A brief guide to Dekavurian culture

Last update: 2 April 2007

This page pulls together various disparate topics concerning day-to-day Dekavurian life. It may be useful to refer to the history and geography pages and to the Maps.

Language

• Liotan, the main language of the Liotan empire.
• Kimbar, the language of the antagonistic tribes in the Kica valley and to the east.
• Devrian, a relative of Liotan, spoken in the south and south-west.
• Avritha, another relative of Liotan, in the north.
• Neriskan, a more distant relative of Liotan and Kimbar, in small pockets in the north.
• Athomine in the south-east.

All of these languages descended from a parent language generally called Sunovian, which also begat Rachovian, Mossian, Aneric, Cluza, and Pechnar. The language spoken by the Dekavurians themselves, meanwhile, is known as Classical Dekavurian, to distinguish it from contemporary Dekavurian.

As a result of the disruption caused by the barbarian invasions and the arrival of the Dekavurians, Devrian, Avritha, Neriskan, and Athomine ceased to be spoken in Dekavur. The Sanquet invaders in 561 brought with them a descendant of Mossian which was used as a language of administration until Dekavur became decisively independent in 815. Descendants of Kimbar were spoken in the Eastern Provinces as recently as 1130, but have since died out; surviving words from these languages include the province names Ettce and Recke.

The languages now spoken in Dekavur are thus descendants of either Liotan (the Liotic languages) or Classical Dekavurian. The most widely-understood language is the de facto standard form of contemporary Dekavurian, which is similar to the dialects spoken in and around Valdaborga; the other dialects of Dekavurian, which at their extremes are mutually incomprehensible, command much loyalty from their speakers. The Liotic languages are represented by Machren in the north; Chastuvien, Genistien, and Astarien in the south-west; and Lemyzon in the Kabra peninsula.

Personal names

• Dithematic Germanic, by far the commonest: Sigifritha "victory peace", Hailmarika "helm ruler", Sungibo "sun gift", Hludawini "famous friend". Many of these have equivalents in other Germanic languages, such as Wailjahailma ("will helmet", i.e. Wilhelm or William) and Mahtahaildi ("strong battle", i.e. Matilda).
• Monothematic Germanic, sometimes with the second element of a dithematic name (Hailma, Haildi), and sometimes an adjective (Salva, Hluda).
• Borrowings from Latin, Greek, or Hebrew, often filtered through Dekavurian phonology and losing unstressed vowels: Hlene < Helene, Tinþja < Timotheos, Rahlo < Rachel.

In general, names ending in -a were masculine, while those in -o were feminine; other endings could be either. One consequence of this is that the final vowels of some borrowed names were changed to preserve the gender identification, as with Tinþja above; another was that names borrowed in both genders had the opposite genders from what might be expected, thus thus Laura and Klaudja were masculine, while Lauro and Klaudjo were feminine.

Over the years, this basic stock of names has become altered in many ways. Many of the longer names have been shortened, either through phonetic attrition or use as more familiar variants, such as Alfrith from Athlafritha. Liotan names are commonly used in the Liotan-speaking south-west, such as Avariel ("holly") and Githan ("old, venerated"), while a few Mossian names are sometime used in the central and northern provinces, most notably a one-time ruler of Dima province called Sellixa.

Gender identification

Feminine suffixes are added both to masculine and to feminine names. The commonest are:

• -ino, of Dekavurian origin; thus Ludavino from Ludawiga, but often confused with Ludawini.
• -esso, also of Dekavurian vintage, as in Lauresso and Salvesso.
• -el, the feminine equivalent of Liotan -an, and commonest in the south and south-west. Following Liotan practice, this often creates a feminine name from a masculine one by replacing the -an, thus Thudrikel.
• -es, the conflation of the shortening of -esso and the feminine definite suffix. This is commonest in north and north-west Dekavur; a name like Lores (from Lauresso) would be unremarkable in Caldura or Socha, but unusual in somewhere like Kirtse.
• -eg, originally the Devrian diminutive suffix, and one of the few relics of Devrian in Dekavur. Although written with a G, it is pronounced /-ex/ or /-ek/ in the south-west and south.

The combination of shortening and further suffixing often results in one older name having many derivatives. This is nowhere better exemplified than with the old name Ailisabaitho, which is almost never used now in its original form; its derivatives include Elsaveto, Lizbetho, Ilsebeg, Izbel, Lisel, Lisbeg.

The gender associations of suffixes have been confused by the development of final vowels in the two most prestigious dialects, the west-central and south-eastern, in particular the loss of final /-a/. In these dialects, final vowels are often an indication of feminine gender; thus Laura Lauro appear as Lour Loura in Valdaborgo and as Leur Leure in Hanna, but remain Löra Löro in Athuncia. Note also names such as Ludevine, the modern-day west-central form of Ludavino, with reduction of the unstressed vowels to schwa, and Häldessä from the south-eastern dialects, with vowel harmony and lowering of the final /2/ to /{/.

Identifying names

Calendars

The length of the year (Dekavurian zheir) is 388.86 days.

The Liotan calendar

The Liotan calendar, which is used in the mainly Liotan-speaking west and south-west of Dekavur as well as by speakers of Kadhrein and Ivrien, identifies the days (yòdhe, yódata, zheudete) by the distance to the nearest of four principal Liotan festivals, and reckons the days as running from sunrise to sunrise.

The most important of the festivals is the Feast of the Longest Day (yòdha gushuva, yóda gushuma, zheude güshüve), which takes place over two days at the summer solstice; sunrise on the second day marks the beginning of the new year. At the winter solstice is the Feast of the Shortest Day (yòdha pothuva, yóda pothuma, sheude pothuva), also known in Astarien as Rebirth (darhuno). The other two festivals take place at the equinoxes; the spring equinox is marked by the Feast of Fertility (hyecte, chetse, shetse), and the autumn equinox by the Feast of Harvest (zhóna, dzwóna, zouna).

The remainder of the year (kuzda, kuzda, küzde, the same as the word for "summer") is divided into eight months (stana, i.e. "meeting", referring to the conjunction of the moons Héshanza and Ardinka), which consist of eight weeks (navèsta, nabyasta, nabasta, literally "six sun") of six days each. The months have no specific names; the names of the days derive from the names of the women who led the Six Great Houses of the Liotan Empire. The table below shows the names of the days in the South Liotan languages.

The sixth day of the week is the principal day of religious worship, prayer, and (not uncommonly) partying in the evening.

A non-feast day in the Liotan calendar is referred to as a particular day in the week before or after the nearest festival; the second and second-last days of the year are thus in Genistien shyala sóledha dor gushuváno and shyiala nurodha nof gushuváno, i.e. "the first sóledha after/first nurodha before Longest".

The Dekavurian calendar

The Dekavurian calendar is similar to older Germanic calendars, except that the months are two or three days longer and the year starts at the winter solstice (zhoule, related to English "yule"). The names of the months (meithas) and seasons are:

• Winter (vittro): avrajoule "after Yule", aitsameid "ice month", vindameid "wind month"
• Spring (kaid): mälkämeid "milking month", hebemeid "grass month", valbameid "fallow month"
• Summer (sana): hätämeid "hot month", väudämeid "weed month", harbameid "harvest month"
• Autumn (harba): irameid "plough month", hüslämeid "sacrifice month", vorazhoule "before Yule"

The week is seven days long and runs continuously throughout the year; the names of the days (dahas), which are cognate to the English, are sündag, mendag, tsüsdag, vosdag, thüsdag, frisdag, and louzdag; sündag has the same significance as nurodha in the Liotan week. The first day of avrajoule 1312 was thüsdag.

Leap years

Putting the calendars together

Individual dolthadahos (literally "feast days") vary from region to region; not counting the solstice feasts, those recognised throughout Dekavur are heutsadag (Unification Day), 23 harbameid, which marks the ascension of Oduargen the Great (the first Vaidza of a united Dekavur) in 815, and the doudandahas (Days of the Dead), 9 and 10 aitsameid, when the dead are remembered and honoured.

Education

Education normally starts at the age of six, lasts for at least six years, and consists of a combination of at least reading, writing, arithmetic, history, religious instruction, and two or three languages including one of the South Liotic languages. Additional subjects vary from region to region; basic education in sailing, for example, is usual in Chastu but rare in Dima, for obvous reasons.

Arts and crafts

Membership of a krutchida is desireable to earn respectability and money from a profession. While there is nothing to stop, for example, a troupe of non-member musicians providing regular entertainment in an inn, the local krutchida would get upset and require them either to stop performing or to join and pay their commission. Similarly, a rogue trader may be able to charge lower prices than those set by the krutchida, but prospective customers, if sensible, would be suspicious of the absence of a guarantee of quality, and the trader would have no legal means of redress if the customer refused to pay.

Dekavur makes no distinction between krutcharas who are responsible for making things and those, like artaras and landakutharas, who are not. An artar, for example, is akin more to a professional portrait-painter and decorator than to the likes of Damien Hirst, and is expected to be able to produce aesthetically-pleasing designs according to certain fixed principles. Similarly, läudäräs (professional singers) must be able to perform, when requested, any of over a hundred tunes to a high standard.

The stages of training

After he or she is judged competent, the kruttsiune becomes a krutcheskalka ("craft servant"), a junior member of the krutchida who typically serves under two or three different krutcharas for a total of at least three years. A kruttsiune earns actual money, although the arrangements differ between krutchithas; under one common arrangement the earnings of a kruttsiune are one quarter of those of a full krutchar in the first year, half in the second year, and three quarters in the third year.

After proving his or her worth over three years, the krutcheskalka may apply for the title of krutchar and set up on his or her own as a full member of the krutchida. A krutchar pays a fixed proportion of his or her earnings - usually six percent, but more in some krutchithas - per month to the krutchida.

Each krutchida has a krutchidafrumar, or Guildmaster, who is a member of the krutchatho vorda ("guilds council"). A krutchidafrumar must have been a member of the krutchida for at least fifteen years, may serve for a maximum of ten, and is elected in a public vote by all krutcharas.

The leader of the krutchatho vorda serves in that capacity for a maximum of five years; his or her suitability is judged by the other krutchidafrumaras in a public vote every year. All krutchidafrumaras may stand for election to the office of rika, and many do.

Well, that's the theory. In practice, many krutchithas are riven with corruption and nepotism, and in some cities there are two or three rival krutchithas for the same craft. The most notorious of the rivals is the independent gemma krutchida (Jeweller's Guild) of Mashkla, which split from its older rival when two of its prominent krutcharis fell out very publicly over the terms of a joint investment.

Science and Magic

Magic, known in Dekavurian as loinakäude (from a word meaning "hidden") and in Liotan as lloghrach, is the most arcane of the areas of landakäude; its distinguishing feature is that it requires powers derived from the mind, although many Magical effects require matter (often in the form of the objects known as "casting stones") and some combinations of gestures and utterances in order to be produced. For reasons not properly understood, but probably genetic, its potential practice is limited to perhaps one person in ten thousand; as the Liotan saying puts it, "Magic chooses; it is not chosen".

Of those who possess the ability to practise Magic, many are either unaware of it or unable progress beyond the fundamentals in training. Magical powers take many years to develop fully and exact a high physical cost from their users, and consequently there have rarely been as many as one hundred competent loinakäudäräs at any one time. Perhaps in compensation, repeated practice of Magic seems to slow the effects of aging; this, together with the tendency of loinakäudäräs to be cliquey and reclusive, has caused them to be regarded with suspicion bordering on fear.

The practice of loinakäude was ruled illegal and punishable by death after the spectacular and destructive demise in 1269 of Arcoddath the Blue of Chastu, the greatest loinakäudar in history and the only one ever to serve in an official capacity, in a Magical accident which also killed the Vaidza and his heir. As of 1312, there are believed to be fewer than twenty loinakäudäräs still alive in Dekavur.

Religion

The deities in the Dekavurian pantheon have been acquired or otherwise inherited form various sources through history; quite often different deities from different sources were equated and have several names. One such is the Goddess of Love, Marriage, and Fertility, known as Freja in Dekavurian, Ashterel in Liotan, and Berodza in Rachovian, and also known in the north by the Mossian name Stine and in the east by the Kimbar and Athomine Tharhen.

As in any pantheon, there are greater and lesser deities; whether a deity belongs to the greater or lesser sub-pantheon is often the subject of debate and is sometimes dependent on the inter-religious political needs of the moment. One famous example took place in 975 when Xerstenath became Vaidza, his principal deity was Lukazha, a hitherto obscure Goddess of Mossian origin whose priests believed that Xerstenath's ascension should be marked by something similar. After no little debate, some of it acrimonious, Lukaja was formally elevated into the greater pantheon in 977.

Generally speaking, though, the importance of a deity does not have much relationship to the social standing of his or her followers. Thus the relatively low-ranking Mossian deity Clascareo (literally "son of fire") has a conspicuous temple near the town of Paumure, courtesy of a wealthy landowner from the area; while the nearest temple to his father Tuli is a more discrete and restrained building in nearby Hanna Ruve.

Money

Dekavurian coinage

• eze: a bronze coin slightly smaller than a selbre.
• akra: from the word for "acorn"; the earliest coins were stamped with an imprint of an acorn in honour of the large oak tree which grew outside the mint. This coin is about half an inch in diameter and slightly thinner than a selbre; it is worth four ezis.
• selbre: a silver coin about an inch and a half in diameter. This is both the largest coin and the largest demonination in common use; it is worth ten akros.
• durtha: from the Liotan word for "gold". This coin is a little less than three-eighths of an inch in diameter and is worth four selbris.
• golda: guess what, a gold coin. It is three-quarters of an inch in diameter, and worth five durthas.

Liotan coinage

• spugha: tin, sometimes brass. Worth peanuts and not much used any more, except when giving as an insult.
• shertha: copper or bronze; worth ten spughan.
• kivla: silver mixed with copper; worth five sherthan.
• tartha: silver; worth eight kivlan.
• letha: gold/silver mixture; worth ten tarthan.
• durtha: gold, and very thin; worth five lethan. Often confused with the Dekavurian coin of the same name.

Money-changing

One selbre, or two tarthan and two kivlan, is the standard payment for one night's lodging, including meals in the evening and morning.