#ehkv

[hebdomadaria]

Sexuality & Gender

Final post for today because this means I’m all caught up!! Once I finish this post, I’ll go through and add all of my posts to the /ehkv page! I would also like to say I think a lot of the stuff that went into the making of the different views on sexuality is what i think worked best with the ruler of each country. Xazexa needs a society that’s going to support her sexuality while the characters of Fadaya and Auwa both have more to gain development wise if they come from stricter/less supportive backgrounds. 

Fokuts: Gender means very little to a group of people who all wear the same type of clothings, which is a skirt and jewelry. In general, they are also the people most comfortable with nakedness in a nonsexual context. They tend to be a group of people who is very serious about monogamy, only because of the complicated clan system they live in. 

Nizid: While most people are pretty chill with frank discussions of sex and sexuality (winters are long and cold and lonely), the most elite in the society have strict rules about when and how sexuality of any type can be expressed. They have stricter gender roles than Fokuts but they are accepting of any non-cis person within their society and non-binary people have their own class of expectations and fashions they adhere to especially in the higher castes. 

Chaum: If any group is ‘bad’ about queer people, its Chaum. Most of their Segregation Laws specifically targeted straight couples but also ratified straight couples as the basic default.  But with the removal of the segregation laws, queer couples have found more safety within society. Of all three countries, they have the strictest gender roles, with their federal level government comprised more of men than women, but they do have basically equal representation on a local level. 

[hebdomadaria]

Introduction

World Building June is finally upon us and I am so excited to share my project here with all of you! Emily Harsh and the Kingdom of Vales is so exciting and I guess I’m going to use this introduction prompt to share a little bit about how I came up with the idea and how its developed in the month since its conception. I’ll also probably chat about upcoming WBJ posts I’ll be making and also about how I’ll be organizing them. Oh! So much to say, I best get started.

Emily started for me when I discovered Vulgar. I decided once I had gotten the full version that I would try and use one of the randomly generated conlangs in a story. Then I started to think about what I wanted to write about and what was really attractive to me was taking the trope of the “modern stranger dropped into a fantasy world” and making it good. Part of this became the political aspect of different countries on the verge of war. Since I really wanted to use Vulgar, I decided each country would have their own language (because that’s kind of how countries work) and since I know my own limits (ha) I decided to have the conflict be between three main countries. So the languages came first, then Emily herself came to me. I always want to create characters who are different from me and Emily, as a black woman, is an interesting mix of my own experiences as a queer person and aspects of her which are very different from myself. There is a great need for queer black female protagonists in fantasy and in fiction. After Emily, the three rulers of the three countries came about. Each is based somewhat on their own language and somewhat on tropes in Fantasy Aesthetic that I wanted to either subvert or play with. These three rulers are Xazexa, Auwä, and Fadaya. So that’s the story of Emily. I’m very excited to continue this journey here and now!

On to the boring stuff. Some of this is for me, some of this might be interesting to you, the reader. Basically, I plan to post every single day, following the prompt list as it appears on WorldBuildingJune’s tumblr (link). Most posts will have three sections, each about the different three countries, and maybe a fourth if there is overlap or additional admin I want to talk about. As the month progresses, you’ll probably notice that while I’ll be posting and tagging all of the WBJ posts, they may not be making it to the masterlist (link). This is because I’ll be in Italy without my laptop! But for the most part, all of my posts can be found at tuathadanann.tumblr.com/tagged/ehkv (link). All of my wbj posts will be well-tagged and well-organized, for both of our benefits!  Also feel free to talk to me whenever about this.

[hebdomadaria]

Language

Okay so I’ve had a lot of fun working with the languages for this! I’ve been using Vulgar to create the languages so basically I’m good. Each country has its own language. Anything to do with the gods has its own language completely different from the other three. Everyone speaks Tradespeech pretty well because its how they do business with other people not from their country. Tradespeech is mostly English with a few local words inserted in. You can find all of the Vulgar seeds for the main three languages on my /ehkv page!

[hebdomadaria]

Religion & Cosmology

Continuing to march my way through these. Still got like... 3 left to do.

The basis of all religion in the Vales is the same but each kingdom has its own mythology and its own gods which it deems important. 

Fokuts: They believe in the main five gods but most of their mythology is comprised of demi-gods and ancient ancestors. They put a high priority on living up to the clan legacy. Many clans even have their own personal hero which they claim was in their clan generations ago. 

Nizid: They are the most secular of the societies but they still have temples dedicated to the main five gods. They believe there are many spirits who inhabit the world and influence people. Some of these spirits, they believe, are created at a time of great change and chaos. 

Chaum: They believe not only in the main five gods but also the large collection of minor gods. They believe the future can be found in the stars which map out the course the gods wish the people to follow. 

The main five gods are Meyo, Owfe, Gowng, Tay, and Sha

[hebdomadaria]

Hierarchy & Power & Governance

Gotta blast through these because I am hashtag not feeling it. 

Fokuts: The Council of Clans and the Fau are the two main governing bodies. The Council of Clans is made of up the two representatives of the fifteen most populous clans and fifteen of the richest clans. If there is overlap, the rich part becomes their main factor and all of the other population based seats move up one to fill the space and the next largest clan not on the council takes the lowest seats. Every twenty years, a census is done to determine which tribe takes a place on the council. Council members serve for five years each. The Fau is elected from any clan, council member or not, and is usually chosen as a youth who has apprenticed with the council, this apprenticeship is one of the most cherished position in a clan which serves on the council and is highly competitive for those who are from other clans. There are at any time roughly sixty apprentices to the Council, half from clans with seats half from those without. 

Chaum: The Ruler of Chaum rules absolutely. The Yaudairo is either the child, grandchild, or cousin out to the second up to thrice removed of the last Yaudairo. They are then exposed to a mystical item which judges their worth as a candidate. This item is a closely kept secret of the royal family and most people living in Chaum believe the Yaudairo is chosen on a basis of favoritism or by some influence over a dying Yaudairo. Governors appointed by the Yaudairo then approved by the people of the district do most of the direct, small governing tasks.

Nizid: The nobles rule in Nizid. Each major city has its own ruling family, one with the most wealth, connections, and power. Almost all influential families hold seats in the House of Lords. There is also the Common House where collections of people, be it small towns, guilds, districts of a city, band together and petition to hold a seat. The Common House deals with the day to day running of the country while the House of Lords deal with what they refer to as the larger picture. To an outsider, this looks like petty fighting. Above all of this mess is the Ni, chosen by the House of Lords to be the ultimate leader. They exert massive power over all people and they direct the military.

[hebdomadaria]

Economy

I’m days and days late but I’m about to power through all of these.

Since all the Kingdoms rely so heavily on trade, all three governments issue coins that are all approximately the same. They use five common and uncommon metals but each country has its own seal they place on the tails end of the coin, with the heads part marking the denomination of the currency. The metals are, in order from least to most powerful, copper, bronze, silver, gold, and vexidium. 

In some more remote places, barter systems thrive but in most cities, the people rely on coins in exchange for work and materials.

[hebdomadaria]

Peoples & Races

Here is my day three for world building june! Just as a disclaimer, I am white which means all of my experience with racism is second-hand. I have also been very conscious of negative racial stereotypes and have done my best to both avoid those and avoid basing any group of people off of a real life group of people who might not be happy with any aspect of their culture being taken lightly for a fantasy race of people. If you see anything in my work as a poc that offends, please let me know and I will fix it!

Emily Harsh, as I have mentioned before, is African American.

Though the Kingdoms of the Vales exist in a rather small space, great diversity can be found among its people. Importantly, the people themselves find great pleasure in celebrating what makes them unique not only as a citizen of a specific country but as the descendant of their own race.

Fokuts: has probably the least complicated racial situation as most of the Fokuts people are, according to their oral history, descending from the same ancient clan of people. Now, most Fokuts belong to family clans, which might have tension between them but whose tension rarely affects their neighbors. Fokuts’ people are considered both by scholars and themselves to be the original inhabitants of the waters they still call home. While there is great variation in facial features based on what part of Fokuts someone is from, they tend to share the same coloring, with brown skin and black hair. Other countries believe there is a division of social status based on eye color but this is a misunderstanding.

Chäum: The peopel here are divided into three main groups. The first is the natives to the land where the country now is, they are noted for their brown skin but very light colored hair, especially red tones. The second is descended from the ancient empire which once called the entirety of the country its capital city. These empire descendants had very fine features, notably pointed ears, and were advanced magical users.  The third group is descended from another group of conquerors who arrived after the empire fell. They are pale with brown hair.  These three groups ended up being very at odds with each other for a number of years because of a number of reasons, both based on the legal code with its law against interracial marriage, and based on social stigma. Recently these tensions have lessened as mixed children have become more common and many of the laws were removed.

Nizid: has a strict caste system based on economic family status in its cities which are semi-autonomous city states but which is almost non-existent in the rural communities formed on the mountainsides. Most residents of Nizid have very dark black skin. 

There are many foreigners who can be found in the Kingdoms of Vale. Most of them are either merchants or the children of who take the River of Many Names down from outside of the Vale to do trade within the Kingdoms. They come in a variety of shapes and colors and backgrounds. 

[hebdomadaria]

Geography

Okay! I’m back to real posts with real formats for the time being. Again, I’ll be all messed up later on this month on getting good posts up because of international travel but until then I’m going to be doing my best to get all of these posts up! Here’s to day 2, which I swear I did on the actual second day of June.

One of the only defining features shared by all three countries is the mighty River of Many Names, though each of the countries has its own name for it, all view the River as a mighty source of life, resources, and trade.This river cuts the only path between the Kingdoms of the Vales and the surrounding world. A massive mountain range encircles the Kingdoms, cut through only by the mighty river. The other notable feature shared by all three countries are the highland fields surrounding the Border City. The Border City is the metropolis found at the single point where all three countries’ borders intersect. 

Fokuts: is far below sea level, mostly lowlands with a great number of tributaries, deltas, and river networks. More of Fokuts is water, marsh, or swamp than it is solid land. In general, Fokuts is the warmest of the three countries.

Nizid: is rather mountainous, with dramatic fjords, deep valleys, and treacherous peaks. Much of the natural landscape has been cut into by the humans living there in efforts to make it more havitable. Most major cities are either in valleys or inside the mountains themselves. 

Chäum: is temperate and filled with rolling hills, flatlands, and ancient forests. For the most part, it is farmland but long ago artificial hills were constructed for cities to be built atop. There are also signs that that same ancient civilization would alter the land for better access to more powerful ley lines. Where this has happened, the geography can becomes a bit wonky and non-conventional. The most well-known example of this being the Airborne Peaks, a small “mountain range” consisting of thousands of massive boulders suspended in the air.