Re: Technological/societal levels in your conlangs/concultures

On Thu, 13 Jan 2000, Daniel Seriff wrote:

> For those of you that have concultures to go along with your languages,
> what is the relative level of technology/social advancement in your
> conculture? Try and give a year, at least within a half-century, that is
> equivalent to a time line of European history.
High Middle Ages, with some salient differences; eyeglasses are being
invented right now, windmills, water-mills and pulleys are in use,
medicine is very advanced (because there's no religious taboo on
dissection, and psychic gifts make it easier to look inside a living
body), printing exists but there's block-print only and books are
usually written, literacy is high (most kids get at least a year or
two of schooling). I must have a list somewhere, but can't find it
right now, of course. Say 1300 with some things at 1100 and others at
1450.

Weaponry is different: ring mail is in use, plate armour has been
tried and rejected ("we can't move in that!"), crossbows are a
foreign thing (the art of warfare is not developed at all in Valdyas,
because large-scale war is very uncommon; we've just had something
called a war that was in effect a few battles of less than a hundred
against less than a hundred, and a "large" battle with a few thousand
participants.

I'll write something about social level when I'm less tired :-/

> And another, slightly related question. I'm contemplating ideas for my
> "holy book". What kinds of holy books have you folks written or alluded
> to in your cultures?
In Valdyas there are books about the gods, the way there are also
books about herbs, animals, the stars, hunting, chemistry and various
other subjects; there's no "holy book". Hymns and songs to the gods
have been written down by various people, and used for teaching
(except for the worship of Timoine that is always improvised), but
books have no authority except for reference purposes. Moreover, if
someone says "it's true, see, it's written here" there's bound to be
another scholar who has another book where something entirely
different is written. Debates are made of that, not theology: most
people quietly go off and worship the gods while the scholars argue.

   Irina

--
            Varsinen an laynynay, saraz no arlet rastynay.
irina@rempt.xs4all.nl (myself) - http://valdyas.conlang.org (Valdyas)
        http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/index.html (home)