Zompist Bboard Again

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.

And what sasasha said, of course.

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 elle that they should know (the god) or fiedha’l earihw'e av ellos that they should know about (the god)? I should build in more of these.

Raphael wrote: ↑Thu Oct 08, 2026 2:58 am

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.

Mostly edited Laws II (sometimes called by its first words Dha Tahwent Allon, ‘thus the god has spoken’), which covers correct worship and offerings, ritual purity, the calendar, and oaths. I realised while editing that Tersas gives positive instruction about rituals (‘the priests shall...’), but very little negative instruction (‘the priests shall not...’), so I added a few bits:

In. II.42 (after instructions on libations) rid sunce une uc ecsól cleisi uni, fiu nen e cwellis, avais, cleis.
They shall burn no flesh and pour out no blood, but shall offer wine, light, and purity (or ‘wine, with light and purity’).

(The last clause there can technically be read as ‘blood shall offer wine, [which is] light’ or ‘blood shall offer wine in light’, because purity-OBL and blood.VOC are both cleis, but it’s hard to see what that would mean.)

In. II.50 (after the calendar) fin f’unnén teiglad, uc istán e’n aves una fien iscór mele une, fiu teissúl a’llescis il.
They shall watch the skies but not make offerings to it, and shall neither worship the sun nor beseech any star, but exhort one another in praising the god.

(This explains why the priest typically faces the sun to make the morning/evening prayers and libations: he is symbolically exhorting the sun to pray with him. However, historians looking for pagan ‘survivals’ in Telian ritual might see it as a leftover of ancient sun-worship.)

In. II.58 (after duties of priests) istenir uner tes sole fi thome istenithe, fiuc ecandár a’ndarián ic aristenir.
No priest shall set up a stone or tree of worship, but the high priest shall uproot them from all the land.

(This one becomes important for an interreligious conflict in the 750s, but somehow it never made it into my draft.)

... 'mostly edited' because I still have some vocab to sort. Among other things, I've come to dislike the categories of thinking/feeling. In the current system, humans have six parts:

* par body
* cama life/soul
* meroi feeler = nervous system and ability to move
* acra OH wrath = emotions/passions but I don't like the word I had
* memory but I don't like the word I had
* cognition but I don't like the word I had

Maybe the system's not as bad as I thought, and I just need new words.

And now for something quite different.

The Telian (Heláin-speakers) are known throughout their world for having better medicine than everyone else. It helps that they allow autopsies, and (thanks in part to ritual purity laws) they had a kind of germ theory for centuries before they invented microscopes. The Guild of Physicians, which is said to have been founded by Tersas's son Narond, trains physicians and midwives. The Guild also collects information on diseases, chemistry, botany, and (maybe surprisingly) archaeology and publishes what we might consider scientific journals. It's not modern medicine (no antibiotics; surgery's touch-and-go) but it tends not to be dragged down by stuff like humour theory.

Adeniteigoi 'The Rubric of Wellness' is a book on first-aid, health, nutrition, and water/land management that the Guild uses to train apprentice physicians and midwives (a Telian midwife is also something like a first responder and community health advisor) and distributes to sufficiently literate people throughout the Telian fyrdlands. Here's the first ~page, a quick-start guide to immediately life-threatening situations. (Notice that controlling bleeding is listed *before* airway management, and circulation is barely mentioned. At this point, in the early 700s, research on human-to-human blood transfusion is very new and tightly controlled, so in practice, blood is irreplaceable; and the Guild's understanding of circulation, while basically correct, doesn't give them anything they can do if someone's heart stops.) Instead of a gloss, I've translated it as literally as possible without making nonsense of it. (And no, evil doesn't mean 'poisoned', it means 'in which'.)

elgosa coriñ. tela, unelfilán, fiu valán unnerithora fi mun, agól taláv nerithe. ummór mun sumis f’ithis illu, f’ilfilinis, egledeisfe ledhei evil. edineisfe min argelire, ecléd.
Imminent danger (lit. ‘mortality soon’): First, don’t go into danger, but shelter uninjured people and yourself, before [you] begin to tend an injured person. Don’t rush into water or fire, or a narrow place where the air might be poisoned. If a guild physician can be sought, send.

1. amencuséis (cleis’ amen). pel neri adenis uc ulled, eteineisfe taláv cleisi. barren min fili calli, pel i’m, uc amfiera, brenis unnis. gal or tolas, cor-2ist.
Haemorrhage (much bleeding). Press a wound with strength and don’t release, until bleeding should stop. If a clean cloth is to hand, press with it, and otherwise, with a bare hand. Treat as with collapse, no. 2 below.

eltea min sinthe neris il, unecred, fiuna’l acléis i talama. ancleissus min neri parethenois talama uc unteineisf' i, pel seu cusenanni bisois talistes el: fancules, biscules, sardes, ruves, thaleis: u hidh e tul tindis adrenthis fiuna.
If a sharp thing is in a wound, don’t draw it out, lest [the wound] begin to bleed more. If a wound on a limb is bleeding heavily and cannot be stopped, press also the blood-vessel in the joint above (armpit, groin, elbow, knee, ankle), and/or bind it there with a tight cord.

ancleissus min i cleriteris ic, clarc i coráv, elpél cleroi fi cobi adenis aimiris. cleissus min e ledhois, corác lose u filpél sunce ledhiluces.
If [a woman] is bleeding heavily from the birth canal after she has given birth, massage the womb and belly with painful strength. If [someone] is bleeding from the nose, bow the head and squeeze the flesh on the nose-spine.

2. tola. metathant entu, valán tu thesinis andreimetis, ledheis callis. teldangus min tu, unemár, fiu valán tu neris ic.
Collapse. If someone has become unresponsive (lit. ‘has without-awakening-ed’), shelter him in a safe (lit. ‘terror-free’) place, in clean air. If he’s having a seizure, don’t restrain [him] but shelter him from injury.

tissus min tu, flinthes tu: elthes tu flinis t’il, u ruv sardora fi ruve taliste, fiedha’l unilledeisfe tu imfinnes fi luces t’ellu. uncorác lose, fiedha’l eispitheisfe tu moréiv umpetithe talvella. firréd amfie dumes t’ec u led nimoi adrenthi.
If he’s lying still, ‘side-lay’ him: lay him on his side, and bend [his] elbows and upper knee, so that he can’t fall onto his face or back. Don’t bow [his] head, so that necessity can let him vomit freely (lit. ‘flowing[ly]’) without choking. Wipe anything out of his mouth and loosen tight clothing.

heil cusenapare u mar fi lin ancyora fi illedhéin, dinir ledheas, estalla cweollu. elfennus min ledhei uni fi petithi, aniscám dha:
Touch [his] chest, and feel and listen to [his] lips and the exhalation-area, seeking breath, for three mantras (i.e. 9-15 seconds). If [you] find no, or choked, breathing, try to revive [him] thus:

ildúm teledhiculyora. isládh mun. elfén t’ancya m’ancya uc illádh mun dumes t’ellu. isládh mun ledheis callis ista. isteiant min ispithéid fi sumi dumes t’ellu, firréd uc ecsól. ullendhus min ton, illádh mun tullu ista.
Shut his nostrils. Inhale. Let your lip meet his lip and exhale into his mouth. Inhale clean air again. If vomit or fluid has sprung into his mouth, wipe and empty [it]. If he’s not causing himself to breathe, exhale into him again.

alún min mu, intíss, eiscemihwe filáv tu adanna cur, fiuc adannus min une, aniscám t’una.
If you become weak, rest, while someone strong tries to revive him, or if no one is strong [enough], don’t try to revive him.