“Meł ida!” wasn’t even in the right tense, lol derp, it’s supposed to in present tense not present participle! :P
It's correct now though, lol.
Anyway, I made a cursory check on the other Doldaran sentences so while I’m fairly sure there aren’t any more grammar mistakes and sure that I don’t need to change any more 3rd person verbs to those indefinite/abstract/impersonal ones I still don’t know for certain.
But yeah, it’s probably fine and I should work on the next chapter after taking care of some business I complained about yesterday.
About Doldaran Conjugation, Pronouns, and WTF Partner Consonants Are:
I’d been struggling with getting the Doldaran’s conjugation just right for while now and not only do I think I FINALLY got something I can be fully satisfied with but I also finally made an indefinite/abstract/impersonal set of conjugation so I don’t have to just settle for the 3rd person set every time I have someone refer to a “this”, a “that”, or a non-living “it”.
I also tweaked the pronouns a bit, thankfully only the ones I haven’t used in Flame of Abysm yet, lol. I only tweaked eastern and southern Doldaran pronouns and I haven’t used a lick of eastern and the only southern one I used (ïk) was one I didn’t change. I also added an archaic set of pronouns which’s vowels line up with the vowels used in their respective conjugation…
Though, there’s nothing so far explaining why some first person conjugations have “e” or its partner consonant (”x”) instead of “i” or its partner consonant (”p” or “y”). Or in non-el verbs, lack an added vowel or partner consonant entirely, lol.
And yes, there is a rhyme and reason to the partner consonants, I didn’t just pick random consonants, lol.
I was making a lot of weird sounds the day I worked that out, rofl.
And the reason they exist at all is that diphthongs and other vowel clusters were actively avoided in older Doldaran, especially if it sounded awkward. But instead of doing what Old Japanese did (which was drop a vowel, merge them into a separate vowel, or stick an “s” between them†), I did some weird thing.
But anyway, I’m still gonna have to edit a short sentence in there because when Gaväła said “Meł ïda!” she ain’t supposed to be saying “He’s/She’s great!” she's supposed to be saying “That’s great!” so yeah, lol, I’m gonna have to look for more “not-supposed-to-be-in-3rd-person-but-is-out-of-past-necessity” sentences just in case.
† And now you know why a lot of compound words involving the Japanese word for rain (ame), especially older ones, are a bunch of shikajikasame instead of shikajika’ame, lol.
Princes of Doldara have multiple TersVärdafornž and they are always working in groups divisible by five (that number pops up a lot in Barida Bay, lol).
Abirad is a special TersVärdaforn, a “TersaSver”. This will be referred to in my fanfics as “The Prince’s Sword”, which is its literal translation, for the vast majority of the time (some dialogue and all dialogue written in Doldaran being the most common exceptions).
The Prince’s Sword is a TersVärdaforn the prince trusts the most, whom accompanies the prince at most (if not all) public appearances, and sometimes acts on the prince's behalf in foreign territories (the prince rarely leaves Doldara, most often communicating through magical means, but sometimes a physical presence is required and the prince often cannot supply that presence. Like Zolavor: he only left Doldara twice or thrice (undecided, lol) during his 200+ years-long reign as prince).
And, as I’ve demonstrated with Zolavor and Abirad, the TersaSver is sometimes even a consort or concubine of the prince (Lusuva’s father, Korvasev, was a TersaSveršk consort). It’s more common for them to be close friends than romantic partners, though.
Listening to a Por Una Cabeza while thinking about Doldara, Zolavor, and Abirad in general made me think of Zolavor and Abirad tangoing and I’m like, “when and how would that happen. could something like that even be a thing in Doldara.”
Seriously, dancing is a very religious thing in Doldara, like, they are meant to invoke either the Harbinger or Veriza the Great Morgorga (or both) depending on the type of dance: Hopping dances for the Harbinger, sweepy/twirly dances for Veriza, and a combination of the two for both.
What would a tango-like dance be? “WE CALL UPON YE, O GREAT MORGORGA. BLESS US SO THAT THIS VERTICAL DANCING BECOMES HORIZONTAL AND BESTOWS MANY CHILDREN UPON OUR HOUSE.”
…
And now it sounds like it would totally be a thing.
Thinking about TCT suddenly reminded me that I don’t have some very basic words for family, various family members, and what-not yet.
I do have words for mother, father, and child (these are always included in Swadesh lists and I started Doldaran by filling out a Swadesh list, lol) but that’s it.
I also have words for “family” and “family member” now but still none for sibling, aunt, uncle, etc. lol.
I think the hardest part might be the grandparents and grandchildren because I don’t want them to start tacking on their equivalent to “great” so few generations apart because of how long lived they are.
Shadrock is a great-great-great-great grandfather through his daughter and a grandfather through his son.
Zolavor is 69 years older than Abirad who’s 30 years older than Shadrock and 50 years older than Carock.
Carock is 120 years old in TCT.
Karaka was 633 years old when Zenor, her great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandson and Carock’s great-great-great-great grandfather, killed her… But she probably only had maybe a week left until she died naturally.
Anyway, I’m currently thinking that senescence starts becoming apparent and speeds up a bit at around either 250 or 300 on average for these guys, which is why Carock, Shadrock, Abirad, Zolavor, etc. all look so young.
It’ll start early for Zolavor, though, because he has a stressful job that he himself admits that he’s not entirely suited for (he’s good with the economics, though) and has had to deal with the worst, most evil Regent in the history of Doldara.
Akïsazäkeleryan: noun
1. a member of Doladara's primary religion.
synonym: Kelen
Akïsazäkeleryan: adjective
1. something or someone who belongs or is related to Akïsazäkeleräčän.
Kelen: noun
literally "shadow person", "protection person".
1. a member of Doladara's primary religion.
synonym: Akïsazäkeleryan (noun).
2. Master/Mister/Miss/Missus/Mistress. Literally "honor person".
Tözlam: noun
Literally means "surrender!". "Tö" is an imperative prefix and "zlam" is the noun form of "zlamel"
1. A Kelen who is Cakïsa to a violent, tyrannical Regent.
2. A derogatory term for Kelens in general, mostly used by foreigners.
In-universe etymology: During or just before or at the start battle, Doldarans will sometimes cry, "Tözlamemö tömä änaryunez!" However, Tözlams only yell, "Tözlamemö!" (if anything) instead, which lacks the declaration of not killing the surrendering party.
Caken: noun
literally "mask person".
1. A spirit (often malevolent) that possesses masks or possesses people through masks.
2. A possessed mask that bestows power upon its wearer, controls them, or both.
3. An inferior (often due to incompetence or malevolence) Regent.
Vabïcaken: See above, but all specifically malevolent.
E.g.: A malevolent, violent, and tyrannical Regent.
Cakïsa: adjective
literally "of the mask".
1. Being a Kelen who blindly follows the Regent
over Akïsazäkeleräčän's proper rules and scripture.
2. Of or pertaining to Kelener who blindly follow the
Regent over their religion's actual rules and scripture.
cak: noun
1. mask.
As you can probably guess, these guys ain’t supposed to be killing Veriza’s incarnates, they’re supposed to be protecting them.
The guy who started the whole killing the incarnates BS was Zenor TerDolavant. He killed all of his family (except for his wife and kids) to usurp the Doldaran throne from the current prince and her heir and the regency from Carock’s predecessor Karaka.
The only survivors of the massacre were the true heir Lusuva and her father Korvasev and no one (except for the upcoming exceptions) knew what had become of them until Karaka’s successor was found, Karak Zaminkand the son of a Veredzuna (basically, they’re the Veredo’s version of Tuttuks. So anyway, yeah, the Veredo knew what became of them).
Anyway, despite resistance from the general populace, Doldara had trouble putting an end to Zenor’s brand of Tözlamism…
With that said, no, the general populace of Doldara does not know what that crazy baby-stealing bitch has been doing with children.
