Antediluvian Secrets (official POC worldbuilding thread)

[Nature-Spirits]

Oh, it's Ser Dickwit.

Matching Mithras' personality perfectly! Get back on your horse.

And to contrast that, the Precambrians, despite embracing magic, have this weird belief system akin to the Gaia hypothesis.

These would, of course, be just majority religions.

Sweet. I'll go to work on the dualistic one, then.

Once you've got the names of some of the significant religious figures worked out, would you mind giving them to me so I can potentially use them for the phonetic alphabet?

[Transoxthraxia]

Matching Mithras' personality perfectly! Get back on your horse.


Sweet. I'll go to work on the dualistic one, then.

Once you've got the names of some of the significant religious figures worked out, would you mind giving them to me so I can potentially use them for the phonetic alphabet?

Okay. So, with that, Ayr, what sort of language do you want me to base the names of old figures out of? Greek, Latin, Tocharian? I don't know, hell, Transoxthraxian even. I just need a base of names to start working with.

[Ayreonia]

Once you've got the names of some of the significant religious figures worked out, would you mind giving them to me so I can potentially use them for the phonetic alphabet?

Okay. So, with that, Ayr, what sort of language do you want me to base the names of old figures out of? Greek, Latin, Tocharian? I don't know, hell, Transoxthraxian even. I just need a base of names to start working with.

I've used biblical and geological eras for places. Might want to continue the trend.

[Nature-Spirits]

Once you've got the names of some of the significant religious figures worked out, would you mind giving them to me so I can potentially use them for the phonetic alphabet?

Okay. So, with that, Ayr, what sort of language do you want me to base the names of old figures out of? Greek, Latin, Tocharian? I don't know, hell, Transoxthraxian even. I just need a base of names to start working with.

And again, I need to know the language families from which the majority ethnicities stem, and potentially the names for said ethnicities (which ties in with this).

No pressure.

[Transoxthraxia]

Okay. So, with that, Ayr, what sort of language do you want me to base the names of old figures out of? Greek, Latin, Tocharian? I don't know, hell, Transoxthraxian even. I just need a base of names to start working with.

I've used biblical and geological eras for places. Might want to continue the trend.

Biblical it is.

[Transoxthraxia]

Okay. So, with that, Ayr, what sort of language do you want me to base the names of old figures out of? Greek, Latin, Tocharian? I don't know, hell, Transoxthraxian even. I just need a base of names to start working with.

And again, I need to know the language families from which the majority ethnicities stem, and potentially the names for said ethnicities (which ties in with this).

No pressure.

Linguistics is my passion, so, Ayr, I could help with this as well.

[Nature-Spirits]

And again, I need to know the language families from which the majority ethnicities stem, and potentially the names for said ethnicities (which ties in with this).

No pressure.

Linguistics is my passion, so, Ayr, I could help with this as well.

We will be friends.

[Ayreonia]

Hey, I'll take any help I can get.

Also, this song is fitting, somehow.

[The Carlisle]

Okay. So, with that, Ayr, what sort of language do you want me to base the names of old figures out of? Greek, Latin, Tocharian? I don't know, hell, Transoxthraxian even. I just need a base of names to start working with.

I've used biblical and geological eras for places. Might want to continue the trend.

Just to clarify. The Family and city name is Oorburg, but the Duchy's name can be anything. You can give it one of the old duchy names if you want. Because it would be quiet silly for it to be the Duchy of Oorburg, the City of Oorburg, The family Oorburg, Oorburg steel, Oorburg brand tuna in a can, etc...

[Transoxthraxia]

Linguistics is my passion, so, Ayr, I could help with this as well.

We will be friends.

Why not more?

[Nature-Spirits]

We will be friends.

Why not more?

... Research partners?

[Transoxthraxia]

Why not more?

... Research partners?

Mm I like the sound of that.

[Palonitr and Howland]

It is suprising that we have two corporals in alpha squad.

[Ayreonia]

It is suprising that we have two corporals in alpha squad.

Farley had his own command before being transferred to the 4th, no?

Anyway, people put waaay too much weight on ranks. If you start high, you'll never get promoted, and I'm looking forward to hand out promotions, because I'm nice like that.

[Cylarn]

Yo Ayr, if you need any help, let me know. Just give me something to do.

[Palonitr and Howland]

It is suprising that we have two corporals in alpha squad.

Farley had his own command before being transferred to the 4th, no?

Anyway, people put waaay too much weight on ranks. If you start high, you'll never get promoted, and I'm looking forward to hand out promotions, because I'm nice like that.

Yep. A squad. Until they all spontaneously combusted with the rest of his platoon. Fraley would have a lot of interesting stories to tell about the southern front.

Just interesting as I said. I mind not whether there be 5 corporals in a squad but much would happen before that occurs.

And I'm not much help on most things but If you need need help in storyline or history building, welk I'm right here to help.

[Nature-Spirits]

Do we have anyone here who knows a lot about machinery and/or weaponry? If so, maybe they could help out with the weapons and vehicles.

Also, my questions for Ayreo have been reduced for now to these:
1) What measurement system is used by the Antediluvians? If metric, what kind of system did they use before (if you'd like I can make this system up)?
2) Is there a monarchy with a king and queen?

[Ayreonia]

Do we have anyone here who knows a lot about machinery and/or weaponry? If so, maybe they could help out with the weapons and vehicles.

Also, my questions for Ayreo have been reduced for now to these:
1) What measurement system is used by the Antediluvians? If metric, what kind of system did they use before (if you'd like I can make this system up)?
2) Is there a monarchy with a king and queen?

I'll answer these, then get some well-deserved sleep.

1) I'd stick to metric. Making up a new one would just be confusing.
2) Yeah. King at the moment.

[Nature-Spirits]

Do we have anyone here who knows a lot about machinery and/or weaponry? If so, maybe they could help out with the weapons and vehicles.

Also, my questions for Ayreo have been reduced for now to these:
1) What measurement system is used by the Antediluvians? If metric, what kind of system did they use before (if you'd like I can make this system up)?
2) Is there a monarchy with a king and queen?

I'll answer these, then get some well-deserved sleep.

1) I'd stick to metric. Making up a new one would just be confusing.
2) Yeah. King at the moment.

1) Well, the reason I ask about the previous system is because I was considering incorporating some of the measurement names into the phonetic alphabet. So if I wanted to, could I make one?
2) Great.

[Kriegers]

This has grown A LOT since I first got here.


Also, yay, accepted.

[The Kingdom of Rhamos]

I know a lot about western AFV's, what can I help you with?

[Ayreonia]

I'll answer these, then get some well-deserved sleep.

1) I'd stick to metric. Making up a new one would just be confusing.
2) Yeah. King at the moment.

1) Well, the reason I ask about the previous system is because I was considering incorporating some of the measurement names into the phonetic alphabet. So if I wanted to, could I make one?
2) Great.

Bad idea. Causes confusion.

[The Carlisle]

I'll answer these, then get some well-deserved sleep.

1) I'd stick to metric. Making up a new one would just be confusing.
2) Yeah. King at the moment.

1) Well, the reason I ask about the previous system is because I was considering incorporating some of the measurement names into the phonetic alphabet. So if I wanted to, could I make one?
2) Great.

Oorburg has a fundamentally different measurement system, where we measure things in beers. A lager is about a foot, a pilsners is about a yard, and a pabst blue ribbon can go fuck itself over the mountains.

[Nature-Spirits]

1) Well, the reason I ask about the previous system is because I was considering incorporating some of the measurement names into the phonetic alphabet. So if I wanted to, could I make one?
2) Great.

Bad idea. Causes confusion.

Alright, fair enough.

[Transoxthraxia]

The beginnings of something great. (Note that a language with a red box means that it is extinct, a language with a yellow box is in danger of being extinct, and a black box meaning that it still has quite a few speakers.) So, after a bit of deliberation with Nature Spirits, we've decided that the continent will be split into two major language groups (One being Ezeric, and the other having yet to be named. These two would be the equivalent of, say, Indo-European and Dravidian, or the Asiatic Languages.), though to cause less confusion most of the relevant languages in the RP will belong to one group, the Ezeric Group. Now, the Ezeric Group has a long and varied history, but can trace its beginnings back to a group of Horse-herders on the westernmost point of the Western Island. The Proto-Ezeric people led a rather nomadic lifestyle that revolved around horses, including sacrificing them, eating them, being buried with them, and, most importantly, domesticating them. The Ezeric people were the first to successfully domesticate the horse, and many linguists and historians theorize that this was the cause of the rapid Ezeric expansion across most of the Continent.

Around the 3,000 B.C mark (Or whatever this universes' equivalent is), the Ezeric People began to rapidly expand their culture and their language influence to most of the Western Island. This is shown through the increase of pottery and other decorative material culture that is adorned with horses, as well as burial mounds with multiple horse skeletons within them. In about three and a half centuries, most of the Western island had come under the cultural influence of the Ezeric Peoples. Whether this was done via conquest or trade, there is no evidence either way. Soon enough, however, they departed their island for the mainland, through the adaptation of non-Ezeric seafaring. Ezeric language and culture seems to have arrived on the Western Shores of the mainland around (the equivalent of) 1800 B.C, most likely through trade, rather than conquest. By then, the cultural and linguistic influence of the Ezeric speakers exerted enough pressure upon the small coastal trading settlements on the western coast that within two generations, these towns, too, had adopted Ezeric culture, especially the domestication of horses.

This is where we see the beginning of the split of the Ezeric languages. Those that remained on the Western Island would eventually develop the Haggaic Languages, and those on the mainland would develop the Nahumic and Reuelic languages. From here, there is a rapid expansion of Ezeric languages within a time frame of two centuries, when they would expand to almost every corner of the mainland. The prior inhabitants of the mainland continent, who are the ancestors of the Thornorgisil Family, (which will be coming/explained in a bit) were either rapidly displaced or assimilated into the Ezeric Culture. The notable difference between the Thornorgisil and Ezeric cultures was the domestication of the Horse. The Thornorgisil cultures, which had long adopted a sedentary lifestyle, as well as an (undeciphered) alphabet, fielded armies that had never ridden a horse, or faced an adversary who rode horses, putting them at a massive disadvantage. The Thornorgisil languages and culture survived only in remote areas, though somewhat admirably, managed to do so for over three millennia.

Adopting the sedentary lifestyle of their political predecessors, the Ezeric languages quickly split between Nahumic and Reuelic between the 15th and 14th centuries B.C (Or their equivalent.). The boundary between the two languages was the large mountain range near the center of the continent. From then on, Nahumic survived on its own as a rather plain language on the western half of the continent, eventually naturally evolving into Old (or Lower) Nahumic with the fall of the Nahumian Empire (Ironically, the Nahumian Empire wasn't ruled by any ethnic Nahumic, at least, not at the end. They were ruled by a Haggaic Dynasty out of the city of Nahumia, which was burnt to the ground following the fall of their empire.) Old Nahumic remained dominant in the western half of the continent during the interregnum period (Think the Dark Ages/Low Middle Age) due to its heavy use by the political leaders of the time. It eventually evolved into Middle Nahumic, which was slightly influenced by the dying Benaihic Language that was spoken primarily on the Eastern Coast of the West Island, due to the heavy presence of trade between the two cultures. Many loan words, place names, and a few surnames can be attributed to Benaihic. Eventually, during the Rebirth Period (Think renaissance/enlightenment) Middle Nahumic evolved into High Nahumic, which was quickly adopted as a language of the nobility and clergy of not only those on the western part of the mainland, but on the western island as well. The dying Benaihic language (Which was in decline due to the depopulation of the Western Island and the cultural domination by the Nahumic branch due to political and trading advantages) began to be supplanted by a language that combined High Nahumic and Benaihic known as Achavic.

However, as the world entered the modern age, High Nahumic itself was in decline. It was a complex languages with almost no regular grammar and difficult spelling. For those who had not the time nor the money to pay for education, a simpler alternative began to present itself: Bastardized Nahumic. A simplified Creole of High Nahumic, it was quite a bit more grammatically regular, but still somewhat mutually intelligible with High Nahumic. While High Nahumic was kept as a diplomatic and religious language, most adopted Bastardized (otherwise known as Modern) Nahumic as an everyday language. Modern Nahumic is what most people in the Fourth Speak, with most having a remedial knowledge of High Nahumic. Officers and Nobility would be able to speak High Nahumic fluently as well as Modern Nahumic.

In regards to the Reuelic Tree, my hands hurt a shit ton from typing this up, but I'll explain briefly. Caiaphic was the Westernmost dialect of the Reuelic languages, and as the Eastern part of the Continent was mostly dominated by political forces originating from the western part of the east (odd I know.), it became the lingua franca of the entire sector, eventually evolving into Modern Symean. Symean is about as mutually intelligible to Modern Nahumic as Albanian is to Spanish, so keep that in mind. Symean is spoken by the majority of our adversaries, but due to Nahumic being the lingua franca of the world today, most would have at least remedial knowledge of both Modern and High Nahumic. Diomedic is an Eastern dialect of the Reuelic languages, and is in danger of going extinct with native speakers numbering in the low hundreds.