Eindo

[nai888]

Hello, everybody! This just happens to be my first map! Ever!

I have been working on a ConLang for a while now called Eindo. I now have over 600 items in its lexicon, over 100 of which were gained during the labeling process of this map. This map is the area in which the speakers of this language live. It is a country at around the same latitude as Earth's Scandinavia, and is relatively cut off from the surrounding land by its mountain range and the cold desert which separates it. The inhabitants of the land believe in five deities, whose names appear on the maps numerous times: Joesht/Jöštö, Lazhdo/Laždo, Vynaesh/Vynäšö, Qolt/Qolto, and Ngutevro/Ňutevřo. Joesht is the goddess of water and health, Lazhdo is the god of the forest and death, Vynaesh is the goddess of nature (which includes the harvest) and fertility (which includes birth), Qolt is the god of air, weather, knowledge, and wisdom, and Ngutevro is the god of the earth and strength (not just physical, but also mental, emotional, etc.). There is one more name which appears multiple times: Mjelte/Mjelteo, the name of the legendary folk hero about whom many epic tales have been told. Much of the stories have been collected and written in a single volume called Me-Mjelteno, which means The Land of Mjelte, or Me-Einneasnalo, a compound word which means The Tale of the Land of Eino.

It should be noted that the scale on the maps labeled using the Eindo language is different than the scale on the map labeled in English. This is because the Eindo numerical system is duodecimal (base 12) rather than decimal (base 10). That means two things. First, when a number is shown as "10" in base 12, it actually refers to "12" in base 10. Continuing that, "20" would equal 24, "30" would equal 36, "100" would equal 144, and "1,000" would equal 1,728. This brings me to the second difference. Similarly to the word "mile," which is derived from the Latin word for 1,000, referring to the distance one would travel after taking 1,000 paces, the Eindo word for "mile" is derived from the Eindo word for "1,000," which is actually 1,728 in base 10, which is much further. These two facts, that the Eino mile is much longer than a standard mile and that the scale is labeled in a way that "10" refers to 12, not 10, means that while on the English map 50 pixels equaled 20 miles, now 49 (technically 49.0909090909... but who's counting?) equals "10" miles. That is the reason for the differences in the scale.

A few basic things should be known about the Eindo language while viewing the maps. First of all, the letter [j] is pronounced like in German, like the English consonantal [y], the letter [q] is pronounced further back in the throat than [k], as it is in Arabic, and the letter [c] is the voiced version of [q] (meaning it sounds like a [g] but further back in the throat). If you're interested in figuring out all of the pronunciations, what the runes are, and perhaps even the grammar, I've uploaded a pdf of an overview of the language. If you have any comments on the language, those are welcome, too.

These maps were created using the GIMP and it was all done using a mouse. I did not draw any of it on paper (except in preliminary sketches) and I do not own a tablet. I used a number of tutorials found on this site, however. First, I used the first of Jezelf's tutorials at this link for the landforms. Next, I used ironmetal250's tutorial on handdrawn maps, found here, for the mountains and sort of the trees. Next, I used RobA's tutorial on creating parchment, found here. Finally, I used Quabbe's tutorial here in order to place the trees much faster than I otherwise would have been able. I'd also like to thank those who helped by giving pointers and tips in my WIP thread, especially Gidde, Ascension, and tilt.