Tag Archives: Tylanians

Kivanian (and Tylanian) languages

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It goes without saying, for anyone who’s ever heard their singers or language, but Kivanians (and by evolutionary connection, Tylanians) have exceedingly complex larynxes.

For most humans the variety and kinds of phonemes commonly found in their languages are virtually (in some cases utterly) impossible to reproduce.  Some excellent mimics can fake as much as 50% of the sounds and upwards of 80% of the most common; the average person is lucky to get 5% and 20%.

Part of it is that their complex vocal cord structure allows for chordal tones – some of the sounds they use to talk are actually two simultaneous vocalisations from the throat.  They largely incorporate sounds that can best be described as clicks, pops, chirps, and blended vowels.  Some dialects and words get even weirder and may include caws, whistles, and screeches.

The language is fairly easy to transliterate into Galfarran due to the very wide selection of phonemes included and glyphs for each of them with diacritics to help cover more esoteric alien phonics, but even here some sounds are often “skipped.”  In Universal Standard (English) these skips are indicated, typically, by an apostrophe.  In Galfarran they’re usually marked with a kilĵā.  An example, the Kivanian word for “plate,” “k’ghnma,” has a complex vowel, ǔǫī, between the k and g, those who’d like to pronounce it properly would have to manage to pronounce an oo while making something on the lines of a long i (the simplest accent of that vowel; some dialects’ way of pronouncing it cannot be meaningfully conveyed in English), but as with many similar transliterative tricks in English the apostrophe should be treated as a syllable break, the ghnm should be pronounced as closely to a single consonant sound as possible, the a should be soft like in “car”.

There are several dialects of Kivanian, but few of Tylanian.  This is due to the much smaller population of the first Tylanians and no significant effort for the earlier members to preserve any ancestral tongues.  Dialects have cropped up in the mean time in a manner rather analogous to the various accents/dialects found in various regions of the Earth city called “London“.

Tylanian is incomprehensible to Kivanian speakers and vice versa as they broke off when there were more distinct Kivanian languages and predates the Imperial Decree of Languages and its corresponding founding of the Imperial Language Conference.

Within the span of the Imperium a common tongue based on the first Imperial clans’ native tongues was adopted, but various clans kept and used their ancestral languages as well.  Due to the influences of having to conduct all formal interactions in Imperial Kivanian influences settled into the ancestral languages that has aligned them somewhat with the common language.  The dialectal differences can still manage to be distinct enough that two clans from far enough apart in the Imperium will sound as though they are saying the same thing, but could be making radically different statements (kind of like in Albanian when some regional dialects use a word that some interpret as war, but another as a vulgarity for coitus).  Even speaking Imperial can get strange for them as accents can be difficult for those from extremities to follow, though it’s safe to say they figure it out more often than not.

Written Kivanian is a kind of cursive script that has often been described as intricate drawings of vines.

The loops, curls, and other features of the script very rarely go far above or below the ulk’ragth (central connective line), leaving the writing very narrow on the vertical (if it were written out in typical left-right top-down fashion like English) and quite wide.  There is no break between words, instead the breaks appear to indicate ending of sentences.

Diacritics are used to indicate inflections, and inflections indicate exclamation/interrogative/etc. as well as a certain degree of irony/humour/etc.

The lot is arranged into spirals beginning at the centre and working one’s way outward.

Simple texts will maintain very basic geometric shapes:  triangles, circles, or squares (generally) with shape chosen having loose conventions relative to the shape of what’s being written on, whim of the writer, and other factors.  Poetry, however, has a habit of becoming a complex drawing of something related to the topic of the poem – including foregoing sentence breaks in favour of specialised punctuation, to help the clarity of the image.  This leaves Kivanian books of longer fiction quite beautiful in many cases as they never really got the idea of the novel or prose, so keep to something better described as epic poetry for longer works.

Tylanian written language is best described as cursive Sanskrit.

Their writing has no ulk’ragth, instead there is the ulthg’ath, which is a connecting line at the top of the characters.  Words and sentences are separated by marks, but the only spacing is between stanzas (some linguists argue it should be translated ‘paragraph’ as the purpose is closer, but the grammatical rules involved favour ‘stanza’).  The text is read from the centre as with Kivanian, but generally keeps to triangular spirals.

Tylanians have a better grasp of prose, though only about two centuries old and still not exceedingly popular, but some quite creative novels have evolved.  Even in prose the Tylanian tradition of writing fiction in elabourate knots similar to the Celtic and Nordic designs of ancient Earth is held, though the prose struggles with the convention of the complexity of the design being reflective of the complexity of the content and lends to its lack of popularity as the designs from page to page are seen as being in an aesthetically disturbing chaos.

Tylanians

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For biology see Kivanians

The Tylanians are a historical curiosity. The species originates on Kivan, and is in fact Kivanian, though neither race will agree with this assessment for certain sociological reasons.

Before Kivanians developed faster than light travel there was a major social and political schism. Due to the pack nature of the race certain disagreements involve ejection from the pack. In this instance the Tylanians were ejected from the species and exiled from the homeworld. Due to the long separation, first by logistics of distance and later due to a mutual distrust and tendency to avoid one another the Tylanians and Kivanians have evolved sufficiently different society, governemnt, language, and the very earliest signs of genetic divergence such that they are accepted by many as a distinct race if not as a distinct species. As it is debated even among their own scholars if it was within their ability to actually eject someone from the species no serious effort is made to classify them, biologically, as separate, but a popular practice in deference to the two races’ wish to be counted apart unofficial subspecies nomenclature and denotion is often used.

The Tylanian story is lost to full fledged history. Though tradition and legend remain to give an idea.

The schism, according to both races’ legends dates back in the time that the Imperium was first trying to form. It is known that this would place the time of the event well after the species had developed space flight, and had achieved a level of refinement that it was a reasonably cost effective, and not inconvenient investment of time to travel the worlds of the Kivanian home star system.

The exacts of the argument seem to be lost even to legend, but it seems that the Tylanians were opposed to, either the formation of the Imperium and its entire setup or to the first selected Patriarch and Matriarch and were exiled from the race. Tradition and legend among both races differs if it was self imposed exile or not as there are provisions for exile from the Imperium that, in essence, excommunicates one from the Kivanian race since you are stripped of both family and clan name and not allowed back into the dominion of the Kivanians. The Tylanian schism, if it was such an event, was the only time such was done on any scale larger than a dozen individuals.

They left in a generational ship that had a very good sublight drive and the theories that led to the first Kivanian FTL had been concieved. Tylanian history suggests and legend plainly states that within three generations of leaving their home they successfully made use of those theories and so converted their colony ship to such which is how the Tylanians are so far from their planet of origin with an old and established society, and rich, vibrant cities instead of still being a number of years from reaching it (they, in fact had been exiled to a different star, much closer to Kivan but liked neither the proximity to the Imperium, nor the need to kivaform the only remotely habitable planet in that system while continuing to live on the generational ship during that process which was estimated to need three hundred years to complete).

Today the Tylanians are a race that has been, historically, a kind of democratic monarchy electing a king and queen that rules with the aid of a group loosely translatable as a parliament (please note that this is only loose translation and ignores certain nuances of powers and responsibilities). They still seem to follow a form of the Kivanian traditions of ancestor worship if less varied, and The First ancestor seems to have a role as closer to a full deity and bringer of all life and death.

Their diet differs little from Kivanian since their ship was sent to a world known to need kivaformed to live on and as such had brought much Kivanian livestock and seed with them both for use on the ship as well as on their new home. Some took to the new world better than others and a few cross pollenated with native plants so their Kivanian foodstuffs are not all perfectly parallel and too the diet takes into account many native plants, animals and insects. Of interesting note is the Tylanian habit to prefer mollusks, land and sea, as well as crustaceans in dishes where Kivanians typically would use fish or poultry.

It should also be noted that either the sacredness of Kivanian passions was not a typcial or even existent belief at the time of the schism (a common interpretation as it took place before the species had met other sentient races) or they abandoned this philosophy at some point. A Tylanian makes a far greater effort to manage the extremities of their emotional state than many Kivanians are likely to ever consider healthy, or sane.

Tylassia, the Tylanian homeworld, is significantly closer to Terran controlled territories than the Imperium’s worlds and, between this and the ‘greater emotional stability’ of the race, the Tylanians have a better relationship with the Terran Confederation.

Kivanians

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Kivanians are a race exclusive to, as far as can be determined, the Milky Way. They are also a single homeworld race, originally, although these days their Imperium spans many hundred star systems.

They are bipedal and primarily omnivorous. They are counted among the human races, though only just barely due to substantial biochemical and anatomical differences that lead to a near infertility with several other human species.

Superficially they are nearly hairless, even for a human species. Many Kivanians, male and female have no hair below their eyelashes, and there are some that do not even possess these. Two other superficial differences are their pointed ears. Not unique among human species by any measure it is not terribly common either. The second feature is the presence of a third semi-voluntarily controlled eyelid.

Below the skin the Kivanian is rather alien. Their blood utilises hemocyanin in complex molecular groups and carried by corpuscles. Next of note is their respiratory system which does not use a diaphragm, but rather a very avian style system involving air sacs to alter pressures and circulate oxygen over the blood. Finally of obvious note is the presence of two small hearts, one behind each breast. These hearts are sized such that each alone can fulfill a full two-thirds of their body’s circulatory needs. Typically they beat at a rate to share the load on a fifty-fifty average, though at any moment one heart can, as needed , slow or even stop while the other picks up the slack … the latter condition, clearly, cannot be sustained long without risking further damage, this allows them to more easily heal from certain kinds of heart disease and damage. The paired hearts can also beat in full throttle parallel to provide their bodies with a sudden powerful surge of blood throughout the body that, thanks to the avian nature of their lungs is kept well oxygenated and thus giving the species a remarkable boost of stamina.

The third eyelid, is semitransparent. Closing it obscures but does not completely block their vision and is an adaptation for the rich, dense jungles of the species homeworld where it helped to guard their eyes from pollen clouds (there is even a rare phenomena called a pollen storm, not unlike a dust storm of an Earth desert) as well as from some of the world’s various insect species without actually blinding them. It also helps in wiping things that do manage to get into their eyes away, those that left the jungles and started to settle Kivan’s few deserts, or that took to the stars and have settled on more arid planets find it somewhat useful in dealing with the glare from exceedingly bright light.

The Kivanian diet, traditionally involves various exceedingly hot peppers, the mildest of which are comparable in potency to the habeñero, and the typical, medium level examples of, have been known to kill more than a few Humans, and the hottest of which has been reported by some to be useful for cleaning engine parts and removal of paint. The juices of some of these peppers are used as a cooking method for certain foods. A popular fish dish is ‘cooked’ by marinating the fillets in dil’krthplr juice from sunrise to dinner, and served drizzled with a sweet wine mixed with salt and what is essentially peppermint. On the species home world and home continent the normal diet consists of various large insects, mostly ones of a mantis-esque form, and some not dissimilar to the cricket; various fishes; some small lizards; and several birds. Oddly there are few dietary mammals and those are for special ceremonial or celebratory dishes. All their native jungle amphibian life is highly toxic to anything that isn’t a few very specially evolved lizards and birds. Outside this cradle of their race and civilisation the diet varies only by local availability. The species has an instinctive aversion to amphibian based dishes, but some Kivanian recipes for a temperate zone creature resembling an eight legged salamander exist, and in colder climes mammals begin to make up more of the diet, but mostly fish becomes a more important item.

For drinks they like much the same as any human species. Milks of select mammals, juices from fruits, berries, and a few vegetables and ferns, a nectar secretion by a kind of luminous mushroom found at the bases of several species of trees, and of course alcohol. It should be noted that while Kivanians like tea and coffee it does not affect them as profoundly as Humans. This said one still does not wish to give a Kivanian toddler a triple espresso, and may regret a double. A single is safe for the most part if it isn’t too strong. Alcohol too is another interesting item in Kivanian blood streams. They seem almost immune to grain alcohol, and drink wood alcohols for the same effects and purposes we would consume the afore mentioned grain items. Curiously it is safe for humans to drink a small handful of these products, either due to the extremely low concentration of the alcohol combined with a few mitigating ingredients, and the others being made from woods that seem to, if kept under 10% by volume may be safely drunk in careful moderation.

Final biological items of note: Kivanian women are on a menstrual cycle averages 39 Earth days. Females reabsorb uterine lining if implantation does not occur. They have more complex vocal cords than several human species giving them a exceptional range of phonemes. They are more tolerant of heat, but less of cold than a Human counterpart, average is to assume they will die of heat or cold at 20°F higher temperatures than we would. They are also somewhat stronger by mass than the average human. Finally their endocrine system averages on the hyperactive side when compared to most species in general, this gives them a reputation as an exceedingly emotional and passionate people.

Psychologically they are a pack animal. They are extremely loyal to and protective of family. They are also largely law abiding by nature. This is not to say that they will blindly follow laws regardless of their fairness or justification, nor that Kivanians do not have criminals, just that the typical nature of a crime that a Kivanian is liable to commit is centred along different statistical lines than Humans.

This psychology has imprinted itself in their social structure. The family is headed by a patriarch and males hand down their family name to their children. The families are grouped into clans which are headed by females and the clan name is passed down by the mothers. A Kivanian’s name will always follow the format of Given Name, Secondary Name, Family Name, Clan Name. In the event of a halfbreed the name becomes hyphenated and convention follows as: if male father family name is dropped in favour of clan name but clan name will go before the maternal surname if there is one. Thus Clanname-Maternalsurname. If mother is Kivanian then tradition is, effectively held except the addition of hyphenation to denote that the family name is not a Kivanian one. This Paternalsurname-Clanname. It is exceedingly rare for this not to be the case, as few Kivanians will not be very adamant with their lover that this tradition must be followed.

The ruling structure involves a kind of hierarchy of families and clans up to the Imperial
patriarch and matriarch. They are almost never a wedded couple, and only occasionally closely related. For more information see entry on Imperium.

Kivanian religious practices vary, but largely centre around various forms of ancestor worship. A semi-deity among nearly the whole species is The First Ancestor, who is depending on the traditions of a family could be anything from the progenitor of the race, to all life on Kivan, to all life in the universe, some even saying of the universe itself.

Also typical is varying degrees of consideration that their passions and emotions are divine, sacred, and other similar attributes. As a result most embrace their passions, which gives the species a reputation, partially deserved, of being short tempered, rash, violent, vengeful. Among another sort the same partially deserved reputation is as steadfast companion, deeply Romantic, fast to cry, easy to laughter, and exceptionally intense lovers.

Technologically the race is less advanced than the standards of Glafarran or Vortonian culture, largely, but more so than much of Terrans. They have had faster than light travel since around the time of the founding of the early Yellow River Valley civilisation on Earth. And while not all is known about this early drive it is surmised from what is known that it, like their current drives, was a rudimentary form of hyperdrive. Current technologies tend to achieve sustained, safe velocities of up to an hundred lightyears in little under a day in the most advanced models. Their power systems have always been based on photonic reactions within certain crystaline structures not unlike the ‘ambient radiation’ power supplies of Galfarra and is believed by xenoarcheologists and other similar academics to be a likely glimpse into how the now ubiquitous technology may have been born in that galaxy’s antuquity. Their computers are based on optomolecular processing and are utterly incompatible with anything but the Vortonian computer systems and the better calibre galfarran ones, as well as the fifteen dozen other technologies found throughout the Milky Way that are similar (and in four cases so nearly identical that one xenotechnology Professor was quoted as caling it ‘eerie’).

See also Tylanians.