Posted by Glenn Kempf on 00:10 5/24/02
In reply to: VV makeover (and a number of other questions) posted by Glenn Kempf on 10:08 5/23/02
Actually, I was extremely tempted to list Obenzaya as one of my candidates for fleshing out; I held back primarily because Obenzayet hasn't been presented as a language yet. On the other hand, the Proto-Eastern page lists a few hundred Obenzayet words, as well as grammatical and sound change information, which might be enough to start with... (and actually, the dialects of Verdurian on the southern edge of the Plain are nearly separate languages at any rate).
Obenzaya is particularly interesting because its people have been semi-settled for only a few generations (less than seventy years), so its "official" history doesn't extend back that long, while their nomadic heritage goes back to the Gelyet conquests and before, and is probably shrouded in myth and oral history. Just looking at the maps involved raises a whole host of questions about lifestyle, small- and large-scale migration patterns, settlement history, beliefs...
I agree that history is a better guide here than fantasy; in this case, the best research would be into the nomadic peoples of the Eurasian steppe (the Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Mongols, etc. and earlier groups), the Middle East, and North Africa; this part of the world has plenty of nomadic peoples who conquered sedentary state and settled down (or not), and were attacked by fresh waves of nomads in return. Just including some of what little I know about pre-modern Kazakh culture could probably go a long way to creating the right atmosphere (which is probably what you had in mind. :-) If you're really interested, I'll think about it, but I can't promise fast work.
Ad onlelaacute;lan,
Glenn
I have an Obenzayet grammar half-finished, so you might awant to wait for that. Anyway, no hurry. A good world takes years to make, anyway...