Cieryn

Cieryn is a small sub-continental island nestled between Rathnir and Eldham. It is home to various species though primarily inhabited by pigmen. It is also quite bio-diverse, containing many rainforests, plains and deserts. The western area of Cieryn is a strange anomaly for there it rains for entire days at a time without stopping. The weather cycle seems opposite to the areas unaffected by torrential precipitation as there are only a few days every month where it stops raining. This had led to the belief that in Cerant (the western Cyricc language) there are 150 different words for rain, when in truth there are only 87. While if you were to ask a random Eldhamite or Rathniran whether they knew of Cieryn they would most likely say no, it is well known to many traders and sailors who now use it as a break point when travelling between Rathnir and Eldham, and it's economy is mostly based around maritime trade. It is home to many scholars and philosophers along with great thinkers, however most never leave the continent or even the province they were born in, hence why only those that come across it regularly on ships know of it. It's history goes back hundred's of years, which on many species timescale is short, however with the 27 year lifespan of most Cyrric pigmen it goes over many generations.

Etymology
Cieryn literally means our land in Cerantic, after the first Rathnirans fully entered Cieryn and asked what the inhabitants call the land, while the Ceirfyrr (the natives of Ceiryn) believed they were asking who owned the land. Cieryn is and amalgamation of Cyr (meaning community/our) and Eiyrn (meaning land/territory)

Inhabitants
Cieryn contains many sentient creatures as well as many animals that are present in Rathnir and Eldham and also animals specific to Cieryn and not found anywhere else which suggests that it was once recently a connection between Rathnir and Eldham that was cut off leading to different animals occupying different niches than previously. It is home to many pigmen sub-species and races, however pigmen are a relatively new addition on Cieryn's timeline after it was colonised by them hundreds of or a thousand years ago after the Great Migration of Porcfyrr. On it's western coasts there are a few human fishing settlements, however they tend to not stray far inland and remain along the coast, which the native pigmen are glad for due to their culture of semi-isolationism.

Culture
Cyrric Culture is vast and varying, influenced by the various different groups of pigmen that arrived in Cieryn after the Great Migration and the environment that each culture developed in. There is no single culture of Cieryn despite their recent divergences. To the west the culture is much more similar to certain cultures in Rathnir, and would be considered more "civilised" than other cultures on Cieryn by foreign powers, but only because they are more readily to accept foreign influence, while in the desolate mountains there is a greater resistance to outsiders and they retain a more "pure" Cyrric culture. The plains tend to consistent of nomadic pigmen and walled villages of nomads who settled down (Which they call "resting", suggesting eventually the will return to their nomadic roots).

In Caraffice it is custom to add "an" to before the last vowel of every 3rd child's name e.g. the name of Anu -> Ananu, Danu -> Dananu and Lombsa -> Lombsana. As around 7-10 piglets are born from a pregnancy, it is cultural practice and tradition to have a "counting party", where family members count every third and then mark them with a dye on their chest which stains their skin. For each piglet they use a different dye. They keep a close eye on them so they do not lose count. As the numbers 3 and 9 are holy numbers, it is believe that every incrementing factor of 3 brings greater luck, honour and power to the child. "An" is added as it is a shortened version of ânaf which means pride.

Clans and Families
There are a total of 8 Grand Clans that make up the Council of Cieryn. There once was a 9th, the Grand Clan of the piglins, but after the second war of heaven they were exiled any those that remained were violently killed and lynched, down to the smallest piglinet. These grand clans are the highest in the taxonomy of Cyrric relations, being made up of several clans with a head clan that spans many cities and villages. While there are no nations on Cieryn (if you do not account the few foreign nations' fishing colonies along it's coast), grand clans are the closest you would get to them as they effectively are "dynastical empires" with many vassal "states". They control many of the regions of Cieryn, and the regions themselves are mostly defined along historical clan control of certain areas along with biomes and the similarity of different animals and cultures within them. Each grand clan is dominated by usually one single race of the Cyrric pigmen, with only some having equal amounts of various different sub-species.

This is because ever since the first council of 9 after the first war of heaven, the Ceirfyrr grouped around strong leader and those with similar ideals, and these ideals were passed on to the children, which had a hand in the creation of distinct races and cultures. Historically there was much more interbreeding between clans, specifically between allied clans, sub-clans and liege and vassal clans. Some clans however saw breeding with those of a different race or even seperate clan as taboo and wanted to keep their clan as "Pure" as possible - for example some southern clans and piglin clans. Piglins became the most genetically different to other races due to their own isolation and also clan's that fought against them and other clans distancing themselves from them. Clan taxonomy is usually organised by size, with large clans generally consisting of smaller clans, with the smaller clans still being reasonably large and spanning many villages and cities, which can then be divided into sub-clans are even smaller clans which may contain sub-clans which are then made up of separate families which can be divided up the same as the clans all the way down to sub-families or even a family consisting of only a dozen fyrr.

Language
The language of Cieryn is much like the culture. An amalgamation of different influences from before the great migration lumped together and then split to then evolve more different areas, creating lots of closely related but mutually distinct language, with some being mutually intelligible and more on the rank of dialects, and others sounding completely alien to each other. Due to the tendency to remain where you were born and the rarity of movement to a different area, dialects and accents were quick to form inside the language themselves, as well as the period of peace/isolation where most tribes and clans cut off relations with each other and relied only on self sufficiency after a great war, which further developed the accents. In some cities the families inside those cities themselves have distinct accents, and how you speak has is a strong part of your identity in Cieryn which you can't change for the better or worse. Many trained spies and assassins must learn to change how they speak within a few weeks for the smallest mispronunciation may give them away. The language of Cieryn is called Cerant which means "our language" from Cyr (meaning community/our) and ran (meaning language) - which comes from the same mistranslation incident as Cieryn. Even if it came from a misunderstanding it isn't far from a true name for the language as there is none as the names of the previous languages that made this one have all been forgotten - so "our language" is a quite apt description, and is used in the speakers of Cerant's vocabulary today.

Religion
Originally there were many religions that came with the migration belonging to different groups which is why some links can be seen between the religion of Cieryn and religion across Eldham and Rathnir. Much like the culture and language they eventually merged together and a new religion was formed. This religion is known as Paenrfyrrism by foreigners, as yet again Cerant does not have a true name for it as they take it for a fact, and is named after the head of the pantheon and the creator of gods, Paenrfyrr. Paenrfyrr literally means creator of all beings from the verb Paenur (to create), ero (all/everything) and fyrr (beings). In Cieryn most believe in Paenrfyrrism, yet there are still schisms due to the sub-religions each clan believes in, in which they worship a specific god from the pantheon and have their own views on the history of the pantheon.

Religion is strongly tied to mana/life force and runes. Rune priests can contact gods, or remnants of gods, through writing runes and they can imbue weapons and armour with power through runes. Runes are a language of the ancients and it is believed that the god's themselves gifted the porcfyrr with the gift of writing, hence why runes allow people to communicate with them. Rune priests are masters of the craft and hold power over most clans or run them. Scholars of runes study runes in excruciating detail and dedicate their entire life to it. They do not have to possess the ability to imbue power through runes and do not have to contain more than the average mana, but instead focus on optimising rune combinations for the rune priests to then use.

Each god is representative of a specific fruit, vegetable and rarely a specific animal, which are believe to be physical containers of the god's power. Paenrfyrr was the only god capable of creating entirely new gods out of a physical manifestation of a specific concept. The only other way new gods are created is through a "death" of a god or "reproduction" between gods. Both of these concepts only apply to living beings however they are similar metaphors to what actually occurs. When a god is "killed" it is done through destroying it as a physical manifestation and so the god returns to live as the concept it was the god of, and can no longer physically appear as a true "being", however they can still answer prayers and influence certain events without direct communication. When a god is returned to where it came from part of it splits into 3 separate gods representing certain previous characteristics of the god, along with parts of their personality and physical features. Some get more of their parent than their siblings and so are more powerful- however when they are born, much like a baby, they are weak and must grow to their full potential.

When Paenrfyrr was returned to where he came from, as he came from every being and thing, he and his mana spread throughout all of the realms, with some of it becoming minor-deities and some of it entering babes in their mothers womb. The descendants of these beings would be great containers of mana and powerful mages and wizards.

There are 3 different types of god's according to the definition by scholars of Paenrfyrrism, the first god's including Paenrfyrr and the Gods he singlehandedly created, the second Gods including the offspring of two or more gods or the ones as results of a god's death, and third gods are minor deities created by the mana left by the death of a god. Technically there could also be two more, primordials and demi-gods however they do not fit the specific requirements of a true god.

Pre-Migration
Before the Great Migration it is believed that it was a geologically recent land bridge between Rathnir and Eldham due to the similarity of different species on both worlds to those found on Cieryn. However there is also conflicting evidence as there are many species on Cieryn that cannot be found anywhere else so it may have been disconnected from the two worlds much earlier than thought. It is believed that there was once a sentient species native to Cieryn but is has since disappeared -either being killed off by diseases brought after the Great Migration or by some disaster before-, only leaving some ancient ruins as a pitiful mark on the world.

The Great Migration
In (...)BSS hundred's of thousands of pigmen, all different cultures and races and religons travelled and then settled in Cieryn. It is an esablished theory that they fled from something, but it is unknown what. A translation of an ancient tablet left in lake told of a "flood", however this could mean many things other than a rise in water level as it is translated from an ancient language that only few understand and even then there can easily be mistranslations, and also the term flood can also refer to a sudden rise in a number of things, not just water, such as a sudden horde of others entering the area, peaceful or aggressive.

Geography
An extremely diverse sub-continent with many different biomes, including temperate and tropical rainforests to the south and west, swamps, bogs and mountains to the west and north, mesa's and deserts to the north east, and plains stretching across the centre. While it lies nearer the centre of the world, like both Rathnir and Eldham the biomes are not situated depending on latitude but on different conditions influenced by powers beyond our comprehension.

West Cieryn
The westernmost region of Cieryn known for it's constant rainfall further inland up to the mountains and it's rich coastal cities.

Caraficce
The capital for the current clan in control of Cieryn ,Cariseti. Caraficce is known for it's giant cliff edges and vibrant market, and the entire coast of the city is a conglomeration of various ports belonging to different powerful families, trading guilds, and the public. The different families of the clan that struggle for control of the city usually use trading in order to further their power, due to Caraficce now relying heavily on foreign imports. Famous families of Caraficce belonging to the Cariseti clan through blood or marriage include the Atreiles, the Cariseti, the Anuumes and the sub-family Dorohth-Gann-caan coming from the separate Clan of Dorohth. Caraficce is the character Ananu's Birth city. It means Cliff Port from Caraf (cliff) and Isûl (port - a combination of Isaen (boat) and the suffix -ûl (denominating a place)). Many of the Names of places and people in West Cieryn are Rathnirised on maps and in the Traveller's tongue due to the longer exposure to the western continent, however in other regions they still are clearly foreign words on maps.

Western Mountains
Ananu's grandfather Dhari was born in the Western Mountains. His heritage can still be seen through his surname Anuum'Caan which means "Of Anuum", with the custom of your surname being representative of your father

Clarifications
Ceirfyrr - Inhabitants of Cieryn

Cerantic - Rathnirised name for the family of languages of Cieryn

Porcfyrr - Cerantic for pigmen in general

Fyrr - In general means people/ sentient beings

Cyrric - describing something of Cieryn e.g. Cyrric art, Cyrric Pigmen

When talking about piglins they are not necessarily the same as modern piglins, but they shared their roots from before the migration with the descendants of what are now piglins, and some of the Cyrric piglins whose ancestors refused to breed with any of the other fellow races of the migration are possibly more genetically similar to non-cyrric piglins than fellow Ceirfyrr. Many modern piglins however can trace part of their ancestry to the piglins of Cieryn, as many Cyrric Piglin refugees were taken in by those in the nether.

First/Second War of Heaven - Name of semi-mythical wars between god's along with the beings on their sides

Names for the regions are placeholders before further language creation

The Great Migration - a migration/fleeing of different kinds of pigmen into Cieryn for an unknown reason.