All about Treban
Written by Cretey



Treban has always lacked a strong central government, which is partly what prevents them from rising against the Istrobanians. Occasionally Istroban will send patrols out through the different villages of Treban, and the higher into the mountains they go, the more violence they encounter. But this is disorganized, unplanned, and never really accomplishes anything.

Istroban rules gently, but there is an incredible amount of nationalistic feeling still in Treban. This pride actually intensifies the higher up in the mountains one goes, even as the impact that Istroban has diminishes and inter-community relations become rarer; the people in the highest settlements self-identify first as being from their community or village, and then as being Trebanese.

There is not much travel or interaction between villages and cities. Most people make their livelihoods with goat herding and shepherding on the steep slopes, mining, forestry, or hunting; any small vegetable gardens only provide food for the individual family or village. Education is highly prized and fairly uncommon, though not- or so the Trebanese believe- as uncommon as in the lowlands; a fair number of Trebanese are educated at reading and writing.

The Treban religion is polytheistic on the surface, but the gods are generally recognized as being only different facets of one single divine presence. Followers of a particular god are also likely to believe that their god is the only permanent individual figure, and the rest mentioned are temporary. The general belief associated with this religion is that, in the afterlife, the soul will become a member of the household or community of their patron deity. Sacrifices are not usually required of the gods, but some symbol of devotion is. Although in general this helps the Treban faith (which is unnamed as a whole, being rather eclectic) interact smoothly with other nearby religions, it is also seen by some quarters as being weak and ill-defined.

The accent: Trebanese have what could be seen as a slightly lazy way of speaking. Often a “t” in the middle of a word- for example, ‘postage’- is pronounced more like a ‘d,’ ‘posdej’. Vowel combinations are also frequently slurred together even when not usually seen as dipthongs- ‘eu’ becomes ‘yuh’ instead of ‘ee-yuh’. ‘ia’ is either ‘ya’ (at the end of words) or ‘e’ (in the middle of words.)

“Absentia” would be more along the lines of “Absendyuh”. “Amaranthian” is “Amaranthen” or in extreme cases “Amaranden”

This accent is, of course, not found in everyone from Treban, but is common; and it generally grows thicker in settlements further up in the mountains.