Malendor terms from tyrants

(from today onwards, this blog is where I post irrelevant or troublesome lore from my worlds, perhaps as a form of catharsis after reacting to the horrible things in the news and online. Mobile Wikia is too glitchy, and my own Rabydosverse Wikia needs more relevant articles for my stories. So this one is a storage bay for irrelevant info)

In 2021, I learned that the Mughals were a tyrannical dynasty in India. They may had made splendid and lavish art, but they were also infamous for their attempts to destroy the Hindu faith and torture anyone who was a nonbeliever.

So in the spirit of honouring India and over the controversy about "The Empire" (a TV series on Netflix) and the Delhi Sultanate at Age of Empires IV, I've decided to use the names of tyrants in Indian history for my conlang, Novantirna.

Novantirna is a fictional language I made for an alien race, the Gedravas, a blue humanoid race that lays eggs and has four genders. They are the rulers of the Malendor Supercorporation, one of several empires that warred across the Galaxy. They rule the eastern sections of the Galaxy.

So, without further ado, let the conlanging begin:

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Mughals

* mugal - (archaic) gift, reward; (modern) bribe, sabotage

* mugäal - to bribe, to wreck

* mugil - to give, gift

* mugla - to give, to offer

* mukäla - to sabotage, to wreck

Aurangzeb - roñzib (a murderous tyrant, a slaughterer), roñzil (a great slaughter by a tyrant or his army), roñziba (to order a slaughter)

Robert Clive - roklaida - exploitation, starvation, famine

roklai - scorching

rokl - scorch, baking, drought

John Nicholson - nilkosan - brutality, suppression, erasure of right ways

nilkosa - to remove, to erase, to wipe out (what is good)

nilkos - erasure, removal

nilk - to remove, to tear out

Sikandar Butshikan - bočil - to tear down a temple, to destroy a city

elbočil - desecrator, ruiner

Suhabhatta (Butshikan's minister) - sohalba, salba - an extremist, a radical, a fanatical destroyer

Mihirakula - mikral - fanatic, zealot, murderous cultist

mikratla - to murder nonbelievers

Dhannanda - darnon - one who demands too much, selfish

Pushyamitra - pozalmir, pozol - to betray

pozalir - treason

Ibrahim Lodi - lûtir - a kinslayer

latrila - to kill family members

Firoj Shah Tuglak - tokla - to persecute, to mistreat holy people

Raja Chola - rančol - warmonger, butcher

račol - unnecessary war, useless waste of lives, worthless sacrifices

račola - to wage a pointless war

Babur - balbor - one who is power-hungry, founder of a tyranny

balb - to plant, to establish a bad reign or tyranny

Ravana - ranbol - tyrant, wicked ruler

The Mirror: Part 1

A shooting star was sighted, streaking somewhere to the southwest, searing the summer night-sky with its day-like glare. Its landing shook the entire realm, and flocks of birds swarmed confusedly in the darkness and the smoke wafting between the trees.

Guessing that her nation might have offended the gods in some way or another, Queen Haruki ordered a massive ceremony to take place at the clearing front of her palace, facing southwest-wards towards the shooting star's direction. There, the people wailed as they lined up to offer their sacrifices, while hundreds of dancers scampered around the array of wooden torches until sunrise.

The Mirror: Prologue

A long time ago, in a more rustic world, there existed many tribes in a vast forest. Ten or eleven of them grew to dominate the region, until the coming of two great empires beyond the blasted mountains of the north.

For many years these empires then pitted their miserable subjects into arranged wars against each other, in order to steal anything the slain owned, and put their surviving relatives into menial labour. Such were the horrid conditions that earned these wicked rulers a terrible plague, allowing any remnants of these broken nations to regroup, drive out their decimated tyrants, and form into newer, stronger kingdoms.

Fifty-eight years after the Plague fully subsided, strange creatures and peoples were sighted all over the realm. Some appeared like rigid red giants, men with stony bodies and faces of fired clay. Some were animals of tangled parts, crawling, flying, or oozing about in the woods, many of which were too poisonous to be eaten or whose very presence infected any denizens nearby. Some were shades of nothing but smoke, barbs, and bloodied teeth, masking themselves as akin to the natives around them for prey to devour. And others were great beasts, fiery shapes, or swarms of particles, many of which sought to consume as much life as it existed on the land.

Driven by these monsters' frequent assaults and raids, the quarrelsome kingdoms were united under a single ruler. He sought aid from the new kingdom that marched in from the northeastern mountains, but he, three of his sons, and a large amount of his army were consumed by a sudden gust of grey smoke before they could cross a river towards its frontiers.

In his absence, his queen took charge of her tribe's leadership. With horrifying fiends prevailing over her armies and slaughtering away month after month, and going ever nearer towards the palisade-ringed capital, what hope could be left for her and her despairing folk?

Night of the Stars

Minnarisai Rinnayasana here. Firstly, after that ridiculous play festival, I had a good Christmas celebration. Presents (mine's a purple sweater and a book full of Fun Facts Around the World), Mr. Reyes/Ríso (our equivalent of St. Nicholas in a red and black zoot suit and a car on the streets), and snow games like snowball fights and tobogganing; all this makes it a fun Christmas, Bigton style!

Then there's the New Year, when we have a public countdown on TV, and we burn wooden effigies of clocks on the street.

And lastly, there's the Night of the Stars, on the day after New Year's Day.

In Rinnarit tradition, this was one of several dates for the old Rinnarit New Year, before our ancestors migrated south away from oppression in the North. This was the day the Rinnarits honor the constellations and stars in the sky that they used to worship.

Paivonkiari (The Plough of Spring, my birth constellation); Hyakionvionno (The Golden Swan); Onolinthilari (The Thistle of Sapphire); Deikásásori (The Sleigh of Winter) and Haudanoreti (The Red Torch): you name 'em.

Ever since I was 11, I had to attend the Star Parade, every year without fail: the most important festival of the occasion, usually held at night. On the front are the Star-Bearers, able-bodied men, women, boys, and girls who carry poles with 8-pointed star-tips, representing either a specific star or a constellation. Behind are the various New Year floats, packed with dancers playing and dancing around, having a good time. And behind are the hundreds or thousands of dancers, of various kinds on genres, extending the whole Parade to about two hours of boredom or hilarity, whatever that is your pick.

This year, I'm 16 years' old. And thankfully, I'm a Star-Bearer. Not some fancy alien princess on a pink horse!

Minnarisai's Role

It was the chilly night of November 20, the date of the annual Festival of Plays. It is a nationwide tradition in which schools across the country host plays in their gymnasiums to mark the end of the academic year, culminating two rumbling months of fumbling rehearsals and dreadful exams. Every student over the age of 14, if he or she is not disabled or ill, is required to take a role in any play he or she has been assigned to on August, even down to "the technical or musical stuff".

One of them, Minnarisai Minerva Rinnayasana, anxiously walks up the dim concrete path to her high school. In a studio, she dyes her brunette hair pink, puts on her blue-white-and-pink silk deel* and headgear, and arms herself with a sword and a bow-and-plunger-arrow-quiver-set. Inside a hall, she and her schoolmates gathered into several clustered groups, where they quickly memorized their lines, and practiced their dancing, battling whatever fears that may have troubled them: humiliation
from even one mistake, the wrath of their disappointed superiors, or mockery for their failures of the Hypernet -- all of these are to be no matter, for them and their groups to win their prizes.

What became more troubling for them is that their school has been selected, six months earlier, to be visited tonight by their nation's current leader, President Riyavyardirdŭ´nyo. He, and several officials from the Ministry of Culture will be the judges of tonight's five plays: the director of the winning play will receive 50,000 Union Lorems and a trophy, with a chance of government sponsorship to create a gloriously-made screen adaption - what many writers throughout her nation (such as Director Kiondón'yo) desired to see their works become.

When this was announced, some teachers and school officials, desperate to see a Play of the Year award in their school, forced their students into such an extent, that the annual rehearsals became so much of a torment (worse than the exams, or falling ill), that their beauty has been drowned in a current of fear and loathing. Nonetheless, most of the students dared to brave the fiery wrath of their teachers to finish their exams --

But their practices, and all of their chatting and complaints against their supervisors, were silenced by the irritating clangs of a brass gong, signalling all the students present to immediately stand in line, and ready themselves for the imminent plays.

"Never mind, Minna, that this will get ridiculous", Minerva thought to herself, as she and her friends walked to the backstage entrance, waiting for the muffled droning of the opening speech to end, "at least I have excellent acting skills."