Over the last four days, I've been working on a list of nations for my human planet Shanu, in the Lehola Galaxy. I've also decided what languages are spoken in each country (I've actually done a lot of work on two of the tongues, Hitan and Kolothan), and I've named the major cities (including the capital of each country).
https://khemehekis.angelfire.com/shanu.htm
I have planned four webpages covering five of the planets (1: Hita; 2: Kolotha; 3: Dunkhalet; 4 & 5: Suno & Seria) that are stashed on my computer. They're linked on the page above, but will lead to Page Not Found errors if you click on them from my Lehola website. So here's a bit about them, presented by Khemehekis on the CBB:
Hita is the most populous country on Shanu,
and the largest by area. Its entire continent is devoted to just Hita, including the nearby islands. Hita has a religion called Shotisha, in which the current emperor of Hita is also the divine leader of the religion, and its holy texts are focused on obeying the rules of the religion-cum-state. You better not get arrested, because an emperor's decree several centuries ago revealed that anyone who has been arrested cannot get into Heaven. Hitans speak an OSV language called Hitan, which is considered the most important OSV human language in the whole galaxy. Hitans are superb pasta chefs, and in fact the words for types of pasta in such Leholangs as Kankonian are borrowed from Hitan. There is a cedar-shaped (but flowering) tree on Shanu called the kisa, which is considered sacred in Shotisha. Shotishans will not chop down a kisa that has died without falling, but will have to uproot it and burn it in a holy fire.
I realize the description of Hita is brief, but I've never actually typed up my Hita page on my computer. Just a page for the Hitan language, which makes heavy use of compound words.
Then there's Kolotha.
Kolotha is a nation on the continent of Aluma. 61% of Kolothans have straight hair, 24% have wavy hair and 15% have curly hair. Kolothans average 5'7" (male) or 5'5" (female) in height.
There is desert area over most of the region, with lots of cliffs and mesas. There is also the Bokudi mountain range, and the country reaches into savannah.
The Kolothans value knowledge, wisdom and introspection and inquiry. Their religion is Sumakhar. It teaches resourcefulness, philosophical inquiry, wisdom, compassion, strength in going through life, and honesty with others and self. Sumakhar believes that material possessions and breakable and temporary -- just like life itself. Practitioners of Sumakhar strive to find wisdom and achievements that can outlive oneself. For this reason, writing books and poetry are very popular among the Kolothan people. Much is published on Kolotha, with the paper made from the wood of the dakapi tree. Sumakhar has many monks. One temple is home to nuns and female clergy. Sumakhar does not teach that God is an anthropomorphic man with ten fingers and ten toes; rather, it sees the concept of God in virtues and good works, and interprets God as meaning the fact that a certain act or quality is good or bad, right or wrong. Sumakharis see God, for instance, in the fact that theft is wrong.
Boys have a coming of age ceremony, in which they are taken out to the mesas in the wilderness and find their way back to the village, aided by a kona bird on their shoulder. This orienteering is conducted shortly after they have entered puberty. When they get back, the kona is taken back into the aviary and the town has a feast for boys returning at the time.
Kolothans are monogamous, with large proportions never marrying; those who do tend to have relatively small families for a traditional culture due to the low resource level of their desert environment.. They locally run schools that start at age 6 in Terran years. You are educated in these community schools until coming of age and then several prestigious academies are open to you.
Kolothans have a first name, then a family name, then a region name, so that the Atheleya family of Napath is distinguished from the Atheleya family of Bakanopi: for instance, Pakin Atheleya Napath.
Kolothan men wear a short-sleeved tunic and shorts. Kolothan women wear a demoth (a vest-like top that reaches down to the hips), a bra, and a skirt that reaches just to the knees. Children wear simple one-piece dresses. Everyone wears simple shoes that resemble Birkenstocks.
Popular foods include rice, maize, fruits, aardvark, dog, ants, and buku (a relative of the pig and peccary with a spongy horn on its nose). Mind-expanding drugs, including marijuana, psilocybin, and popana from the popakada berries, are common.
Popular music resembles folk music and is simply called "Kolothan music". When they're not entertaining themselves by playing music, the Kolothans enjoy weaving and embroidery, as well as hunting. The hunts in Kolotha are well-organized and set for the first of each month. Hunters will often go from the desert into the savannah to shoot something.
The prime minister of Kolotha is usually selected from among the clergy. Elections are open every 10 years (or when a sitting prime minister needs to be replaced) to everyone who has come of age. They have a representative democracy, with a congress of 20 men and women. In addition, Kolotha has a small military. Kolotha is harsh and punitive with people felt to be a threat to Sumakhar values, but the government has a judicial system and fair trial. In fact, it is very hard to convict a person in Kolotha.
The Kolothan concept of time is divided between the two elements of time, the Wheel and the Lever. The Wheel represents cyclical time: generations are born and replace other generations in each life stage, eventually dying. People get married, raise families, hold feasts and festivals. Every few hundred years, it is believed, the same things happen in Kolotha, and the same people come along in different incarnations. The same events happen in different names, rhyming even if they do not repeat. The Lever represents progress that raises a nation up. Even though the same souls are being reborn, they contribute new insights and new contributions to the Kolothan repertoire of thought with each life, and therefore new knowledge is accrued. Like a straight bar that goes up and up, the Lever progresses civilization. The Lever is often drawn as passing through the center of the Wheel.
Then there's Dunkhalet.
Dunkhalet is a vast nation reaching into desert, deciduous forest and grassland regions. To its west are the Khazarri Mountains.
In Dunkhalet there are many ethnic groups, including the Nindatsa, the Mar, the Hethekelians, the Shinit, the Phakut, the Yung, the Amestrians, the Zardics and the Futinuj.
Most people are united by a common religion, Gophism. Gophism teaches harmony and unity, and respect for all life on Shanu. Gophists are vegetarians. According to Gophism, there will be an afterlife in Heaven for the deserving and a fading away for the undeserving. The religion is noted for its exotic temple dances, which are intended to bring good fortune to the Dunkhaleti people and others on Shanu. Gophists believe that if others are respected by you, good things will happen to you. One people, the Shinit, practice Kartalokism instead, a form of ancestor worship.
The capital of Dunkhalet is Satakhap. Other major cxties include Ainaka, Telesma, Julani, Dakadur, Psiangtsun, Ksintong, Klinadar, Zanishpof, Bajinal, Manji, Nindziong, and Phartburga. Boulevards in major metropolitan centers are littered with posters and ephemera. Restaurants with flashy signs can be seen on the streets.
The government has one prime minister with a congress of 500 who vote on legislation. In addition to the congress, there is a committee who votes on a direct democracy bypass option, which allows the common people over age 15 to vote personally for or against a bill if the committee passes the option. The people elect their prime minister every 6 years, and a prime minister is limited to three terms. Congress has a proportional representation of parties based on the percentage of party-affiliated voters who are registered within each party. The voters registered within each party elect their party's congresspeople by ranking their preferred candidates from their party's candidate pool. The government respects diversity and large variation in lifestyles (some ethnic groups, such as the Mar and Shinit, are polygamous, others; such as the Nindatsa and Zardics, are monogamous). Ever since the nation united, the national government has assured that everyone has a first name, a middle name and a last name.
Oh lord, Suno and Seria.
Both Sunans and Serians average 5'6" for men and 5'2" for women. Suno has a huge overseas empire with colonies on the continent of Oloze.
So basically, the Sunans hate the Serians, and the Serians hate the Sunans. The conflict is partly over land (Serians want the Sunans' land, where they lived when they first started raising pigs, while Sunans erroneously believe that the Serians encroached on land that was originally part of their country), but is mostly religious and deals largely with the other country's view of gender roles and their conception of who God is. Their hate extends to the customs of each other, and they teach their children to mock the other country's clothing and diet. Because of this, they have been at war with each other since 2460 (on the Hitan calendar). The war is conducted without concern for civilian casualties, and using guns, cannons, tanks and biological weapons. As of the time this page was written, the Serians were winning the war, partly because they know how to plan attacks in both forest and mountains, but mostly because the biological weapons they import have been more deadly. Although they have not dragged other nations into the Suno-Seria War, the dictator of Suno drafts the people in Suno and its Oloze colonies (males aged 15-34) to fight Seria. Although Suno is not an industry giant, it keeps a strong empire abroad, and finds the usually illiterate tribal natives and horsemen and farmers who live in its colonies to be a useful source of soldiery.
Both are poor countries. Suno covers deciduous and temperate evergreen forest. Seria consists of deciduous forest, a very small swath of temperate evergreen forest, and mountains where sheep are raised.
The Sunans eat beef and horsemeat, while the Serians eat pork and lamb. Sunans have little industry; their main industry is making weapons. They are horsemen and farmers. Serians have coal mining in the mountains and an industry in the evergreen forests similar to nineteenth-century England.
Sunan men wear square hats and robes. Sunan women wear dresses. In Seria, the men wear round hats and tunics over their pants, while women wear long-sleeved hemp shirts and hemp skirts. Serian men and women wear boots of pig leather.
The Sunans are monogamous and have large families; they are patrilineal. Serians are monogamous and have medium-sized families. They are bilineal. In both countries, your family name comes first.
Suno has an authoritarian government and is under a dictator, who is always male. The government includes a large military, with deadly weapons that are surprisingly effective and advanced for the technological state of the nation. Its weapons allow it to conquer other land and countries and keep its empire strong. Seria, conversely, has an oligarchy of 30 socialists (including, at last count, 4 women) who control industry and means of production on the planet, overseeing economic matters. It has a medium-size military and no draft. Although it has no empire, when it does conduct wars (usually with Suno) it imports deadly weapons from Elatein and Lasathar.
The Sunans practice the Saraga religion. Saraga believes in one god. It teaches that women and girls are subordinate to men and boys. Practitioners of Saraga believe in Heaven and in Hell (Gadyurun); Gadyurun is described as a place of "thorns and darkness". Sunans continue to fight the war against Seria because Saraga teaches that, in the name of their beliefs, they must not surrender. The Serians practice the religion Phero. Phero has many gods and goddesses. It believes in the equality of genders. According to Phero, you can become a god of one of many ranks in the afterlife depending on your deeds on Shanu. The unworthy fade away into a state of Unu, or "separateness from gods".
In Suno, the people speak Sunan, an SOV language. In Seria, the people speak Serian, also an SOV language. The two tongues are related.
I've never made a page from Zelazia, but the name came to me
in a dream a few years ago, wherein I was reading a book about countries where all the people were personified as an local animal species. The last country in the book was Zelazia, a country where all the people were anthropomorphic zebras. I do not believe that it would be realistic for zebras to evolve into a sapient life-form, but I thought Zelazia was a great name, and so I've kept the name and made it a country on a human planet -- a country known as "the land of a thousand zebras". I've decided Zelazia will have a variety of African-type wildlife. Zelazia is awesome!
Awloya, Olwöa, 'ai'u, Hɛlcɛso (on hiatus), Tsjàta (on hiatus)
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