Arcanum Paterfamilias/Estvarya: Ishvaran Glossary -- Introduction & Orthography

[whips_n_dozers]

Arcanum Paterfamilias & Estvarya -- Ishvaran Glossary: Introduction and Orthography
Authors: mfelizandy & fractured_chaos
Graphics: fractured_chaos
Rating: For the Glossary, Everyone -- For the Story, Teen
Category: Written for the 2010 FMA Big Bang Challenge.
Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist (Hagane no Renkinjutsushi) was created by Arakawa Hiromu and is serialized monthly in Shonen

Comments

[whips_n_dozers]

Thank you! It's not prying, and we're happy to share. We sifted through various Middle Eastern cultures, and extrapolated what we could from both animes and the manga. Particularly from the first anime, when Scar says his prayer just before he kills Nina -- the way it was said made us think that the Ishvarun were a somewhat matriarchal society ("Please take this soul into your unending womb..."). Not completely, but predominantly, the women are at least equal to the men, although there are some things that are strictly male "activities" (spec. the training and becoming a warrior priest). So we did sort of take some ME cultural norms (Desert cultures tend to revere water, as it's so scarce, for one thing), but threw most of them out the window (Especially the parts of those cultures which de-humanize women).

We sort of divided the Ishvarun into three distinct cultures, as well. The most insular being the mozhkarishki, the nomadic Ishvarun. Then there are the southern tribes that came out of Aerugo (which is Africa in our 'verse), who adorn their hair, and mark their bodies with ink and ritual scarring. And finally, the Northern Ishvarun who came from Ishvar, proper. Those women tend to cover their heads, and the men generally don't mark their bodies.

And after so many years of refugees living in Xerxes (as well as the city becoming a major cross-roads and market), a fourth culture is beginning to emerge.

As far as language, we took Welsh and Albanian (mostly) words, and mashed them up. Some Swahili and Hindi was mixed in. Whatever sounded interesting to our ears, to be honest... then we'd mangle the original word until it was no longer recognizable to any specific language.

All of which says one, very important thing.... We have waaaaaay too much free time XD

What free time?

[mfelizandy]

I just needed something to occupy my mind while stuck in traffic!

As I recall, at one point we actually ended up telling each other, "We have to add some warts to this society, it's too perfect!"

Re: What free time?

[whips_n_dozers]

That we did. And planting the warts was probably more fun than the rest.

...by a hair. XD

Dedication

[ext_632596]

No... I have probably put just as much time researching, it just shows that we have dedication :). It is interesting that you would use welsh as a linguist (my extreme apologises if that is spelled wrong) influence, I would never have though of using it as a source. I am also pleased to know that I'm not the only one who figured that the Ishvalen culture would treat women as equals, nor the fact that some of the Ishvalens wouldhave went to Xing. Wouldn't you if your whole culture was being persecuted? Going accross the desert seems to be the best option in my mind, even if it might be a little more dangerous. The only thing I really must disagree with you on is the fact that you call Aerugo, that worlds Africa. After reading the short on the Prince of Dawn game that is to come out... whenever... I don't know, it seems to be more of an Italy than an Africa. This however, is my opinion and everyone is entilied to there own.Oh yes, and one more thing, didn't the Aerugo military block off the entrences to the coutry from the Ishvalens? I was just thinking... Thank you for writing back :) I look forward to your next reply (hopefully).

Re: Dedication

[whips_n_dozers]

The only thing I really must disagree with you on is the fact that you call Aerugo, that worlds Africa. After reading the short on the Prince of Dawn game that is to come out...

And we expected to catch some flack on that, but when we first began plotting this story, it was about a year before The Prince of Dawn, and we'd already plotted Aerugo to be that world's equivalent to Africa, and we didn't want to change it... because if we did, we'd have to change Makhu, and we like Makhu XD

Oh yes, and one more thing, didn't the Aerugo military block off the entrences to the coutry from the Ishvalens? I was just thinking..

Yes they did, during the conflict. But in our 'verse, Ishvarun had been enslaved by Aerugo hundreds of years previous, and there is a piece of "history" we have lying around that describes when the Ishvarun made the exodus out of Aerugo and slavery.... but there were some Ishvarun who remained behind, and still live there to this day... in fact, Makhu had decided to leave, and spent some time with the mozhkarishki (and meeting Imena who would become his wife), and then decided to go on to Xerxes, because the refugees needed a warrior priest. XD

Re: Dedication

[ext_632596]

Okay :) I didn't mean to give you any flack for it, I thought that I was wrong... I was worried that I was confused and I was actually thinking of Creta, which now that I look it up, seems to me that it would be more of a France-like civilation. I was just a tiny bit anxious because I thought that the information in my own current fan fiction was wrong. I am interested in reading the rest of your fic, this is set up to be a very interesting turn of events. I havn't met Makhu yet. :)

Re: Dedication

[whips_n_dozers]

"Flack" probably wasn't the right word. But we did expect that someone would mention it, eventually. We just decided, instead of cluttering up the header with that information, we'd just explain it when someone brought it up. ;)

Makhu is mentioned in the prologue, but makes his first actual appearance in Ch 1. And there will be some backstory, eventually, explaining the competitiveness between him and Scar/Mishyael.

Re: Dedication

[ext_632596]

Ah, I see :) thank you.

Re: Dedication

[mfelizandy]

The geographical problems...well, like my co-conspirator said, we'd set the world before we had any canon indication of what Aerugo was supposed to be like. So we left it as Africa for our AU, and figured someone would probably raise a hand and ask whether we'd missed that part. I'm not offended--I'm pleased you're reading closely enough to notice and ask!

I actually did some very rough calculations at one point, trying to work out how big Amestris is using the train-travel times mentioned in canon. To sum it up...fractured_chaosHere's the long, rambling version discussing the likely average speed of a passenger train in Amestris...oh, and a fair amount of the backstory/worldbuilding for the Ishvarun and Aerugans as they're imagined in this story. Of course if the continents on that version of Earth didn't drift the same way ours did, it's every fangirl for herself.

The Ishvarun did indeed spread as far as Xing, and its neighbor Bharat (India), when Amestris and its neighbors were getting warlike. That's why there are practitioners of the Ishvarun religion whose families have lived as citizens of Xing for generations, and red eyes/premature graying are all but the norm in villages in some parts of Bharat. (OK, yeah, I'm making all this up on the fly. It's fun!) The Ishvarun living further west were slaves to the Aerugans for several generations--it may even have been centuries, the historical record isn't clear and the Ishvarun themselves are working from oral history, which tends to be a little vague on exact dates. I think that's under kevarkhal in the Glossary. One quirk of the Glossary growing out of our internal "story bible" is that all kinds of cultural details got attached to whatever word occasioned the worldbuilding ramble, so kevarkhal got the sketch of Ishvarun slavery and radni ended up with a discussion of traditional Ishvarun hairstyles.

Male-female relations--I figure that over the course of the long and frequently tumultuous history of the Ishvarun, cultural evolution has acted to drive attitudes toward a reasonable respect for men and women and even children, along with horses, dogs, cows, goats, and chickens. They're pragmatic people, and with as much historical canon as they have, just about every traditional role or practice has been broken at one point or another. The society has its warts, but all things considered it's a pretty good place to be.

Re: Dedication

[mfelizandy]

Oops--dangit, got the link formatting wrong. Anyway... http://fracturedchaos.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=plot&action=display&thread=200