Meromo

In 3348, the nation of Meromo was born. It was a nation founded by Mammans (originally from Kava and FILTER) who had settled in an area they at first called Putu Lake. But the water of their lake made them sick so they constructed a building (Sapeepa) far to the west of the Lake where they kept all the diseased people that they felt could not function in society.

Language

See edit history for Sapeepa-specific details.

Because the founders of Meromo were exiles from Kava, they had the same language as Kava. In their civilization, every nation was considered to have its own language, even if it may be nearly identical to some other closely related language. Thus people began to speak of "the Meromo language", not merely the Meromo dialect of the Kavan language.

Kava's linguistic histoiry was cpmplex. They spoke either a Paleo-Pabappa language, a FILTER language, or both.

Since Meromo was friendly to Dreamland, they may have adopted Dreamlandic languages. Sapeepa would be unlikely to have taken over these areas. The Thunder party would have retained its original language, however, be that FILTER or a branch of Paleo-Pabappa. Since the Thunder party arose from a tiny geographical area, they would not have needed to learn the languages of the rest of their parent nation. Thus it is possible that Dreamlandic languages and FILTER languages exist side by side in Meromo's territory, with Sapeepa speaking only the FILTER branch.

There was also an alliance between "Teupí" and "Cila" against Tarwas in the mid-3300s. (See Book_H.doc .) Dreamland did not exist yet, so the Teupí referred to here is entirely of Kava stock. THis also proves that Kâlika is NOT Dreamland.

Birth of Sapeepa

Meromo was the parent empire of Sapeepa.

The people who were in charge of Sapeepa and felt more love for their subjects than for the rulers of their parent nation, Meromo. The governors of Sapeepa raised their children as Sapeepans, not Meriras. Since Sapeepa was both distant and an economic liability to Meromo, Meromo treated them as an independent state without formally relinquishing their land claim.

Meromo's governing party, Pĕp, sent food and even laborers to Sapeepa because Sapeepa was so much poorer than the rest of Meromo. The Sapeepans disliked this, and tried to become economically self-sufficient in order to acquire a sense of pride while also helping Meromo. Yet, the Pĕp party also supported the killing of poor people, in order that they might not be able to suffer or cause other people to suffer. Thus their ideology caused problems for its supporters.

The Sapeepans developed a new, secret party based on "angry" egalitarianism, and stated that people who were unsuccessful were simply not trying hard enough. Thus their philosophy was often not much kinder to fellow Sapeepans than that of the Pĕp. They gave speeches to their supporters saying "You have no rights." The Sapeepans forged close relations with the Kâlika people^{Dreamers?? Pre-Dreamer Lenians??} living in slightly better conditions to their west. They sometimes called their alliance Têupí, and people moved in both directions.

Sapeepa grew slowly, and they could not conquer Baeba Swamp. Throughout the generations, Sapeepans often led invasions on weaker villages outside the Swamp, and stole food and other basic supplies which were scarce in their own territory. Their weapons were made of stone, and much weaker than the Baebans', but Baeba was not ready for a war, and treated the intruders as mere criminals. Sapeepa was also hostile to Repilia, but Repilians avoided attacking Sapeepa in the vicinity of the Swamp because they believed the Sapeepans and others would cast magic spells that harmed only Repilians.

Independence

In 3431, Sapeepa revolted and became an independent nation. They said that they were going to reproduce faster than all other peoples and eventually take over the world. But many of their leaders were very perverse, and many of the people revolted and became savages disliked by all others on the planet except the Dreamers, who had rejected racism and come to embrace every race except the dark-skinned ones as fully deserving of love.

The savages lived like animals, in almost total ferality. Children were ill-treated by their parents, and often not protected well enough to survive in the swamps. Thus, even though the savages were reproducing very quickly, their kids kept dying. Warfare broke out among the many Sapeepans living in the swamp (not Baeba), and they began to eliminate their weaker members through warfare.

Foundation of Thunder philosophy

Shortly after the breakup in 3431, another new political party, the Thunder party, began to take over Sapeepa. The Thunderers believed that the rights of the majority were the only rights that mattered at all - and there was no such thing as fairness, because everyone was ultimately part of the same universal being. Thus they were communitarians.

Thunder philosophy was very much the opposite of the Pĕp government that had preceded it, but the Thunder leaders had taken no steps to burn off the frustration they had accumulated while living under the Pĕp government, and they were as perverse as the people they replaced. (The Pĕp government was still in control of Meromo.) They believed that all crimes should be legal, so long as they benefit the perpetrator more than they benefit the victim.

The new government was run entirely by Thunderers who had great and terrible plans for their new nation, which they immediately transformed into an army. They claimed that true Thunderers could never let a disease confine them to a life of suffering, and refused medical treatment for many common diseases.

Over the next sixty years, the birth rate increased dramatically, the death rate fell, and yet the material wealth of the population actually rose. Neighboring nations began ruling out the Sapeepans, however, so they could not easily leave.

The Thunderers excused sin after sin, saying the misdeeds of their people were not sins after all but expressions of the power and beauty of God. They exonerated their entire population, essentially declaring all Sapeepans, even those who had not joined the Thunder party, innocent of all sins. With this mentality, Sapeepa became strongly united and ready to begin attacking outside nations. Even though its military was very weak, the Thunderers began preparations for war against Têupí almost immediately after they declared independence.

In 3434, the Thunderers attacked Punu Lake, but they were driven back by the Têupíans. Early in 3435 they attacked again, and took over the Lake. Then they quickly began attacking more and more of the nations around them, winning most of their battles. Those battles that they lost were not terribly upsetting to the Thunderers, because their own nation was not hurt at all by the defeats.

The Thunderers stressed the great importance of maintaining a high birth rate in their society, and praised good mothers who raised large families for the nation. The Thunderers abolished marriage and replaced it with a system designed to maximize the amount of children each woman could bear, where each man who was allowed to would live with as many as ten women, and the rest of the men would be in the army, ready to fight (some women were in the army as well, but not many). Thus their birth rate rose much higher than that of all the nations around them, including even Têupí.

The Thunderers began to settle more and more lands around them, mostly mountainous areas to their west that lay between the Swamp and Punu Lake. They captured the highest peaks of the Black Mountains, a poor environment for humans but one that was very difficult to attack. Thus, they promised they would never be conquered even if they were to lose a major war.

The Thunderers despised the Crystals. Crystals sent their people into Thunder territory, trying to make converts, but the Thunderers thought little of killing the Crystal immigrants.