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A Day In Paradise; Open
Topic Started: May 15 2014, 11:14 PM (2,377 Views)
Demoness
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Feoras is a land of great beauty and great sorrow. In ancient times, the isolated island was its own world, warring, celebrating, and living by its own rules. Its first contact with the outside world was violent, but it resulted in the assimilation of the invader culture into its own. However, this would not be the trend and the next encounter ended with Feoras being the assimilated party. For centuries, it was subjugated by Demonessian masters until the modern age brought with it change: enormous destruction, followed by brief freedom and then patronizing stewardship.

The island suffered from poverty, but there was still beauty to be found. While its five remaining ethnicities live in an enforced peace, the tourist areas benefit from the economic boon and generate a false sense of wealth. Tourists are attracted by Mauna Inaka, the volcanic center of the island, and the black sand beaches she generated. The gentle slope of the continental shelf allows swimmers to wade into a seemingly endless sea and walk up to boats parked in the shallows. Its coral reefs are untouched in certain parts of the island and the fauna found there are unmatched.

With the economy centered around the tourism trade, it is hard to leave the main areas. However, the adventurous tourist may find other ways to pass the time. The Genfiotes in the south control the tourism areas, making sure they are clean and presentable, as do their neighbors in Ahi'iana. The Genfiotes, however, present a curiosity: their religious leaders, known as the Undying. These leaders dress entirely in grey and cover their faces with a mask and veil. When they speak, they speak as if they are not an individual; they speak as if they are from a collective consciousness, which can be unnerving for some. In Fuwoku, one can find the farmers, who toil away in the dirt and respect animals as much as humans. For the adventurous, there is Kain, a land of warriors where the leader is determined through battle prowess. While Mpali represents the industrialized portion of the island, Isis certainly fairs the best as the seat of the former colonial masters.

Humanitarians may seek to provide relief from poverty and criminals may find a new foothold, but tourists, explorers, and travelers may find adventure.
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Demoness
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"It depends on the language, but one mostly can infer from context and there are adjectives- no, adverbs that help one place the time frame," Kakia explained. "Like I might say, 'Yesterday morning I go to beach and see a whale'. From that you understand everything I said takes place yesterday. Ni'ihau may have had tenses at one point, but there are so many languages on the island that they were eliminated, and Feorasi Morai tends to drop the tenses as well out of habit. They tried to enforce tenses in Poi, but if each language had its own rules. English uses '-ed' and has irregulars. Poi has many irregulars and it is a bad language."
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Cetatsenia
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"What exactly is so bad about Poi?" Vlad asked, tilting his head, "Zere is nozing inherently wrong wiz a bastardized language; at least in my opinion."

"Is it a real language?" Andrei said, "Or did people just make it up?"
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Demoness
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"Bastardized! I was trying to remember that earlier!" Kakia exclaimed with a smile. "The Demonessians tried to force our languages into a standard and that became Poi. It is more 'regular' than Ni'ihau, which is the natural mixture of our languages. Ni'ihau has many dialects though, but it is more understandable throughout the island than any one language. it is a standard language. Poi was an artificial attempt to standard-ize our languages."
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Cetatsenia
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"Ah, so it is not a real language zen," Andrei said, nodding his head, "It makes sense zat you would not be particularly fond of it in zat case."

"Agreed, real languages are also much prettier zan artificial ones," Vlad added with a smile.
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Demoness
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Kakia smiled. "I agree. Ni'ihau flows naturally off the tongue, but I think it is difficult for an outsider to understand. It is like English - different words are said differently and there are irregular conjugations." She shrugged. "But there are many languages on the island, so it is natural for that to happen."
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Cetatsenia
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"Well to be fair zere are many languages zat are difficult for outsiders to understand," Vlad said with a laugh, "In fact, it is pretty typical I zink."

"How many languages are zere on ze island exactly?" Andrei asked.
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Demoness
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"The Demonessians added three languages, but before they came there were at least seven languages and many, many dialects," Kakia replied. "May of them have died out or fallen into disuse. Our ethnic languages are primarily used by the older generations and in rural areas. We use English and Morai too much in daily use to keep separated as we used to and Ni'ihau and Poi have seen a growth in popularity in the last century or so. For a while Poi was actually the national language, and then Ni'ihau, but the agreement with Demoness removed that stipulation."
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Cetatsenia
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"Oh, well it is no fun to see languages going extinct," Vlad said, "Even if it is happening naturally."

Andrei just shrugged in response, "Well, zings like zat happen. It is why we speak Cetatsenian and not Latin."

"True, but it is still disappointing."
Edited by Cetatsenia, Aug 7 2014, 11:57 AM.
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Demoness
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Kakia shrugged. "It is probably for the best. There were dozens of languages on the island, which made it more difficult for us to communicate," she replied. As part of the merchant class, the consolidation of languages made sense to her. It was the merchants who helped created and spread Ni'ihau, but they still needed to know a handful of words from each of the many languages if they intended to do well. It was far too expensive to try to hire a translator for every group on the island.
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Cetatsenia
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Vlad laughed and waved it off, "Oh, do not understand me. I get zat it may be for ze best, and I know zings like zat do happen. It is still disappointing to see ze deaz of a language zough."

Then the man sighed, "Even if zey do live on zrough ozer languages, like Ni'ihau, ze fact stands zat once zey are gone zey are usually gone for good. An entire language, an entire way of speaking wiz its own words and rules completely gone aside from history books and scholars. Even when somezing is for ze best, it can be disappointing in its own way."
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