Send Asks - ISAT World Project

Expanding on the world of In Stars and Time with stories, images, anecdotes and letters from your ever mysterious Librarian. Feel free to ask about anything related to the project or contribute to it! I'm always happy to interact with the community.

[valictini]

I've been thinking about what could possibly have been Siffrin's original name. Of course we have zero info about it so I've been going off my own headcanons and assuming that there's significance in how they renamed themself later in life.

First of all, although sky related names were probably very popular on the Island, i think with the significance of flowers in their culture, naming your child after a flower was probably also common.

Of course not every single person would be named after a star or a flower, but i assume it would be a popular choice. So I chose a flower name in Siffrin's case.

After looking at many flower names, both scientific and common (because in my mind the Island was very science oriented, making more scientific names not uncommon), one in particular caught my eye: Lupin.

Not only does it remind me of the character Arsene Lupin, it struck me that it was basically the combination of Loop + Siffrin.

So yeah, I am now headcanoning that this is what they were called on the Island, and that both loopers have been gravitating around it without even realising it. Of course they'll never know just how close they got to their old name, but its the thought that counts!

Also bonus, even though flower language stuff is always a bit too vague for my taste, I really liked this one site's interpretation of what lupin flowers mean:

Siffrin is many things, but reading this made me realise that for better or for worse, resilience truly is one of their strongest traits.

[isat-worldbuilding]

you've probably been asked this before, but is there any available complete or semi-complete documentation for sahaetian? i've been working on an islander conlang myself and think it would be fun to compare how our takes are similar and how they differ

I don't have too much documentation, this is my first proper conlang I've put effort into developing.

I did quickly throw together a website so that you can see the VERY general rules by which I work, and I'll see how I can get a dictionary of some sort up and running there. I'd really like to get deeper into grammar when I get more free time.

If you have any pieces of advice I'd love to hear! I would like for this worldbuilding project to become an open thing that anyone can contribute to. I sadly don't have much time to work on the conlang as I'm in university, so it'll probably take some time to make changes.

[isat-worldbuilding]

whatˑs the Sahaet word for pineapple, if youˑve made it?

I've been so busy with studying in real life that I almost (but not quite) forgot about this project!

Now I did not have a word for Pineapple before this, so I dug through some etymology from other languages and came up with a few:

Plant, or in "SaMA" in Sahaetian

Pineapples are quite spiky, so we'll need a word for spike (or other such pointy thing), I took Pain and Point to get "BaTuK"

(Also a new verb: to sew "B-T-K" and an adjective: Spiky "BaTKuM")

Fruit grows from pollinated flowers, I decided to combine the verb "to flower" (B-SL-x-M) and the word "Good" (FiRi), giving us "Fruit" or "FaBSAM"

Finally we can make our pineapple as a spiky fruit, combining BaTKuM with FaBSAM, we get a very overly long word, so let's combine them, cut down on hard to pronounce syllables, and then shift around the sounds so it's even easier to pronounce (we want to be able to speak this after all), this leaves us with BSaMuK as the word for Pineapple.

Hope that was interesting! I had fun looking through the etymology of different words. I took quite a bit of inspiration from Arabic, Serbo-Croatian and a little Persian for the new words, so I hope it shows.

Till next time!

[isat-worldbuilding]

Ok so the basic concept of my fanfic:

Post canon, Loop ends up learning more about the Change belief and Changes. They also use wish craft a lot but that's not relevant to this ask

Here are what notes I have on Change, this is all just me writing whatever comes to mind and sort of brainstorming as much as I can:

From a young age, kids are taught about Change. They usually have lessons once a month or so where they learn more about it.

Generally speaking, it’s expected that most people will go through their first Change in their late teens or early twenties. However, some people will Change as early as middle school – sometimes earlier, though that’s rare.

Nobody would ever really say “it’s just a phase” to someone – in their belief, everything is “just a phase.”

Most people will Change at least twice in their lifetime, with the majority Changing three or four times. Some people will only Change once. Generally, people aren’t considered a true follower of the belief if they never Change.

In Mirabelle’s case, it’s because of Euphrasie’s generosity and willingness to mentor her that she managed to become a housemaiden without ever Changing. I imagine she’s tried a few times, but never succeeded, and Euphrasie encourages her to wait until she’s ready.

Changing:

People all have unique journeys as they Change, but for most people it follows a general pattern of two parts.

For the first part of their Change – the longest part, usually – they’ll spend a lot of time in a House participating in classes and working towards their Change. They might spend time with other housemaidens shopping for new clothing, talking about the person they want to become, etc. This part is more social and collaborative.

When they’re ready, they spend a period of time (could be a week, could be a month, depending on the person) mostly alone, working towards their Change on their own. They may speak with a Housemaiden, but it’s a less social part of their Change.

(and there's a ton more on wish craft but what I need the most help with is Change)

(tysm for your help!!)

That does seem like a rather sensible direction to take the Change belief in! The outline itself works and I would not be surprised if this was the majority view for those who believe in Change.

At this point I'd say that you could start writing down details of the process (or at least a traditional way of going through it), for example the rituals or the clothing or ceremonies or whatever. You could make some modifications because religions do tend to have at least a few sects. Or you could get down to writing a story for this fanfic that will follow these rules in an interesting way.

tl;dr it's good so far, just keep it going!

[isat-worldbuilding]

For a fanfic I've been writing, I've been doing a lot of word building related to wish craft and also Change! But I'm struggling to come up with a lot of the details for the Change belief - do you have any thoughts?

(also if you want me to send some of my ideas in an ask I can; it's like three pages long of bullet points and paragraphs explaining stuff)

/nf

I mean you can come up with more or less anything that doesn't directly contradict the game or the world you're building. I would personally try to come up with how people might take the idea of change in different ways.

I've been doing some writing regarding the change belief for my own project, but until I've finished those I'll keep it to myself.

My recommendation is to see what kinds of beliefs are near to those who believe in Change, and how might those influence it. Will the Change belief split into a dozen different sects which have different views regarding what should change, how often, in what way should it change, etc.

You could also include people who don't really believe in the Change system, but have had it ingrained in their culture. Or people who have devoted themselves to Change to an unhealthy degree.

The tl;dr is: How does this concept of Change differ between the people who believe it and how has it influenced those who don't.

(Can't give more specific details as I do not have your writing to analyze)

[isat-worldbuilding]

A quick summary of the recent history of the continent

Here's an old map of the continent, it shows the lands of the Vaugardian Empire at it's greatest territorial extent. It was likely made about 45 to 50 years ago, as the Empire was dismantled through many forces both internal and external 41 years ago.

Let's see what was different and why:

The island of Roja, near Cadilla. That was temporarily leased to Vaugarde by Estain who were struggling economically at the time.

Poteria and Karrstreih had not yet formed, the small Poterian states were essentially Vaugardian protectorates. The deal was usually that they would send some food and soldiers to help Vaugarde, and in exchange would get to have a relatively high degree of autonomy. These conditions eventually lead to a movement to unite Poteria into one country. This would be realized when these small states pressed for leverage after the Vaugardian navy was defeated by Sahaet.

The Karrs states of the south were quite busy feuding with each other when the Vaugardian Empire arrived. The Empire used divide and conquer tactics to slowly take more and more land. This lasted until Sachen, Wottburg and Fragburg made a treaty of mutual defense. This would solidify after the Vaugardian takeover of Ertzen (Ersent) and the Boize islands. The Treaty of Sachen became the Southern States Alliance after multiple other Karrish states joined. They would continually have skirmishes against the Vaugardians and would assist rebellious subjects, making holding on to territory difficult, and rendering expansion impossible.

The main issue however was the occupation of Mwudu. It started due to a food shortage after multiple crop failures. The whole island was temporarily taken, but the eastern half was hard to occupy and was handed back, though under a leadership system which replicated the Vaugardian monarchy. This made the, now Duces, of Mwudu very angry; also resulting in hikes on Sahaetian food import prices. Sahaet offered support to reunite Mwudu in exchange for permanent cheap food imports.

Once the fighting was over the Vaugardian Empire was cut down to it's current day borders (highlighted) and couldn't build a single new military ship, but the Vaugardian aristocracy got to mostly keep the wealth they got from the Empire, but in exchange had to return the lands and claims. The Emperor was also replaced by an aristocratic council in Calles, but that's for another time.

Mind you this was a huge oversimplification, I could talk far more about all these events. But for now I think this is a good introduction to the history of the continent. Hope you enjoyed it!

[isat-worldbuilding]

I've been doing small changes to the project in the background

if you want more worldbuilding stuff please just send an ask!

I did roughly outline the past of Vaugarde and made a map of it, however it is a little difficult to parse what's whose (borders are kind of like that sometimes). Maybe I'll have to make a few maps focusing on certain spots more than others to make it easier to read. I've also done a bit of work on Ka Bue and the neighboring countries, but they are on the complete other side of the world, so it will take time. I'm also extremely open about contributions to these far away areas (not that I'm not open to contributions to the main focus of Vaugarde and Sahaet, but it is a bit more solidified).

With the personal stuff: I've decided to try to learn french in the time I've been away, and I've also improved on my art a bit.

[isat-worldbuilding]

Continent map update!

The southwest has been fully filled in, and I've made a few tweaks to the Fortin Confederation and Karrstreih.

I've also added in the dotted lines so that sea borders are easier to see. I've also worked on a few flags, I'll post the ones I like the most below:

In order: the flags of Sokoda, Republic of Vonte and South Monreia

I think I'll work on either Ka Bue and the surrounding areas, or make an older map that shows the past of the continent

[isat-worldbuilding]

I've been thinking about Ka Bue, and I've had this idea of a flag with a diamond shape as the center of it. I've made three designs, and I wanna know which one do you like more (or you can make your own design, use the #isat world project or #isat worldbuilding if you do)

Here they are:

Which do you like more?

Centered diamond, short rays (1st flag)

Offset diamond, long rays (2nd flag)

Offset diamond, short rays (3rd flag)

Centered diamond, long rays (4th flag)

Voting ended onMar 16, 2025

[isat-worldbuilding]

As the 1st and 2nd flag were clearly the most liked, I'll be working with them for Ka Buan insignia

[isat-worldbuilding]

for things to translate, how about "Pissing all by yourself stardust?"

I have a feeling Loop would say something like this

[isat-worldbuilding]

Y'know what might be fun? Gimme some sentences to translate into Sahaetian. I'll post the results later. Please only send like one or two sentences, it does take a while to translate

[isat-worldbuilding]

I've been thinking about Ka Bue, and I've had this idea of a flag with a diamond shape as the center of it. I've made three designs, and I wanna know which one do you like more (or you can make your own design, use the #isat world project or #isat worldbuilding if you do)

Here they are:

Which do you like more?

Centered diamond, short rays (1st flag)

Offset diamond, long rays (2nd flag)

Offset diamond, short rays (3rd flag)

Centered diamond, long rays (4th flag)

Voting ended onMar 16, 2025

[isat-worldbuilding]

Sahaetian Pronouns written down in a table (And some interesting linguistic observations) (More below)

So first of all, we can see a pretty simple way to construct the possessive versions of the pronouns, usually they come from taking the Subjective variant, swapping the sounds in he first syllable if it starts with a vowel, and adding either an S/Z or an R sound.

We can also see something interesting when it comes to plural pronouns; It seems that proximity to Vaugarde has lead to Sahaetian adopting the 3rd person masculine and feminine pronouns, while still applying it's own rules to their other cases. This influence may have even affected the 3rd person neuter plural, as we can see that the dual and singular variants don't have an L sound at all.

The Subjective case and the Objective case are rather similar to each other, most easily seen with 2nd person pronouns, where they're almost if not totally identical. This is quite different from other nearby languages, which might mean that it's a relatively recent development.

I'd also like to mention the H sound in words like iHiR and aHN has transformed from a pharyngeal voiceless fricative into a voiced glottal fricative. And for some people in the eastern half of the island the H seems to have essentially disappeared and turned into a way to mark an extension of a short vowel (aHN -> AN), though this change has not been significant enough for the Royal Language Academy to include in a spelling reform. I've not received a response to my letter inquiring about this, but I have a hypothesis: If the first sound in a word is a vowel it's spelled like the long version, but pronounced like the short version (Spelled: AR, Pronounced: aR). Thus the only way to start a word with a long vowel would be to indicate that you aren't just writing the long version due to grammar rules, you really do need to extend the starting vowel; and the letter H seems to have filled that role.

[isat-worldbuilding]

Island (of) Sahaet

Wanted to do a bit of stylized writing, this is the result. Maybe I'll do something with this, maybe it can be a new national flag, while the starry one is a naval flag? Who knows.

Say if you have any ideas

[isat-worldbuilding]

Conlang update!

We got a small writing change and a large change in verb formation! You can see the changes below.

Updated the writing:

The short i is now a circle instead of a loop

The u is a little less rigid so that it feels more natural to write

ia and ua (ya/wa) are now full letters. (Still rarely written down though)

Verb formation used to be very robotic so I've changed it to what is essentially a few patterns which you follow based on what sentence you're trying to convey. I was inspired by arabic's three-consonant verb roots, which means that my verbs are made up of (usually) three consonants, and then the above rules are applied to form a functional verb.

Let's ask if two people were talking in the past:

First we take the three consonant root (F-Sh-T)

We apply past perfect here, meaning we take just the i (Both optional Sh and Zh are discarded as they only apply before non-fricatives)

This leaves us with iF-Sh-T

We don't know how these people would identify, so we default to 2nd person neuter pronouns: SIH (Useful to keep in mind, we're building a word not a whole sentence).

Now we need the dual number, and question, so 1-(v)BN(u)-2 (We can take the long I from SIH, and use it's short version for the vowel, as iFBN is hard to pronounce)

This leaves us with iFiBNuSh-T

Lastly, we used active voice, and humans are neuter of dim animacy, so we pick a-3

Thus, the final verb is iFiBNuShaT

(If you're wondering why the Gender/Voice and Animacy table is a bit weirdly laid out it's because I needed it to fit in this relatively tight space, I've got more stuff off to the right there. I might reformat it a bit later to put gender and animacy on the same side, with voice as it's own thing.)

Hope this was interesting!

[isat-worldbuilding]

Map update!

Made a few new flags, some new cities, and thought about the history of these regions. I might make a new map that shows the continent in the past, that might be interesting

[isat-worldbuilding]

Sahaet is quite the arid place! While the country is usually very dry, small shrubs, trees and such are plentiful more or less anywhere. The mountains isolate the island from outside climates quite well, leading to the Island having an arid/semi-arid climate, quite different from nearby Mwudu, Vaugarde and Poteria, all of which have more tropical climates. What this means is that Sahaet is very hot most of the time, gets little rainfall, and gets very cold at night.

These conditions have allowed Sahaet to stay quite isolated from conflicts in the south throughout history. Though they have chosen to intervene on a few occasions.

Sahaet heavily relies on Mwudu food imports due to their limited food production, with the only major agricultural product (and export) being the Star Fruit due to it's exclusivity and unique growing requirements. This means that Sahaet-Mwudu relations are incredibly friendly. There is much cultural and scientific exchange, the two countries have a defensive pact, and with every new Duce of Mwudu or Monarch of Sahaet the Friendship Treaty is reaffirmed with a large ceremony.

Back on the topic of Star Fruit: Sahaet has two designated regions for growing Nightsky Roots, the bolder hatch on the map signals permanent Nightsky forests which are left as essentially nature reserves. People quite like visiting them and maybe cracking open a Fruit or two, but no large-scale interference is allowed within the area. On the other hand the thinner hatching signals the areas reserved for resource extraction, whether it be Star Fruit harvesting or logging. These are heavily regulated by the Ministry of Agriculture and their planning division. The Nightsky Roots take so long to grow that without a proper, long-term plan for resource extraction this land would be mostly useless most of the time. (Not to mention that Nightsky is very useful for Sahaetian ship construction, making it a valuable asset for the navy)

I hope this was as interesting to you as it was to me!