The high priest and prophet Tersas had a vision of divine justice and wrote the Sacred Laws, the highest law of the Telian Commonwealth (the Telian are Heláin-speakers). He believed that the Laws would bring peace and virtue; instead, he found that people were exploiting loopholes to get away with crimes he hadn't even imagined.
Interesting. I had the impression that in our world, many ancient cultures took the first step in that process, and of course, the second step happened in many cultures, too, but ancient cultures usually didn't get around to really realizing and understanding the second step. Interesting innovation to have it all happen during one lifetime! Poetically expressed, too.
sasasha wrote: ↑Thu Oct 08, 2026 2:11 am
Not much to comment but this is beautiful euphonious prose and I like that you have baked textual ambiguity into it for your conpeople to quibble over in translation. It's a long in-world text, too; with your poetry included it would be interesting to see such a large compendium of in-world religious text in a conlang.
The ambiguities are fun. I even have a textual variant early in the Laws: is it fiedha’l earihwe av ellethat they should know (the god) or fiedha’l earihw'e av ellosthat they should know about (the god)? I should build in more of these.
Leilis wrote: ↑Wed Oct 07, 2026 4:54 pm
The high priest and prophet Tersas had a vision of divine justice and wrote the Sacred Laws, the highest law of the Telian Commonwealth (the Telian are Heláin-speakers). He believed that the Laws would bring peace and virtue; instead, he found that people were exploiting loopholes to get away with crimes he hadn't even imagined.
Interesting. I had the impression that in our world, many ancient cultures took the first step in that process, and of course, the second step happened in many cultures, too, but ancient cultures usually didn't get around to really realizing and understanding the second step. Interesting innovation to have it all happen during one lifetime! Poetically expressed, too.
I think the Pentateuch has some similar moments: e.g., Abraham, after talking God down to sparing Sodom if ten righteous men are found there, goes out and sees, far off, the smoke of the city rising; or Moses, coming down from the mountain, finds the people worshipping an idol, and breaks the stone tablets carved by God. (A lot of Old Testament stories are good at psychological depth without psychologising. We're often not told what to think, or how people felt; things just happen, with their own weight and drama.)
Anyway, I am editing Laws I-III now, which come to about 3.4k words of Heláin. I also want to write a Laws IV that was mistakenly attributed to the author of Laws I-III, but for that, I'll have to sort how to make it superficially like the first three books with some unobtrusive quirks.
That was the ~72-year-old Tersas. Now for some mid-20s Tersas! ... sort of; the morning and evening prayers predate him but these are 'his' versions that go along with his Sacred Laws. Eru. 4, 6-8 reflect an apocalyptic strand of Telian religion; however, at Tersas's own (mostly anti-apocalyptic) high place in Naven, those lines came to be interpreted as describing the defeat of nomadic invaders, which happened during Tersas's lifetime.
Rosicrea (Istwín m’Avai)
1 harren alle rosas ista istwiniras eve, istwín mu cusenned s’eól, mur avienas istenitha.
2 istwín m’avai arienas, fiedha’l earihwe av mu beth.
3 istwín m’avai adanas, fiedha’l enenihwe av mu beth.
4 istwín m’avai adhonas, fiedha’l, an-taláv agrosuri, eseanihwe av secame mellu.
5 av e al sora, seu so.
Morning Prayer (Make Rise Thy Light)
1 O god who are greater than the dawn rising anew, rise in our hearts, worshipful one of all light.
2 Make rise your light of understanding, that men may know you.
3 Make rise your light of strength, that men may serve you.
4 Make rise your light of hope, that after the darkness of death our life may return to you.
5 O god, shine upon us, even upon me.
Erucrea (Te’ Allon Avai)
1 te’ allon avai; tea seseion avai seollu.
2 aiye! inunn ave, istwinn uri, elann eru; te’ allon avai.
3 istwinnen melien, inunnen melien; seillen avai allos; te’ allon avai.
4 sig alle sor, fiu nen e adhaid, s’al av gunnen beth verisad leithos.
5 tanthus enton annis u thessus enton telinis, finnen andrei uner, veista or heista; vonnus enton fores, uc ambarrus enton vundis, u thennus enton semmis, barren cusenad ián eleia.
6 amvarc a’v m’annor; te’ allon avai.
7 isthent a, faiye, istant a detes llebeth.
8 iscallen cleisoni cleis; iscammen agre annara; teiglenelannen seimme teigladéin: te’ allon avai.
Evening Prayer (The God is Light)
1 The god is light; our One (or ‘the Only One’) is a light upon us.
2 Behold! the sun sets, the night rises, the darkness comes; the god is light.
3 The stars rise, the stars set; the light of god endures; the god is light.
4 Let me sing [of] the god and serve him with hymns, for my god shall give his people victory over the enemy.
5 Whoso walks on the road and whoso lies in the house, neither shall see fear, far off as near; whoso sails on the sea, and whoso wields in battle, and whoso stands on the hill, all alike shall have a strong heart.
6 For your warrior has overcome; the god is light.
7 His people have arisen, and lo, they have gone up to the holy place (or ‘have worshipped the holy one’).
8 Blood shall wash away bloodguilt (or ‘unto purity, [they] shall ...’); a fell wound shall enliven the dead; brightness (or ‘a shield’) from heaven shall come into the world: the god is light.
