The following contains interesting, sexual, expressive and D&D subject matter. Vegetable discression is advised. The following contains the semi-egotistical ramblings of a deranged psychopath mixed between complex strings of scientific "mumbo-jumbo". Will negates. ============================================================================= A Formal Introduction to the Denizok (Danķzók) Star System for Maeiusiophiles ============================================================================= - 612F69, aka Adereth Olor-Wilė ---------------------------------------------- I assure you that I will keep this as stimulating and linguistically untechnical as possible. Ahem. To properly, fully, completely or whateverly enjoy, understand or er... comprehend the structure of Denizok I will probably end up explaining my own personality on more than one occasion. Please don't run away. Denizok, like all interesting things in life, started with the common schoolboy's tendancy to develop codes out of novelty. These codes usually don't amount to much and tend to disappear after a while. Some people, however, have particularly... compassionate backgrounds and actually like an unending cycle of sequels (Enter Disney). It was on this impulse that I built myself a phonology (speech) for the cipher-code "Dalian". This quickly bloated itself into a language when I added a 27th letter, "mon", mostly due to the fact that Digimon, Pokémon, and Monster Rancher were popular in the area (The Entire Dominion of Canada) at the time (1998). At the time, though, I knew nothing about phonics, semantics, semetics, accents, syllables, or the invariable use of digital watches. By 2000, there were 199 characters still conforming to the inane habit of being strung together to form words: some contained only a letter (eg, "Eh" the fifth character written and represented by a backwards E with it's top prong facing forwards) while others contained several syllables (eg, "yamato" or "eni-gamma"). This entire mess continued to grow in no particular shape until I became interested in natural languages, Japanese, Korean, and (sadly) French still show up in a certain other language spoken mainly by genetically modified Dryads that live on the moon of a D&D world (quote me on that one). There are four driving principles behind the Denizok of... *F5!* 11:50 PM, 7/28/2003: Sex, Genetics, Linguistics, and Dungeons & Dragons. Minor forces include Womb Expansion (/usually/ pregnancy), Anime Elves, Deus Ex Machina, and slices of faery cake (not really). There, that should capture my personality nicely. The Dalian language was not alone in the Denizok environment forever, though. At a moderately crucial-slash-early stage, a friend of mine contributed his own cipher-&-phonology duo, Zettek, which was by no means supposed to be a language, but rather a cryptic way of expressing thoughts in needlessly long blocks of speech and goofy characters involving too many periods. The creator also decided that his tongue was to be spoken by demi- humanoid aliens and outlined them as humans with a single tentacle protruding from the back of the neck. It is by no means a coincidence that this same friend taught me Dungeons and Dragons. The Dalian language had long been needing a body, and one was starting to worm its way into my head, the Lego Technics Discthrowers being the instigators. (Geek alert.) Eventually, I learned to draw something more interesting than a formless idiot in a black jumpsuit with a helmet and no hands, thanks to the rather difficult teachings of The New Bondage Fairies: Faerie Fetish. As a result I'm only learning now (12:04 AM 7/29/2003) how to draw a cartoon with consistant and non-anime characters. But anyways, I eventually had built up a mythology between the as-of-yet formless Dalians and the nymically reformatted Zettekians (From the planet ~ia, speaking ~ian, of course), and decided to draw a Zettekian. It was here that two major changes occurred in the Zettekians (they were mine now: Mike The DM had long since been out of contact on the topic). First, since I /did/ gain the little skill I had from Bondage Fairies, they became elves with tentacles protruding out of the backs of their necks. I still don't believe that I can draw human ears right. Second of all, since this was clearly turning into anime and the neck-tentacle had never appealled to me, I extended it into a tail. The short description for Zettekians is now "Elves with tentacles for tails". I then proceeded to draw the rest of the females in the family in a haphazard fashion. Of course, the dresses grew translucent, the age for every portrait was around 25, and my new maeiusiophilia decided to manifest itself in one portrait. For anyone keeping track, the time is now 12:16 AM 7/29/2003. With the drawing and everything, a sudden need to be able to illustrate the Dalians formed. I came up with a concept page-- something I've never done before and will probably never do again (at that dash, I fell asleep. The time is now 8:51 AM 7/29/03), and came up with a few working images that were the lego technics desert discthrowers crossbred with the entire animation of Japan. The result was basically a crocodile-like object with talons for feet, a strange pattern down the side of the head, and cat ears. 8:53 AM 7/29/03. This design was quickly revised and the previously unmentioned tail became the only talon-like place, eventually the modifications sorted themselves out into this: Genus Tonos, Species Dalidalus: Demi-humanoid characterized by full-width muzzle and cat-like ears. Fur resides on soft, armadillo-like plating. Fur is cream-coloured on front, with a dark green (maroon on Gestarė) starting at the sides. Green fur forms a pattern on the head set by last Gestarė in lineage (matrilieal), plates do not extend to head, however. Tail is usually covered. It is quite articulatable, flexible, and ends in three claws. Unlimited life span. 576 earth-days in typical gestation period (exactly two dalian years). Growth ends at 29 [Dy] (8352 terran days). No aging process. 4:35 PM 7/29/2003. Stopped right after that last timestamp. So, what the heck is the "Gestarė" thing? Well, the idea is sort of like the moderately successful "Queen-Drone-Worker" ant or bee system ("Social" insects) but distributed. A small fraction of Dalian women are born with dark red fur instead of dark green fur, which means that they excell at carrying and delivering children. Dalian genetics did not evolve, but were instead hand-coded. The first fourteen Dalians were not actually Dalians: the original three were asexual fighters developed by a Zettekian programme. The idea was to create a strong and naturally skilled combatant to protect the royal family of the ever-positive Tonos regime. Several weeks later, the Tonos castle was stormed by the armies of the (primitive) Kinos Plutocracy, and only one survived (Tonos Originaes. Predecessor to Ralian. No reproduction (asexual). Silver facani markings ("green fur"), no pattern (straight). No lifespan. Two arms. No growth process (testtube baby). Three born. Two killed in action. Excessive mental capacity.) The remaining Originaes, by a total coincidence named "Link," was sent with the Tonoian princess in a stasis pod to another planet. 4:48 PM 7/29/2003. Link was given a single command by the princess's (alas, named Dalia. The planet Dalia was a terraforming project/birthday present. The world's proper name is "Dalia's Planet".) father, which was, simply, "Survive." When Link and Dalia reached the new planet, the landing wasn't perfectly smooth. Dalia was in a coma for two entire years (288 earth days per dalian year "[Dy]") before reawakening. Link had gathered resources from their ship and the surrounding area and built, of all things, a genetic re/sequencing facility (later, "FABDA"). Link did not have the resources to build a proper incubation chamber at the time, and, after a while brooding over various possibilities, Dalia came to a decision. A rather obvious decision that was clearly quite necessary for their survival and one applaudable by the afforementioned target audience. She beared four children, the first generation of the next step, the Ralians, which was a very deliberate distortion of the intended final product, the Dalians themselves. Tonos Ralian: Four-armed relative/ancestor of Dalidalus. Navy blue facani marks, no pattern. Male and female Gestarė. No natural reproduction. Only eleven born. Ralians are a mix between standard Dalians and the original design material. The two extra arms are a semi-insect trait. The major point of Tonos Ralian was to make strong and healthy babies. Eleven were born, the third generation of which had modified reproductive DNA and gave birth to the first regular Dalians. 5:10 PM 7/29/2003. This is what Gestarė is for, a way to boost population growth. Dalian Gestarės (The actual term, by the way, is "Wįyaróķfsalakülde", meaning "female child-carrier") have "hooks" in their genetic code which allow them to modify their statuses by external means. The typical dress of a Gestarė is a crotchless translucent-white dress (other Dalians have opaque white jumpsuits), a collar with controls for fertile ova, controls for the volume of the "pregnancy bladder" (an organ fillable with water with the primary purpose of keeping one's balance when not with child), and an alarm armband with controls for sperm storage, all the conveniences of a digital watch, and a panic button for when the user needs assistance moving or is near term. Gestarė are often seen by off-worlders as a form of legalized prostitution with the objective of baby making. It is not quite so, however. Gestarės are who they are because of genetics and a need to survive, not money. In fact, Dalia's Planet doesn't have currency. It's all one nice big functional commune. Gestarės do behave rather steeply inclined towards copulation, however, and it isn't entirely the perversions of some kooky old asexual geneticist. No form of Dalian ages naturally. It's really a survival tactic that doesn't totally graft perfectly onto culture, although it certainly makes interesting material in adventure stories. Dalian society is candid towards its members. Children aren't simply told their place like in rural Earth. Instead, they're told very basic concepts of society and government (which is very special itself), progressing in complexity as they grow up. At the age of twelve (DY), they're given several ideas of how people in their position-- there are only six, really-- usually function in life and receive advice based upon their aptitudes. The six backgrounds are based on sex and parenting. Whether a child grows up in the FACDF (Sort of like an orphanage, but much more caring. Mothers can usually be traced by facani markings and fathers are apparent. FACDF stands for "Guardian Council Child Delivery Facility", in practice a stimulating orphanage/maternity ward. Gestarės usually deliver here.) or in the privacy of a home kept by a traditional family (often females settle down with males, both of which are also quite fertile. There is no real descrimination between "house-borns" and "carrier-borns"). "M, F, or G" presents a more significant role in life choices. Females typically take more caring and delicate work than males, and Gestarės usually, but not always take on the traditional role of "breeder" (which is, by the way, derogatory), although they may choose to take on any task which interests them. Gestarės, regardless of whether they take on another task or not, are never aloud in certain areas because of high-risk tasks. Gestarės produce pheramones that signal they are in heat during most of their waking life and are therefore very, very distracting to males and most females. Some tactical facilities dealing with confidential information also ban unemployed Gestarės because there is always the possibility that an altered personality might attempt to seduce a worker to gain access to restricted information. Dalians have a two-year gestation period (about one year and 8 months on earth) which means that having large litters is, while physically quite possible, highly unrecommended. The current record is 12 children at once; 7 at full term and another 5 at half-way. During the gestation period, Dalian babies grow at the same rate as humans, which means they are physically only 59 days younger than a human one-year-old, and quite large. 6:39 PM 7/29/2003.