Today we are going to learn about Rinadrion, students. Please turn to page 342 in your 'Civilizations of the World' textbook...
Ha ha! Anyways, Rinadrion can basically be described in one word: warlike. Their whole culture is centered around war, and their main gods are: Rinard (this is where the country gets its name); Kelvessus; and Hirdoff. Rinard is basically the main god, and he's depicted as a warrior. Kelvessus is the god of the wounded soldiers, and Hirdoff is the god of the soldiers who have fallen in battle. They also have a very important goddess of healing named Thelaya.
The lesser gods and goddesses are for planting and prosperity.
From the time that a boy is old enough to hold a fairly hefty stick, his father begins teaching him how to fight. By the time he is fourteen, he is ready to enter the army. All the fourteen year old boys go to the palace, and the commander of the army chooses a number of them to serve in the army for five years.
There are dwarves that live in the mountains, and are paid by the king to make things for the palace. They basically have their own society, and are not obligated to send any of their sons to join the army. However, in the even of an invasion, they must help defend the land.
Girls are raised to run farms by themselves, since often their father and/or brother(s) will be in the army.
Rinadrion is well known for its war-singing; it is a proven fact that it keeps the soldiers’ morale up. War-singing begins low and deep, and goes on, rising until it reaches a thrilling and uplifting conclusion. It is usually sung to keep time with the marching. There are no instrumental accompaniments, so that every man's hands will be free.
Rinard, the greatest of the gods, is honored every four months by a huge military procession through the streets of Cavaris, the royal city. As each column of soldiers passes under the great statue of Rinard, they lift their weapons in salute.
When a boy reaches twelve years of age, he is given a sword by his father. On a girl’s twelfth birthday she is given a young workhorse colt, or a calf. Birthdays are usually not celebrated, only marked on the calendar.
Great Rinadrion victories against the enemy are celebrated with feasts and dancing.
Rinadrion is almost always at war. There are certain factions within the country which take the extreme opposite, and are pacifists. They are despised by most of the Rinadrions, and tend to live in small, close knit, isolated groups.
If anyone has any questions about Rinadrion, please feel free to ask them! I hope you've enjoyed this section. Belvia will be up next.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Arvindia
Arvindia is probably my favorite country I've made up. I don't know why. Maybe I like the name a lot, or, something... anyways, this post will be about the origin of Arvindia and things like that.
Arvindia was discovered when the Erasthinians fled from a sorcerer who had conquered their land. They had been headed for Lecartin when they were blown off course, and they found themselves on a beautiful island. At first they built near the coast, and after a while they made Rollendin (who had been the commander of the Royal Fleet in Erasthinia) king of the new land, which they named Arvindia.
They thought that they were the only ones on the island besides animals, but they soon found out differently. A group of men went out to climb three mountains which stood together about one hundred and fifty miles from the towns, and they never came back. Another party went out to learn what had happened, and they did not come back either. When a third group went out, it was soon discovered what was wrong: the three mountains were infested with goblins. The mountains became known as the Goblingulf Mountains, and the goblins, seeing the Arvindians as invaders, began to attack their towns and villages.
A long war was started, with intervals of peace, for several hundred years, until the time of King Rinlar the Second, when it was ended. At this point, the tale of Red Sea Rising begins.
The Arvindians value advice very highly, and the most powerful nobleman in the kingdom is one whom the king has appointed as his chief counselor. Also, because of their ancestors fleeing from a sorcerer, they tend to view all magic with suspicion, even magic which is not, of itself, evil.
Arvindia imports very little besides gold (which is found only in small quantities in that land), as they are able to grow and produce most of what they need. Their chief exports are several kinds of wine which they are well known for, wheat, and silver.
If anyone has any questions about Arvindia, please ask me!
Arvindia was discovered when the Erasthinians fled from a sorcerer who had conquered their land. They had been headed for Lecartin when they were blown off course, and they found themselves on a beautiful island. At first they built near the coast, and after a while they made Rollendin (who had been the commander of the Royal Fleet in Erasthinia) king of the new land, which they named Arvindia.
They thought that they were the only ones on the island besides animals, but they soon found out differently. A group of men went out to climb three mountains which stood together about one hundred and fifty miles from the towns, and they never came back. Another party went out to learn what had happened, and they did not come back either. When a third group went out, it was soon discovered what was wrong: the three mountains were infested with goblins. The mountains became known as the Goblingulf Mountains, and the goblins, seeing the Arvindians as invaders, began to attack their towns and villages.
A long war was started, with intervals of peace, for several hundred years, until the time of King Rinlar the Second, when it was ended. At this point, the tale of Red Sea Rising begins.
The Arvindians value advice very highly, and the most powerful nobleman in the kingdom is one whom the king has appointed as his chief counselor. Also, because of their ancestors fleeing from a sorcerer, they tend to view all magic with suspicion, even magic which is not, of itself, evil.
Arvindia imports very little besides gold (which is found only in small quantities in that land), as they are able to grow and produce most of what they need. Their chief exports are several kinds of wine which they are well known for, wheat, and silver.
If anyone has any questions about Arvindia, please ask me!
Thursday, June 9, 2011
I'm going to deviate a little bit...
June tenth is my little brother's birthday, and I wrote an essay for ApricotePie.com about him. So, I thought I would put up some pictures of him on my blog. Hope ya'll enjoy!
I'm sorry they aren't of the best quality; they were all taken with my webcam.
Isn't he a darling?
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Erasthinia and the Carthelim
Erasthinia
Pronunciation- EER-us-theen-yuh
Erasthinia is, I think, the first country I made up for the world I've been writing about for the last four years. I wrote a book called The War for Erasthinia, which, although I realize now that it wasn't that great of a book (in parts rather embarrassing, in fact), it did lay the foundation for the rest of the stories I've written, especially about Arvindia. In that book, a war takes place between the Erasthinians and an invading sorcerer. At the end, after a terrible battle in which the sorcerer is wounded, and many Erasthinian soldiers killed, the remaining soldiers and their families, and many other people from that country, board ships and sail away, abandoning their land to the sorcerer. Meaning to go to Lecartin, they are blown off course and arrive in an uninhabited land, which they call Arvindia.
So, The War for Erasthinia may have been rather juvenile, but it did lay the groundwork for the rest of my stories about that world.
In 'Red Sea Rising', the fact that the Erasthinians fled from a sorcerer is a theme which runs throughout.
Not a lot is known about Erasthinia, because now that the sorcerer rules it, and has for hundreds of years, no trade takes place between it and the other countries. Many people believe that the sorcerer is one of the Carthelim, five extremely powerful and evil sorcerers. If/when one of them is killed, the remaining four will take another magician and train him to be a Carthelim.
Perhaps one of the reasons that the Erasthinians lost the war is because a jealous nobleman's son, Keldrin, betrayed the king's favorite captain, a young man named Kinlar, to the sorcerer. Kinlar eventually escaped, after killing Keldrin in single combat, but the absence of a brilliant captain probably contributed to the downfall of the Erasthinian kingdom.
NOTE:
Which country would ya'll like to see next: Arvindia, Rinadrion, Belvia, or Bynthybria?
Pronunciation- EER-us-theen-yuh
Erasthinia is, I think, the first country I made up for the world I've been writing about for the last four years. I wrote a book called The War for Erasthinia, which, although I realize now that it wasn't that great of a book (in parts rather embarrassing, in fact), it did lay the foundation for the rest of the stories I've written, especially about Arvindia. In that book, a war takes place between the Erasthinians and an invading sorcerer. At the end, after a terrible battle in which the sorcerer is wounded, and many Erasthinian soldiers killed, the remaining soldiers and their families, and many other people from that country, board ships and sail away, abandoning their land to the sorcerer. Meaning to go to Lecartin, they are blown off course and arrive in an uninhabited land, which they call Arvindia.
So, The War for Erasthinia may have been rather juvenile, but it did lay the groundwork for the rest of my stories about that world.
In 'Red Sea Rising', the fact that the Erasthinians fled from a sorcerer is a theme which runs throughout.
Not a lot is known about Erasthinia, because now that the sorcerer rules it, and has for hundreds of years, no trade takes place between it and the other countries. Many people believe that the sorcerer is one of the Carthelim, five extremely powerful and evil sorcerers. If/when one of them is killed, the remaining four will take another magician and train him to be a Carthelim.
Perhaps one of the reasons that the Erasthinians lost the war is because a jealous nobleman's son, Keldrin, betrayed the king's favorite captain, a young man named Kinlar, to the sorcerer. Kinlar eventually escaped, after killing Keldrin in single combat, but the absence of a brilliant captain probably contributed to the downfall of the Erasthinian kingdom.
NOTE:
Which country would ya'll like to see next: Arvindia, Rinadrion, Belvia, or Bynthybria?
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Enderellia
So... I know I've been gone for a really long time (a really, really long time :), but hopefully I'll be making more regular posts from now on. As you know, I'm working on a fantasy (though I prefer the term faerie tale) called at present Red Sea Rising. I'm on a Christian fantasy forum called Holy Worlds, and it's challenged me to really develop my 'world'. So, I'm thinking about posting about the countries I have so far. This first one is Enderellia. The others are: Arvindia, Belvia, Bynthybria, Erasthinia, Lecartin, Rinadrion and the Three Countries of Relastin, Tareth and Anarth.
So, Enderel is the Creator. His name took me forever to come up with. I was writing The War for Erasthinia and couldn't think of a name. The only ones I was able to think of didn't sound right. Finally, I remembered a character that had an extremely minor role in the story (he was later cut out of it altogether). His name was Sir Enderel. I realized I had had the name right in front of me all the time, so I took that and have used it ever since.
Enderellia is Enderel's country (basically, Heaven).
The idea for it came some weeks ago, while looking up at the clouds and wondering what it would be like if they were actually lands, not just made up of water vapor but countries that were always changing shape but could be lived on. Then I thought, what if that is where Enderel's followers go when they die? So came the name Enderellia. There isn't a whole lot of information about this place, since people only go there after death, so I can't really tell you much about it at the moment. But rest assured, many of the other countries have a lot more detail. So be watching for the posts about them!
If anyone has any ideas on how I could expand on Enderellia, I'd love to hear them :)
So, Enderel is the Creator. His name took me forever to come up with. I was writing The War for Erasthinia and couldn't think of a name. The only ones I was able to think of didn't sound right. Finally, I remembered a character that had an extremely minor role in the story (he was later cut out of it altogether). His name was Sir Enderel. I realized I had had the name right in front of me all the time, so I took that and have used it ever since.
Enderellia is Enderel's country (basically, Heaven).
The idea for it came some weeks ago, while looking up at the clouds and wondering what it would be like if they were actually lands, not just made up of water vapor but countries that were always changing shape but could be lived on. Then I thought, what if that is where Enderel's followers go when they die? So came the name Enderellia. There isn't a whole lot of information about this place, since people only go there after death, so I can't really tell you much about it at the moment. But rest assured, many of the other countries have a lot more detail. So be watching for the posts about them!
If anyone has any ideas on how I could expand on Enderellia, I'd love to hear them :)
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