The Man Who Started Jadali

It's been a few years now since the very first concept of Jadali was put on paper. It's in a completely different place than it started and so I want to take a post to share about the very first guy in this new land that got the ball rolling and took Jadali from the tiny island of outcasts that didn't want to industrialize to the huge representation of the friendship between Osai and Terabi that was handpicked by them that it is today.

The Beginnings of Jadali
First, we must remember that it wasn't called Jadali, it was called Gambada. I really hate that name now and it doesn't even really fit the language. The capital of it was Leena and it was one of the 40 states of Kiillaana. In early sketches of the map it was actually inland but somehow it ended up being a tiny island way off northeast. I don't remember why, but it became inhabited by people that wanted to continue living in ancient times. The number varies from 13 to 100 but they called themselves the Jadali-Kiillra tribe. According to the first draft they were approached by a random man and given the problem of getting water from a rock. They were successful so they were given the mark in their eyes still seen today of one blue and one brown eye. They settled in Attlefort (later it would be Taleah) and then went to the land. It was so small that there was no tight city, just buildings all over the island. They called their main building Leena and hence that became the capital. The year they moved there in this first draft was 1033 (today in the final version it's 1020) and it says they've remained unchanged since. The language was said to be unchanged from early Kevian (the language spoken on Kiillaana). To read the final version that is set in stone click here. The only change is I took away Gambada completely and Jadali is not a state of Kiillaana but shares rights and in some aspects functions as if it were.

Below is my first draft of Gambada:

Tensk was by now a fairly large state, with seven well-defined cities. There was a very small group of folk, about 100 in all, that all lived in a city just outside the borders called Pyra (Which is now present-day Aloa). Now this group of folk loved doing things the traditional way. They invented their own things for use and were well on their way to becoming an independent state. However, they also wanted to remain isolated from everybody else.

1033- Year of Travelers Free

One day, a village Wise Man came along. He talked with the leader of the group, a man named Eagle Cry Ennel. The Wise Man asked him if he knew of a way to get water from the rocks. Eagle Cry Ennel thought about it long and hard and got his people thinking too. They did not know how to get water from the rocks.

The Wise Man then told them that if they came up with a way by sunrise on the Full Moon, that he would show them to a place where they could be isolated and be traditional. He also said that as a gift, they would all have a mark in their eyes of the balancing shades to show their balance of wisdom and knowledge.

Now this group of folk, which called themselves the Jadali-Kiillra, tried for weeks to get water from the rocks. It was nearly sundown on the last day and nothing. Just then, a clever young boy by the name of Brand Badger thought of something. He went over to a rock and put it on top of an old tree stump. He then got a large twig and carved it to be beautiful. After he had decorated it the colors of the balancing shades (brown for knowledge, blue for wisdom), he carved the phrase, “Let Wisdom and Knowledge be balanced and bring forth Life.”

As he balanced the stick on the rock and said the phrase, the earth began to shake. Before everyone’s eyes, a large pillar of water shot up from the rock. They had done their task.

The Wise Man arrived and gathered the people around. He held out the stick that the young boy had made and began talking to the 94 people who were Pyra’s inhabitants. It was then that history took hold.

“And from this point on, you, and your children, and your childrens’ children shall all have the mark of the balancing shades upon your eyes. Let your right eye guide you northeast to an island mountain and let your left eye gather everyone there safely. You have done it. You will get what you have asked.”

And with that, every person closed their eyes and when they opened, the right eye was blue and the left eye was brown.

The Jadali-Kiillra began their journey northeast towards the mountain island that the Wise Man had talked about. It took them just two months to hike through the jungle to get to the shores of present-day Attlefort. They set up a small camp when they arrived and began to build a boat to take them to the island. They did so and arrived. They found that they had been supplied with many things. They had sheep, the wool to make into clothes and the meat to eat. They had cattle, to eat and use for milk. They had many birds to eat as well. And with their brown eye, they were able to know what all the many plants could be used for.


Today, Gambada is a very interesting place. Just like the Wise Man promised, there was no change in the tradition from the very year they moved there (1033) to now. There are currently about 100,000 inhabitants, all members of the Jadali-Kiillra Tribe. The language there is very old and unchanged, and through studies, scholars now know what Old Kiillaanian sounds like spoken.

This has obviously been altered a ton. Often, I'll come with a rough idea but can't really finalize it until another piece of the puzzle is realized. In this case, it was the discovery of Terabi.

The Man Who Started Jadali
Anyway, once this place was sort of down on paper I needed people on it to interact with the Kiillaanians. Based on my adventures of Europe in 2007 I met a huge variety of people. One, who I talk about a lot as he has inspired MANY people, was the roommate of the guy on the trip that was easily the most unique in his appearance. He came from the East Coast and was just super different from everyone else. This inspired me to do the same when I wrote about a similar experience. This of course was the birth of Eagle Rivers along with so, so many others. The first thing I wrote about that adventure was Eagle arriving in the capital city and seeing a Jadali-Kiillra for the first time. Everyone stared, much like they did with this person I went on the trip with, and whispered about him. Of course he ended up being a normal guy like the rest of us and was paired with the most unlikely person ever in the various hotels throughout the trip.

This gave me the perfect opportunity to put my first ink on paper about the Jadali-Kiillra. Eagle, being quite different himself, obviously gets paired with one of the two men from Gambada (ugh I hate that name so much!). I had an opportunity to give him a name and personality and it was great fun. Most of all, it's funny to look back on it 3 years later and see how much it's changed. Below is the original story of that historic meeting:

Eagle Rivers was standing in the big meeting room with Jaguarondi Lightfoot, a friend from school. There was a huge crowd of people there and they were all introducing themselves to everyone. The two of them, with their unique and amusing names, were standing back and telling some curious people about Isle-Del-Akai, where the two of them were from.

Eagle looked over and saw quite the two figures that were just entering the place, immediately swarmed by curious people. They were dressed as if they were straight from Dragon-Dodger’s time. They walked past and Eagle noticed that both of them had one brown eye and one blue eye. As they left, he turned to Jag and said, “Dude! They must be from Gambada! I really wanna go talk to them, but I’m too afraid. We probably won’t even know them at all.”

“Don’t be so sure,” Jag replied, “They look pretty popular and friendly. We should go talk to them.

“No! I can’t do it! I don’t know what to say!”

The two of them went on and on about them. Finally, they got their room keys and headed upstairs. Jag was in room 411 and Eagle was in room 409. “At least we’re next to each other,” sighed Eagle. A tall and muscular man walked up a minute later.

“Hi, my name is Kevin Aurley. Are you in room 411?”
Jag replied, “Why yes I am. Make yourself at home. I’ll be there shortly.”

Jag and Eagle stayed in Eagle’s room and waited for his roommate. Finally, they heard the key turn. The door opened and there in the doorway was a man with longish, black hair, deep eyes- one blue and one brown, a rough warrior-like face, and a very muscular body, clothed in red and black robes.

Eagle could not believe his eyes! Not only was he going to meet the strange man from Gambada, he was going to be his roommate too!

“Hello, which of you is in room 409?” he asked in a very light and strongly accented voice.
“Oh, me!” said Eagle in a voice of total awe. “No way! I was totally just talking about you! I really wanted to meet you but I was too shy. I just didn’t know what to say…”

“Ah, people get that from me a lot,” he continued, with a voice of amusement. “They’ve never seen someone from the state most small and misunderstood. Well I’m glad we’re bunkmates on this voyage, you’ll definitely learn more about me than anyone! The typical questions to you, then?”

“Yes, my name is Eagle Rivers, I am from The Lost Islands. I sing tenor 1 in the choir. You are definitely from Gambada, please tell me your full name and write it out for me.”

“Certainly. I am Isiador Eahron Lochgren, son of Elwin Lochgren, and I live on the west face of Leena. I am a member of the Jadali-Kiillra, which means my eyes are of the balancing shades, and I am a stallion-tamer by trade. I sing tenor 1 as well. I believe we will be friends most tightly knit.”

Lots of this makes me laugh, mainly my fail stab of what Old English might sound like. This sounds kind of like how Dr. Sorela would speak but he wouldn't choose words like that. Also, I remember Isiador Lochgren as having short, curly blond hair and not black hair. In fact, he became the basis of what the Lochgren family looks like! Oops on my part. :P I did keep his name the same and that name became one of the 7 crests. The "west face of Leena" became the city of Leena Eithre-Resa. As Jadali grew from a tiny island to a huge country there became a gap of a couple hundred miles separating Leena from the western coast instead of like 4 miles. I had to think up names on the fly, deciding that the language (that I still had to name and create) was like Elvish and that this country was like Middle Earth. It gave me the springboard to launch Jadali into prominence so I went with it. For the record, Lochgren was pronounced LOCK-gren until I found out from my friend that Loch is pronounced logh.

I had so much fun with this tour that I wrote a journal through Eagle's eyes documenting his adventures. Obviously Isiador shows up a lot. Here are a few excerpts about him from Eagle's journal from the summer of 2008:


The Trip Begins
Saturday, June 28, 2008

...After only a little bit, I must mention that two very cool people walked through the door.

They were from Gambada, like straight-up, genuine, 1000% Jadali Kiillra. Saying these two young men weren't authentic was like denying me of my Hippie life, the color of my hair, and the fact that I was alive. Wow they were so COOL! I had only read about them and seen a documentary on TV but there I was looking right at them. I was too nervous to even talk to them because I thought they might vanish into thin air. I decided that I would make it a point to meet them because I've been fascinated by their country and way of life forever.

I met tons of people and began to just chat. Finally, Jag and I got our room keys. I was in room 409 and Jag was in room 411. That dispelled the chance of us being roomies. At least we were by each other :-). I was the first to get to my room so Jag and I hung out by the door. Jag's roomie came up and said hi to him. His name was Kevin and he was from Falitonia. He seemed like a nice guy, and very much like Jag. They were going to make a great pair. Kevin went in to get settled while Jag and I finished up unpacking my stuff. Suddenly we heard the door turn and I found out who my roomie was.

It was one of the Jadali Kiillra. I dropped what I was carrying and after I picked up my jaw off the floor (joke) I managed to say hi. He was soooo cool looking. He looked like he was literally picked right out of Dragon Dodger's time. He had this medium-length wavy hair, like mine but black. His right eye was brown and his left eye was dark blue and boy did he ever have a warrior face if I saw one! He was wearing red and black robes and was very muscular and tall.

Jag left to meet his roomie and I sat down and was able to meet mine. He introduced himself as Isiador Eahron Lochgren. He had the coolest accent and spoke like he was from Dragon Dodger's time too. He said that whenever he goes on the mainland he gets stares from everyone and lots of questions. I was able to relate- being a Hippie. He has a brother and a sister and he is a stallion-tamer and archer. Wow.

As the evening drew onward we talked and talked. I told him about my love for the Jadali Kiillras and he was more than happy to tell me everything. As I go throughout Catarika I'll be writing about Isiador as well. For now, it is time for bed so good night!

This excerpt goes right along with the one above from a narrator's point of view. I got the eye color backwards though... oops. I could claim it's Eagle's directional error :P This is 2 years before the official history came out and the Jadali-Kiillra still came mostly unchanged from Dragon-Dodger's time. That still sort of holds true except they were given a new language instead of just preserving the Kiillra language of the 1030's. I also love how I said Isiador is an archer and stallion-tamer. I think he meant that's what he was studying in school but that's a lot of skill for a presumably 17-year-old boy to have!

This next post in its entirely is about the first concert after their many rehearsals in Tevernid, right before leaving for Catarika.

First Rider
Thursday, July 3, 2008

Yes it's been a while! That's because I've been spending as much time as possible meeting new people, and rehearsing. That's my life right now. Today we got ready for our first concerts! After another long rehearsal it was showtime. This is the first time Isiador has EVER been in a suit and tie so he was pretty amused with how he looked. We both made sure our uniforms looked great and then put our special name pins on the jackets. We headed down to the stage to prepare. Everyone looked so cool in their uniforms! The concerts went great too! They'll improve with time but not bad for the first rider! Afterwards we had a nice little party with ice cream and dancing. It was a whole lotta fun! Well, goodnight all! Tomorrow will be really busy.
Me Fact: Sing a note. I can name it in under half a second!

I laugh because it seems like Isiador has never been to Kiillaana before. If he's living on the west coast, especially if it's Leena Eithre-Resa like it becomes years later, he's been exposed to many Kiillaanians since that city is one of only two ports that go to Kiillaana, the other being hundreds of miles north in Ardin. Although Isiador didn't go to school in Kiillaana he surely has been there enough to wear a suit. I dunno, it just made me laugh.

Below is a post that Eagle did on the people he hung out with on the trip. This excerpt includes Isiador and his friend Brogan, the other Jadali-Kiillra on the trip:

(from July 6, 2008)
Isiador Lochgren- He's such a cool, down-to-earth guy! He loves to talk about life and there's a lot he doesn't know but doesn't mind finding out and loves to ask and learn. What's even better is that he's my roomie!! He is one of the best tenors I have ever heard. What a rich voice!

Brogan Lochblanc- Brogan is the counterpart, other edge of the sword, and the other half to Isiador. Brogan is just like Isiador in every way except he is a bit shyer. He is a swordsman like his father and the generations before them. We love hearing his stories of his youth and his family line. He's a great guy all around and is very caring and helpful. He, like Isiador, is a tenor but sings the lower part. He has a very fine voice indeed and when he and Isiador sing together it sounds so cool!

First of all, this is before I had the Keòen language so I had to try and make up authentic-soundings names. Lochblanc really doesn't work and it likely became Lochmont. If it really did mean White Heart then it would be Lochàio anyway. I never really fleshed out Brogan but we'll go with the notion that he comes from a line of double masters of swordsmithing.

It's still funny to think that Isiador was really the first person I ever wrote about on Jadali. As 3 years went by everything changed a lot but it's because of him and his name that the language took off and is now something I'm learning to speak. The country has changed considerably but the people on it and their way of life really hasn't. Thank you Isiador for getting the ball rolling! You and your lovely tenor voice have said so much!