Country profiles: Yapra

To read the details better, follow this link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/spikeymatt/CheeseballsAndSpringsImages#5365469679131715346



Again, if ye can't see this, click the link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/spikeymatt/CheeseballsAndSpringsImages#5365474202998485554

Nicely done, Spike! A whole lot of detail there. Will we get more information on this place soon? And by the way, the second link doesn't seem to work for me, I get an error 404. But the first is fine, at least in the magnified view.

I'm typing out some more info right now - ye just couldn't wait, could ye?
Regarding the second image, ye should be able to navigate that way from the first one.

Yapra is bordered by Archen to the North and by B'shara to the North-East.

The country is mostly low-lying land, being the drainage basin for the mountain ranges to the North-East. The bedrock is mostly basalt (really tough), but has a thick layer of clay and silt on top. The silt means there are lots of nutrients for plants to grow. Unfortunately, the clay and basalt means there's lots of flooding, especially near the coast. The Nogltaik Delta is especially prone to flooding and is rife with biting insects and the ills they bring.
The capital city is Nogstrat, just to the North of the Nogltaik Delta. Yes, it's unfortunate the Yaprans chose to have their main town in such a location, but there are a few things to take into consideration:
Firstly, the river itself is the main method of transportation along the country.
Secondly, much of Yapra's trade (apart from the horses, sheep and cattle) is sent by sea routes.
Third, the Yaprans themselves seem to be largely immune to the effects of the endemic marsh diseases and regard the multitude of bugs as barely irritating. Knowing that others do not share the same advantage, it behoves them to make good use of their immunity by conducting economic and political discussions in as poor an environment for the other chap as they can. Stupid, they're not.

The Yaprans' main source of national income is the livestock they produce. Initially, they simply bred cows and, towards the extreme East and West of the country, sheep. However, since they were riding horses to and fro in the course of herding their animals, they decided - not unreasonably - that they may as well breed horses too.
It's generally believe that the best horses come from The Plains of Yapra, to the North, but many serious breeders reckon there's not a lot to choose between them and those from the Yapran part of the Southern plains.
Each year, in the autumn, horse breeders gather on the plains between the Nogltaik and the Zutaik to pit horse against horse in various trials.

The cows, in contrast to the sheep and horses, are scattered about the country. Where once they were only in close proximity to the herds of horses, they have now been edged out into the hinterlands. Ironically, this has done them the world of good, as they aren't competing for too little fodder in too small an area now. Also, the varying environs are slowly introducing new varieties for better leather, milk or flesh. The cowherds aren't too worried about rustlers. For one thing, the horses are now the most desired beast in the country. Also, there's the fact that it'd be a bugger to get the animals out of the country when you consider Yapra is almost entirely surrounded by mountains, rivers or sea.

The roads are nothing better than well-used and wide tracks. the bridges, however, are supremely solid. They need to be, when ye think about the amount of animal traffic crossing them. The bridges, therefore, are vitally important. Thus, they are guarded by well armed mounted fedzellen (singular = fedzel).
There is only one alternative to using a bridge - the Zustot river ford. Since this is impassible for most of the year and merely(!) treacherous for much of the rest, it's never going to be the best option.

MORE DETAILS TO COME...

Awesome map, Spike! Much more detail than the one I had. Very nice legend as well!

*gasp* Wow, you're really good at drawing maps! A nice addition to the world we're slowly building up here...

A note on the names I've used in the creation of Yapra:
With the exception of the name Yapra and its alternative form (more later), all the names have their roots in Yiddish.

I went to an online translator ( http://www.wikiled.com/english-yiddish-master-Default.aspx ) and looked up a bunch of basic terms, such as town, village, river etc and then morphed them by a letter or two to make them just a little different.
The odd thing is how Germanic a lot of the words are. Or maybe it's not odd, just that I didn't expect it.

However, the language used in day to day conversation (with the exception of a few backwater places) is the same as that of Archen, Yapra's affluent Northern neighbour. Hence the grasslands in the North of the country are known as The Plains Of Yapra, even by those that call the river to the south of them 'The Nogltaik'

Oh yeah - that's my little bit of vanity there, btw. Taik ultimately comes from the Yiddish fer 'river', 'strat' from 'town' or 'city' and 'Nog' and 'Nogl' go though a tortuous route via the Yiddish for... you guessed it - 'Spike'

If ye look at the names along the southernmost river, you'll see a couple of varieties upon a theme. Zu and Zug come from the same root word, but the 'g' has been dropped for the river and town names, being kept only fer the lake. This is because language changes over time and 'Zustot' is a lot easier to pronounce than 'Zugstot'. Again, you may find some backwater places where folks will stick to the original ways of speaking.

It's just like many other regional variations and dialects, really.

By the way, The Param Sea also uses a dialectal difference. Many, many years ago, Yapra went by the name of Ya-Param. It's thought even the most folksy have forgotten the reason for this...

Yiddish is closer to German than Bavarian (yes, Bavarian is SUPPOSED to be a German dialect, but...). One of my music teachers had us sing a yiddish song once, and I understood every word of it. One of our history teachers had us watch a movie that had an interview in it with a Bavarian person from the country. In the cities, people still speak normal German, but in the more rural areas...I couldn't understand a word. So I actually thought you had used Germanic roots for Yapra again.

Not a lot to say, but I thought it best to say here, in this particular thread, just a few details on Bragedorf.

It's a rather small village of perhaps thirty houses and a large inn. The main reason for the village's existence is that it's on the main route out of the mountains from B'Shara.
Combined with the fact that the village is essentially a sheep-farming community, its position on such a trade route is quite important.

Only a few miles from the border, Bragedorf is surrounded immediately by trees, the furthest extent of the mountain forest. Normally, such a position would be odd for a sheep-based settlement, but the weather coming from the mountains has been known to be quite vile, so the trees act as a welcome shield against the winds, rains and snows that can descend quite suddenly.

Just past the village, away from the forest and mountains, are the pastures. At any one time, a third of the village are tending to the large flocks in the pastures, while a further third are involved with sheep-related matters in the village itself. You'd be amazed at the diseases a sheep can catch.

Ultimately, Bragedorf isn't involved much (so far) in the tale; it's just a stopping off point for Ralkin before he hits the main action.