Who are the Vaelians?
Originally from Vaelmoor, a nation about a week's boat ride from Andorvia.
Subsistence farmers/hunters who live together in small villages. Something like this:
They have two gods: the Father and Earth Mother. The Earth Mother is, essentially, the earth itself, and contains all the spirits of creatures who have lived or will yet live on the earth.
Their religion is completely made up (any similarity to existing religions is completely coincidental). A human "spirit" is made up of two parts: a man and a woman. At birth they are separated, and at some point in their lives, they will be reunited with their carita, or the other half of their spirit. This is the purpose of life, to have experiences that change and shape who they are until they fit back with their carita. They have to find their calling in life- the thing that only they and their Carita can accomplish together. Without this, their lives are meaningless, and when they return to the Earth Mother at death, they won't be able to join her in caring for family members still living.
That's why Naithan is so willing to sacrifice the way he does for Katherine at the end of Hearts Unshackled (no spoilers!). As his carita, she completes him perfectly. It's only with her that he can find the true purpose of his life, and vice versa. I don't feel like I articulated this very well in the book, but after a Maledonian lieutenant ... um ... brings up something that changes Katherine's plans (spoilers!), Naithan recognizes his calling in life. And even though it isn't what he wants to do, he knows he won't be truly fulfilled until he embraces it fully. And he knows that only together can he and Katherine reach their fullest potential.
Image from canva.com
"Their lips met as if some magnetic force pulled them together. His hands slipped around her back and pressed her tightly against him as their kiss deepened with the release of tension.
She inhaled against his lips, as if she could breathe life itself from his kiss, from the passion rushing through her. And it was life he was giving her, a new perspective, a new sense of her own identity and purpose."
Was that cryptic enough for ya? Can't give away any spoilers ;)
I couldn't find any royalty-free images of how I envision the Vaelians. So for pictures, please check out my Pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.com/aeklaus/royals-of-andorvia-book-series/
Can I just tell you how fun it was to create an entire civilization from scratch? The Maledonians (and all of Andorvia) were modeled strongly after 17th century Europe, but the Vaelians? Totally made up.
The Vaelian culture went through some major changes. At first they were gypsies who lived in the marshes. And they had magical abilities, which frightened the non-magical Maledonians and was the basis for all the tension between them.
I still really like that concept, but as the story developed, I decided magic didn't really fit. So I took out the magical elements.
(Sorry, Felix. Now you have to use herbs instead of incantations to heal Naithan and the other hunters when they do something stupid.)
Then I based them off of a conglomeration of different Native American tribes from pre-Colonial America. You can still see some of those influences - particularly in their religion.
That fit a little better, but I still wasn't totally satisfied. So I just started making up a bunch of stuff. That's the best part of being a writer. I can do whatever I want.
Speaking of doing whatever I want...
Disclaimer: I am NOT a linguist. So please no mocking my feeble attempts at language-creating ;)
Although.... if you are more knowledgeable in the art of languages, I really need some help! Book 3 is Felix and Ameline's love story as a prequel, and I want to dive deeper into their culture and language.
It was probably in the third or fourth draft that my sister-in-law suggested I probably should make more distinctions between the Maledonians and the Vaelians. Just to make the tension clearer. Her top idea? Give the Vaelians unique names and a unique language.
So I shouldn't have a Vaelian named Ben or Anna? (Alwin's and Greta's original names) Oh boy...
I really didn't want to change Nathan's name. I'd been writing for almost a year at this point and his name was pretty set in my mind. So I researched a little about the name Nathan...
Hebrew, of course. Maybe I could change the other names to fit his.
Nope. I couldn't find enough names that weren't Biblical-sounding. Nothing against those names, but they just didn't fit with the world I was creating.
Ok- set Nathan aside. I'll figure him out in a bit.
Felix was also an original name, and I came up with Greta's name pretty quickly. Well Greta is Germanic, so I decided to try that next. And I hit a gold mine with Old German names. It took several hours of digging through lists of names that were popular in German-speaking nations hundreds of years ago, and some tweaking of those names, but I finally came up with enough names for all my Vaelian characters and then some.
Then I had to figure out what to do with Nathan. After lots more research, I found Naithanal- which I believe is a French or German variation on Nathan. And hey, he seems like the kind of guy who would go by a nickname, don't you think? ;-P
Thus Nathan became Naithan, his family and friends all got name makeovers ... and MS Word's spell checker officially hates me.
Those were fun to make up. I created my own words off of the Latin roots.
Tatiem (the armband they receive at the end of an apprenticeship) is based off the Latin root for identity.
Quiespor (Felix's non-lethal toxin)- sleep
Letium (the Ushain's lethal dart poison)- death
Ventian (a lead hunter) - hunter
Carita (soulmates) - love/marriage
Codull (the ball game Naithan plays) - sports/games
Now Word REALLY hates me. Red squiggly lines and annoying Auto Corrects everywhere. And my stupid "Add to Dictionary" button is broken. Did I mention my computer is way old?
But I digress... and this post is getting way too long. I could go on for hours about the Vaelians, but I'll stop here -- for now.
I'd love to hear from you! What are your favorite elements of the Vaelian culture? Any words you'd like to see translated into their language?
And anyone want to volunteer to save me from myself? Creating a language is a great way to procrastinate actually writing...
Subsistence farmers/hunters who live together in small villages. Something like this:
Photo by Suraphat Nuea-on from Pexels
They have two gods: the Father and Earth Mother. The Earth Mother is, essentially, the earth itself, and contains all the spirits of creatures who have lived or will yet live on the earth.
Their religion is completely made up (any similarity to existing religions is completely coincidental). A human "spirit" is made up of two parts: a man and a woman. At birth they are separated, and at some point in their lives, they will be reunited with their carita, or the other half of their spirit. This is the purpose of life, to have experiences that change and shape who they are until they fit back with their carita. They have to find their calling in life- the thing that only they and their Carita can accomplish together. Without this, their lives are meaningless, and when they return to the Earth Mother at death, they won't be able to join her in caring for family members still living.
"The Earth Mother sends spirits to offer us comfort or guidance when we need it. She's always there, always watching, always waiting to help."
Something stirred within Katherine (at Naithan's words), like a warm breeze caressing her heart. She pulled away and pressed her hands to her chest.
That's why Naithan is so willing to sacrifice the way he does for Katherine at the end of Hearts Unshackled (no spoilers!). As his carita, she completes him perfectly. It's only with her that he can find the true purpose of his life, and vice versa. I don't feel like I articulated this very well in the book, but after a Maledonian lieutenant ... um ... brings up something that changes Katherine's plans (spoilers!), Naithan recognizes his calling in life. And even though it isn't what he wants to do, he knows he won't be truly fulfilled until he embraces it fully. And he knows that only together can he and Katherine reach their fullest potential.
"Their lips met as if some magnetic force pulled them together. His hands slipped around her back and pressed her tightly against him as their kiss deepened with the release of tension.
She inhaled against his lips, as if she could breathe life itself from his kiss, from the passion rushing through her. And it was life he was giving her, a new perspective, a new sense of her own identity and purpose."
Was that cryptic enough for ya? Can't give away any spoilers ;)
Creating the Vaelians
Can I just tell you how fun it was to create an entire civilization from scratch? The Maledonians (and all of Andorvia) were modeled strongly after 17th century Europe, but the Vaelians? Totally made up.
The Vaelian culture went through some major changes. At first they were gypsies who lived in the marshes. And they had magical abilities, which frightened the non-magical Maledonians and was the basis for all the tension between them.
I still really like that concept, but as the story developed, I decided magic didn't really fit. So I took out the magical elements.
(Sorry, Felix. Now you have to use herbs instead of incantations to heal Naithan and the other hunters when they do something stupid.)
Then I based them off of a conglomeration of different Native American tribes from pre-Colonial America. You can still see some of those influences - particularly in their religion.
That fit a little better, but I still wasn't totally satisfied. So I just started making up a bunch of stuff. That's the best part of being a writer. I can do whatever I want.
Speaking of doing whatever I want...
Creating the Vaelians' Names
Disclaimer: I am NOT a linguist. So please no mocking my feeble attempts at language-creating ;)
Although.... if you are more knowledgeable in the art of languages, I really need some help! Book 3 is Felix and Ameline's love story as a prequel, and I want to dive deeper into their culture and language.
It was probably in the third or fourth draft that my sister-in-law suggested I probably should make more distinctions between the Maledonians and the Vaelians. Just to make the tension clearer. Her top idea? Give the Vaelians unique names and a unique language.
So I shouldn't have a Vaelian named Ben or Anna? (Alwin's and Greta's original names) Oh boy...
I really didn't want to change Nathan's name. I'd been writing for almost a year at this point and his name was pretty set in my mind. So I researched a little about the name Nathan...
Hebrew, of course. Maybe I could change the other names to fit his.
Nope. I couldn't find enough names that weren't Biblical-sounding. Nothing against those names, but they just didn't fit with the world I was creating.
Ok- set Nathan aside. I'll figure him out in a bit.
Felix was also an original name, and I came up with Greta's name pretty quickly. Well Greta is Germanic, so I decided to try that next. And I hit a gold mine with Old German names. It took several hours of digging through lists of names that were popular in German-speaking nations hundreds of years ago, and some tweaking of those names, but I finally came up with enough names for all my Vaelian characters and then some.
Then I had to figure out what to do with Nathan. After lots more research, I found Naithanal- which I believe is a French or German variation on Nathan. And hey, he seems like the kind of guy who would go by a nickname, don't you think? ;-P
Thus Nathan became Naithan, his family and friends all got name makeovers ... and MS Word's spell checker officially hates me.
What about the Vaelian words?
Those were fun to make up. I created my own words off of the Latin roots.
Tatiem (the armband they receive at the end of an apprenticeship) is based off the Latin root for identity.
Quiespor (Felix's non-lethal toxin)- sleep
Letium (the Ushain's lethal dart poison)- death
Ventian (a lead hunter) - hunter
Carita (soulmates) - love/marriage
Codull (the ball game Naithan plays) - sports/games
Now Word REALLY hates me. Red squiggly lines and annoying Auto Corrects everywhere. And my stupid "Add to Dictionary" button is broken. Did I mention my computer is way old?
But I digress... and this post is getting way too long. I could go on for hours about the Vaelians, but I'll stop here -- for now.
I'd love to hear from you! What are your favorite elements of the Vaelian culture? Any words you'd like to see translated into their language?
And anyone want to volunteer to save me from myself? Creating a language is a great way to procrastinate actually writing...
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