Man in Space's Obligatory Medieval Fantasy Setting

[Man in Space]

Because everybody's got to have one.

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So in this world, which has no name of yet, your primary players are elves and dwarves. There are also the fey, goblins, and merfolk; the first are insane, the second much disorganized, and the third occasionally useful to everyone else but demanding respect. You also, naturally, have dragons of various forms. These tend not to be truly sentient, but rather "almost" sentient—though they are able to use magic and telepathy as weapons; when one gets inside your head, it's quite the traumatic experience.

You'll note I've not spoken of men. That's because they do not exist anymore. A dwarven-elven coalition wiped them out centuries ago. Humans were characterized by a number of things: Magic was utterly useless to them (and, very often, against them). Their brief, ephemeral nature made them impetuous and "impatient" (as far as the elves and dwarves were concerned); what they would often accomplish in months or years, the others would take decades to complete. Largely for these reasons, the elves and the dwarves exterminated them all. This was a bad idea, as men were the best at killing dragons due to their (men's) magic resistance.

I don't got much beyond that right now. (I'm currently throwing gleb outputs to the wall and seeing what sticks.)

[äreo]

It's like The Future is Wild but with magic and genocide. It will be interesting to see where you take it, because getting rid of mankind, to me, basically purges the symbology of these other species. You're putting them on totally different footing. It's hard for me to even conceive of them without relating them in some way to man.

[Ares Land]

There's an interesting story there! It's an interesting reversal of the usual Tolkienian trope of elves disappearing.

[Raphael]

It is a bit creepy, but interesting.

[sasasha]

That's fun. I like it. Planet of the Nasty Genocidal Magicfolk. Gives me vibes of ‘Gaia rebalancing herself’ tropes and Planet of the Apes. Curious to see more...

[Man in Space]

I just had a thought.

Suppose that instead of men vs. elves and dwarves…it was men vs. elves and the fae? What the fae would get out of it is, it's not as hard to gain the upper hand now that the people who were absolutely unaffected by their magicks were gone. The elves' arrogance satisfies them that these "tempestuous humans" were now gone. The dwarves fell in line because they have no choice but to. Goblins goblin, halflings…I don't know, are those considered "standard" fantasy or do they trace their origins to Tolkien?

Proto-Elvish

/p ^mb ts ⁿdz k ^ŋg q ^ɴɢ ʔ/
/f s h/
/tɬ ⁿdɮ/
/ɬ/
/β ɹ j/
/l/

/a ã i ĩ o õ/

The prenasalized series occur as such before oral vowels. Before nasal vowels, they become straight nasals (even *n < *ⁿdz), with *ⁿdɮ > *nl; this also happens in the coda (though *-ⁿdɮ > *-nt).

For convenience I'm going to write *ɹ *j as r y. This will allow me to write /ɮ/ as j, because ɮ is ugly as sin and as hard to romanize well. Also, *β v, and *ɬ ł.

(s/ł)(C)(R)V(V)(R/Z/s/ł)(H/k/q)

*ŋõãvaant 'elvenkind'
*ŋõãvandj-ołq 'elf'

*^ɴɢiavĩɴ 'innards, offal'
*^ɴɢiavĩ^ɴɢ-ołq '(internal/biological) organ'

*kiant 'ant colony'
*kiandj-ołq 'ant'

*ʔiŋŋiofaoł 'hair (of head)'
*ʔiŋŋiofaoł-ołq '(head) hair follicle'

*sqããʔih 'skeleton'
*sqããʔih-ołq 'bone'

Basically *-ołq is a singulative of certain collectives/wholes relating to (usually) sentients and a scattering of a few various terms.

*nõõyrał 'ill state, severely sick state, sickness, illness, malady'
*nõõyrał-ɴɢovaʔ 'time convalescing, time when X was sick, infection (instance)'

*kiaʔtsooʔan 'valley, cliff, sheer drop-off'

[keenir]

The elves' arrogance satisfies them that these "tempestuous humans" were now gone. The dwarves fell in line because they have no choice but to.

Now I'm wondering if they would dig deeper, in search of a depth the fae can't handle well. (or at least line their tunnels with iron)

Goblins goblin, halflings…I don't know, are those considered "standard" fantasy or do they trace their origins to Tolkien?

Goblins? I'd suspect Irish and Germanic myths.

Halflings, in the sense of half-human or human-like beings? I'd wager its from various mythologies.

In the sense of hobbits? I'd suspect Irish and English folk tales -- boggarts and brownies and the like. (though, yes, the line between any of those, and fae, is nebulous)

[Raphael]

Goblins goblin, halflings…I don't know, are those considered "standard" fantasy or do they trace their origins to Tolkien?

Goblins? I'd suspect Irish and Germanic myths.

Halflings, in the sense of half-human or human-like beings? I'd wager its from various mythologies.

In the sense of hobbits? I'd suspect Irish and English folk tales -- boggarts and brownies and the like. (though, yes, the line between any of those, and fae, is nebulous)

Repeating myself, I've got the impression that the most unique-to-Tolkien fantasy creatures are orcs. All the other ones have counterparts elsewhere.

[linguistcat]

If you just mean the term Hobbit for humanoid beings of short stature but not dwarves, then yes that was an innovation of Tolkien's. If you mean the concept generally, then I suppose there are plenty of terms you could use for those beings.

[Man in Space]

The dwarves live underground. As such, they are congenitally blind and rely on sound to navigate. Their languages feature clicks.

Proto-Dwarvish

/*p *pʰ *b *m *w/ *p *ph *b *m *w
/*t *tʰ *d *n *ɹ *l/ *t *th *d *n *r *l
/*ʈ *ʈʰ *ɖ *ɳ *ɻ *ɭ/ *ṭ ṭh *ḍ *ṇ *ṛ *ḷ
/*k *kʰ *g *ŋ *j *ʎ/ *k *kh *g *ĝ *y *λ
/*ʔ *h/ *7 *h
/kʘ̼ kʘ̼ʰ gʘ̼ ŋʘ̼/ *k@ *k@h *g@ *n@
/kǃ kǃʰ gǃ ŋǃ/ *k! *k!h *g! *n!
/kǁ kǁʰ gǁ ŋǁ/ *k// *k//h *g// *n//
/kǃǃ kǃǃʰ gǃǃ ŋǃǃ/ *k!! *k!!h *g!! *n!!

/*a *i *o/ a i o
/*aː *iː *oː/ a: i: o:
/*a↓ *i↓ *o↓/ à ì ò (these have ballistic phonation)
/*aʳ *oʳ/ ar or

The maximal syllable is

( C ( R / L ) ( w ) ) V ( w / y ) ( N / S )

where:

• C is any consonant;
• R is any rhotic and L any lateral;
• V is any distinct vowel;
• N is any nasal; and
• S is any voiceless stop.

[Man in Space]

Our very own perpetually mournful Albic speaker is concentrating his legendarium, so I might as well revive this.

Once upon a time there were the Five Kinds: deadfolk, dwarf, elf, fairfolk, and man. The deadfolk took to the water; this not only concerned water sources proper but also the mists and clouds in the sky, thus air was also their domain. The dwarf kept to the valley, the mountain, and to the depths below the earth, many being congenitally blind and instead relying on a form of echolocation or sound-sense to orient themselves in the world. The elf was a being of the forests, the plains, wherever greenery could be found. The fairfolk kept to the deserts, the wastes, the ice, the useless land with no beneficial purpose. The man made his home wherever he could find it, and adapted accordingly.

The elf was long of life, great of patience, steeped in routine, and supreme of conceit. The man was short of life, great of ambition, steeped in unpredictability, and supreme of volatility. The elf was disposed to magic, and the man resistant to it. Thus did the elves deliberate, and they decided the man had to be removed from the world. They besought the deadfolk, but the deadfolk balked. They besought the fairfolk, who were all too happy to carry out the chaos. They besought the dwarves, who protested, but who were eventually brought to heel by whip and by sword.

Thus did the presence of men in the world cease to be. This was a bad idea.

The dragons used to be scarce, to the point that few had seen one. Whispers from here and there, the occasional tale from some hapless wayward traveler, an occasional bone or scale or tooth touted as proof (not always genuine), feared by some, doubted by others. Men seemed to believe in them most of all (though the fairfolk conspicuously declined to judge one way or the other). Looking back, some argue that the dragons could have been named as a Sixth Kind; those dealing with them almost always perceived some almost-intelligence hiding behind their eyes. The truth of the matter soon became apparent: just below sentience, just below sapience, attuned to magic...and there were no more men around to deal with them and their unconscious, manic, autonomic wielding of the manas.

The golden ages ended when the fires were no longer few, but the half-empty world was forever marked and sealed with the extinguishment of the Fifth Kind.

[Man in Space]

The deadfolk are the water denizens. The specific appellation is, out-of-universe, rooted in the Slavic tradition. They, in their humanoid form, communicate via syringes¹. I have not even begun to work up the details of this. To receive a luminous vessel from them is a great honor indeed; it comprises a glassy-seeming construct with a perpetual orange glow within², which, provided the container remains free of damage, will only extinguish when the owner’s life does.

Fairfolk speech is a mixture of melisma, solfège, pitch, whistling, overtone vocalizations, nasality, other phonation shenanigans, and the occasional pulmonic consonant, and its grammar and syntax is needlessly complex and opaque, because of course it is.

Dwarven languages are more familiar. They have a basis in consonants and vowels like we’re used to, and they tend to possess clicks, because clicks are awesome and also help with proprioception via sound. There is a phenomenon of semi-hereditary/heritable vision difficulties, and there are many dwarves whose faculties of sight vary considerably. Dwarves, as is typical, employ runes, but these are often carved in considerable relief and can function as a tactile interface. Dwarves frequently live in what we might call “groundscrapers”, a bit like Zion from the Matrix universe. Their immense size often causes localized weather patterns or similar, and there is frequently moss and lichen and whatever encroaching on everything. Dwarves tend to have an extremely powerful immune system, and with a particularly high resistance (even in this context) to fungal infections. I really want to do a nonconcatenative morphology but not a triliteral-root one.

Elves are dangerous assholes. The phonemes I really like tend to be ones not found in Standard Average European³, and thus I am interested in making a non-“elvish”-sounding elvish.

As for men, I don’t know yet.

The concept of Varay has a variant form “Iriy”, which is kind of homophonous with the large inland water body near which I live, which has been famed for the state of its pollution⁴. Therefore the underworld will be called “Erie”.

1. As in the plural of syrinx, not the opioid crisis.
2. These are, of course, Nixie tubes.
3. I really like /q/ and /ʕ/, for instance.
4. We have managed to set the Cuyahoga aflame numerous times. Not pollution-related, but a stretch of local highway is infamously referred to as “Dead Man’s Curve”.

[Man in Space]

There are at least two noteworthy inland seas.

The first is the Lake That Does Not Surrender Its Dead. It is a large, fickle body of water. Those who perish beneath its waves never resurface. Ostensibly this is because of a curse the deadfolk placed upon the lake, but in reality it's just physics, the topography of the lake combined with the climate mean you get a pretty anoxic bottom.

The second is the Lake That Betrays and Murders. Again, thought to be cursed, but in reality it's an entirely physical process. In this case, it's like Lake Nyos, with a huge carbon sink that every so often erupts with a choking expulsion of CO₂. The deadfolk, and even the fairfolk, avoid it. Outlaws and too-far-gone adrenaline junkies frequent it.

That's not to say there isn't something going on with the waters. It's sometimes said that the waters themselves have a memory, a gestalt mechanism separate from the deadfolk. Particularly, ignis fatuus is a phenomenon that is reported with some frequency in certain areas, many of which have some obvious body of water located thereby.

[rotting bones]

The humans had it coming if you ask me.

[Axas mlö]

Proto-Elvish

/p ^mb ts ⁿdz k ^ŋg q ^ɴɢ ʔ/
/f s h/
/tɬ ⁿdɮ/
/ɬ/
/β ɹ j/
/l/

/a ã i ĩ o õ/

I like it. Not a lot like stereotypical Elvish, but with prenasalized stops like Proto-Quendian.

*kiant 'ant colony'
*kiandj-ołq 'ant'

*ʔiŋŋiofaoł 'hair (of head)'
*ʔiŋŋiofaoł-ołq '(head) hair follicle'

*sqããʔih 'skeleton'
*sqããʔih-ołq 'bone'

Basically *-ołq is a singulative of certain collectives/wholes relating to (usually) sentients and a scattering of a few various terms.

Cool. My knowledge of natlangs is sadly short of what I'd like, so I don't know how common it is to have a longer word for the singular, but I like it, especially the 'ant colony' one.

[Axas mlö]

I really want to do a nonconcatenative morphology but not a triliteral-root one.

I'd like that.

The concept of Varay has a variant form “Iriy”, which is kind of homophonous with the large inland water body near which I live, which has been famed for the state of its pollution⁴. Therefore the underworld will be called “Erie”.

What is Varay? I couldn't find it.

The worldbuilding here is generally interesting (and creepy).

[Man in Space]

Cool. My knowledge of natlangs is sadly short of what I'd like, so I don't know how common it is to have a longer word for the singular, but I like it, especially the 'ant colony' one.

Thank you! It's reasonably frequent the world over; there are such things as singulative marking and inverse number.

What is Varay? I couldn't find it.

It seems I spelt it differently than is typical, but in any case here is Wikipedia on it.

The worldbuilding here is generally interesting (and creepy).

Thank you!

[WeepingElf]

That all looks interesting. A world in which humans are extinct rather than dominant is a rare variant of faux-medieval fantasy, and your Elvish language nicely avoids "Elvish" stereotypes.

[Axas mlö]

Thank you! It's reasonably frequent the world over; there are such things as singulative marking and inverse number.

Thanks, that helps. I think I'll use some version of that myself....

What is Varay? I couldn't find it.

It seems I spelt it differently than is typical, but in any case here is Wikipedia on it.

Ah, thanks. Also quite interesting.

[sasasha]

They besought the fairfolk, who were all too happy to carry out the chaos.

Fairfolk speech is a mixture of melisma, solfège, pitch, whistling, overtone vocalizations, nasality, other phonation shenanigans, and the occasional pulmonic consonant, and its grammar and syntax is needlessly complex and opaque, because of course it is.

I love this combination, along with the aesthetic envelope of their name and habitat. The fairfolk are terrifying.

I’m enjoying this setting in general, btw.

Also, just in case you weren’t aware, Vyrai/Iriy shares a lot of themes and details with Uralic and Inuit mythology (and possibly others, I can’t remember). Eliade calls the mythos ‘Birdland’ as a bit of a catch-all, and relates the idea of where birds go when they migrate to the destination of shamanic soul journeys.