I love what I've done.
Creativity of the day
-
vampireshark
- Avisaru
- Posts: 738
- Joined: Thu Dec 04, 2008 7:02 pm
- Location: Luxembourg
- Contact:
thedukeofnuke wrote:Telèmor is, I think, a nice example of a conlang created for a certain style or aesthetic rather than worrying over realism.
Also, I'm on a banknote! This makes me feel happy inside
Yeah, that's part of the point of the language... it's a Romance language that pulls from a lot, and it's not meant to be very realistic. I try to maintain some feasibility to other Romance languages, but style's more important here for other things.
And, anyways, good to see that the note is to your liking. 'Twas a hard decision, but, rest assured to all others, your pictures may be used on other notes. (If, that is, the other entries don't mind.)
For your records and enjoyment (possibly), here's the complete note:
Obverse
Reverse
Well, I borrowed the comma from Romanian... worked best with the orthography, plus it distinguished it from the other languages I've made. And, since it is heavily derived from Romance languages, there should be some similarities evident (if there weren't, there'd be problems!). But thanks.abaddamn wrote:It's very reminiscent of Romanian, you know, with the whole de, ş and ţ's. Hell, even if I translate what you've written at the top of the notes (Bancaro Naţiunalor de Fedèraţio Telémor) into Romanian it looks pretty damn similar -
In limba romana:
Banca Naţională a Federaţiei Telemor
And en Español:
Banco Nacional de la Federación Telemor
& Français:
Banque nationale de la Fédération Telemor
And mon limbată: (lol)
Banca Naţiănal-a Telemaún Federáşe (Using loanwords only)
Don't worry, I'm not criticising your conlang. I like it too - it looks great. Definitely has given me some ideas of how my conlang should look
And yours, from what I've seen, doesn't look too bad, either.
What do you see in the night?
In search ofvictims subjects to appear on banknotes. Inquire within.
In search of
-
Aurora Rossa
- Smeric
- Posts: 1138
- Joined: Mon Aug 11, 2003 11:46 am
- Location: The vendée of America
- Contact:
Since I was having trouble making my conworld work or articulating what was bothering me about it, I tried casting the problems as a critical review addressing some key things a fictional reader disliked. Not really a creative endeavor in itself, but it does describe some things in my conworld and I didn't know where else to put it.
*
What bugs me about the Terraverse series? Pretty much everything to some degree. By that I don't mean to call it garbage or anything. Ohlms clearly put a lot of thought and research into it and he had some good ideas. But the way he treats and combines those ideas leaves the work feeling downright bizarre and even incomprehensible. The setting includes everything from half-baked science fiction, to esoteric fantasy, left wing political commentary, and even sex-crazed eldritch abominations. The end result reads somewhat like a manga adaption of Society of the Spectacle, complete even with giant robots and fanservice.
First of all, if the Terraverse saga takes place on a different planet, why does everything look so much like our solar system? The world appears pretty much the same size as Earth, with the same range of temperatures, day and year length, and so forth. It even has a single moon like our own, and all the scant evidence suggests the rest of the solar system parallels ours as well. Only the geolography of the world itself seems to differ noticeably from Earth, while inexplicably retaining some similarly shaped continents. I have no problem with minor coincidences, so long as they're handled well, but in this case I have to call bullshit. Ohlms offers no reasons why the world looks this way, nor does he even acknowledge the implausibility of it all. He seems content to take the route of greatest convenience and it is all too obvious that he wants the freedom of a blank-slate world without the rigor of designing a realistic solar system. Ultimately this does him no favors and makes him look rather lazy and uninventive.
Stranger still, the Terraverse world appears to share all our flora and fauna, with only minor and superficial differences at best. Even a basic knowledge of biology makes the absurdity of this abundantly clear. Terrestrial biology depends on so many subtle factors and events, from the formation of Pangæa to the KT extinction event. Even if we assume the planet develops carbon-based life built on DNA, evolution should still follow very different trajectories simply due to differing environments and random chance. And yet the world features such familiar lifeforms as coffee bushes, butterflies, wheat, rice, chickens, dogs, and of course humans. None of this makes any sense unless, perhaps, one assumes that terrestrial life has some Platonic existence and will inevitably evolve on an Earth-like planet. It seems quite unlikely that Ohlms intended such an absurd conclusion, of course, but it doesn't help his credibility.
The concept of orgone, a central conceit of the setting, proves something of a mixed blessing for the work. On one hand, it does contribute an air of mystery that makes the world feel more distinctive and even fantastic. At the same time, Ohlms handles this element quite unevenly, and often struggles to integrate it with the more scientific and realistic aspects of the setting. One senses his indecision on whether to make the setting primarily science fiction with fantastic elements or else hard fantasy set in modern times. He clearly recognizes that such a magical element should have sweeping implications for the world. But he doesn't want to introduce any truly massive changes, which would make it harder for us to comprehend the setting. The end result feels rather timid, a world pretty much like our own in terms of physics, but with occasional anomolies afforded by orgone.
This in turn lends the setting a rather inconsistent atmosphere, sometimes downright schizophrenic. Ohlms presents us with seemingly ordinary civilizations, built on modernish technology like electricity, railroads, and computers. Then he introduces such oddities as airships that use orgone to operate reactionless drives and orgone-based telepathic weapons. In addition to clashing with the otherwise mundane near future technology of the setting, these raise all sorts of unanswered questions. Ohlms never bothers to explain, for example, why the Aakurans don't simply use telepathic weaponry to brainwash the Terps into surrendering. Nor does he address how near effortless transport would affect his urban landscapes and the war. At most, he implies that orgone has resisted attempts to exploit its full potential for everyday purposes.
Perhaps the strangest, but also most problematic, aspects of all stem from the Aspril, a mysterious race connected in some way to the orgone. The novel series never really gets around to explaining where the Aspril originate or what they actually are. In some ways that serves to make them mysterious, yet it almost sounds like Ohlms himself didn't know what they were. At most we learn that they have entered our world through experiments on orgone, and that they can bring out its full, and apparently terrifying, potential. In practical terms, one can call them walking Big Lipped Alligator Moments, as they tend to tear normality asunder whenever they appear. We only see them in their true form a couple of times throughout the whole series, but those few cases are among the most surreal and grotesque I've seen in fiction. They really drive home the theme that orgone has many secrets that prevent rational comprehension. But they also plunge the series into its moments of greatest incomprehensibility, and they don't seem quite critical enough to the plot.
And finally, just what is the rest of the world besides FAC and Aakura doing during the war? We hear plenty of throw-away lines regarding the Terpish Kingdom and Kiraqas and several other "major" factions. Yet we never really learn much about them, and in the end they feel more like perfunctory filler than fully realized entities. I would have liked to hear more about how these other factions felt about the war, maybe even what they were doing elsewhere in the world. As it stands, one gets the impression that little besides the Terra-Aakuran war is even happening in the world. It leaves the setting feeling rather empty, like film set that only looks convincing if you avoid turning the camera too far to the side.
*
What bugs me about the Terraverse series? Pretty much everything to some degree. By that I don't mean to call it garbage or anything. Ohlms clearly put a lot of thought and research into it and he had some good ideas. But the way he treats and combines those ideas leaves the work feeling downright bizarre and even incomprehensible. The setting includes everything from half-baked science fiction, to esoteric fantasy, left wing political commentary, and even sex-crazed eldritch abominations. The end result reads somewhat like a manga adaption of Society of the Spectacle, complete even with giant robots and fanservice.
First of all, if the Terraverse saga takes place on a different planet, why does everything look so much like our solar system? The world appears pretty much the same size as Earth, with the same range of temperatures, day and year length, and so forth. It even has a single moon like our own, and all the scant evidence suggests the rest of the solar system parallels ours as well. Only the geolography of the world itself seems to differ noticeably from Earth, while inexplicably retaining some similarly shaped continents. I have no problem with minor coincidences, so long as they're handled well, but in this case I have to call bullshit. Ohlms offers no reasons why the world looks this way, nor does he even acknowledge the implausibility of it all. He seems content to take the route of greatest convenience and it is all too obvious that he wants the freedom of a blank-slate world without the rigor of designing a realistic solar system. Ultimately this does him no favors and makes him look rather lazy and uninventive.
Stranger still, the Terraverse world appears to share all our flora and fauna, with only minor and superficial differences at best. Even a basic knowledge of biology makes the absurdity of this abundantly clear. Terrestrial biology depends on so many subtle factors and events, from the formation of Pangæa to the KT extinction event. Even if we assume the planet develops carbon-based life built on DNA, evolution should still follow very different trajectories simply due to differing environments and random chance. And yet the world features such familiar lifeforms as coffee bushes, butterflies, wheat, rice, chickens, dogs, and of course humans. None of this makes any sense unless, perhaps, one assumes that terrestrial life has some Platonic existence and will inevitably evolve on an Earth-like planet. It seems quite unlikely that Ohlms intended such an absurd conclusion, of course, but it doesn't help his credibility.
The concept of orgone, a central conceit of the setting, proves something of a mixed blessing for the work. On one hand, it does contribute an air of mystery that makes the world feel more distinctive and even fantastic. At the same time, Ohlms handles this element quite unevenly, and often struggles to integrate it with the more scientific and realistic aspects of the setting. One senses his indecision on whether to make the setting primarily science fiction with fantastic elements or else hard fantasy set in modern times. He clearly recognizes that such a magical element should have sweeping implications for the world. But he doesn't want to introduce any truly massive changes, which would make it harder for us to comprehend the setting. The end result feels rather timid, a world pretty much like our own in terms of physics, but with occasional anomolies afforded by orgone.
This in turn lends the setting a rather inconsistent atmosphere, sometimes downright schizophrenic. Ohlms presents us with seemingly ordinary civilizations, built on modernish technology like electricity, railroads, and computers. Then he introduces such oddities as airships that use orgone to operate reactionless drives and orgone-based telepathic weapons. In addition to clashing with the otherwise mundane near future technology of the setting, these raise all sorts of unanswered questions. Ohlms never bothers to explain, for example, why the Aakurans don't simply use telepathic weaponry to brainwash the Terps into surrendering. Nor does he address how near effortless transport would affect his urban landscapes and the war. At most, he implies that orgone has resisted attempts to exploit its full potential for everyday purposes.
Perhaps the strangest, but also most problematic, aspects of all stem from the Aspril, a mysterious race connected in some way to the orgone. The novel series never really gets around to explaining where the Aspril originate or what they actually are. In some ways that serves to make them mysterious, yet it almost sounds like Ohlms himself didn't know what they were. At most we learn that they have entered our world through experiments on orgone, and that they can bring out its full, and apparently terrifying, potential. In practical terms, one can call them walking Big Lipped Alligator Moments, as they tend to tear normality asunder whenever they appear. We only see them in their true form a couple of times throughout the whole series, but those few cases are among the most surreal and grotesque I've seen in fiction. They really drive home the theme that orgone has many secrets that prevent rational comprehension. But they also plunge the series into its moments of greatest incomprehensibility, and they don't seem quite critical enough to the plot.
And finally, just what is the rest of the world besides FAC and Aakura doing during the war? We hear plenty of throw-away lines regarding the Terpish Kingdom and Kiraqas and several other "major" factions. Yet we never really learn much about them, and in the end they feel more like perfunctory filler than fully realized entities. I would have liked to hear more about how these other factions felt about the war, maybe even what they were doing elsewhere in the world. As it stands, one gets the impression that little besides the Terra-Aakuran war is even happening in the world. It leaves the setting feeling rather empty, like film set that only looks convincing if you avoid turning the camera too far to the side.
"There was a particular car I soon came to think of as distinctly St. Louis-ish: a gigantic white S.U.V. with a W. bumper sticker on it for George W. Bush."
You forgot to mention that they're all borrowings from Vasco-Caucasian.Qwynegold wrote:An Octavian comparison of Finnish and IE-langs and Japanese.
Finnish word – meaning Other language word – meaning Notes
-kO - INTERROGATIVE SUFFIX Jp: ka – INTERROGATIVE PARTICLE
anoa – beg (for money or help) Jp: tanomu – to ask a favor
antaa – to give Jp: watasu – to hand
ei – no, not Sw: nej – no, ej – not (old-fashioned); Jp: iie – no
hammas – tooth Jp: ha – tooth
istua – sit Jp: isu – chair
ja – and Jp: ya – and (used when listing examples of something)
kampa – comb Sw: kam – comb; Eng: comb
kasa – heap Jp: kasaneru – to pile up
kuu – moon Eng: moon
lippu – ticket Jp: kippu – ticket Just a joke!
lukko – lock Eng: lock; Sw: lucka – hatch
maito – milk Eng: milk; Sw: mjölk
matto – carpet Jp: matto – mat Just a joke!
meri – sea, ocean Lt: mare – sea
mukaan – tag along Jp: mukae – pick up someone, meeting
nauraa – to laugh Jp: warau – to laugh
nenä – nose Sw: näsa – nose; Jp: hana – nose
nimi – name Jp: namae; Sw: namn; Eng: name The -mae in namae means front, but the na morpheme means name.
pissa – pee Sw: piss – piss, kissa – to pee; Eng: piss
rikon – I break Jp: rikon suru – get divorced Just a joke!
runo – poem Sw: runa – rune, obituary
selkä – back (anat.) Jp: senaka – back (anat.)
sininen – blue Ru: siniy – (a shade of) blue
sisko, sisar – sister Sw: syster – sister; Eng: sister
tai – or Jp: tai – versus On'yomi.
todella – really Jp: totemo – very
torni – tower Sw: torn - tower; Jp: tō – tower Tō is on'yomi.
tovi – a short while Jp: toki – time
tuutti – (ice cream) cone Sw: tuta – horn (that you honk with)
tytär – daughter Sw: dotter – daughter; Eng: daughter
uni – dream, sleep Jp: yume – dream
vene – boat Jp: fune – ship, boat
vesi – water, veden – water's Ru: voda – water; Jp: mizu – water
örkki – orc, ogre Eng: orc, ogre
-
Jar Jar Binks
- Lebom
- Posts: 194
- Joined: Fri Oct 24, 2003 12:28 am
- Location: OTTER
-
Aurora Rossa
- Smeric
- Posts: 1138
- Joined: Mon Aug 11, 2003 11:46 am
- Location: The vendée of America
- Contact:
@Jar Jar Binks: Well, not just writing but also world-building. I am struggling to make my conworld feel plausible and internally consistent. So far the whole thing seems slapped together and lacking in a certain sense of necessity. I can't figure out how to justify a whole new planet almost identical to Earth except in ways I find convenient or how its ecosystem could possibly work like our own without all sorts of crazy coincidences.
"There was a particular car I soon came to think of as distinctly St. Louis-ish: a gigantic white S.U.V. with a W. bumper sticker on it for George W. Bush."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_ObscuraEddy wrote:I can't figure out how to justify a whole new planet almost identical to Earth except in ways I find convenient or how its ecosystem could possibly work like our own without all sorts of crazy coincidences.
-
Yiuel Raumbesrairc
- Avisaru
- Posts: 668
- Joined: Thu Jan 20, 2005 11:17 pm
- Location: Nyeriborma, Elme, Melomers
-
roninbodhisattva
- Avisaru
- Posts: 568
- Joined: Sun Mar 05, 2006 11:50 pm
- Location: California
-
Aurora Rossa
- Smeric
- Posts: 1138
- Joined: Mon Aug 11, 2003 11:46 am
- Location: The vendée of America
- Contact:
Not a bad drawing, Yiuel, and it looks like you even signed your name in Japanese or something, which I find rather neat. What does the signature say?
Since the currently posted version of the Terraverse continent still leaves me a bit unsatisfied, I've been working on an alternative. This one, I think, looks less like a rip-off of Eurasia and more convincing as a large continent. I still need to expand and refine it a bit, and I don't know if it necessarily works tectonically. It also still needs cities and rivers, but I have a pretty good idea of where to put most of them.
Since the currently posted version of the Terraverse continent still leaves me a bit unsatisfied, I've been working on an alternative. This one, I think, looks less like a rip-off of Eurasia and more convincing as a large continent. I still need to expand and refine it a bit, and I don't know if it necessarily works tectonically. It also still needs cities and rivers, but I have a pretty good idea of where to put most of them.
"There was a particular car I soon came to think of as distinctly St. Louis-ish: a gigantic white S.U.V. with a W. bumper sticker on it for George W. Bush."
-
vampireshark
- Avisaru
- Posts: 738
- Joined: Thu Dec 04, 2008 7:02 pm
- Location: Luxembourg
- Contact:
Dragon! I love dragons. And Yiuel's picture of one is most awesome. Though isn't that his "signature" for drawings?
Oh, out of sheer boredom, I made obverses for two of the three Ilian banknotes.
YJD 25, approximately USD 1.20
YJD 100, approximately USD 4.76
If you object to your picture on here, though, I'll change it. But I am looking for someone to appear on the YJD 500...
Oh, out of sheer boredom, I made obverses for two of the three Ilian banknotes.
YJD 25, approximately USD 1.20
YJD 100, approximately USD 4.76
If you object to your picture on here, though, I'll change it. But I am looking for someone to appear on the YJD 500...
What do you see in the night?
In search ofvictims subjects to appear on banknotes. Inquire within.
In search of
-
Yiuel Raumbesrairc
- Avisaru
- Posts: 668
- Joined: Thu Jan 20, 2005 11:17 pm
- Location: Nyeriborma, Elme, Melomers
It is indeed a Japanese-style signature, though the last character is my own creation. It reads "Kitajima no Yuueru" Basically, Yiuel of the Northern Island (i.e. Melville, French "LeMelvillois"). The character for "Yiuel" is a combination of "sun", "large" and "movement", a reference to both Rigel (a massive star, also my favorite) and me (who moves a lot). As VS said, it's my signature when I draw something.Eddy wrote:Not a bad drawing, Yiuel, and it looks like you even signed your name in Japanese or something, which I find rather neat. What does the signature say?
As for the dragon, it was inspired from a D&D concept of a friend of mine, who said he wanted a dragon leader. Hence the sword and general badassness
I'm currently having fun drawing some Almean persona. I've made a drawing of Nekangri, the military thinker (which name I never found how to write in Xurnese script) and another of Enirc, the tragic hero of the Prose Wars, among my favorites. I made a small sketch of Tilye (the current heir to the Sash of Verduria) as well. I also might have fun picturing the meeting of Ervea and Attafei as well.
"Ez amnar o amnar e cauč."
- Daneydzaus
- Daneydzaus
LIEEddy wrote:This one, I think, looks less like a rip-off of Eurasia and more convincing as a large continent.
Catch me on YouTube.Pthug wrote:i can imagineViktor77 wrote:I grew up my entire life surrounded by a Special Ed educator.
-
Skomakar'n
- Smeric
- Posts: 1273
- Joined: Tue Aug 18, 2009 8:05 pm
-
Colonel Cathcart
- Lebom
- Posts: 97
- Joined: Wed Jun 25, 2008 11:14 pm
- Location: Davis, CA
- Contact:
-
Skomakar'n
- Smeric
- Posts: 1273
- Joined: Tue Aug 18, 2009 8:05 pm
It's true! We had Alfred Hitchcock, Jay Leno, Paul Potts, J.K. Rowling, Börje Bård, Haakon Aasen, Geirmundur Snorrason, Fredrik af Stierna, Magnus af Uggla, Simon Sorne, Lisa Lindén, Åsa Andersson, Ann-Katrin Larsson, Jorge Garcia Rodriguez, Jean-Luc Baptiste, Jarl Kulle, Magnús Scheving, Uwe Boll, Adrian Perr, Mikael Niemi, Niila Aaltonen, Stefán Karl Stefánsson, Tord Yvel, Hans Jensen, Vegard Urheim Ylvisåker, Jón Jósep Snæbjörnsson, Richard Gere, Seth Kaas van Kuijk, My Mueller and Tórstein Torkilsson.HelixWitch wrote:Only 30? Surely, you jest!
-
Aurora Rossa
- Smeric
- Posts: 1138
- Joined: Mon Aug 11, 2003 11:46 am
- Location: The vendée of America
- Contact:
I'll admit the resemblance for the Western half at least, but I hardly think all your labels apply unequivocally. I mean, you have a large Iberian-like peninsula labeled China.
"There was a particular car I soon came to think of as distinctly St. Louis-ish: a gigantic white S.U.V. with a W. bumper sticker on it for George W. Bush."
-
Aurora Rossa
- Smeric
- Posts: 1138
- Joined: Mon Aug 11, 2003 11:46 am
- Location: The vendée of America
- Contact:
What do you mean by that? If you mean it looks like something spilled and spread out, then don't most maps look like that?Why do all of your maps look like splatters?
"There was a particular car I soon came to think of as distinctly St. Louis-ish: a gigantic white S.U.V. with a W. bumper sticker on it for George W. Bush."
-
Aurora Rossa
- Smeric
- Posts: 1138
- Joined: Mon Aug 11, 2003 11:46 am
- Location: The vendée of America
- Contact:
