#singular post

This is the cosmology of the world, shown as a traditional wooden carving on a piece of wood with gilded bark.

On the very top of the map, the phrase "The God of the Skysea supervises all things" is carved in the "angular form" of the script, with more angular lines and a wider, bigger style being better for carving into wood.

The first level of the map (the one with a row of jellyfish patterning) is called the Dome of the Sea, or in the Acting Snails' language "the Water Sky". It is at the very bottom of the world, and is home to deep sea creatures like anglerfish, just like in our world. Most importantly, however, is the many jellyfish that live here. They are aimless souls that haven't had the chance to find an organism to live in yet.

The second level of the map (the thick line between the Dome of the Sea and the space with 3 jellyfish), is the Great Opaque, or "the God of the Skysea's thing" in the Acting Snails' language. The Great Opaque is a giant wall of fog created by the God of the Skysea that seperates the Dome of the Sea and the Dome of the Sky (level 6) from the world in between. This is to prevent desperate souls from going into the world and entering whatever thing they can find, causing strange organisms such as living rocks or reanimated corpses appearing.

The Opaque also serves as a portal, and when a soul in the Dome of the Sea touches the Great Opaque, it will be transformed fron a jellyfish to a star, and vice versa for the Dome of the Sky.

On exeptionally sunny days, one can look up into the sky and through the fog, see the sea, and look into the sea and see the sky. On days like this, Rifts of Sky and Rifts of Sea (the tree stumpy looking things) can appear, as the Great Opaque is extremely weak in this time. Rifts are gigantic holes that appear in the Opaque, when a soul touches a weak part of it. The soul widens the hole until it can pass through in a very dramatic way. (more on this next time) Collectively, the Great Opaque, Dome of the Sea and the Dome of the Sky are called the "Skysea".

The next three levels are the Stage of the Sea, the Stage of the Islands and the Stage of the Sky, the middle three levels in the carving. The Stage of the Sea is where we can find fish, coral and some of the seabed. Spirits that pass though the Great Opaque on the Dome of the Sea's side can occasionally be found here.

The Stage of the Islands are the blobs in the middle, and are where the Acting Snails' civilization is located.

The Stage of the Sky contains most of the atmosphere, and is where most of the birds are located.

Even further up, we find the Great Opaque again, and beyond that the Dome of the Sky. It is an impossibly tall mesh-net covering the planet, with the sun and moon beyond it. The purpose of this net is to prevent souls from escaping into space, so they can still enter organisms when it's their turn. Here, they take the form of firey orbs of light.

Next post explaining the Islands with an actual map coming later!!!

It’s 14th November - and that means it’s @spleneticsart  birthday!

Here’s a little drawing of the Chaos Duo! Happy Birthday!

Misc. Info

The Acting Snails believe in 3 main gods:

The God of the Skysea, in charge of the Skysea (ofc) more info on this in this post:

The God of Tubers, in charge of everything under the ground and especially tubers like potatoes, yams, cassava, and to some extent ginger (which may not be a tuber idk)

And the God of Snails, which is in charge of procreation and organisms in general.

This time, were going to focus mainly on the God of the Skysea. They are the creator of both the Net and the Great Opaque, (details in the post i linked before) which they must expend some concentration to maintain.

If either fails, a great disaster will happen. If the Great Opaque fails, the souls will rush into the world below and fill every object with life, even normally inanimate ones such as rocks and corpses. If the Net fails, the souls will escape to outer space above, and every organism born after that will be soulless.

Soulless plants will have plasticky, waxy and unnaturally green leaves, and their fruit will be oversaturated but tasteless. Soulless animals will be unconcious and unmoving, and their eyes glassy like a corpse. The only sign of life is their heartbeat and breathing. However, if they are fed and hydrated enough, they will age and die just like the normal animal.

But anyways, more on the God of the Skysea:

The God of the Skysea

Heres a traditional depiction of them:

As you can see, they are made of fog and air, and fog is constantly flowing out of their nostrils, mouth (creating the trunk like thing in the picture) and pores on their skin.

The spirally-maze patterns on them are an abstracted depiction of wind, a common pattern in art depicting the God.

Their most notable feature is their 8 arms, which they use to constantly maintain the world. The story goes that 2 of their arms are dedicated to searching for rifts in the Great Opaque, 3 dedicated to maintaining the Net, and 2 dedicated to grating magic to the people, leaving one arm to themselves.

Their tenples and their worship

Here is a stele dedicated towards the God of the Skysea:

The stele is made of volcanic rock, mined and carved by artisans on the Southern Islands I mentioned before.

The first thing you might notice is the use of 3 colors on the stone: orange, light orange and dark red. The actually reflect the importance of different carvings on the stone.

First, the orange is a pigment of yellow ochre. The spirally, maze-like patterns from before are drawn in orange, and a hand also made with yellow ochre. This is the hand of the God of the Skysea, reaching out from the clouds to help the devotees who offered this stele to them. This pigment is of least importance, as it is easily found, prepared and can be rubbed off easily. So, it is normally used to draw patterning or images used to inform other people reading what the purpose of the stele is.

Second, the blood red pigment is made of either hematite or red ochre, mixed with tree sap. It acts like a glue more than a paint binder, so the patterns must be drawn onto the stele fast after the ground hematite is mixed into the sap. In this particular stele, it is used to draw a picture of a cloudy sky (the {{{s represent abstracted clouds) and rain falling from it, and is used to make it clear what the devotees hope the God of the Skysea does: bring rain for their crops and drinking water. This pigment is of secondary importance, as it is a bit rarer. The red color and metallic smell also play a part in it, as it is similar to blood, considered as a holy substance granted by the God of Snails during birth. (this is not true. Blood is created by bone marrow just like in our world, but it is a cultural holdover from ancient times.) It is used to draw important images used to clarify what the stele is for to the gods reading it.

Third, the light orange pigment is a mixture of ash and yellow ochre, mixed with water and pressed into carved grooves in the stone. On this stele, it is used to write the words:

God of the Skysea (lit. Skysea God)

This sentence is used to indicate the recipient of the stele.

The next sentence says:

The light at the end of the dark passageway, the God of the Skysea (lit. cave light Skysea God)

This sentence is used to praise the God a little, to make them favour the devotee sending the stele a little more.

The next sentence says:

Give us (lit. give me all)

The "me all" part of the text is a compund word that means "us". It's use is to tell the God of the Skysea what the devotees want.

The nest sentence says:

Potable water. (lit. food water)

This sentence is used in conjunction with the picture in red, to clarify what the God of the Skysea should bring down.

The last character is:

Written message. (lit. carving)

This character is used to clarify that it is not supposed to be read out loud, and insead read by using clues from both the pictures and words.

IM BACK!!!!

I've been very busy creating some new words and phrases!!! To apologize for not posting for so long im sharing how you say "i make a minor trangression" in my language:

Fokow atawlan tawpa fokòe.

(Literally "I break your bag")

N-self VBZ-bag-ADJZ-NEG bag-N N-you

The other version for more serious mistakes will be shared tomorrow along with some more lore!!

Anyways, bags are extremely important to the Windpeople. Commonly made of sewn leather or animal bladder, bags that look vaguely like gourds are widely used as a convenient method for transporting water, food, or any loose, messy things that have to endure long trips.

People commonly bundle up bags in groups of three to offer to the 3 main deities in the pantheon, which led to 3 tied together bags being a religious symbol. (more on this tomorrow)

If you broke one of someone's many bags, it would be considered a bit of a shame, but not anything too serious: they could always just repair the bag again.

But why don't the Windpeople use baskets instead? They have an abundance of flexible, sturdy plant fibers.

Well, baskets are only used for short distance trips from a local oasis, or the markets, to a house nearby. As most of the common class couldn't spare any food, time or money to send their kin on long journeys, these bags meant for trips became obsolete among them.

The higher classes above them (priests, people sponsored by religious organizations, the aristocracy) could use their resources on long pilgrimages. To avoid the sun from evaporating their water and rotting their food, the bags' use was commonplace in the higher classes.

Because of this, the bags slowly became associated with the upper class, and baskets with the lower class, encouraging the use of the bags.

Hii!!! This is a new conculture that is vaugely polynesian in transport and flora, called:

Allaìn Shnak

/aɬaɪn˩ ʃnak˧/

gloss: actor-ADJ snail-N

Some introduction to the Snails:

Their world consists of 3 main groups of islands:

the Northern Islands, a collection of coral atolls and fertile volcanic islands

the Western Islands, which is located in a coral reef

and the Southern Islands, a group of rocky islands created by long-dormant volcanoes.

The Acting Snails' homeland is in the far north. Around a thousand years ago, they sailed south towards the Northern Islands. On the way there, the Snails spent the long days acting out plays and scenarios.

After the journey, the Snails continued their tradition of theater in their new home. Very slowly, they changed their gods to better fit their new belief that life itself is a play. (more on this next time)

Back to the language (etymology of the words)

Allain, which means "to act", comes from the radical "alla" (game) and the word "yain" (person). Besides meaning "to act", it can also mean "to exist" The origib of the word comes from "allain yain" being combined over years of use.

Shnak, which means "snail", comes from the word "zhna" (Ocean) and the radical "bri" (rain). The origin of the word is from the sound of a snail's shell being crushed.

Hii!! Today im here with some grammar👹

here are two sentences:

Fokow akò itel.

I am holy.

Itel fokow.

Holy me.

These basically mean the same thing, but wether you add the word "to be" (akò) makes a huge difference.

In sentence one, the presence of "to be" means that I will continue to be holy in the future.

In sentence two, the absence of "to be" means that I will soon be not holy.

Here are two more sentences:

Hap akò hapla.

Food is delicious.

Hap hapla.

Delicous food.

In sentence one, "to be" suggests that the food will still be delicious in the far future, while in sentence two, the absence of "to be" suggests that the food is about to be eaten by someone.

Of course, there are exceptions. Some nouns like morality, existence or other intangible things cannot appear in a sentence without "to be", as they are essentially permanent and unchanging.

Hii!!! Today is day 5 and i'm here with a mostly worldbuilding post. (mostly wordbuilding thursday???)

remember this low quality sickle from yesterday?

this is it now:

As you can see, it looks exactly the same as the "water" root character i showed you yesterday:

(ignore the hook thing: i explained more in the same post from yesterday)

Indeed, the shape of the "water" root word comes from this knife.

As the speakers of my language (or the Windpeople, as i now call them) live in a desert, water is obviously very important to them. Luckily, they have a large, humid marshland and a river delta near where they live, caused by some mysterious supernatural event. (more on that when i flesh it out a bit more)

The plants that grow in the marsh are tall and woody, like bamboo but much wetter. One such type, the One-Wind, grows a waxy, red fruit at the top, to attract birds and insects more easily. Due to the high humidity and large amount of mosquitos, these fruits are rarely harvested, and are considered a delicacy reserved for the royal family and the top few houses of the aristocracy.

The fruits don't even taste that good. By the time they've arrived from the marsh, it's gotten all mushy and gross from the hot weather, and the royals only eat it to show off to their friends and to keep the tradition alive.

Anyways, back to the knife:

(putting the picture here again so you don't have to scroll alll the way back up)

To harvest the fruit, people trained for this job first use the knife to chop down the tall bamboo-like stalks of the One-Wind, which they then tie three or more together with a few reeds for stability. Grooves are cut into the stalk, and the harvesters then climb the stalk with the knife in hand, using it as a grappling hook whenever they feel wobbly and unstable.

At the top of the makeshift ladder, the harvester secures their feet into small grooves cut into the stalk. Then, they hold the knife with their dominant hand, cutting the fruit off and catching it with their other hand. This is the hardest part of the process, as it's dangerous and near impossible. If the fruit drops and smashes into the ground below, the harvester has to repeat the process until they get at least one.

Due to this, the harvesters slowly started to pray to different deities to bless their knife, both for the safety of themselves and the fruits.

This is one of the most popular carvings: (romanization below the characters)

Foitel hòp itel aitel náp

/foitɛl˧ hop˩ itɛl˧ aitɛl˧ nap˥/

N-moon-ADJZ air-N moon-ADJZ VBZ-moon-ADJZ blade-N (sorry if the gloss is wrong its so confusing)

Wind Deity blesses (this) blade

lots of glyphs here, so heres a short explanation for all of them:

foitel: Deity

hòp: Air

itel: Holy

aitel: bless

náp: blade

(Note: "Holy air" is a poetic way to refer to wind.)

The second inscription is this:

Náp o shop lòmpal

/nap˥ o˧ ʃop˧ lompal˩/

blade-N PHRASE INDICATOR water-N foot-N-ADJZ

powerful marsh plant cutter

(Note: "náp shop" means "water blade", but adding the phrase indicator "o" , it turns into "marsh plant cutter".)

This is basically a label for the knife, kinda like a shop label doubling as an advertisement, to let people know what the item is and how powerful it is.

Hiii!!! I'm back today with a few characters, all based around this root word:

but (IPA: but˧)

root

morality

This root came from a drawing of a human heart. (the hooks represent the aorta and the pulmonary artery)

Like most cultures, the people who speak this language came to associate the heart with the human soul and emotions, causing the heart to be associated with morality.

For the sound it makes, (but) it comes from the onomatopoeia of a human heartbeat.

When the intangible noun modifer is added, it becomes a new glyph:

bebut (IPA: bɛbut˧)

n.

Truth

Why does the intangible marker look like that? You may ask. Well, my dear child, it is seperated into a dot and a dash, because people thought that intangible things existed in another dimension, hidden away from most people. The proto-writers decided to represent this by drawing a dash, or the earthly realm, and a dot, or the realm of intangible things, seperated by a gap. Originally, the modifier was written near the root word, which was then shifted above the root word to conserve space.