Difference between revisions of "Tritopea"

Revision as of 09:21, 27 November 2007

Tritopea is a tiny island nation with a population of precisely 105. Little is known by outsiders about this reclusive nation, which is generally dismissed as a mere artifact of the mapmaker due to its ridiculous triangularity and miniscule size. However, several documents created by the Tritopean leadership have been obtained and published in electronic form. They are included here in addition to the various summaries of cultural observations as an effort to illuminate the nature of this curious society through their own words.

Government

The Elders

Tritopea is led by a theocratic oligarchy of six individuals known as the "Elders". They are, theoretically, the epitome of all Tritopean ideals, with unsurpassed wisdom and perfect geometric construction (most positive attributes follow from this one according to Tritopean thought). The Elders have complete authority over every aspect of the society, without question. For the most part, their authority is used for maintaining the strict codes of conduct for the society, and managing endeavors in the arts and sciences. Disciplinary action, or even judicial resolution, is rarely executed by the Elders simply because of a lack of need - the Tritopean society is held to such a level of conformity that such traditionally totalitarian measures are largely unnecessary.

Social Engineering

Tritopean Social Engineering is accomplished with great care and scrutiny, made possible by the extremely small size of the nation. The Elders select leaders for every organization, of which there are many despite the low population due to significant overlap.

The Elders appoint a Breeding Monitor to manage the complex process of increasing the population. They also appoint leaders in scientific positions, such as Agricultural Manager.

Tritopean Science

Numerology

The Tritopean system of numerical representation has evolved from a need to describe everything in terms of triangles. They describe any number by arranging three numbers in a triangular pattern. A number is evaluated by adding, for each n of the three numbers, the n-th triangular number. However, Tritopeans only have symbols for the numbers 1 through 6, so it is often necessary to write each n in the triangle as a triangle of numbers. A short illustrated summary of this process is provided below.

[not provided yet]

Scientific Pursuits

' The Tritopean people have a keen interest in scientific development. Unfortunately, their convoluted numerical system is not at all conducive to such pursuits, which is evident from the extremely long, slow history of Tritopean science. However, the people have the advantage of having been a stable, productive society for an extremely long time, so Tritopeans have developed quite a significant amount of technology. A brief history follows.

It is thought that the early Tritopeans discovered a fruitful practice of agriculture on their island. From this base they were able to consider technology, and the first thought was to create a method of transportation for crops. However, this process was stalled when it was discovered the triangles make poor wheels. The final result was a triangular sled upon a road coated in a particularly slippery substance, which is still used to this day.

Eventually, Tritopeans either discovered or stole the secrets of forging, irrigation, and other expected inventions. It was at this point that they began to plan temples and cities of stone. They built triangular dwellings, tetrahedral temples, and even sewer systems with pipes of triangular cross section.

Their greatest scientific windfall was a result of a temple capped with a metal vertex, which attracted a bolt of lightning during a storm. This prompted curiosity from the Tritopeans, especially because one of their number had been keeping a vigil at the time of the strike, at the top of the pyramid. Thus, the Tritopeans were able to develop electricity, what they believe is the primal energy of triangles that crackles in fractalized triangular paths.

From this, technological developments were tightly controlled by the Elders, created according to social "need". Electric lighting, Refrigeration, Ovens, Electric Sleds (similar to monorails) and essentially every technology used to day in Tritopea was developed during this period of time. Once the possibilities for applications of the science known were exhausted, Tritopeans had trouble expanding their theories, nearly halting their scientific progress.

The only mathematical pursuits considered truly worth of the society are pure mathematics devoted to the study of geometric triangles or triangular numbers (their numeric system lends itself, at least, to this).

The Birth of Tritopea

Excerpted from the A. Square translation of "[incompatible encoding]"

In
The
Beginning
There were only
the formless arcs of
chaos that were the primordial
curves of an infant universe unformed.

Then
there was
formed Linae
whose consciousness
awoken did stretch straight
among the curved waves of chaos.
And Linae looked upon the world and
saw that it was without form, so He gathered
the twisted fabric of the universe and with his
pointed ends did weave them into straightened beings.
"These I shall call the Sides," proclaimed He, and did rest.

Then
happily
the Sides did
swim in the sea
of curves, nourished
by the arcs within it and
bisecting to ever grow their numbers.
But then from the Arcs was formed Circlae
whose roundness held order beyond all the chaos
and He, whose thoughts now came to him did roll about
and find the Sides all plentiful and he alone and round.

Circlae
rolled about
the sea and gathered
many arcs upon his shell
and many more he smothered
under his infinite side with a call
to be not rigid, but round, like was He.
Then He grew so large but with his structure
sound could not split to from from one, two of him.
And so bloated did he lose all energy and fall upon the sea
to form the land on which his circle children now did frolic carelessly.

The
Sides saw
this new land
upon the sea and
they were envious.
And so they swam about
its circled shores in longing.
And the Circles did look down upon
the Sides that wallowed near their land
and laughed as they did try in vain to hop
upon the solid ground with only a single limb.
The Sides slithered to the shore but in that triumph
found their endpoints trampled under haughty circumferentii.

Then
did the Circles
wave their shells and
find a resonance within them.
Now one himself called King did
chatter in his booming circle voice
at the floundering sides beneath them.
The sides could only quiver in jealous rage,
the sea itself churning violently through them.
Then the King of the Circles did roll to the shore,
chuckling at the lowly Sides. But a segment, so enraged,
leapt upon the King and latched upon his circumference,
then others followed in its steps and latched upon the King
whose shell, en-sected, split apart. The Circles rolled to hide
but could not escape the infinite onslaught of sides that rainded
upon them on that glorious day. And the sides, strewn about the land,
did twist in pure elation at their victory against the haughty unsided ones.

But
The sides
knew not the
rolling power
of their vanquished foes.
They twitched in vain to move
about, but dimensionally impoverished
the did naught but shiver in helpless lines.
Then in their frenetic flailing did one touch
another, hand in hand, and seal the first of sacred bonds.
But even so hinged, they could but waddle on the lands, until
they did fall upon a third who held upon their legs to from the
most sacred of all the shapes, the holiest of unions, the triangle.

And
All the
Tritopeans
gathered three
by three to form
this shape and the
remainder cast away
into the sea to swim about.
Thus was born the elder race
whose perfect forms did give them
superior character and intellect to
bulid a society unmatched by any other.
[...]
[Ed: What follows is obscured in the original document.
Fragments indicate it as a kind of anthem lauding the Elder Race.]
[...]

Thus
did come
to pass the
Golden Age of
the Tritopean People.

The Tritopean Way

Proper Veneration for The Enlighteneds

The
Enlighteneds
Are born of the
Elders' noble blood.

The
Enlighteneds
Sow the Holy Seeds
Of Life And Structure.

The
Enlighteneds
Are The Guardians
Of Good in our Society
And Destroyers of all Evil.

Thus
Must each
Man in each day
Observe the proper
Veneration for The Holy.

[Ed: Many specifics were not recovered from the original document; what was readable is printed here.]

The
Lesser
Must join
In a trinity
To form a whole
Worthy of lauding
The Holiest of Holies.
In perfect rigor shall they
stand, and rotate along the sacred
lines with steps ever of the holy three.

[...]
If
In sight
Is a Holy One
No eyes of lesser
shapes must cast their
skewèd glares upon them.
And never shall their point
be so lewdly pointed near the path
of any elder, or risk the punishment.
[...]

Instructions For Formation of New Population Layers

Formation
of new levels
of population shall
be undergone using the
algorithm prescribed by the
Ancient ones and upheld by the
infinite wisdom of the elders who
have led our society into the fruitful
age of plentiful population in our lands.

The
founding
principle
shall be this:
That at no time shall
the population of cognizant
Tritopeans be numerically unequal
to all of the grandest of holy sequences,
so that in front of the great temple may always
all assemble in the most sacred of shapes, the pyramid.

There
Will be
maintained
A pool of children
yet immersed in the formless
haze of the mind still newly born.
Upon the simultaneous formation of the
lucid mind's triangle within the number which
would complete a successive population level, and
only upon this condition shall the newborns be introduced
into the society and another level formed. If one should die
and leave a point of weakness in the pyramid, so shall a child
be chosen for the strongest of traits and shall take the dead's place.

Guides to Proper Action

On The Existence of Outsiders