Denlotian folklore

This is a list of concepts in the folklore of the Denlotia, or the World Alliance.

Many of them represent virtues and aspects of Denlotian morality, with various monsters based on the enemies of the Denlotia and other human sins. Some of those horrors in Denlotian folklore were also inspired by various abusive people during the founders' lives.

## Beings

* Boomer, Pumeri - large monsters who represent selfishness and apathy. They either wear overalls, shirts, trousers, or suits.
	+ Attracted by money, wealth, fear of change, and old-fashioned things and beliefs, but repelled by reforms, innovation, compassion for the poor, and righteousness.
	+ The Americans on Jerde later used the Pumeri as their emblems in their wars against the Denlotia, driven by fanaticism and hatred of the Denlotia.
* Lek-pumra, Lekompur, Little Boomer - shoulder imps, resembling middle-aged men, who taunt workers and those under despair to force them to overwork, be selfish, and never enjoy life. They promise resilience, independence, freedom, and strength, but in the end they cause people to overwork and destroy everything they love in the name of America and so-called "freedom" (from everything that makes their victims happy, or the "freedom" for the imps to torment and dominate people).
	+ They are attracted to physical work (like factories, manufacturing, industry), despair, poverty, sadness, diligence, independence, adulthood, envy, corruption, corporatism, and debt.
	+ They do *not* tolerate cooperation, any form of aid, gifts (except if it is on Yule), anyone who does not use their Ingelisk language, fun, happiness, a lack of corruption, cooperation, and prosperity not gained by physical labour.
	+ They represent the belief of "rugged individualism" and attitudes that push people into adulthood, two things that the Denlotians hate the most.
* Faske, Jaze, Jaske - evil spirits of hate and cruelty. They wear grey uniforms and wear green or red, and many of them look pale and blonde.
	+ Attracted by cruelty, tyranny, violence, poverty, and hatred, but repelled by kindness, justice, and virtue.
	+ They represented fascism, worshipping a dictator under a brutal, elitist society.
* Manurik - an abusive parent who denies children from fulfilling their dreams in life. They claim to be "kind", but they are selfish, intrusive, and obsessed with order, neatness, survival, money, and flaunting their children as the "best".
	+ Attracted by quarrels between parents and children, fear, desperation, and resentment.
	+ Repelled by kindness, allowing children to get what they need (and want), love, compassion, and modernity.
* Merikan, Meikan, Mekada - a ghost wearing red, white, and blue robes, usually in the form of a very angry, scrawny elder.
	+ He torments the poor, the hardworking, and the miserable, forcing them to overwork and laughing at them when they suffer and lose more to the rich.
	+ He represented attitudes against any help towards the poor or infrastructure programmes, stereotyped with American warlords during the Third World War.
* Mulenia, Milenia - colourful wraiths who enjoy chaos and sprouting hatred.
	+ Attracted by rebellion, creativity, and rudeness, but repelled by understanding, wisdom, and anything old-fashioned.
* Plaguepeople - the ghosts of people who neglected health codes. Cursed for their irresponsible, selfish attitude in life that led to indirect deaths, those ignorant, stupid people were doomed to haunt the earth as spirits of disease, forever tormented by the same disease they spread to others in life.
	+ There is almost no redemption for a plagueperson, except through a second death (and their own annihilation) or the purification by a god.
* Werewolf - wolf-like warriors.
	+ Attracted to debauchery and corruption, but repelled by virtue, archaic things, and classics.
* Ragged Ones - spirits of people who hated prosperity and the elimination of poverty. In life, they sabotaged food towers and farms, destroying food to force people to work in order to eat. They regarded people happily working hard and enjoying plentiful food as a waste, even if they do not waste food, preferring to force Jerde to adopt the selfish mannerisms of their Terran societies.
	+ For their selfish attitude against Jerde's people, the people cursed them as spirits of famine. Their spirits were cursed to forever suffer from pain in their bellies, ghosts who will never digest anything they eat.
	+ Many of the Ragged Ones looked like farmers, their clothes almost like the saboteurs who burned farms and food towers.
* Bean mouthed ghosts -

## Locations

* Lokistan - the domain of Chaos, ruled by the god of murder, Loki.
* Terra - the homeworlds of the fifty-six tyrannical invaders.
* Amerika, Merika - several dystopian, dysfunctional civilisations from the "Terras" that share a common culture. These included the Grabgoss Church, the Pale Liberators, and the Devil's Children.

## Concepts

* The Great Enemy, The Enemy - the various selfish, irresponsible, elderly attitudes practiced by older survivors, parents, and conservatives from the Third World War and prior; and sometimes the people who believe in such corrupt ideals, and the Terrans who perpetuate such destructive beliefs.
	+ These included: unrealistic optimism, treating disasters as lessons, refusing to help one's child immediately during a crisis, asking people to move on and stop worrying (every disaster is a disease!), injustice, corruption, scamming, tolerance of evil ways, bullying, and forcing people to become more adult-like and independent.
	+ To tell people to be happy and grateful even during a disaster is to laugh at their suffering and curse them as victims. Therefore, optimism must be put aside in favour of direct aid and counselling.
	+ Even good values like patience, gratefulness, responsibility, tolerating pain and the existence of evil, and diligence (though this one was encouraged in Denlotian society as "focus") were seen as evil because they were associated with the Great Enemy. Practicing them delays any efforts to stop a disaster.
	+ Gratefulness, according to Denlotian belief, stops a person from seeking what is greater and better, because if you appreciate what you have, you stop yourself from improving people and everything. That does not mean that people must be greedy and lazy, but they must be ambitious.
	+ Although the term "responsibility" was banned in the Denlotia, the concept of being responsible itself was considered a good value, and it was called "admitting" or "honesty". The word "responsibility", according to the Denlotia's laws, meant "forcing people to survive alone, instead of working together". It was a synonym for "isolation" or "helplessness".
	+ The Great Enemy is seen as a devil-like shadow. Though it was not depicted as a humanoid horror, it was always seen as a form of corruption that preys on those who demand responsibility and maturity, at the expense of happiness.
* The Old World - the societies of Jerde before the Third World War and through it. In Denlotian propaganda, these societies were cruel because they forced people to become more independent by learning through pain, loss, and sacrifice. Already the survivors who founded the World Alliance had suffered from so much cruelty, that they regarded even inconveniences like bills, scolding, or a lack of comfort as closer to the murders and tortures done by the Terrans.
	+ "Old Worlders" were the prewar generations, accused of forcing their children to become more mature and independent by facing suffering and loss. Many of them became successful through hard work and hardship, so they expected their children to go through what they been through and repeat their mentality, as they considered it the only way to true success.
	+ The promotion of sacrifice and responsibility was seen by the Denlotians as a love of pain and self-destruction.
	+ These people were persecuted in the World Alliance, hated for abusing the founders and the survivors and simply for rejecting the "cooperative society". Because of them, Denlotians are more gentle and supportive of their own children and neighbours, to avoid the atomised society promoted by the Old Worlders and their love of pain.
	+ The Old Worlders believed that the Denlotia's hatred of their "hardworking" values would make them lazy and childish, if not disgusting. They were proven wrong by the fact that the Denlotians subjected their children to so much education, so most of them ended up as diligent citizens and independent adults - albeit with a fanatical hatred of anything suggestive of the Old World. But they were also right in the sense that the Denlotians had a warped view of "freedom", preferring to thrive under a strong, punitive authority run by citizenry, instead of allowing those who hate them to make things less convenient.
* "the real world", "reality", "truth" - According to the Denlotia, many Terrans kept claiming about the "real world".
	+ It was not exactly the world where they live in, but the expectations of how life was according to the Terrans: uncomfortable, apathetic, and harsh, where only those who embraced pain and overcame loss without anger thrive.
	+ This worldview was formed by the Old Worlders and Terrans, who lived through corrupt societies where resources were not easily available. Instead of cooperating with other citizens, such people trusted others less and themselves more, and they had to take all kinds of torment to achieve success.
	+ Because the Old Worlders and Terrans (especially Americans) objected to the Denlotians' society as unrealistic for its hatred of sacrifice and pain, Denlotians erroneously assumed that they all want to remake society to be more cruel and abusive.
* "May your life be as a candle!" - a traditional Palguenian curse applied towards online blockers, popularised by the Sixth Founder.
* In social media, candle emojis (🕯️) were considered offensive, as it represented wishing for the recipient to die sooner (their life shortened like a candle melting).

## See also

* Denlotian glossary
* Ghosts of Ardesch