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Author Topic: Create your own Empire clan!  (Read 45038 times)
Brandlin
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« Reply #15 on: May 29, 2010, 11:11:34 pm »

i have them somewhere bethar on the map - but we never decided how to show the boundaries... want me to dig them out?
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Rick
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« Reply #16 on: May 30, 2010, 12:00:41 am »

Just adding up the number of cities in the Empire - am I guessing right that the 37 clans are each centred round one of the cities, couple more in Gar-Loren? I guess I thought there were more clans than that. Can I assume there are minor clans or sub-clans that owe their allegiance to one of the 37? A map showing the boundaries would be extremely useful!
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Jubal
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« Reply #17 on: May 30, 2010, 09:02:29 am »

Ahhh, I didn't realise you'd done boundaries...

My current thoughts, Carcharoth, are that Larigal is the city just north of the lakes - that one that's almost literally sitting on the banks of the 2 northern lakes. Is that okay?
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Brandlin
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« Reply #18 on: May 30, 2010, 05:33:44 pm »

I put the very WIP picture of map with boundaries in the map thread here... http://www.worldoftwilight.com/forum/index.php?topic=8.msg661#msg661

hope that helps a little.
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TheGremlin
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« Reply #19 on: May 30, 2010, 10:17:46 pm »

Sorry, I'm sure this has been covered, but I thought it would good to have it here anyway: What's the definition of a clan? Plus ideas on magnitude. Thanks  Cool
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Carcharoth
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« Reply #20 on: May 31, 2010, 10:55:08 am »

A clan is an administrative and cultural region within the Empire. A close comparison would probably be countries within Europe and it is easy to draw parallels with the Roman Empire - lots of different countries with their own unique identity, but managed under one Emperor.
Brandlin's map is an indicator of the boundaries, but that is far from fixed. The cities are also placed in roughly the right locations, but the less well defined cities may get moved to fit (blame the cartographer  Smiley ).

Brandlin's map is an excellent place to start, and I'll try to flesh out some of the stereotypes and archetypes from the different regions at some point to give a bit more guidance.

It's great to see a few ideas flowing - don't get too hung up choosing the location though as I might end up moving things to fit a bit better. The interesting bits are the fine details as those can get absorbed into the world. Rick's city on the south of the Argoran wastes sounds about right. What would distinguish a militia from around Eglim-Tal? Do they have large numbers of mercenaries who hire themselves out to traders travelling through dangerous regions?
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Rick
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« Reply #21 on: May 31, 2010, 04:35:13 pm »

Quote
Rick's city on the south of the Argoran wastes sounds about right. What would distinguish a militia from around Eglim-Tal? Do they have large numbers of mercenaries who hire themselves out to traders travelling through dangerous regions?

Thanks Mike, I was hoping I was getting the feel right - I wanted it to have an almost "frontier-town" feeling to it, I like the idea of the mercenaries, probably a fair few of the younger sempa from the tribes would hire themselves out as well. I also liked the idea of mounted Militia, it would fit in with their herding background as well to have a couple of sections mounted on Enuks. As to the Mercenaries, I think there'd be a real mix there - from unarmoured fubarnii with a sling or staff-sling, up to armoured fubarnii with spears or shield and sword/mace; almost anything in fact, and the armour styles would probably be anything from basic, home produced stuff, up to Empire or Delgon styles. You might even find the odd Delgon mercenary there!
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Gethuch
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« Reply #22 on: May 31, 2010, 05:17:56 pm »

Eglim-Tal also hosts the Great Market - a major week-long festival each year where some of the nomadic tribes, as well as some of the feral bands, meet up to trade, buy animals and have a good time. The Great Market is usually attended by traders from around the empire and some of the tribes from Casani, and can also be a time for military commanders to meet up, as the tribes can be a good source of information on the Devanu moving through the areas.

Cool! Cheesy   A "Gar buuθoo"  ("gar boar-thoo" is a reasonable pronunciation) or Great Market is almost certainly a modern remnant of the ancient inter-clan gatherings, related to the mating cycle. Which I can't find my notes on, dammit. But basically the clans in a region used to meet up a couple of times a year and have a big festival, where there would be trading, socialising, showing off, etc. Basically the young'uns would mess around and the elders would try to negotiate and arrange marriages. Fubarnii aren't sexually active all the time like humans, it's seasonal, and partly triggered by social cues.

The modern day Great Markets have a reputation for a certain rural bawdiness...
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Gethuch
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« Reply #23 on: May 31, 2010, 05:26:22 pm »

Brandlin isn't entirely wrong that I'm getting you guys to help me with the town names  Smiley Beth and Tom will hopefully be along at some point to police the language
Arg! Chaos and disorder! Noooooo! Wink
I'm going to try not to panic too much. Real languages are messy and have regional variation, and mainly I don't want to stifle peoples creativity.
BUT if people want to have their place names be meaningful, there's lots of info here:
http://fubarnii.pbworks.com/browse/#view=ViewFolder&param=ProtoFubarnii
and mainly:
http://fubarnii.pbworks.com/ProtoFubarnii-Dictionary

(If I remember my Fubarnii linguistics, 'Gar' means great (or many) so it doesn't necessarily work as an ending in the name Mish Lan Gar).
Could be an alteration or regional variant of "gon", an archaic noun meaning "people" or "folk". That appears at the end of place names quite often.
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Brandlin
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« Reply #24 on: May 31, 2010, 06:58:11 pm »

Quote

arrrgh chaos and disorder....  you gotta HATE dictionaries that aren't even in alphabetical order
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Rick
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« Reply #25 on: May 31, 2010, 09:27:11 pm »

I was looking at some articles on Native American languages the other day, and it started me wondering how the Fubarnii language had changed. For example, a lot of the native americans migrated across almost the whole continent in their existence, Athabaskan (for example) is spread from Alaska through to Northern Mexico, as a root language, but only the closest tribes share enough words to make themselves understood in their own languages - go a bit further afield (even just a few hundred miles) and there are few points of reference in the language. So, presumably, the Empire being at Gar-Loren would probably have this dialect as the 'official' language of the Empire, a common language that everyone who needs to converse across the Empire could use. How far apart have regional branches of fubarnii spread? Can a Delgon move to the Casani territories and immediately hold a conversation? Or does each clan have a slightly different dialect that changes markedly the further away from Gar-Loren you get?
« Last Edit: May 31, 2010, 09:36:47 pm by Rick » Logged
Rick
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« Reply #26 on: May 31, 2010, 10:01:16 pm »

Just thought of this one - Knights. If the regional dialects are different, and Knights are drawn from all of these regions, they're going to end up speaking an almost separate language, a patois of different words from different regions, including a set of words from a military cant. Thats then going to disseminate into the different regions where they're stationed/settled as well. Think about English - thats a patois basically of Latin, French, Danish, German and others, then think of the different words the military use in english today.
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Gethuch
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« Reply #27 on: June 01, 2010, 02:00:34 am »

That's all pretty accurate, Rick. The differences are more a matter of dialect and accent than of language, although there was originally much more difference between the regions. Sort of like in England today, where Cornwall used to have its own language, but that is now extinct, leaving only an area of strong, weird dialect and accent. A Delgon in Casani territory could be understood, but it would be like having a Scottish Highlander in a pub full of East End Londoners.

And yes, as on Earth the military have their own group-identifying slang. They also have an interesting mixed accent - the training schools have a constant influx of jenta from throughout the Empire.
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Rick
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« Reply #28 on: June 01, 2010, 02:14:26 am »

Oh, good - so if I want to create an occasional word that's slightly different, I'll just label it "regional dialect", as long as I don't go overboard, I might just get away with it, lol!

I read somewhere that there were 3 main reasons for the various cant's or jargon that trades developed, the first was that it fostered an 'us and them' elitism (so if you weren't in the guild, you couldn't understand it), the second was that there were tools or items created unique to that trade that required a new vocabulary and you had to be understood by everyone working there, sometimes instantly; and third, that it helped to keep Guild or trade secrets within the trade. I suppose an easy example of a cant is that of sailors and ships - it really is a separate language, lol!
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Gethuch
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« Reply #29 on: June 01, 2010, 03:03:45 am »

Oh, good - so if I want to create an occasional word that's slightly different, I'll just label it "regional dialect", as long as I don't go overboard, I might just get away with it, lol!

Yup, as long as you (roughly!) follow the basic phonology and grammar, there's no problem creating new words.
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