First permanent Eekraw settlement

Turn 9

Oct 30, 2023

In this turn:

The original home region of the Eekraw and the clans on the eastern coast of the western continent both undergo major changes to their language
A nest of Eekraw in the temperate forest of the western continent are banished as outlaws for hoarding food
The southeastern temperate forest tribes expand further southeast
And the big one: A tribe of Eekraw on the western coast settle down and become semi-sedentary.

This update has a lot of language changes, which may be slightly less interesting. The most important part is the very end of the update, when the first steps towards a settled, agricultural civilization are taken. Because of that, I moved the updated lexicons for the language development to the very end.

Overview

I am doing a project of incremental worldbuilding. In other words, I’m taking aspects of worldbuilding and changing them slowly over time, in hope of creating a world that has the real weight of history behind it. In addition, I’m using randomness and ‘game-like’ mechanics, as well as assistance from ChatGPT, to help work my way through this process and ensure that I am sometimes surprised by the results.

The Eekraw are an avian species that has developed sentience. They’re slightly shorter than human height, and live around 80 years absent illness or injury. They can’t lift off vertically, requiring a cliff face or tree to jump off to successfully initiate flight. They have strong and dexterous foot talons, meaning their feet rather than wings are needed to work tools. They live in communal nests, with a nest of four-six adults raising their young together.

Turn Order

I’m going to make a slight change to the procedures for expansion - rather than rolling a region, then rolling 1d2 to see how many regions it expands to, I’ll roll a 1d2 to see how many regions expand, and each of them will expand once.

Random Event: Roll on the random event table, then roll to see what region it occurs in
Myths/Oral History:
- In any region that had a prominent individual last turn, determine how that individual is remembered and/or how the remembrance has changed, then move them into Myths/History.
- Roll a region. If that region has anything in myths/history, see how that remembrance has changed over time.
- Roll a region. That region has a new individual come to prominence. Conduct a basic language development on that region.
Expansion: Roll 1d2. That many regions will expand to a neighboring region. For each, roll a region, then roll among possible destinations. If the region is populated, that region will migrate to a nearby region, and the activated region will take their place (waves of migration pushing previous waves away).
Biome Generation:
- Generate a biome for the regions that have been expanded into. Every nearby biome will contribute one feature to the new biome, and there will be two taken at random from different already existing biomes as well.
- Develop new words to describe all new creatures.
- New regions and source region each undergo basic language development
Language Development: Roll a region. That region undergoes language change in all categories
Advancement / Development:
- Roll a region to determine which undergoes technological/social/cultural advancement.
- Roll a 1d3 - 1 is technological, 2 is social, 3 is cultural. The selected region will have a minor advance in that category.
- That region will also undergo basic language development.

Random Event:

I won’t fully reproduce the random event table, but it’s in this post:

Rules of the Game

Vince

September 19, 2023

Read full story

I added a new event:

33. Separated region subsumed into one nearby (only applies to regions from the same biome)

This only applies to a region that has separated (as regions 1 and 11 did in Turn 7). I wanted to apply the possibility of cultures separating then reforming again. As it has a one in 33 chance of occurring, probably won’t happen, though.

I roll a 9: An additional round of linguistic change occurs. Then, I roll a region: Region 1

In terms of cool things that could have happened, this isn’t that cool. In terms of worldbuilding progress, though, it’s good to differentiate between Regions 1 and 11, the two regions that now both exist in the mountain biome.

The updated lexicon for region 1 is at the very end of the update.

I have some thoughts for how to conduct future language development. Specifically, the way I’m doing it right now feels kind of arbitrary - okay, so the word ‘Tikro’ (snake) has the ‘t’ turn into a ‘th’, and the ‘k’ turn into a ‘g,’ making ‘Thigro.’ But the word ‘Tikra,’ (canine scavenger) doesn’t change at all, even though it has both of those phenomes. For these reasons I’m considering making major changes to the process, if I can come up with a good replacement system. However, I haven’t gotten there yet.

Myths/Oral History

I want to regularize this process a bit. I’m going to do so by adding in two additional things - first, each piece of myth is going to have a ‘strength’ from 1-10. They’ll start at a 5 when moved from prominent individual into myth.

Whenever a ‘change in myth’ is rolled for a region, I’ll first roll for each myth to move up or down in ‘strength’ or ‘prominence.’ I’ll roll a 1d10, and possibly add or subtract 1 or 2 based on my ‘feeling’ of how the myth should be - if it is relevant to something that happened recently, it’ll be more likely to increase. If that roll is below the current strength, strength will increase, and if it is above, it’ll decrease. This means that weaker myths will tend to become weaker, and stronger myths will tend to become stronger. I think this will work, but I may change it.

Then I’ll roll another 1d10. If the number rolled is higher than the ‘prominence’ of the myth, it’ll change. Basically, a more prominent/important myth is less likely to change over time. The names of the characters within the myth will always change, regardless.

Second, I’m going to introduce some base/automatic possibilities, that will be always considered whenever a myth changes. Those automatic possibilities are:

Stays mostly the same
Adds a new additional character
Two characters are merged together
An aspect of the story takes on greater prominence
An aspect of the story fades in prominence
The story becomes associated/related to another story
Embellishment of details
Add or increase a spiritual/supernatural element

I’ll think of two specific possible changes to add to the 8 predetermined ones.

Previous Turn’s Prominent Individual

Region 4 last turn had the story of Tarkay’kre and Tuur’yiti

Tarkay’kre and Tuur’yiti - Tarkay’kre and Tuur’yiti were both male younglings, members of a clan that was large, and therefore hard for a youngling to make a mark. They heard there was another clan that had been devastated by disease or predators, and therefore needed new males to fill out its ranks. They traveled a long distance through the forest to find this clan, and at one point stayed in the air for around 80 miles, further than most Eekraw even thought possible. Eventually they reached this new clan and had so impressed the clan that they were accepted into a new nest as nestmates of females of the clan.

Name Change:

Tarkay’kre —> Tarkay

Tuur’yiti —> Tuuriti

Next, I’ll see how the story itself may change. To the table above, I add the following two possibilities:

9. Specification of roles (i.e., Tarkay or Tuuriti takes on the role of leader of the pair, the other navigator, or something like that)

10. They left without permission from their previous clan, makes it a fable against strict elders

I roll a 3, so two characters are merged together - so Tarkay and Tuuriti turn into only one character. Thus, there’s only one Eekraw in this story, who will be Tariti.

Tariti - Tariti was a youngling, a member of a clan that was large, and therefore hard for a youngling to make a mark. He heard there was another clan that had been devastated by disease or predators, and therefore needed new males to fill out its ranks. He traveled a long distance through the forest to find this clan, and at one point stayed in the air for around 80 miles, further than most Eekraw even thought possible. Eventually he reached this new clan and had so impressed the clan that he was accepted into a new nest as Kiva (fostered youngling from another clan) of the clan, and eventually accepted as a nestmate of females of the clan. (5)

Myth Change

Next, I’ll roll for a region to change their myth. I’ll roll a 1d14 - I roll a 9, the Eekraw of the rainforest.

They only have one myth currently:

Karvek and Veekra - Karvek was a brilliant Ye’ar, who traveled between the clans learning their histories and rituals. With the help of his student Veekra, he created the EkVer’wa, the song of the Eekraw, which recorded the whole history of the Eekraw. However, he foresaw the splintering of the clans and split the song among the clans, so each has a fragment of the overall song, which is the base of their own EkVeere. Unless they are united, no clan may share its fragment with any other, but once all the Eekraw are united in one, they will finally have the entire EkVer’wa once more. (5)

Name change:

Karvek —> Ka’vek

Veekra —> Ve’kra

The current strength is a 5 - I roll a 2, so the strength increases to 6

Then, I’ll add in two additional possible changes to the base ones in the table above:

9. Ve’kra split the songs against Ka’vek’s will

10. The Ekver’wa wasn’t their creation, but rather was something they had to go on a journey to find [Split the myth into two myths, the journey to find the Ekver’wa and the splitting of the Ekver’wa]

I roll a 4, so an aspect of the story takes on greater prominence.

Ka’vek’s learning of the histories and rituals
The creation of the Evker’wa
The foresight of the splintering
Splitting the Ekver’wa
The eventual reunification of the Ekver’wa

I roll a 3, so the foresight of the splitting takes on greater prominence. I’ll say that he made a prophecy about it. I’ll roll to see if Ve’kra joined before or after the prophecy was made- 1 before, 2 after. I roll a 1. I’ll also split the myth into two myths to make each one reasonably short.

Varook Ekver’wa (darkness of the song of the Eekraw) - Once, all the clans of the Eekraw were together, unified and at peace. Ka’vek was a brilliant male Ye’ar, who traveled between the clans learning their histories and rituals, along with his female student, Ve’kra. However, Ka’vek was struck by a vision, a prophecy of impending strife and division. He knew that the clans of the Eekraw would fracture, hoarding their knowledge and fighting where once they maintained unity and peace. His student Ve’kra bore witness to this prophecy. (6)

R’Veek’re Ratru (the clan sings) - Ka’vek, the brilliant male Ye’ar, and his female student Ve’kra, created the EkVer’wa, the song of the Eekraw, which related the whole history of the Eekraw. However, knowing of the disunity to come, they decided to split the Ekver’wa into fragments, known as EkVeere, and distribute them amongst the clans. The only way to recreate the entire EkVer’wa would be to reunite all the scattered clans of the Eekraw. (6)

New Prominent Individual

Finally, I create a new prominent individual.

I roll region 14, the temperate forest region that was settled last turn.

It is a descendant culture from region 9, so the story of Karvek and Veekra also exists in their culture, in addition to the myth of omens in the sky that pushed them to migrate in this direction.

Their social overview is below:

Biome: Temperate Forest

Society/Social Structure:

Clan units of multiple nests, limited specialization. Specialization is at the nest level
Ye’ar (priests) (at the nest level, i.e., one of the nest in a clan is the Ye’ar nest)
Ichra’dyr - a nest which is tasked with being lookouts/defenders for the rest of the clan
Clans conduct trade with each other when their migrations pass each other

Culture:

Reverence for the sun
The Varcha are evil shadow spirits (associated with avian predators of a previous homeland)
The Ye’ar (priests) conduct rituals to try to drive the Varcha away spiritually
Each clan has a EchVeere (clan song), an oral history of the clan that is sung to remember the past. The entire clan joins in to sing the EchVeere.

Technology/Tools

Shelter: Nests burrowed in dead trees

Oral History/Myth:

Karvek and Veekra - Karvek was a brilliant Ye’ar, who traveled between the clans learning their histories and rituals. With the help of his student Veekra, he created the EchVer’wa, the song of the Eekraw, which recorded the whole history of the Eekraw. However, he foresaw the splintering of the clans and split the song among the clans, so each has a fragment of the overall song, which is the base of their own EchVeere. Unless they are united, no clan may share its fragment with any other, but once all the Eekraw are united in one, they will finally have the entire EchVer’wa once more. (5)

Rikrere (night omen) - The Eekraw once saw lights in the sky, over and over again, pointing this way (southwest). They left their old homeland, and traveled for long days and nights, until they reached their current location. Some say they did not fulfill the omen, and ought to keep going until they can go no further. (5)

Is the new prominent individual a male or female? 1 - male.

Like for the process to change myths, I’m going to regularize the possible outcomes a bit. The below are the general categories of virtue or vice that a prominent individual may have shown, and then I’ll expand further for whichever one I role.

Ritual/Priestly/Spiritual virtues
Hunting/conflict virtues (skill at hunting, defeating an opponent in battle, etc.)
Artistic/cultural virtues
Social/diplomatic virtues
Personal virtues (strength, intelligence, etc)
Character virtues (bravery, loyalty)
Hunting/Conflict vices (cowardice, betrayal in a hunt or battle)
Social/cultural vices (stealing, botching a ritual, betrayal of the clan)
Character vices (cruelty, deceit, discord)
Something specific to this tribe

Obviously there are some overlaps (i.e., ‘bravery’ could be a character virtue, but it also could be a hunting/conflict virtue, depending on the context). I also purposely have more virtues than vices - I don’t want the myths to be equally split between heroes and villains, but I do want some villains.

I roll on the above table and get a 9. So this particular male Eekraw comes to prominence for some kind of character vice.

Couple of options:

Hoarding resources (keeps food and materials essential for the clan)
Abandoning duty (out of laziness or cowardice, he abandoned his lookout post)
Envy (he sabotaged the nests of other Eekraw to bring his to more power)
Arrogance (very successful hunter, but lorded it over everyone else for it)
Hostility - instigated fights within the clan
Deceit - makes false reports to send other Eekraw on unproductive hunts in response to slights

I rolled a 1, so he hoarded resources that the clan needed. Was he working with others? 1 just himself, 2 with one other, 3 with an entire nest. I roll a 3, so with his entire nest. How many? 1d3+3 — so 4 total.

I’ll generate some names:

Taluchree (male)
Vaoichra (male)
Chritrachi (female)
Echutrachi (female)

So, the new story added to the clan is as follows:

Yigti Ratrak (traitors to the clan) - During a season of hard weather, the clan suffered greatly, and many died of famine. One nest seemed to hold up better than the others, and were greatly praised for their work in helping the other, weaker nests. However, the clan discovered that this nest had in fact hoarded lots of food, keeping their strength up at the expense at everyone else. The adult members of the nest - Taluchree (male), Vaoichra (male), Chritrachi (female), and Echutrachi (female) - were expelled from the clan for this grave offense, and were marked as Yigti (traitors). (5)

Now, I’ll do a round of basic language evolution for this tribe.

Basics (1):

Eshu - me
Yi - you
Eru - them
Elwa - us
Shree - yes
Chrew - no

Expansion

I roll a 1 on the 1d2, so only one region expands. Next, I roll for regions, and roll region 4. That is the temperate forest region southeast of the original region. There’s really only one direction they can expand to - they take up the island/coastal temperate forest region further southeast.

Since the new region is very similar to the biome of region 4, I’ll take the same biome but replace some of the creatures. I’ll roll for a creature to take from regions 8 and 5, the two neighboring biomes, then roll for a creature from a random biome, another that is slightly varied, and a fifth that is totally new.

From region 8:

Minor Predator: Large reptile, has large tail with spikes on it

From region 5:

Scavenger: A slow quadruped with a long snout and a strong, armored back. Excretes dissolving enzyme to soften tough materials

From random biome:

I roll region 3:

Resource: A tree has bark that can be soaked in water and then beaten into sheets to create clothing

Variant creature:

Medium Prey Animal: Medium-sized animal with hard exoskeletal shell, four legs. Feeds on the hard fruits, travels in small family groups

Possible variations:

Medium-sized animal with a spiked exoskeletal shell, four legs, feeds on soft fruits
Medium-sized animal with a smooth, iridescent exoskeleton, four legs. Feeds on underground tubers, travels solo.
Medium-sized animal with a segmented exoskeletal shell, four legs. Feeds on leaves, travels in hierarchical groups.
Small-sized animal with a hard exoskeletal shell, four legs. Feeds on hard fruits, travels in large herds.
Medium-sized animal with a hard exoskeletal shell, four legs with webbing. Feeds on aquatic plants, travels in family groups near water.

I roll a 4, so it’s a small-sized animal that travels in large herds. I’ll say that it’s a small prey animal instead of a medium one now.

New Creature:

Finally, I’ll roll for one of the creatures to be replaced altogether by an all new creature.

Small prey Animal: Small, mouse-like creature with long tails that can be shed as a decoy when threatened

That creature gets replaced entirely. Since I changed a medium animal to a small one in the previous step, I’ll say this one is a medium prey animal.

Using the Stars Without Numbers tables - I roll that this creature is a quadruped, with wings, that molts, and whose primary weapon is teeth/mandibles.

Medium Prey Animal: A medium-sized, winged quadrupedal prey animal that molts seasonally. Usually feeds on grasses and low-hanging leaves, travels in loosely-knit migratory groups.

Biome with new words:

Creatures (7):

Tikktir - Medium-sized predator with sleek body that can adjust its colors to blend with the forest, four multi-jointed legs with flexible, nimble feet that allow it to grip and traverse the trees as easily as the ground. Ambush predator
Tikjiltalvaar - Large predator reptile, has large tail with spikes on it
Yitikir - Semi-transparent gliding kite-like predator. Paralyzes its prey then wraps it up and slowly dissolves it
Tolivaarskik - A slow quadruped scavenger with a long snout and a strong, armored back. Excretes dissolving enzyme to soften tough materials
Tarakre - Large floating creatures that are buoyant due to gas-filled sacs within their body, graze on tree tops. When threatened, they release the gas, which both disorients and harms their opponent and causes them to rapidly sink downwards, hopefully evading the predator
Ratirsik - A medium-sized ground-hugging herbivore with a tough, segmented body. It moves up to bushes and squats on top of them to eat their leaves while keeping its shell between it and any predator.
Kreskikk - A medium-sized, winged quadrupedal prey animal that molts seasonally. Usually feeds on grasses and low-hanging leaves, travels in loosely-knit migratory groups.
Traratichee - Small-sized animal with a hard exoskeletal shell, four legs. Feeds on hard fruits, travels in large herds.
Jiltalvarkre - Small, winged reptiles that feed on flower nectar and fruit

Plants (8):

Tirrat - A fruit with a hard outer shell, and a soft, nutritional inside, can be eaten by Eekraw
Raatir - A moss that grows on the north side of trees and rocks. When dried and crushed, it can be used as a bioluminescent paint or marker to help with navigation signs or even art
Vartilk - Large leaf which is edible, and also can be wrapped around other foods to make them portable
Varsktilktir - A tree that has bark that can be soaked in water and then beaten into sheets to create clothing

Now, basic language evolution for both regions 4 and 15:

Region 4:

Other (5):

‘chie - suffix for small
‘thee - suffix for young
‘ga - suffix for new
‘vaar - suffix for big
‘Var - suffix for significant/important
Rah’ - prefix for sacred

Region 15:

Environment (6):

Raha - sun
Raavar (sun-sky) - noon
Tuli - ground/soil
Tu - underground
Trra - water
Bar - the sky
Ray’k - day
Rek - night
Ragir - sunset/sunrise
Bakir - flight
Tallir - forest
Beralir - canopy (negative connotation - scary, unpredictable)
Radal - clearings in the forest
Treiti - stream
Tabark - jumping off points for flight - tall trees
Bartrak - mist/fog/dew
Travar - the ocean
Tikevar - bad weather

Language Development

Now, I’ll do full language development for a region (for the second time since that was also the random event). I rolled Region 13, the region on the east coast of the western continent.

Region 13’s updated language is at the bottom of this post.

Advancement/Development

Before I roll for a region, I have a thought on this - I want to start having real agricultural civilizations relatively soon - not necessarily this turn, but within the next three or four turns. The first step prior to the development of agriculture is for a culture to become sedentary, or at least semi-sedentary.

So, I’m going to pre-register that if I roll a region that is rich enough in resources (i.e., probably not the mountains or savannah), and roll a society innovation, I’ll take it to mean that culture goes sedentary. (Actually, I’ll split it off as a new, very small region that will now be sedentary). In addition, if no such advance is rolled by turn 12, I will decide which regions are most likely to have this occur and dictate it occurring in one of them.1

So, now I roll between the 15 existing regions - I roll region 10, the coastal temperate forest region that spans most of the western coast of the central continent. And, I roll a 1d3 and get a 2, which is social.

So, per the pre-registered decision I made earlier, part of this culture settles down and becomes sedentary or partially sedentary.

Currently, this is their societal overview:

Biome: Coastal/Island Tropical Deciduous Forest Biome

Society/Social Structure:

Clan units of multiple nests, limited specialization. Specialization is at the nest level
Yira - a nest which is tasked with being priests and conducting rituals
Ekrat - a nest which is tasked with being lookouts/defenders for the rest of the clan

Culture:

Reverence for the sun
The Varka are evil shadow spirits (associated in some way with the Vari (avian predators)
The Yira (priests) conduct rituals to try to drive the Varka away spiritually

Technology/Tools

Shelter: Nests burrowed in dead trees, with glowing moss lining the inside

Oral History/Myth:

Kra’varik - Kra’varik was a prominent Yira. Generally, the Yira focus their efforts on protecting the clan spiritually, but Kra’varik decided to try and spread his knowledge as well. He learned the history of the clan, and of many other clans, and recited it to spread to others. His most prominent student was Kree’Veeka, a female Eekraw. She learned his knowledge and continued his goals by spreading it further herself. (5)

Region 10 covers a really large expanse of land - something like 3000 miles in length from end to end. This is obviously a little unrealistic - but I justify it by saying the Eekraw are migratory, so they aren’t occupying the entire space, but only parts of it at a time. Even so, realistically there would be more than one culture over that entire distance. I’m sacrificing accuracy for the sake of usability, in this case.

Region 10’s primary food sources are the Jilktra, Tirtravar, and Tirt’r’var’yi:

Jilktra - Small, vibrantly colored fish which live in shallows and coastal pools, feeding on small insects and algae
Tirtravar - Star-shaped fruit produced by one of the tree species
Tirt’r’var’yi - Floating fruit-bearing plants tethered to the ground by long vines. They drift in the canopy catching sunlight, held aloft by gas-filled sacs next to the fruit.

The location where the Eekraw settle would need to be near a source of freshwater and near a body of water (ocean or lake) where Jilktra exist. Having elevated ground would likely be beneficial as well. The following map shows the locations that the Eekraw might settle - the rivers are more likely, so there are more spots there to pick between.

I’ll roll a 1d10 to decide between them: 10

So, a part of this tribe of Eekraw settle in the area at the very end of the small river delta, as depicted below. There is one major river, which comes from the highlands further away from the coast, as well as a few smaller rivers. There are also a number of large lakes, and the whole area is generally pretty wet/swampy. It’s mostly pretty flat, with the exception of some taller areas to the northeast.

Their settlement is the small blue dot, in a elevated area about 10 miles north of the lake where the river comes to an end. (The river doesn’t exactly ‘end,’ instead, the land further south is wet and absorbs the water, like a swamp/marsh). The dot wasn’t very visible, so I circled it as well, it’s just about dead center of the map.

I decided that they would not settle on the river, but a little ways away from it because they are not settled in the sense of being an agricultural civilization. All of the Eekraw still leave every day to hunt/gather and will get water then. If/when they start a more agricultural society, where larger numbers of Eekraw stay in one location, they will need to be closer to the water sources. The advantage of the elevation is to allow the Eekraw to more easily take off and fly, since most of this land is pretty flat (though covered in trees they can still jump from).

This settlement is not a built-up area at all, there aren’t huts or cabins or anything like that. Rather, the Eekraw make nests within dead trees as they always have done, but rather than leave them behind when they migrate, they return to the same one each year.2

I add in some new words to describe specific landmarks, since now the Eekraw are stationary enough that it makes sense to describe explicit locations.

Locations (7):

Teer’Tee (previously meant “particularly lush and plant-filled area”) - The summer settlement
Trae’tal (freshwater place) - the large lake ten miles south of their summer settlement
Vikre’trae (flight-freshwater i.e. flowing freshwater) - the large river leading to the lake

I also add the following to their cultural overview:

Semi-sedentary - in the summer, they remain in the Teer’tee, their summer settlement. In the winter, they leave and migrate to look for food in the area, when the food in the Teer’tee becomes scarcer.

In addition, I decide that this region isn’t a collection of multiple clans, like all of the other regions. Instead, only one clan from Region 10 settles, so there are only 90-140 or so Eekraw in this region. The clan is made up of about 10 nests with children and 2 or so without, so 50-70 adults, 20-40 younglings, and 20-40 nestlings.

I slightly modify the societal overview to account for this.

Lastly, I’ll do basic language evolution:

Plants (9):

Tiirah - plant
Vaskeet - trees that are too short to jump off of
Tavek - tall tree that can be jumped off
Talreetara - A bioluminescent moss that exists in a symbiotic relationship with the trees of the biome and grows on their upper canopies
R’travar - Star-shaped fruit produced by one of the tree species
Tirtiryi - Floating fruit-bearing plants tethered to the ground by long vines. They drift in the canopy catching sunlight, held aloft by gas-filled sacs next to the fruit.

I’ve been thinking about how to implement agricultural civilizations, and I’ll write more of my thoughts on that later. I want civilizations to have another turn order separate from that of the hunter-gatherer cultures, but I’m still trying to figure out the specifics. One thing I’m considering is having them develop every turn, since once they’re settled they can start doing specialization and advancing more quickly. For this semi-sedentary culture, it doesn’t make sense yet to implement everything I’m going to for agricultural civilizations (not least because I haven’t decided what that will be), but I will say that they will have a development (technological/social/cultural) every turn. At the very least, that’ll speed their way towards full agricultural civilization.

Language Updates

The language updates for region 1 and 13 are below: