Mevumep

Languages

See User:Soap/PC.

The writeup at here suggests that Mevumep may have also spoken a para-Play language, but there is as of yet no room for immigration of these people into Mevumep, so if this exists it must have been a merchant's language confined to a small area; even so, this small area could have been so disproportionately wealthy that it was mandatory to learn that language for residents of the region.

Census of 4198

NOTE: All names in this section are given either as exonyms, trade names, or ciphers; none is from an original language of Mevumep.

Key to placenames

The Slopes ciphered the Andanese root yuku "city" through a different cipher for each territory, which meant that their Play names of each city was different. Likewise puni in cipher was their word for districts. These were not standalone Andanese words, but the tradition was to take the head of the corresponding word, which was most often a (C)V(C)V disyllabic sequence.

The base cipher for the entire Union was Stargazer's modified cipher, since the Slopes felt it was the most culturebound of all ciphers, and that culture was Stargazer's own, so it was equally foreign to all 40 districts in the Union.

The four zones had their own ciphers, and each of the forty districts had their own ciphers, for a total of 45 ciphers.

Fox Island

Fox Island was home to 367,000 PBC's spread across nine districts, with about 40,000 aboriginals in the southern tail region and 16,500 inland; these were not counted as part of the PBC population. In the west of the island there were an additional 94,000 people where tribal affiliation was not recognized; indeed this entire area was just one district as well, as it had its own system.

Southern peninsula

The Southern peninsula had for 3,500 years run on a system whereby a landholding family would host hundreds of people on their land, who were meant to forage in the wilderness for food and mostly take care of themselves; the landlords were responsible for protecting them from invasion, wild animals, and to some extent caring for their children. This last bit was important as the landholders learned early on that they needed a large child population to keep their landholdings from withering away.

These people were Wand (men taller than women), and among the tallest and strongest people overall. The slaves were a mixture of these same people and the aboriginals who were also Wand.

The Southern landholders worked their slaves very hard, and punished slow workers by exile. These people could also leave of their own will (and thus the landholders sometimes said their practice was not slavery), but had to leave the property immediately and could not legally remain in the wilderness.

Over the centuries, the landholders in the tropical forests of the southern peninsula sent more and more slow workers, rebels, and other unwanted peoples north into the rest of the island. They did not want a war, so they tried to keep good relations with the northern part of the island. The northern societies were much poorer, and had a much higher birth rate but also a high infant mortality rate.

The border between north and south shifted many times over the 3,500 years, with the south ending up with more land than just the peninsula, but they did not spread over the mountains because the climate here was cooler. Thus the plantation economies remained a minority. Some landholders spoke about migrating to the mainland, but the mainland societies were mostly not interested.

Northern mountains

These people were Womb (women taller than men) and much shorter and more delicate overall than the Southerners. They had been there for about ten thousand years before the Southern landholders, and thus were aboriginals (but they were not the only group of aboriginals). Most were not interested in moving to the South, and they knew that the hard labor of the South would not treat them well anyhow. They were thus much poorer than the people to their south, but their land was mostly free of Southern intrusion and relations overall were good.

Hăla

Only about 87,500 people lived in all of Hăla's 9 recognized districts, about 10,000 in each one. This number had been higher before the Players conquered all of the coastal territory. The Players had chosen to accept these people into their coalition rather than driving them into the highlands. Thus, the only Hăla that had remained was the highlands, and these districts were not connected to each other.

Northwest

About 83,400 people lived here, in nine districts, again with about ten thousand people per district.

Northeast

With 118,000 people, this area had the lowest population density, but with 12 districts, also held about 10,000 people per district.

Older edits

This pertained to a much smaller area than what I am now referring to as Mevumep. I may need a new name for one or both of them.

Northeast corner of continental area... dolphin shaped country. No aboriginals at all ... all 4 tribes are macro-Pabap people. Glacial, rocky landscape... no agriculture possible. The language may be Birch, even though the Birch society arose as a blend of aboriginals and Lenians.

See also

• Macro-Pabap languages
• Paleo-Pabappa