The Conculture/Conpeople Opinions Thread

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Pabappa
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Re: The Conculture/Conpeople Opinions Thread

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elemtilas wrote: 25 Feb 2018 02:30
I had a bit of a look there: some interesting concepts! Of course, I'd like to hear more the idea of "lack of sin". But I do wonder how this is squared with the concept of blasphemy and its really rather terrible sounding punishments!
Thanks. Blasphemy does not harm anyone, but it is proof of a spiritual impostor, one who has been disowned by the savior god, Màlamen. Màlamen would not let her followers commit blasphemy because Màlamen is the one to whom they are praying. Therefore anyone who stumbles in a prayer does not actually belong to Màlamen, and since no other god can provide salvation, people who commit blasphemy cannot attain salvation and are undeserving of compassion. Killing and enslaving blasphemers is therefore not a punishment, but an expression of the power and beauty of the savior god, Màlamen, and of her divine vision of the world in which her people will enjoy the best things the world has to offer while her enemies toil day and night in the hopes of living another day. Some slaves have at times tried to pray to other gods for help, but no other god has ever come to help them, and therefore they know that their slavery is eternal and will be passed on to their children.
Also, I can only find one reference to the word "prayer", so I'll have to ask here: what does it mean "those who are allowed to pray..." Another interesting concept!
Thank you. One needs a clear mind to communicate with the spirit world ... not just with Màlamen, but with any god or spirit. If someone without a clear mind attempts to communicate with the spirit world, they will not be able to hear the response, and only a two-way conversation can get things done. Therefore, people with this ability are the only ones whose prayers will be answered, and it is their job to take the prayer requests of the general population.

I'll be posting more information on the wiki from time to time, but for now, I consider even this small amount of information better than the much longer writeup I previously had at http://kneequickie.com/archive/Tarwataf . I've made a few small edits on the FrathWiki page for now.

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K'anerhtóh sounds interesting. I remember reading about it somewhere else on this board but I dont remember much besides that it has a very cold climate.
Evynova wrote: 06 Mar 2018 20:10 ÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷
Next: is inheritance a thing in your conculture? Will one inherit the wealth of a deceased parent and if so, who, how and in what measure?
Definitely. In all of my main cultures, there is a writing system and a means of keeping a record of a person's will. Married couples' property is held jointly, and therefore the will of a married couple is also filed jointly, but most cultures "lean feminist" in the sense that the wife has more rights to sell or transfer this shared property than does the husband. When the husband dies, the property becomes hers alone. If the wife dies first instead, the property is sectioned off according to the will agreed upon at the beginning of the marriage, and amended after the birth of each child. It is illegal for a will to completely cut out the children; on the other hand, it is legal for a couple to sell or donate their property to one child (or even a friend) while they are alive, therefore removing the property from the domain of their will, and leaving the inheritance empty.

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Next: Is advertising allowed? What government restrictions are there on corporate advertisements? Can companies lie about their products? Can they lie about competitors, or about other things? Can
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Re: The Conculture/Conpeople Opinions Thread

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Pabappa wrote: 15 Mar 2018 01:45Next: Is advertising allowed? What government restrictions are there on corporate advertisements? Can companies lie about their products? Can they lie about competitors, or about other things? Can
In a particular relevant region in the conworld, the entire area is literally advertising-fuelled, think gigantic shopping mall with Black Friday turned up to eleven, like a tribute to ultimate consumerism. There are ads everywhere: brochures, billboards, buildings, floors, in the air, devices, fireplaces, mugs and even in the bathroom. It is known that there aren't government restrictions on ads in most countries elsewhere, though this place is the extreme example.


Next question: Toilets in your conworld, natural/artificial etc?
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Re: The Conculture/Conpeople Opinions Thread

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Pabappa wrote: 15 Mar 2018 01:45
elemtilas wrote: 25 Feb 2018 02:30
I had a bit of a look there: some interesting concepts! Of course, I'd like to hear more the idea of "lack of sin". But I do wonder how this is squared with the concept of blasphemy and its really rather terrible sounding punishments!
Thanks. Blasphemy does not harm anyone, but it is proof of a spiritual impostor, one who has been disowned by the savior god, Màlamen. Màlamen would not let her followers commit blasphemy because Màlamen is the one to whom they are praying. Therefore anyone who stumbles in a prayer does not actually belong to Màlamen, and since no other god can provide salvation, people who commit blasphemy cannot attain salvation and are undeserving of compassion. Killing and enslaving blasphemers is therefore not a punishment, but an expression of the power and beauty of the savior god, Màlamen, and of her divine vision of the world in which her people will enjoy the best things the world has to offer while her enemies toil day and night in the hopes of living another day. Some slaves have at times tried to pray to other gods for help, but no other god has ever come to help them, and therefore they know that their slavery is eternal and will be passed on to their children.
What counts as "stumbling in prayer"? Forgetting the words? An inopportune coughing jag?

Pabappa wrote: 15 Mar 2018 01:45
Also, I can only find one reference to the word "prayer", so I'll have to ask here: what does it mean "those who are allowed to pray..." Another interesting concept!
Thank you. One needs a clear mind to communicate with the spirit world ... not just with Màlamen, but with any god or spirit. If someone without a clear mind attempts to communicate with the spirit world, they will not be able to hear the response, and only a two-way conversation can get things done. Therefore, people with this ability are the only ones whose prayers will be answered, and it is their job to take the prayer requests of the general population.
Understood, and makes sense within this context!
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Re: The Conculture/Conpeople Opinions Thread

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So, where is Vibranium supposed to be on the Periodic Table? A rare earthly 'Isle of Stability' Lanthanide? An alkaline earthly metallic cousin to Beryllium, Magnesium, Calcium, Strontium and Barium?
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Re: The Conculture/Conpeople Opinions Thread

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elemtilas wrote: 29 Mar 2018 02:23 What counts as "stumbling in prayer"? Forgetting the words? An inopportune coughing jag?
This varies from place to place. Ridia is big on rules and regulations by design, but each priest is given broad authority to create those rules rather than relying on a universal higher authority. This is because these priests are also involved with interpreting and enforcing the law, and therefore they see the religious rules and the secular laws as part of the same sphere of influence. Just as laws vary from place to place, so do the definitions of blasphemy and other religious ideas.

However, the coughing would probably be seen as a mere unfortunate coincidence, since all Ridians believe that disease is *caused* by the gods, and therefore they do not look to the gods for healing. Neither is there any concept of demonic possession ... what modern Western culture might think of as possession is to them simply one of the many things that happen to people who are rejected by the savior, and comes from the person's own nature, not from an evil spirit. Again I'll post more on the wiki page when I can. My work on the religion is very slow compared to my work on languages and other things.
Reyzadren wrote: 17 Mar 2018 22:39
Next question: Toilets in your conworld, natural/artificial etc?
Im a germaphobe, and I have a tendency to give off my own personal biases into those of the people of planet Teppala. However, even the most advanced of the societies on Teppala is comparable to medieval times on Earth, so they would not have something as advanced as a modern bathroom. On the other hand, they would be right at home if they were transported into one, since one trait common to all of the cultures on the planet is that they like to keep clean. The only possible exception might be cultures like Moonshine where the climate is so cold that pathogens like those we're used to simply can't survive. Even a cold virus can get cold in the far north. Also, the cold climate settlements are never more than a mile or so from the ocean, and most live much closer than that.

Any society that has paper will also have toilet paper, but it may be prohibitively expensive due to the difficulty in manufacture. Without toilet paper, there is probably no need for a proper toilet, though people would still be expected to wash their hands in one way or another after their visit. Some form of soap is used in every society, and cloth diapers are worn even in climates where adults are ordinarily naked.



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Can female forms be divine? What would your conpeople think of the modern Western concept of female angels? How about childlike "cherub" forms?
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Re: The Conculture/Conpeople Opinions Thread

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Pabappa wrote: 15 Apr 2018 01:41 Can female forms be divine? What would your conpeople think of the modern Western concept of female angels? How about childlike "cherub" forms?
The deities of Mto have unambiguously male (e.g. Qlazh, the Hunter) nonbinary (e.g. Inoul, the Entertainer), and unambiguously female (e.g. Anadiel) deities. So to an average Mto citizen, the idea that there wouldn't be female deities is weird. The sort of thing you might only have in fantasy stories.

Focusing in on Entleis, which ends up being a nation that has a particularly close relationship with Anadiel in particular, that detail doesn't change.

The deities on Mto also all have their cadre of "angels" (as the various words would be translated into English). These tend to be people who were particularly devoted to the deity in life, and were elevated to angelic status after death; they act as messengers from the deity, along with sometimes being advocates on behalf of humans. In particular, a deity's angels often end up being a bit more focused in domains/interests, similar to the Catholic idea of saints. So from the perspective of someone on Mto, of course angels can be male or female (or whatever in-between).

I'm not entirely sure what's meant by "the modern Western concept of female angels"; my general understanding (absent research) is that the general belief is that angels are gender-neutral, but are generally depicted and described as having masculine characteristics. The people of Mto would find this gender imbalance a little weird, on the whole.

As for cherubim, that would just be utterly bizarre to an average Mto citizen. They'd think it very, very weird, mostly because they'd not be familiar with any angels that were that young (I think the youngest was probably a teenager when they died), and would wonder at the whole thing.

This is, however, also heavily influenced by the fact that Mto cosmology is rather different from our own in regards to things like deities and angels.

Next: what would your conpeople think of Dungeons &Dragons?
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Re: The Conculture/Conpeople Opinions Thread

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Axiem wrote: 16 Apr 2018 06:17
Pabappa wrote: 15 Apr 2018 01:41 Can female forms be divine? What would your conpeople think of the modern Western concept of female angels? How about childlike "cherub" forms?
The deities of Mto have unambiguously male (e.g. Qlazh, the Hunter) nonbinary (e.g. Inoul, the Entertainer), and unambiguously female (e.g. Anadiel) deities. So to an average Mto citizen, the idea that there wouldn't be female deities is weird. The sort of thing you might only have in fantasy stories.

Focusing in on Entleis, which ends up being a nation that has a particularly close relationship with Anadiel in particular, that detail doesn't change.

The deities on Mto also all have their cadre of "angels" (as the various words would be translated into English). These tend to be people who were particularly devoted to the deity in life, and were elevated to angelic status after death; they act as messengers from the deity, along with sometimes being advocates on behalf of humans. In particular, a deity's angels often end up being a bit more focused in domains/interests, similar to the Catholic idea of saints. So from the perspective of someone on Mto, of course angels can be male or female (or whatever in-between).

I'm not entirely sure what's meant by "the modern Western concept of female angels"; my general understanding (absent research) is that the general belief is that angels are gender-neutral, but are generally depicted and described as having masculine characteristics. The people of Mto would find this gender imbalance a little weird, on the whole.

As for cherubim, that would just be utterly bizarre to an average Mto citizen. They'd think it very, very weird, mostly because they'd not be familiar with any angels that were that young (I think the youngest was probably a teenager when they died), and would wonder at the whole thing.

This is, however, also heavily influenced by the fact that Mto cosmology is rather different from our own in regards to things like deities and angels.

Next: what would your conpeople think of Dungeons &Dragons?
hmmmm, hard question but let's see here. they would most definitely not like alignment system. in my conworld, good and evil or contemporary morality does not exist. it's replaced with the ideas of being prey or being the predator. basically, the aggressor and the oppressed. Most herbivorous races lean towards being prey-ish where as the a carnivorous races are more predatory. this may change depending on who is being the aggressor and who is the oppressed but you get the idea.

they'll find the system odd for sure. many of my races are about the size of a person's thumb and may have some trouble rolling dice as that requires tossing it to hovering over it to see what it is.

so if you ever wanted to play a game with a sapitent bug, it's not gonna be easy.

if someone in your conculture disobeyed the law, what would happen?
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Re: The Conculture/Conpeople Opinions Thread

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fruityloops wrote: 11 May 2018 20:48if someone in your conculture disobeyed the law, what would happen?
Before any enforcement can take place, the locals would rather take matters into their own hands and deal with the wrong-doer accordingly, if one really manages to piss them off so badly.

Next question: Inaccessible or hard-to-reach places in your conworld?
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Re: The Conculture/Conpeople Opinions Thread

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Reyzadren wrote: 17 Aug 2018 23:23 Next question: Inaccessible or hard-to-reach places in your conworld?
There's an island in the middle of the Eastern Ocean (for which I still need a better name) that's a perfect square, with sheer stone sides that go straight up a good hundred or two hundred feet. The stone itself is enchanted enough to make it nigh impossible to climb, and it doesn't seem to be wearing away. In general knowledge, no one really knows what's up there; it's just kind of a mystery.

Next: how do they do laundry?
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Re: The Conculture/Conpeople Opinions Thread

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Axiem wrote: 18 Aug 2018 02:40
Reyzadren wrote: 17 Aug 2018 23:23 Next question: Inaccessible or hard-to-reach places in your conworld?
There's an island in the middle of the Eastern Ocean (for which I still need a better name) that's a perfect square, with sheer stone sides that go straight up a good hundred or two hundred feet. The stone itself is enchanted enough to make it nigh impossible to climb, and it doesn't seem to be wearing away. In general knowledge, no one really knows what's up there; it's just kind of a mystery.
The Rocks of Ryb'iq?
Next: how do they do laundry?


Now this is a rather interesting question, on account there being a strange sort of inverse proportionality law here. Generally speaking, among all the peoples of Gea that I'm aware of, it's the people who wear the least clothing that seem to do the best job of laundering what little they've got; while those as cover themselves all over, seem to be most mistrustful of the dreaded L-word.

For the Daine of the Eastlands, the matter is fairly straightforward. When they visit a bath house, maybe as a family or a group of friends, they'll just take such clothing as they have with them and wash it in special stone tubs made for the purpose. The wash room has bronze or brass rods suspended from the ceiling where people can hang their clothes while they're seeing to their own baths. That done, they'll retrieve their clothes and head outside into the gardens where everyone and their clean laundry can air dry. Just keep an Eye on the little ones, as they're prone to find some bit of dust or grass to roll around in, thus negating all your efforts at getting them clean in the first place! Now, if it's pouring with rain when they go out, well that's not great tragedy. They're already soaking wet from the baths, so, just have a nice stroll home in the rain and when they get into the foyer, they'll call for someone inside to bring cloths so everyone can dry off a bit. Then, relax for a bit before the fire either in the hall or perhaps in the kitchen. A Daine's feathers are quite hydrophobic, and their hair less so. A good shake and firm wing-stroke or two will send most of the water away from them.

For Men in the Eastlands, many folk will simply find a convenient stony stream or aqueduct overflow drain or millrace to wash in. Clothing as well as themselves. Men generally keep a wider variety of even basic clothing than do Daine, so this can be quite the chore. Public baths are available to Men, where a very modest fee is charged for their use. Laundry services cost extra. People whose accomodations include a semi-private bath house will still have to take their laundry to the stream or to a laundry service. Who will in turn, most likely, take the clothes down to the stream and wash them down there! Some laundries make use of waterwheel power to churn large laundry apparatus inside the premises and great fans to help in the drying process.

On the other hand, Men folk up in the dark Northlands, who wear large capes and broad kilts and baggy trousers and several layers of tunics, well, let's just say it would probably be better if they just made a new tunic & trousers every year... Some folks will weave a kind of heart shaped network out of stiff reeds & supple twigs and beat as much dust out of the outer layers of clothing as they can.

Now, for those folks who can afford the supreme in luxury, there are thaumological devices finel crafted to aid in this essential domestic task.

Image

Handfast Maytagge, 67th Earl of Entwhistle Dale early in life developed an interest in keeping things tidy and clean. Simple enchanted broomsticks were not enough to satisfy, so he began designing enchanted devices that would clean things automatically. One of his more enduring designs was the Maytagge Self Actuating Laudry Board Mechanism with Attached Wringer. This was a thaumological device that was enchanted to lather, wash, rub and rinse articles of clothing automatically. Unlike many magical devices that often show signs of erratic behavior, Maytagge has considerable fame as a designer of solidly built and trouble free thaumic machines.

The Self Actuating Laundry device consists of a wash tub with attached board and thamically activated arms that wash the clothes, rinse them and send them through the wringer. There have been some accounts of the wash tubs rising up on their feet and taking the wash out to hang on the line, but Maytagge's workshop aver that this is not a standard design parameter. Other, stranger, accounts involve wild dances where the chugging rhythms of the Laundry Device have charmed any cutlery in the vicinty to engage in a lively jig. Such reports, alas, remain unconfirmed; however the maid staff of Dame Vargand, baroness of Southwald, aver that not only did the old tomcat take up Dame Vargand's grandfather's fiddle but played upon it a merry contradance, and also that the baroness's cows began to make capers, while the neighborhood dogs took to laughing to see such sport. And, just before the Laundry was all wrung, the gardener reports that he saw the dishes pair up with the spoons and hop-scotch their way into the woods, as if dancing in some sort of serpentine bouree.

Next: Whether positively or negatively regarded, how to people in your culture view those in authority, and what do they wish might change?
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Re: The Conculture/Conpeople Opinions Thread

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[B)] Cool, elemtilas!
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Re: The Conculture/Conpeople Opinions Thread

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elemtilas wrote: 18 Aug 2018 03:56Next: Whether positively or negatively regarded, how to people in your culture view those in authority, and what do they wish might change?
I'll use Essu Beti for this one. Betians are in an odd place right now. Their background culture is fairly authoritarian, with a major emphasis placed on blind obedience and the notion that certain people are just more fit to rule (that almost all Betians came from the underdog class of this culture is part of why the emphasis was so high. Gotta keep those heretic peasants from rebelling, yanno). However, they've also recently been bitten badly by said authoritarianism and are feeling more than a little gunshy about it.

So it's a bit of a mix. Your local leader is positively regarded and will usually be followed without question, but more distant ones had better make a good effort to stay in the hearts of the people. Police and other enforcers of said authority are still feared by default, which has made establishing a new legal system difficult, to say the least.

Next: How do your conpeople handle sickness? How do they treat illnesses, are sick people expected to stay home or still work, and if they are expected to stay home, do they come to work anyway because that's the only way to get paid?
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Re: The Conculture/Conpeople Opinions Thread

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Firebird766 wrote: 16 Dec 2018 18:53 Next: How do your conpeople handle sickness? How do they treat illnesses, are sick people expected to stay home or still work, and if they are expected to stay home, do they come to work anyway because that's the only way to get paid?
I'll go with Kaibyou from my youkai verse.

Youkai in general of course live near or even among the people of Japan, so their cultures have been affected by this. But at their base, Kaibyou are cats. Like many house cats, they are actually more social than people might give them credit for, and live in clans or small family groups, and when sick or injured they will take care of each other. But unless it was a vital job that needed to be performed and that cat was the only one who knew how, no one would think worse of them staying home to get better. Plus if something can make one cat sick it's likely it could spread to the rest of the clan as well, since it's already a pretty strong bug. In this case they take a similar approach to the Japanese themselves: everyone wears face masks and keeps things clean to reduce the spread of germs.

Illness among youkai in general and kaibyou in specific is actually somewhat uncommon, so it's not as big of a matter as for humans, but it does still come up enough for them to have a general outlook on what the person with the illness and those around them should do.

Next: Does your conculture keep pets? If so, what are common pets they keep? If not, how would the average member of your conculture react to the idea?
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Re: The Conculture/Conpeople Opinions Thread

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LinguistCat wrote: 16 Dec 2018 20:29Next: Does your conculture keep pets? If so, what are common pets they keep? If not, how would the average member of your conculture react to the idea?
Most pets in Essu Beti are working animals. Cats are there to keep the introduced rodent population down. Dogs are there to guard the flock and bark up a storm if a crocodile appears (or, in Kalmalu village, if anyone gets vaguely near Sambir’s house). Chickens, pigs, and other livestock are just there to be eaten. Occasionally someone might adopt a frog or gecko or avialan, but as a rule that’s only for small, easy to feed animals. There is very, very little food to spare for non-productive animals, and someone trying to keep an animal that doesn’t work and isn’t very cheap to feed will be looked down on for wasting resources.

You can still keep a working animal as a companion. They just need to earn their keep.

Next: What is the most popular media in your conculture? Why?
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Re: The Conculture/Conpeople Opinions Thread

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Firebird766 wrote: 12 Jan 2019 21:09 Most pets in Essu Beti are working animals. Cats are there to keep the introduced rodent population down. Dogs are there to guard the flock and bark up a storm if a crocodile appears (or, in Kalmalu village, if anyone gets vaguely near Sambir’s house). Chickens, pigs, and other livestock are just there to be eaten. Occasionally someone might adopt a frog or gecko or avialan, but as a rule that’s only for small, easy to feed animals. There is very, very little food to spare for non-productive animals, and someone trying to keep an animal that doesn’t work and isn’t very cheap to feed will be looked down on for wasting resources.

You can still keep a working animal as a companion. They just need to earn their keep.
Reasonable. What's an avialan?
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Re: The Conculture/Conpeople Opinions Thread

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elemtilas wrote: 14 Jan 2019 05:46Reasonable. What's an avialan?
These: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avialae

Here’s a picture of a typical example:
Spoiler:
Image
Common throughout the Oyekan Archipelago, which Essu Beti is a part of, and northern Creatan, these bird cousins have thrived even as they went extinct in the rest of the world. The ones in Essu Beti are not used to human or elven contact, but have grown wary to large animals in general thanks to the large crocodile population on the island. Most of the ones on Essu Beti can fly, also thanks to the large crocodile population, but there are several flightless species living in the less swampy areas.

I like putting long-extinct animals into this world, ok? I also have nimravids in Eimari and various countries in northern Sorkid, thylacoleo in the rest of Sorkid, cyonasua in Creatan, and trilobites in the oceans.
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Re: The Conculture/Conpeople Opinions Thread

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Firebird766 wrote: 14 Jan 2019 06:19Common throughout the Oyekan Archipelago, which Essu Beti is a part of, and northern Creatan, these bird cousins have thrived even as they went extinct in the rest of the world. The ones in Essu Beti are not used to human or elven contact, but have grown wary to large animals in general thanks to the large crocodile population on the island. Most of the ones on Essu Beti can fly, also thanks to the large crocodile population, but there are several flightless species living in the less swampy areas.

I like putting long-extinct animals into this world, ok? I also have nimravids in Eimari and various countries in northern Sorkid, thylacoleo in the rest of Sorkid, cyonasua in Creatan, and trilobites in the oceans.
No worries there!
Spoiler:
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Re: The Conculture/Conpeople Opinions Thread

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Firebird766 wrote: 12 Jan 2019 21:09Next: What is the most popular media in your conculture? Why?
Of course, it's social media on the natural internet. While papers and boards are used almost everywhere, such interactivity service is provided in hubs even in small villages for those who lack access.

Next question: Plants/crops that are grown but not for food in your conworld?
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Reyzadren wrote: 16 Jan 2019 12:43 Next question: Plants/crops that are grown but not for food in your conworld?
There are two non-food cash crops whose common names come from Miar: zʷar, known as rviru ~ rviju in Enzielu and transmitted west through pre-Amqoli *zbirup (> Amqoli zberu) > Narngic *zɨbürüh > Vengic *zi.byur.yuh > Zzyxwqnp cuxyut and Hluic *dəpriś > thoepyues (although the Zzyxwqnp loan thuyu is also heard, especially in Bor Hlu), from which a sort of tea is made, and pkəʕnəl > kaedu, a stimulant which is fermented and taken as dip. West of the Zhjumna Mountains, its name is derived from pre-Amqoli *wəšru, transmitted west as usual via Narngic *wös(ru) - so Amqoli oshru, Hlu wuehl, and Zzyxwqnp wishv.

There's another plant that's processed into insect repellant, especially in Rau-speaking areas, where it's known as qutna. It's grown in Zzxzzyx as a decorative plant, for its bright purple berries, and known there as chqn (i.e. northern) gyxddvx.

Of course, since panspermia is partly true on account of an unfathomably ancient interstellar empire, these are (descendants of) yaupon, tobacco, and Callicarpa. But they don't know that.

Next question: what utensils, if any, do the people of your conculture use?
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alynnidalar
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Re: The Conculture/Conpeople Opinions Thread

Post by alynnidalar »

That depends on where you are in Sanmra. While it might seem like an obvious answer, enclaves in North America largely use "Western" utensils (forks) while those in Asia eat with chopsticks. And everybody eats saiha, a type of flatbread, which gets pressed into service as a utensil as well. Most decent restaurants in larger cities will offer both forks/knives and chopsticks, regardless of which continent you're on, however, and there's no particular shame in using one or the other, except perhaps in some small enclaves.

There are a few outliers, though! For example, the small town of Mekeras, physically located in North America, has many ties to Asian enclaves, and it's most common there to eat with chopsticks, to the point that it's part of the town stereotype. And in the largest cities (Elten and Sakaran), people come from such a mix of backgrounds that it's no surprise for one family to use forks while the family next door uses chopsticks.

The reason both are possible options is that traditional dalar foods are things like noodles, soups, etc. that can be eaten pretty well either way.

Next question: What sort of companion animals/pets are popular in your world?
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