Talossopolia

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grab some dice and some friends, and start

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Start by clicking on the board above, and then clicking on the VA (GO) space!

Enjoy!

The TALOSSOPOLIA Team:

Baron Hooligan, Distain
Sir Iustì Canun, Minister of Culture
Litz Cjantscheir, Seneschal
Alexander Davis, Royal Treasury Reserve Board
Scott Tucker, prospective Erteier

Culture Moment: Our Berber Heritage

“[T]he Talossan people are inexplicably and inextricably connected somehow to Berbers,” reads Talossan law (RC37, “The You Are What You Talk About, and You Talk About Berbers Act”).  And inexplicably and inextricably, it’s true. While it was once simply a blatant attempt at mythmaking by Robert I, in an attempt to distinguish Talossan history from that of the United States of America, it can’t be denied that most Talossans think the Berber people – a light-skinned North African group – are interesting and cool. And in Talossa, that’s how traditions become fact.

As the old Talossan proverb says, "It is highly possible, and therefore true."

Thus, in some mysterious sense, the ancient Berber tribes are the ancestors of the modern Talossan people, and every Talossan should study them in at least some small way to understand an ancient heritage.

The ancient Berber people occupied much of North Africa, and their direct descendents populate much of the countries of Morocco and Algeria. They spoke the Berber language, written with a variety of alphabets over the years. As a predominantly coastal people they absorbed much of the influences of seafarers such as the Phoenicians and Greeks. They were especially prominent in history at such times as the Second Punic War of the third century B.C., when their powerful cavalry performed outstandingly well when allied with Carthage against Rome, and during the Islamization and empire building in Africa the seventh to tenth centuries A.D. that set up powerful Berber caliphates.

Importantly for Talossa, the Berbers were also great travelers. It is widely believed by historians that they had cultural and genetic influence upon most of the peoples of Europe until well into the Renaissance. And because Talossa is located in an area settled predominantly by European peoples, this means that there is at least one verifiable link between Berbers and Talossa.

While this might be a solid connection, rather bolder and more tenuous was Robert I’s further claim in his 1996 The Berber Project (which you can read in its entirety here) that the Berber people later became the Beaker people of ancient Europe, and then navigated the Atlantic Ocean five thousand years ago, populating North America and transforming into the indigenous Mound-Builders of the Talossan area. He argued that “around 3000 B.C., North America was indeed treated to a large and substantial wave of Berber immigrants who brought their culture with them when they settled around the copper mines of Lake Superior and northern Wisconsin.”

Robert I also pointed out that “Talossa” resembles the word “talayot,” the ancient Beaker civilization’s name for their hutlike dwellings. Robert I claimed that this connection was evidence for a link between the ancient Beaker culture and Talossa. He also listed a whole host of indigenous North American words that sound similar to either “Talossa” or “talayot” (“tuy,” “talo,” “tell”) and indicated that this was also strong evidence for substantial Berber influence.

If you want to find out more about the Berber people, you can listen to the British Broadcasting Company's radio program, "The Berbers of North Africa," or visit your local library.


Mick Preston is an amazing man, and has been a great Secretary of State.  I am proud to call him an exemplary statesperson, a fine Talossan, and my good friend.

Being Secretary of State is one of the most demanding jobs in our great nation.   Rather than the periodic bursts of activity that so frequently flash in Talossa, burning fiercely before guttering out like a snuffed star, the job of Secretary of State requires continuous diligence and long devotion.  While each house of the Ziu has its own ceremonial leader, it is the Secretary of State in many cases who runs both chambers, working to make the efforts of our legislators into a workable reality.  He is given discretion to decide what is unworkable and inorganic, and carries through the voting on each bill, each month.  He sorts through confusing or confused votes.  And our national elections are one of the biggest burdens a statesperson can shoulder.

On behalf of a grateful nation, I would like to thank Mick Preston for his years of service to the crown and his country.  S:reu Preston has been scrupulously just and cautious in fulfilling his duty.  Always careful to examine a piece of legislation, ferreting out those items that he could not accept or that came to him unready to be considered, he nonetheless stinted no bill in his treatment, regardless of his personal opinion.  And in collecting votes and tabulating them, he was swift and capable.   S:reu Preston says truly that he has stood on the shoulders of giants, but I think it is no exaggeration to say that future Secretary of States will sigh to themselves and say, "That Preston leaves some big shoes to fill."

Alexander Davis
Seneschal del Regipäts Talossan

Culture Moment: Our Chinese Heritage

Chinese character support is required to fully view this post. Please PM me if you need help.

When we look at the various arms of our nation, we see a recurring symbol. It appears on our Lesser State Seal (above), as well as in the Greater State Arms, Lesser State Arms, and the arms of his Majesty the King.To many, it's just a strange bit of Chinese that found its way into our country. But a closer examination of the Chinese symbol "賁" reveals that it is analogous to the story of Talossa as a whole.

In Ár Päts (2005), the former King Robert I recounts in a strangely brief fashion the selection of this central symbol of his new country:"Ben had also discovered a Chinese character pronounced 'Ben,' which means 'energetic, strenuous, brave,' etc. For obvious reasons, this character, 'the Ben Symbol,' became our coat of arms."

If you think this glossing over is a strange choice, considering the importance of this symbol, then you're not alone. While a historian and language buff, the young Ben Madison never had much of an interest in Asian studies, eventually preferring to concentrate on early American and Mormon histories above all, and seldom including any tastes of Asian languages in his creation and evolution of Talossan. This is not surprising - Talossan is a predominantly romance language - but it makes it even stranger he would make a Chinese symbol his primary representation.

Many Westerners are fascinated with Chinese symbols, whose pictograms can represent complex and beautiful sentiments in a way that seems more like art than language. Indeed, some people's enthusiasm for characters that they do not actually understand has led them to get terribly mistaken tattoos (such as those described on this blog). So it's not hard to imagine young Ben as a similar dilettante, sitting in a library looking at language books (as he so frequently did) and delighting when he found a phonetic resemblance between his name and one of these magical characters. And like so many others, he seized upon it immediately in his delight.

Chinese characters (or sinographs) are the oldest form of writing still used today, and are employed in various forms by such cultures as China, Japan, and Korea. Originating in small part as pictograms (simplified visual representations of the word) or in the larger measure as ideograms (representations of abstractions) and associated compound words, Chinese characters have an extremely rich and elaborate history that makes it dangerous for the uninitiated to dabble. And so it would not have been a surprise if young Ben had picked a character that meant "annoying brat" or had the double meaning of "tyrant" or something similarly embarrassing. Indeed, with a symbol that can have a half-dozen different meanings, one might almost expect at least one strange use.

But as happened so often in Talossan history, a flight of whimsy proved to be a stroke of brilliant luck, and became indelibly traced on the face of the country.

Ben used the traditional script version of 賁. Made larger, it looks like this: 賁 The symbol is Unicode "U+8CC1," and is rendered in simplified Mandarin as the more stylized "贲." In Chinese, it does indeed mean "energetic," and additionally means "to forge ahead [through adversity]." It has also been used as a surname, most notably by as the pre-enthronement first emperor of Vietnam, Lý Nam Đế (李南帝), who was born Lý Bôn (李賁) and is remembered for his unification of the Vietnamese armies and repelling of the invading Chinese Liang dynasty. Very little to be embarrassed about!

Interestingly, this symbol is also the title for one of the hexagrams (or chapters) of the I Ching. This ancient book used for divination in China can have a wide variety of disastrous results, especially for such a random character. But again, Talossa's luck holds. Hexagram 22, 賁, is translated as "Grace" or "Luxuriance;" as translated by Wilhelm, it predicts for the divinator:
"Grace has success.
In small matters
It is favorable to undertake something."

Favorable to undertake something, indeed!

How many times have we seen a flight of fancy become a solemn tradition in our great nation? The convenient availability of fountain drinks led to the declaration of the importance of Taco Bell and Talossan tradition. The discovery of an old coin became a landmark of "evidence" for the Berber Hypothesis, itself the product of a whim. And the "Ben" symbol, chosen almost certainly with the briefest touch of knowledge by a boy, but becoming the heart of a vibrant nation and her cultural traditions!



This Culture Moment has been brought to you by the Government of Talossa.

Alexander Davis

Seneschal del Regipäts Talossan