Wind Spirits is now officially on hiatus. I think it’s probably obvious that it has been but as I never stated it, well, there it is. What’s happened is that as I was going along I realized that the story itself is no where near as polished as it needed to be, and that it was drifting into an area I was decidedly uncomfortable with. So I’m reeling the work back into the script state to correct these problems before going any further.My apologies to anyone who has read it/wondered what has been going on with it. I’ll try to get it back up and running ASAP.
The faces from The Aftershock were just too good so…here’s some expressions practice with Nika and CassJayTuck
I’ve got it bad
What do I do with this ache that I have?
Just let it be…
Or should I use all the tricks up my sleeve?
This ain’t a game
This ain’t a game I want to play
All the pieces are frayed
And there are rules
Oh, these are rules I can’t obey
— Carnival, Amanda Somerville
OK there are a lot of issues with this, but I don’t care. First time I’ve animated anything in forever. and it felt kinda good.
Quinta da Regaleira-Sintra ~ Portugal
An underground tunnel with a spiral staircase, supported by carved columns, down to the bottom of the well through nine landings. The nine hole round landings, separated by fifteen steps, evoke references to Dante’s Divine Comedy, and may represent the nine circles of hell, paradise, or purgatory.
The well is connected to laberíticas caves that lead to a spooky garden surrounded by a lake.
The land that is now Quinta da Regaleira had many owners through time. But in 1892 it belonged to the Barons of Regaleira, a family of rich merchants from Porto, when it was purchased that year by Carvalho Monteiro for 25,000 réis. Monteiro wished to build a bewildering place where he could gather symbols that would reflect his interests and ideologies. With the assistance of the Italian architect Luigi Manini, he designed the 4-hectare estate with its enigmatic buildings, believed to hide symbols related to alchemy, Masonry, the Knights Templar, and the Rosicrucians. The architecture of the estate evokes Roman, Gothic, Renaissance and Manueline architectural styles. The construction of the current estate commenced in 1904 and most of it was concluded by 1910.
Puzzlewood is an ancient woodland site, near Coleford in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England. The site, covering 14 acres, shows evidence of open cast iron ore mining dating from the Roman period, and possibly earlier.
In 1848 some workmen, after moving a block of stone in the woods, found a small cavity in the rocks. In this cavity, hidden away, were three earthenware jars containing over 3,000 Roman coins. No-one knows why the coins were hidden away in the cliff face nor by whom.
J. R. R. Tolkien, a frequent visitor to the Forest of Dean, may have visited Puzzlewood, and many believe Puzzlewood was the inspiration for the fabled forests of Middle-earth, such as the Old Forest, Mirkwood, Fangorn or Lothlórien contained within The Lord of the Rings. J.K Rowling is also said to have visited Puzzlewood, and it may have been this that influenced her idea of The Forbidden Forest in the Harry Potter books.
Put this on the very top of my “I must visit” list.
Sorry about the spamming, guys. I was trying to put everything that should have been going here first…here. XD it never quite seemed to make it. Hopefully I’ll be better about this in the future.
For this bit I’ve taken to bolding Ama terms, rather than using italics since the italics still seem to be broken. =.=
Part One Introduction & Government
Family Structure:
Since it’s World Building Wednesday and I don’t feel reblogging the same old meme, I figured I’d just share some world building I’ve done instead. This is all still being worked on, as a warning, and if something doesn’t make sense or needs further explanation and you are interested enough to ask/point it out—please do!
I am going to include a couple images here, one of which I know is incomplete (the map), and the other which may or may not make any sense. Ummm Also, I guess I should mention that all Ama words are in italics just to be sure no one is staring at the going “wtf is that English?” Because there’s a LOT of language shit in here.
So anyway, here’s the introduction to the Ama, and their governing system.
Ama (the language being spoken):
fugugudezbii takoema Cudez o pamagu metQi e shashi hahani nanda o takoe tiiXuso. yi takuehnika. tariehosubii shashi hahani luaniso pukitcha ah zimir. kutariehbii tivie o tchazi amikaso ah verakatchiso pamagu metQi kupukousa. amika-t’am kisverakatchiso yinrui.
English Translation:
In the time before Time, there was nothing but the Barren Black and the Great River. Then came the flood. The waters of the Great River rose up and swallowed everything. When the waters receded, they left behind them stars and Worlds littered across what remained of the Black. Among those Worlds walked the Celestial Beings——————————————————————-
I still think my accent is a little off on the vowels (in a language I created—that’s sad) but I wanted to try mixing this. Oddly enough, I think the fact that I’m sick helped me hit the right pitch. XD
OK, decided to try and get through the whole list of that conlang test I linked earlier (sourced again here). Lets see if I can actually get through these! XD They will be in batches of ten over several days, if not weeks.
I thought it was going to be easy, but…One thing that is proving a challenge is figuring out how the Ama would say a particular sentence. Their language is so different from English that direct, literal translation just doesn’t work in most cases. IE, just about everything I’ve tried. So, in order to better help myself, I’ve included notes with astrixs before them. I’d have done italics but tumblr seems to hate italics with a passion right now (every time i try to italicize something it just fucks the spacing and doesn’t actually work until i go back and re-edit. Anyone know what’s going on?)
The sun shines.
ama hame**Here, the Ama means “I see the sun,” which I feel to be a more proper translation given the actual meaning of the English sentence. As “shine” is literally referring to the fact that the sun is throwing off light, which is the basic function of the sun, no Ama would ever bother to point this out. (Unless they were being intentionally rude by Ama standards…but that would not convey the same meaning as this sentence.)
The sun is shining.
ama hamema** Literally this is “I see the sun right now.” In most contexts it would also be incredibly rude.
The sun shone.
ama tahame** “I saw the sun.”
The sun will shine.
dehela o ama hame**The Ama have no future tense. The best that one can manage when talking about the future is usually prefaced with “dehela o” which means “I think.” In this case, the Ama would say “I think I will see the sun (at some point).”
The sun has been shining.
ama tagugudez tahame** “I saw the sun at some point in the past.”
The sun is shining again.
ama putak hame / puama tak hame** This one was particularly difficult because there is a multitude of ways the Ama might express this. Technically, “Ama hame” would suffice in this situation, and would be the most likely to be used. But since I’ve had that one here already, I chose to show a different version whichcouldbe used. Both of the sentences above mean the same thing: “I see the sun come here;” which would be used is a regional matter. This means that the sun was thought to have “gone away” and has now “returned.”
**There’s only a handful of reasons why the Ama might need this particular phrase: it’s sunrise, clouds were obscuring the sun, or an eclipse occurred. The latter two have the same explanation in their mythology: that some supernatural being has come to war with the sun goddess and she has left to fight them. Therefore “Ama putak hame” could be expressing relief that the goddess has returned from battle.
The sun will shine tomorrow.
amare ea dehela o ama hame** Because they lack future tense, there is no direct word for “tomorrow.” Instead, the Ama count. “Amare” means “day,” and is followed by a number; in this case “ea,” which is “two. Because the Ama would count the day they are on, “amare ea” or “day two” means, approximately, “tomorrow. Thus this sentence means “Tomorrow I think I will see the sun.”
The sun shines brightly.
ama sisima hame** “I see the sun glows brightly.”
The bright sun shines.
ama sisi hame** “I see the sun is bright.”
The sun is rising now.
ama puezuuma** “The sun moves up.” This is highly contextual, however. It also means “the sun moves down.”
All the people shouted.
[Ama / Behetan] lua tafoXa
Some of the people shouted.
[Ama / Behetan] tafoXa
Many of the people shouted twice.
[Ama / Behetan] iiX tafoXa ea
Happy people often shout.
[Ama / Behetan] phida foXa iieo
** The above all have the same issue: there is no single word for humanity in Ama. Instead, the Ama make a distinction: those who were created by the goddess Ama-t’lah (them) and those who were not (Others.) There is no in between. The word “behetan” has a multitude of uses and meanings surrounding this concept including, but not limited to: outsider, foreigner, barbarian.
The kitten jumped up.
kitta tahodCi puezuu
The kitten jumped onto the table.
kitta futchata tahodCi
My little kitten walked away.
kittaosu yani tayinrui takutivie
It’s raining.
taomi
The rain came down.
taomi takutivie
The kitten is playing in the rain.
kitta futaomi betita
The rain has stopped.
butaomi / taomi tapute** Two equally accurate ways to say this. The first means “No rain,” and is probably the more likely to be used. The second is “Rain stopped.” It’s less likely to be used, if only because the Ama tend to mince words.
Soon the rain will stop.
dehela o taomi pute yazi
** The only really interesting thing here is that the word for “soon,” “yazi.” Which also means “near” or “close.”
I hope the rain stops soon.
weXina o taomi pute yazi
Once wild animals lived here.
tagugudez o futak mogwene kammami / tagugudez o tak mogwene kammami nao / tagugudez o tak mogwene kammami taiso**These are only a handful of the ways this one could be translated, though they are the ones most likely to be heard. I found a few things about this that I thought interesting, though. Firstly, there is no word for “wild,” but there is a word for “free,” “kammami,” which is close enough in the sense of the original sentence. Secondly, that “once” is best translated as “in a past time.” If it were a specific day they would have said “past day + number.” Lastly, the “nao” / “taiso” difference. These are both have the same difference, but nao is more like hearing someone use “thee” and “thy” in English, whereas taiso is “are” made past tense in the way that nouns and verbs are, and more likely to be used by younger generations.
Slowly she looked around.
ete makit tabani nazeo / nazeotin etebii makishi tabani** The first version is in the usual SOV (subject-object-verb) sentence structure, whereas the second is emphasizing “slowly” by fronting it and using a marker system to indicated the subject, topic, and indirect object. While Ama is commonly an SOV language today, it was once rather free-range, making extensive use of this marker system. Now the markers are only seen in instances when someone has chosen to rearrange things (such as for emphasizing) or in the single tribe (Ashin) where this system has remained in common use. It is somewhat equivalent to listening to Shakespeare.
Go away!
kutivie / putivie** Oddly, either of these is accurate.
Let’s go!
bap / [ke’te / ve / ta / za] bap** This one is surprisingly difficult because of how incredibly contextual it is. First of all, I had to decide what the precise meaning here is, because the word for “go” in Ama is much closer in meaning to “begin.” While “let’s begin” is close, I feel like “Let’s move” was a little closer to the usual meaning of this phrase. Therefore, I went with “bap” or “move.”
**From there, the proper translation largely depends on who you are speaking to and whether or not you yourself are included. Merely saying “bap” is fine, and again, the most likely to be used. (Running theme here: the less words involved, the more likely it’s accurate.) However, if you’re speaking to a group, and not including yourself, “bap” probably isn’t going to work. You need a subject to be clear who you mean:
ke’te - “we” used for two or three people, including the speaker
ve - “we,” used for larger groups that include the speaker
ta - “you,” used for two or three people, not including the speaker
za - “you,” used for larger groups that do not include the speaker
**Of course, you could just say “bap” and gesture to whomever you mean.
You should go.
kutivie gayawi / [ta / za] kutivie gayawi** A little closer to “you need to go away” than “you should go,” but would not be considered rude. Again, here, we have the issue of how many people the speaker is talking to. Also problematic is that the first, “kutivie gayawi” could as easily mean “I need to go away,” and relies entirely on context for meaning.
I will be happy to go.
kutivie phida / phidama**Like the above, the first could also mean “you are happy to go,” but since that wouldn’t make a lot of sense we know the subject is the speaker. The second version relies on the above sentence for context, and means “happily.”
He will arrive soon.
dehela o futak hete yazi** I’m not sure that you absolutely need “i think” at the beginning of this sentence, but at the same time… eh. Either works.
Process shots, just for the hell of it. And because I’m still proud of those inks. XD I haven’t used an ink brush in years, but I gave it a shot with this and I may do more in the future.
Thought it’d try out SketchBook Copic. still not sure how i feel about it. XD
In other news: random falling modAU!Nikaya