"Cloud Settlers" Gimeian Story
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A folktale about people who lived in the clouds
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 13 Jun 2020, 00:35.
[comments] ogaliteraturestoriesculturehistorytranslation 'ai crat, kan an kar cit 'au
'a can au a i 'a ru pnai yak pnu
'a rap pnu a i 'a yau 'a mu' yum
'a i yum ca kum mu pnu mum
A thousand years ago, a man was on a tall tree.
He looked at the sky and saw beautiful white clouds.
He stepped on the clouds and called his friends.
He and his friends built houses in the clouds.
ta mat pnu mum
'i ca pnu mu' kung
um nar, 'i na ca cau
People lived in clouds.
They built a wall of clouds.
On purpose, they didn't make a door.
an sa' mri
pnu mu' mri i ki mu' mri
There were two families:
The cloud family and earth family.
pnu ta nga ngui cit stai
pnu ta mau tra ngau nru 'i nga ngui
The cloud people ate plenty of delicious stars.
The cloud people had large stomachs because they ate so much.
ki ta tra tu ci ngi
ki ta u kuk nru 'i nga ci
The earth people worked hard for barely any rice.
The earth people were skinny because they ate so little.
ki mri kra kur i ca cru kir
'i tak nan mum i kni kir 'ir
kru' pnu sri fu
fu pif yai kir a
The earth family declared war and made bamboo spears.
They stood in a field and threw the spears up.
But the clouds gave birth to wind.
The light spears were blown away.
tak, ki ta yin kur pnu ta
'i 'ir kna sit i kni ku
kru' pnu kra pur
kris ska sit i fa ta
The earth people still wanted to fight the cloud people.
They climbed up trees and threw stones.
But the clouds roared loudly.
Lightning struck the trees and burned the people.
ki ta pa' kur 'i cak
kar tan 'i a crau ku um
ki ta fau kum crau ka
'i kni ka i kir pnu a
The earth people fought them back again.
A mountain gave them iron ore.
The earth people forged iron knives.
They threw the knives and poked the clouds.
pnu mri an nai krung mum
mis i tra pnu i mri mu' ngui mu 'ak
nru an ngui mis, ngi pnau
pnu ta nan mum tu i crat ngi
sa mri nga ngi i u yi
The cloud people were in bad trouble.
Rain fell, the cloud's size decreased, and the family's luxury was gone.
Because of the plentiful rain, the rice flourished.
The cloud people worked at the farm and harvested the rice.
The two families ate the rice and were happy.
Note: Alongside the ancient civilization of Gimei, I'm also worldbuilding the modern understanding of Gimei. Just like in real life, historians don't know 100% of what happened in the past and have to draw conclusions based on various observations.
"Cloud Settlers" was told throughout Gimei. No written records of this story existed until 250 AD. However, the Gimeians left behind stone carvings in their capital that closely resemble the stories that were later written. Wooden carvings around Gimei and the story's later incarnations show that the story varied regionally.
The introduction with the man on the tree isn't always included. It was possibly added later to give the two families a common origin, meaning the earth people want to reunite.
The iron knives are sometimes copper or bronze axes. Historians give many answers as to why:
The story first featured copper axes, but iron was found to be a stronger metal.
It was originally bronze (once the strongest metal known to Gimeians) but a mountain can't give bronze ore (humans mix copper and tin to make bronze) so copper and iron make more sense.
Guilds favored stories which glorified the products of their respective industries.
But the answer most agreed on is that iron knives were symbolic of Crau Kan (a Gimeian ruler). He specialized in iron mining and forging. His name (which means "Iron Man") even sounds like "iron knife" in Gimeian (crau ka). His opponents didn't want the story to show Crau Kan and his policies as the ultimate solution to everything, so they replaced them with copper axes. Either that, or the iron knives were added to glorify him. ✎ Edit Article ✖ Delete Article
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