)

Additional sentence (any time that is added to that initial one due to infractions)

Extended sentence (the sum of initial + additional sentence — that is, the time the inmate actually ends up having to stay in jail)

Criminal rehabilitation

Covered under what is popularly known as the “Criminal Rehabilitation Law”, it is a system which allows for inmates to sign contracts to be employed by certain institutions, agencies, entities or companies, as a way of “repaying their debt to society” in the shape of service to their contractors. Their sentence often gets shrinked as a result, or, in the term that is usually used, “frozen”; in other words, they are freed from having to walk on their tip-toes in order to not earn additional jail time. The caveat- convicted criminals are not covered by most worker’s rights protections and do not require pay neither equal nor above the nationally estipulated minimum wage, making it so this system ends up being very advantageous to potential contractors who want to get away with a little more. The above system of sentence lenghtening is often employed with the implicit purpose of creating a better landscape for “inmate recruiting”.

Every contractor engaging in criminal rehabilitation must have a permit to do so, along with a pre-estabilished program with the purpose of employing the inmates they take in. This certification and the regulation of the contractor’s program are both overseen by the FCPP (Federal Comittee of Penalty Policies, mentioned some bits above), and the license is, officially, called the FCPP-EHRRP (FCPP’s “Executive Human Resources Repurposement” Permit), but it is often called "the Orange Permit". Licensed contractors are often called “orange-lit”.

This system was first conceptualized by a former Somish president around 70 years ago during their mandate, inspired by the work of a proeminent sociologist. According to them, it would be a good way for criminals to repay their crimes by compensating society — providing their labor and being useful to the economy. The law project would only be approved and put to use many years later, however, and it has been very welcomed by multiple enterprises around the country ever since. It is popularly seen with good eyes, being often framed with this “redemption” approach.

Treatment of recruits/electees vary case-to-case, as some orange-lit contractors run their projects with a more-so filantropic approach (heavy emphasis on the “redemption” philosophy, of giving “law-breaking criminals a chance to repay their debt to society and redeem themselves”), while others do so to purposefully exploit their contractees — which is often legal and easily possible, due to the lack of 1. laws protecting them from workplace abuse, and 2. trustworthy venues they can use to advocate for themselves according to the few rights they do have. On the contrary; many FCPP regulations require that the recruits be constantly surveyed, punished for infractions in order to “be kept in line” (framed as “criminal discipline” and “encouragement of good behavior” which would be “vital to their rehabilitation” towards “law-abiding, socially-adept citizens”) and be easily restrained.

-> entities

Some relevant entities — from government organs to private companies — that will probably be featured in the story are the following:

A.E.G.I.S.

The story’s main source of whump ❤ They are licensed with the Orange Permit (FCPP-EHRRP) and their local program is called the EORP — “en-office rehabilitation program”. Their headquarters are located in Eleanora (AC). This is the company that hires our main character at the beggining of the story.

A.E.G.I.S. is a security company whose acronym (currently) stands for "Agency of Estate Guardianship and Immaterial Security" and yes I did come up with the acronym before caring for what it could actually mean. But who's going to stop me am I right.

HuiHui

HuiHui is a metallurgy, engineering and technology enterprise based in (this setting’s equivalent of) China, but with a strong and well-stabilished branch in Somar. They are A.E.G.I.S.’ main provider of technological goods and craft their techy handcuffs, computers and other equipment. Their Somish office is located in Sabrina (SR).

Acheron Inc.

Acheron Incorporated — known as Insitute Acheron of Yolanda a couple decades ago — is a center of scientific research, a pharmacological company and the producer of a particularly successful brand of truth serum. This last one is their main export to A.E.G.I.S. Acheron has a certification provided by the “NAICOT-Science” (National Institute of Commercial Trade - sector of health, medicine and scientific goods and equipment), which guarantees that their verified products are all reliable and up to scientific and sanitary standards. That makes them a well-respected provider, since the Naicot-Science certificate is notoriously hard to obtain.

They are also not the most ethical of corporations. Because that's where I get my fun. Acheron often develops low-profile and slightly secretive substances such as torture drugs (who cheered) and mildly illegal goods as well; which is mostly overlooked. Not by A.E.G.I.S., though — they are quite interested in these too.

A.E.G.I.S. and Acheron Inc. are generally very close companies with a good relationship.

YelAE

Another pharmacological company similar to Acheron, who also produces a very well-succeeded truth serum. They are the principal provider of this product to the Federal Court and all subordinate institutions, due to their serum’s particular properties. Unlike Acheron’s (A.E.G.I.S.’s preferred), which is:

A little uncomfortable — reported to be mildly painful when admnistered under duress — to the user

Endurance-resistant (you can’t build up a resistance to it even after repeated usage) 

Has a long shelf life, but

Lasts for a short duration — a few hours at most

And is available to be administered intravenously, by oral solution or inalation,

YelAE’s truth serum is more suited to court rulings and witness reports, and has the following characteristics:

Being more efficient in coaxing the truth out of the user, instead of just assuring that whatever they say isn’t a lie; this is very useful to get longer and more detailed reports

A shorter shelf life, which is not that much of a problem, since the YelAE’s serum is usually requested individually case-to-case instead of being stocked up on (it is illegal to use a truth serum on someone without their consent so there is always a process to deem if it is necessary in a given ruling)

It is reported to be far less painful and unpleasant

Can lead to an organism becoming resistant to it after repeated use, which is also not a problem, since it is not intended to be used on a same person a lot of times

Has a longer duration of effect — up to a handful of days depending on dosage, useful for longer proccesses that require a lot of trials or reports

Has an anti-agent. An “antidote”, if you may. It doesn’t fully nullify the substance, but when administered, weakens its effect and neutralizes most of it. The individual might still find it easier to not lie in given situations for a while after. This makes it very handy and controllable. The most reliable method to get rid of it is to wait it out, but the anti-agent works well enough too!

It is available to be administered by pill or oral solution; most often the former.

There is also something I'm playing with called "vocational enhancement programs" which are basically school but 110% more evil u_u stay tuned.

Again, here is the glossary (also serves as a summarized version of all this kinda) I posted a while ago for these also :) yay. #myworldbuilding