Rooian

Rooian is a fictional ethnolinguistic group and language set in a speculative world. The Rooian homeland lies along the eastern archipelago of the continent of Valara, where many island towns cluster around sheltered bays. The Rooians are described as a maritime people whose economy centers on fishing, boatbuilding, and salt trade. Social life emphasizes kinship networks, guilds of craftsmen, and elder councils that arbitrate disputes and preserve oral history.

The Rooian language belongs to the Riveran language family and is described as agglutinative, with a predominantly subject–verb–object order and a rich system of classifiers for nouns. It features vowel harmony and several tense–aspect moods expressed on verbs. There are two principal dialects, northern and southern, with literacy concentrated in the standardized written form used in schooling and administration.

Historically, Rooian communities developed around sea lanes and market towns, adopting writing in a post-contact period in the lore of Valara. The Rooian script blends logographic and syllabic elements and records genealogies, rituals, and maritime laws.

Culturally, Rooian tradition centers on sea rites, seasonal harvests, and storytelling, with festivals that celebrate fishing voyages and the return of monsoon winds. Cuisine highlights salted fish, seaweed dishes, and fermented fish sauces. In contemporary fiction, Rooian language and culture face modernization pressures, but revival programs and bilingual education strive to preserve linguistic heritage.