Theleandram

Head of State: Caltherro Ijel
Capital: Wheelsky

The coastal principality of Theleandram has been plunged from the edge of this world into its heart, and finds itself rather inconvenienced by the whole affair.

Not only has it served in the past as a neutral ground for interplanar diplomacies, it has been the closest thing to a tourist spot and International Airport on Arth for certain outsiders, especially those who lack the mystical potence to simply will their senses or their whole being into the Prime Material plane. While this has generally been a windfall to the Theleandran populace, this is primarily owing to several factors--the celestial touch on their Aasimar populace, a tightly managed network of favors and balances from neighbors and visitors alike, and excellent internal security--that have prevented it from being a nightmare.

As such, waking up one day in the year 500 to find the stars shifted and their lands no longer so tightly on the border of other worlds has placed not only their own economic and political assumptions in a certain degree of disarray, but drastically inconvenienced many extraplanar visitors.

It is to Lord Ijel's regret that the heavenly patrons of his house and his lands have been unable to do much to undo this relocation, citing the nature of Arth and the Change. Those other Outsiders who were in Theleandram have gone according to their nature--while many merely seek to return home by the most expedient and painless way possible, the cartographical impossibilities of late have seen to it that others have happily skipped town to do as they would, even when they never should have left Wheelsky.

The Theleandran language is rendered in writing as a mix of phonetic characters and largely grammatical notes that do not have pronunciations in and of themselves so much as solidify meaning and pronunciation of the words to which they are attached.

For the most part, the characters written are solely consonants--there are vowels, but they are generally used for given names and onomatopoeic purposes.

For instance, the concept group "T-N." In its root form, as a noun, it is pronounced Atone, and means "Blade". The word Fatnare, meaning "to slice, slash, or cut" derives from this, as do the words for Swordsman (Natanah), Debater (Ytannah), and fang/claw(Oton).

Also of note are sound mutations: several consonants change form depending on the letters surrounding them, and the writing system does not account for this; L, R, and RR (an alveolar flap), for instance are all written with the same character, resembling a counterclockwise spiral. Likewise, the character usually transcribed as "C" becomes an "H" in word-final position, or often following A's. Thus does Ameca, "Death", share the same M-K root as Namahin, "Killer."

...

Surnames in Theleandram all have short, monosyllabic roots. While most people have short surnames, with a brief suffix added to denote gender (-ar for men, -(a)yes for women), people in a position of power have more intricate surnames to denote not only their bloodline and sex, but their place in hierarchy (almost universally answering to a higher power), and whether their place is one they've wrested for themselves or through heritage. While formal names are formal names, they can in a less formal context carry shades of insinuation, insult, and rebuke when addressing someone, noble or not, to whom they don't belong.

The Tyrant ("Who died and made you king?"): Achieved Position, Unbounded Authority.
Sa-*-en (Male), Fa-*-em (Female)

The Mandated ("Oh, thank you for showing us unenlightened ones the way."): Inherited Position, Unbounded Authority
Cal-*-o (Male), Cul-*-is (Female)

The Upstart ("Someone's getting a bit too big for their britches"): Achieved Position, Subordinate Authority
Cal-*-ath (Male), Mel-*-ah

The Lofty ("You never actually had to work for anything, did you?"): Inherited Position, Subordinate Authority
La-*-ath (Male), Cul-*-ah

Children who are in line for Inherited Positions of Authority but have yet to receive them, owing to the survival of parents or pre-existing siblings, prefix their surname with "Na." The C in the Female names undergoes mutation into a H in this situation, although when spoken it is often elided to the point that it's pronounced "Nal"

So Calgannath Lor achieved his position, and was quite possibly born Ganar Lor, Son to, say, Ganyes Mora and Ganar Demel. If he has a son to inherit the name, he might be named Lagannath Daras. His secondborn, a daughter shall be named Na'hulgannah Phileri.

Let's say Phileri ends up with dreams of ambition and/or desiring not to be the Spare to her brother's Heir. Through some serious finangling, she takes rulership of all Theleandram. While she would be justified as the ruler as taking on the surname Fathellem, marking her as Ruler of All the Coastland, she could also opt to consider this the start of her own dynasty, remembered as Fagannem Phileri. Her daughter who follows her is Culgannis Alaris, and Alaris's son is Calganno Rothen

Joining the military, one takes the root surname *cas*, and any Authority *fixes are always treated as Achieved positions, but as an explicit exception to the usual rule a couple paragraphs ago, "Na" is frequently added to denote sub-officers. There is only one Supreme Military Commander at any given time, though they may have many immediate subordinates, which means that the only instance of "Tyrant" surnames in living memory is the series of Theleandran generals.

On the whole, this means that the formally recognized ranks are limited:

Casayes/Casar
(Na)Melcassah/(Na)Calcassath
(Na)Facassem/(Na)Sacassen

But it seems to have worked so far.