Hello all, I wanted to rename two major locations in Concavia to distinguish them from their real-world mythological counterparts. Those being Atlantis and Hyperborea. This is mainly to avoid confusion, but also because these places have grown into something of their own and I do not want to muddy the waters with one-to-one names with real world mythology.
I’ll just cover one for now and talk a bit about the lore too. In previous lore posts I spoke about the Nunacairn and about Atlantis. The Nunacairn were the cone-headed Atlantean race.
Atlantis is now to be named Talanā, and the Nunacairn are to be renamed the Talanos. Allow me to explain how I arrived at those names:
I wanted a new name for Atlantis that evoked the feeling of the original. Atlantis takes its name from Atlas. This is not the Titan who holds up the sky, but the son of Poseidon and Cleito. In either case, the name Atlas means “bearer” or “endurer”, from the Greek tlēnai, which can be traced back to Proto-Indo-European *telh₂-. I went back to that root and built up from there to name the continent in Concavia. The whole bearer/endurer thing slots in perfectly, but I’ll explain that in a bit.
Anyway, *telh₂- would have been pronounced roughly as “tal” with a breath at the end. In Indo-European languages you can add endings to show “a whole group” or “a land”. The ending -nā is one such ending. So tal- + nā gives Talanā, meaning “the land of the bearer/endurer”. As for the Nunacairn’s new name, the -nos at the end of Talanos means “of” or “belonging to”.
Now, a bit of lore on Talanā:
“At the southern end of the great and storied land of Talanā lies one of the most striking sights in all Concavia, the Bearer. Its height was so awesome that it almost reached the ringéd moons of Gelh, to whom the only loftier thing is the sleeping sun god himself.
The Bearer was builded by a wayward band of Alves, now known as the Oath-breakers; for these homesick Alves had forsaken their watch in the northern land of Upergora to wend back to the fair moons of Gelh. There they wished to be joined once again with their beloved Silvern kin, the Albes.
But the Oath-breakers could not raise this spire themselves, so they called upon the folk of that land, the Talanos, for help. The Talanos lent the might of their kingdom in return for wed-lock with their lordly houses and for deeper lore of the shaping of the world and might over the Craft.
Mehter thought ill of the Oath-breakers’ climb to Gelh, and ere it was ended, for she cast a curse upon the Bearer, that not one stair more should be laid to lift its height; though strive all one might, it could not be done.
Now the Bearer stands as a token of an oath broken, of the burden the Alves bear: to watch over Upergora evermore, lest the world fall.
In later days, when the truth was lost, folk came to believe that the spire itself held up the sky, and so the name “the Bearer” took on a new meaning. But with the loss of meaning so too came the loss of lore bound with that meaning, and Talanā fell under the sway of the Dwalves, the dark kin of the Alves and Albes, who strive ever to bow to their dark lord, Tàmhas.
The Dwalves brought the Talanos another side of the Craft through the mingling of blood, and with it, greater might and longer lives. Hidden fellowships of witches fell for the lure of the Dwalves; of all the Talanos, they had the most unquenchable thirst for knowledge and strength. They wormed their way into the high halls of Talanā, rose to rule, and bent the mighty kingdom to the will of their shadowed lords.
Over many life-years, a hidden worship of Tàmhas took root in the heart of Talanā and was suffered to spread beneath the shadowy hand of the Dark-witches. This black fellowship turned the tale of the beginnings upon its head and hailed the dark god Tàmhas not as foe, but as a god wronged. It held that by helping to bind Tàmhas’ soul once more to his body, that is, to Concavia itself, his followers would be led to a better life after death in the new world yet to dawn.
Through the Dark-witches, the Dwalves wrought their will to lay waste to the northern land of Upergora. Their aim was to shatter the warding-mark that held Tàmhas’ soul outside the world’s bounds. But Mehter flew down from Gelh with her host of Albes and withstood them.
The Dark-witches and the Dwalves came so very near to breaking the binding that held Tàmhas beyond the world. To end the war that had brought such wreck to the world, Mehter loosed her Great Flood. The waves swept away the halls and holdings, that they might never again grow so wide or so strong. To see that such might should not rise again, she shaped the land-wights who tear down steads that take too much from the earth.
And with that, so closed the Days of Copper and thus began the Days of Iron. The fallen kingdom of Talanā sank beneath the waves and Mehter, having spent all her store, fared to the sun and shared his everlasting rest; never shall they waken till the end of days be upon us.”