Dovyn

Territory of Dovyn

Dovyn refers to the underground and aboveground territory of the Dovyn'ce people, a traditionally itinerant ethnic group of people, comprised of smaller groups of people referred to as "Families". (Often biologically related, but not necessarily so). On ND4, Dovyn officially expanded from a fully underground society to an aboveground one, and established the Dovyn Outpost, the current centre for all trade and international relations with the Dovyn'ce people.

## History

During the End of Times, many people of the country of New New South Wales (O’Elevessyn) escaped deep, deep underground, managing to successfully wait out the recreation and revival of the world above. While some records of that time exist, it comes from a language that predates modern Dovyn'tial, and has yet to be properly translated into a more modern, legible text.

### Pre-Emergence

Before the Emergence, the Dovyn'ce people began establishing traditions and cultural touchstones that became the foundation of Dovyn society.

While no writing or print system was used, an early writing system was established with the use of String, Glow Lichen, and various other minerals. This system was fully codified by the Syn'tak family, who remain the primary manufacturers of the necessary equipment for writing to this day.

Aside from this, little of the Dovyn'ce people's history is known to outsiders- While comprehensive records do exist, ***Lorekeeping*** is an incredibly distinguished position that uses a combination of the writing system and visual memory, which is personal to each Lorekeeper and thus cannot be directly translated.

### Emergence

As time passed, and the cave system housing the Dovyn people expanded, several families began to make their homes in caves that were higher in altitude, digging higher and higher, eventually resulting in the collapse of the side of a mountain, creating the first ever aboveground entrance to Dovyn known.

While records made many families wary of the news of an entrance to the outside world, enough time had passed since then that several families were willing to begin settlement of the land directly outside of the Emergent Cave, the first of which being the Em'Bass family, who began settlement and farming in the area outside of it.

## Culture

### Language

The language of the Dovyn'ce people is descended directly from the people of O’Elevessyn, though the use of tones to further distinguish vowels has ended. On top of that, due to the lack of paper and wood underground, the writing system has changed dramatically.

For any given sentence, a piece of string is used, generally derived from either Spider Silk or Glow Lichen. (Though the latter has more specific significance). Words are then created by an interlocking of threaded "pebbles" and "knots". There are six distinct knots, representing a vowel each- a, e, i, o, y (schwa), and nil. Between each knot, a pebble is placed, composed one of five common minerals, the "b" mineral, the "d" mineral, the "g" minerals and the "z" mineral, and the "l" minerals. Markings on each of these pebbles denotes which of the four forms it takes. There are two extr

A table of the consonant phonemes to clarify this.

In alphabetized Dorvyn'tial, you may notice a lot of apostrophes. These are used to denote a single 'nil' knot, and are unpronounced. Two 'nil' knots in a row is used to denote a space between words.

### Lorekeeping

Lorekeeping is in a sense a subset of the regular language, but also very distinct from it. When a sentence is threaded with Glow Lichen instead of Spider Silk, it means that it is a ***personalised memory system.*** While it may utilise the same minerals, knots, and markings as a a regular knot, it may also include other distinct-feeling minerals and markings.

When a piece of history, lore, or knowledge is passed down, the holder of the knowledge teaches the learner their 'story', with each major beat represented by one pebble, telling it while tracing the learner's fingers down the thread. Lorekeeping pebbles are more rough and distinct than usual writing pebbles, as every imperfection and unique piece that a pebble has makes it more distinct and easier to apply specific meaning to. Oftentimes, Glow Threads that are passed down generation to generation are also paired with a specific cave, matching tactile with locative memory.

Each learner is encouraged to use their own mental imagery in association with each pebble, making it pop out more distinctly to them. There is no sense of taboo in what is used to create that mental imagery- In fact, things that are generally taboo in regular Dovyn society are otherwise encouraged to be imagined when Lorekeeping, as it tends to make for a more memorable image, and thus more cleanly embeds the information attached to the imagery.