[conculture] Re: Timid first post

[Padraic Brown <pbrown@polaris.umuc.edu>]

From: Padraic Brown <pbrown@polaris.umuc.edu>

On Fri, 19 Feb 1999, Pablo Flores wrote:

> 
> No racial superiority. The Ciravesu themselves were a
> mixture of racial types, and they didn't consider others
> inferior because of physical differences. Culturally, yes,
> they thought they were superior. They actually were.

Well, it's certainly best to have the Truth on your side!

> 
> The "preparation" included, of course, killing all
> subversive elements and disorganizing the place so as
> to avoid a possible counter-attack. More or less like
> sticking a tree branch into an ant city and spin it
> until you've found the queen and their elite soldiers.

A thorough preparation, indeed.

[snip]
> 'The new king
> 'mobilized the Ciravesu into a full pacifying war towards
> 'the west, and eliminated all the tribal chiefs. Then, and
> 'wisely, he scattered his too powerful army commanders,
> 'appointed civilian governors in all the new provinces,
> 'and passed totally egalitarian laws for all citizens.
> 'The western men, seeing the opportunity to trade some
> 'rulers for others with certain advantage, accepted the
> 'king and became part of the kingdom.

One would imagine that these Ciravesu might be nearly unstoppable.  It's
hard to continually hate an enemy who, having eliminated the
Ne'er-do-Wells of society, enforce peace and raise your standard of living
considerably.  Smart idea in scattering the powerful army types: the Inca
did similar, if I remember aright, in dividing and relocating powerful but
recently conquered tribes.

> > 
> > There's that detached superiority again!  "Our 'warriors' are civilised
> > (and cheerful) bridgebuilders: bringing peace and order to the lands they
> > prepare.  Their warriors are so many rodents ripe for extermination." 
> 
> Oh, no, they're only poor guys who don't know
> what's really good for them. :-)

Ha!

> > 
> > Ciravean Diplomat: "With respect, we beg to differ!  _We_ do not wage war
> > upon our neighbours; we simply encourage peaceful preparation of the
> lands
> > around us."
> 
> More like this:
> "We do not wage war upon our neighbours. We simply offer
> them the chance to share our peace and order. But they won't
> listen until we kill all those who try to keep them from
> seeing this undeniable truth!"

Even better!

> 
> This is interesting. I don't think you have told us about
> the Kemrese. I gather the conworld is an alternate one maybe.
> Please tell us more!

The Kemrese are simply the Brithenig speakers, who make occasional
appearances on Conlang.  It is indeed an alternate world; and one where
the Latin language survives in Britain after the Romans retreated.

The intervening centuries have seen the political consolidation of the
Kemrese state, and the amalgamation of Roman and Celtic culture.  They've
got a constitutional monarchy and most of the doodads associated with
(reasonably) modern society.  Some differences to note between *there* and
*here*:  long distance travel is accomplished by means of zeppelins, since
aeroplanes are relegated to military use; life is a little slower-paced on
the whole and technology isn't quite as advanced (though is probably more
advanced in some areas): motorcars are not seen with the same high
frequency, and indeed, many country roads are unpaved; trains play a
significant role in land transport.  The "metric system" is relegated to
history books as a mad scheme adopted by the First French Republic, but
was shortly abandoned; the whole world doesn't speak English (I think it
may be safe to say that Brithenig, French and Spanish are strong
contenders in the West); the money is not decimal (pounds/shillings/pence 
in much of western Europe; escudos/reales/maravedis (or similar) in Spain 
and Latin America).

Culturally, the Kemrese consider themselves "Romans" and therefore aligned
somewhat with the Latin world; but still have a firm Celtic root.  There
is some sort of clan system in effect (though I don't know much about it); 
loud bagpipes and clarinets, jigs and contradances, town brass bands and
harp wielding bards figure prominently in the musical end of things; pubs,
ale, football (_not_ US style!), rugby, horseracing, and vocal political
discourse (often in conjunction with the aforementioned ale in pubs) round
out daily life fairly well.

John Cowan can probably sort out some of the politics and history better
than me; and if the Mastermind of this whole project (Andrew Smith) joins
up, he can certainly shed more light on things.

Padraic.

> 
> --Pablo Flores


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