#javara | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

warlocks-and-phoenixes · 7 months

Text

Twi’s Headcanons III: The Region of Tu’la

So with Aphtober ‘23 currently going on, instead of a fic for Day 22’s prompt, Headcanon, I’m instead putting this bad boi out as my entry. Because like. What ISNT headcanon in my canon.

Along with that, my fic for Day 4, Song, was about Kulzak and takes place in Tu’la. Specifically, the Kingdom of Corsa, which along with everything else in Tu’la, I created myself. And writing that prompt made me realize that I’m about a year overdue for explaining my version of Tu’la, as I did with Ru’aun last year. So, we’re finally doing this, folks. Strap in, headcanons beyond thy wildest dreams be upon yee

(ohohoh man if y’all thought the last two masterposts were full of absolutely meaningless worldbuilding that serves no purpose to the story, this shit makes all of that look like required reading to understand canon)

(Make sure to click on the photos for the full image quality)

(NOTE: The in-universe calendar used in various places here counts upwards from the birth of Irene. In my version season 1 takes place 482 years after the divine, and season 3 is 500 years later, not 900. AI stands for “After Irene” and BI means “Before Irene”. Comparable to BC & AD)

The North, the East, and the West:

[See the maps at the bottom for the modern borders of the countries talked about below.]

The region of Tu’la is divided into numerous countries, cultures, and languages. However there are 3 subregions that are the most distinct, due to their geographic and environmental isolation from each other. These being east/southeast of the mountains, west of them, and north (generally defined by the Naverre Forest.)

What defines “Tu’la” in modern times is a far more debated subject than that of the other regions. Even the continent’s own name is disputed between languages.

While Ru’aun’s entire human population stims from only one nomadic tribe, the Pan’tari Plains in modern Panterra were the birthplace of the human race. From there, the Ku’den’bahri, the Shalan’ra, and the Des’dani all led their descendants southward of the Shambaraaka Range, to modern-day Kabrunn and the rest of the Tranzara Desert. Though some broke off, and settled on the island of Kostanzia. Aside from them, an entirely independent and solitary group settled the island of Javara.

Meanwhile, the Tuu’lak and several other tribes all migrated north-east, settling and dividing into the modern cultures and nations of the region. The Fran’sadi, the Ru’nah, and the Yvan’draki—the predecessors of the Garlokke—followed, but continued north until the Fran’sadi became Barronia, the Ru’na split into the Kha’shi and Scal’isi, and the Yvan’draki continued further north into Gal’rok.

It is the Tuu’lak tribe that the region was named after, in the language that became Ru’auni. However the descendants of the Ku’den’bahri, Fran’sadi, and numerous groups of their offshoot tribes all pose objections, whether political or linguistic.

The Mountains:

With the Shambaraaka Range splitting the continent down the middle, the people of northwest Tu’la and those of the southeast had little-to-no contact for much of their history. As the tallest mountains in the world, their imposing horizon could be seen from as far away as the beaches of Ridafra or the rolling fields of Cortézara, on the incredibly rare day when the weather allowed.

As Mount Olympia stands proudly amongst the heavens inconceivable to man, very few travelers on either side ever grew the courage to harrow the winding ascent to the other side—some didn’t believe there was another side, some believed the mountains to be the walls that separated them from the gods, or even that the mountains were the gods themselves—and even fewer survived the journey.

While the many clans of Panterra, the lords of Kostanzia, and the kings of Montillego traded more openly with both the coastal Tranzarans and inland Tu’lians, neither side was ever truly, one-hundred-percent convinced of the stories of the other side of the mountains, until the invention of aviation in the late nineteenth century.

Mt. Olympia International Zone - With the foundation of the United Council of Nations roughly one hundred years before the present day, Mount Olympia itself was the only unclaimed, uninhabited, and unincorporated region of land in the world. Due to that, and the mountain’s geographic and historic significance, the UCN took over control of it as an international zone governed directly by the council, mainly regulating the laws of climbers and expeditionists.

The Tranzara Desert:

While Ru’aun may seem vaguer in its inspirational references, the other regions are more direct. The desert half of Tu’la is this world’s equivalent to Arabia and the western/central-southern parts of Asia, while the other side is assorted pieces of Africa and southwest Europe.

Kirkul (El Rammad) - This may sound odd, but honestly, the best way I can describe how I envision the look of both El Rammad and Kuden’bahra is to compare them to Agrabah in the live-action Aladdin movie. Kirkul itself is a melting pot of all the cultures of the Middle East, with a prominence of Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan.

[kur-kool // rah-mahd]

El Shamour//Shampour - Also in the borders of Kirkul, but with its proximity to the obvious-Himalayas equivalent, El Shamour would be closer to being northern India or Pakistan.

[shah-moor/shahm-poor]

Daqur (Ridafra) - Ridafra is, in my mind, 100% Dubai/Kuwait/Abu Dhabi/Doha. Basically all the fancy uber-rich skyscraper cities. It’s southern neighbor of Raqala as well, to an extent.

[dah-kur / ree-dah-fruh]

Manzalya (El Kafarah) - I’d say Manzalya would be somewhat like Morocco and the rest of North/Saharan Africa. (whereas Panterra is much like Ethiopia and the Sahel, Kostanzia is Cyprus, and the Starlight Islands resemble Greece.)

[man-zahl-yah / kuh-fahr-uh]

Azzirafan (Fajeera) - I’d think of Fajeera as another melting pot, but with a bit more of west/southern India, with respect to how…

[ah-zeer-ah-fahn / fah-jeer-uh]

Javara (Jah’man’kirshava) - …Holds similarities to Sri Lanka. The island is also a mostly isolationist state, only sharing an established relationship with Farshadah; similar to Bhutan with India.

[juh-vahr-uh / jah-muhn-keer-shah-vuh]

Kabrunn (Kuden’bahra) - like Ridafra, it is Egypt, 100%. Perhaps Egypt mixed with a little Turkey. Kuden’bahra is also believed to be one of the oldest cities in the world still inhabited, and one of the few individual birthplaces of organized society.

[kah-broon // koo-din-bah-rah]

Now, I’ll be honest, it pretty much just goes on repeating different combinations of what I’ve already said for Raqala, Alsakra, Navraz, Farshadah, and Darwatha and I kinda just added them to fill the map so the others got more thought than them. So, you can get an idea yourselves.

[rah-kah-luh / ahl-sah-kruh / nuh-vruhz / fehr-shah-duh / dahr-wah-thuh]

North & West of the Mountains:

The other side of the Shambaraaka Range is just as divided and unique as the Tranzarans, perhaps even moreso.

Barronia (Rennoux) - with its two major cities of Chalennes and Rennoux, lies between the Hills of Naverre and the border with Ru’aun. Culturally and linguistically, it would fulfill the role of France.

[bahr-oh-nee-uh / ren-oh / sha-len / nah-vehr]

Montillego (Corsa) - South of Barronia, east of the Naverre forest, and north of Tranzara, lies the grand and ancient citadel of Montillego. The crown jewel of the Torvan Empire and a historical commerce hub, it has existed as a monument of trade and a prize for dozens of wars, over a thousand years. It is best known for the Montillego Colosseum, which in modern times even stands separate from its Torvan roots as a symbol of Menphia the Fury. It holds elements of many cities, but probably the closest single one you could get would be Constantinople.

[mon-tee-ay-goh /tor-vuhn]

Corsa (Casadora) -

[kor-suh / kah-sah-door-ah / tah-rah-vahn / kor-day-zuh]

The country of Corsa and its capital of Casadora, which hold a distinct familiarity to Spain, Portugal, and the Catalan language, has had a…very long and very storied past. The First Kingdom arose out of the ashes of the Torvan Empire as an independent successor state, ruled by the same Taravanian aristocracy.

This did not sit well with a very specific Corsan, born and raised in the farm village of Cortézara.

Menphia Cordéza was once a proud soldier in the royal guard of Casadora. But over the years, she became disillusioned and resentful of the iron rule that these foreign Torvans held over her country. Eventually she was recruited into a growing resistance force, and the rest was history.

When the ruling court banished Menphia to the north for her treason, she became acquainted with five other rather eccentric travelers. With their help, she eventually returned to Corsa in a blazing fury of justice, and with her fellow revolutionaries, deposed the rulers of Corsa and replaced them with a governing council.

Despite Menphia’s efforts, Corsa would not remain a democracy for long after her death and deification. The successors to her council seat eventually claimed to be her blood descendants, and acquired the throne of the kingdom for their own line.

And then, ah…let's just say everything went to hell the moment that a rogue knight of O’Khasis murdered the king and queen, the crown prince set out on a quest for revenge, and the vengeful-conquest-driven regent decided that his cousin’s assassination was the fault of all Ru’aun—including some ridiculous force they’d scrambled together and were calling the Phoenix Alliance.

After that ordeal, after the reign of Kings Ramón and King Leon, along with the Rising Phoenix period, passed into the next, the throne or office of Corsa was continuously fought over by outsiders and national factions alike. Various rulers would call Corsa their kingdom, their empire, or their republic. The last of these revolutions occurred less than a century before the modern present-day, leaving the now-massive nation as the Fifth Republic of Corsa.

Considering Corsa and Barronia, you can get an idea for the rest of the former Torvan lands. Cathilona (Rosaria) is very similar to the Italian regions of Tuscany and Campania. Sisilia has been inspired by Corsica and Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, and the Balearic Islands. Larossa holds similarities to both Italy and Portugal, and portions of Turkey. Lastly, both Panterra (Nadoro) and its North offshoot are very reminiscent of Ethiopia, with elements of Morocco, Mauritania, or Algeria, while Bahira is similar with other cultures in-between the desert and sub-Sahara (aka the Sahel).

[kah-thil-oh-nuh / roh-zahr-ee-uh / sis-eel-ee-uh / lah-roh-suh/ pan-tehr-uh / bah-heer-uh]

The Islands:

Starlight Islands - Despite their proximity to the Pan’tari Plains, the islands off the Panterran coast known as the Starlight Archipelago remained unexplored until the late nineteenth century AI. This was because of the violent storms and weather patterns that surrounded the islands, dangerous and unpredictable to the point of certain death to most ships and unoriented aircraft. As well as mysterious, to the point of forming numerous conspiracy theories.

But with the advancement of technology, ways of safely traversing the storms have come to be known. Thanks to that, in the last century, the islands were claimed officially as another protectorate of the UCN alongside Mt Olympia, and archeological digs have near-proved the existence of an at-least-moderately advanced human settlement on the islands. The findings dated back even before the arrival of humans in Ru’aun; this was previously considered impossible with the surrounding conditions to reach the lands, but it is also likely that, however these mysterious people got here, they were cut off from the rest of the world by the same weather phenomena. Their society seemed to have developed independently from the Panterran clans or further kingdoms. They also seemed to have…disappeared without a trace, around the late Divine period.

While research continues on the other islands, the ring-shaped atoll dubbed Starlight Gamma, which held a yet-to-be understood importance to the Starlight natives, was acquired in 2003 AI by a businessman named Micheal Olavson.

Olavson would go on to build a luxury vacation destination on the idyllic beach. The Starlight Resort remains a prominently-opposed construction, as it is widely thought that the secrets to piecing together the lost people of archipelago likely laid beneath the same sand and water that tourists, theorists, and weather-based-thrill-seekers now flocked to.

Kostanzia - Unlike the Starlight Archipelago, the independent nation of Kostanzia has been openly inhabited for nearly as long as Kabrunn. A melting pot of Turkey, Cyprus, and Rapa Nui/Easter Island, the widely-sought-after destination is majorly known and represented by the astonishingly preserved medieval fortresses and cities scattered around the relatively small fields.

[kost-an-zee-uh]

The Addonius Peninsula & The Torvan Empire:

[a-don-ee-uhs / tor-vuh]

The mountainous peninsula jutting out and separating the Gold Sea from the Kumbran Ocean, dubbed the Arm of Addonius, has always laid in a gray-area between Tu’la and Ru’aun, identifying with both and with neither.

As the birthplace of the Torvan Empire (a direct equivalent to the Ancient Greeks and Roman Empire) and the modern-day Torrva (a direct equivalent to Italy in full), and named after the first Torvan Emperor, the peninsula has never truly related itself as part of either continent. Thus, it is often included in maps of both sides of the border.

Taravan* - The ancient city has always and still does stand as its proud capital. While Montillego is a combination of several cities, Taravan is a direct nod to Rome and Naples. (*not included in this map, see the Ru’aun one)

[tah-ruh-van]

The majority of Torrva is usually drawn as if within Ru’aun, but the tip of it, with Provencia, is often included with Tu’la.

Provencia -

[pruh-vin-see-uh] OR [proh-vin-chuh]

The most direct city you could ever get to the definition of a melting pot. Torrvan, Corsan, Cathiloné, Sisilian, Panterran, Khasian, Scalesian, Barronian, Kabruna, even Scandovian or Jin’tali, any culture to ever chart the sea has made its mark on the world capital of trade and travel.

Kulzak the Wanderer, a native of the nearby Port Raiya and a longtime resident, stands as the city’s patron; with the city in turn standing as the closest you could get to a capital of a nomadic faith. From when the Ancient Torvans founded it up until the modern days of globalization and worldwide shipping, Provencia has flourished as a symbol of fortune and freedom. The closest inspiration you could pin to the city would be a combination of Venice and Barcelona, for the history and architecture, and the colonial Caribbean, for its other reputation as a haven for the criminals and pirates of the Gold Sea during the height of medieval piracy. The cape has also been named as the sea shanty capital of the world.

The Modern Era:

It is believed that Tu’la retains the title of the most culturally diverse continent in the world, depending on how you define those borders. Rich with history, scenic locations, and often-temperature sunny weather, different places in the Corsan countryside, Cathiloné coast, Panterran steppe, Barronian cityscape, or Tranzaran hills have earned themselves prominent places in the minds of tourists or vacationers. The well-kept ruins and ancient documents scattering the continent have done great work in helping archeologists piece together the history of both Tu’la and Ru’aun; all while the nations of the region have risen into modern powers.

The political climate amongst those nations is a far more divided one than Ru’aun or Gal’rok. I’m not going to start figuring out the relationship between every single country on the map below, but…yeah. The big boys (Corsa and Kirkul) have a…complicated relationship; everyone thinks that Kabrunn and Barronia are self-absorbed assholes and Kostanzia’s a tourist trap disguised as an archeological dig site. Meanwhile, Cathilona and Sisilia are begging everyone to stop think they’re the same thing; Torrva will Fucking Murder anyone (Montillego) who thinks they were more important to the empire than them; Alsakra and Daqur are duking it out in the alleyway outside the UCN while Raqala charges people to watch; Javara is just being that guy standing silently in the corner who only talks to Farshadah; Azzirafan and Manzalya are kissing on the lips in the middle of a mexican standoff with Kabrunn and Navraz; Panterra, the longstanding neutral diplomacy-capital, is screaming internally; the Starlight Islands have fallen to the woes of capitalism; Bahira and Larossa are bickering over who hates their neighbors more; Montillego, Provencia, and Vasilyr are either taking turns flipping each other off or are in some sort polyamorous relationship; North Panterra is being an edgy teenager; and Corsa is engaged in a late stage enemies-to-lovers slowburn with the Phoenix Republic. Oh, and everyone simultaneously hates Torrva and thinks Torrva is hot.

Geopolitics!

Modern National Borders:

If anyone would ever like to use any of this in their own fics, art, or headcanons, please ask me directly, and link back to this post or blog for full credit.

#my headcanons #aphverse headcanons #Minecraft diaries #aphtober #tu’la #Mystreet #mcd hcs #diaries: rewritten #aphtober 2023 #aphtober2023

20 notes · View notes