Introduction to Tarn Nation

“This is the land of Issylun. It is home to the people of Tarn Nation. This realm consists of a few major features. First, the whole of the land is a single island. It is roughly a circle shape. The whole island appears to be a massive mountain, but the coast is nearly parallel with sea level and slowly inclines into the steep slope near the top of the mountain. Or, well, it is assumed that there is a top the mountain. Truth is, nobody has ever gone up there. And there is a few reasons why. First, it’s really steep. Second, it is so high up, that we can’t quite tell if we see the top or not. We definitely aren’t going to make the effort to go up there. None who have tried have succeeded.”

“Ah, but now I’m being a downer. Say, you don’t know my name, do you? Well, let me introduce myself. I’m Erantaro, but my friends call me Eddie. I know, I know. Laugh all you want, but I’d prefer you call me Eddie, even if it is a girly name. At least it isn’t Erantaro. What’s wrong with Erantaro? What makes you think I’ll tell you that? It’s my name and my shame. I don’t want people to use it. Is that so bad? Besides, Eddie suits me better anyway.”

“Let me tell you more about my home. Yes, I know we aren’t done with introductions, but I need to finish introducing this land. The land by the coast and up a little past the base of Mont is thick with forest. By forest, I mean just plants. We don’t have many animals. I’m not sure if there is much besides fish. Especially after the war. Yeah, yeah, we’ll get to the war after I’m done with geography.”

“Next we have the primary opposite of Mont, that is Font, the ocean. Well, we assume it is an ocean. But strangely, it seems to be freshwater. Or at least, it is for a while. Font gets salty before Fontsink. No, no. I must introduce my village before I talk about the war and Fontsink, okay?”

“Our people, the Nation of Tarn populate all of the coast of Issylun. Our population has grown so much that we have started expanding inland to the wooded hills. We say hill, but it is just a constant but slight incline up the mountain. There is also a few more places where we have people living. There are a bunch of rings of structures around the base of the mountain up until it gets too steep to build anything. That means there is probably only length on any given side of the mountain that contains the sides of five rings of structures.”

“Our village lives on the coast, so of course we are a fishing village. The Rocky Mountain, Mount, only grows stiff and hardy trees and shrubs. I guess there is moss, but I’m not sure how edible that is. Some people say you can eat it, but I don’t see any reason to do so. It looks disgusting and probably isn’t good for you. So we eat fish.”

“We spend most of our days fishing and preparing for fishing. We also learn what our mothers teach us. Why only mothers? Well, remember how I talked about the war and Fontsink and the rings of structures around the base of Mont? Well, though I wouldn’t call it a war, there is definitely an ongoing conflict between the Nation of Tarn and the Ripplings. When a boy comes of age and becomes a man, it is his duty to move to Base which is the five rings of structures around the base of Mont. At Base, young men train to fight our age-old enemy: the Ripplings.”

“The Ripplings are monsters that are usually around the size of a man, but they are giant fish. Their fins are stronger and able to move them while on land. And they don’t seem to need to breathe, which makes sense, they look like fish. Fish don’t breathe, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to live underwater.”

“So now I should describe the events, right? Okay, Fontsink. Fontsink is when Font drains away. It usually takes multiple days before the process is complete, but the entire ocean just drains away. We’re not sure why it does this, but we do know that this is a sign of Montburst and the Great Ripple. Montburst is when the water that disappeared from Font blows out of the top of Mont with extreme speed and power.”

“The water blows into the air so high that it becomes clouds. And so, for over twenty days, there is continuous heavy rain. Great streams and rivers flow down the mountain into the empty crater of Font. By the time the rain is over, Font is restored. But it is only a few days after Montburst when the Great Ripple begins. The Great Ripple might actually start at the same time as Montburst, but we mark the beginning of The Great Ripple as when the Ripplings first reach Base. Because of the height of Mont, it is several days before the Ripplings can reach Base after Montburst.”

“It is called the Great Ripple because of how droplet ripples in rings when it hits water. And the great distance between the top of Mont and Base and the differing speeds at which Rippling travel, they come down in waves or rings. It is quite a sight. So, the event is called the Great Ripple and the individual invaders are called Rippling, or Ripplings for plural.”

“Because these events have such great impact on our people, we reckon great distances of time such as age by Ripples. I am nearly two Ripples old. I was just a young child during my first Great Ripple, but I will be able to participate in defending against the next one.” [A Ripple is approximately 10 years in time]

“Eddie?” A girl calls out from rowboat that is coming ashore.
“Oh, hi, Mishlan,” Says Eddie, “I was just telling Chistletawn about our culture.”
Mishlan rolls her eyes. “Eddie,” She says, “He’s barely a cycle old.” [approximately a year in time]

“Oh, yeah,” Eddie says enthusiastically, “That’s right. Thanks for reminding me, Mishlan.” Eddie turns back to the tiny child who is more interested in his own toes than Eddie’s speech.

“Chistletawn,” Eddie says, “I forgot to tell you about tides and cycles.” Chistletawn looks up at Eddie upon hearing his own name.
“A tide,” Eddie continues to say, “A tide is a cycle of where the water of Font is higher on one coast of Issylun and lower on the opposite side. When the tide is high in our coast, the north coast, it will be low on the south coast. The high tide moves clockwise around the island. So, it will make its way from north coast to east coast. And low tide will make its way from south coast to west coast. When the tide makes its way all the way around the Issylun to return to the where it started from, it is called a cycle. So if high tide starts at north coast and completes a full cycle around the Issylun, the hightide will be returned at north coast. That is how we measure cycles.”

“Eddie,” Mishlan says, “I was trying to say that I don’t think Chistletawn is getting anything form your conversation. He’s too young to understand what you’re saying.”

Eddie looks at Chistletawn for a moment, then he turn to Mishlan.

“You might be right,” Eddie says, “I just figured that I should teach Chistletawn while he’s young, so he doesn’t have to waste as much time as I did trying to learn about the world.” Mishlan shakes her head.
“Eddie,” She says, “It takes many cycles to learn everything about this world. It is not possible or useful to learn it any quicker. What would he do if he wasn’t learning?”

“He could be fishing or training for fighting the Ripplings,” Eddie says, as if it was obvious. Mishlan shakes her head.
“You can learn about the world at the same time as you fish and train,” She says, “There is nothing wasted.”

“Well,” Says Eddie, “Then what should we teach him? He needs to hear us speak to learn to speak properly.” Mishlan smiles. It seems she knows the answer to what Eddie thought was a quite difficult question.

“Well, for starters,” Mishlan says, “I’d teach him about people.”

Eddie frowns. “What do you mean?” He asks.

“I’ll show you,” Mishlan says, “Hi there, Chistletawn. I’m Mishlan. I’m a little over nineteen cycles old. I was only a child during my first Great Ripple, but I can still remember it. There will be another Great Ripple, soon.”

Mishlan gestures towards Eddie. “This is Eddie,” She says, “He is only a few cycles younger than me. Yes, his name is a bit girly, but it is only a nickname. His real name is even more embarrassing.”
“Okay, okay,” Eddie says, “I get it. We teach him simple things. But we don’t need to talk about my name. I already told him about that.”
“You told him how you got your nickname?” Mishlan asks.

Eddie shuffles his feet. “Well, no,” He says, “I don’t want him to know about it. It’s embarrassing.”

“If that’s what you want,” Mishlan says, “We don’t need to tell him. It’s not like he would remember anyway. He’s so young.”

Eddie nods his head, but he isn’t really paying attention to what Mishlan is saying. He’s thinking about what Mishlan had taught Chistletawn.

“We need to teach Chistletawn about the difference between boys and girls,” Eddie says.

Mishlan looks confused. “He’s really young,” She says, “I don’t thinks he needs to learn anything about boys and girls until he can at least talk.”

“Well, you told him that my name is girly,” Eddie says, “We need to explain what that means.”

“We?” Mishlan asks, “I’m not telling him anything. But you can do what you want.”

“Fine, I’ll tell him, alone,” Eddie says, “Chistletawn, boys and girls are different. I’m not quite sure what the difference is, but they are different. I know this because girls and women stay at the coastal villages to fish and raise the young. Meanwhile, the boys train to fight and eventually join the men in preparing Base for the Great Ripple. Since boys become men, and men spend most of their time around Mont, their names are often related to the forest, Mont or fighting. Since girls and women spend all their days at the coastal villages and fishing, their names are related to fishing, Font or coasts.”

“I think it’s kind of strange,” Mishlan says.

“What’s strange?” Eddie asks.

Mishlan looks down. “It’s strange that that men would be named after Mont. that’s where the Ripplings come from. It brings nothing but trouble.” Mishlan says, “We shouldn’t be here on the shore. The waters of Font call to us. If it weren’t for Mont, life would be perfect. Why would anybody be named after such a terrible place?”