#wip lore

AHHH I MADE LORE HOLY SHIt

ALSSOO new ref for an oc I've had idea for a WHILE

I also have a new tag ! #chezz lore and #merlot lore

lol

Lore:

AAAAAH PUMPKINS :D

Send me a pumpkin if you want me to share something about my stories or my characters! Feel free to ask for specifics!

TODAY WE TALK A LITTLE ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SCRIBES AND SOLDIERS/RIDERS IN ASHES UNDER WINGS!

So, officially? There's no hard feelings between scribes and soldiers or riders. Officially, their quills are just as important as swords, spears, and arrows. Scribes transcribe and deliver orders and messages from generals and scouts - a single scribe can change the course of a war.

But unofficially? Soldiers think scribes are soft. They're protected in the Leaden Towers, protected in the cities, protected by the Inquisitors. Scribes do not fight (though sometimes they do sword drills in secret, more out of curiosity than actual longing to battle).

Because scribes are trained to work with absolute calm, never wavering despite blood and carnage and death all around them, soldiers find them a little freaky.

I thought it would be a fun exercise to show a bit ahead of the timeline (and let's pretend I'm not procrastinating on writing the next chapter) and give you a backstage tour. Every single thing has its place, whether it be the throwing knives, silks, cards or the tent canvas. So do the performers - after a period of general conditioning, they're assigned for specialised training to one of the factions. So, without further ado - here they are!

The Forgers

The Forgers are the most… explosive ones of the bunch. It's pretty self-explanatory when you realise that after so many years on the road, they become more fuel than humans. In short - they're the fire eaters. And breathers. And manipulators. All of them are slightly unhinged and have missing eyebrows (especially the trainees); they serve as a distraction or a really flashy public execution. Some people say what they do with flames is pure magic, and they won't correct them. They only have a semi-serious beef with the Clockworks - there are several ongoing investigations of missing flame fuel suspiciously going missing each time the new invention deadline approaches.

The Red Liners

Have you ever dreamed of flying a hovercraft? Or a zeppelin? There's a 78% chance they did as well. But with no generational wealth to their name, they had to find a different way to fly. The liners are your aerialists and trapeze performers, forever trying to defy the laws of gravity (and sometimes failing miserably). Perfectionists, by necessity (and sometimes a character), obsess over precision and artistry in every half spin and move. They align most with the "typical assassin" archetype, doing all the out-in-the-open ambushes and "everyday" assassinations.

The Steamers

Superficially, one of the weirdest combinations, The Steamers unify both your typical clowns and jesters with the quirky and mysterious illusionists. It was when the leaders of both strands realised how similar their specialised training was that they decided to merge. Out of this union came a straight-up disaster of the "mightier than thou" mentality, clashing with the easygoing mentality at all times. In later years, they realised that the principles of attention redirection and captivating the audience are similar enough not to try and kill each other in their sleep anymore. Instead, the wagons are filled with tons of practical (and not-so-practical) jokes. The Steamers are masters of poison and pickpocketing - you won't even realise when the deadly needle is in your neck.

The Valves

The Valves (or Valveguns, rather) don't even call themselves that. It was one of the polled names chosen at the last second with a quick throw of a knife at the bulletin board of a nearby poster. With this introduction, I think you could guess that they are precision experts. The jugglers, knife, axe,anything-with-a-blade throwers. They're your sharpshooters and always there if you need to shoot someone down from a distance. As such, they're actually called just that - The Throwers.

The Ballet

Most of the ordinary folks don't know what ballet is, not to mention seeing one in the flesh. As such, the circus ballet, composed of classical, contemporary or really not safe-for-work dances and acrobatics, is the model they'll have forever ingrained in them. All dancers are chosen for their agility and beauty as they have one of the dirtiest but necessary jobs. They broker information at every show and every corner of the world. Natural actors and masters of many masks, the dancers weave their web of information, poison and seduction to gather everything the circus could ever need from anyone.

The Clockworks

You'd think that's all, right? Often overlooked, the Clockworks are the foundation of the modern circus. With their engineering excellence and boundless creativity, they're the ones responsible for light shows and all the "animals" performing in the circus. Well, if you can call a 2-meter, purely mechanical lion an animal, that is. Some say they were born with screwdrivers instead of fingers with the way the cogs and screws come alive underneath their hands. They're the recon and networking masters, with tiny drones disguised as files and beetles. They have the reluctant respect of almost every faction for their mechanical prosthetics, exoskeletons and equipment. So what if they steal the Forgers' fuel?! They need it. For science.

I’m glad you asked! Which I’m realizing is a phrase I use a lot!

Loredump time~!

And also

Linguistics time~!

So! The language spoken by people in the Vandeth Desert is called Vandeth. You asked about names and words, so I’ll talk about names and words.

I knew I wanted to use a constructed language (or conlang, for short) for the Vandeth people. After a previous project proved extremely time-consuming and not at all worth it, I decided to create Vandeth using a top-down method. I started by just making up words, then seeing what they had in common, finding rules they follow. Every word I made after that would follow those rules. And when I needed grammar rules, I made those up, and continued following them.

Some of the most important things are vowel inventory, consonant inventory, and phonotactics (what sequences of sounds are allowed to go together). Vandeth uses the standard /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, and /u/ vowels, and that’s it. (They’re pronounced consistently, unlike in English.) I won’t write out all the consonants, but at this point I’m no longer adding any new ones.

Now, the phonotactics. This is mainly about syllable shapes. In Vandeth, the most common vowel shape is CV. After that is CVC. A very rare syllable shape is VC. Even rarer is CVV and CCVV. I also try to have a good balance of how often certain sounds appear and where. Hard, sharp sounds are more common, while soft, round sounds are rarer. What makes a sound hard, sharp, round, or soft is kinda vague. It’s a bit of a kiki/bouba situation. But to me, a word like “luvimo” doesn’t sound like Vandeth at all, but “shivaki” does.

But how do I even come up with new words? Well, I first look at the words I have and consider if it can be derived from any of those. At one point, I wanted a word for “gossip”. I looked at the words I had, and I noticed blai, “stain” and saksa, a verb stem meaning “to talk”. In Vandeth, words go after the word they describe, and when a word is derived from two others the words swip-swap. So the word for “gossip” ends up being blaisaksa. As another example, the word geital is a combination of gi, “two”, and keital, which used to be “gikeital” before it was shortened to be easier to say. The reason for this is that a geital is the same length as a keital but twice the length. The word keital itself actually comes from the verb stem kei, “to wear”, and the noun tal, “shadow”.

And what about names? Well, usually it’s just a word. Or it should be. I gave a throwaway character (an infant) the name Kimi, which in Vandeth means “pearl”. It’s kind of a cutesy name. Most often I just pick sounds that are Vandeth-y. It’s really important to me that Vandeth names (Vennem, Kalami, Mela) sound distinct from Delgane names (Lynn, Elvi, William, basically any English name) and names from other languages (Sóf, Markhi, Lili).

thanks for the tag @the-golden-comet! I’ll pick OLO, here’s a map of Neretia for reference :)

Let’s start off with the main island…

⛵️Gorga🎋

Ah, gorga, home to the kingdom’s capital, also named Neretia. If you’re looking for a more urban, populated city with lots of things to do, Neretia is the place! It’s also the biggest place of trade in all of Ouria! Plenty of cultures across the lands have called this island their home (except for the Fae Empire). You might not want to go out of the city, though. If you want to visit Perka or Styx Bay, you’ll have to get there by boat. Plenty of incomprehensible horrors lie in the jungle of towering trees and bamboo. Also the massive sprawling primeval chasm but shhhhh

Next up…

🏔️The Shield! 🗡️

The Shield is known for its beautiful mountainous sights and lack of monsters due to its rocky terrain, perfect for hiking! You might not want to go near any of the forts or too far from Iris bay, though. Legend says that before the Dragon gods of rain and thunder left, they created the shield to protect Neretia’s inhabitants from the sirens.

Speaking of…

🌴Pheroma🎶

Pheroma is the home of the sirens, don’t go to it. It’s never been fully mapped out. If you hear a choir of women singing in an unknown language, RUN.

Next…

🌊Ponta🗻

The tallest mountain in all of Ouria. Many adventurers and explorers have died trying to reach the top. Many primeval structures and even ones of unknown origin lie everywhere. Only two coastal cities lie at the bottom of the mountain. It’s also known for its chilly climate and diverse animals! All of them are docile and friendly towards humans. Blue penguins, turtles, arctic foxes, yeti crabs, etc. It’s recommended to leave them be. Blue whales are known to encircle the island as well, hence why no sea serpents go near it.

Next up…

🌋The Ashen Islands🔥

Don’t go there. Just don’t. You’ll last about an hour before suffocating from the ash and smoke from the constantly fuming volcanoes.

But don’t worry, you’ll have better luck with…

☀️Typhona ⛰️

Its namesake, the massive mountain, was originally an active volcano, and its theorized that Neretia used to be one landmass, but split apart when Typhona activated. Its dark, sandy beaches and many vistas are perfect for a small getaway! Minus the magma spewing demons and lizards- what who said that? Oh, and the dozens of dragon fossils in the mountain, that’s a cool sight too!

I want to give a little overview of the world all my WIPS take place.

A place where monsters walk among men, where magic meets the mundane, and mystery shrouds everything in the veils of night.

“The Veil keeps your eyes closed to the truth. But be careful for once they are open they can never be closed.” - Dreizehn

The Veils

The Veils, also known as “The Abyssal Gates” or “The Shade of the Sleeping” (also sometimes simply known as “The Walls”).

To further explain: you can think of reality as a whole as concentric circles, with veils being the line between the expanding circles.

The Veil is thought to be The Abyss seeping in between the gaps of the worlds, consequently creating other levels and hiding them from the slumbering humans. Those who have opened their eyes to the truth can see past the veil… Or at least the first one. The majority of Fiends also live past the first level of the veil but below the second.

The first veil is the thinnest, it separates the physical from the metaphysical, and it works on the vast majority of humans. It obscures the next level of the world from them, but to an extent, also protects them as it obscures them from the inhabitants of the next level.

The second veil separates the metaphysical from the purely spiritual. As an example, a Metaphysical being like a vampire might not necessarily be able to see purely spiritual beings like ghosts or demons.

Past that lies the third veil, which separates the spiritual world from the abstract world. Most fiends are not even aware of the abstract realms' existence. Deep within the Abstract Realm exist beings and concepts that are incomprehensible, Gods or Eldritch Horrors, call them what you like as there are no words of any language that can truly describe them.