Noul is/was a paracosm of mine that I worked on throughout most of my teenager life. It featured a couple hundred years of history, maps, a language, and was intended to be narrated throughout a series of books - most of which I didn’t even start.

I might end up uploading whatever I still have here. I’d rather not abandon it, but in all fairness I haven’t worked on it in a while, and I do not know whether I ever will.

Update: I finally started working on Faun (the conlang) again!

Update 1.10.24: finally started writing this down

Noul is a paracosm of mine that I worked on throughout most of my teenager life. It featured a couple hundred years of history, maps, a language (linked here), and was intended to be narrated throughout a series of books - most of which I didn’t even start.

Some months ago, I brought it up with an anthropologist friend of mine, and it inspired us both to start or continue work on our conworlds. Today, on another prolonged train ride, I ventured to write things down.

Geography

First, a brief description of the (insofar unnamed) main continent. It is in the southern hemisphere (meaning, further south means colder, unlike eurocentric maps), spanning roughly XXX. The northernmost part is an arid desert/wasteland, narrowly missing both the [equatorial rainfall ring thingie] and just in the rain shadow of the mountains to the south. Below that is a fertile mountainous region, its larger river basin draining to the west. The mountains, resulting from a subduction of the northern, arid plate, are [tall]. Most of the precipitation comes from [the south]. Further south are extensive plains, with various rivers culminating in a large central lake, itself draining in the ocean to the west. To its south-west is a minor mountain range, further south-east is a horn. [boy this sounds like shit, go over it, use some more technical terms, maybe vary it a bit? ‘the continent is bisected by an appalachian-type mountain range, bordered by an arid wasteland to the north and lush, wide plains to the south’?]

First Age

The main peoples are the Faun, largely roaming the plains to the south during the first era. Half-human, half-animal hybrids, they are nomadic, result-oriented survivalists. Spiritually, their world is separated in two layers - what is, and what happens. This is mirrored in their language, with only a present and a progressive tense, and verbs being the roots of words. Their weapons are spears (in the form of sharpened wood sticks, though some have started developing primitive stonework) - most suited for throwing and hunting. As they have no horses, some have adapted wolves to fill the same role, pulling loads on sleighs/chariots/wagons (with wheels - themselves developed from barrel-like hollowed logs used for storage). As nomads, they live in tents, built from fur and primitive fabrics.

Of note are their funerary rites. Being very pragmatic and result-oriented survivalists [pretty sure I used that phrasing already], they waste little, and this also applies to the [corpses] of their relatives. Hair, leather, bones, tendons and [gutstring], in times of need even meat, were procured from the deceased. While most were processed into tools, the skulls were usually kept as an effigy of the person, left on a place of significance to the deceased while on their travels. Finger bones were often made into memorial necklaces for relatives, and hair braided into decorative string. From those, along with knotted reinforcements to the pelts of their tents, developed the first weaving, which later became [a trademark] pivotal to their culture.

This need to be useful to justify one’s existence (“why should we keep you alive, instead of processing you into a pouch?”) led both to a morbid stabilisation of their genes [holy fuck does this sound fascist], but also to great specialisation - disability was tolerated (if you survived birth and its consequences, you were probably worth keeping), and often led to the disabled specialising on [crafts, manufacture] [or storytelling, as a means of keeping history]

An interesting tribe, living in the mountainous midlands, are the harpies. Half-man, half-bird, those plumaged folk don’t often intermingle with the nomadic travellers to the south, as their eggs need extensive brooding which makes them unsuited for life [on the road]. However, those that fail at the social aspect [of reproduction] sometimes decide to leave their tribe and join one of the wandering groups to the south, helping them in scouting and being regarded as lively, colorful additions to their troup. Where wolves fill the pack animal niche left by the lack of horses, those harpies fulfill the need for scouts and messengers. Their [garishness] was an inspiration in the bold, colorful designs of their tapestries. [how do i politely say they were the camp gays that “were predestined to invent sequins”, to quote mike?]

[living in the mountians and being highly mobile, they were of the few peoples that already had a food surplus, leading to them focusing much more on presentation, flamboyantness, etc]

Those harpies are [sedetary], living in the mountains and not traveling much. They are slightly shorter than the [faun] average, and much louder and more colorful. Their gigantic migratory cousins interact much less with the [faun], only seen as hulking shapes on the horizon, heard by migratory calls, and widely regarded as a symbol of wisdom due to their knowledge of faraway lands and old age. Their bones and feathers are quite prized, used to make huge instruments, [armguards], and exquisite tent decorations.

[auditorily/aurally], they could be recognised by their bone flutes, finely crafted and capable of both soothing melodies at the evening fireside, and of shrill alarms across long distances.

gift-giving society

main peoples are the faun, half-human half-animal hybrids to the south of the main continent nomadic, result-oriented survivalists present and progressive/habitual, verbs as roots gift-giving society spears no horses

funerary rites - skulls on pikes
implications abt disability
first weaving (from hair of relatives)
flutes

Second age

On the south-western side of the great lake is a minor mountain range, on its eastern side a rock. One day, a red-eyed man cloaked in shadow sat on that rock, watching a [wheat/flax/corn] stalk grow. From its seeds, he planted another, and watched it grow as well.

Thus was the start of the second era of the faun. Multiple tribes happened to be stopping on that mountain during their travels, and their people got inspired by the man, picking up corn and flax, seeding it, and reaping the results. An informal peace treaty was established, that no fight or pillaging [conflict] was to take place on the mountain, and the frail, old, and disabled were the first to settle down permanently, watching after the plants like the shadowed man did. With more, and more permanent, food sources came food surplus, allowing more to settle. The first settlers hardened their tents with clay from the lake, thus building the first houses. And from ‘to build’ - pas - became ‘Paslo’, the first city.

[elaborate that this was a gradual process]

The nomads, however, refused to settle completely. Yet, centralisation and civilisation did not elude them, and they started building settlements on the other ends of their paths as well, having a place to rest and refuel on both ends of their journeys. Later on, those would develop into ossuary settlements, where the bones of the ancestors would be brought to their eternal rest. For the first time, the [sedetary] harpies had a place close and convenient enough to migrate to, and there started intermingling and integrating into the emerging faun society.

The four major tribes, when gathering, started distinguishing themselves by origin, but increasingly more by specialisation - builders, traders, warriors, and farmers, with the first settlers becoming a priest class, watching the shadowed one and recording his teachings of agriculture, ceramics, and stonework. From the clay they built [pots], themselves inventing fermentation (and thereby attracting even more settlers), in the masonry they recorded the teachings, slowly building up a citadel around the man they had gathered around - from kor, to gather round, became ‘korpus’, the first temple.

(sidenote - the rock he was sitting on when not teaching, the center stone of their civilisation (literally), was thus ‘kormech’)

Besides [corn/wheat], they grew flax, and with its fiber, plentiful and easy to work, their fiber craft florished. Larger, extensive, elaborate, more solid tents and fanciful clothing were the least of their creations. They used threads to keep ledgers, strands denoting times, knots on them different amounts (quite similar to the inca). Woven tapestry replicas of the cathedral were made, folded up to transport to the four other sites for teaching and debate, then miniaturised for personal use for those willing to afford them. The pictograms became a logography, the knotted threads grammar, and thus was made the first writing system. In addition were made maps, lists of towns to be traveled to reach destinations, knotted together like beads on a string, along with measurements of the sun and stars in order to know where the temple is.

the man on the rock introduction of agriculture and stonework food surplus as foundation for civilisation foundations of metalwork? nomads settling down, first city in parallel, four more as travel destinations later develop into ossuary settlements castes flax and linen clay citadel and tapestries of the priests knotted accounting origins of writing carpet list maps, directional system

the northernmost tribe (pazzio) started building boats to cross the lake, then expanded to sail all the way from pasloe to pazzio an errant boat crossed the tropics and settled the northern islands, founding a polynesian-like culture obsessed with going back to their ancestral lands - the first (and only) ones to develop spirituality

Third era

northerners, conflict institutionalised religion

Harpies

The issue of ‘no horsies’ poses the obvious issue of ‘no [draft] animals’, a niche filled by wolves and dogs. However, it also poses the more distinct issues of ‘no scouts’ and ‘no messengers’, which have effects on how a society is structured.

One solution I am not entirely sure I want to canonise yet is expanding upon the ‘half-human, half-animal hybrids’ to include harpies - half-birds, people that can fly. Of those, there are two kinds - the migratory ones, holders of great wisdom and knowledge of faraway lands, yet a people that doesn’t stay long enough to chat and mingle, and the stationary ones, the peoples that lay eggs and stay to brood them, the ones that integrated into faun society as scouts, messengers, and carriers. Having limbs inadequate for fine work, they were largely reliant on others for the fruits of civilisation, yet one field they excelled at was warfare. [etc, dropping rocks, what does this imply about tents? theyd also have spears, those were pretty common? also, is this related to the claying of the tents of paslo?] Being fast and far, they neccesitated a counter-offensive, leading to a quick adoption of longbows, and quite a few good archers [or smth idk]

harpies migratory wisdom aerial warfare

continent named ‘where the shadow roams’?

what happens w/ the dogs once they start settling down?

view on families “men hunt” was less because “man strong” and more because “man disposable” - does that (or rather, how does it not) lead to a view that women are fragile and need to be protected? even if we ignore the “taking care of babies” aspect (since thats a communal affair), child-rearing is still gonna be a thing the harpies wont have that aspect, since once theyve laid eggs (significantly easier and faster than child-rearing), their job is done or we could have them actually be sexist, until the third era where the priesthood gets too much power and goes to war with the northerners and most men die out

which tribe is which?!? - wolves become warriors - bovines become lovers (aka farmers) - harpies become traders (aka messengers, scouts, etc) - reptiles become craftsmen (first knappers) - spider/insectoid class got ignored for paslo, still remaining in caves in the north

not sure how much i like the idea of having “reptiloids” also, minor changes to reproduction - feathers and scales derive from hair and are related enough we have genes for them irl, but reproduction via eggs is significantly different from live births

also, spiders have an ant-like social structure, w/ a queen and workers and warriors and all that how did their language/writing system evolve in relation to faun?

different species and their distribution on the continent aforementioned sexism, and how that interacts w/ the priestly class, which has none of it how the monastery priestly class works - prayer by observation - training in it, see notes from mike - welcoming to outsiders, interacting w/ them - hierarchy, who watches the watchmen - timekeeping: first sundials (necessitating recordkeeping for ephemera), also foucault pendulums - tapestries developed from note-/recordkeeping of observations, evolved to also maintain celestial and “political” events