Verse:Hmøøh/Talma
- The similarity of the name to the Terran composer Louise Talma is coincidental.
Talma (Skellan: Talma /tʰãmə/, from Windermere Tălma /təlˈma/, from tăle ăma 'mother land'; Hlou: Tä-Ma; Sowaázh: Táwama) is a cultural region of the conplanet Tricin. It is actually the northwestern portion of a landmass called Eta-Talma (Windermere: Eta-Tălma), the southern part of which is Etalocin. Bjeheond is located to the south of Talma.
Todo
History
Pre-Calamities
"Warring States" period
Windermere Empire
Grouidite Revolution and aftermath
A major war broke out about 80 years after the publication of Grouid's manifesto.
Post-Revolution
Geography and climate
Talma is located 30°N - 65°N and has a temperate climate. A natural barrier separates it from Etalocin.
Isolated areas:
- Bhadhagha Island
- Nūrē
- The Tumacas
- Qaaroshter
- Skella (to an extent)
Economy
Languages
Modern Talman languages
These are some modern Talman languages:
Of these, Anvirese and Windermere are the most spoken languages. Many modern Talmans, especially Talmic speakers, speak Skellan as a second language. Swuntsim is spoken by some people in the minority Swuntsim ethnicity.
Cuisine
Society
Talma boasts a robust tradition of intellectual activity in the sciences, philosophy, and music. However, Talman society historically was a highly stratified meritocracy, which historically caused considerable friction between social classes.
Historically the social cost of nonconformity was quite severe. Crimes were punished harshly. Legally, the most common punishments were exile, imprisonment and forced labor but often the criminals were tortured, castrated, or executed, in addition to public shaming.
Impact of birth control
Hmlai (Skellan) is a contraceptive plant native to Talma that's easy to farm, thus providing premodern Talmans with cheap birth control. (We'll call it silphium in English.)
Some possible consequences of Talman silphium:
- Polygamy was legally recognized in Talman cultures, though many people are monogamous.
- Premodern Talman culture doesn't have a traditionalist sexual morality (neither does modern Talman culture).
- Equal rights for women has always been an ideal, if not reality, in Talman culture in recorded history. (This is not because of some innate moral superiority of Talmans but largely due to external factors.)
- Women are less likely to die young in childbirth and thus more likely to participate in public society.
Pre-modern vulgar culture
The plebs were largely semi-literate but otherwise uneducated and were forced to do menial labor and/or live in unsanitary places. Non-elite military-age men were often drafted into wars.
The common people had plays, and later novels, as forms of entertainment.
Modern
The rise of the merchant class and the free-market economy marks the beginning of Etalocian modernity.
Contemporary social issues include:
- how much welfare?
- size of standing army?
- death penalty
- national parks etc.
- basic income and its effects
- automation
- effective altruism
- gender stuff
- etc.
The election system used is usually approval voting. Some countries use ranked-choice voting.
Agile legislation is considered a design ideal to strive for in Etalocian democracies.
There is no legal concept of marriage in modern Etalocian societies; marriage is essentially a "religious" concept to be negotiated by individuals.
Education
Traditional education
Elite education
Elite boys were first educated in either a "boarding school" which taught a curriculum of rhetoric, poetry, classical language, math, fine arts, and science, or a military academy. By age 15 they were expected to enter into university study (or military service) in order to specialize into one or more roles in elite society. To enter specialization one was required to pass the entrance exam administered by a university. If one could not enter specialist training he was effectively banished from elite society. Those who passed the "boarding school" curriculum but failed to specialize usually worked as "managers", low-level officials or schoolteachers. One or more requirements could be waived for a child of exceptional ability in one area.
Elite girls also had access to a full boarding school education (though not to a military education), enough for them to be independent. Unlike males, however, they were not expected to undergo male specialization. Women who wished to become schoolteachers or musicians received appropriate additional training. Some women, mostly courtesans-in-training or those who aspired to marry the most powerful aristocrats, underwent education meant for male specialists.
Apprenticeships
Modern education
Notable figures
TODO: more non-music, non-STEM heroes
TODO: more Amphirese, Yekhanese, Qazhrians, Phormatians, Chthryxians, ...
- Yăchahf rith-Ătsa - Windermere physician who verified germ theory of disease
- pseudo-[???] - group of ancient Tergetian mathematicians, authors of the Brøøhad Manuscript which is the first text to mention negative numbers, complex numbers and algebra
- [???] - Tergetian astronomer, developed the heliocentric model of planetary motion
- Jissarāφom = Windermere geometer, described Euclidean geometry in 2- and 3-dimensional Euclidean space; his work appears in Thensarian translation
- Snoeδiret Aecsarbē - Thensarian mathematician, who first approximated π to 96 base-12 places (~ 104 decimal places)
- Toφaomerom - ancient Clofabic orator
A series of natural disasters strikes Talma and sets off the "Warring States Period".
- Tsăhong Tămdi - composer, physicist and mathematician who wrote Elements of Harmony, which has the first known mention of harmonic series; the just ratios generated by a given set of primes
- Rith-Mărotł - Windermere statesman, philosopher, and political theorist
- Hădech fa-Angcem - Windermere naturalist who deduced the theory of biological evolution from Nurian wildlife which was similar but different than wildlife of continental Talma.
- This sets off a theological crisis.
- Fosean fat-Tsarir - Windermere chemist, physicist
- Ăchmu far-Rothap - Windermere geometer, physicist and engineer
- Răngeay Bănof - Windermere physicist and mathematician who invented calculus
[The Revolution]
- Emisom Grouid - Amphirese poet
- Sngü Pde - Windermere physicist
- Tăbich Vaseng - Windermere mathematician who worked on complex analysis, discovered Riemann zeta function
- (Amphirese poets and writers)
- Stuthil Alcphe - Amphirese writer
- Astęras Sawmeter - Amphirese inventor
- Jakkiūrą Uffanasseh - Nurian economist
- Axtxo Byjah - Sfətsiv-Fyxoomian writer
- Ilsá Josive - Skellan geometer
- Sduþel Bolltind - Skellan linguist, discovered Roshterian
- Tzintve Vitzyza - Sfətsiv-Amphirese linguist, discovered Sjowaazhéñ
- Rewhd Gneevon - writer
- Çela Jaivon - Skellan fantasy writer and conlanger, Tricin's Tolkien figure