Re: Rudimentary History of my main Conculture, formerly known as the Ageist Kingdom
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2020 12:09 pm
by Raphael
This is a slightly revised, and very much shortened, version of the blog post linked to at the start of this thread. Since it's shorter and doesn't really contain much new stuff, I'm posting it here directly instead of over at the blog. Mainly, I've cut all of the later and some of the early history, because I've decided to keep more of the history deliberately vague. And I've changed the names of some of the people who survived the cuts, mostly for aesthetic reasons.
I should note that I’m generally not much of a name-oriented person – in real life, I often forget people’s names, and when I make up fiction in my head, then, inside my head, I usually think of characters not as “the character with this name” or “the character with that name”, but “the character who did this thing” or “the character who had those traits”. If you ask me questions about specific people in this conhistory, I will probably have to look up who they are first before answering your questions.
If you want to look up the meaning of place names in my earlier posts, keep in mind that there have been some semantic shifts for some of the words between the ancestral languages and the modern languages. Also, by the time of this history, most names in most languages were too old for most people to think much about their etymological origin – the names had usually been in use for thousands of years by then.
Finally, I should warn you that by conworlding standards, I simply don’t have much so far – I have a few rulers from the history of my main conculture, without any maps.
I had first posted a version of the first few sections of this, without any names, on the old board during the time when it already had the technical problems that would eventually lead to it being replaced, but I had posted that in the C&C Quickies section, so it was auto-deleted a while later.
PÉCHKIZHÉNK, THE KINGDOM OF BROKEN CHAINS
Péchkizhénk was founded in the aftermath of a successful anti-slavery rebellion. (While the form of slavery the enslaved people were revolting against shared some traits with modern transatlantic slavery, it also shared some traits with ancient Greek and ancient Roman slavery. Some of the enslaved had been abducted from their homes by professional slave traders and forced to travel very long distances before reaching their eventual destination, while others had started out as prisoners of war, heavily indebted people, or children of financially desperate families. Most of them, of course, were simply descended from those various groups.) Once the old masters had been overthrown, the leaders of the revolution had a problem: the economy in their part of their planet, Chizárp, had been almost entirely based on slavery, and they weren't quite sure how to run things without it. Some people suggested enslaving the former masters, but there weren't enough of them, and they weren't any good at backbreaking physical work, anyway. For a while, in a few places, a few of the leaders of the revolution effectively took the place of the old masters and basically re-enslaved their own followers, but that kind of thing was widely condemned.
Finally, one of the leaders of the revolution, a blunt, gruff man, stood up and said: "I was enslaved for the first 29 years of my life; then, the revolution happened, and I became a free man. Why shouldn't everyone live their lives in that way?" And so, the idea was born to have all the really unpleasant jobs done by young people, while older people would take the more privileged positions in society.
For political reasons, it was impossible to call the status of the young under the new system "slavery", so they settled on the euphemism "Royal Service" instead. Now, a while after the original revolution, it starts at age seven and ends at age 35. Once people have turned 35, they are banned from the jobs performed by Royal Servants, and can try to have a middle class career. To prepare people for that, Royal Servants are required to take evening classes after work. (Ages for Chizárpian humans, or Zúduzkírg (singular Túduzkírg) are equivalent to the same ages for Earth humans.)
Businesses effectively "rent" Royal Servants from the crown; of course, you have to be at least 35 years old to run a business (and most partners in businesses - most businesses are organized as law firm style partnerships - are a good deal older than that, since it usually takes a while to work your way up through the management ranks).
From age 15 onward, people can try to replace regular Royal Service with military service by applying for the military; but there, too, the higher ranks are reserved for people aged 35 and older, with junior officers being required to be at least 25.
POLITICAL STRUCTURE
Péchkizhénk is ruled by a monarch. The monarch, however, doesn't inherit power and doesn't hold it for life; instead, they're appointed for a term of two years by the Council of Former Monarchs (which is just what it says on the tin). In exceptional circumstances, a monarch can get a second two year term, called an “extension”; but once a monarch has left the throne and joined the Council, they can't return to the throne. The five leaders of the original revolution who founded the Kingdom through an agreement among each other got five year terms each, though one of them died three years into his term.
While the monarch is, in theory, absolute, they are always subject to recall by the Council. As a result, some commentators have called the monarchy "a two year initiation rite for future Council members". To ensure the Council's independence, it has sovereign power over its own parts of Zarkél, the capital (originally a suburb, now pretty close to the city center), and its own guard, which wears uniforms designed to be easily distinguished from those of the regular military. In theory, regular troops are banned from the Council Quarter of Zarkél; in practice, individual officers from the regular military and their aides are often in the Council Quarter to attend meetings, hold presentations, and the like, but they need special permits for that every time.
In the early centuries, the monarch was usually a retired general or admiral. Sometimes, a senior civil servant was chosen instead; when that happened, it usually meant that the Kingdom wanted to signal to some other power that it was serious about some recent peace initiative or something similar. Later, after more and more people had come to question the military’s monopoly on power, a compromise was worked out under which military and civilian monarchs would alternate. Péchkizhénk has roughly the early 21st century Western World's level of sexism; women are underrepresented but not absent in positions of power. The monarch is usually a king, but sovereign queens aren't remarkable.
If the monarch is appointed by an institution, and has only a limited term in office, then why are they called a king or queen in the first place? Simple: when Péchkizhénk was founded, the language spoken by those who founded it had next to no small-r republican vocabulary.
The traditional symbol of the monarch's authority is the Royal Sword; an incoming monarch legally becomes monarch at the moment during the inauguration ceremony when they first hold that Sword. Earlier in the ceremony, they are required to report on what menial jobs they performed during their own Royal Service; this is seen as them proving that they have earned the right to rule, and the right to ask others to perform Royal Service.
IDEOLOGY
In the centuries since Péchkizhénk was founded, it grew to be one of the major powers on Chizárp. Mainstream subjects of the Kingdom, at least if they're 35 or older, tend to think that they live in the most just, or as many writers put it, "least unjust" society on Chizárp, since everyone has to spend time in the lowest classes of society, everyone who lives long enough gets to rise at least to the middle class, and everyone has a chance to rise to the top. However, many intellectuals and military and political leaders have concluded from this that Péchkizhénk has a moral obligation to spread its political and social structure (and by implication, its rule) to all of Chizárp. Although this attitude was not always dominant, for a long time, it still caused near-constant tensions between the Kingdom and other powers. That is, until Péchkizhénk eventually became the mostly unquestioned leading power on Chizárp.
PARTIAL OFFICIAL LIST OF EARLY MONARCHS, WITH “AGREEMENTS”
Years are given as YF (Year of Freedom), except for early years, which are given as YBF (Year before Freedom). There is no Year 0 in Péchkizhénk’s traditional counting of years; YF 1 immediately followed YBF 1. The Kingdom had roughly the technology of Europe in the early to mid-17th century at the start of the list. Given names are set in ALL CAPS; for Monarchs, that is generally the name by which they are known. (In some languages, the given name comes last; in others, first.) “Council” is short for the Council of Former Monarchs, although during the rule of the five founders, the ruling Monarch and those of the five founders who hadn’t had their turn as Monarchs yet had seats on the Council, too. The ceremony at the beginning of a Monarch’s rule is translated as “inauguration” rather than “coronation” because the Kingdom has never used crowns. Péchkizhénk’s main language, Zarkélkohp, doesn’t have different words for “law”, “act” (in the legal sense), “decree with the force of law”, and “edict with the force of law”; the English word “edict” is usually used here because the legal norms in question are the result of decisions made by individual rulers, and not any more complicated legislative process. Monarchs without notes can be generally assumed to have been unremarkable career military officers.
TRANSLITERATION/ROMANIZATION
I generally use consonants with their English values and vowels with their German values. "g" is always a “hard” /g/, as in “goose”. "æ" is pronounced as the diphthong /eɪ/ (roughly a standard English "a" when reciting the alphabet). "h" after a vowel is silent and signals that the vowel is long. "ç" is pronounced, as in the IPA, as a voiceless palatal fricative /ç/ ("ch" in German “ich” or "h" before "u" in some dialects of English). Apostrophes "’" are used to separate syllables, but only where that seems necessary – to indicate whether an “h” between two vowels lengthens the previous vowel or starts the next syllable, to separate a vowel-lengthening "h" from a another "h" at the beginning of the next syllable, and to distinguish the consonant sequences "d’z" "s’h" "t’h" "t’s" "t’z" "z’h" from the digraphs "dz" "sh" "th" "ts" "tz" "zh". Acutes "á" indicate stressed vowels. Since personal and place names might come from various languages with different stress rules, stress is generally marked in romanizations of polysyllabic words, so that readers can instantly see which syllables to stress without having to know the stress rules for each specific language.
LANSHÚKE, 1, King
YBF 46 – YBF 1
One of the leaders of the original Revolution; executed by the old masters early in the Revolution; posthumously declared to have been King when Péchkizhénk was founded.
NATKÉHK, 2, Queen
YBF 37 – YBF 1
One of the leaders of the original Revolution; executed by the old masters early in the Revolution; posthumously declared to have been Queen when Péchkizhénk was founded. First person on this list with some ancestors who had been enslaved recently enough that she still had a name from one of her ancestral languages, which was very important to her.
FÁH'UKLUN, 3, King
YBF 17 – YF 1
One of the leaders of the original Revolution; executed by the old masters early in the Revolution; posthumously declared to have been King when Péchkizhénk was founded.
KRULDRÁLT, 4, King
YBF 24 – YF 2
One of the leaders of the original Revolution; died in battle during the Revolution; posthumously declared to have been King when Péchkizhénk was founded.
VÚT VÁHK, 5, Queen
YBF 29 – YF 2
One of the leaders of the original Revolution; died in battle during the Revolution; posthumously declared to have been Queen when Péchkizhénk was founded.
TAHPÁNK, 6, Queen
YBF 22 – YF 3
One of the leaders of the original Revolution; executed on the orders of Frukespíht ZHILSÍMB , another leader of the original Revolution, after she had criticized his luxurious lifestyle; posthumously declared to have been Queen when Péchkizhénk was founded.
FIRST AGREEMENT
Concluded YF 3
Founded Péchkizhénk and set up its basic structure explained above; set 29 as the age at which Royal Service ended. Originally written, like almost all early Péchkizhénkian documents, in Dzersúrk , the written standard that had traditionally been used in the Péchkizhénkian heartland before the Revolution, although few people there used it for everyday speech.
DITÁNU, 7, King
Ruled YF 3 – YF 8
Born YBF 29, died YF 23
One of the leaders of the original Revolution and Founders of Péchkizhénk; had the idea for the Royal Service system. The first Royal Sword was originally his. He beat Frukespíht ZHILSÍMB (who had ordered the execution of TAHPÁNK (6)) at the battle in the Báhlke Marsh in YF 4, and captured him after the battle; on the urging of other leaders, he spared Frukespíht ZHILSÍMB’s life and allowed him to live comfortably in a country mansion some distance from Zarkél, in order to gain the loyalty of his followers for the Kingdom.
GUWUNÁT, 8, King
Ruled YF 8 – YF 13
Born YBF 26, died YF 37
One of the leaders of the original Revolution and Founders of Péchkizhénk; first ruling Monarch of the Kingdom who could read and write; had the idea that, instead of fighting each other for power, the Founders could take turns at ruling, which became the basis of the Monarch-and-Council system; wrote the First Agreement. First Monarch to have a formal inauguration ceremony, at which he got DITÁNU (7)’s sword, the first Royal Sword. Best known as a lawmaker; ordered codification of the laws of Péchkizhénk, combined with his legal reforms, in the written Collection of Laws, published in YF 11. 150 days after the Collection of Laws took effect, it became illegal for judges to make judgments based on unwritten customary law. Introduced free-market reforms and the system of private businesses “renting” Royal Servants from the Crown in YF 12; between the Revolution and that year, the economy had been a mixture of self-subsistence, communal, and crude command economy. Concluded first temporary peace treaty with a slave holding power in YF 11; this was very controversial at the time, but his justification “we can’t be at war with everyone all the time” became a much-quoted principle of foreign policy. Generally credited with introducing the “Years of Freedom” count of years, although some other people had apparently used similar phrases before him for dating documents.
YÚNPA, 9, Queen
Ruled YF 13 – YF 18
Born YBF 25, died YF 39
One of the leaders of the original Revolution and Founders of Péchkizhénk; first ruling Queen. Although she herself was illiterate during her rule – she only found the time to learn to read and write after her retirement - she highly valued the ability to read and write, and ordered that all Royal Servants should be taught that skill (YF 14), which laid the foundation for the Kingdom’s educational system. Widely credited with founding the modern administrative state in Péchkizhénk with various administrative reforms – declared “If we want to survive in the face of enemies who are stronger and more numerous than us and who want to destroy us, we must make better use of what we have than they make of what they have”. Late during her rule, in YF 17, an assembly of many of the teachers tasked with teaching Royal Servants reading and writing authorized a number of committees to come up with uniform transliteration systems for a number of previously unwritten languages spoken by some of the formerly enslaved people, as well as Zarkélkohp, the speech variety used in Zarkél. Early in YF 18, the committee working on Zarkélkohp’s transliteration finished its work and petitioned her to use the results in all future official Péchkizhénkian documents; she issued an Edict ordering that a few days before the end of her term.
BRÓZUGIF, 10, King
Ruled YF 18 – YF 21
Born YBF 23, died YF 21 while in power
One of the leaders of the original Revolution and Founders of Péchkizhénk; first Monarch to die in power. After riots between followers of different religions in YF 20, he issued the Edict on Religious Peace, which guaranteed freedom of religion for all religions and denominations that did not preach hostility or disobedience towards the Kingdom, and, perhaps more importantly, made it illegal to advocate repeal of that Edict, which effectively meant a ban on calls for religious persecution. Also introduced uniform dress standards for the military in YF 19.
OFFICIAL TRANSLATION OF THE FIRST AGREEMENT INTO ZARKÉLKOHP
Approved by the Council in YF 19
KARDÓHN, 11, King
Ruled YF 21 – YF 26
Born YBF 17, died YF 41
One of the leaders of the original Revolution and Founders of Péchkizhénk; originally closest adviser of DITÁNU (7); first ruling Monarch who hadn’t started out with a large mass of loyal personal followers during the Revolution. Re-organized parts of the Péchkizhénkian military as a professional standing army in YF 22; before that, the Kingdom’s troops had consisted partly of part-time volunteers and partly of conscripts, but a professional standing army was seen as more practical for invading and occupying areas outside the Péchkizhénkian heartland. Captured Lilsáhserk , the capital of the kingdom of Krishóhzhenk , to which the heartland had belonged before the Revolution, in YF 24; his troops committed a horrible massacre there. The fact that Péchkizhénk still celebrates him as a great conqueror, instead of condemning him as a mass murderer, is seen by many of Péchkizhénk’s enemies as proof that Péchkizhénk is inherently evil and can’t be trusted.
PÍV DÓH VÁHK, 12, King
Ruled YF 26 - 28
Born YBF 31, died YF 34
First Monarch appointed by the Council instead of being listed in the First Agreement; first Monarch who swore an inaugural oath (the Founders had just sworn an oath to each other when they agreed on the First Agreement). Had to fight off a challenge from Frurúrt ETKRIFSÍMB , the military governor of Háhrklun in what was then the far northeast of Péchkizhénk, who was very disappointed that he hadn’t been chosen as King. Beat that rebel in a series of four battles. Afterwards, in order to prevent that kind of thing from happening again, he issued the Edict on Transfers and Divided Powers (YF 28), under which military commanders must be regularly transferred to both different units and different parts of the Kingdom, military units must be regularly transferred to different parts of the Kingdom, civil administration must be kept separate from military command, and civilian officeholders must be regularly transferred to different parts of the Kingdom, all in order to prevent officers and officials from building themselves local or regional power bases.
(...)
SECOND AGREEMENT
Concluded YF 34
Concluded at the 16th Monarch’s suggestion to increase the number of Royal Servants and decrease the number of post-Royal Service subjects. Royal Service was extended to the age of 30. Also included the text of the Monarch’s inauguration oath in an Agreement for the first time. Authorized the Monarch to cast a deciding vote in case of a tie in the Council. Established the precedent that an Agreement can be replaced with a new Agreement by the unanimous consent of the Monarch and all Council members.
(...)
In YF 36, the Council tried to appoint General Libpánk as King, but he was mourning his wife, who had died earlier that year, and turned the offer down. After some debate over whether that was an unacceptable assault on their authority, the Council decided to respect his decision - “What are we supposed to do? Imprison him in the palace? Tie him to the throne?” This established the precedent that anyone who was offered the position of Monarch could decline the offer.
(...)
PÍTTA, 18, King
Ruled YF 38 - 39
Born YBF 16, died YF 71
First Monarch to be recalled by the Council, after he had murdered a palace servant in a fit of rage. The fact that he was still entitled to a seat on the Council afterwards caused an outcry, but it was decided that legally, nothing could be done about it.
(...)
PÁH YIÉM, 25, King
Ruled YF 51 - 53
Born YBF 8, died YF 63
Went to great lengths to hire steel making experts from Vép Táh Káhd and Wunghonikóp ; had large number of furnaces built in Péchkizhénk. The steel weapons made there would become essential to the Kingdom’s military success.
(...)
THIRD AGREEMENT
Concluded YF 71
Concluded very quickly after PÍTTA (18)’s death. Allowed the Council to expel a member by an unanimous vote of all other members, although during times in which there were only two members, they were not allowed to expel each other. Raised the age at which Royal service ended to 32.
(...)
Fruróhrg bid Fritél CHÉDOD, 46, King
Ruled YF 92 - 94
Born YF 31, died YF 103
Known for his Edict on Writing History, which encouraged historians to use nuance and subtlety when describing historical figures and events; before that, official histories in Péchkizhénk had usually described people as either uniformly good or uniformly bad. The pre-Revolution old masters were, however, exempted from the Edict, and are still, understandably, described as uniformly bad.
(...)
Frukrítampdrúlt bid Frupalupánk WIÚL, 53, King
Ruled YF 106 - 108
Born YF 47, died YF 118
Son and grandson of ruling monarchs; introduced a limited amount of freedom of speech shortly after his inauguration in YF 106 – it was now allowed to criticize officials, decisions, religious dogma, and rivaling academics, but still illegal to criticize the basic fundamental structure of the Kingdom.
(..)
Frushú’hanklun bid Fruwiúl ROHRG, 62, King
Ruled YF 121 - 123
Born YF 68, died YF 151
Son, grandson, and great-grandson of ruling monarchs. During his rule, in YF 122, a widely read pamphlet was published which sharply criticized nepotism in the Kingdom’s ruling class; while in any other monarchy, having relatives of earlier monarchs as monarchs is basically the whole point of the system, in Péchkizhénk, it was widely condemned as undermining the supposedly meritocratic principles of the Kingdom. The pamphlet also complained, with some justification, that many well-connected people had a more pleasant life during their Royal Service than many less well-connected people had after finishing their Royal Service.
Frulanfáhzhip bid Fruchédod PÍV, 63, King
Ruled officially YF 123 – 125; practically only a short time in YF 123
Born YF 59, died YF 131
Son of Fruróhrg bid Fritél CHÉDOD (46); in an already heated atmosphere of massive public discontent, his appointment and inauguration triggered the Protest Movement of YF 123, which quickly spread throughout Péchkizhénk, followed by riots and rebellions, until public order collapsed in most places and the King and Council members fled from Zarkél. This started the period known as the Time of Warlords. Since Frulanfáhzhip bid Fruchédod PÍV (63) never formally renounced the throne and wasn’t recalled, either, his rule is officially dated from his inauguration to the end of his legal two year term, but for most of that time, he ruled over little aside from the remote mountain villages to which he had fled.
The Time of Warlords
Officially YF 125 – 143; practically YF 123 - 140
After the collapse of public order in most of Péchkizhénk, hostile powers invaded and occupied large parts of it. Some military units maintained their discipline and managed to slow the progress of the invaders, but without effective central leadership, they soon turned on each other. Various people, including both military commanders and charismatic civilians, declared themselves kings, judges, or governors in various places at various times; in other places, people organized various forms of vigilante committees. From about YF 137 onward, the future Frufarpánk bid Frudódzu ÇÍÇI (64) gained more and more followers, most of them organized as an army, and controlled a growing amount of territory. In YF 140, she captured Zarkél and had her followers proclaim her Queen, though that is not the start of her rule in the official List of Monarchs. After she had brought the vast majority of the Kingdom’s territory under her control, she returned to Zarkél in YF 143 and decided to strengthen her rule politically by getting it legitimized under the Kingdom’s traditional political structures. So she summoned the two only known surviving members of the Council. In their presence, she renounced the title of Queen and formally apologized for having called herself Queen without having been duly appointed by the Council. Then, later in the same ceremony, she had the two Council members appoint her as Queen (how much coercion was involved in this is still disputed), and got herself inaugurated in the traditional way.
Frufarpánk bid Frudódzu ÇÍÇI, 64, Queen
Ruled officially YF 143 – 147; de facto since YF 137 or 140
Born YF 113, died YF 178
For her background and rise to power, see the previous section. After her inauguration, she issued Edicts ordering various reforms aimed at preventing a repeat of the developments that had led to the Time of Warlords in the first place. She hired most of the surviving prominent leaders of the Protest Movement of YF 123 as advisers. Was granted a two year extension on the grounds of the still precarious situation of the Kingdom (at least that was the official justification). With a de facto rule of between seven and ten years, she was practically Péchkizhénk’s longest ruling Monarch, but only the four years after her inauguration of YF 143 are counted in the official List of Monarchs. Since the Kingdom’s original Royal Sword was lost during the Time of Warlords, the sword that has been used as Royal Sword since her rule is hers.
FOURTH AGREEMENT
Concluded YF 144
Instituted a number of bans on various types of relatives of previous Monarchs being appointed as Monarchs. Mandated strict rules for Royal Service to ensure that it wouldn’t be comfortable for anyone. Introduced the requirement for Monarchs to be asked early in their inauguration ceremony what menial work they performed when they were young. Since Frufarpánk bid Frudódzu ÇÍÇI (64) wanted “her” Agreement to be the Kingdom’s final Agreement, she introduced a section that empowered the Monarch and Council, by a unanimous vote, to make “Additions” (amendments) to the Agreement, so that it would never again be necessary to write a completely new Agreement replacing the Fourth one.
Frunóaz bid Frirpánk YUF, 65, King
Ruled YF 147 – 149
Born YF 71, died YF 154
Former court official from the time of Frushú’hanklun bid Fruwiúl ROHRG (62) and Frulanfáhzhip bid Fruchédod PÍV (63). First ruling Monarch with no military experience whatsoever. Basically appointed because Frufarpánk bid Frudódzu ÇÍÇI (64) wanted someone without too much power or a power base of their own, and the Council members wanted someone who symbolized continuity with the pre-Warlords Kingdom. Introduced stricter limits on freedom of speech, which he blamed for the Time of Warlords. Fired most of Frufarpánk bid Frudódzu ÇÍÇI (64)’s advisers.
SÉIB Wéa, 66, King
Ruled YF 149 – 151
Born YF 112, died YF 173
Frufarpánk bid Frudódzu ÇÍÇI (64)’s most valued deputy field commander, and according to persistent rumors, her lover. Used the time when Frufarpánk bid Frudódzu ÇÍÇI (64) ruled from Zarkél, and the time of Frunóaz bid Frirpánk YUF (65)’s rule, to re-conquer basically all former parts of Péchkizhénk that had been lost during the Time of Warlords and hadn’t already been re-conquered by Frufarpánk bid Frudódzu ÇÍÇI (64). As King, re-hired most of Frufarpánk bid Frudódzu ÇÍÇI (64)’s advisers. Prepared the Treaty of Tigho‘hatóp , which would give the Kingdom much-needed breathing space, although it wouldn’t be signed during his rule.
Frufízdid bid Frurihtpánk RÚHGIT, 67, King
Ruled YF 151 - 153
Born YF 89, died YF 162
Treasurer of Frufarpánk bid Frudódzu ÇÍÇI (64), Frunóaz bid Frirpánk YUF (65), and SÉIB Wéa (66). Chosen as King to signal peaceful intentions to the other powers that signed the Treaty of Tigho‘hatóp , which was ratified early in his rule. After hearing reports about the way Vép Táh Káhd , Wunghonikóp , and Wunghotút used steam power, he hired a large number of steam engineers from those countries in order to encourage industrialization. Reformed the administration of Péchkizhénk; introduced the system of Five Authorities that has been used since then: the military authority, the financial authority, the judicial authority, the educational authority, and the authority for everything else.
Fretkepánk bid Frubuféht KÉHD‘YUR, 68, King
Ruled YF 153 - 155
Born YF 97, died YF 174
Started out as leader of a local self-defense militia during the Time of Warlords. Peacefully submitted to Frufarpánk bid Frudódzu ÇÍÇI (64)’s rule in YF 139 and was rewarded with being made a high-ranking officer in her army. Rose further through the ranks during the re-conquest of the Kingdom. Follower of a religious movement which had its roots in anguish about the atrocities of the Time of Warlords; motivated by the humanitarian ideas of that movement, he issued an Edict ordering a major criminal justice reform (YF 154): the practice of punishing family members for the crimes of their family members was abolished; the number of crimes punishable by death was drastically reduced; and a number of very gruesome, slow, and painful methods of execution were replaced with death by beheading for all crimes that were still punishable by death.
(...)
INTO THE INDUSTRIAL; MODERN; AND SPACE AGE
I’ve decided to take Péchkizhénk into a futuristic age of interstellar travel. However, IMO the time between the first beginnings of industrialism in the Second Century YF and the age of futuristic interstellar travel should be left deliberately vague – after all, we don’t know how any fictional technology that hasn’t been invented in real life yet might develop. The “present” of the setting is the 20th Century YF, about 1800 years after the beginnings of industrialism. Frankly, I’ve chosen that particular timeframe because any more advanced YF date might lead to confusion with AD/CE dates. Péchkizhénk is now the unquestioned dominant power on Chizárp. Zúduzkírg, led by the Péchkizhénkian Space Program, have started a faster-than-light exploration of interstellar space (I’m taking some artistic license with physics here), and have, among other things, contacted Earth humans, who are at some point in our future where they have more modern technology than we have in real life, but less modern technology than the Zúduzkírg…
Around the 9th Century YF, more and more people had come to notice that the Kingdom’s lingua franca as used in official documents, statements, speeches, and communications between people from different regions had seriously diverged from the everyday speech of people in Zarkél, so calling the both of them “Zarkélkohp” didn’t really make sense anymore. After a period of debate, argument, activism, and bureaucratic infighting, it was decided to keep the name “Zarkélkohp” for the lingua franca, while calling the actual local dialect of Zarkél “Pimárpkohp”, or “head place dialect/language”.
NOTES ON NAMES
Before the Revolution, free people in the Péchkizhénkian heartland usually used surnames and given names, while enslaved people just had given names. Slavery is usually horrible for the family life of the enslaved, and few enslaved people knew their ancestors beyond the generation of their parents and perhaps their grandparents; many didn’t even definitely know their parents. When the Revolution came, this made it difficult for most of the newly liberated formerly enslaved people to take on surnames or even matronymics or patronymics, and regular surnames were discredited because of their association with the old masters, anyway. Even people who had been free before the Revolution, and had neither been killed nor gone into exile, generally found it advisable to drop their surnames, at least outwardly, in order to avoid provoking the newly empowered formerly enslaved people.
It was, however, soon seen as useful to have some way to distinguish between different people with the same given name. The generation of the Revolution tended to do this by taking on place-derived names, toponymics – sometimes names derived from their birthplace, often derived from the place where they had grown up, or the place where they had spent most of their lives, or the last place where they had lived before they moved to the place where they lived when they took on their toponymic (as in, “I’ve recently moved from London to Birmingham, so the new friends and acquaintances I’ve made in Birmingham call me Elizabeth Londoner”). The place where people lived when they took on a toponymic usually wasn’t used, except if they socialized a lot with people who lived in a different place. A “place”, in the context of toponymics, could be a village or town, but also a neighborhood, or even a distinctive-looking home. Some people didn’t use toponymics at all, but instead took on specific identifiers based on their profession or physical features of their bodies.
This all changed in the generation of the children of the revolutionaries. They usually did know their parents, and they also usually knew from their parents how lucky they were to know their parents. As a result they usually valued their connection to their parents very highly, and so, if they wanted to identify themselves in a way that was more specific than through their given names, they generally took on matronymics or patronymics. This sometimes led to heated arguments over which one of these should be used – there were reports of families tearing themselves apart over that issue. Therefore, the Name Edict of YF 55 made it mandatory for everyone born after the Revolution who knew both of their parents to use a combined matronymic-patronymic. While Péchkizhénk was and still is fairly sexist, this sexism often took the form of “chivalry” towards women; as a result, in combined matronymic-patronymics, the mother’s name had to come first. The Name Edict led to active resistance in some of the newly conquered parts of the Kingdom where people wanted to keep their own naming traditions. The issue didn’t seem worth fighting over, and so, in YF 70, the Second Name Edict was issued, which limited the application of the original Name Edict to speakers of Zarkélkohp and the languages of the formerly enslaved people. For them, however, it has been in force ever since.
Developments in the parts of the Kingdom outside the heartland tended to depend on how many enslaved people lived there when they were conquered by Péchkizhénk; if there were many, there was usually a similar dynamic at work as had been in the heartland; if there were few or none, people usually kept whatever naming traditions they had used before, involving regular surnames, or patronymics, or matronymics, or toponymics, or additional names given or chosen at the time of passage into adulthood. People whose families immigrated to Péchkizhénk from somewhere else usually kept whatever ancestral naming traditions they had, too.
While the founders and early leaders of Péchkizhénk established Zarkélkohp as Péchkizhénk’s lingua franca for pragmatic reasons, they didn’t have any emotional or ideological attachment to it; it was, after all, the language of the people who had enslaved them. Therefore, they never demanded or expected that people with names not derived from Zarkélkohp should translate their names when speaking or writing Zarkélkohp, the way some Earth cultures have traditionally done it.
Re: Rudimentary History of my main Conculture, formerly known as the Ageist Kingdom
Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2021 8:57 am
by Raphael
OK, I've now written a bit of a, well, vignette set in Péchkizhénk - it doesn't really have enough plot or things happening to be called a story. Theoretically, a lot of other things are supposed to have happened before it and to happen after it, but I haven't come up with them yet.
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THE INAUGURATION
A human who had just arrived from Earth would have found the Great Hall just a bit too warm for comfort, but Soniana Michel had, of course, had plenty of time to get used to the zúduzkírg’s temperature preferences, both during her service on the
Queen Yúnpa and since her arrival here on Chizárp itself. She stuck close to Kogutáp Hopatpát as they made their way to their seats while the hall slowly filled with people. She somewhat resented the Captain’s implicit assumption that she could not be trusted to behave herself on her own, especially after the events of the last few day-handfuls (speaking of weeks probably wouldn’t have made sense here); but her position was already precarious enough right now.
They had better seats than she had expected; apparently, representing the institution that would provide the new queen counted for quite a lot. She kept expecting the Captain to turn into one of the rows they passed, where she could see bureaucrats, then legislators, and eventually clerics of different religions whose formal robes and other attires seemed to clash with each other even more than their theological positions, but Captain Hopatpát marched on and on, until they had reached the section for the Interstellar Fleet, very close to the stage. The hall was so large that it was difficult to see much beyond one’s own section and the stage area, but she thought that in the section to their left, she could see some famous scientists, a few authors, and one man she vaguely remembered from a news report about a devastating fire a while ago. The section to their right was clearly the foreign dignitaries section. The only human beings that she could see aside from herself were there: apparently ambassadors from the more powerful countries on Earth, as well as some countries that were less powerful but arguably overrated their own importance. But most of the other countries on
Chizárp seemed unwilling to be represented at an event of this importance by mere ambassadors; she recognized a number of heads of state, heads of government, and chiefs of diplomatic services. She tried to amuse herself for a while by doing a silent running commentary on their facial expressions inside her head; these expressions alone could have told any attentive observer that Péchkizhénk was not nearly as popular as it was powerful.
After a while, she could see that thanks to an odd coincidence, her position gave her a very good view of the seats at one end of the front row where the outgoing king, Frunírin bid Fruyúf Grízid, and his entourage eventually settled down. The view of the incoming queen was less good, given that they were seated a number of rows behind her.
The hall had already been almost full for quite a while when the lights changed, a strong spotlight focused on a gong that measured more than two meters in diameter in one part of the stage, and a túduzkírg in the uniform of the Council Guard marched towards that gong and struck it. Once. Twice. A third time. At the fifth time, Soniana started to wonder if they would ever get to the next part of the ceremony. After the ninth stroke, the spotlight switched to a microphone on a tripod in a different part of the stage, and the Chief Secretary of the Council walked up to the microphone to no applause whatsoever, one of many small reminders that this was not Earth.
“Honored Guests, I welcome you to our humble house for this solemn occasion…”
It was not exactly stirring stuff, but Michel was used to watching her surroundings carefully even in contexts in which many other people would have dozed off. It took the secretary about six or seven minutes to get to the point.
“...and therefore, Your Majesty, it is now time to part ways.”
An officer of the Council Guard who was wearing steel mesh gloves in addition to his uniform marched across the stage towards King Grízid, who, after a moment’s hesitation, rose from his seat, walked onto the stage, took his sword out of its scabbard, and placed it on the officer’s outstretched hands. He then walked to a place half in the shadows in the back of the stage, followed by his entourage.
“Now I have to ask, is Fáev Líod, Captain of all Captains of the Interstellar Fleet, anywhere here?”, the Secretary asked, as if the woman he had called for hadn’t been sitting right in front of him. She rose from her seat, said “I am”, and walked onto the stage.
“Fáev Líod, the Council of former Queens and Kings has chosen you as our next Queen. Do you accept that obligation?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Do you have anything to report to us here today?”
“Yes. I was seven years old when I started my Royal Service, just like everyone else. At first, I was sent to the fishbean farms. With my little hands, I put fishbean plants into the soil, cleansed their leaves, spiked their stems, and harvested their beans, crouching in the shallow water of the fields, in rain and in sunshine.”
At the edge of her field of vision, Soniana noticed that in the shadows in the back of the stage, the outgoing king – or was he already the former king? She wasn’t sure about the legal fine print – was approached by an Army officer. Carefully moving her eyes in their direction, she could see the two men put their heads together.
Fáev continued: “At eleven, I was transferred to a hospital. I spoonfed sick people who could not feed themselves. I took care of their bedpans. I removed their vomit. I scrubbed the parts of medical machinery that the scrubbing machines could not reach.”
Grízid and the officer were apparently still intensely whispering towards each other.
“At fourteen, I started work in a daycare center. I changed babies’ diapers. I sang them lullabies…”
A woman in a civilian bureaucrat’s uniform quietly approached Grízid and the Army officer and seemed to join their whispered conversation. Soniana was still wondering what to make of that when she noticed that Captain Hopatpát seemed to cry. This surprised her enough that she turned her head towards the Captain. Hopatpát, apparently feeling caught, whispered: “I’m sorry. I always get a bit sentimental during that part of the ceremony.” And then, after a short pause: “How many of the most powerful people on
your planet could give a report like this?”
While Soniana Michel thought about that, the Army officer left the small group in the back of the stage, leaving Grízid and the bureaucrat to continue their whispered conversation alone.
“When I was sixteen years old” Fáev continued, “I learned that the Interstellar Fleet had been founded, and it became my dream to join them. The next year, they started accepting applications from Royal Servants, and I applied as soon as I could. I was so happy when I was accepted! After training, I first served on the
Bear of the Stars, climbing into the drive engine during every shift to make sure it was greased properly. Once, when I was twenty, there was a malfunction of the…”
The Army officer who had previously talked to Grízid returned to him, and once again, the three people were whispering towards each other.
“At twenty-five, I applied for Interstellar Fleet officers’ training, and there, too, I was accepted. After that, my Royal Service became more comfortable, though no less exciting. When I had finished Royal Service, I decided to stay in the Fleet, and here I am now!”
“Thank you”, the Chief Secretary of the Council responded. “Now I have to ask you: Do you have anything to offer to us?”
“Yes. I offer all that I have and all that I am, all that I can do and all that I want to do, all my knowledge and all my skills, all my courage and all my experience, to make sure that the good people of Péchkizhénk shall be safe from enslavement and oppression!”
Now, finally, the Army officer and the civilian bureaucrat had stopped whispering with Grízid, and quickly but quietly walked away from him.
The Chief Secretary reached the main point of the ceremony: “Then take this sword, the sword that Çíçi the First carried when she restored our kingdom after the Time of Warlords, as the symbol of your power. Use it courageously and wisely!” The Council Guard officer with the steel mesh gloves presented the sword, lying on his outstretched hands, to Fáev Líod, who, as if with a single swift movement, grabbed it, hold it up while turning towards the audience, and put it into her scabbard.
The audience, which had been silent since the beginning of the ceremony, erupted into loud cheers of approval. The new queen walked up to a different microphone, and started her inaugural address, which, Soniana new from her preparations, would be the longest part of the ceremony. But Soniana had started to think. She carefully turned towards Captain Hopatpát and whispered: “Tell me – are there any specific laws about
when exactly during the ceremony the transfer of power takes place? Or is that unspecified?”
“No”, the Captain replied, “the law is very clear on that. Our new queen became queen at the exact moment when she first held the Royal Sword.”
“And before that?”
“Before that, Grízid was still king.”
“With full powers?”
“Yes, with full powers. Someone has to be in charge, after all.”
“Thank you”, whispered Soniana. “Interesting. Very Interesting.”
She would think of all that a lot during the events of the next few days.
THE END
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And, I've recorded myself pronouncing some Péchkizhénkian words and names so that you can get a somewhat better idea of their pronunciation. The recording is a bit shorter than a minute. Unfortunately, I never got everything quite right in one go, and my audio editing skills aren't that good yet, so the recording isn't quite as good as it should be; I'm sorry about that. Note that not all the names are Zarkélkohp names; Péchkizhénk is a multicultural society in which people's names might be derived from all kinds of languages. Feel free to comment on any differences you might notice between my pronunciations and the pronunciations you would have expected based on my written descriptions in the above posts.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GijPV_ ... sp=sharing
