Vezan (culture)

Summary

Vezanese culture is heavily influenced by the long years of Vezanese dominance in world affairs. Since unification, Vezan has enjoyed almost uninterrupted control over all aspects of Jimmian life. Their language and history have overshadowed the local histories of most subordinate nations, and not without dissatisfaction among some factions around Jimmian. Venor in particular, as the latest and final addition to the modern Vezanese state, has strong resentment to all things Vezanese intruding on traditional Venorean holidays and local culture. But most people on Jimmian accept without much question the equation of being Jimmian is interchangeable with being Vezanese.

Vezanese culture revolves around the seemingly ironic notion of freedom from government oppression. Vezan was founded as a direct repudiation of the heavy-handed imperial governments of Tolt and Girv, exploiting peoples far from their imperial capitals, in endless and often meaningless wars. In fact, the modern name Vezan comes from Veza'han, meaning literally "free men" in old Thietían. The point of the early Vezanese expansion was to "free" people from oppressive governments and facilitate peace and prosperity to the greatest extent possible.

Language

In the earliest days of Vezan, the world was awash in dozens of languages, many of them so obscure their sources cannot now be traced. But in the region of Nilemenaro, the principal languages were Thietían, sometimes called Old Toltan and Girven. At the time, Girv was a powerful empire, with control over not only the north west coast but also influence throughout the islands. But Tolt was the rising power on the continent, and had been for more than four hundred years. Neither empire spent much effort on writing or academic pursuits. Girv focused mainly on trade and Tolt mainly on imperial control. The one nation in between that did care about education, however, was Craz.

Mysterious and frightening, Craz was supposed to be ruled by a tyrant Wizard, though few stories actually told of direct meetings with him. Instead, the wizard focused his people on education and commerce. The wealth of their dealings went mainly to Craz the capital and to the wizard. But there was no denying the education of his people. They focused on research and invention, when others were worried about survival and warfare. Since the wizard provided all the protection the people of Craz needed, they could spend their time on improving their understanding of the natural world.

All this is to say that the Crazni language Skerztíanen was highly influential on its neighbors. So when Vezan was established and the power of Tolt and Girv finally pushed back, the local peoples began to adopt less and less of the old imperial languages and more of the localized versions of them - influenced by Skerztíanen. This was the genesis of the language that would eventually become Certían.