Valanoi

### Name meaning

"Valanoi", meaning "jungle of giants" in one of the many ancient Valanoian languages. "Yugusase Naa", meaning "republic" in Valanoian

## Basic History

### Origin/Founding

After the ancient tribal war, the tribes decided to unify as one country

## Trade

### Primary export

-medicine-herbs-drugs-poison

-fabrics-glaze beads-dyes-pearls

-dried goods (fruits, veggies, meat and seafood)-fruit, veggies (storable)

-jungle wood-rubber

-shampoo-bait material

## Overview

Natives and immigrants from other continents made up the nation. With its diverse society, Valanoi's splendid and unique culture thrives.

The place was once a magnificent kingdom’s territory that started from a unit of several tribes. After the kingdom's downfall during the world war, the new nation rose from the chaos.

## People

### Races

There are 19 races within Valanoi’s borders, with 15 native races and 4 mixed-blooded races that were formed afterward.

**The 15 native tribes are: Ānúkān, Nēmu, Palazui, Sāila, Deng ki, Ayü, Gobi, Panganan, Lú shwěi**

(WIP)

**The 4 mixed-blooded races are: Umis, the Waluhgai people, the Dil ihuek [Dil ee-hu-ek] people, and the Valmor people.**

#### The Umis tribe

The domain of the Umis tribe locates inside the rainforest of the province of Jìa láo wàn, which is now known as "Qun nung" [Chuin- Nung], the biggest producing center of various kinds of luxurious spider silk.

The Umis people are the offspring of the ancient Ānúkān and Panganan people. Around 1800 years ago, the ancestors of the Umis tribe fled from the coastal plain into the rainforest due to the tribal war.

#### The Waluhgai people

Thw Waluhgais is the way to call all the citizens that are mixed-blooded with other countries from the Lawa archipelago. It can be roughly divided into 2:

Close Waluhgai people: the ancestor of the other ancestral can be found within 3 generations before a person.

*example: you have a grandparent or your parent from Setroyveya (maybe), you can be defined as a close Waluhgai.*

Far Waluhgai people: the ancestor of the other ancestral is not within 3 generations before the person.

*example: You have an ancestor from Merina, he/she is 4 generations before you (great-grandparents), then you are a far Waluhgai.*

One can have the status of Waluhgai and other ethnic groups at the same time. According to the data, about 56% of the population is far from Waluhgais, while close Waluhgai people occupy 7%.

#### The Dil ihuek people

"Dil ihuek" is the exclusive name of all the Yeballen-blooded citizens."Dil" is borrowed from the Diluclumi word "Dilchi", how the Diluculumis call themselves. "Ihuek", means "guest, foreign" in Valanoian, but in this case, it is for describing the ethnic group having foreign origins, it is a neutral word.

Despite being well blended in the Valanoian society, they mostly also have their ancestral culture and customs well-kept (languages, religions, etc), so one can easily find which ancestral a Dil ihuek has.

##### The origins

The Dil ihueks are an ethnic group that emerged in recent centuries, which was around 200 years before the world war, during the "Age of Invasion". Aggressors from Yeballen started to invade the island, also bringing their technology and trade along the way. Some of these people, such as soldiers and merchants, decided to have a long stay or even settle down in Valanoi, later having their own family with Valanoian people. The offspring of these international families are called "Dil ihuek".

★ A part of the Dil ihuek people once promoted the government of changing the "Dil" part of the name to make it fairer, however, when the Valanoian government tried to propose this matter, the rest of the Dil ihuek people didn't find it a big deal, people are already used to the "Dil" part despite it theoretically can not represent all the yeballenese countries.

#### The Valmor people

> fun fact: you can be a Waluhgai, a Dil ihuek, and a Valnmor simultaneously because these statuses can overlap.
>
>

## Culture

### Architecture

Most of the Valanoian houses are made of timber or bamboo-like plants’ stems, in addition, they can be divided into 2 groups:

1. Open land architecture
2. Jungle architecture

In the open lands of the nation, the architecture uses quite a lot of bamboo and rocks to construct.

The basic parts of a traditional Valanoian house include:

* Firm ground stakes or any structures that can fix the house onto another firm object
* Trusses (at any height)
* Front hall
* Main hall
* Patios
* Storage room

There’s also a characteristic feature of traditional Valanoian architecture, long and winding hallways and corridors

### Religion

First comes a simple data chart:

> Animism (73%), No specific religion or non (16%), Other (11%)
>
>

Valanoians believe that everything has its own spirit like every single person has their soul, they are taught to respect and be grateful for everything, regardless of living or not. As mentioned, Valanoi is a country abundant with immigrants, the people with different origins brought their native religions across the sea, and that is where 11% of other religions come from. Some of the immigrant offspring that are native to Valanoi believe in animism, however, they also follow their ancestral religion, which results in these people believing in not only one religion, and that’s the 16% with no specific religion or none.

Valanoian Animism worships nature on a daily basis, such as doing simple prayers to the rainforest's spirits before entering the rainforest, greeting nature that they are going in, and having little rituals before handling their hunted prey to show gratitude to both nature and the prey.

Besides these, the old calendar of the nation was also based on religion, and it is also the origin of the biggest festivals in Valanoi. Following is the list of the most significant annual festivals:

* “First sowing festival”
* “Last harvest festival”, is the festival that took place after the last main harvest season of the year to do a general thanksgiving.

As we mentioned, Valanoi’s climate enables 3 harvests per year, which is a lot for any country, so for convenience, Valanoians hold a big event for the harvest at the end of the year and simple rituals for the previous 2 instead of having events for all of them.

During the whole week festival, people will offer up some sacrifices to the land, they are mostly a little part of the crops that were harvested. There will also be big rituals held by the elders, traditional priests/tesses, witches, and wizards from the tribes to thank the world for showing them generosity and granting them plenty for the past year.

Meanwhile, in the same period, people will gradually finish all the finishing touches on farm work and officially call the farming season to an end, time to prepare the land for the following year.

* Tsu-Usa-Fas: The abbreviation of ”Tsushe Usa Fas-lacòni” is also called “Celebration of the sea”.

Tsu-Usa-Fas is the biggest festival of all due to the wide range of events the festival includes. Showing the people’s gratitude to the sea is the center of the special week, it ranges from the bountiful properties it offers to the overseas friendship the sea grants the island.

Another highlight of the festival is the event called “Remembrance of ancestries”, it is the ceremony for the descendants of immigrants to remember their ancestors' adventure to cross the sea, regardless of accident, war, or for survival and rise above all the difficulties and continue their bloodline. On the event day, people with foreign ancestries make pilgrimages to the seashore, some will find the spot that they believe is where their ancestors landed, and worship in the direction of their “place of origin”. People also prepare goods for the spirits to show their gratitude.

Fun fact: after the world war, some of the descendants of the stranded soldiers took the pilgrimage to a whole other level, they can travel the entire territory just to pay respect to their ancestors at the spot they landed.

The ceremony is not only about remembering and appreciating the past but also blessing that all ethnic groups in the country can continue to thrive with the spirit of co-prosperity.

During the kingdom era, Tsu-Usa-Fas was designated as a national festival as international communication played a crucial role in Valanoi’s policy.

* Sam-lòn-Fas: The abbreviation of “Sasa-marì Cce-lòn Fas-lacòni”, also known as “Volcano spirits’ festival”.

This is a celebration when the Valanoian people show their praise and respect to the volcanoes for bringing the island life and fertility with their ashes, volcanoes are also a symbol of destruction and rebirth in Valanoian culture.

And as a clarification, Valanoi animism worships spirits like they’re a kind of elf or spirit instead of making up the title of “god/goddess of”, so despite the concept of idols in some regions and tribes, it does not necessarily include any temples, gods, and goddesses.

## History

Valanoi has a long history of communication with the other islands that dates back to about a thousand years ago, long before even its kingdom era. There is a feature of the nation that has never changed throughout all the changes of the authorities: the diverse society is mainly made up of native Valanoian and immigrants from all around the Lawa Islands.

Its History can be roughly divided into six periods:

1. The tribal era
2. The kingdom era

3. The age of invasion

3-1. The constitutional petition movement

4. The World War era

4-1. The great madness

5. The constitutional era

6. The Republic era

6-1. The Meni-sâ terror

### The Tribal Era

At first, half of the island was the home only to native Valanoians, there were several tribes that had never interfered with each other for the past ages. As time passed by, some other natives in Lawa discovered ways to sail to their neighboring islands.

In the early ages, however, although people already used oars and sails, on the open seas, early boats did not have enough power to resist winds and currents, so they pretty much let the waves and the wind bring them wherever. Most of the visitors were unable to sail back to their original island due to a lack of reliable navigation techniques.

Some of these unwelcome visitors were considered enemies and were killed by some tribes, but more of the case is that the native Valanoians decided to shelter them, knowing that there was no way that they could go back to their homes.

With the increasing numbers of both immigrants and the natural increase in population over the years, people’s living areas expanded until they found out that the originally non-attached tribes were unintentionally connected to each other by new paths in the ancient rainforests.

After the opening of space contact, the tribes still avoid interfering with each other as much as possible. However, as the population increases through the centuries, people need more available land. Back in the day, the ways to develop rainforest areas effectively were not yet to be found, therefore the originally little arable areas got more and more crowded.

Driven by territorial awareness and the stress of surviving, conflicts between the tribes started to occur, and the scale kept expanding, eventually developing into a war over decades.

Although the tribal war lasted less than a year, it caused great damage to all the included forces, especially the endemic diseases that suddenly broke out due to surging numbers of corpses for the bacteria to breed. Reasonably, perhaps the reason for the short-lasting time is because of the pandemic. Some of the residents left their homes and moved to other areas to avoid the war, for example, the village Qun-nùng city once was, is made up of some of these fled people.

Including all the events, the war killed two-thirds of the population at the time, even killing out a few tribes entirely.

After such a great catastrophe, people learned their lesson that they should face and accept the reality that the age they have to live together has arrived. The tribes started their negotiation and eventually decided to unify as one nation. All the tribes will have several elders to assemble the "council" together, and the ruler will be assigned by the council.

Under all the gigantic changes, the Kingdom of Valanoi, Republic of Valanoi’s elder sister, was born.

### The Kingdom Era

After the tribal war, not only the nation was united, but the people decided to teach their children the importance of co-prosperity and mutual respect towards other groups. However, the way they taught their children this was kind of atypical.

The government issued an order to the newly established kingdom: No spreading information of the tribal war to anyone who was born later on.

The kingdom taught the next generations the virtue, but they have yet to tell them where they learned the lesson. Most of the people, especially the council, were afraid that if they told their kids how heated the conflicts between the tribes once were, it would bury the seeds of grudge and hatred into the minds of these immature souls.

With the endeavor of the older generations, most of society was successfully turned back into a blank canvas decades later. “Discrimination” was barely a thing at the time in Valanoi. In front of the treacherous jungles and rainforests, people understand that they have to work as one to survive, people from different regions welcoming travelers and pioneers, and sharing survival tips and stories with each other are normal scenes.

The unprecedented booming of communications between the ethnic groups flourished the country’s technology and culture. "Fire farming" was invented, and people can now make use of the jungle region by the nomadic method.  Words and new skills in constructing and boat-making were also invented. This period is called “The Golden Era” in history.

Something interesting about this period is, that although it was called “kingdom”, the kingdom of Valanoi’s monarch could not pass the throne to their heir by themselves, the only occasion that they could was that the council deemed that the heir was suitable. The mechanism at the time was to favor renunciation, which is either the elders elect a new ruler after the previous’ death or abdication, or the former monarch recommends their candidates before stepping down, the candidates will be evaluated and approved by the elder council.

## Language

### The languages spoken

The current language that the government assigned as its official language is called "Official Standard Valanoian". Although called "standard Valanoian", not every Valanoian speaks this language. Instead, it is originally a result of the government making up a language for language consistency of the official documents. An average Valanoian person mostly speaks the language of their native tribes and a Valanoian who is educated better would have the capability of speaking their native language, Universal (English), Official Standard Valanoian, and optionally the languages of the other tribes.

Native Valanoian languages can be divided into "the northern ocean system" and "the southern ocean system". The biggest difference between the two language systems is the usage of tones (ā, á, ă, à, â). Except for the language of the Ānúkān tribe, all of the northern ocean languages do not have the usage of tones existing. Oppositely, every language of the southern ocean system includes tone, despite the [placeholder] language having much fewer tones.