Lore/Story The Fiosians Want Their Castle Back: A New Sellan History of Gavel

Ne Fios il an ti Éllan d'Aensaure Sento:
N'ITAESSÉLL IXRE LUDIEHI

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Hi! I'm hmtn. I make conlangs, and quite a few of them have been fanwork for this server. I've previously made a version of Ancient Wynnic and Orcish, both of which are linked in my description. Several years ago, I decided to sit down and take a crack at High Gavellian.

Now, this was High Gavellian. I wanted it to be good. I had a couple of projects under my belt, but I really wanted it to be my magnum opus. So I went and tinkered at it, more and more and more, and I got caught in a death-loop of ever-increasing standards. I never got to the point where I decided to tear down everything I'd done and completely start over, but I've certainly ship-of-theseus'd the language multiple times.

I finally finished High Gavellian... sometime last year, I'd say? Except not quite. The project has grown like a weed, and it turns out that "High Gavellian" is more of a guideline than the name of a specific language. I've got a High Gavellian, and it is indeed my magnum opus, but I've also got quite a bit of other work I'd love to share!

I also have a concerning amount of private worldbuilding going on. I've fallen for the Tolkien trap. Turns out that if you want to make a language (family), you've gotta have a timeline. You've gotta know who all your speaker populations are, where they are, where they're going, and why they're going there, if you want to know what words they're telling one another.

And so my Gavellian timeline has become a monster. I've tried to keep it canon-compliant, but at this point the label "canon-compliant" has so many asterisks attached to it that it's completely meaningless.

This is a fan-timeline, not of an objective Gavellian history, but instead of the history of Gavel as seen through its dominant culture - the Sellans.

One might recognize this alternate name for the Villagers from the wonderful work of @Trashiejunkyard whence I borrowed it. But beyond that our two worldbuilding projects aren't connected to one another. I just thought that the name was nice. You might see other nods to Wartorn in this timeline, on occasion, but again they're just nods.

This timeline is a compilation of several different texts written by Corkian scholars, for typically human audiences. Most of the source materials were originally written in Modern Standard Sellan (Si'é Sélliesen), a common lingua-franca in Human-Sellan relations. However, I frequently used Corkish Fruman editions instead, as they often contained more explanations for various bits of jargon.

Also, this whole project started because of my conlanging, so I'll occasionally interrupt the timeline to talk about the languages. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ What can I say, I've got an interest.

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Table of Contents​

5: Age of the League
These are only predictions. The list below is subject to change as new parts are posted.

1. The Gylian Anarchy (Below)
2. The One Where The Fiosians Lose Their Castle
3. Extra Notes: On Pronunciation & Romanization
4. Blackfire Stoneheart
5. The League of Lords
6. The First Breath of Gavel
7. Jēsen and its Dialects
8. On The Warring States
9. Seven Princes to Midnight
10. War of the Two Gylias
11. The Stem Houses
12. The Gathering of the Séll

6-1: Dynasty of the Mace and Crown
[TBA]

6-2: Seven Principalities Period
[TBA]

6-3: Dynasty of the Eastern Wind
[TBA]

6-4: Blueflower Period
[TBA]

6-5: Dynasty of the Great Forge
[TBA]

6-6: Dynasty of the Endless Lake
[TBA]

7: The Gavellian Revolution
[TBA]

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A Gal Liassin Siosfios
THE GYLIAN ANARCHY​

I. In Medias Res (In the Middle of Things)
And the Elders were cast down, and so it was that, in their dying wrath, the splendors of the 4th Age would follow them. The Heart of the World would be forever lost, hidden and broken, remembered only in the hearts of Sellans and in scant drops of holy blood.

Regardless of the historicity of Sellan myth, it is undeniable that a great disaster befell the land, and that it was put to waste. In the heart of the Séll, what is now the lake-lands of Gylia (though it is said that the lakes had not been there before), the former slaves of the Elves descended into madness and barbarism. They were the best of Gavel.

The 5th Age would struggle to be born through centuries of such blood and strife. The exact length of this dark age is unknown, for all manner of writing and knowledge would disappear during the Gylian Anarchy. Traditionally, Sellan historians claim that all bonds of friend and family were shattered in an epoch of suffering.

However, it's important to remember that much of the historical record of the 5th Age was written and maintained by Comécivaen. The throne and its servants had great incentive to embellish the horrors of the time before imperial rule. "The empire may be harsh, and sometimes cruel," one could imagine a cleric saying, "but it is better than the alternative."

Yet even in the modern historical understanding, the devastation of the Gylian Anarchy is a matter of degree, not presence. For one, the concrete historical record of the Sellans only begins in its tail end. For another, these earliest written records from the Séll unanimously bear the perspectives of a people who have known suffering and strife for generations, a people who had known that the world before them was a greater place, a place that they would never see, a place that they pined for nonetheless.

II. Du Sipete Obiause (The Long Quiet)
The chaos of the transition would leave an unknown span of years between the Twilight of the Elves and a formal declaration of the 5th Age. Traditionally, Sellan historians label this intermezzo as part of the latter, numbering them as negative years of the 5th.

By this count, the oldest verifiable pieces of written Sellan records began to appear in the final century before 5A 1. The ornate alphabetic hand in which they were written was rarely named, but is called "High Elvish" when it was. However, the language that this script was used to write was not the High Elvish claimed by the south. The language, too, was unnamed, with Sellans referring to it at most as Inne Jésen, "Our Speech."

Its speakers regarded it as a broken, bastardized dialect of the High Elvish spoken by their former masters, a tongue also called Liesyu. Use of "proper" Elvish tongue - though not its writing - seemed considered beyond the pale by this time's residents of Gylia. Its speakers, and these earliest Sellan scribes, used their tongue to record what they regarded as a broken, bastardized imitation of governance in a world without Elvish rule.

III. On the Sogosellans
There was a notable exception to this trend, however. The mountains of Southern Gylia, long a stronghold of the Elders, remained home to a number of Sellans loyal to the Elves, no matter that the Elves had since been scoured from the world.

They maintained High Elvish, apart from their vernacular, and maintained the Elvish faith, which had been scorned by the other Sellans. They did not maintain an exceptional amount of lost knowledge, however, and their earliest records post-date those of their northern and eastern kin. These southern Elf-Friends called themselves the Anis, "Light-Fearers," while the rest would call them Sógosellan, "Mountain Civilized Folk," or Sogósellan, "Southern Civilized Folk," after the land in which they lived, which would be called Sogosell during the 5th Age.

IV. Nac Neure Du Possa (The Mortality of Mortality)
Regardless of tongue, the first records of Gylia, and Sogosell, and other lands where Sellans dwelt, would reveal lands of petty chiefdoms and clans. The Sellan world, in the tail end of the Gylian Cataclysm, would be dominated by fortified villages and strongholds, where dwelt a Lord and their clan, who commanded warriors and collected tax from the great mass of farmers in their dominion.

It was a quintessentially feudal system, albeit one not yet dominated by any great princes or kings. Instead, these petty fiefs engaged in constant low-level warfare with one another, and there was little difference between a petty lord and a bandit. Even the greatest landlords of this era could, it seemed, not guarantee defence against depredation, and great hosts tied to nothing would periodically ravage the Séll. Any great trade, or collection of wealth and knowledge, was nearly impossible.

For generations, this had been the world. It is no wonder that the Sellans of this time and the times that would follow would consider it a dark age.

But a dark age cannot last forever. These earliest records of the Séll describe conquest and consolidation. Petty chiefs became great chiefs, and then great lords, and then "princely" lords, called Ohariex, or "Prince."

V. On the Oldest Kanderites
During this time, Sellan culture would also spread north and west out of Gylia, into the Lands of the Stone-Folk, the modern regions of Kander and the Gel riverbasin. The land had yet to decay at this time, though it had also yet to see the full splendor of the Younger Elves. The Stone-Folk had not been nearly so ruined by the Twilight of the Elves as the Sellans had been, and it is said that they preferred to live simply, and in peace.

But then came the Sellans. By the end of the 5th Age, the Stone-Folk would be extinct as a culture, though much of their way, habits, and blood would survive in the north, among the Sellans of Kander. There was no single disaster that triggered their decline, and indeed the Kanderites (it is here noted that Kander was a late 5th age term for "stone") regard this substrate as their truest ancestors. They were Sellanized, yes, but they remained, and it would be foolish to say that they would not have their due by the end of the 5th Age.

With the alien faith of the Sogosellans in the south, and the distance of the new Kanderites in the north, the previously compact Séll of Gylia would become more stretched and distant than it had already been.

VI. Nildaxassin (On the Spirits and their Shamans)
The final critical piece of the Sellan world in the wake of the Gylian Anarchy would be its shamans, who at this time called themselves the Nildaxassin Order, though they were certainly not so organized. In later times, the Sellan priesthood would come to be called n'Auré. Though such a title is anachronistic for such an ancient time, it will be used for the remainder of this text for the sake of consistency.

The movement that would become n'Auré arose, it would seem, as a backlash to the Elvish faith that the lords of the 4th Age had imposed upon the Sellans. It held to many of the same precepts, but seemed to take great glee in tearing down the beloved icons of the fallen slave-masters.

ON, Lord of Light, the Great Influence, and Master of the Solar Vanguard, was cast from His lofty position atop the world. He was reduced to a hound, a beast, a servant of the Sellan powers, and would begin his thousand-year-march towards irrelevance in the mythology of the Séll.

Countless of those Sellan powers would rise to the fore of sacrifice and ritual. Llo Taextau, Égion-Ctein, Beloved Úx, the Thunder-Dragon Urssúr, and Drinoqu, and countless more. Many would rise and fall over the centuries, but as ON waned, a god here called Tfayl Guardian, or simply Tfayl, would gradually establish itself as peak of the Sellan pantheon.

Tfayl, who would eventually be declared a sole universal power, would dominate the monotheistic period of the late Imperial n'Auré, but by this early point had yet to even acquire the position of first-among-equals.

In truth, however, the spirits and gods worshiped by early 5th age Sellan shamans were not the main focus and impact of Sellan religion at this time.

Shamans were the closest thing to a universally-recognized and respected institution of the Séll during the Gylian Anarchy. Even in the south, where the Elvish faith lingered, these early priests were understood to command great and terrible power, and to have a destiny not beholden to the material world.

The shaman class of the early 5th Age, like n'Auré in the 6th, would go to great effort to keep all magical knowledge and ability constrained. For good reason, as well - was is not abuse of magic that held the Sellan people in bondage? Was it not the terrible magic of the corrupted Heart that drove the Elves to decay and ruin? Were there not countless tales, in ages even closer to the Dawn, of reckless sorcery bringing great disaster?

For reasons both religious and very practical, Sellans held and would continue to hold a very dim view of magic, the broad populace thinking it good riddance that it was held under strict lock-and-key by the shamans of the Séll. This would eventually come to pierce n'Auré like a the horn of a Toruto, but not for some time.

No, in this time, the shamans were a neutral, powerful, independent, and highly mobile social class of the Séll. It's unclear when merchant caravans first drew close to them for safety, but it's clear that, by the end of the Gylian Anarchy, the lines between cleric, messenger, and merchant had become so thin as to be effectively erased.

VII. A Tiure Aneche (On The Coming Days)
The temporal lords and princes were not idle while n'Auré waxed in strength. They continued to feud, and war, conquer one another, and build the earliest states of recorded Sellan history. The Gylian Anarchy came to an end not with a bang, but with a gradual consolidation of the first two Great Estates of the Séll.

The nobility and clergy would be the only two of the Great Estates to form during the 5th age. Their increasing size, power, and cohesion would eventually begin to raise a thought, here and there: Was one of them to unify the Séll? Which?

 

Woah this is awesome! Do you have a description/write up on the language or it’s grammar?

btw if you weren’t aware, there happens to be a relatively active conlanging community in the wynncraft discord (in large part because of the translation work towards Tahkashtel).

 

Thank you! I'll certainly be going into bits of how the languages function here and there, but they're not intended to be the main attraction. I'll leave the detailed writeups for a separate time/document.

For now, I'll note that, while we're in the 5th age, the language used for titles and such (like the ones in the first chapter) will be in Jēsen, which will gradually become the main prestige tongue of the era. We'll see the exact circumstances of that in the next few chapters. If you know of an Ancient vs. High Gavellian distinction, then Jēsen is on the Ancient side of that, though it's nowhere near the oldest strain of Gavellian. Think of it as a transitional stage, simultaneously an Ancient and High Gavellian.

As we enter the 6th age, we'll be transitioning to d'Inlya. It's a related language, and the dialect of High Gavellian preferred by the Sellan monarchy. The title at the very top of this thread is in d'Inlya; it's the "main" HG of the timeline. Any time I refer to "High Gavellian" without qualification in this thread, I'm probably referring to d'Inlya. Jēsen is solid, but d'Inlya is one of the most detailed languages I've ever made, as well as my favourite, so maybe we'll see more details then.

Oh, I'm aware :-) I've always been kind of tangential to that community (I've been gone too long), but CT's work and the community's effort to translate it is inspiring, and part of what kept me so invested in this project for all this time. We've made it! I'm so very happy.

 

hmtn! i havent even read it yet but im so excited

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I love the interpretation that Qira named the Vanguard specifically to piss off religious folks

LANGUAGES? no wonder this has been in the works for so long, you made a full fledged continent with hundreds of years of history and all that entails
I'm very excited for what's to come, and this section was great.

 

I. Thsoliäch Thou (The Place of the Departure)
The northernmost fief of the Elf-Friends was called Fios, named so after the castle and family at its heart. Fios's holdings sat on the middle stretches of what is now called the River Suvaoch, though it was called Aldóron until the early 6th age.

As the name implies, the Aldóron flowed north from the old stronghold of the Elves, both Elder and Younger, spilling out into Gylia and ultimately emptying into the region's namesake lake. Castle Fios was built at the very northern end of Sogosell, in a place where the land's mountains were few, in a place only a handful of leagues south of where the river became wide and meandering, as it entered the Gylia plains proper.

Naturally, their fief made for a popular river-crossing, especially once they built a bridge to ford the Aldóron. This brought the House of Fios much wealth and power, power that they would use to lay their enemies low and exert influence over their neighbours.

It would be vital that they did so. As mentioned earlier, Fios was the northernmost fief controlled by a house of Elf-Friends, thanks to their connection to Sogosell proper upriver. The immediate neighbors of Fios were loyal children of the Séll, one and all, and looked upon the Lords of the River-Toll with barely-disguised contempt. It was, in fairness, a rather steep toll, but perhaps the records indicating as much were biased.

Even the clergy were forced to pay the toll, for they were not the clergy of Fios, and much of the fief's peasantry were Elf-Friends of the north who had fled to this last lonely castle of Sogosell. Thus it was that the town of Fiosqa was built on the western side of the bridge, and thus it was that it would develop a reputation for apostasy towards the Séll, and of unfriendliness to n'Auré.

The feeling was mutual. Though the House of Fios was forced to tolerate the presence of good Sellans, as well as of their ilk upon their fief, they would not forget that these were the people who had laid ON low, and who had slaughtered the Elves, who had laid low the Nightbringer and justly ruled for a thousand years¹.

In the entire history of the Séll, no house would spawn more myths and legends than Fios, nor more notorious figures². But the Lords of the Toll were not yet so great a house, nor would they be, not for quite some time. That in mind, here is the first great tale in the Matter of the West,

The Loss of Castle Fios
AEGILA DU THIOS ELLAN A SIURE
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On one day, of the first days of the Séll, of the last days of the blood-before-the-blood, the House of Fios came to be ruled by the Lord Orisefutisre. He was a weak and capricious fool, squandering the efforts of his ancestors. He spent their gathered coin like water. He wasted the lives of his servants and slaves, and the grain of his peasants on excessive feasting. With no thought, he would give his time and emerald to matters beneath a Lord.

Begged by his advisors to show prudence, he instead raised the tolls upon his bridge, but all this did was run dry his mine of traders. When faced with a treasure from the west, a great medallion of fire, he threw it to his concubine, in full view of the gift-giver. When faced with a treasure from the east, a lyre of the Vindals, and a woman who could play it, he treated her as a minstrel, and forced her to play the songs of her people only as mockery and humiliation.

Thus it was that the House of Fios came to be despised by its people, for they had instead given their love to the dead and accursed. This debauchery and mockery of navoyl was to be their price, but it would be no punishment without a judge.

The reckoning of the Lord Fios began the day that he personally insulted a sage of the faith, forcing him to bow and scrape before a temporal lord for passage. News of this humiliation soon passed to his closest vassals of Fios, pious children of the Séll, who heard this and knew that they could no longer abide the madness and barbarism of their liege.

Rallied by Lord Kaencollva Xintiuch, among the strongest of the Fiosian banners, they marched to their stronghold to do away with the Elf-Friends. The son of Lord Orisefutisre, also called Orisefutisre, and sometimes Stargazer, plead with the banners from the ramparts of Castle Fios. In doing so, he nearly lost his life.

Though Orisefutisre the Younger had assumed it would come to siege, his Lord father instead wished to destroy enemies in the field. His enemies, who outnumbered them ten-fold. Thus it was that Orisefutisre the Younger knew that Fios was lost. The castle, the fief, the last senses of his father.

As he secreted away in the night, the last of the Fios-in-Fios gazed back upon the castle, and saw that his father had opened the gates, and saw the fire, and heard the screaming of Sellans. He laid a curse, then, upon the entire line of Kaencollva, such that they would forevermore know misfortune, struggle, and exile, as they had brought onto him with this treachery.

For a moment, Orisefutisre (no longer the Younger, for he knew his father was to be dead by morning) was faced with a choice. Should he go south? No, not if he wished for Fios to survive. To the masses of Elf-Friends in Sogosell, Fios was little better than their apostate banners.

East, then? Orisefutisre had heard tell, from many, that the eastern mountains were home to a witch of great power, who could grant almost any wish, if at a ruinous price. But Orisefutisre did not know what, exactly, the witch could take from him.

III. Ac Och Atiotier (The First Exile)
Orisefutisre, along with the few Sellans he could trust, traveled north along the eastern banks of the river, making towards the river-marches of the Greatest Lake. They passed through the lands of strange peoples, with strange dress, customs, and manners of speech. They did not pass in peace, not quite, but it was not a time of great strife. Twenty Sellans were enough to appear a danger to bandits and a curiosity to lords.

For weeks, they rounded the lake, eventually passing into the Lands of the Vara. There, the curiosity of the south (for the Lords of Iron had never before seen Sogosellans) entertained the court for several weeks, and Orisefutisre began to understand the heart of the Lady of the Lyre, who had played in his father's court.

They passed further to the east, beyond the bounds of the Séll, through the gates of Thianus and into the lands of the Dwarves. They saw few, on their journey, for the Dwarves were ever-reclusive and mistrustful, and no friends to the Sogoséll. Instead, their party made merry with a band of Hobgoblins, with whom they defeated the dread Goliath Pret-Paokorh, and who bestowed upon Orisefutisre an enchanted dagger³.

Finally, they came to the north-east, home of the Witch. It was a dark place, a cave in a canyon, and Orisefutisre dismounted his horse, and bade his Sellans to wait outside. He had been made to know that he must enter alone.

A great spider laid in wait, guardian of the cave. If not for the flames of his dagger, Orisefutisre would not have survived the hour. Traveling deeper into the cave, he finally fell into its heart. There, he found a still pool, and a woman, once again strumming the lyre that she had played in his father's court.

"Rin Pondaur," said Orisefutisre, and the Witch agreed, for she had seen his heart, and the heart of his family, and had watched him slay her guardian, and was in the mood to strike him down. Instead, she asked him what her price would be, for strength and treasure to restore his House.

"I know not the limits of your power, but I offer everything," said Orisefutisre. "Everything I have left. I know that is not much, but I will even offer my life, should it return Fios to glory."

The Witch smiled. It was not a kind smile.

IV. Aregindenna Siosaries (To Curse A Fool)
"You seek a way of return to your Village⁴. I am She Who Is The Way⁵, and the affairs of your house are not beyond my power, as very little is. I remember you, Stargazer, and your kindness, and do not blame you for the foolishness of your father, but I must blame your house.

"I shall not destroy you today, Stargazer, for you are yet to make good on your name, nor shall I destroy your house, which is forfeit to me, and yet to fulfill my purpose."

And she said "I shall curse you, and your line."

"So long as you wish Fios to see the next brightening, you and your line are exiled from Levtus. Thus it will be that only one of you line shall ever again sit upon the throne your father lost. They shall die, on that day, upon that seat, and so shall end the line of Fios."

Thus it was that she gave to Stargazer three small stones, hewn from the blood of the First Dragon. They were to be the seal of her curse. So long as House Fios held at least one, its power would linger upon the Séll.

"Should you wish to lay down my curse, and return to the whims of fate unknown: Cast them aside! Cast them into flame, sky, and lake. Cast them to the places of their birth, for it is where they dearly wish to return, and to properly Decay. They will leave you, if you do not guard them, and guard them jealously."

And Orisefutisre looked at the three gems, dark and red and clotted, each the size of his thumb-nail, and understood the her curse. That he would never again see his home. That he would never again see his old bed, or the people of Fiosqa, or the hills and walls on which he played, or the river bank where he sat and smoked. He would never again lay eyes on the grave of his mother, nor the mockery given to his father, and he would never sit upon the throne that had been his birth-right.

The tolls that had made his House rich were forever closed to him, and to all of his line. He would never live to see the traitor House Kaencollva brought to heel. And yet, if he but kept three stones, his line would become immortal. He shed three tears, each of blood, which landed atop them, and burned the stones, and burned his hand black.

"Good boy," said the Witch. "But that was my price for Fios, not Stargazer. My price for you shall be so: Your line shall also be mine."

Thus it was that the two were wed, and that House Fios returned to the west in blood and witch-flame, and the daughter of Orisefutisre and the Witch would become the Lord of the South, first of the Princes of Sogosell, and that their fortunes would greatly wax. When his daughter was ready, Orisefutisre would surrender his throne, and with his wife return to the East. They would never be seen again.

V. On the Historicity of this Tale
Though held up as sacrosanct in Lleva, and so unfortunately in Wynn as well, the Matter of the West is well understood to be primarily mythological.

We live in an age of reason, and science. All known principles of temporal magic involve real presence in potential time-lines, and the runic matrices and power sources required to fuel them are steep in cost. No Sellan of the early 5th age could command such power and knowledge, regardless of the Fiosian delusion that they had such a mighty figure in their bloodline. Do they not already have enough of those?

It is the opinion of most of Gylia, as well as this author, that while House Fios was betrayed by their bannermen, and forced out from their original fief (principle of embarrassment), they managed to escape with much of their wealth and resources. Perhaps after an extended campaign, they would eventually regroup in a southern holding, where they would continue their waxing and consolidation. The historical records of any of the regions that Orisefutisre Stargazer passed through never mention such a distinctive party of Sogosellans, and no records in South Gylia describe a dramatic, sudden reappearance of House Fios, simply a gradual swelling of power in their southern holdings.

The House Fios experiencing a loss of their northern, river-tolling fief, surrounded by adherents of a hostile religion, and re-consolidating in the south is a much simpler story than that of a strange woman, simultaneously living in a cave and Castle Fios, distributing prophetic bloodstones. The latter is no basis for any serious historical analysis.

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Author's Notes
1. Or more. The timeline is rather hazy in the wake what Mage Island is nowadays telling us was a freak meteor bombardment. Don't take this at face value, they change their leading theory every six months.
2. Save perhaps Dulia.
3. The Stargazer's Blade (av Elléx Tiesaurjes do Vuebxenhi) was a real piece of Fiosian regalia throughout the 5th and early 6th ages. However, it would be lost during the second of Eilya's Desolations.
4. Not a literal village. c.f. "The Sellan Monomyth" (Kalagan Hast).
5. "Qira" in d'Inlya, though note that this is anachronistic, as d'Inlya didn't yet exist. Due in part to this tale, and tales like it, "Qira" is a stock character in Sellan culture. A woman given the pseudonym 'Qira' is a witch of unknown name and terrible power. The moniker has been given to multiple historical individuals fitting the archetype, including several specifically resident in the western Canyon, such as the Mistress of the Hive.

Translator's Notes
I lied! The title for Part I is in High Elvish (Liesyu), the High Gavellian language preferred by the Elf-Friends of the 5th age. I figured it was fitting. Liesyu is related to Jēsen, but not actually very closely! It's the final fruit of a whole mess of 4th age Elvish dialects that stopped being relevant when the Aldór got collectively murked as a civilization. The Sellans... will not be apologizing for that. Actually, it didn't even happen. It's myth. But if it wasn't, then they deserved it.

I've mentioned this on and off in other places, but please don't take anything that the Sellans say about themselves or anyone else at face value. Despite living on a continent with (neo)-Elves, they're the true centre of Gavellian arrogance and disdain. Seriously, it's like a compulsion for them.

 

Qira's a widow
Wait
That's actually quite fitting
Double meanings, am I right?

 

;-)
fun fact: eight is the main number associated with "death/danger/misfortune" in sellan culture. triple threat

Keep in mind that this is obvious fiction, though, even from an in-setting perspective. As well as that the title "Qira" is going to get applied to multiple witches of wildly varying appearance and behavior, over millennia. They're not all the same person. Probably. Hopefully.

 

Extra Translator's Notes
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On Pronunciation
The title of this thread is written in d'Inlya, but d'Inlya has a very... out of date spelling system. In a lot of ways, it's still pretending that it's Jésen, despite the centuries-long gap between the two languages. According to the Standard Form of High Gavellian promulgated by Her Majesty¹, A.A. Nerari III Cadan, the title Ne Fios il an ti Éllan d'Aensauve Sento: n'Itaeséll Ixre Ludiehi² is properly pronounced as—

[n̩ˈvjəs il ɑ̃.tjeˈʒɑ̃ dɛ̃ˈsov ˈsɛ̃t]
[ni.tæˈseɬ iˌk͡xe lu.ðeˈi]

If you can't read IPA, here's an IPA reader link that I feel didn't mess up too badly, and here are consonant and vowel soundboards for any letters you might not recognize. A tilde above a vowel means that it's nasalized, as in Portuguese direção.

A scuffed anglicization might look something like:

enviOUS eel auntie yay JAUNE dense OAV SENT.
need 'ta SESH eeKAY loo they EE.

While the pronunciation of various words and sentences is a fun tidbit, and I might give them in translator's notes like this one, they're generally not all too important. Thanks to some poor decisionmaking on the part of future generations, various strains of High Gavellian are usually read as if written in the speaker's native language, which means that your first-blush pronunciation of any provided text is accurate to real Sellan practice.

High Gavellian, especially d'Inlya, is far more a written language than it is a spoken one. Speaking is left to the various Low Gavellians, which, conversely, are basically never written down.

On Romanization
I've also made the decision not to romanize the letter Laenhi using the traditional acute accent when transcribing Jésen names. The letter didn't yet exist, and its presence to indicate long vowels is a retroactive choice used by more contemporary scribes. Romanization of Laenhi will continue for names and materials from more modern times, such as in the name n'Auré and of the language itself.

Contemporary spelling conventions, such as HRC, Kaande letter-doubling, and Laenhi itself, will be introduced to chapters around the time of their invention. As spelling standards freeze into place, we'll gradually approach the frozen Cadan-form H.G. of the title, at which point neither I nor the Sellans will ever update our spelling again.

Tolkien is rolling in his grave, I know, but the linguistic aspects of this project are supposed to be front-and-center, so I feel that it would be fitting for the text to reflect real changes in how people write.

Naturally, all writing is done not in the Latin alphabet, but in the High Gavellian script, which through a freak accident of nature held a 1:1 correspondence to Latin for a brief period during the late fourth age. Thanks to Sellan writing trying to copy this epoch for an unreasonably long time, this leads to easy transcription for much of the fifth age, but everything soon begins to fall apart.

Time will see the introduction of new letters and ligatures, such as Laenhi, as well as spelling practice informed by Gavel alone, such as 〈kv〉 becoming read as /f/, 〈w〉 as /b/, 〈c〉 being conditionally read as /x/ (an h-like sound, if you're unfamiliar with IPA), and so on. This isn't even taking into account ridiculous historical elements of scribal shorthand, such as the d'Inlya indefinite article 〈K〉 being pronounced [ɑ̃], but scribal shorthand will not be transliterated³.

Sellan orthography through and after the 6th age is a mess. Continuing to faithfully transcribe Gavellian words with an archaic Latin-cipher transliteration instead of a more convenient up-to-date romanization is a convenient way to convey the pain of someone trying to become literate in a Sellan language, e.g. 〈sieihírysieim〉 [ʃi:ˈʃiɲˤ] she-ee-SHEEN.

n'Extra Notes Some Notes:
1. No, not that other one.

2. In short form, I'll probably be referring to this text as either n'Itaesséll Ixre Ludiehi / d'Ixre Ludiehi or The New (Sellan) History (of Gavel). The word Itaesséll, best translated as "Sellan Gavel," is a distinctly archaic/poetic name for (the portion of) the continent (dominated by the Séll), in the same way that Britain is sometimes called Albion, or Japan is called Yamato. You'd be surprised at just how recent the name "Gavel" is.

3. While fully-accurate historical transliteration might be fun for some, and while I do think that it's rather neat, no sane reader deserves to be subject to AI: TO· ACO· HINEIN· EFRE· ED: INLYA· NOETA·· A: T· S: VAMFE: NEYLOS· C: FIU˦FREN: NOTIO: EQUO·· for who-knows-how-long.