Aloes in Afrikaans

I had an accidental name idea. I was using iNaturalist to help identify a friend's potted plant--which it thought may be a Lace Aloe--when I scrolled down under taxonomy to the Names section and saw that one of the names for the plant in Afrikaans was Baardaalwyn. That kind of felt like it went in with the other host of God and Archon names I've compiled so far, so I threw it down on dot paper and started playing with the construction. After scratching out a few variations, I decided, for now, Bardinwal will do, and while I was excited to throw it into the mix of religious icons, the little voice in my head threw an article in front of it and decided calling something "the Bardinwal" would sounds a bit cooler. This got me thinking... it would be a good replacement for either Buordo or Burcumsy in Malidine. I'm leaning on Burcumsy, as then "the Bardinwal" could refer to the high place south of the Folstroms that the city sits upon.

I've been trying to edit Rethwara's name into sounding less taken from Hindu terminology. It wasn't meant to be, but I think my subconscious voice may have unintentionally drew inspiration too directly from it. Being already a god with the suffix -war, I thought I'd drop the -a in similar style and altered it to Othwar for the time being. Still, I'm not yet satisfied and it'll go under the knife again. Laakin-Taakin will definitely get played with again, too. I hate it.

I've slightly updated the Archon of bones from Visko (based on a childhood character Viscombris) to Voskos, sounding more Jhordo-Sasni. 

I really want to look back through more childhood characters and locations and see what can't be upcycled. 

I'm trying to fix my laptop at the moment, which is where I've been doing most of my writing and all of my drawing. I'm recovering from surgery, though, so I haven't felt like giving it my all. When I get it going again, I want to settle back into art and get used to Photoshop again, since it came free for three months with the laptop and I'll end up paying for the subscription soon, to my own chagrin. I want to dig out my childhood sketchbooks and redraw the silly old doodles in them for shirts and grackles. 

Oops, Talking About Childhood Again

Four Archons got baby names over the last hour using a list of interesting syllables and a list of used syllables and patterns in the religion already. Wind has been named Rethwara, Force/Speed has been named Zulstaad, Fresh Water has been named Phreist, and Duality/Opposites has been named Laakin-Taakin.

That last one stands to be respelled the most. The brainstorm list went like this:

Lakhusak -> Lakindol -> Lakindolus -> Lakhindakh -> Lakindak -> Lakhinda -> Lakhindo -> Lakin-Dakin

I've decided I do like the notion of an evenly spelled, hyphenated name for the architect of extremes. There is a set of Mongolian names that have fascinated me for over a decade, Enebish and Terbish. From the current wikipedia article on Mongolian Names, under the category Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period: 

"A distinctive type of Mongolian name that flourished in this period and is still common in the countryside is the avoidance name, designed to avert misfortune from the child: Nergüi “No Name”, Enebish “Not This”, Terbish "Not That"."

If I recall from somewhere else I'd read (over a decade ago now, so I may be mistaken) the names were "Not this one" and "Not that one" to keep bad spirits from harming or taking the vulnerable children. 

Anyway, it helped drum up the idea for Laakin-Taakin, at least in Jhordo-Sasni language sets, to mean "Near one-Far one." 

Phreist is going to share Its name with a major river in the world. Right now, the thought is either the river formed from all of the smaller rivers of the High Plains that merge and run down the Veltimakos Valley into an unnamed inland sea, or the one that ran from the Folsts (formerly out of an underground kingdom) and cut through Malidine, the one Burcumsy (still pending rename) is designed around. "The Phreist" will carry a similar weight to "The Ivid" either way.

Zulstaad sounds a lot like an old character I'd had in my childhood, a somewhat evil black dragon named Volstaad that had probably been based on the dragon with the dagger in its chest from Tomb Raider II (which is a really weird sentence, come to think, and I had to double check via google that I was remembering the cinematic from the right game) combined with the dragon in the chasm at the end of R.A. Salvatore's second book, Streams of Silver, which I think was named Shimmergloom? Dang, he was. I haven't read that book since sixth grade. Anyway, he was a very dragonly dragon of dragonly darkness that could talk and was kind of an important pet to the cast of baddies. I guess what I'm getting at is that he was a childhood relic that wasn't on the table for reuse at all, but I like that the suffix of his name got to resurface when I needed inspiration the most. Maybe Viscombris, the Possessed-Bone-Golem-Wearing-Armor general that commanded Volstaad, will make an appearance. I do need a name for the Archon of Bone. He certainly won't be the same character if he does.

[Edit: About ten minutes after hitting the Publish button, I've decided a perfect alpha name for bone archon will be Visco.]

Anyway. These names are in alpha. The whole world is in alpha. 

I've been playing a lot of Guild 3 at the moment. I've never played any of them, but a bundle of all the past iterations just went on sale, so I grabbed them, too. It's a weird game for me to be playing. It's like Sims Medieval had the fun parts sucked out of it and replaced with a business and economics simulator, and then had a little Fable humor dusted on it here and there. Business and economics have never been of interest to me, but after playing it a few times, it's got me begrudgingly hooked and I keep going back to it like the achievement whore I am. 

It's had me thinking about family dynamics in the old world, though, and how different family dynamics are across cultures even today. Marrying people in and out of families in the game reminded me a lot about the blog post I'd written years ago about the Atavan Caste System. I'd like to revisit that and see if anything needs improvement. I'm only just scratching the surface of Erihan's potential. That culture has gone through several major overhauls, and I've barely started on the current version, but it is a very family centered culture on top of being more matriarchal. The Jhordo-Sasni are also matriarchal but are less interested in family and more concerned with trades and ability. They've been in a fog of mystery for a good while. It's good to have something to look forward to working on, though.

Soiled It

 Yeah, I already changed something and need to re-share the graphic. Tap to enlarge.

I swapped Concept to Law while I had the chance. The Archons had a redundant section cut out and are left with Name - Title (if applicable) and Domains. The major change is that Aowar's children are no longer Fauna, Flora, and Fungi, but Flesh, Blood, and Bone (which is a reversion to an earlier idea, but expanded upon.)

By Flesh, I don't mean only skin. Jarn, formerly Fauna, will preside over Flesh, Muscles, Strength, Organs, Leaves, Bark, Fruits, Produce, Fungi, a.o. If it's biomass that isn't hard or fluid, it's Jarn's domain. Speaking of, Blood isn't only that, but reigns over blood, saliva, taste, mucus, phlegm, excretion, semen, amniotic fluid, pus, sap, juices, a.o. 

You may point out, "There's already an Archon for saliva. You called It odd and brought up the Roman god of mildew." Yeah, well, Aowar won custody of that one and gave It more things to rule over. Ividnon's children are now Oceans & Seas (Shamaal), Ice, and Freshwaters (Rivers, Lakes, Springs, Ponds, Bayous, Swamps, you name it.)

Anyways, Bone is, of course, not only Bone, but also wood, teeth, shells, exoskeletons, fossils, horns and antlers, beaks, any part of an animal that's considered hard and be left over after the body decays (or take much longer than the rest, in case of woods.)

Oh, Birth got a name. I found an old document with names I wanted to use, and the only really good one was Enandurai. It fit a few of them, I thought, but we went with Birth. That's one less name to come up with. Probably just over twenty to go, still, along with around thirty titles to give out to make them sound holier than thou. (Although, there isn't much joy to be had from being called the Eulogist.)

Visual Layout of the God System

 I know, I said I was tired of thinking about the Gods and Archons and such. I wanted to share two mind maps I've put together to show what the hierarchy and categories actually look like compared to Thrum. First is a simplified form.

This simplified view replaces the names of holy entities with what they represent. Prima Materia represents Thrum, the core perfect state of the universe. Each entry outward is an emanation. The first emanation split Thrum into (in this order) Law, Energy, Matter, and Life, which I had written in as Mortality here. The second emanation split those concepts into three lesser and more specialized domains, and these are where the Gods are born. Things break down in the same order, where Law became Time, Order, and Entropy before Energy became Light, Motion, and Sound. The third emanation further defined these concepts into three more smaller pieces, such as Body becoming Fauna, Flora, and Fungi. These children are the Archons. Now, for a copy with names included and a better description of what they represent.

Hopefully it'll allow for zooming in once this entry is published, because the preview isn't.

Everything isn't in a chronological order (order of creation or calendar order) on this mind map, but everything is in the right category. Spaces with ??? are beings that still need names (I've only expanded the archons from twelve to thirty-six over maybe the last two weeks?) Some words are a little different on this one, too. (I've noticed I've called it Concept instead of Law here. It's the same thing, but I prefer Law now.)

Spring and Winter are represented while Summer and Autumn are not. Those are more symbolic associations anyway, as Cern presides over the motion of the seasons. Saliva is probably one of the more odd entries on this list, but if it seems too odd, remember that Romans had a god for mildew.  I've been toying with the idea of putting Shaegon over Arcana, too.

Someday, I'll draw this out with a cleaner transparent background and actual graphics. These are cropped screenshots from FreeMind.

A Ramble About Malidine

 I've already very slightly reorganized the decans within the calendar. Their elements/Gods remained the same... I think it was only swapping two of the Earths and two of the Sounds. 

Let me tell you something, though.

I'm sick of the decans/archons. I'm desperate to think about something else. I'm actually itching to draw and, after rereading the Mirror of Stone short stories and the partially made Bolin's Folly story, write. Production over worldbuilding.

I'm only frustrated that today is the last of my two days off and, due to work exhaustion collapsing me into a midday nap and a therapy appointment that wasn't cancelled until the last moment, I lost most of my other one. 

I had a neat idea, though.

I'm imagining a third era city built into and/or over a second era quarry that may or may not have been produced by a first era machination. If built over, I could see the lower being the slums. Anyway, it would be like an abandoned quarry that has filled with water over time. Travelling the lower pools would require small boats and long poles. 

Burcumsy was supposed to be a city built on three plateaus with slums between them (think similar to Thunder Bluff from World of Warcraft but before it was cool--aka because I was a kid and it didn't exist yet) so this could be a really cool replacement. Imagine, it could chain into the Malid "prison pits" that are still guarded by reworked mechs from the first/second era. It would be nice for Burcumsy--whatever it would end up being called--to have relevance again. It was an important city for Malidine in the past. Malidine itself is hardly relevant anymore, because of so much retired (mostly high fantasy) content. Burcumsy was initially important due to a river flowing out of one of the only entrances to the "Dwellings," an underground nation that I've passed on to my cousin and his fantasy domain. It was the only route of trade between the two nations.

Outside of the topic of that city, there was once an "Illusory Forest" that was this dense forest permanently blanketed by a very thick mist. It sat directly in the center of Malidine and had four rivers running from it in fairly cardinal directions--or running into it, rather. I just recalled the river that passes Burcumsy did ultimately flow into that forest and out of it to the south. The forest itself was guarded by Arkvunda, who is now Aowar, the God of Body. Back then, she was a serpent with strange legs that she used as footing on trees as she wound through the misty woods, permanently guarding what was in the center. The ruin in the middle was Calle Dhima, which will still exist, likely in Malidine. The magic corruption from the original first era ruins kept the crater filled with water and frozen. The three tall buttes that stood around the ruins were stuck in an unnatural arctic limbo. Those buttes now exist in the bay at the mouth of the Heskegi river, a less unnatural arctic terrain for them. I don't know what will keep people out of Calle Dhima now or if they're unknown like they once were.

A later development were the Kespol trolls, but trolls have been moved to their own realm and entirely separate saga. They certainly don't live in Malidine anymore. I'm not sure if their swamps will remain, though. They were added to Malidine as part of old migration maps I had drawn out.

--- 

For the last few hours, I've been distracted reading about ancient mineral usage. I just learned about Chinese oracle bones and cinnabar's use not only as ink, but as sculpted, beautiful "ink sticks." This world is amazing.

The First Working Calendar

It's been unpalatable chaos at work and I haven't been able to work on much aside from scribbling about on my lunch break in a dot grid notebook I bought up just before tax free weekend obliterated the school and office supplies. Tomorrow starts my weekend and it seems my muse chose this evening to work miracles. I just sat down and almost effortlessly compiled the world's first working calendar. It isn't complete with moon phases and holidays, and none of the months are named, sure... but it has solid framework and I'm going to copy-paste it from my unpublished site here to (hopefully) make sure nothing happens to it.

Here's the paste:

Birth and the Archonical Year

There are twelve months and five to six unaffiliated days within each calendar year. Each month contains thirty days, which are further divided into three sets of ten days. Each of these ten day segments is a week and is devoted to a different Archon. Being born within that week determines which Archon the mortal's soul must learn from the most to be properly purified. On Earth, these years would begin on March 21st.

In Calendar Order:

1. Month One

1. The Archon of Birth [Time, Law]

2. The Archon of the Sun [Harskael, Light, Energy]

3. The Archon of Minerals [Urwal, Earth, Matter]

2. Month Two

1. The Archon of Flora [Body, Life]

2. The Archon of Duality [Balance, Law]

3. The Archon of Force [Motion, Energy]

3. Month Three

1. The Archon of Water [Shamaal, Water, Matter]

2. The Archon of Perception [Rubalkai, Thought, Life]

3. The Archon of Chaos [Entropy, Law]

4. Month Four

1. The Archon of Rhythm [Sound, Energy]

2. The Archon of Weather [Bismodus, Air, Matter]

3. The Archon of Instinct [Emotion, Life]

5. Month Five

1. The Archon of Direction [Time, Law]

2. The Archon of Color [Light, Energy]

3. The Archon of Soil [Earth, Matter]

6. Month Six

1. The Archon of Fungi [Body, Life]

2. The Archon of Multitude [Parkareth, Balance, Law]

3. The Archon of Gravity [Motion, Energy]

7. Month Seven

1. The Archon of Taste [Water, Matter]

2. The Archon of Knowledge [Groth, Thought, Life]

3. The Archon of Paradox [Entropy, Law]

8. Month Eight

1. The Archon of Voice [Adinathi, Sound, Energy]

2. The Archon of Wind [Air, Matter]

3. The Archon of Empathy [Emotion, Life]

9. Month Nine

1. The Archon of Ending [Eril, Time, Law]

2. The Archon of The Moon [Light, Energy]

3. The Archon of Metals [Earth, Matter]

10. Month Ten

1. The Archon of Fauna [Jarn, Body, Life]

2. The Archon of Fates [Balance, Law]

3. The Archon of Cycles [Cern, Energy, Motion]

11. Month Eleven

1. The Archon of Ice [Water, Matter]

2. The Archon of Creativity [Thought, Life]

3. The Archon of Arcana [Entropy, Law]

12. Month Twelve

1. The Archon of Vibration [Sound, Energy]

2. The Archon of Breath [Air, Matter]

3. The Archon of Intuition [Eudis, Emotion, Life]

Those born in the last five to six days (six in a leap year) are said to be souls that are quite young or unrefined and are said to be looked after by all Archons.

About Gods in the World

Gods, as they are right now, are not sentient things, but rather massive constructs made by the first advanced species on this planet. The species has vanished so long ago that only what they've built out of a certain strange material still exists. Some of it was made to provide some kind of service to the race in question and still continually functions without their presence. Those things seem to be worshiped as Gods by the newer races that have evolved to fill the gap that the first species left.

There are a lot more Gods than there used to be.

Once, there were only six deities, three greater and three lesser. Now, there are [checks notes] twelve. Even at half capacity, I hadn't placed all of the "God Mechanisms" into the world. It's a lot to do. The religious of the world share the same religion, but they have wildly different ideologies and cultures. Some have preferences and have named their nations after their favored God (which usually has something to do with the presence of the deity within their land, such as Ividnon birthing the Ivid and Jhordone patrolling the high plains of Jhordona.)

Speaking of, that's the two easy ones I've had set in stone for the longest time. The other I know the whereabouts of (somewhat) is Kurdah, who is said to be "slumbering somewhere deep beneath the Folstrom orogeny. I'm using pretentious jargon for a reason--the Folst is a massive, nasty region of tectonic mayhem. Whether Kurdah truly is asleep under there or is actively "raising the Folsts upon Its back" as the popular story goes is up for debate, but the intention was to shroud It in a veil of mystery that may or may not ever be revealed.

That leaves nine more to sprinkle about.

The other three of the older Gods had locations, but their actual forms have been retired, which means they may be placed somewhere else when they've been redesigned. Well, one has also had Its original homeland taken away, too. Jeohan, God of Light (formerly fire,) has always been dominant in Erihan. It--or, He, at the time--was a large bipedal strange entity that wandered the nation like a lumbering giant. Gods do not function like this anymore, but Jeohan should be in Erihan. Aowar, formerly Arkvunda (and a She,) was a winding serpent-like creature with many smaller arms along Its body, which were used to wend through the trees and grab them for stability. There is no more "illusory forest" for It to guard, as It was just a sentry protecting a dangerous ruin (Calle Dhima.) This may still factor into Aowar's placement, since that ruin does still exist and would certainly be dangerous. It just may or may not be in the heart of Malidine as it once was. Unfortunate Probihan was an "amorphous mass" that slid over the Nokan homeland of Wai Nokan Tire like a magical translucent slug. It not only needs a new home, but a new body and purpose, too, because the Nokan folk have been moved to Wasakha and beyond.

Actually, Balki existed in Atavai, but in the spirit realm. Balki can probably stay in Atavai, but certainly needs a new identity.

Never had any idea about any of the others, especially the two newest, Ordea and Ta'al. Motion could be interesting. Sound? Can you imagine a God of Sound that's just a massive floating foghorn sounding off? I can come up with something cool. I've got some notions.

I have a notion about Jeohan, too.

Imagine a mechanism shining an insane amount of light from atop a mountain across a barren tundra, piercing the night with a strange white light. I can see low wintry clouds behind it, also illuminated when low. I can see an aurora composing a backdrop behind it. Jeohan is the God of Light, now, and It happens to preside over a people who live in a land of midnight sun and near twenty-four hour spans with no sunlight, depending on the season. The original mechanism could have been employed for that very reason by the first era, too. Jeohan's light may even grow plants in the night. I can see the God drifting between locations, too, perhaps seasonally. It could come to rest over Alphite in the summer season, maybe deactivating until the long span of dark winter returns. Maybe It never deactivates, but doesn't hurt the mortal eye, either. This is a fantasy domain, after all.

A lot of thoughts going on right now. One of which is whether I like that spelling of Alfeight better. I made it up because I'm tired of typing it the old way and it's flagged for rename. It'll do for now.