Origin of Nations

[GrinningManiac]

For those of you who conculture or conworld as well as conlang (which is, I think, most of you) - what's the history behind the founding of the nation of your conculture? Either the mythological Romulus and Remus or the practical history of, say, the USA (a founding no less mythologised since then, admittedly)

A second, specific question would be about the origins of your laws and government. Did they all sit down and write a constitution or did they make new laws for new situations as it came along? Where is this stuff recorded, if it is?

[Matrix]

The current Maja Empire is also referred to as the Second Empire, with the first being the Axon Empire, the first completely non-nomadic civilization on Tol Maja. Previous to Axon, the Maja were separated into large, semi-nomadic nation-tribes based on the types of power they wielded. Then Hale came along from the Light Tribe and united everybody under his banner, and founded the city of Axon in the centre of the supercontinent. While maja historians are certain of Hale's existence, the whole thing was heavily mythologized back in the day, with claims, even eventually by Hale himself, that he was the son of Burasik, the god of light.

While worship of the old pantheon is long gone in maja civilization, Hale was still revered throughout history. This is the original basis of the Second Empire. It was started as a conspiracy of sorts, to end the near-perpetual warring of the nation-states of the Tumultous Age, the latest dark age of maja history. This conspiracy selected their Emperor-to-be and made him out to be the descendant of Hale, and the rightful ruler of all maja. He of course was not, but it was not until much later that this was all found out. The Emperorship only lasted so long, until after some particularly corrupt Emperors motivated the maja people to revolt against the concept. A democratic system was installed that has been running and refining to this day, but the Empire had built up enough steam that the deposition of the Emperor could not end it.

[Jerian]

3700 years ago, the only populated continent in my conworld was wiped out by a natural disaster, and instead, several thousand surviving humans fled. They colonized/explored the other two continents of the world quite fast, thus spreading themselves out extremely thin. For nearly 1000 years, most places were too sparsely populated to make firm governing worthwhile. Each individual village and farms had a small council, or chief.

Hudesonia was likely the first place to gain organized government. It did so after one village discovered how to obtain metal, while most others had not reached that point yet. The village took over several thousand square km's of land. To the north, a whole pile of villages banded together to make a defense council, which proved to be quite successful. After nearly being taken over by Hudesonia, the council stayed in power, and soon went about uniting several hundred villages to form a unified state, in this case a plutocracy. It was named Dzaris, after that word in Proto Zarian, which means defend, or protect.

In the west, war was not a serious problem until later. The characteristic of extremely sparse, spread out populating was worldwide, and so many regions unified in much the same way, with a few people wandering between villages with treaties. Sometimes, unification was decided diplomatically, other times axes and spears made the final decision. However, there were still too many of these small town states. Each only had several hundred inhabitants, and had little means of advancing technologically. It was an invasion, by the landlocked empire Shethrin, that forced the various groups to band together into sizeable fighting forces to protect themselves. (even though Shethrin did end up taking over nearly the entire continent).

Like Hudesonia, Shethrin became an empire after a single village went on conquest with cataclysmic results.

As for laws and government, they were decided by each individual nation. The earliest constitution was written by Merantia. The Merantian government was forced to make ridiculously amoral decisions to protect their land against Shethrin, which caused the people to rebel.

Gjesinth, another now dominant nation, was founded, and settled by refugees and outcasts, from the Shethrin invasions, mainly people who escaped genocide, or those who abandoned their states out of fear, or those who ran away from mandatory military service. While many settled in Merantia, a few instead headed into large, desolate region, previously unexplored, due to the inhospitable conditions. They slowly grew to power. The land was rich in iron, and so they made a fortune, and built their vast civilization in the iron industry. Anyways, Gjesinth was first governed feudally, however the feudal manors soon started turned into companies, which were all bought out by a single company, which governed the land, and soon became a monarchy. A constitution was signed several centuries later.

The Norths, especially Pelvaress, Tilekdrah, and Korimak, also saw the merit in the mining industry. The clusterfuck of tiny villages collapsed into a bunch of mining companies, those soon becoming monarchies as well.

[Foolster41]

Saltha was four Waring houses starting around 6500 KG, until they were unified under a single king around 447 KG, and they were officially known as the Kingdom of Saltha. In 447 there was a coup de tat, and a democratic republic was installed, and the country was renamed "The republic of Saltha".

[Curlyjimsam]

The Viksor began as a group of kingdoms with largely very similar culture and closely related languages (in a dialect continuum), probably formed by tribes migrating across the northern desert. (Several neighbouring tribes representing an older although probably not entirely unrelated culture were also present; the extent to which these have been incorporated into the Viksor proper has varied somewhat over the centuries.) About 2000 years ago these kingdoms were united in a series of wars by the Emperor Harobad. Though the available sources on Harobad and his reign are fairly extensive, they are probably not without a certain bias and the subsequent centuries have further created a popular perception of him which may not be a very accurate representation of the truth; he remains, however, amongst the most important persons in the country's history in the national consciousness. A sizeable proportion of current Viksorian territory, the peninsula called the "Ichian Peninsula" (as it was originally part of the wider cultural region of Ichi) or more often simply "East Viksor", the location of the current capital of Wisusia amongst other important cities, was first conquered by Harobad's son Zyigu-Soduva; subsequent migrations from across the sea to the west forced out or assimilated much of the native population.

Atlia has its origins in the ancient "Atlian League", a group of city states active from about 3000 to about 2400 years before the present: its name in the language of Nakta, a major power at the time, was parini atolus "eastern league" (lit. "league east-GEN"), from which the word Atlia is taken. For some centuries after the League's collapse the territory was governed by a number of separate states: about a millennium before the present these were united in a series of events spread out over a century and a half or so. National unity was fostered in a number of ways, in particular the somewhat romanticised and politicised Parininakyi (an epic poem depicting the history of the Atlian League) and Kukeluyiponakyi (which likewise depicts the later unification).

[Nortaneous]

if the orthography is by State they're not gonna <j> /j/

the cover story isn't strictly necessary, sure, but it makes it interesting as long as the reader doesn't think too hard about it. if you're going for realism above all else, it could just be like the sentinelese, where their bows and arrows can drive off helicopters so nobody's gonna fuck with them, although their existence would still be known.

[R.Rusanov]

Tapaj Trade Talk is spoken in the Tapaj valley, around the city of Kukuna.

Tapaj is split between three language families, two on each side of the Lulanat river, and one stradling the river; a fourth provides a substrate but has since gone extinct. This situation has led to the arisal of a very simple trade-talk, spoken at the beginning only where traders from the tribes met, the city of Kukuna (lit. 'boats', from /kuna/ meaning 'boat') in a promising bend of the Lulanat. The population is seasonal, from 500 during the winter months upriver to almost 2000 during market days and major regional festivals.

The two language families in the jungles to the sides of the Lulanat were originally bronze-workers, though since coming down off their respective hills, have lost the art. In 310, iron-armed sailors from Sasunda came down and built a trade outpost at a favorable location. From this interaction Kukuna was born.

The Mashi (Masi) tribe dwelt in the Kukuna hinterlands, and grew rich by serving as intermediates in the flow of goods between the forest tribes and Kukuna.

In 384 Suhat (Suxat), chief of the Mashi, took over the city and made himself despot. His oldest son Suxataj (-aj is patronymic in Bashi, and is present as a dimunitive in most regional dialects) was sent upriver at 12 to study among the princes of the Sasunda people in their capital Sasur as part of an agreement to prove his loyalty to the traders. Eight years later, Suxataj returned to find his father dead and his brother Niman ruling in his stead. Niman was an autocratic and fickle ruler and Suxataj had the support of both local enemies of Niman's and of the Sasunda princes, who sent fifty iron-armed warriors and thirty peltasts to accompany him. Suxataj, his Sasundan retinue, a handful of local warriors, and a rabble of malcontents, 200 in all, marched to the palace and met Niman's army, which consisted of almost 300 men: the majority of the Mashi warriors and his personal bondsmen. Iron proved the stronger and Niman was captured after a brief skirmish, in which the Sasundans threw javelins and routed his left flank.


A Sasundan peltast and his iron-tipped javelins

In Sasundan fashion Suxataj executed his brother and proclaimed himself prince of Kukuna. The Sasundans would remain until the spring, when ships from Sasur would start anew down the Lulanat; knowing this, Suxataj abolished the Mashi warrior caste and formed a new core of men, hand-picked from his force and other local families. At this time a man, Panal son of Tunaj son of that Tun who was a Sasundan sailor, distinguished himself in service to Suxataj by serving as ambassador to tribes in the region and doing much to strengthen Suxataj's rule.


Local chiefs making obeisance to Suxataj and his retinue

Around the start of 394 Suxataj hired a literate man from among his Sasundans to design an orthography for the trade talk, legitimizing it as a courtly language.