Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Conculture - 1

A conlang is shaped by its conculture, if it has one (and mine does).

Obviously, this language is intended to be spoken by Elves, so Elven culture dictates many patterns and specifications of the language. My Elven conculture is for a D&D-based world (5th Edition, specifically), though certain aspects vary from standard D&D Lore. First, I'll talk about Elves as a whole, then get into the sub-types and cultural differences.

Elves live about 700 years, but in terms of cultural and linguistic development, their growth matches Humans' on a generational basis. That is, the Elven Language changes the same amount in 700 years that English does in about 80 years. I tend to round this, and do the time conversion so that Elves develop at 1/10th the rate of Humans (with the exception of physical and mental maturation until the age of ~25, which occurs at the same rate as Humans).

Elves are descended from the anana'i ("people of the sun"), the first non-plant living things on the planet. They were created by Gwaena (Elessic: gweyna), goddess of the sun, who made them to explore and enjoy the world and all the things in it. The anana'i became the ancestors of the Surface Elves (High, Wood, and Eladrin, but not Drow) and all Good Fey.

The Drow are descended from another race, made by Andolin (Elessic: andolɪn), goddess of the moon, and sister to Gwaena. They do not speak Elessic.

Elves worship Gwaena and Andolin as a sort of dual-goddess. Gwaena is Chaotic Good, and Andolin is Lawful Good. Wood and High Elves tend towards Neutral Good (rather than Chaotic Good as in standard D&D Lore).

High Elves (alodavra, "Bright Elves") and Wood Elves (kyardavra, "Earth Elves") speak separate dialects, with High Elvish being the prestige.

In terms of culture, High Elves have historically favored ambition and intelligence, with the greater part of their "modern" culture being defined by a long period of imperialism and colonialism, which ended with the catastrophic destruction of their society several thousand years ago. This imperialism was carried out by the High Elves exclusively.

After the destruction of the imperialistic society, the remnants fled east and landed on Strigana, the continent on which my stories are based. These Elves retained many of the same values of their ancestors and so tend to be less compassionate and more prideful.

A group of these High Elves saw the downfall of their culture as punishment from the gods, and spread eastward across Strigana, looking to live more peaceful lives in tune with the other races (which their culture previously looked down upon). These "Eastern High Elves" mostly settled in Selanor, a forested region inhabited by Wood Elves, and home to the First Tree, which was planted by the goddesses themselves. They formed integrated societies with the Wood Elves, and speak the language which I am describing on this blog.

So basically, there are three groups of Elves: the "Western High Elves" which still hold imperialistic values, tend to be haughty, favor intellectualism, and often look down on other cultures; the "Eastern High Elves" who have embraced other ways of thought, and live peacefully amongst the Wood Elves; and the "Wood Elves", who have always done their own thing, and favor practicality and coexistence.

Western High Elves and Eastern High Elves speak essentially the same language, though Eastern High Elves are far more likely to avoid certain problematic habits and forms.

IN CONCLUSION:


Elessic (as described here) is a language heavily shaped by imperialism and ethnocentrism, but it is moving away from these old-fashioned ideals and is becoming a more open and accepting, focusing on the peaceful sharing of ideas, rather than building ideological walls.

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