Historical Atlas of Arcél

the duke of nuke · Post by **the duke of nuke** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 6:53 am

This is interesting.

Krwŋ expands massively (not long till we see a big ecological collapse) and puts out some serious religions, the Bé get their act together, the Kem work out a nice lifestyle, Kereminth develops agriculture - and the Skourenes come round and give the Uyram a technological prod in the buttocks.

Also Uytai is now propped up by magic and Weird Shit starts to happen. This is exactly the sort of 'unearthly' thing I was hoping to see when the Atlas was announced.

I always felt there was something vaguely sinister about Uytai...

Atom · Post by **Atom** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 9:11 am

Zompist, would it be possible for you to give a couple of examples of what a magician did? Where they effective at it?

Yiuel Raumbesrairc · Post by **Yiuel Raumbesrairc** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 9:32 am

Atom wrote:Zompist, would it be possible for you to give a couple of examples of what a magician did? Where they effective at it?

If you dig in the Magic article, you can guess that what they did was essentially a statistical wager : since one magician would be reliable say 1% of the time, if you had a hundred ready, you'd probably beat the statistics on unreliability. That would mean that they were effective, even if with bad side effects.

Now, as for what they did, we can suppose that they did what the Powers had to offer. That is, think of Cadhinorian magic (Tivuran's story) at an epic level. If Verduria has a few longstones for communication (zompist implies 3), I suppose Uytai would have such communication devices with a larger scope and a larger distribution. (Though probably not to the point of having magical trains

)

the duke of nuke · Post by **the duke of nuke** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 10:14 am

Basically, what you'd expect magic to do...
It says "from surveillance and communications to architecture and war" - so I should think, from that,
1. spying (obviously), general divination and clairvoyance
2. what Yiuel said - longstones and the like
3. building fantastic monuments, castles, palaces, and Festival Hall, perhaps?
4. magical weapons of some kind? Certainly deceptions, teleporting personnel, moving rivers, etc.
Probably also a source of mechanical power - if you get a sufficiently good perpetual motion device, that makes watermills unnecessary, as mentioned in the article.

Yiuel wrote:Though probably not to the point of having magical trains

Gods damnit.

Yiuel Raumbesrairc · Post by **Yiuel Raumbesrairc** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 3:05 pm

thedukeofnuke wrote:
Yiuel wrote:Though probably not to the point of having magical trains
Gods damnit.

Well, they seem to have better (teleportation), so why bother trains?

Post by **zompist** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 3:15 pm

Atom wrote:Zompist, would it be possible for you to give a couple of examples of what a magician did? Where they effective at it?

The description of Cadhinorian magic is fairly appropriate:

http://www.zompist.com/pagan.htm#Magic

But the Uytainese went further than any Cadhinorians, so they may have accomplished more...

dhok · Post by **dhok** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 4:30 pm

Hey, Zomp, just wondering, what'll come next after the Atlas is completed?

Mornche Geddick · Post by **Mornche Geddick** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:17 am

Zompist wrote:I got sidetracked by some other Almean projects (both related to Arcél however)

A nod is as good as a wink. The Bé and Uytai grammars.

Kalan · Post by **Kalan** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 1:07 pm

Now that the Krwŋese have conquered parts of the Be, how did the two culutures react to the fact that the other sex is also capable of taking the dominat role?

Post by **zompist** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 3:48 pm

At this point, it's fair to say that both sides think the other is exotic— for some, fascinatingly so, for others, repulsively so. Neither feels challenged to emulate the other.

The Krwngese thought of the Bé as jungle savages, not even worth conquering, except for the highlands.

The Bé respected the Krwngese facility with manufacturing, but disdained their abilities at war: they were obviously unfit for the jungle and their aggressiveness was just asking for trouble.

Post by **zompist** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 8:56 pm

It's been a bit, so I'll point out that there's a new map up:

http://www.almeopedia.com/index.php?tit ... 3%A9l_1690

Yiuel Raumbesrairc · Post by **Yiuel Raumbesrairc** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 8:20 am

zompist wrote:It's been a bit, so I'll point out that there's a new map up:

http://www.almeopedia.com/index.php?tit ... 3%A9l_1690

I like the Bé's philosophical dilemma between emotionalism and rationalism, it's not something we see a lot in European philosophy. Where did you get that idea? And I can't wait to see the Bé's reaction to the ktuvoks.

Otherwise, we haven't seen much of what happened in Uytai about their magical evolution. I wanted to see some of their developments.

- · Post by - » Tue Sep 22, 2009 11:14 am

Yiuel wrote:I like the Bé's philosophical dilemma between emotionalism and rationalism, it's not something we see a lot in European philosophy.

It isn't? That's news to me.

I do think Zomp puts an interesting tweak on the old theme, though. Lots of fun.

dhok · Post by **dhok** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 11:52 am

Since the rate of maps has been slowing (not complaining, though, they're amazing), what's the average rate for map adding going to be?

And I love the Beic philosopher.

Atom · Post by **Atom** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 10:30 pm

It was terrible of you Zompist to tease us with the article on Ȟamsan. Now I want to see it on the map!

Post by **zompist** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 11:02 pm

Heh! That's because the characteristic figure for 2700, who I'm writing up now, is Ȟamsanese.

Atom · Post by **Atom** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 6:46 pm

Your habit of giving hints (like in the article for Tlan) is becoming most annoying, as I can't read the part of the Historical Atlas it refers to!

Also a question: Ga-Jir and Ga-Tlan are both named for their fathers, but what about the oldest son of Ga-Tlan. Would he be called Ga-Tlan as well, or something like grandson of Tlan? Or would they just name him something else?

Post by **zompist** » Fri Oct 09, 2009 1:23 am

Atom wrote:Ga-Jir and Ga-Tlan are both named for their fathers, but what about the oldest son of Ga-Tlan. Would he be called Ga-Tlan as well, or something like grandson of Tlan? Or would they just name him something else?

It's possible to extend the series with Un-, e.g. Un-Tlan. But it's more usual to use a nickname or a descriptor referring to the father. Ga-Tlan's actual son was named Ga-Dnum from dnum ‘loud’, Ga-Tlan’s nickname.

dhok · Post by **dhok** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 2:18 pm

Well, this is certainly interesting.

We see Uytai-no small state itself-conquered by one gigantic nomadic empire, and another appears by the time of the new map.
My guess is that the Sumë aren't going to last much longer-they're coming on over 350 years, now, and they've recently had a coup. Perhaps taken over by the Gleŋ?

I'm also interested in what will happen with the Čwamese. Perhaps there'll be contact with the Eidnani...oh, who knows.

Gareth · Post by **Gareth** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 3:39 pm

What's the name of the language spoken in Nlatak? There are enough words in the Almeopedia to make a language article - we even know the plural morpheme -kwe.

Post by **zompist** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 4:15 pm

The modern language spoken in that area is Winyadza, but most of the non-proper names in the text are cited in Bičenyimni. You could always just start an article on Itsenic.

Gareth · Post by **Gareth** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 5:05 pm

Thanks, I'll e-mail you to get access to the wiki.

Iscun · Post by **Iscun** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 1:49 pm

wow. I've been wishing for this atlas since the one of Ereláe was put up!

This is all very interesting.
Arcél and Ereláe seem to be having similar historical patterns right now. The eastern barbarians are becoming dominant in Eretald at about this time, and 200 years later the Gelyet conquer everything.. maybe this is just a prelude to a real disaster.
So far the history of the Bé is almost totally homogeneous.. I wonder when they're going to have to deal with invaders (who aren't ktuvoks).. my guess is soon.
I imagine Uytai will gain a strong sense of nationalism after they recover from all this, and the organized Gleng can take advantage of their huge river valley.
Why won't the Eidnani get with it?

dhok · Post by **dhok** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 9:17 pm

Iscun wrote:wow. I've been wishing for this atlas since the one of Ereláe was put up!

This is all very interesting.
Arcél and Ereláe seem to be having similar historical patterns right now. The eastern barbarians are becoming dominant in Eretald at about this time, and 200 years later the Gelyet conquer everything.. maybe this is just a prelude to a real disaster.

I suspect a climate change that's shrinking the nomad land and forcing them to migrate, but I'm no climatologist.

Neek · Post by **Neek** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 11:47 pm

I started to give it a read through after more articles have been put up, so I can occupy a good part of the time flipping through the maps to see the visual change and familiarizing myself with it. It got to the point where just enough content was uploaded, and didn't make me want to salivate for more.

(At the time of this writing, the year 2370 is up). There are a few things that have perplexed me in the entire ordeal: So far, there are two cash-cows that cannot be relocated: Silk and tea. I'm also have a hard time placing the nomads desire to raid eastward, aside from jealousy born out of living side-by-side with civilization.

I'd figure that overpopulation in their own areas or foreign invasion would push them out of the way rather than simple, "Oh, I hear Uytai is failing again. Let's raid from them!" Can we get more clarification on why they're invading?

While I like the cultural snapshots (which definitely adds a field of immersion), I was wondering if it'd be possible to get a sample art as well from the time period? That is, Zomp, if you feel that you have the time.

(And as a post-script, every time I see Kleʔmet’, I can't help but think of Klammath. Just a coincidence... but I can't help but wonder.)