![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingI am home and bored and "Secrets" is being frustrating, so... meme time!
Via![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
askerian: Comment with a story I've written, and I will tell you one thing I knew, learned, or wondered about while writing the story that didn't make it onto the page.
Via
askerian: Comment with a story I've written, and I will tell you one thing I knew, learned, or wondered about while writing the story that didn't make it onto the page.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-28 06:26 pm (UTC)1. Names
Date: 2009-10-28 08:05 pm (UTC)Miria's birth name was Alaiah, a variant of Laiachal, which means 'he loves God.' Al is a name for God, from aleked, or lord, and laiach is love. Alaiah means 'God's love,' or, more specifically, 'God loves her.' The male version would be Alaiachim. The female version of Laiachal would be Laichala. Laiachal is the root of Laikal, Larach, Achal, and Laikam, four Doran names. Laichala is the root of Laikala, Larachine, and Akally. Alaiah is the root of Allia, Alysea, Halla and Alka. Alaiachim is not a name from the Book of Days, and is not used much in the Holy Land; it would be presumptuous. There are no Doran variants.
Miria is the root of Maria, Mary, Marian, Mariana, Mirian, Mirial, Moria, Marylla, Marilys, Maritha, Margalys, Magria, Midaria, Mirda, Marina, and many other names. Marea is the root of Mara, Myrah, Mikara, Michara, Aharae, Harah, and Harai. Mara and Michara/Mikara are surprisingly popular names, considering their source. It is perfectly conceivable for children to be named after Saint Marea Imiret of Minrocheh, who was healed by the Lord and followed him until his death, but her name is generally translated as Maria, just as Miria is generally changed to Maria in translation. So the two are frequently confused.
Saturday, September 27, 2003
Quick pronunciation note: feminine nouns and names are pronounced with the accent on the second syllable of a 3-syllable word. Masculine nouns and names have the accent on the first syllable of a 3-syllable word. This is because the secondary accent in masculine words is always on the last syllable, while in feminine words it's on the second-to-last syllable. So it's Al-ai'-ah and Lai'-ach-chal', Ma-re'-ah and Ah'-ho-maal'.
Most place names are feminine, since women are associated with the home and hearth, while men moved around to hunt or tend flocks and herds, so: Zai In-no'-nal.
This rule only applies to names from the Holy Land and Book of Days.
Monday, September 11, 2006
As I wrote "Finding Marea," some of my thoughts on names changed. Apparently neither Miria nor Marea is usually transliterated to Maria; instead, they remain distinct from each other. I find it amusing that Harai Inosikae, my narrator, is herself named with a (much-removed) variant of Marea. I'm not sure she knows this; she's not a linguistic specialist.
The Adam and Eve equivalents in this world are called Adin and Zefaiah. Adam is apparently derived from the Hebrew word for 'earth' or 'dust.' Eve seems to mean 'life.' Therefore, the first man is named Earth and the first woman is named Life. Adin likewise means 'earth.' Zefaiah, however, doesn't exactly mean 'life;' instead, the name means 'fruitfulness' or 'bounty,' with a connotation of 'graciousness/grace/gift.'
Kos and Dora are loosely equivalent to ancient Greece and Rome, and have correspondingly similar-yet-distinct naming systems. Doran male names tend to end in ON, IM, or IS, and family names end in A or EUS. Kosian names tend to end in OS or IAN, and several family names end in AE or, again, OS. Names from the riverlands sound vaguely Italian -- Challo, Avedura, Fichona, Medaeo, etc. -- and names from the Holy Land and Ochre Varos sound vaguely Biblical and/or Middle Eastern.
2. The Doran Empire
Date: 2009-10-28 08:06 pm (UTC)To understand these stories, you need to know a bit about the Doran Empire. It began as the city-state of Dora in northwestern Camia, which grew first to encompass the valley of Norineth and the port of Ultar on the western shore of the Kesric Sea, from which point the Dorans came into conflict with Corsinn, a powerful state on the eastern shore. Eventually the Dorans defeated Corsinn and subjugated most of the coastal regions of the Kesric Sea.
Over the next centuries, Dora expanded until it covered most of Simia -- i.e., the western half of Camia -- either ruling provinces directly or forcing local rulers to swear fealty, pay tribute, and provide men for the Doran armies. The Empire was first ruled by a king and a council of nobles, but this power structure eventually proved unstable as nobles from various regions of the empire worked for conflicting interests and began to demand concessions in return for their military support. To prevent greater civil war, the kings consolidated their power, using both the paid imperial troops and the levies from the subject kingdoms to break the power of the nobles. Hereditary nobility was declared illegal, and rank was assigned on the basis of imperial service. (Nobles' sons did have an advantage getting into imperial service, so the old power structure remained in attenuated form.)
Around the time that the kings were breaking the nobles and declaring themselves emperors, the Church was born in Ochre Varos as one of many strains of Amaalism -- which is more properly called Yagataal, or 'Worship [of] the Lord,' but has been popularly named after its supposed founder, Ahomaal. The destruction of the Temple in Ezippah, which was the heart of Yagataal, brought the Church into prominence, and it began to spread quickly through the Empire. It was a savior religion, one that promised justice and order and blessings upon those who suffered. A lot of people were suffering in those times.
Within two hundred years, the Church had become the official religion of the Empire, replacing the old cult of ruler-worship. Other faiths still clung to their followers, however, and a new evangelical faith was being born in the south along the Great Mother River: the Circle of Kemar, or the Horse-cult. It was to become the third great demon of the Church. (The others were the paganism of the Jenjani and southerners, and the persistent heresies that rose within their own religious tradition.)
3. Harai's numerology
Date: 2009-10-28 08:07 pm (UTC)Harai subscribes to a numerology system prevalent in the Empire, which goes like this:
0 = sterility, emptiness, the void
1 = potential, solitude, perfection, the infinite, God
2 = instability, scales, pendulums, arguments, aborted journeys
3 = stability, fellowship, love, the joining of disparate elements
4 = the world, the elements, nature
5 = humanity, the body, union of matter and spirit
6 = a quest, a journey, or a pause along the way
7 = chance, luck, change
8 = foresight, planning, skill
9 = endings, closure, destruction, comprehension
10 = dominion, power, control, fame
11 = innocence, the unknown, the soul, spirituality
12 = perfection, completion, experience, stasis
13 = imbalance, ill-luck, the unnatural, separation of matter and spirit
14 = time, the past, the future
15 = war, strife, anger, parallel elements
16 = return to beginnings, cycles, balance, completed journeys
17 = creation, breaking patterns, risk, glory
Whether numbers are auspicious or not depends on the context. 1, 4, 9, and 16 are particularly important because they're square numbers. Each number has a shadow or mirror, counting inwards toward 9. So 17 mirrors 1, 16 mirrors 2, and so on, until 9 itself mirrors 0, which is set outside the pattern.
Because the system allows two-digit numbers, it's nearly impossible to add things up to equal 1. You almost always get 10 instead. This is, in fact, deliberate, since 1 is such a powerful number. There are alternate numerology systems that only allow single-digit numbers -- these seem to have been brought to Camia by the Jenjani -- but they assign different meanings to the numbers, and are not used in Church scriptures and Circle stories.
4. Cities of the north
Date: 2009-10-28 08:08 pm (UTC)Inland, Toren lies at the first fall line on the Erisokos, near the Bannerry Hills; its sister city, Peruthy, sits further into the hills at the junction of the Island Road and the River Road. Sarill sprawls at the northwestern edge of Lake Nacoma, where the Sister joins the Great Mother River. Illeilee is the city at the heart of the riverlands (the watershed of the Sister) that straddles trade routes in the rich farm country. Minrocheh is a port at the western edge of the Mother's delta. And Ochre Varos, a thriving trade city, lies south of Lake Nacoma on the Mother, at the nexus of four trade routes: the Gold Road south to the mountain kingdoms, the Ivory Road southeast to Tuvia, the Silk Road northeast to Qatham'bal, and the Great Trunk Road northwest to Dora, where all roads find their way at last.
Many of the great cities either are or have been capitols of Imperial provinces, except for Kos, which is itself a province. There are no great cities on the southern border of the Empire, since trade with the mountain kingdoms is too sporadic to support them, and there are no great rivers in the southern highlands.
The lands of the Jenjani are divided into five great regions, each of which contains several nations or city-states. Nalus, the northern coastal region, is dominated by the cities of Ninousha, which lies on Qotamir Maqef just east of the Mother's delta, and is a great rival of Minrocheh; and Hethgaj Aboural, at the mouth of the short, wide, mud-choked Vequt River, which flows northwest from the Hajouqati mountains to the Gulf of Shoujoura.
Tuvia, the rugged southeastern highlands, is split into the inland lake country and the narrow coastal plain. The twin cities of the lake country -- Reqouro on the shores of Ifratoum Qaniq and Burati on Qinjad Qaniq -- are the gateway for trade between the Doran Empire and the lands across the Broken Sea. They pay tithes to the Horse Lords of Jana, the central plains region, so their trade is not disrupted too frequently. Ehalom Ulad, nestled in the hills at the joining of the Dehabi and Ulad Serif rivers, and Ganjef Aboural at the mouth of the Dehabi, complete the trade route.
Qatham'bal, or Calaea, the land of silk and salt between the Hajouqati Mountains and the Broken Sea, is mostly desert, sheltered from rain by the high mountains. Rourin'qef, the city of salt, lies on an oasis in that desert, and forms an important stop on the Silk Road, which leads from Ochre Varos to Shajento on the Broken Sea, where people cultivate mulberry trees in walled gardens and grow coffee in the narrow valleys where the northwest winds bring warm water down from the seas above Nalus to ameliorate the harsh desert winds from the west and south. Silk is also produced in Tuvia, but Tuvia's climate is better for farming and so its people are less dependent on trade crops.
Qismena, the city that is not, the abode of magicians, lies hidden deep in Accia, in the heart of the Hajouqati-uq north of the Silk Road. It is spoken of only in whispers, for in Qismena strange things walk the earth under the light of the moon.
5. Religions (part one)
Date: 2009-10-28 08:10 pm (UTC)Qabula is the faith of the Jenjani. It is a catch-all religion, containing very few basic elements. The balance is wildly different from region to region and person to person. The constants are the Lord of Storms and the Lady of Horses, also known as Father Sky and Mother Earth. The Bright Lady who protects women in childbirth and the Dark Lord of Death are also universal, though their names and titles vary. Qabula contains thousands of deities, but the average Qabulist only prays to a few dozen. They refer to themselves as Qabuli-uq; they have no single holy book.
Rhonaism is the faith of the southern kingdoms on both sides of the great mountains. Rhonists worship the Goddess and God, Mother Earth and Father Sky. The actual ceremonies of worship vary widely, but there are bedrock similarities. Ceremonies for the Goddess are held in the ancient stone circles with a central altar; ceremonies for God are held in chapels, generally with a cruciform stained-glass window behind the altar. The Rhonists have no name for their religion; they simply call it the faith. They have no holy book per se, but the Book of Rhone, written by the classical theologian Rhiannon of Rhone, is the defining text of their faith. It is a peculiar holy book since it consists largely of essays concerning the hypocrisy and emptiness of all organized religion, including the very faith it defines. The book also contains poetry, discussions of human character, and thoughts on the value of personal faith and the value of rituals in creating a sense of community.
Note, 4/20/06: This is outdated not because the religious descriptions are bad, as such, but because it leaves out the Circle of Kemar, or the Horse-cult, which is the other great religion of the Doran Empire, much though the Church and the imperial government would prefer to ignore its existence. The Circle is an amalgamation of Christian-tinged theology -- particularly a doctrine of salvation, and a strong monotheistic bent -- and older pagan beliefs and practices, particularly communal rites and sacrifices.
Second Note, 5/15/06: It also leaves out the Amaalites (or Zaiyataal -- 'those who worship the Lord') who are this world's version of the Jews... except they aren't nearly as much of an ethnic group as they are in our world. They've become defined more by faith than by birth, perhaps since Simia has a long habit of accepting religions defined more by philosophies and lifestyles than by faith, strictly speaking. Rhonaism and the Circle have a persistent strain of philosophical thought, and a wariness toward unquestioning faith, so the legalistic component of modern Amaalism (or Yagataal -- 'worship of the Lord') fits in well, as do the lifestyle commandments. The faith component -- strict monotheism and a degree of self-abnegation before the will of God -- actually counterbalances the Circle of Kemar better than the Church does, since the Church is, of necessity, Trinitarian, and also holds Miria -- the Mary equivalent -- in high regard.
6. Religions (part two)
Date: 2009-10-28 08:11 pm (UTC)Just as Church-folk and Circle-folk call Qabulists 'Jenjani sacrificers,' they call Rhonaists 'southern pagans.' This, I have decided, is because the southern religious traditions aren't really organized enough to have a single name. Also, I've decided that Rhiannon of Rhone was part of the same religious outpouring and mixing that led to the creation of the Church, the Circle, and modern Amaalism. Her attempts to codify southern traditions helped create the sense that there was a single, unified southern religion, and that it had existed for generations before her. Scholars know this is false, but most southerners believe their religion is much older than Rhiannon's writings.
Fourth Note, 3/7/07: While the basic faith of the Doran Empire is Christianity, it's not referred to as such within that world. This is because it would break the 'secondary reality' aspect of the thing. So all through "Finding Marea" I talked about the Church and Church-folk, the Circle and Circle-folk, the Horse-cult and Horse-dancers, and so on. Amaalism and Symbolism are the only two faiths that have standard adjectival names. I suspect that this has some effect on the way people think about religion, but I'm not at all sure what that might be.