Europe - Erel?e correspondences

[Raphael]

Erenat- Netherlands (a country that used to be ruled by a foreign, but not too distant, different country, started a revolution inspired by a newly imported religion, drove the foreign rulers out in a lengthy guerilla war, became a mercantile, sea-oriented republic, and is full of high mountains)

Teo- Taiwan (a relatively small country pretty close to a culturally related much bigger one, with the big country thinking there should be reunification and the small country disagreeing)

Icelani- Medieval European Outlaws (live in otherwise uninhabited forests on a low technological level and occassionally steal things from others who live nearby)

Utu and Utu-On- Papa and Baby Doc Duvalier (brutal dictators with an occultist element with one succeeding the other)

Ktuvoki- Schoolyard Bullies (brutal, usually not too bright but physically superior, try to dominate as many weaker creatures as possible in order to attrackt females)

Lebiscuri- Early 20th Century New Guinea (an isolated place (from the perspective of the main powers) with a lot of potentially fascinating technologically backwards cultures)

Dashcor Churmey- Nietzsche (I was surprised when zompist compared him to Voltaire instead)

The Western Wild- Burning Man Festival

[ketske]

I always tend to think of Churmey as Zomp's little piece of self-insertion.

[brandrinn]

Here's another idea. Since Mark created Verduria in college, perhaps all the personalities are Northwestern alumn-insertions.

Fanao ~ Barbara Gittings
Abend Monteneon ~ Frank Orren Lowden
Fatandor Revouse ~ John Malmstad

Man, that game is harder than I thought. Fun, though.

[BGMan]

My two cents:

Easterners = Indo-Europeans
Eretald = Europe
Xurno = India (Ezicimi/Inbamumakei = Indo-Aryans; Wedei = Dravidians)
Dhekhnam = Ottoman Turks or Soviets (take your pick)
Monkhayu = primordial Europeans (like the Basques)

Cadhinorians = Romance peoples, obviously... but also, Naviu = Slavs (if one ignores the Mongol-like Gelyet). Obenzaya, being the most civilized, Eretaldized country, would be like pre-modern Poland.
The Somoyi-Methelyi are more like the Finno-Ugric peoples in my opinion.

Also:
Verduria = Germany, vs. Dhekhnam = Russia, with Kebri = Britain and Erenat = Finland vis-a-vis Dhekhnam and Ireland vis-a-vis Kebri, Sarnae = countries like Poland and Ukraine, Viminia = Austria . Most obvious sizewise; Verduria City would be like Hamburg. (Although I don't expect Verduria to go nuts and kill all their Arasei, unless perhaps another Utu got in...) The Jippirasti peoples would be like the Central Asian Muslim folks.

Or, Verduria = Italy vs. Dhekhnam = Turkey, if one wants the 1600s.

If a writer wanted to represent Almean languages with European ones Tolkien-style, I'd personally do:
Verdurian = Italian
Cadhinor = Latin (OF COURSE -- and, reading Revouse's Cadhinorian grammar, I have seen a lot of Latin chauvinists extol Latin in the exact same way as he does Cadhinor)
Barakhinei = Romanian (even though I personally think Verdurian is closer to Romanian than Italian, especially with its Slavicky sound and -ei genitives)
Ismain = Portuguese
Avele Verdurian = Spanish
Kebreni = Basque
Sarroc = French
Caizu = modern Greek
Obenzayet = Polish
Naviu = Russian, Ukrainian, etc.
Sainor and other Karazi = Iranian or Armenian?
Somoyi-Methelyi = Hungarian (Rhanor would incidentally have a "Romanian"-speaking elite with a "Hungarian"-speaking population )
Dhekhnami = Turkish
Tyellakhi = Uzbek or something
One idea: Xurnese = German, and Teosi = Swedish (or maybe English; Dutch would be one of the Xurnese dialects)
Alternatively, in keeping with my "Xurno as India" idea: Xurnese = Hindi, Axunasin = Sanskrit, and Teosi and Xurnese dialects = Indo-Aryan languages; Cuoli = Tamil
Tzuro = Arabic
Utandal = Hebrew/Aramaic (or Coptic perhaps)
Nanese = Swahili
Chinese would be over on Arcel somewhere. (Cia-Sa? I'd have to use an "if Chinese were Indo-European" language...)

[Barvitex]

Demoshi is like a Celtic/Slavic/Turkic hybrid to me.
Beic would be Chinese and Old Skourene Akkadian. I am not sure about Naviu - maybe Germanic if Cad'inas is Rome

[Warmaster]

People have remarked before that Axunai and Xurno are reminiscent of China to a degree, but I could see some France in there as well -- there's perhaps a touch of Saint-Simonism in the Xurnese state in particular.

Cheiy always struck me as as sort of Tibet, with an element of Japan/Vietnam/Korea in being heavilly influenced but not assimilated (Sort of similar to Cuoli as well, though that also makes me think of Japan with its one time empire over northern Xurno)

Bolon also makes me think of Tibet/Xinjang for the same reasons.

The Skourenes = Greeks is pretty obvious, but it extends beyond the city state period (the obvious one) with the constant wish to regain their 'spiritual home' makes me think of the Greek wish to regain constantinople.

The Chia Sha and Gurdago makes me think of Sweden and the Finns for some reason, with the Mgunikipe (sp?) equally being the Sami.

The Lenani states for some reason make me think of the central asian post soviet republics...don't ask why on that one!

[Barvitex]

If Dhekhnam is Russia and the Tzhuro are Arabs, then your identification of the Lenani is perfectly valid.

Best parallel for ktuvok empires is however not Russia or any real nation, but Tolkien's Mordor, or Augustine of Hippo's civitas diaboli.

[Yiuel Raumbesrairc]

Cheiy has never been to me something like Tibet, they are too knowledge oriented and lack its spiritualism. Somehow, it looks more like a generic frontier country. There is something close to Vietnam with its North and South relation. I cannot place any relation to on or another Earth country.

[Gremlins]

Cheiy has never been to me something like Tibet, they are too knowledge oriented and lack its spiritualism. Somehow, it looks more like a generic frontier country. There is something close to Vietnam with its North and South relation. I cannot place any relation to on or another Earth country.

How about the USA?

[Yiuel Raumbesrairc]

Cheiy has never been to me something like Tibet, they are too knowledge oriented and lack its spiritualism. Somehow, it looks more like a generic frontier country. There is something close to Vietnam with its North and South relation. I cannot place any relation to on or another Earth country.

How about the USA?

I wondered. I like the idea. However, it looks like New England more than any other part of the United States. To which you would have added Quebec and the Maritimes. And Loyalists would have finally lost, not having any Ontario to fly to

Ämünel = New England
Tädda = Maritimes
Mešäriš = Quebec

[WeepingElf]

The way Caizu juts into Verdurian-speaking territory strongly reminds me of the way Czech juts into German-speaking territory.

[Fruithat]

It's interesting. Whenever I make a conworld, it ends up reminding me of some nation/ethnic group on Earth. Either that, or I view everything as a mix of different Terran cultures and empires. It's hard to make all your ideas original. Therefore, when something (i.e. Olympic-style games, mummification) comes up that resembles a Terran civilization, it will provide a Greek or Egyptian or whatever flavor.

[BGMan]

Cheiy has never been to me something like Tibet, they are too knowledge oriented and lack its spiritualism. Somehow, it looks more like a generic frontier country. There is something close to Vietnam with its North and South relation. I cannot place any relation to on or another Earth country.

How about the USA?

I agree... Cheiy reminds me of the USA in many respects. I believe it even had a civil war similar to the American Civil War...

The way Caizu juts into Verdurian-speaking territory strongly reminds me of the way Czech juts into German-speaking territory.

It's funny how Verduria looks like Germany, with Erenat as the East Prussia/Finland, and Dhekhnam as the looming Soviet Union.

[hwhatting]

It's funny how Verduria looks like Germany, with Erenat as the East Prussia/Finland, and Dhekhnam as the looming Soviet Union.

What's Finnish with Erenat? And what's German with Finnland?

[BGMan]

It's funny how Verduria looks like Germany, with Erenat as the East Prussia/Finland, and Dhekhnam as the looming Soviet Union.

What's Finnish with Erenat? And what's German with Finnland?

Nothing, aside from looking strictly at the map of Erelae. Germany is a small, compact, but powerful, industrialized country surrounded by somewhat smaller countries (Switzerland, Austria, Czech, Poland...) whereas Dhekhnam stretches across the entire northern midsection of Erelae (like Russia). And as Weeping Elf pointed out, Caizu juts into Verdurian-speaking territory in much the same way the Czechs do into German-speaking territory.