Redwoods, which can be found in large forests around the homeland of the Caron.
The Carona people (endonym: Caron lit: "the people") are the main inhabitants of the northwestern regions of Bacar (lit: "far-reaching land," the central northern continent) and the two major islands located just off of the coast of northwestern Bacar. The Caron are a mostly peaceful hunter-gatherer people, with numerous tribes scattered over the region.
Climate and Geography[]
Much of the region where the Caron live is relatively flat with various hills, especially on the islands, as well as farther into the interior of Bacar. The influence of the Bacref (lit: "far-reaching water," the name for the major ocean of the planet) keeps the temperature moderate year round, with average highs around 15° to 20°C during the summer, and around 5° to 15°C during the winter. Average rainfall is slightly higher in the winter, though there isn't much difference between the season's rainfall and the average rainfall is about 100mm per Earth month.
Native Life[]
Various types of trees can be round in the region, including redwoods (bacfan, lit: "far-reaching tree"), oaks (tactacfan, lit: "ball tree"), maples (ferfan, lit: "air tree"), Douglas firs (marpapfan, lit: "finger tree"), and western red cedars (simaifan, lit: "small tree"). The native names for these trees in most cases comes from a simple description of their seeds, followed by fan, "tree."
Other plant life includes raspberries (intacpoc, lit: "many berries"), blueberries (lictacpoc, lit: "blue-berry") and huckleberries (zictacpoc, lit: "red-berry") as well as various other bushes (maifan, lit: "short tree"). Grass (armarpob, lit: "land hair") is rare, but occasionally can be found in clearings.
The animal life in the forests includes elk and deer (ga), rabbits (sifercu, lit: "hopper"), skunks (sipomfed, lit: "stink animal"), various birds (ferfed, lit: "air animal"), lynxes (sa), cougars (simuesa, lit: "big lynx"), wolverines (cua), and bears (simuecua, lit: "big wolverine"). While most life in the forests is similar to Earth life, there are several notable exceptions such as the gutar, a horse-like animal that looks distinctly reptilian that the Caron have managed to domesticate. There is also the ca, a similar but smaller animal, which looks a bit like a cross between a dog and a large lizard. Finally the related gutarca would most likely be considered to be a form of dinosaur by looks, it is roughly the size of a small elephant and has a moderately long neck that it uses to pick leaves out of the trees.
Resources[]
Wood is a major resource of the region due to the numerous large trees, and the surrounding ocean and the various rivers are full of fish (reffed, lit: "water animal") including trout (caor), and salmon (vupcaor, lit: "moving trout"). The various tribal medicines are crafted mainly from the plants of the region, and occasionally also use animal products. Various metal deposits are scattered thought the region, though the Caron currently have no use for it, aside from the occasional discovery of gold (muacboc, lit: "golden rock") nuggets in the rivers.
History[]
Caron population density 2000 years ago
The Caron have lived in the same region for as long as they have been known, though until 2000 years ago, they mainly only lived on the islands just off shore, with only a couple minor settlements along the coast on the mainland. 2000 years ago, they began to expand into the mainland, displacing various aboriginal tribes as they went. This migration and expansion was mostly done by around 1500 years ago, with the Sidunrefbim (lit: Great River) being settled hundreds of miles from the coastline.
Location of the Qhalqon
Current Caron population density.
This population explosion may have been the cause of a mass migration though the continent, including the migration of the Tll-Ikish south into the desert where they currently live, which in turn displaced the Chalmean people onto the Isle of Chalmea. Also, during this time, a group of Caron, now called the Qhalqon, migrated further southeast from the rest of the Caron tribes, settling around the mouth of the Bacrefbim (lit: Far reaching river: though it's actually a sea)
Appearance[]
The Caron have a relatively Asian appearance, with course, dark, straight hair, ranging in color from medium brown to black. Both genders usually wear their hair to around slightly below the level of the neck, with the daoqon (shaman) having much longer hair, often braided, reaching all the way down their back. The Caron's eyes have epicanthic folds and usually are bark brown, almost black, or brown, though hazel eyes are possible. Their noses are small, and they also have prominent cheekbones, with noticeable fat around the cheek area. Skin colors ranges from moderately light to moderately tan, and average height is around 164cm for men and 160cm for women. The Caron have difficulty in growing facial hair as well.
Diet[]
The Caron have a hunter-gather society, and they mainly eat the various berries that grow in the region, including raspberries, blueberries and huckleberries, as well as occasional deer or elk, rabbits, and birds. Fish, mainly trout, though also other fish such as salmon and various other seafood including crabs (inpurreffed, lit: "many legged fish") and clams (bocreffed, lit: "rock fish"), are also a large part of the Caron's diet.
Structures[]
Most buildings are made out of the wood of red cedars, and are built out of large planks of the wood, in a style similar to that of the plankhourses of the Pacific Northwest Native Americans. The design of the main type of building is similar to the longhouses of eastern Native Americans, and is called a muedef (lit: "long-house"). Carmuedef have a main lower level with wooden screens separating the muedef into rooms, where everyone in a village lives, as well as a simple second level consisting of mats where people sleep. Usually a village has a handful of smaller cardef, usually one room, where firewood is stored, or where food is smoked. These outbuildings usually have covered walkways connecting them to the muedef, allowing firewood to be transported without it getting wet, even in a storm.
Culture and Religion[]
The main person in a village, and the closest thing to a village chief, is the daoqon (shaman). The daoqon is normally one of the oldest people in the village, and they are in charge of the medicine in the village, as well as communicating with the cardaocu (spirits) that are believed to be present throughout the entire world. The daoqon communicates with the cardaocu though the use of fire, as well as song and dance, often alongside most of the rest of the village. Additionally, the daoqon has a younger partner, who the daoqon teaches and raises, and who will become the next daoqon once the original dies. The cardaocu have two main groups, the carrandaocu, which are the spirits of nature, including the trees, water, sun, moon, sky, and land, and the carrundaocu, which are the spirits of dead ancestors. If the cardaocu are kept happy, they will help the people, while if they are displeased, they will go out of the way to cause the people problems.
Rituals[]
There are 5 major rituals done by the Caron: the Nucpas, the Naccupas, the Nacdaoqonpas, the Vupcaorpas, and the Runpas. The Nucpas celebrates the birth of a new baby, the Naccupas is the choosing of the younger partner of the daoqon, the Nacdaoqonpas celebrates the naming of the new daoqon, the Vupcaorpas celebrates the annual return of the salmon to the streams, and the Runpas honors the newly deceased.
Organization[]
Each village has around 100 or so people, and villages are normally widely spaced. Most of the population lives along the coasts of the islands or the Bacar, though many do extend farther inland along the numerous rivers in the area. War is relatively rare due to strong ties between others of their people, and most "wars" bear more relation to mock hunting battles, with one tribe taking the role of the hunter, and attacking the other with fake weapons such as large rolled up leaves, often fashioned to resemble real weapons. Then later the two tribes would switch rolls, and the "hunted" tribe would attempt to remain unseen by the "hunters." Ties are weaker between a tribe and other tribes on different landmasses, and any battles between tribes on different islands are likely to be actual battles, though these rarely occur due to the distances involved, not many tribes are large enough to sustain overseas battles.
Clothing[]
Most Caron clothing is relatively simple, with both genders wearing the same thing: A skirt, or a dress in cooler weather, made out of the fluffy seeds of a cottonwood-like tree (mapfan, lit: "clothing tree"), often along with a rawhide belt. This clothing is usually simply designed, due to a relative lack of cottonwood seeds most of the year requiring it to preserved, and is also normally uncolored, though some elders may have lightly coloring clothing. However, the daoqon's clothing is often highly colored, though it retains the lack of other decoration of the other's clothing. Shoes are made out of rawhide as well in a moccasin-like design, though they are normally only worn in the winter.
Weapons and Tools[]
The weapons of the Caron are still relatively simple, and consist of the sifansiqof (lit: "wood-weapon"), which is a simple wooden club, the bocsiqof (lit: "stone-weapon"), which is basically an early hammer-type weapon with a stone head, as well as the bimsiqof (lit: "line-weapon"), a spear, usually tipped with bone or stone. During mock hunts, unsharped stick are used as spears and the clubs/hammers are made out of leaves tied together.
Tools include rope (sifenbim, lit: wood-line), various forms of pottery (cuvboc, lit: fire-stone) used both decoratvely and for storing food or water, and knives (marcu, lit: cutter) for preparing food, or sometimes as a weapon.
Caron Language[]
main article: Proto Caron
see also: Proto caron Swadesh list
The Caron currently speak a mutually intelligible mix of dialects, with the main differences occurring between the two islands and the mainland, with each landmass speaking mostly the same dialect. The mainland dialects, in particular, have a tendency to turn plosives into fricatives intervocaly. The language is a mainly prefixing OVS languages, with a (C)V(V)(C) syllable structure.
Phonomes[]
Nasals: m n (/m n/)
Stops: p b t d c g q (/p b t d k g ʔ/)
Fricatives: f v s z (/f v s z/)
Other: l r (/l ɾ/)
Vowels: a e i o u (/a e i o u/)
Note that nasals match the position of any stops or other nasals that follow them (except for the glottal stop, which can only appear intervocally.)
Doubled consonants are geminates, and act as the inital to the second syllable they are in.
Vowels become lax in open syllables, including when followed by geminates, as follows: a becomes [ə], e becomes [ɛ], i becomes [ɪ], o becomes [ɔ], u becomes [ʊ]. This only occurs to the second vowel in a diphthong.
- an [an] central
- map [map] clothing
- anmap [ə.'mːap] dress
The Caron language has the following diphthongs:
- ae [ae]
- ai [ai]
- ao [ao]
- ea [ea]
- ia [ia]
- io [jo]
- ou [ou]
- ua [wa]
- ue [we]
- ui [wi]
Dialects[]
There are only 2 major dialects, Insular Caron and Mainland Caron, with the main distinction being that Mainland Caron fricatizes non-nasal stops intervocally.
For example, with the word Bacar, the name for the mainland, and daoqon, or shaman.
- (Insular) Bacar [bak.'aɾ]
- (Mainland) Bachar [bax.'aɾ]
- (Insular) Daoqon [daɔ.'ʔon]
- (Mainland) Daohon [daɔ.'hon]
In the main article, all words are spelled according to the Insular pronunciation, and ignore minor dialects.
Proto Qhalqon[]
Main article: Proto Qhalqon
Proto Qhalqon is a closely related language to Proto Caron, and it is spoken by the Qhalqon, a branch of the Caron that live at the mouth of the inland sea, farther to the southeast. Like Proto Caron, the language is a mainly prefixing OVS languages, though it has a CV(V)(C) syllable structure.
Phonomes[]
Nasals: m n ng (/m n ŋ/)
Stops: p ph t th c ch k kh q qh (/p pʰ t tʰ ʧ ʧʰ k kʰ q qʰ/)
Fricatives: f v s z lh sh zh (/f v s z ɬ ʃ ʒ/)
Other: l r w (/l r w/)
Vowels: a aa e ee i ii o oo u uu (/a aː e eː i iː o oː u uː/)
Note that nasals match the position of any stops or other nasals that follow them.
Doubled consonants are geminates, if aspirated, the h follows the second. (pph, tth, kkh, qqh)
Like in Proto Caron, vowels become lax in open syllables, however geminates do cause this effect like in Proto Caron. The lax vowels are the same as in Proto Caron: a becomes [ə], e becomes [ɛ], i becomes [ɪ], o becomes [ɔ], u becomes [ʊ]. This only occurs to the second vowel in the diphthong au.
For example, a comparison between (Insular) Caron and Qhalqon with the words Bacar, the name for the mainland, and daoqon, or shaman.
- (Insular Caron) Bacar [bak.'aɾ]
- (Qhalqon) Wakkal [wa.'kːal]
- (Insular Caron) Daoqon [daɔ.'ʔon]
- (Qhalqon) Thauqon [tʰaɔ.'qon]