Planet Tal
 This article contains information classified under the New Age canon. |
Planet Tal (惑星タル wakuséi taru) is the host of the New Age setting in the Vilous universe.
Important note: Informations come earlier on the japanese pages. There's actually some delay when it comes to english updates.
As a result, we are recruiting people who know correct Japanese and English to make translation work go faster.
Important note 2: Name is a possibility it will change to "planet Vilous". It mean that Vilous returns to planet similarly Old Age, and Tal becomes extinct. But, that hasn't been decided yet.
Well Known Regions and Features
Geographic Regions
- ColVilous Lake: The greatest salt lake on Tal. Tal's only body of water large enough to be classified as a sea.
- Gold Ring: The greatest city on Tal, built by Agudners and Southern Sergals.
- Kef: Desert with a meaning called "nothing" or "blind alley" or "unlimited". The desert at the upper left is also Kef.
- Lyvank Mountains: An alpine region containing rare Eltus-Plants and source of salts.
- Nevrea: Birthplace of Nevreans. Very mountainous, collectively called "Nev Mountains".
- Magoe-th-eta: The forest of Talyxian Biomes. Danger zone.
- Magoe forest: The deep, uncharted wilderness of Talyxian Biomes. Very danger zone.
- Sailzane: The greatest desert zone of Tal.
- Thekan: The grassy plains or woods that corresponded to Talyxian Biomes. Comparatively safety zone.
Clan Territories
- Shigu Clan: General Rain and her clan's land, and kingdom of Northern Sergals.
- Reono Clan: Reono's land. The commerce group and autonomous district where Agudners and Eastern Sergals mainly occupy.
Ecosystems
- Eltus-Plants: The green plants that have chlorophyl such as earth's. They corresponded to Eltus Biomes in Tal's biology. They are very few in number and exist only where salt water is found.
- Talyxian-Plants: The plants that corresponded to Talyxian Biomes in Tal's biology. Most of the plants, such as those in forests, on Tal are Talyxian-Plants. They are usually very strange unlike earth's, and don't have chlorophyll. Also most of them move like an animal. Depending on the kind they can be a danger to Eltus lifeforms.
Environment
Tal's atmosphere is thin, and the gravitation is small. The temperature difference between day and night is relatively large, and there are many dry climates. In contrast, in Talyxian Biomes, the humidity is high and the temperature tends to be constant.
Creatures
Primary species in Tal are divided into two broad groups: Eltus and Talyxians. Those two group are totally different from each other in everything almost. Primary sapient species that Tal hosts are the three race from Eltus species - Sergals, Agudners, and Nevreans.
Tal's most of wildlife consists of Talyxian species creatures and a host of unclassified or undocumented species, such as a fish, insects, worms, mollusks, and plants inhabiting everywhere from urban or suburban areas to virgin forest and deep wilderness. Those creatures are native to Tal and generally classified as "Primitive creatures", and recognize as "alien biomes" from Eltus races. An outlook on the scene of Tal that be composed with those alien biomes is considerably different from Earth. Strange Talyxian biome plants without chlorophyll occupy most of the planet Tal, demonstrating its unusual characteristics. There are animals on Tal that are peculiarly different as well from Earth's animals although they may share the same name.
There's also a few creatures that belong to Eltus species, such as animals and plants. But those Eltus biome creatures are very few and minority group in comparison with Talyxian biome creatures.
Geography and Living space
There is a great deal of land, as Tal is larger than Earth. However, the ColVilous salt lake is the only "coastal" land on the planet, there are no other seas. The ColVilous Salt Lake and surrounding regions are said to be the homeland of Sergals in the myth of Vilous.
Gold Ring exists as the greatest city in Tal. Roughly crescent shaped, it partially surrounds the coast of the ColVilous Salt Lake. As construction of urban areas continues, Gold Ring gradually encircles the ColVilous Salt Lake further, and is expected to eventually encircle the entire sea (becoming a "gold ring" around the lake).
All sentient races are treated equally in the city. Furthermore, the words "person", "people", and "human" don't mean "human on Earth", but more generally refer to any of the sapient species.
Many Talyxian-rooters do not mingle regularly with the societies of the Eltus races, but those who do often take jobs in medicine or research. Because most other Talyxians have very different physical bodies, mixing with society is very difficult for them.
Modernization occurred most rapidly in areas where southern Sergals and Agudners coexisted (including Gold Ring). Many areas in the middle east and the east host modern civilization, but most of the north and west host only primitive or tribal civilizations.
Pedology
ColVilous Salt Lake is the largest body of water on Tal, and also the only significant saline one. Freshwater bogs exist in most of the non-desert regions, and Talyxian biomes also have many freshwater lakes.
Salt is an uncommon substance on the surface of Tal, found only in ColVilous salt lake, underground in the Sailzane desert, and in Lyvank Mountains. Salt is a daily necessity for Eltus species, who use it to make medicine, cook, and defend against attack from Talyxian wildlife, who cannot metabolize salt and are thus generally repelled by it.
ColVilous Salt Lake's water is very saline, and there is a high concentration of other minerals in the water and the soil of the Sailzane desert region. Eltus people can use this water as drinking water by diluting or filtering it. Because Eltus plants prefer salt unlike Talyxian biome, green plants are actively cultivated in coastal places.
There are some small salt lakes in each region but they do not usually last long after discovery, as pollution from salt mining will quickly render them unusable, and vulnerable to takeover by the encroaching Talyxian biome. The overtaken lake can be restored with diligence and great effort, but without that, the composition of the soil changes as time passes, and eventually Eltus plants can no longer grow there. The soil in Eltus biomes and Talyxian ones is radically different, which makes it very unusual for the two environments to coexist. Furthermore, if they border each other, the Talyxian biome will erode away at the Eltus, so Eltus biomes are fragile and must be fiercely protected.
Plants
There are two broad classifications of plantlife on Tal, Talyxian plants, which are indigenous to Tal, and Eltus plants, which are not. It can be difficult to classify native Talyxian organisms as plants or animals because most native plantlife is capable of locomotion or even active predation, but it is easy to differentiate between Talyxian and Eltus plants because Eltus plants are immobile, grow best in salt water, have chlorophyll, and are generally shades of green (earning them their common nickname, "green plants").
Undisturbed Talyxian ecosystems, such as virgin forests and unexplored wilderness, are almost exclusively composed of native plants and some primitive creatures. In settled areas, there may exist pockets of Eltus plants. Much of Tal is unsettled, and the Eltus biome is comparatively very small.
The plants which cannot move are often considered beautiful in appearance and are popular for decoration. Many such plants are cultivated in a similar manner as airplants, and are commonly hung on eaves in the city. Plants are also selectively grown and bred for desirable colors and shapes.
Illness
There are many kinds of the material and the microbe of the pathogen in Tal. Also ill system is different from Eltus and Talyxians.
In Eltus's ill, "Magoe Cold (マゴイ風邪)" exists. But Elust races have strong immunity generally.
In Talyxian's ill, "Deovi (デヨビ)" that is things like an athlete's foot exists, it is appears on The comics series of Vilous daily life in Gold Ring.
Wildlife
Read this article:Tal's Wildlife
Culture and Civilization
There are technology like earth's early 1900's level including cars, guns, and simple computers. Sergals and agudners areas like Gold Ring partially have an appearance that is reminiscent Showa period of Earth's Japan.
Generally a whole of civilization is retro and traditional technology. There is a high-technology really only in the very limited place. And economic disparity is big by each area.
Energy circumstances
The most of materials that is used as fuel for cars or ships are produced from a pond and swamp areas of Lower Magoe. Because of this, Gold Ring can be much more advanced in technologies of large construction and mechanical technology over other regions. In contrast, the main energy source in the Eastern and the Northern is the fats from a creatures.
There's power generation technology in Gold Ring too. Especially in more city areas, there's multiple power plants that are connecting power transmission cables to each houses.
Vehicle technology
There's some vehicles such as motor scooters and cars, in civilized area like Gold Ring.
Some of people who try to create plane. But all of them have never be successful due to environmental problems such as sandstorm and radiation, at least until RC 100.
There's fishing boats and transport vessels that is used on salt lake ColVilous and each pond and swamp areas.
Education Institutes
Mainly in east, as Agudners are central, generally they send a children as "apprenticeship" to a hunter and a craftsman instead of school since they were young.
In contrast, there are something like proper school in south. It developed while Eltus races took care of the child jointly in the south.
Schools of south are different from earth's. It is the existence such as the vocational school where it begins with the childhood. Contents of learning are reading and writing, calculation, how to get food, how to hunt fish, and such.
As class subjects are: Language, Arithmetic, Biology, Physical education, Home economics.
As for the big difference of the school in the earth, importance of home economics and the biology are same as language and the arithmetic's.
Even if children, often they are exposed to danger of death without mercy in the camp school. The extracurricular class is very severe as same as such as the training of the Marine Corps. Because all of Eltus races are given the tough physical ability as the beast race while begin born.
Generally, person that go to "school" are only Eltus race.
Even if Talyxian is in school, it is rare case that was made to enter by the owner who is an eccentric, or is bred as animal in a school.
Religions
There are various religions in each areas.
North land: Animism faith of the natural that came from the fear for the forest and the wildlife.
South land: There is religious thought that is called "Gold Ring". One of the basic concepts of it is the symbiotic relations of Agudner and Sergals that is said to be "Mother Agudner, Father Sergal".
West land (Nevrea): Object of the faith are chief-like superior female Nevrean soldiers, and Judda male Nevreans as symbol.
East land: Various religion is mixed there.
Money
Before the currency system was strictly defined, there was a rough barter system in most of Tal. Anything someone wanted could be treated as money for another item. This was especially true, being used as desired currency, with precious items like copper, silver, iron, dyes, spices, and so on. An adult person probably used metal pieces and other items which were weighed with scales as coin substitutes, or common barter items. Children often used small common items like shells for those. Like Ken, who appears on page 2 of Vilous Comic episode 3, he wanted shells as the toll because he just collects shells as his hobby. Barter system basically have been performed in many places where have no currency system. Prominent example, Northern lands had depended on it before the domination by Rain and the foundation of Shigu.
There's the cevia system (described below subsection) in Gold Ring and Reono, but the available currency is different for each region until had strict currency system. There's some region that use shell money, and other somewhere may use seeds. Barter trade is also available for those places. Nevrea land and Shigu Kingdom probably have specific money system, but details are still undecided.
The seeds of green plants are considered as valuable as gold grains, and people sometimes use them in place of high denomination currency, but their high value regularly encourages counterfeiting.
Cevia system
There's the general idea called "Cevia"(セビア) that show things that can be used as money, in the southern Gold Ring city and the eastern Reono lands. In those previous period, a word of "cevia" was used for something of small and beautiful things that have a value enough to trade with foods or clothes. Cevia that is produced as a molded coin and strict currency, has appeared at very later period. Previous cevia that was used before the currency system was strictly defined can be said as just jewels or things that look like jewels. Things look like having no a value like brick debris are not treated as cevia. And the rate of those previous cevia is really obscure. For example, when someone said "this shell has a value that fit to 10 cevia!", but other person may say "No, it is just a value of 2 cevia." Also those previous cevia is not strict currency, so it also can be treated as just commodity. If some store is selling jewel that is treated as cevia, people will buy it with shells and so on. (However, general commodity that are sold in store is basically things related to entertainment and necessities of life.)
In Gold Ring, a government began making currencies with a vague system in fumbling way, during the period of rapid economic development after the war. Probably the cevia as a coin was created at that time, and a bills also appeared at the same time. However, there ware many inadequacy for those currency system until RC 70. Then people were thrown into great confusion depending on the results of those situation, and many brawl ware caused for the money and goods. Due to it, GR government began a review of the cevia system while taking a long time. Finally strict currency system was defined properly perhaps after RC 70. ::Note:: This has not been strictly decided yet.
Animal Husbandry
There are breeders and dairymen who handle livestock consisting of various primitive creatures on Tal.
Animal husbandry originally started in the north-east part of the east and was quickly brought to the south by trade. Before this reached the south, meat was as precious as dye while fish and plants were the main source of food.
In the territory of Gold Ring, agriculture developed to secure food since there were no forests and due to the earlier problem of having enough food. The east is very good with nature and do not require much farming. In the far north, they did not tame animals out of respect for the forest and nature.