Lantian tribes

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ari
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Lantian tribes

Post by ari »

They're not as relevant now as they were a hundred years ago, in the time when people had to get around on foot or horse, but everyone still at least knows the stereotypes of the Lantian tribes. A Lantian mightn't know which tribe they belong to themselves, or they might have genes from several different tribes and the culture from yet another tribe, or they might live in a major city like Sanborg or Silverhammar where all the tribes are neatly mixed together - but still, any Lantian can describe any of the tribes. And here, for your consumption, are the tribal stereotypes, complete with a picture of a typical member of each tribe!


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The Keiprians, as the most numerous of the tribes are "the quintessential Lantian", the one that foreigners' stereotypes are generally based upon, and the one that the other tribes are compared to. They speak little and have a habit of fading into the background. Stockily built, wide-shouldered and strong, they are hard and persistent workers. In particular, persistent farm work is a value in itself for them. They're also perhaps the least emotional of the tribes, or at least least emotionally aware, and in any case tend not to display their emotions in public. They're dismissive of people who get excited easily or try to go through life at too quick a pace. They're known as reliable and honest, and people know that a Keiprian who has made a promise will always come through for them, regardless of how much work it takes.

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The Kiesseans are genetically a mixture of Keiprian and Rossi. They have a playful, even a bit of a pranksterish nature. They use the Lantian language in a uniquely creative way - not always so much to actually communicate an idea, but to find the most horrifyingly twisty way to keep dancing about the subject, using puns and even inventing words along the way as the need occurs. As a result tend to be opaque at the very least, if not completely impenetrable, when one attempts to communicate with them. They do not quite deserve the reputation for dishonesty they have, the truth is that that they might just tell you everything but the pertinent truth, and not even for any attempt to cloud the truth, but simply because they get too carried away with wordplay instead. If they do cloud the truth, it's because they would rather just have fun and not have to deal with the consequences of saying something.

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The Iskappians are of a somewhat different genetic stock than the rest of Lant, actually having more in common with several native peoples along the northern coast of Neroles. They tend to be rather thin and short. Iskappians greatly value their traditional livelihoods of fishing and reindeer herding. They are closer to nature than other Lantians in a sense, preferring to live as part of it taking just what they need (and maybe a little bit extra for trade, but they realise what is sustainable and what isn't) rather than acting as its controlling master. They also tend to live closer to nature, and only rarely in big cities. As a tribe of the distant north, they are considered strange, even mysterious, and they have traditionally been believed to have mystical or shamanic powers.


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The Rossi are the most fun-loving of the Lantian tribes, just as fond of food and drink as they are of song and play. They are unreserved, talkative, cheerful, light-hearted and in fact genuinely interested in other people. Obviously because of this, they are considered untrustworthy, difficult to communicate with, and even dangerously impulsive by the rest of Lant. They are quite active but not as hard workers as the Keiprians. Their cuisine is known Lant-wide, and some baked goods are in fact named after the Rossi tribe.


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The Elvinians are tall and graceful. Their name is a bit of an oddity since there is no historical province of Elvin in Lant - the name seems to have gotten stuck to the people somewhere far back in history. Elvinians consider themselves the most civilised of the tribes, and are far more concerned with community and with appearances than the others. Perhaps for this reason, the Elvinians are also the tribe that most prefers to trust its own members, and Elvinians have a tendency to form enclaves of their own kind. They even have a repertoire of drinking songs in a language that's otherwise forgotten. Their civilised and, in a word, cleanly nature sometimes clashes with the rest of Lant's culture - not that the other Lantians aren't cleanly either, but the Elvinians seem to just go a little bit too far with being so fine in everything they do. Jokes about on all Elvinian men being gay are common among Lantian youth.


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The Vestrians seem to be a mixture of almost all other tribes except the Iskappians. Traditionally they lived in large villages along rivers near the middle parts of Lant's coast. They are boastful, competitive and brash, and in conversation, perhaps the most curt and impolite of all the tribes. They value mastering useful (and useless) skills, and will spend a lot of time practising their trade and showing the results off. On the countryside they tend to build two-story houses for their families, simply out of not wanting to have a small house when all of the neighbours have a bigger one. They are also perhaps the most anxious tribe, and the one most prone to drunkenness and violence.


(... no, the Lantians aren't *actually* ponies. They are all jaw-droppingly human, in fact! But hey, here's a quiz: What are the Lantian tribal stereotypes based on? Tahmaseb is disqualified from playing. You can use the fact that Tahmaseb is disqualified as a hint.)
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Re: Lantian tribes

Post by Alicorn »

I can't see the images...

ETA: Now I can. Ponieeees!
Last edited by Alicorn on Mon Jun 27, 2011 8:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Lantian tribes

Post by Emir of Raspur »

In which case you are, perhaps, in a fortunate minority.

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Re: Lantian tribes

Post by Harvey »

You are totally shameless. And your lack of Twilight disturbs me.

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Kallinn Ynnetrrr
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Re: Lantian tribes

Post by Kallinn Ynnetrrr »

*thinks*

Image

One retarded lion.
Image

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Re: Lantian tribes

Post by Alicorn »


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Re: Lantian tribes

Post by Scott Alexander »

Hm, interesting trying to have a very modern liberal state with tribes in it.

My guess for what they're based on - Keiprians = Finns, Kiesseans = ???, Iskappians = Saami, Rossi = ???, Elvinians = elves, Vestrians = I don't know but reminds me of the Kalevala for some reason.

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ari
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Re: Lantian tribes

Post by ari »

You give me too much credit, Scott, it's something even less creative than that :). Though you did get Iskappians = Sami right (well, close enough anyway that is).
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Re: Lantian tribes

Post by Daniel »

The Elvinians must be the Swedes!
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Re: Lantian tribes

Post by Emir of Raspur »

Alicorn wrote:It's a SPECIAL lion.
Now that you mention it.

Image
Ari avatar... :p

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Re: Lantian tribes

Post by Demon of Fides »

SATW is wonderful, I love Humon.
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ari
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Re: Lantian tribes

Post by ari »

Emir of Raspur wrote:Now that you mention it.

Image
Ari avatar... :p
I actually considered something like this once, but I'm not really that much of a fan of SATW. Being avatarless seems to be working out well enough for me for now anyway :).
Daniel wrote:The Elvinians must be the Swedes!
And he scores! Wait, no, he doesn't. I mean, the answer is correct, but it's not the answer to the question I asked :)
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Kallinn Ynnetrrr
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Re: Lantian tribes

Post by Kallinn Ynnetrrr »

Emir of Raspur wrote:
Alicorn wrote:It's a SPECIAL lion.
Now that you mention it.

Image
Ari avatar... :p
I think I used finland as an avatar back on the shireroth.org forums.
Image

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Re: Lantian tribes

Post by Emir of Raspur »

ari wrote:
Emir of Raspur wrote:Now that you mention it.

Image
Ari avatar... :p
I actually considered something like this once, but I'm not really that much of a fan of SATW. Being avatarless seems to be working out well enough for me for now anyway :).
Anything would be better than nothing - as long as 'anything' is a dolphin swimming in blood.

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Re: Lantian tribes

Post by Demon of Fides »

You ask too much, Emir.
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ari
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Re: Lantian tribes

Post by ari »

Aww, nobody else's playing. Well, since Scott was curious how you can have tribes in a modern liberal state, I'll just give you the answer: "Tribe" is just a word, and they're the Finnish tribes. Keiprians = Tavastians, Kiesseans = Savonians, Iskappians = Sami, Rossi = Karelians, Elvinians = Swedes, and Vestrians = Ostrobothnians. And yeah, it pretty much is like that in Finland. Nobody takes the tribal differences terribly seriously and tribal membership is really defined mostly by dialect (so for instance I'm definitely Ostrobothnian despite also having at least Karelian and Savonian blood as well). And even that is getting more and more irrelevant as dialects are pretty much defined by cities instead these days (for instance these were pretty popular for a while).

But despite all that the tribal stereotypes still live. I had to round them out and choose to ignore a few parts of the stereotypes, but all in all the pony-tribe matchups ended up being pretty obvious. Rainbow Dash - Ostrobothnians, Applejack - Tavastians, Rarity - Swedes and Pinkie Pie - Karelians all were really good matches IMO, and Fluttershy - Sami a bit more far-fetched but doable. The only big problem was finding someone to match the Savonians up with. I was considering Celestia for her trollish tendencies, but what I really love and appreciate the Savonians for is their unusual use of language, and Zecora was the most appropriate character I could come up with to reflect that.
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