Zompist Bboard Again

Well, to be honest with everyone, Tolkien may be my idol but Lewis came first. As a matter of fact, my attempts at creating languages for Calormen, Archenland, and the Lone Isles were some of the first I ever made, way back in middle-school. (Given my absolute lack of any linguistic training at the time, bar a bit of French and Turkish, they're not actually too bad.) So I thought I might start it over again, keep it going in tandem with my Ajjamah, Sudric, and Middle-Earth work.
Most of this is entirely my own creation; some of it is borrowed (and I will provide credit) from other writers, of superb quality stuff if I may say so. Everything, in the end, belongs to Clive Staples Lewis, alias Jack.
Some highlights of what I'd like to try:

• A comprehensive list of the peoples of the world, their ancestries and customs, and the reason the whole world uses English to speak but made-up languages to name themselves.
• The geography of the world of Narnia, and perhaps a bit of pondering over the nature of magic and how it fits with the physics and cosmology of the place.
• A look at religious beliefs, from Narnian monotheism to Calormene polytheism to Telmarine star-worship to the religious syncretism practiced on the Lone Islands, and perhaps a bit of speculation on the nature of the children of the Emperor-Over-Sea.
• And, of course, a few languages, spoken not by humans but instinctive to other races, which humans borrowed from over the years: dwarfish (sorry, Professor Tolkien), oceanic, dryadic, al-afarit, giantish, lake-tongue…

Thoughts?

TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Children of the Emperor
The Worlds that Were
The Lineages of Men

Pedant wrote: ↑Sun Aug 30, 2020 10:52 am Thoughts?

Good Lord, how many simultaneous projects do you need before it's enough??!!

I was also introduced to Narnia before LotR and liked it. My interest dropped off once I got to high school & college, though. I'm probably more interested to see what you do with this than the original material.

Vardelm wrote: ↑Sun Aug 30, 2020 9:35 pm

Pedant wrote: ↑Sun Aug 30, 2020 10:52 am Thoughts?

Good Lord, how many simultaneous projects do you need before it's enough??!!

Heh, heh. Honestly about as many (plus law school and a TV script learning a few natural languages) as it takes to keep my mind active and more importantly useful. Too much mush otherwise.

I was also introduced to Narnia before LotR and liked it. My interest dropped off once I got to high school & college, though. I'm probably more interested to see what you do with this than the original material.

Aw, thanks! I’ll try my best not to disappoint!

Do the three heads of Tash represent the three persons of the Trinity via reciprocal name-calling?

Richard W wrote: ↑Mon Aug 31, 2020 9:20 am Do the three heads of Tash represent the three persons of the Trinity via reciprocal name-calling?

Um…I wasn't actually aware that Tash had three heads. Thought it was just one, shaped like that of a vulture. He does have four arms, if it helps.

First up:
There is only one Emperor-Over-Sea. Where people go wrong is in thinking that He has only one son.
In fact the Emperor-Over-Sea--called Mahmeen in Calormen and among the jinn, and Enkin on the Islands and by the stars, and Gruk by Black Dwarves and Bismian gnomes--had many children, each given some portion of the world to themselves. We may call them Titans here, for they are not gods in the traditional sense, nor angels serving a single purpose, but (for the most part) independent beings bound to the lands they call their own. Their command, or purview, is over the living beings in the world--and at one point or another, everything in the world Narnia was alive, even the minerals and metals beneath the earth..
Only one is called upon in the Chronicles of Narnia in any real capacity, because only one child had power enough to rule all the world. This is Aslan, the Great Lion, High King of High Kings, Bound to the World and yet Beyond it. He is the first-born child of the Emperor, and the first to enter the world, when it was dark. His command is over life itself--all life, in one way or another, every soul beyond his siblings. All things yearn to live in the world of Narnia; Aslan's call is strongest in those who find joy in the world and its people, seeking not power but presence, and above all love. He judges the dead, and guides the living; his reign is over all places where living beings make their home. Aslan by himself has the strength to equal all other Titans--and his will is closest, they say, to that of his father, having power and wisdom both. Indeed, it is not uncommon to claim Aslan as distinct from the Titans, who are bound to this world and smaller worlds of their own making, and who must obey the rules with little leeway. He is, as they say, Not a Tame Lion.
But there are others.

1. The most well-known titan beyond Aslan is Tash, the inexorable and irresistible. The patron deity of the Great Desert, and of the tribes within it, Tash is the Father of Jinns. He lives above the peak of the Flaming Mountain of Lagour, in the cloud from which he holds sway over the land of Calormen. His governance is over those souls who fear the world, and seek dominion over others, who would bend an unthinking and dangerous world to their will; he is the storm in the desert, at once pouring forth life-giving rain and terrifying lightning. His halls are full of impossible games of strategy, in which those who pass to him gain powers as of the gods to wage war against the demons from Beyond; those who wish it may join others in Aslan’s Country later, though this is not said in Calormen. Normally he takes on the form of a dark, bird-headed man with four long arms--a classical representation of a thundercloud in Calormene mythology, where thunder is Tash's call and lightning thrown to all four corners of the world at his command.
2. Zardeenah comes next, the Lady of the Night. She is the queen of starlight and constellations, and of the blank spaces in the middle of the sky. Her home is in a big cloud of celestial dust called Kooyol, a shape cloud against the sky outlined in blue light and only visible in the south of the world in Calormen and beyond, where she holds court among the constellations and sends forth planets to act as messengers. Astrocygne, the centaurs call her, for her cloud is shaped as a great swan in flight, or Urania. She holds those who have not yet come to their full potential, but whose innocence is as important as what they will become; on the Lone Islands they call on Hebati to watch over voyagers as they navigate the oceans, but in Calormen her primary role is in allowing maidens to grow unmolested--or else enact swift revenge if their innocence is cut short before its time. Her halls in the heavens are filled with the laughter of children and the pleasant conversation of Archen hermits and Telmarine gurus. In Calormen and the Lone Islands she is portrayed as a black swan, or else as a dark maiden with wings flecked by starlight.
3. Azaroth is the last figure that people tend to know about from reading the Chronicles, a goddess whose care is for women while alive. Her power is over those who would bring new life into the world, but through order and balance, the proper regulation of cycles. She is the moon itself; the Tehishenes in Calormen’s west say she dances behind the white screen, forever twirling a lantern that shines with soothing light, and brings about the ebb and flow of waters within and without the womb. (In actuality the moon is her own copy of the world, and she keeps quite tidy if a bit bleak. She still apparently enjoys dancing, though.) Azaroth is the matron, the confidante, the mother and midwife of all things born after Creation. She is also the goddess of justice, ensuring the balance is kept; she turns to see all sides, and by her will the fundamental forces of life maintain their course. Loved best in Calavar and western Atarsidar and the Islands (where she is called Sinoom), she guards the bearers of new life. In Narnia she is Clio. It is said that when the world ends she will be a part of its reformation. She is portrayed (when not as the Lady in the Moon) as a whale or fish, or as one of the merfolk, who are bound to her cycles and welcome the deaths of the drowned and miscarried among their number--only to pass on to the East when they in turn pass away and dissolve into foam.
4. Chaji is the strangest of the gods, perhaps. To the Narnians and Ettinsmoorians, he is Old Father Time, lying buried beneath the earth to awaken at the end of the world. In Telmar they called him Etad. But to the giants, those who did not turn to their cousin Jadis, he is the Doomdreamer; his snoring causes the earth to rumble, and his people listen for the vibrations and feel with their feet that are his dreams for his people. He is the source of all thought, they say, and rewards those who think best--who laugh loudest, who grieve deepest, who fight with wild abandon and beg forgiveness most sweetly--with a place by his side, in the hollowed caverns near his own. (For a giant not to bury their dead is unthinkable, at least among those who have not abandoned the Old Song.) There they will stay, until it is time. He is a tired and emaciated old man, dressed in a loincloth and never awake--but he visits people in his dreams. When he wakes, the dream will end and Narnia will be no more.
5. Where one finds the crops, there Bacchus--though of course his call is not over Narnia alone. He is a spirit of wild abandon, visiting each country in turn--in Narnia he is seen most in the spring, as is Ey in Archenland; in Calormen Hiyesh comes during the summer; past Calavar Malifu comes after the rainy season; he visits the Islands rarely (though he brings joy to sailors as a great dolphin), and the Far North even less. And always is he portrayed as a wild young man, almost female in appearance, draped and crowned with skins and branches, though his skin may darken or lighten as he travels north and south. His own land lies far in the west of the world, in a secret garden hidden by snowy peaks with a blue lake, where grapes grow all year round and the apples of immortality hang, and the revelry of souls who followed his path is tremendous.
   (Not every soul who reaches Bacchus is good. He loves the wild, and will condone many things that in the world will do harm to others. What matters, at the end, is the Judgement of Aslan. Until then, there's plenty of time to enjoy the party.)
6. Another strange figure is Father Christmas; if Bacchus is wild youth and Zardeenah carefree childhood, he is a grandfather still active enough to listen to the stories of the young, and give them guidance and advice. He lives at the north of the world, in the high mountains at its edge, but every year he travels with the snow down to Narnia and Archenland. The latter call him Hight (pronounced like "height"; sometimes they call him Eyin), and the Telmarines came to know him as Vidaz the protector. He claims no souls, but nourishes all of them as the year draws to a close and the sun turns the Southern Wastes into unbearable desert.
7. Balancing Father Christmas is Hur; if the former is the spirit of coldest winter, he holds most sway over the burning summer. Hur rewards those who are brave, who struggle on despite the heat. He is not the sun--but he is its master, and the sun his kingdom. If one actually approaches the body of the sun, one finds it contains more than just a construct of gas and plasma; there is an entire world on its surface, mountains and valleys, the size of Narnia at least. Hur tends to these orchards, and on occasion will send birds carrying the harvests to those in need--the stars on the surface, those in need of great gifts, and such. He calls none his own save those who have struggled in life, who have often been crippled by birth or fate but kept on going--only to find their dreams answered and wounds healed (and, quite often, their children in Zardeenah’s halls, which isn’t actually that far away and has an excellent exchange program) as they tend to his gardens. His choices are his own, though Aslan may intercede; the elixir of immortality has been sought by Calormen poets for centuries, not through chemical means but through prayer and fasting. (Calormene alchemists, on the other hand…) It is said his dominion will be a part of the world’s remaking. He appears as a man of purest gold.
8. Aslan likes love, Bacchus laughter, Azaroth justice, Hur bravery. Handeh likes a little of all of that. If she is closest to any goddess of Earth she would be the Muse, for she loves story and song; but her stories often come with a twist. She loves creativity the best, serendipitous bursts of energy followed by periods of polishing and refining. She also loves japes and jokes, particularly against the stubborn, the rash, and the ridiculous, and favouring the put-upon, down-trodden, and those in need (from life getting them down) of a good laugh. In this she is often joined by her sisters, Zardeenah and Azaroth. She is Thalia in Narnia, Pret in Archenland, Naarum on the Islands, Segrella among the Telmarines. She has no heaven; instead, she acts as a psychopomp, leading those who pray to her where they best belong. She appears as a large corvid, perhaps a raven or a jackdaw, but instead of black feathers her plumage is every colour of the rainbow--though naturally when watching her devotees from afar she may appear a little more regular-hued.
9. While Azaroth ensures the world’s cycles and Bacchus its wildness, the one best revered among gardeners and horticulturalists is Pomona. She does not live in Narnia, though it is easy to see how one might make that mistake, for her daughters are the hamadryads. And Pomona is the last vestige of the Tree of Protection; her birth came but a day after Narnia’s. But when the White Witch cut down her tree she did not die, but fled elsewhere, to southern lands. Sylve she is called in Archenland, Mazania in Telmar, Tiffah in Calormen; every place she visited, she planted seeds in sacred groves. In Calormen the original remains intact, but an apple was seized by Fayti Tisroc for his own grove, and Calormen has never been the same. (“May he live forever” has a surprisingly factual basis behind it, given that Fayti lasted into his hundred-and-twenties despite everything.) In Telmar the grove expanded across the forests, which started up a procedure of asking the local wise women (of a line chosen by Pomona) to grant permission to go into the woods to procure the apples; this would evolve into something quite different, given time. In Archenland the tree died, but a seedling was brought to Terebinthia, where it grew for sixteen hundred years.
   Pomona has no afterlife of her own per se; she rewards those who seek a return, not for revenge, but to gain the peace of heart and mind that they could not have known as humans or beasts. Any child of a dryad, unlike children born of naiads or hamadryads, will not on its own become a dryad; for that, it requires a soul, which Handeh brings to her orchards to tend to. The dryads awaken when Pomona plants the soul inside the seed. If they do live a life filled with love, for the world and for Aslan, then on they pass to his special country. It matters not who they were in their past life.
   Pomona is portrayed as an apple-dryad, clothed in bark-cloth and blossoms in her hair. (She is occasionally linked with the orange tree as well, mainly in Calormen.)
10. Epona, of course, is known on Earth--and in Narnia--as the goddess of horses, but in this world she has other titles and many, many other names. No wonder--her domain is loyalty, particularly in the manner of horses, hounds, and cattle, those who offer their services to the humanity as masters of nature and are rewarded in turn. The beasts do not talk, of course, anywhere besides Narnia--in Calormen for a non-human to talk is a sign of possession. Instead, she makes it clear through her mind what is necessary, transmitting the thoughts without speaking, and whoever looks upon her will know her thoughts (and may come to know their own better for it). Her followers go straight to Aslan's Country, where they may be rewarded for their servitude. She has no tolerance for breakers of beasts, however, and at times will incite wrath in the loyal followers to show the rulers just how far they have gone against the will of their subjects. (Again without speaking; charity in Calormen is meant to be inferred, and improper inference on the part of the donator is quite a difficult matter.) She is portrayed as a milk-white horse, or at times as a white cow, or white elephant, or snow-coloured hound--or else as a pale woman with white hair and grey eyes. (In Calormen, where she is called Aspa, albinos and other "deformities" are said to be sacred to her, and indeed "Aspa's hair" refers to a small but necessary defect in a work to demonstrate its imperfection before the gods--as we would say "Persian flaw," in fact.)
11. The last of the gods to appear in the world of Narnia came with a different purpose entirely. Iskeera holds little to no sway over the plants or animals of the upper world; there is no love in her mind for such things, though she does not deny their importance. Iskeera, rather, is the goddess whose role it is to grow the underlands, to bring forth trees of gold and silver and jewels made alive as fruits. These are similar to surface plants--they can be eaten--but also quite different, for when left for too long they become dead and cold. What Iskeera loves best, then, are those who seek to bring new life to her creations, by forging them and making them into something new. She is sometimes called on for other crafts as well, meticulous work where the wild creativity of Handeh simply isn't enough, and honest toil is required. For those who serve her well there is a place in her furthest-underland, called Bism by the gnomes who live there (for this is what the souls Handeh brings to her become). Deep within the bowels of the earth itself, Bism promises one of the few routes to Aslan's Country accessible through Narnia proper--you never know what world you'll tunnel up into, once you grow tired of Bism. (There was actually an expedition of gnomes that set out in the 21st Century to do just that--unfortunately they happened on a witch in green, and, well, let's just say they were content to wait for the end of the world after they got away.) Iskeera--or Grishtil to the dwarves, Brigid to Narnians, Gibil to the Islanders, Frauga to the Telmarines--appears most often as a short but strong lady with twinkling pure-black eyes, a cross between a cheery grandmother and a Narnian dwarf.

This is an obvious thing to do in (a pastiche of) the inimitable stye of Bob...

alice wrote: ↑Mon Aug 31, 2020 11:17 am This is an obvious thing to do in (a pastiche of) the inimitable stye of Bob...

I’m terribly sorry, but I’m not quite sure what you mean.

A little tangential, but have you read Planet Narnia, by Michael Ward? I found it a very enjoyable and interesting read myself.

quinterbeck wrote: ↑Mon Aug 31, 2020 11:46 am A little tangential, but have you read Planet Narnia, by Michael Ward? I found it a very enjoyable and interesting read myself.

That I have not! But looking at the site it does seem intriguing…

Interesting stuff. Lewis was my favorite author for years, and back when I was a believer I wished I'd come up with as attractive an idea as Aslan.

I'd forgotten how many "Titans", as you call them, actually appear in the books. There are a few fundamentalists who really hate Lewis, because he was awfully comfortable with Greek paganism. It's pretty wacky that Bacchus actually shows up.

It should be fun to see what you do with language. The use of English is pretty obviously a narrative convenience; but Lewis doesn't even pretend, as Tolkien did, that other langauges were involved. You could make a case that Narnians do speak English, as it was Digory and Polly's language. But does Calormen "really" speak English? Especially when all its names and technical terms are obviously from some Arabo-Persian-Indic melange?

(You probably know this, but as kids Lewis and his brother made fantasy lands: "Animal-Land" for Lewis, "India" for his brother. I remember him referring to the Shahnameh too. I've long thought that people who think Calormen is a picture of Islam are wrong: it's mostly a portrait of India, mixed with the Arabian Nights and Firdausi's Persia.)

I have a vague impression that Calormen may be inspired in part by medieval Christian ideas of the East: e.g. Lewis didn't think Muslims worship a literal demon (his comments about Islam elsewhere are pretty complimentary), but some (most?) medieval Christians did. Certain aspects of Calormen are reminiscent of cultures found in the Old Testament, too.

zompist wrote: ↑Mon Aug 31, 2020 10:23 pm Interesting stuff. Lewis was my favorite author for years, and back when I was a believer I wished I'd come up with as attractive an idea as Aslan.

I'd forgotten how many "Titans", as you call them, actually appear in the books. There are a few fundamentalists who really hate Lewis, because he was awfully comfortable with Greek paganism. It's pretty wacky that Bacchus actually shows up.

It should be fun to see what you do with language. The use of English is pretty obviously a narrative convenience; but Lewis doesn't even pretend, as Tolkien did, that other langauges were involved. You could make a case that Narnians do speak English, as it was Digory and Polly's language. But does Calormen "really" speak English? Especially when all its names and technical terms are obviously from some Arabo-Persian-Indic melange?

(You probably know this, but as kids Lewis and his brother made fantasy lands: "Animal-Land" for Lewis, "India" for his brother. I remember him referring to the Shahnameh too. I've long thought that people who think Calormen is a picture of Islam are wrong: it's mostly a portrait of India, mixed with the Arabian Nights and Firdausi's Persia.)

That I do know--although I've never been able to find much on what they were actually like, Animal-Land and India. You make a good point about the India-Arabian Nights-Persia mix; given the other figures with a similar bent (Aslan is obvious, but Jadis may be another one--from Persian jadu or "sorcerer"), well...there's an interesting combination and no mistake.

As to language? Well, let's see what I can get up to. That's next, methinks.

Curlyjimsam wrote: ↑Tue Sep 01, 2020 3:01 am I have a vague impression that Calormen may be inspired in part by medieval Christian ideas of the East: e.g. Lewis didn't think Muslims worship a literal demon (his comments about Islam elsewhere are pretty complimentary), but some (most?) medieval Christians did. Certain aspects of Calormen are reminiscent of cultures found in the Old Testament, too.

Hmm…

There are many worlds to visit, the Chronicles say. Each one tucked away inside its own pocket of reality, accessible only through some in-between place, the Wood Between the Worlds. Each only a small part of the Emperor's creation, many hold creatures quite similar to our ourselves, or beings descended from us. And nestled among them, in a single pool, is our own world--a single, lonely planet, tucked away among billions of stars, burning spheres of gas much, much larger than the heavens.
Ours is not the only world, that much we know. What isn't as well known is that even without passage through the Wood between the Worlds, we can still see those other places--from afar, of course. Perhaps that is the magic of our particular part of the cosmos, not that we have much magic to ourselves but that we can find other places that do. We named them island universes, so long ago now.
The worlds whose peoples came to Narnia are six in number, from different ancestors, but all--at least in theory--from the line of Adam.

1. The world of Earth is big and a little dull, and is best known as the home-world of humanity. Thousands of years ago primitive humans wandered away from their tribes and came upon doors that led them elsewhere, and for a time they learned to prosper. It is not yet certain where they went; few have ventured back along that path, even fewer have returned to write about their experiences. But around ten thousand years ago, a number of them returned--emerging from caves into the bright light of the sun, or travelling from a garden to a desert--and mingled with their cousins whom they had left behind. A few left, now and again, through the open doors; if they came back, they were changed in some way, made brighter or darker or wiser, and always with a strange power that none of them could define. The people of Earth are travellers at heart, and made many and complex. Five came when the land was made, and wrapped their presence into the fabric of reality; twelve others, then four, then two more, came in their own time, to be kings or princes or warriors as they saw fit. Mostly the visitors were pale, with hair from black to brown to gold (and a strange one called Brandy whose hair was white). When visitors from lands where a certain set of books are followed come to Narnia, they are called Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve, but they might well be called the Children of Noah.
2. The world of Charn could not be less like the Earth. If Earth is one of a hundred billion planets in its corner of the universe, Charn stands alone. Around the central figure of the world the stars move more or less erratically, for theirs is not a dance of peace and serenity; instead, they are locked in battle, each seeking survival in the inky blackness of the void, chased away by the sun; the four moons they claim as their place of sanctuary, and in the night sky they often alight upon them, causing them to glow with some regularity. There is no ocean on Charn, just a great many lakes, and terrible fields of ice in the north and south. The people here came to Charn long ago, from an unknown ancestor, and mixed with a race of giants from elsewhere. Their rulers are absolute, their dominion granted by the unholy stars in the heavens, and their people faced with the threat of the demons of night since the day they stepped forth into this world. They too came upon a fruit on a tree when they arrived here, but the response of their founder was not to take from the tree but burn it down. Since that day, fifty thousand years ago, Charn has grown colder and more tired. The people of Charn (called the Children of Lilith in Narnia) are tall and proud, with power in their words to shape the fabric of their universe, sapping its energy and taking it within themselves. Only one child of this world has entered Narnia since its creation; her name is Jadis.
3. The world of Nod is not like Earth neither, but nor is it like Charn. The world does not lie at the centre, nor on the outskirts; it is a disc, like a copper coin, but so is the sun, and the two spin endlessly around each other, day-face becoming night-face. (The other side of the world has been subject to much speculation; so, too, have the kingdoms on the face of the sun.) The stars are fixed around them, pinpoints of light. And all around them lies an abyssal ocean, seemingly endless and very powerful. Once, that ocean flooded the world itself. Little grows in this place, at least not in an orderly fashion; trees grow wild in the howling sands, and cannot be planted, but they can be harvested. And yet there are a great many cities here, built by the children of the first settlers, scattered across the high mountains the rocks among the burning dunes. The people here are wiry and dark, harrowed on all sides by djinns and demons, against whom there is no escape but surrender to the gales or else removal to the high towers they have built in the nineteen thousand years of their history. And yet they are not a hard people; they love the moon-sun and worship the stars. Twenty-four of them came to the rivers of the south, well back to the beginning of Narnia--and they wept freely, says the Prayers to Tash, to see water that flowed upon the ground, and that was not brought by a cosmic storm that threw down towers and scattered innocent souls to the winds. They are called the Children of Cain in Narnia, when they are not called Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve.
4. The fourth world is Timat, not so much a world as a constantly churning sea. Unlike the sea of Nod, however, this can be traversed with some ease; it's just a matter of passing between small planetoids, on ships pulled by birds or fish (or something in-between; it's difficult to tell in the void). The suns are small, the planets smaller, some only big enough for a single person to live on. The people of this world are golden- or copper-skinned and silver-eyed, with thick red or black hair. They live among the stars and know them to be gods; their power is that of communion, across great distances, with those whom they give a piece of their heart to. They are called the Children of Enoch, and six of them entered the world of Narnia through a great tree on the island of Terebinthia.
5. The fifth and sixth worlds, as far as we can tell, have no particular name. The people who come from those lands are not quite human anymore, despite appearing broadly so. The giants arrived in the far north of the world, perhaps summoned by Father Time or by Jadis--accounts differ--but there they remain, rarely coming down too far south but holding steady in the crags near the Star-Path. They are a little dull, but what they lack in creativity they make up for in endurance and strength. Jadis took many of them and warped them, giving them greater strength and size and cunning but removing their remorse for any living thing besides themselves, which most giants have in spades. Indeed, the average giant not only in Narnia but Telmar is gentle by nature, protectors and keepers of the land, herders of the hills. The most we know about their home-world, from the scattered legends that have arisen, is that it is a cold world, much more massive than Narnia in every detail but filled with ice and snow.
   The other group, the marsh-wiggles, don't appear to come from anywhere. The Long Lament, the closest Wiggles come to poetry, speaks of several accumulated centuries of apparent low-level hardships disguising some rather interesting events, the earliest of which appears to be a story taking place in another world entirely. At no time in Narnia, for instance, has there ever been a point where "the lights from across the world twinkled like stars", or the sun ever disappeared in the middle of the sky and then been reborn in the exact same place in the "morning" (many references are made to "the thousand thousand deaths of the silver sun"). Their world, it seems, was hollow, blanketed in a thick layer of cloud, from which emanated the boom and crackle with lightning mixed with the thundering roar of volcanoes. The Marsh-Wiggles are a tall, thin, grey people, given to smoking, some excellent waterproof construction methods, and good-natured depression.

Pedant wrote: ↑Sun Aug 30, 2020 10:52 am [*]And, of course, a few languages, spoken not by humans but instinctive to other races, which humans borrowed from over the years: dwarfish (sorry, Professor Tolkien), oceanic, dryadic, al-afarit, giantish, lake-tongue…[/list]

Thoughts?

I'd very much be interested in reading more of your thoughts on the languages & cultures (etc) of Narnia & its world.

Honestly, your posts in this thread spurred me to look back over my notes on what the language of the Duffers (aka Monopods, aka the Islanders that Aslan won't show himself to) might be like; could I show you? (its not much, to be honest)

either way, keep up the great work!

Back again?

• The Northerners are children of the woods and the air, loving best the cool open light of the hills and the mountains. They claim descent from Frank and Helen, two of the first five humans to enter Narnia. But their descent in larger part is of the nymphs, wood-gods and river-gods who live in Narnia to this day, and as such there is something in its nature that enters their blood. This is their word—the world of their sprite ancestors as much if not more than their human forebears. Their descendants largely live in Archenland, Terebinthia, and the Seven Isles, but a fair few have returned to Narnia.
• The Southerners are children of the dry desert and the bountiful rivers that flow through them, of the clouds in the endless blue sky, and of the fires within the earth. Four houses there were, among the first twenty-four to enter the land. The House of Kabaal was known for strong leaders and rulers. The House of Asad were farmers—of a sort, for no farming was ever possible in Nod—and knew best the land. The House of Sakhaar were hunters, tracking down dangerous prey. And the House of Baani were the best of the builders of Nod. Six from each House came to Calormen—and from the line of Kabeel would be born Veledis Kabeela, who would bear a son, Ildaan, to the great god Tash. But many, too, have come together in union with efreets and djinn, and the sand of the desert is baked into their bones. Their descendants live largely in the Eleven Dominions of Calormen—Calavar, Gadd, Nidar, Parsaris, Labbad, Ilkamor, Soom, Edrim, Chenekenegoora, U, and Baanad.
• The Westerners are children of the mountains and the earth, living high above the forests and scattered among the lakes there. Six houses came here, quite late in the history of the world: the Six Patriarchs—Carlos, Alberto, Rodrigo, Akeakami, Miguel, and Juan. (Of course, by now the names of their founders are much changed—Carroz, Ilberian, Rodiz, Acamian, Migalle, and Onian.) Few of this line chose to marry into the lineages of Narnia, but a few took dwarfs as partners and bore an ever-hardier race. A few, living far to the north, found a kindred spirit in the Marsh-Wiggles; the Wiggles of Narnia most emphatically deny kinship with the Telmarines, but it is notable that they were perhaps the only Narnian culture left practically untouched during the Telmarine Occupation. Most of their descendants now live in Narnia, but a few still make their home among the mountains of Telmar.
• The Easterners are children of the seas, of the spray and the sunrise and the stars overhead. Three houses settled upon the isles in the oceans—houses named for the three matriarchs rather than their husbands. The House of Anu took as their protector the goddess Hebati, elsewhere called Zardeenah; a few among their number even married Stars, or the descendants thereof, and became renowned for their study of the heavens and godly figures. The House of Sil preferred Sinoom, Azaroth in Calormen; often did they fall in love with the Sea-People, and bore champion swimmers, the greatest in population of the three houses. Finally came the House of Meret, who loved best Gibil, in Calormen Iskeera; the dwarfs they sometimes courted or were courted by, and kept the craft of ship-building alive and well. Their descendants live on all of the islands within sight of the Gunab, the Land-Sea (a land as big as the ocean)—Galma, Terebinthia, the Seven Isles, and the Lone Islands. They are said to have travelled even further—to the east where the waves grow sweet, to the south where the sun dries the sea to vapour, to the north where ships fly on frozen waters—but much of this has yet to be correlated.

From the House of Noah came Frank May and his wife Helen May. (2)
From the House of Kabeel came Ildrim, his wife Zaranis bayt Sakhaar, and their daughter Urun; and Emeth and his wife Amna bayt Asad. (5)
From the House of Baani came Nur, his wife Aranis bayt Asad, and their son Maakh; and Kesh, his wife Imaar bayt Kabeel, their daughter Suruk, and their son Ilnur Kohan. (7)
From the House of Sakhaar came Ulur and his wife Nali bayt Baani; and Harpa, his wife Meriz beth Muruk, their son Uruz, their younger son Ilgamuth, their daughter Shimar beth Harpa, and Uruz's wife Kamaris beth Iskef. (7)
From the House of Asad came Iskef, his wife Harus beth Ildrak, their son Aram, his wife Meesh beth Farun, and their son Kerek. (5)
From the House of Carroz came Carlos and his wife Kaila. (2)
From the House of Ilberian came Alberto and his wife Mura. (2)
From the House of Rodiz came Rodrigo and his wife Lelei. (2)
From the House of Acamian came Akeakami and his wife Nafanua. (2)
From the House of Migalle came Miguel and his wives Tava’esina and Etena. (3)
From the House of Onian came Juan. (1)
From the House of Anu came Anu and her husband Shoon. (2)
From the House of Sil came Sil and her husband Akoom. (2)
From the House of Meret came Meret and her husband Ejir. (2)