Vondunke/Society & Culture

From AfarGovernment & LawMilitary & Infrastructure**Society & Culture**History
}}
}}
}}
}}

The Vondunke are nomads, Only on a galactic scale. They will meet up every few millennia for elections and will allocate different Star Systems to each of their systems. A given colony will move their giant towards their allocated system, put it in orbit, and send out fleets of many trillions to gather all the raw resources and bring them back to the giant. This is called the "bloom". The giant will then head towards the next rendezvous. This is called the Bluff

### The End of the Bluff

The Supreme Council will work with the federate councils to allocate the systems that will be harvested during that specific bloom. Sometimes two or more federates will share a system other times larger federates may receive multiple nearby systems. Once the plan is approved it is handed to the supreme directory who will put into place the quotas and limits on each federate. All federates then proceed to their allotted destination, It is important to note that as the official seat of government Glanorth is usually given a relatively smaller system. Citizens may opt to temporarily join another federate. The federates having assessed their respective system will start creating drones about a centaury before arrival. They will be specifically trained for one job with a few being trained to supplement a few jobs.

### The Bloom

Once a federate arrives at the system they will usually orbit at one to two light years. The faster craft will be sent ahead to set up the system while larger factories move at a relatively slower pace. The first wave will set up points around all gas giants generally on their outer moons, often building mass drivers with larger stations in orbit. These craft will usually carry their own skyhooks and other necessary megastructures. Logistics are set up and fully operational by the arrival of the factories. It is during this time that drone unions come into effect and act as local governments so long as they are in compliance with Federate and Supreme regulations. The factories measuring in many tens to a few hundred kilometers in diameter (Implying sphere). They will either comb asteroid belts (gathering them with many smaller craft) unfold into cities landing on moons destined to become tides, or go into orbit around the giants, terrestrials, and smaller moons to be converted into what not. Other factories will unpack into the beginnings of smaller Dyson swarms for temporary star lifting. Towards the end the drones will usually retire and finalizations will be made within each federate government. Samples of life found may be collected and preserved before sterilizing wherever it was found. Gas giants will be merged with the federates unless it would result in an 11.6+ Jupiter mass in which case a new federate would be formed.

### The Next Bluff

The systems, once packed, will begin heading towards the next rendezvous. The super majority of drones die off on the way, never seeing the rendezvous. Some drones volunteer to be buried around the star they spent their life working on and will either be shot back into orbit after death, or otherwise choosing to not leave the system resulting in... On the way back is where the other nine castes associate the majority of their life and see the bloom as a kind of summer vacation or summer job

## Culture

"*Far from the brilliant light of any star, or the bathing glow of warmth of any sun, lies the entirety of a vast civilization. A civilization hidden in the shadows of astronomical depth. Their worlds buzz with excitements of intensity unknown, busy about their livelihoods ever contemplating a single inevitable disposition of life, their eventual death."*

### Burial

When A Vondunke has been pronounced deceased, the body is frozen until it turns pink. After being frozen the arms are laid into their groves and a dagger, in this case a blade around an inch with a foot and a half handle, is pressed into the back of the neck.

### Recreation

#### Yogoñ

Yogoñ is a Vondunke aquatic recreational game played by two opposing teams of at least three. The games is played as a series of matches where a single member of each team is chosen to play the fDrakavo or the flight. Each teams "flight" will contend with the other at the beginning of the match in the period of the game called the Sprawl, where each flight competes for possession of the "Yavrhiol" a slippery object shaped like the two bowls of a spoon cupped on one another. The Goal of each team is to out the others flight. An out is achieved by the member of one team touching a member of the other team with the Yavrhiol then relinquishing possession of the Yavrhiol. If the Yavrhiol is recovered by that teams flight the touched player is eliminated, if it is recovered by the other teams flight the touching player is eliminated. If the Yavrhiol is recovered by anyone else play is continued as normal. A team may not drop below two active players, if the last player on a team besides the flight is outed than the player outed for the longest period of time comes back in. Whoever wins the most matches wins overall. On higher levels of play games are usually played between teams of five and games of five matches.

### Poetry, Songs, and Sayings

#### Anthem

Wrapped around the tempests of Glanorth & Vaven, Held above the ices of Ciover [& Celeo], From the artic seas of Arcaelo to heights of Vacthum, Seas, Skies, and Solids, "Cekan Vio alok Okven" (Translated: The Paradigm has made it's abode or Home of the Paradigm). The Song inscribed on Oblivions Eye, sung forever, eternal, into the night, from the Crack (Birth) to the Chasm (Grave), come Uoele (Hell) or great Wrath. To end, how can it? no, continual it's grasp. Strive we will, upward unending, our glory will last

We are chosen in Oblivion, we are the merit of the star, to greater triumph! (Cakke, Atun Vio!) Our echo will go far!

#### Sayings & Poems

* "The moving crab has more promised than the still Krakken." -Icvaerc, (Better to be small and alive than big and dead.)
* "Smoke is sourced not from the slope but the opened eye" -Icvaerc, (It means things are not accomplished through ability but necessity, not by the smartest but by the most desperate)
* "The best spiral, is made from two" Viol'e Dyu, Raceth (This is a reference to how Vondunke mate)
* "Cenon Voñū Vliokū" Literally "Shared Eye and Heart" (Language used when promising something or making a covenant.)
* "I hear the great howling of the endless void, I feel tremors from the mighty vacuum, And I see the light of space's great blackness, and never has silence been so loud, has stillness been so present, or has darkness blinded me so." (A poem written by an author whose name has been lost to time)

### Folklore

#### The Story of Loph and Vercd

Though no exact copies of the myth exist it originated from different stories originating across different groups around 297,000 PA, it was finally canonized as part of the **Cults of Kioka** beliefs, it tells of two children, obviously named **Loph** and **Vercd** from whence the myth gets it name. According to the cult, they were members of the **Halkoth** a legendary race "born of fire and blood" but this varies. It begins with the two being brought up by an unrecognized character, simply called **the Stranger**, before being abandoned by the stranger in the dark. The two begin to wander into the sea soon afterward they glimpse a shadowy figure in the distance who comes in and out of view. The two know this not to be Stranger by its 'smell' but rather a seperate entity. In various interpretations it takes the form of an eel, a twin headed shark, a sea panther, or a glowing **Vravven**.

As the two proceed with their trek across the depths, they continue to periodically spot their stalker on several occasions, each time with increasing proximity. The stalker is never clearly seen, but many different features, such as an arm, a beak, and a dorsal, are seen. These were thought later to be symbolic, representing the stalker's intentions and methods, such as the dorsal meaning swiftness and stealth, rather than them being part of its canonical form. Near the end of the story Loph is talking to Varcd when she feels something behind her she confronts it mid-sentence. Realizing it to be a harmless Cray, a small sea insect, she turns back around her companion gone, she cries alone fearing the worst and the story ends.

The Stalker in the this story is often associated with the mythological being of Klathtar.

## Language

"Well he don't know talkin' good like me and you, so his vocabulistics is limited..." -Rocket (Guardians of the Galaxy)

Language and Dialect has become very localized due to their life style and its sheer duration, but a common official language is used throughout the civilization.

Envorta is the official language used by the Vondunke, The Vondunke as an amphibious (not to be confused with amphibian) species sound different than you and me as (probably) terrestrials. But their language luckily is not to different from our own. The Vondunke do not have lips and teeth rather beaks and a strange looking tongue (or rather tasting organ). They are not built like Humans and so have a more or less limited vocal vocabulary, this is supplemented by pheromones and body language.

Envorta is not the only language used but is the only national language, Vondunke research has revealed that a certain part of their brain called the Φœń (Phoen) is influenced by language in how it thinks as such thirteen spoken Vondunke languages and four non spoken are protected under the supreme council, each non drone knows at least four languages and drones know at least two as well as various mathematical languages and localized dialects called "Đrumuńm Đrumuńm"

### Phonology

Enorvta is divided into six groups of letters

* Class 1: Mm, Nn, Ll, `Ńṅ, these may be prefixed with a "d".
* Class 2: Çç (S/Sh), Θϑ (Th), Φφ or Ff, Vv, these have a slight whistle to them
* Class 3: Ŧŧ (Tr) Kk, Đđ, Gg, can be prefixed by a "v", "f", or "p" when followed by an r to make various blowing sounds.
* Modifiers: Yy, Dd, Rr, rhrh (Rh)
* Vowels 1: Uu, Ūū, Œœ, Oo, Aa (Au)
* Vowels 2: IOio, Ææ, Ee (Ee), Ee (Eh) Aa (Ah)
* Others: ^ (А̄n)
* Dialects: Z̧rz̧r (Jr/Jhr), Ǩǩ (Ckh), Şş (Ss)

### Numerals

Envorta uses a six base system

* At/Kænr ~ 0
* Un = 1
* El = 2
* Ætr = 3
* Oϕ = 4
* Iok/Elel = 5
* Œń/Elun = 6/10
* Ūr/Elætr = 7/11
* Eeç/Eloϕ= 8/12

## Education

The VSE provides very little public education with only ~30 years of elementary education divided into eight groups of education equivalent to grades. Around 5 years worth makes up the first three grades of education common to students. Education specializes over the next five grades and lasts for a total of 11 years when counting the first 5. The remaining 20 years of education can be taken to specialize in other areas but is not necessary to graduate state education.

Higher Education is privately run, however a large amount of information can be found in the public domain. The most commonly recognized degree of higher education is that of the Çathadæn requiring 90 earth years to graduate, including 4 masterpieces and over 10,000 work hours.

## Religions

The most dominant religion of the VSE is a wide pool of philosophies and metaphysical beliefs called "Çađrathism".

### Çađrathism

Ç*ađrathism in most forms is fundamentally Epicureanism, both in Pantheon and Application*. It holds that the universe has a spiritual reality that can be derived from its physical reality, that myth is a manifestation of past reality and that in addition to energy and dimension a third form of reality is carried as an essence of being, giving rise to intellect, conscience, and the basis for sentience.

In Paleocadrathism The major gods take form as physical forces, laws, maths, and tendencies or ground states. And the minor gods are manifested through identity and systems such as galaxies, populations, memes (in the cultural sense), and states. Inherently stable patterns of being result in a stronger influence and prevalence. Such as destiny which brought about its own destiny (Thus ending it and removing it from play) as opposed to Oblivion which creates only more oblivion. Two different identities may also create a stable system such as a predator-prey system where if one becomes to prevalent it destabilizes itself leading to the prevalence of the other back and forth.

One sect of Çađrathism, Encadrathism seeks to use this understanding to benefit those who can be benefitted by carrying on the legacy of the Vondunke so the society can progress and prosper allowing the society to grow influencing more and have a greater impact, naturally this leads to Nationalism, where Çađrathism suggests that the Vondunke as a whole is the manifestation of a minor god creating a sense of national and species unity and a need to maintain its stability as a way of continuing and growing their own greater being and prospering their constituent individual being a form of Optimistic Nihilism.

Outside of the need for stabilization either as a Civilization or to balance the VSE with something else, daily life is largely up to the individual. Çađrathism teaches that fulfillment comes through balance and that this balance can be revealed through scientific and other logical means, discovered by the society and the individual.

1. ↑ Older term for mind or reason, referring to the slope of ones head.
2. ↑ The open eye refers to desires.
3. ↑ Cekan
4. ↑ Kurzgesagt