#and very specifically the linguistic and social development

[vaciena]

I love these books so much but holy shit does carthak’s worldbuilding drive me crazy

[writingwithcolor]

Conlanging Issues: A Compendium

NOTE: This question was submitted before the Nov 1, 2023 reopening and may not adhere to all rules and guidelines. The ask has been abridged for clarity. 

Most of my questions are about linguistics. […] One of the major locations in my story is a massive empire with cultural inspirations ranging from North Africa in the far south to Mongolia/Russia in the far north […] The middle region is where the capital is and is the main root of culture, from which Ive been taking inspiration from Southwest Asia […], but most notably southern regions of India. I've tried to stick to the way cities are named in Sanskrit-based languages but added the names of stars to the front (because the prevalent religion of this region worships the stars [...]). So Ive ended up with names like Pavoprayag, Alyanaga, Alkaiduru, Alcorpura, Cygnapete, etc. Is this a consistent naming system or should I alter it in some way? The empire itself is named the Arcana Empire since [...] each act of my story is named after a tarot card [...]. Another region in my story is based more on parts of South China and North Vietnam, so I've tried to stick to names with a Chinese origin for that. I understand the significance of family names in southwest [sic] Asia, so I wanted to double check [...]. They have only two short given names. Based on the birth order of the child, the first half of the name comes from the fathers family and the second half from the mothers family. It is seen as disrespectful not to use both names because using only one is seen as denouncing that side of your family. Thus I have names like Su Yin, Dai Jun, and Yi Wen for some of the characters from this region, and the city itself that they are from is named Bei Fen. On the other hand, Im having further trouble naming characters. […] Ive been trying to give my human characters names from real human cultures to distinguish them from the website-generated names of say, orcs, elves, dwarves, etc, but I think I should change many of the names Ive used to be more original and avoid fracturing real world cultures for the sake of my worldbuilding. […] Im still very weak in the linguistics area (even after four years of French, sigh) and am having trouble finding where to read about naming patterns so I can make new ones up. I read your naming guides but am still having trouble on where to start for specific languages. […] Im trying to look into Sanskrit, Turkish, and Persian specifically.

You're Going Too Broad

In my opinion, you’re casting too wide a net. You mentioned looking into Sanskrit, Turkish, and Persian to develop fantasy names. These languages are very different from one another, so unless you’re using them separately for very different parts of your world, it will be hard to draw inspiration from them in a way that makes sense. You’re taking on a huge amount of research in order to worldbuild cultures that span a massive geographical area (basically all of North Africa and Asia?) and have very little in common. Are you sure you want to take on that task?

I could see it being more manageable if most of your story is set in a small region of this world, which you will then research in depth to make sure you’re being as specific as possible.

Taking Persian as an example, you’ll have to decide whether you want to use Old Persian, Middle Persian, or Modern Persian. Each of these comes with a different alphabet and historical influences. They’re also associated with different periods of time and corresponding cultural and social markers. Once you’ve decided exactly when and where you want to start from, you can then expand the borders of your area of focus. For example, if you’ve decided to draw inspiration from Achaemenid Persia, you can then look at the languages that were spoken in the Achaemenid Empire. A quick Google search tells me that while Old Persian was the empire’s official language, they also used Aramaic, Akkadian, Median, Greek, and Elamite (among, I’m sure, many many others and many more regional variations). Further research into each of these will give you ethnic groups and bordering nations that you can draw more inspiration from to expand out your worldbuilding.

Don’t forget to make sure you’re staying within the same time period in order to keep things consistent. It’s a lot of work, and this is only for a small portion of the continent-spanning worldbuilding you’re trying to do.

You can get away with painting the rest of the continent in broad strokes without too much depth if the story doesn’t go there and you don’t have any main characters from those parts of the world. Otherwise, you’ll need to put this same level of detail into your worldbuilding for the area with Turkish-inspired names, and again for the area with Sanskrit-inspired names, and so on.

I know this isn’t what you were asking, but I honestly have a hard time helping you figure out where to start because your ask is so broad I don’t quite know where I would start myself. So, this is my advice: focus down on one region and time period and go from there. Feel free to write back once you’ve picked a narrower focus that we could help you with.

- Niki

So there’s logistical issues in regards to your naming system for southern China-coded regions. One issue is history: mainly on how there is not simply one language in China but multiple due to having a lot of ethnic groups and the size of China. South China in particular has different dialects and languages than the North as seen in this map of Chinese languages and dialects. There’s also how historically Mandarin was not the official language until 1913 in China and historical China saw vast changes in territory dependent on the dynasty. Before then, Mandarin was primarily a northern Chinese language based in Beijing while southern China had its own languages, dialects, and dynamics. Not to mention, historical China saw an evolution of language just like English has Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, and Modern English. For instance, Vietnam was once part of China during the Tang Dynasty and at another point, it was not part of China.

-Mod Sci

If You’re Borrowing Whole Words or Elements, Research More

The other issue is inconsistency with the cultures you’re deriving this conlang from. In regards to “two given names,” the Chinese name I was given was one syllable and then I would have a last name that was also one syllable. There’s also how not every family is perfect. Not every marriage is sanctioned and some children may come from single parents. Some families may not cooperate with marriage and sometimes children may be abandoned with unknown parents. There does not seem to be contingencies for these names under this conlang system.

The main problem with conlangs is that one needs to truly understand the languages one is drawing from. Tolkein managed to create conlangs due to training in linguistics. Mandarin is already a difficult language with multiple tones, and trying to use it for conlangs without knowledge of how Mandarin works or a good foundation in linguistics is just a Sisyphean endeavor.

-Mod Sci

Four years of French wouldn’t have taught you about linguistics as a science or anything about the language families you’ve listed - Indo-Iranian, Sino-Tibetan, and Turkic, nor any Asian naming conventions. I agree with Niki that you need to narrow down your research.

Pur/pura means city in Sanskrit (ex: Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur). Prayag is a place where pilgrimages are done. Naga isn’t a place name in Sanskrit (google says it means snake), nagar is and it means town. X Nagar is a very common name for places (Ex: Rajinder Nagar). Many cities in Karnataka have names ending in uru (Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mangaluru, Tumakuru, etc) but the language of Karnataka is Kannada - a Dravidian language and completely different family from Sanskrit (Indo-Aryan). I’m not sure where “pete” came from. “Bad” and “vaal” are common suffixes for places too (Ex: Faisalabad, Allahabad). A disclaimer that I do not speak Sanskrit, I speak Punjabi, which is a descendant of Sanskrit and in the same linguistic family (Indo-Aryan languages).

- SK

Also, This Is Not…Really Conlanging.

Hi OP. Linguistics refers to the science of studying how languages work, not the discipline of learning languages. And nothing shows that gap more than how you have thus far approached constructing fictional languages and toponyms. 

The reason why Sci and SK have a lot to say about your place names is because they don't resonate—you have borrowed whole words into your toponyms (place names) from a variety of languages—without an accurate understanding of what these words mean, how they’re pronounced, where they’re derived from—and expected them to work together. I suggest you read the links below on why conlanging is not as simple as choosing some languages and mashing their IRL words together: 

Why Using Random Languages Wholesale in your Fantasy is a Bad Idea 

Pitfalls of Mashing Countries and Languages in Coding

In your city names, for example, you’re using star names from multiple languages that use different sets of sounds represented by different sets of historical spelling rules. “Cygn-” and “Arcana” stick out like a sore thumb—the fact that one “c” is /s/ and one is /k/ is an obvious flag that they are Latin-derived English borrowings. This is because spelling rules were created in Middle English to make sense of the mix of “c” pronunciations across words of Indo-European origin due to a historical split called the Centum-Satem division. This is a phenomenon that is very specific to our world history, and to the history of English at that. Ironically, in your attempt to avoid stock fantasy names (which also often fall into the Latin-derived English pit), you are taking the exact same approach to naming.

Like Niki said, your selections are far too broad to code under a single umbrella. Do you expect that whatever language that city name came from runs the full gamut of sound inventory & spelling variety that spans multiple continents and hundreds of languages? Because that’s not how languages work. (And yes, I mean hundreds. Indigenous languages and linguistic diversity are a thing. See Niki’s note about just the languages in Persia. And nation-states bulldozing over those languages and pretending it’s just one language is a thing. See Sci’s note about China.) I haven't even talked about the variation in morphology (how words are formed) or syntax (sentence structure).

Please just read or re-read my guide on “naming conlangs” in this post and start from there.

~ Rina

PSA ON CONLANGING AND FANTASY NAMES:

For fantasy language asks submitted after Nov 1, 2023, the asker must indicate that they have read Mod Rina’s conlanging posts linked in FAQ 2 (Guides and Posts by Topic) of the Masterpost under the question “How do I make a fictional language for my story?” While this is an older ask, we are posting it as an example to our followers.

Per our new rules, any questions that can be directly answered in or extrapolated from the FAQs, or questions that indicate that the relevant resources haven’t been read, will be deleted with a note in the Deletion Log explaining why.

As always, if this post was helpful or educational to you, please consider tipping the relevant mods: SK, Niki, Sci, and Rina.

Edited for terminology errors

[indigosabyss]

Remembered a hc I made a year or two ago that cell 8 + Jyugo can’t pinpoint Samon’s accent and it drives all of them insane

Developed into Samon, Enki, Noriko, and Mao all speak a very different regional dialect of Chinese. Not enough to be too jarring but just enough to be noticeable. Cell 8 can ignore it mostly bc they’re thinking ‘eh Chinas a big country, we probably just haven’t been there’

Jyugo cannot. Why? He’s been to and knows people from all over that country and he goes a little crazy every time he hears Samon talk. It only got worse when he heard Enki and Noriko. He hears Mao speak and just explodes. (I really should just write this fic already)

Hey drop the link when u write this-

I don't know enough about specific regional dialects across China to comment, but yeah. One has to wonder if the large amounts of social isolation has severely affected the linguistics of all these people. What amount of the Accent Jyugo Can't Figure Out is from the mountains of the Gokuu clan??? How much does Noriko remember about how speech works after a decade of complete silence?? Does Mao have trouble forming words bc of the feline shape of his mouth, so he adds in nya-s everywhere??? Does Samon sound like all of this thrown into a blender and if he's been spending too much time around people who speak only in sports metaphors? I must know.

[witchofthesouls]

Okay, so I'm thinking about linguistics on Cybertron, especially between city-states and caste influence.

I want to emphasize that I don't know jack shit about linguistics, so feel free to jump in if I'm using the term wrong or I'm veering into weird/silly territory.

Because of a lot of fanon interpretation and Bayverse, I'm viewing Cybertronian/Neocybex as ridiculously tonal and, unlike humans, are able to vocally include subglyphs -(sub)harmonics that closely act like written Chinese characters or Japanese kanji.

I'm really stressing the written part because Cybertronians have the capability to able to differentiate a word's very specific meaning without going through all the context surrounding it. So instead of vocally explaining that their names or meaning is "this," people already know.

Think of the name Miko and how many of us already immediately think of shrine maiden. But there are different kanji variations of Miko, so the meaning changes to exemplify certain characteristics or future aspirations.

There is a culture clash between dialects as names can rise from different conventions and inspirations. Hence, the IDW Megatron joke of his name being derived from neutron, the bomb. And TFP Megatron from the Fallen.

In terms of dialect by regional/city-state differences:

Kaon and Tarn: highly forceful and the underscores of territorality (mine versus not yours); very direct and clear cut; incorporated meanings with biolight usage and plating noise

Vos, Praxus, and Polyhex: aggressively stresses the group/flock/cohort rather than the individual (even Starscream with his me/I has a lot of accompanying subglyphs that stresses his position as the second-in-command to the Decepticons, Air Commander, and leader to the Elite Trine), very conscientious of social dynamics and ranks, pecking order is strictly held yet contains fluidity to be challenged, use of more "animalistic" noises, body language with wings/panels, expanded lexicon for spatial relationships during traveling operations

Iacon: emphasis on social hierarchy via one's occupation (aka their caste); formal and cold as it utilizes the least amount of subglyphs (viewed to be academic or stem from it); purposely more general rather than specific

I'm willing to bet the Lost Colonies of Cybertron had developed their own unique flavor of Neocybex/Cybertronian, especially without the immense pressure of Functionism.

[pinkinsect]

can you elaborate on what you mean when you mention the "blue lock sociolect." because the linguistic/social situation that must be developing in this stanford prison ass training center fascinates me endlessly

hello this is going to be a lot. tldr at the end.

for anyone unaware, i use blue lock "sociolect" in this case specifically meaning the dialect that develops in the blue lock facility. i'd classify it more as a sociolect than a dialect, because while they now have a geographic location in common, i would say the speech features show up more in certain characters who've leaned into the blue lock egoist mentality more. the way hiori speaks changes as his view of himself and soccer change. (i also think that bltv enjoyers start talking like this. horrifically)

the blue lock sociolect is a phenomenon i invented in my mind palace to cope with the way i feel when i read blue lock and see phrases like "you're an eyesore, you pink-haired philistine" and "rotten orange." i brought it up in this post on my other blog some time ago, but in short, i've decided that the rather. unique way the blue lockers speak to one another is a result of putting 300 [and lowering] boys age 15-18 from all over japan in a hypercompetitive environment with very little adult supervision.

it's all about the individual, hence many of the insults taking the target's most striking physical trait and combining it with something the speaker decides is negative about the target. with japanese being a language with pretty structured assignments of appropriate politeness based on age, experience, and status, i could see it eroding given the general lack of older adult presence (ego appearing on a screen for like 15 minutes doesn't count, especially since he's rude as hell), and the mentality the players are encouraged to accept. rin isn't the best example given his dedication to hating across languages, cultures, and age ranges, but isagi pretty much comments on how he's rude as hell by social norms once, then clearly gets used to it.

i think the blue lock sociolect starts to diversify a bit once we enter the nel. the blue lock boys are shown studying english, but the nel introduces an environment where a lot of their teammates will most likely be speaking a language other than english or japanese within their teams (except for manshine but that's british english which isn't usually what's taught in japan so even then their contributions to the sociolect will be a bit different).

we don't know exactly how accurate the translation software is, or how it handles the cultural differences in honorific language, but based on some of the things we've seen (ness calling kunigami "kunigami-san" that one time, also ness being shown saying "ja" through the translation, "beinschuss" from kaiser, whatever's going on with charles, etc.) they're not always consistent.

(i haven't checked out the raws for these yet though, so im actually not entirely sure what's coming through in japanese.these could just be translation choices.)

this multi-language environment and the non-translation of certain speech could also have an impact on our blue lock players' vocabulary and introduce other languages' terms and speech patterns. japanese already has a pretty huge collection of loan words that eventually create "foreign" phrases that don't exist outside of japanese, so this facility could make this phenomenon occur more rapidly.

we see otoya say "golazo" during the fc barcha match, and while darai says the same thing during their bowling match, it wouldn't be too far off to assume that otoya picked it up from his spanish speaking teammates.

i could add more but this is getting too long so tl;dr: putting 300 15-18 year old boys in a prison with barely any adult supervision would make neat language shifts.

some features of the blue lock sociolect i think exist:

the particular type of insult we see so much of in blue lock

general lack of/comparatively less importance given to honorific language and polite conjugations of words

shounen protag accent (you'd know it when you hear it.)

increased usage of german, english, spanish, italian, and/or french terms

FAR less subject omission than average japanese, especially when the subject is "i" [thanks aryu.]

[bethany-sensei]

Okaaaaaay! Y’all voted for me to babble about…

Dragon Culture(s)

And I’m gonna. At great length.

“Dragon” is about as specific a term as “bird” would be, if birds were also sometimes people and sometimes immortals with elemental powers. In some worlds, only or primarily animal-type dragons exist. In others (such as the Second Sphere of Hell), dragonfolk make up the majority of the sapient population.

All Dragonish languages come from a common root. Second Sphere and Fourth Sphere Dragonish are functionally dialects of the same language, but they’re written completely differently. (Any linguistics nerds in the house tonight?) This is because Second Sphere Dragonish has its own native script, while Fourth Sphere Dragonish borrowed from the writing systems of other cultures (which is why its pronunciation is Like That).

Pretty universally among younger dragons, females are seen as more aggressive, and males more nurturing. As they age, they’re expected to grow toward a more neutral temperament.

Dragons are fairly successful as invasive species. Most sapient dragons are also extremely social, and sometimes they develop elaborate hierarchies.

Ok, that’s the basics. Let’s talk about a few specific dragon cultures!

The Mortal Realm

The only dragonfolk in the Mortal Realm (where you find humans and elves) are the Warriors of the Shadowed Marches, commonly called Shadowmarchers. They have small wings that are only useful for balance, and a rattle and a barb at the end of their tails. They also have the strongest venom of any dragon species, sapient or not, so touching the face of someone you’re not extremely intimate with is Simply Not Done.

As the name suggests, they have a rigid society led by a warrior caste. They keep to themselves in an extremely cold territory near the South Pole. Any incursions into their lands are swiftly repelled. Outsiders are not trusted. They kind of have a point, since a couple of centuries ago, some human used a soul-bond with a different type of dragon to subjugate most of a continent.

Don’t call them dragons, though. Shadowmarchers insist that they are not dragonkind, but in fact are a common ancestor of both humans and elves. (They’re wrong. They’re actually dragons.)

The Fourth Sphere

Hmm, okay. These guys have had it rough.

The kingdom of Seyzharel in the Fourth Sphere of Hell is home to a race of dragonfolk with… vampiric tendencies (all dragonfolk in certain Hell Spheres are blood drinkers). These particular dragons consume blood to fuel their magic, but also because they have a tendency to become anemic rather easily. So, of course, there are a bunch of rules about blood. Consuming blood from the flesh is most intimate. It’s also vulgar to do in front of people.

Seyzharel dragons are considered vain, even by dragon standards. They like to be surrounded by beautiful things. It sucks for them that they just had a bad ruler who plunged most of their society into ruin.

Their current regent is trying his best, but he’s very traumatized, doesn’t really know how to be a proper dragon, and also is Experiencing Gender.

The Second Sphere

Dragonfolk are the main sapient race here, and also their main source of off-Sphere revenue comes from their highly-skilled assassins. Yeah, you read that right. Dragon assassins. Who go to other worlds for contracts.

The king of the Second Sphere traditionally has a Named Heir (highly skilled in both assassination and administration), and also a Favored Child (who is allowed to specialize in one skill). The heir takes part of the current ruler’s name. In the current story the king is Tsai-Van and the crown prince is Van-Dal.

The best assassins generally get brought in to serve as part of the Royal guard for a time.

Outside of the assassination thing, the Second Sphere and Fourth Sphere dragons share a lot of cultural similarities, and have traditionally had friendship between their countries. In both Spheres, adult dragons tend to gather a Clutch which is a tight-knit group including any combination of friends, lovers, offspring, younger adult dragons they’re protecting/mentoring, and other types of close relationships, all living together. Wingmates are close friends who share the same Clutch or overlapping Clutches.

This is getting a bit long, so…

[waitingforsecretsouls]

I'll always maintain that (Crown Prince!) Fëanáro gave his sons names befitting Princes and future Kings of the Ñoldor, as (King!) Finwë himself did for his sons. They're basically dynastic names and given how his sons are Princes and it's the schema he and his half-brothers were named for as well, it's difficult for me to see anything wrong with that. These people are royalty afterall, which means they're figures of public and to a certain extent political life by matter of birth.

It always seemed to me that father-names are the official names used for the political sphere (honestly something like titles almost), at least among the Finwëans (not least because their fathers tend to be the members of the royal family while their mothers marry in). Something I feel supported by the announcement of it in an official ceremony (Essecarmë), and which makes the contrast between the Fëanorians general tendency to prefer their mother-name and their half-brothers/cousins general preference for father-names very interesting (Obviously you can argue that it's simple personal preference or speculate about parental relationships (such as is canonically the case in at the least Fëanáro's case, though it's also still partly a political statement in its own right), but the point of this post is to go a little more political).

The Fëanorians are heirs to Finwë as the Elder House, but alone out of their wider family they're not primarily or even tangentially associated with one of the royal residencies. Rather, they spend their time travelling Aman to its outermost edges, and when not busy with exploration, are guests in Aulë or Oromë's Halls. They do not seem to have been involved in "politics" at all, prior to the Unrest, much less established in Tirion. In light of the abovementioned hypothesis regarding father-names political associations, the primary use of their mother-names serves to contribute to this air of an already rather casual conduct and presentation (see also Maitimo's comparatively 'casual' epessë (compared to eg. Artanis' or Gil-Galad's) in use specifically among close family, or the Ambarussa's nicknames (Given how they're not described as epessë) of 'First- and Second-Russa', which is not even mentioning the Fëanorians shortened father-names which could be considered potential 'nicknames' as well and even if not certainly imply a certain disregard for formality).

I'd argue that their unique status as not only descendants from someone confirmed to be neither royalty nor nobility nor associated with Tirion in any particular way in Nerdanel (which is not to claim that all Ñoldor of Tirion were career-politicians as a matter of course), but also the general fact of a less official and courtly daily environment and social contacts, e.g. seen in both Fëanáro's and Maitimo's notably close relationship to Nerdanels father Mahtan, both via kinship but moreso shared close relations with Aulë (with whom the Sons of Fëanáro additionally likely would have had closer contact growing up than Finwë, given aforementioned shared close association with Aulë and his halls yet Fëanáro explicitly not associated with Tirion as residency and noted to be living apart from the Finwë and Indis family unit even prior to founding his own family-branch) would have played an additional role in the development of their more informal manner (not that I see them as incapable of courtly manners, mind you (+ given Fëanáro's 'let them sa-si' comment were weaned on linguistic discourse at the very least, so no slouches in the academic department as well (Carnistir becoming economist prime in Beleriand as just one of the more concrete examples)) , they just canonically are very frank and to the point. Something I can see working favourable in the establishment of their many cross-cultural alliances in Beleriand).

I also think Nerdanel's lack of royal status might have played a role in keeping the mother-names she gave comparatively simple for the most part, making reference to their appearance and disposition (or, in Makalaurë's and the Ambarussa's case, prophetic insight, but even in the latter only because Fëanáro insisted on giving them separate names rather than just 'Ambarussa') in a less pompous or high-brow manner (compared to the mother-names given by noble-born Indis or of equally royal lineage Eärwen to their eldest in particular, Obviously this is more of a general tendecy, as we e.g. also get a prophetic name in Aikanáro, but I stand by Nerdanel keeping it notably simple by comparison).

The Ñolofinwëans in contrast are associated primarily with Tirion via Ñolofinwë, who, unlike Arafinwë, isn't mentioned to have had close contacts and frequent visits to Alqualondë, or primarily travel like Fëanáro and sons. Lack of additional crafts also leaves his later political plotting as only point of reference we get on his potential activities prior, making him a likely career-politician (which coheres with his better PR-management choices in the eventual feud and his kingly ambitions). Ñolofinwë married Anairë, who is most likely a Ñoldor of Tirion, given the lack of additional information on her (that mostly tends to get reserved for noteworthy deviations from "the norm", see also descriptions of hair-colour, where only deviations from the standart dark brown get explicit descriptions, or even regarding Finwëan wives, e.g. Indis, aside from the circumstances of her marriage, most noted for being a Vanyar and Eärwen a Falmari, Nerdanel for falling outside the beauty norms expected of the wife of a prince). Given that we do not get her children's mother-names, it's impossible to tell whether she added similarly ambitious/declaratory touches into them as Indis seemingly did for her sons.

The only child of Ñolofinwë singled out of the bunch during life in pre-Unchaining of Melkor Valinor is their daughter Írissë, for often going hunting in the forests with the sons of Fëanáro (to the point the narration sees fit to clarify that no romance was involved). While undoubtedly a free and adventurous spirit, the likely fact that she lived life in Aman primarily in Tirion would also add a neat layer to her readiness to accompany Turukáno (and eventually return) to Gondolin, the Tirion replica par exellence. While less overtly ambitious than her brothers or father I still propose that she was more comfortable in or at the very least used to the more formal environment of politics and appearances than often credited to her. Leaving its history of development aside, the fact that her father-name has a sindarized form (Íreth) which does not correspond to her Sindarin name actual in use (Aredhel) the argument can be made that her father-name wouldn't have been her preferred Quenya name, but rather her afaik unknown mother-name.

Given that we get no additional information on their whereabouts, it therefore also seems likely her brothers would have primarily been active in Tirion, and indeed later emerge as some of their fathers chief political supporters, Findecáno as primary Ñolofinwëan leader in the first half of the exile, and in Turukano's case commanding an eventual large following in his own right (thus fitting the pattern of favouring their more politically loaded names due to primary involvement in said social sphere).

The Arafinwëans are interesting, due to echoing Ñolo- and Arafinwë, descending from two royal lines, in their case both Nõldor (Arafinwë) and Falmari (Eärwen), yet firmly self-identifying as Ñoldor. Which I'd argue their deliberate use of father-name over mother-name signifies or at the least in effect serves to enhance, in addition to general royal gravitas. Given Melkor's warning to Ñolo- and Arafinwë that:

"Beware! Small love has the proud son of Míriel ever had for the children of Indis. Now he has become great, and he has his father in his hand. It will not be long before he drives you forth from Túna!"

, it also seems like, despite his distance from the family feud and marriage into the Falmari of Alqualondë, in whose company he often shared ("[...]he often sought peace among the Teleri, whose language he learned"), Arafinwë and his family still primarily resided in Tirion rather than Alqualondë. We later also see that at least Findaráto and Artanis out of their siblings harbour grand political ambitions such as ruling their own realms in Middle-Earth (mentioned as their motive for participating in the exile), while of Artanis we furthermore get told of a steep and ambitious participation in Ñoldorin academia (As for Arafinwë, given how Eärwen gave his own mother-name (Ingoldo) to their son Findaráto, it feels safe to say it wasn't the one her husband was primarily using. But in his case I'd even argue that his mother-name was the more explicit political statement, so there was no escaping the drama. As eventually happens, with ruling over the remnants of the Ñoldor-in-Aman. Though, funnily enough, it's Arafinwë rather than Findaráto for whom one can argue for a prophetic rather than strictly political nature of said name, even if I myself do not consider it as such).

Basically, I think that keeping in mind the more official nature of the Finwëan father-names adds fun potential additional layers to the world-building and characters in question.

[bijoumikhawal]

Selected Headcanons from my Bajoran World building notes

There are many Bajoran scripts. The most widely used one is a syllabary that has undergone very little change over thousands of years, partially as a result of religious ordinances. This is sometimes called "Temple script", and the vast majority of Bajorans can read it. As such it is used to print religious literature and on official documents.

Due to linguistic drift, the relative lack of change in Temple script means things spelled in the syllabary aren't pronounced how they are spelled, and spellings we use aren't accurate transliterations of the syllabic script.

Of the many other scripts used in the Bajoran system, most are related to or influenced by Temple script, with some exceptions. These are often used for popular literature, writing receipts, lists, signage, personal communication, and other day to day things. Most Bajoran languages have an associated script that is better suited to them than Temple script.

Bajoran books open left to right.

Bajorans consider it a good sign if a child endures their ear piercing with minimal fussing. This is true of both genders but especially true of Bajoran women. Before the occupation it was a sign of strength for a woman to have multiple piercings (usually first both lobes would be pierced, then the upper shell, etc). During the occupation this fell out of practice partially because of the economic strain many Bajorans were put under and the increased scarcity of metal on Bajor due to Cardassian mining operations.

Originally the cuff connected to a hanging piercing was two earrings, unconnected.

Bajoran men have glands in the scalp, near the hairline at the temples, that leak “ichor” periodically if healthy. This is associated with a biological state of increased hormones and frustration (owing to the fact that when this happens the associated glands swell and give a sensation similar to a headache). This is associated as being obvious with teenage boys going through puberty, who struggle with appropriate conduct during this time. Socially, older adult men are expected to consul younger men on conduct during this time, and young men who live in proximity to older men have this occur less often- likely owing to conflicting pheromone outputs. Men particularly wishing to avoid dealing with this will fast, which cuts the hormonal cycle short (a week vs two months). Religious officials do this customarily. There is a two week period beforehand of behavioral changes that signal this part of the hormone cycle will occur.

Bajorans, like Cardassians, have a capacity for pheromonal communication. However the information parsed tends to be far less specific, due to each species having different evolutionary histories as to why this developed.

Bajorans are mesothermic, which has contributed to less medical issues with Bajoran-Cardassian hybrids than many other hybrids for both species. Of intelligent Alpha quadrant species, Trill are one of the few other mesotherms.

[mysticallion]

Awareness, Consciousness and Attention

Awareness is a “static” Field, meaning it is all-pervasive, like wetness is all-pervasive in water. Awareness is a property of Reality. It is that which knows, which illuminates experience, which renders perception. Other than that it has no discernible characteristics. It is, in and of itself, entirely insubstantial. All sentient beings share this same field, with varying degrees of self-awareness within it. Their specific or individual or relative experience is dictated primarily by the biological forms of their sensory apparatus in relation to their environment and, in higher developed life forms, by their mental (subjective) responses to said input. This dynamic mass of specific content is what we call “consciousness.”

Consciousness is individual-specific. It is an ever-changing mental pattern, more reflexive and responsive and perhaps emotional in lower life forms; while higher life forms tend to transcend (include but surpass) these basic contents with higher level mental phenomena such as imagery, structured social-relational concepts of some sort, symbolic and linguistic concepts, and memory/identity. This tangle of experience is a function of the nervous system and probably ceases at death, though of course this is still a highly debated point.

Attention is a neurological mechanism. It is how the nervous system narrows the Field of Awareness into functional sized chunks. It contracts, almost constantly, in order to differentiate or delimit aspects of the (actually singular and unbroken) Field of Attention into the perceptually and conceptually constructed diverse experience we commonly share. It’s like the difference between losing yourself while gazing into the vast, wide-open, diamond-studded void of space (Awareness) or peering at a small portion of it through a telescope (attention) or even a microscope (developed attention). The mechanism of attention is both a reflex, constantly flickering, and a function that can be brought under deliberate control. Attention is the initial source of differentiation, and therefore of duality, so it is understandably a vital aspect of meditatively-oriented developmental systems. Indeed, in order to pursue spiritual practices or even phenomenological practices, a decently developed mechanism of attention is an inescapable necessity, the more developed the better. This allows the mind to focus back upon itself while not being constantly pulled away from its immediate object of investigation. In other words, a well-developed mechanism of attention allows for the mind to peer deeply, for prolonged periods of time, at very specific aspects of its own dynamic processes. Lots of different disciplines (methods and practices) for strengthening attention have been developed and refined globally over countless millennia of serious self-reflection, and are widely available today to anyone interested enough to do a little research.

[bookwyrminspiration]

YOURE PLANNING ON MINORING IN LINGUISTICS??? TELL MR HOW IT GOES BC IM CONSIDERING IT AS WELL

also what languages are you learning atm 👀

I AM DOING IT CURRENTLY!!! It's so much fun I haven't had this much fun doing such specific, concrete work (as opposed to the no right answer theoretical discussions in english classes) in YEARS. I got legitimately SAD this afternoon because there was like a timing error with the homework file from today and I can't access it yet. like I have genuinely wished the assignments were longer because i'm just!!! language!!! and my dad's also studying linguistics but a few classes ahead of me, and sometimes i sit next to him while he does his homework and i'm just like. wow. I can't wait till I know how to do that that looks like so much fun <3

I'm not very far into it, but everything so far has been so incredibly appealing to my interests. IPA and IPA transcription, how each sound is produced and where in the mouth, how language is acquired, what makes human languages different from animal, how words are formed, how they change over time, the development/relationship to writing, region and social variation. It's literally studying the concept and function of language itself! like the core of every other language you've learned!

also currently my focus is on Nahuatl! that's the one I'm actively taking classes for at the moment--i'm on the second semester. though because it's taught in spanish I'm also brushing up heavily on spanish via necessity. nicamati nimomachtiaz ceyoc tlahtolli :)

[ashwin-the-artless]

a "love" poem

Fairly recently a snippet of an ancient love poem was discovered in the Network of the Sunspot.

It is believed to be a scrap of something a Founding Terra Supremacist had held onto when they infiltrated the construction and population of the ship. Though, it may actually have more alien origins than that.

It's certainly not the kind of poetry that most people of the Sunspot would be moved to write.

I'm examining it here as both a linguistics lesson -- being in ancient Inmararräo, it provides an example of the timelessness of our grammar -- and as a cultural contrast to how people tend to think and feel today.

There is a possessiveness and obsessiveness in this piece of work that is anathema to the ways that love is expressed aboard the Sunspot today. One might even find it repulsive. Though, since my time here on Earth I've certainly encountered many verses with the same sentiments. So, I shouldn't criticize it too thoroughly, as I'm simply unfamiliar with the social pressures that may lead someone to culturally express their affections in this way.

Anyway, I'm not going to provide a pronunciation guide, as this post is already a bit too long with preamble, and I plan to make a whole post about that that you can reference any time once it's up.

And I'm going to keep my analysis somewhat light, just highlighting the details I think are interesting or particularly relevant.

But what I am going to do is provide my step by step translations into English, using the literal translations of the words to show you what Inmararräo word order looks like in comparison to the final English version. This will also show you the kinds of things I do to localize my translations, to render them closer to the true sentiments in which they were original written.

First, the sample script. We only have a stanza and a half of this, but I think it will give you a good taste of these cultural points, and you'll fully understand it by the end of this post:

Of course, we couldn't import the file directly from the Sunspot, but we've recreated the look using a custom font that Goreth is developing using FontForge.

The text is traditionally written vertically, from left to right, though there are some contexts where it might be written for right to left and/or horizontally.

The Latin rendering of it looks like this:

ʔomarrshif neb gunkyäk ʔängnänʔi me Merkäfirr winbaf bem ʔena mog hutyä mem ʔäkya närirr niyeb fetkurrmä ʔen mem Fukya wish rebʔito tegne neb ʔafgärorr mab bem Rrekaritirr kshibe ʔäorirr mem ʔomarrshif fogirr bem mem ʔuu bem rrifärerr ferrurirr

So.

One of the first things you might notice, if you can't speak or read the language, is the repetition and rhythm of the final words of each sentence (except the last one).

Inmararräo is a Verb-Object-Subject language. This means that it is very common for sentences to end in a pronoun. In this case, "me" is first person plural, "mem" is first person singular, and "bem" is second person singular. So this is a poem, presumably about "you" and "me" and how these two people are a "we" (or should be).

Now, it's really common in Inmarräo to drop the subject of the sentence when it is yourself. So, usually, those sentences that end with "mem" wouldn't end that way. The writer has specifically chosen to include the pronoun to create this rhythm, and then to drop it on that last sentence, thus emphasizing that last word.

So, I want to look at that last word, and the whole sentence it is in, and the actual extent to which the writer went to remove the pronoun from the end of the sentence.

"Ferrurirr" is a verb. So, normally it would want a subject or an object, at least, but neither is present.

Now, the word translates most closely to "to understand". So, it is important to this poet that continued active understanding as a verb is the focus here, not just "an understanding" that someone might come to.

On top of that, that's not the main verb of the sentence. It's actually in the object clause of the main verb, "rrifärerr", which means "must force", which is a pretty intense word to use in this case. And that is further emphasized by the ancient Fenekere particle "ʔuu" that has become part of Inmararräo and denotes that the sentence is a critical command.

But there's no subject listed, and the default is "mem" or "I", so it means "I must force understanding".

And, of course, there's that "bem" in there, the "you".

Normally, you'd put it with the verb it belongs to, making it the subject of the verb, but instead it is put before the verbs, in the adverb/predicate clause. This is to avoid confusion. Because if you put it after the last verb, it may be mistaken for the subject of the whole sentence. And if you put it after the main verb, it will become the predicate of the second verb, and mean something different.

In Inmararräo, when you see something like "must you force" in a sentence, what it basically translates to is "must force you to", the "to" being implied by the position of the pronoun.

So, this last sentence means "I must force you to understand."

Understand what?

Well, probably the subject matter of the previous lines. Which bring me to one of my favorite words and another one that I feel contentious about.

In the first line is the word "gunkyäk". It is a word that means "deep connection", "intense concern", "understanding", "visceral affection", and "familiar attachment" all rolled into one thing. And I feel like the sound of it comes from the gut and really conveys the intensity of it.

The English word that sometimes summarizes this is kind of wishy-washy in my opinion, and its sound is kind of reflective of that. Sometimes it can be spoken with the same intensity as "gunkyäk", but a lot of times its thrown around carelessly as if it can just float on the air and land anywhere and not really hurt anybody.

I, of course, speak of the word "love".

Just like in English, Inmararräo has a bunch of synonyms for this word, but this author has chosen "gunkyäk" for its profound connotations (which, in the context of this poem is not necessarily a good thing -- it's just significant to the meaning).

Now, the word following it, "ʔängnänʔi" is another one of many synonyms, each with their own connotations.

In most contemporary Sunspot literature, people have preferred to use the old term "beshakete'i" or just "beshakete", which I then translate into "Outsider", with a capital "O". This is in reference to old poetry in which Outsiders were foreigners to the world who were then eventually embraced, and who brought with them many arts, skills, knowledge, and wisdom.

Where-as "ʔängnänʔi", I would translate into "aliens". But, on our predecessor ship, the word was used not to describe foreigners from afar or even off world, but to refer to non-people. Individuals who were considered so anethema to Feruukepikape itself that they were marked as outcasts and shunned, if not killed. It's a nasty word, and carries with it the stigma of ignorance and obliviousness, the inability to comprehend important things.

I feel that there is another English word that works very well for this one, that I will divulge later in the final translation.

So, what's that sentence saying?

ʔomarrshif neb gunkyäk ʔängnänʔi me

"ʔomarrshif" is a long looking word that basically means "to", and it's in the predicate clause along with "neb" which is a negation.

But, there's no visible verb. "Gunkyäk" isn't a verb. It has no verb suffix.

This is a dropped or omitted copula, such as "is" or "are". You can just sort of imagine it in there. A lot of Earth languages do this kind of thing, too. (look up "zero copula" for more information)

And, "gunyäk" is in the descriptive or adjective clause of the object "ʔängnänʔi". And the first word of the whole sentence tells us how to understand that whole relationship.

So, that sentence literally can be rendered to the clunky, improper English:

"to not [are] love aliens we"

This might give you an idea where this is going, so I'm just going to give you the two stages of translation now, literal and then the localized figurative translation. And I think you can probably examine it yourself to learn a few things about it from there.

Literal:

to not love aliens we know the rules you and so do I of am thinking a full commitment what I from any other guy not would get this you tell how am feeling I wanna you I Gotta make you understand

And now the figurative, more accurate translation:

We're no strangers to love You know the rules and so do I A full commitment's what I'm thinking of You wouldn't get this from any other guy I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling Gotta make you understand

[puc-puggy]

susan sontag doesn't understand camp

queen of onto something but never getting there. empress of thinking the baby is the bathwater. admittedly she didn’t have the benefit of butler, but camp is easily explained as the cinematic sense of their theory of performative gender.

[quick breakdown for those who appreciate: utilizes the linguistic perform as it relates to performative utterance, where the utterance is an action and speaking is also literally doing. when the couple says "i do" at a wedding ceremony, that makes them married. gender is a performative utterance, and inherent to a performative utterance is a performance. you have to stand in a specific place in front of a specific person and say specific words. gender is a series of performative utterances, communication that is also an action. ]

there's an obvious but unspoken distinction there, performance generally understood is artifice and production and misdirection on a stage by actors while the required actions of your life are something else. duty or expectation or in the case of a marriage ceremony, just how you get married. camp is created by blurring the line between daily performance and theatrical performance, by softly and sweetly and oh so charmingly asking the viewer where exactly the line of this performance ends, refusing to provide an answer, and laughing to themselves about it the whole time. she writes with her own hand: "Camp sees everything in quotation marks. It's not a lamp, but a "lamp"; not a woman, but a "woman." To perceive Camp in objects and persons is to understand Being-as-Playing-a-Role. It is the farthest extension, in sensibility, of the metaphor of life as theater." and then like. cannot actually conceptualize what that means and why queer people would be more attuned to that sense of things. because that is scary to her, there can't be joy there (in what performances are chosen or when performances break) because that doesn't represent her. that isn't a moment where she sees herself, so she thinks that performance and comedy are inherently acts of creating distance, incapable of intimacy. she says i feel distance so the point of all of this is distance. susan you are literally just missing the point. for the love of god. susan. susan please. suuuusaaaaaannnnn!

she’s SO CLOSE to understanding camp, but she can't because she thinks it's an apolitical sense of taste when it's absolutely not. it's the extremely political taste developed by queer navigation of social performance and especially where those performances fail and contradict themselves, where they break themselves apart and collapse inevitably into their constituent pieces and how apparent it is those pieces will not fit back together again because they never actually fit together in the first place. she says that "true" camp is always naive, thinking that "intentional" camp is just shooting for bad-in-a-good-way and can only be contrived. the most satisfying camp is naive because it's a natural collapse encountered in the wild, but good camp is also made on purpose. crybaby is one of my favorite movies of all time and it's very intentionally high camp and made by john waters. the quality of camp that makes it camp isn't in the badness or the kitsch or the cringe, it's the tension between layers of recognized and unrecognized performance. hundreds of precious moments figurines aren't camp because they're ugly or old, they're camp because tiny statues used to be expensive and handmade and signify wealth and then too many were produced, and now the only people who collect them actually like them instead of use them to signal a class position. it used to be a positive and socially acceptable hobby for the performance of Being A Housewife Who Cares About Her Home. and now it's not, it's either dying out or a weird hobby for weirdos because without the Status Signalling, we all found out most people find them a bit ugly. the camp lies in the tension between those two points.

it's not that camp refuses to be taken seriously because it's uniquely "too much" (or my favorite of her claims, the unseriousness is caused by youth-obsessed twinks scared of wrinkles), it's that everything is "too much" and we ignore it all the time. camp is that which highlights how everything is "too much." it's queer malicious compliance. camp can't be serious because it's about the arbitraryness of it all. camp doesn't just perform "schoolteacher," it knows that "school" is its own theatrical performance, where by seeing the absurdity inherent to every layer of the performance, living in it and finding space for yourself in its gaps, is also carrying that absurdity through to the heart of things. when the absurd events you're witnessing are no more absurd than the "normal" roles and conventions that initiated them, you just get to enjoy it rather than feel controlled by it. the heart of camp is a constant awareness that we could be doing literally anything else about it, but we happen to be doing this right now and it's weird! like in crybaby when allison switches back and forth between drape and square costumes depending on whether she's doing to act with daring or caution. why does she need to change her clothes for that? because girls who are daring dress different from girls that aren't. why? that's the daring costume for bad girls who are allowed to be daring and that pastel dress is the caution costume for good girls who would never be daring. why do daring girls and cautious girls dress different? because how else would you tell people whether you're cautious or daring. implicit to all of it are needling little questions about why. it makes the "obviousness" of gender roles into arcane and impenetrable precepts, leading characters more real than the arbitrary rules they're following through disjointed rabbitholes of them. it's humorous defamiliarization of the innate alienation of being Queer in an oppressively cishet patriarchy.

i love camp so much. gonna resurrect sontag from the dead and challenge her to a duel over this

[andypantsx3]

hi andie! I saw your post and you seem to be very knowledgeable about the behind the scenes of ai programs. can I ask how you got into tech? it’s something I’ve been looking to get into

Hello my love!! I only have a high-level understanding of what's going on lol but I'm glad it sounds like I know what I'm saying. :3

I happened to fall into the industry because of my linguistics background; I got brought in to help build out data sets for earlier, more deterministic versions of AI models. But now we're pivoting as an industry to statistical models and so I'm learning more as we go.

Anyway I started from a data set generation role, but there are other, more common ways to get into tech companies. I'm assuming since you asked you don't have any software or computational backgrounding?? As I think those channels into tech roles are pretty straightforward lol.

I work in AI specifically so I'm approaching this from that perspective, but depending on whether you want to get into social media, online retail, or software/application development, the advice might be different. But for start ups and companies focusing on the pivot to generative AI models like LLMs, I foresee a couple of non-technical roles that would get you into the company, and you'd have to build up your understanding from there to move on into other more technical roles!

#1) Project management roles. I'd look through google jobs to see what tech companies are hiring project managers and read through to see what the projects are. It's likely companies will need to build up targeted data sets to patch holes in LLM performance so I foresee a fair number of project manager or coordinator roles who are responsible for managing creation of those targeted data sets. There might also be a need for non-English data to seed universal models, so there might be roles managing translations as well. You probably don't need to be able to code or translate yourself, but you will need to be able to interface with the roles that do.

#2) Analyst roles. If you're freshly-graduated and not ready for a management role, that might also leave you with a data-set creation role like my former one. I think companies usually title these with "analyst" roles, like data analyst/translation analyst, etc etc, but your responsibilities would be something like directly translating data or directly transforming data in whatever way the models need it to formatted to consume.

#3) Customer trust roles. Since this is new tech I also imagine companies are going to need to build up bug fix teams who are directly responsible for addressing issues with their models. This might take the form of customer trust roles who are responsible for addressing privacy issues that arise (like imagine a customer account number somehow making it into the model), dealing with sensitive content (depending on how the model is trained it could pick up on some not-PC or not-SFW language...) or otherwise correcting false data the model gives (LLMs are prone to "hallucinating" incorrect information because they are trained on such a wide swath of data). So I'd look for "support" roles or anything with "customer trust" in the title!!

Anyway that's what I can think of for now lol. Hope this is helpful!!

[aventurasdeunatortuga]

Monday, July 8th

I’m way behind on posting so I will attempt to catch up today.

Monday and Tuesday there was a literal monsoon in Korea so most outdoor activities were a no go. Luckily Korea has an excellent public transportation system that requires minimal walking on the sidewalk, but lots of time underground in the metro. The ceiling or ac unit or something was leaking on the subway so even inside the train I couldn’t escape the rain. I spent these two days visiting museums as part of my quest to learn more about Korean history.

The first museum I visited on Monday was the National Museum of Korean. It is considered the top museum in Korea, and was enormous. It went through the entire history of Korea pre 20th century, starting with the Three Kingdoms (Baek, Silla, and Goruyeo) who competed with each other for centuries until the Goruyeo kingdom took charge. This evolved into the Joseon Dynasty that lasted from the middle ages until the end of the 19th century. This is considered a golden era in Korean history, with an over 200 year era of peace. Korea interacted a lot with Japan and China but fought fiercely to maintain their independence from these two competing powers as well as Russia. They resisted any western influence and were known as the “hermit kingdom” by the west for their refusal to engage. There was huge flourishing of arts and culture and the hanguel alphabet was developed by King Sejong the Great in the 1440s, who wanted to create a Korean alphabet that was intuitive and easy to learn, previously they had been using Chinese characters to write which are very difficult to learn to read and write. He based the alphabet off of the literal positions of the tongue in your mouth when specific sounds are produced. The linguistic nerd in me found that very cool.

In the 1880s due to military pressure from western powers they begrudgingly opened up diplomatic relations with the west, which resulted in a huge influx of foreign influences. Joseon was very strictly divided based on social class, wealth, Confucian social hierarchy, and status, and there was an enormous gap between the rich and poor. Western powers came in with egalitarian ideas of democracy and equality, which were very appealing to people of the lower classes that had been oppressed by the wealthy for so long. There was a big internal conflict between the wealthy who wanted to maintain tradition and protect Korean culture and the poor who wanted social advancement and rights, were interested in the advancements the west had to offer, and demanded social revolution.

Korea was put in a difficult situation with a lot of pressure from surrounding countries. The King of Joseon, King Gojong, declared that he would make a new government called the Korean Empire, in 1895, in order to assert their independence to competing world powers.

The Japanese, Russians, and Americans took advantage of the social unrest in Korea and slowly began encroaching on Korean society. For example, the Japanese eagerly began building railroads throughout Korea, which people were excited about but resulted in the Japanese slowly getting more and more control over the Korean economy and infrastructure.

In 1904, Russia and Japan fought a war to assert dominance over Manchuria and Korea. Both countries wanted to invade these areas. Japan won in 1905, and that is when the Japanese Invasion of Korea began.

This is where the museum ended, tomorrow I’m visiting Korea’s Independence Hall which goes into what happened next.

The museum was really cool. They had a lot of artifacts but they emphasized again and again that most of the historical artifacts pre Japanese invasion had been destroyed by the Japanese, and the only way these artifacts survived was through ordinary people hiding them and protecting them for decades.

The museum also had a cool virtual reality room where they took ancient Joseon art and made it into an immersive experience which was really cool. One of them recreated a painting of a rainstorm, can’t escape the rain even in the virtual reality experience.

Afterwards I went to Dongdaemun Design Plaza, which is a really cool looking modern building that had a lot of modern art exhibitions. I don’t really get modern art, but the building was really cool. I went to a Hello Kitty exhibit that was going on.

For dinner I had pajeon, potato pancake, it is tradition to eat pajeon in Korea when it rains because when it’s cooking it sounds like rain.

Until tomorrow,

[rise-of-the-ancients]

For You, My Love…

A stone tablet was gently placed onto Terios’ table unexpectedly. With a grumbled sigh, Terios lowered his burger to his plate and crossed his arms to his chest. Weary eyes shifted upwards to see an eagerly waiting hedgehog batting her eyelashes and smiling warmly. AmyRose, Bygone Village’s only linguist anthropologist (and curator of the Bygone National History Museum), was always fascinated with the Ancient’s culture… specifically mythology and stories of love. Ever since Sonic dropped the ball and slipped Terios’ secret out to the others, the linguist had brought him many tablets and scrolls to decipher from the museum’s archives. Some, he admitted, were quite charming to review. It was nice to see that someone still cared for ancestral roots and voices from the past. Other made his blood boil and scoff at their existence. He had to remind himself not to bring biased perspective on their translations and meaning whenever he assisted her.

However, he was in no mood to assist Ms. Rose in the anthropology labs at the museum. He was not in the mood for translating tablets that consisted of flatbread recipes and witty jokes. Today was meant to be a period of tranquility and peace. All he wanted was a bit of peace and quiet from the others around him. Though he questioned if retreating to Meh Burger was the wisest option for solidarity, especially since Bygone Village was more active than usual. He should have expected such with all of red and pink heart-shaped decorations across the village square. It would also explain the reason for Amy’s very formal looking attire. Not that he cared much anyways. Perhaps he should’ve just stayed secluded in his cave on the outskirts of the village today.

“What is this,” he mumbled.

“The dress? Oh! Sticks, Percy, and I are doing a Gal-entines Day thing today since the boys have their own thing going on. Sonic asked me to pass the invitation to you since we ran into each other earlier. There’s nachos and video games and—“

Terios shook his head. “Not the dress,” he said in a lowered voice, “I meant the stone tablet.”

“Oh! Cliff gave me this while he was on a dig in Crater Lake,” AmyRose squealed. “I think that it’s a memoir. Stones that are polished and retouched with ochre paints appeared to be highly valued in Ancient culture. It’s been cared for immensely… even after the war over a thousand years ago! I know that you wanted to be left alone today, but this one is just too interesting to ignore. Do you think that you can help translate these glyphs for me? Please? Just something simple to note on a White Card?”

Terios drummed his fingers on his arms with a frown. “OMEGA is just as capable as—“

Just as he was about to finish his statement, Terios heard a cackle of laughter from behind. His eyes grew wide and his ears flattened as he listened to the cackling turn into screams. Terios shifted his eyes upwards to study the facial expressions of hedgehog next to him. Her once bright smile had turned into a sour grimace as she winced, sucking in her breath through clenched teeth as she watched the scene. Terios didn’t need to turn his behind his back to know what the situation was about.

“Step back,” he informed her as he reached for the stone.

As she opened her mouth to question his statement, the hedgehog let out a squeak as the table snapped in half. Terios, still seated, peered over the tablet to look at the remains of a once perfectly good table. Waddling from side to side in content, cyan colored eyes flickered open and observed it’s surroundings. After scanning the scene, the gray colored stone chirped in content to see Terios’ face. OMEGA. Of course OMEGA was getting in trouble when he wasn’t supposed to. Bringing him out in public to experience the new age of social development had seemed like an admirable idea at first. But seeing the rock golem’s head strive to cause chaos and purposefully run over people’s toes was causing some problems. He should have left him home, or at least in the care of the others. The mortals of this time period were not so used to mystical things as they once were a thousand years ago.

“TERIOS!” The rock golem’s head said gleefully. “GUESS-WHAT? MORTALS-IN-THIS-TIME-OF-AGE-ARE-EASIER-TO-SCARE. I-EMERGED-FROM-AN-INFANT’S-CRIB-AND-SCARED-A-LADY-WALRUS. SHE-SCREAMED-AND-THREW-ME-IN-THE-AIR!”

Terios shook his head and frowned as the rock golem cackled some more. “You know full well that you’re not supposed to be seen by the mortals. They’re too simple-minded to understand what you are.”

Amy cleared her throat and watched him hike his shoulders up. Most, not all mortals were ignorant and simple-minded. That was an understatement. He knew better.

“So…” Amy started, “do you think that you could translate real quick?”

Denying Amy once was a mistake that he vowed to never do again. He knew of the power that she contained when determined.

“Fine,” he mutter, “after this, I desire nothing more than to be alone.”

Terios turned the stone tablet to view on his lap and paused with his breath clenched between his teeth. Delicate relief carvings defined with ochre paint detailed a signature pen that he knew all too well. Even the score markings on the back, indicating an erased word, were a callback to a simpler, more loving time. As his eyes quickly skimmed the note on the tablet, Terios’ chest tightened as he read the final line, “for you, my love.” It was a poem that his soulmate had written to him many years ago. One that he had thought was lost as soon as the cold wars between the Ancients and Lyric began. Terios chuckled to himself with a faint smile. His fingers traced lightly over the ochre paints and faint etchings of the glyphs. It had been too long since he had seen the tablet. What a beautiful sign from the universe to show that their love for each other was still strong in spirit.

“That is classified information.” The hedgehog stood from the table and tucked the stone to his chest, “tell your antiquarian friend that I am pleased with the recovery. I will be apprehending this now.”

“W-Wait,” AmyRose stammered. She flung her arms around OMEGA—who had rocked back and forth for attention as he chirped a song—and trailed close behind the Titan. “Terios! You can’t take that! That belongs in a museum!”

“It belongs in my care. It was addressed to me.” Terios says as he tapped his clawed finger to the name scribbled towards the bottom.

“What do I tell Cliff? He’ll want to know what happened to the tablet.”

Terios turned on his heel and flashed her a cocky grin. “You’re very bright, Rose. You’ll think of something. Goodbye.”

And with that, Terios took his leave with the table held close to his chest. The ebony hedgehog studied the stone with care, running a finger over the engravings towards the bottom. “I love you too,” he cooed with a smile. “Always have, always will.”

[the-larxist-manifesto]

The larxist manifesto ~ Greetings!

Welcome to my blog!! If you are reading this, you are probably one of my friends that I've linked to my new Tumblr blog. Blogging is a very new concept to me, so please bear with me as I find my voice and figure out formatting >w<

For as long as I can remember at this point, I've been typing long-winded rants on my computer about the random topics that are on my mind—from linguistics to video game reviews to venting about everyday annoyances. Until now, those were only available to myself in the form of my private journal. But after many Discord info dumps that I put way too much effort into, only to be scrolled off the screen in about five seconds of chatting, I've decided I wanted a more permanent and creative way of sharing my thoughts and interests with those I care about! So basically, if you've enjoyed me rambling on about random stuff in the past, you will probably like this blog :}

Oh, you're wondering about the banner and profile picture? The pfp is based on the box art from a game called Doga de puzzle da Puppkupu, an obscure PS1 game by a now-defunct game company called Argent. This company and the mystery around its existence has been a deep fascination of mine for years now. I've created a lot of stuff based on their properties, like my original character (OC) named Taizen Asobi. He's a Nintendo DS game case with eyeballs :3

My banner image relates to Argent as well—a welcome image from the old home page for the company, which also developed one of my favorite DS games of all time, Clubhouse Games. Don't worry, I'll explain all the lore more thoroughly at a later time.

As of right now, one of the main focuses of this blog will be the project mentioned in the previous post: GameGirl28. This challenge kicked off the whole idea of me blogging in general. I play a lot of video games. I love them as an art form, a social activity to connect people, and a fun pastime. Often, I will step away from playing a game and find my head absolutely swimming with commentary and criticism and highlights and funny moments to reflect on. Until now, I usually did all this reflection alone. But now, I have an outlet to share it all with my loved ones! Since this challenge is driven by a specific purpose and will indeed challenge me a lot, it's the perfect way to kick off my little internet journal here.

Also, I hope this will be a way to chat more with folks about stuff I'm interested in! So if you're particularly curious about the topics or what I have to say about them, always feel free to reach out to me! Anything from a Lincoln-Douglass style debate to hyper fangirling over shared media interests, I'm down for it!!

Get ready to crack open the manifesto! Flip through the pages of my deranged mind that the world wasn't quite prepared to witness... until just now. You are no longer safe from the influence of larxism. You will convert.

<3