Volante/What is Volante

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You move closer to the man in the fishing sloop.
"Excuse me," you ask him. He stares at you blankly, with a dim expression in his frosty eyes.
"Would happen to know where I am?" you ask. The man says nothing, and only pulls out a sheet of paper from a bag. He hands it to you.
"What is Volante?" read the title. Curious, you open it, half searching for answers and half willing to research this place.
==What is Volante?==
Volante is a large continent, situated on the Southeastern extremity of a world known as Eldante. All through its history, it has been undergoing changes that always make it point in another direction in life. Different kinds of people exist on Volante. Many different races of people inhabit the different parts of the continent.
In addition, different governments rule the people, depending on where they live. Today, there are Five Great Kingdoms that exist. In the Archaic Era, these kingdoms used to control all of Volante. Now, they are governed by and govern only themselves.
==Geography==
Because Volante is so large, its climate spans many different varieties. For example, the North, in Paitland, it is warmer because it is closest to the Equator. It is colder in the south, where the continent touches Arttatian waters. However, there is a gulf stream that always reaches around the Southernmost island nation Gerodathia (one of the Five Kingdoms). Therefore, tropical climates that occur near Paitland also occur in Gerodathia.
There is only one major mountain range in Volante. It is the Raven Mountains, also a self-governing nation.
The longest and major river system in Volante is the Evanescent-Lurobandia River system. Starting in Dassinth, the Evanescent River snakes through and around much of Paitland, then makes its way throughout the Western side. When it hits Lurobandia Lake, it becomes the Lurobandia Seaway. It then extends through the west for another 17 miles until it hits the open ocean.
==Languages==
Languages of Volante are usually similar around different areas. For example, in the Northwest, around the areas of Paitland and the North of Greater Volante Area, people speak a language under the family Slvciska (Standard: Selviska). This language is similar to the Serbian language of Earth. In every region it exists in, it is slightly different, as with most other language families.
The lingua franca of Volante, however, is a language known as Standard. It is exactly like the English language of Earth in almost every way. The one difference is the addition of the grapheme "æ". Though this grapheme is used in English, Standard makes more frequent use of it. This language is spoken in almost all nations of Volante
Other languages around Volante are largely based on Earthen languages. Aldready mentioned is the Serbian-based Slvciska. Another language family based loosely on Slavic is the Elvyjni (Standard: Elvinic) family. This family encompasses the Elvin and Tulla languages of Elvinia, and the Elvin dialects of surrounding areas.
In Elytris, Athastre and some minority groups of neighboring Alsertar and Despretar, there exists a language family called Partullesa (Standard: Pertulen). It is loosely based on languages of Eartha's Iberian Peninsula (i.e. Spanish and Portuguese). What these languages and the Pertulen branch have in common is the use of the ll digraph.
In Paitland, a language family known as 'Khesa is predominant. It is loosely based on the Xhosa language of South Africa, in saying that it shares the prominence of click consonants. These clicks are represented by an apostrophe. The word 'Khesa also begins with a click.
In Gerodathia and mainland areas closest to Gerodathia, a language family called Jyrai (Standard: Gerodathian) exists. This family is branched off into three other language branches, each of them based on different Earth languages. The Lui'an language is of Lui'an province is based on Chinese, while a completely different language in the province Cervantes is spoken. It resembles Austronesian languages. In the provinces of Khalil and Bagmanda, languages similar to Thai are predominant. In addition, a language family similar to Vietnamese is spoken in the Hnong Ér Lụ islands.
==Religion==
Nobody in Volante, with exception of the nations of Ruhov and Velten, practices a religion anymore. The only religions that exists in Volante are animistic or tribal religions. Also see Volante/The Vriturian for more information.
Category:Volante