Mei

From Almeopedia

The Mei ['mɛ: i] are a people of eastern Ereláe, and also the language family they speak, a component of Wede:i-Mei. The best-known Mei languages are Sevisre and Telandi.

The Mei (the term simply means 'people') were the original inhabitants of Skouras; they learned agriculture from the Wede:i around -1150, and adapted crops to the colder littoral zone, only to be pushed out by an invasion of Lenani-Littoral peoples. The Mei fled to the west into Edinel and to the east into Feináe; the latter people are now known as the Fei.

The Mei have lived in Edinel ever since, though they have been absorbed into many empires: the Kurundasti Tej; Tokruji; the Sainor, and briefly Xurno. In ancient times they were briefly but futilely united for defense as Mei Ros; since about 2000 their nation, when independent, has been known as Sevisor. In recent centuries some Mei have joined Belšai.

A Mei on the Mei

The Mei are known for pessimism and a self-deprecating sense of humor; both are on display in this excerpt from a Telandi writer, Koi Ɣanai.

Some Gurdagor guy asked me once, what are the Mei known for? And I was shocked, because he'd heard of us. I mean, who told him?

It's true, no one's heard of us. Even when we're conquered, they forget us. You know what Kurund called himself: "I am ruler of the Tej, the Skourenes, Munkhâsh, and... oh hell, those other people. Help me out, Kutaj. The Moo? Hell with it." It's always like that, we appear after the last "and" in the emperor's title. Some of them actually thought that's what we're called, "And-The-Mei". "Get some of those And-the-Mei archers over here." I'm joking, of course. No one wants our archers.

We have a national epic, though. Yeah, we're heavy, we got an epic. What's it about? Our defeat of Cuoli. How lame is that? We beat up on another country nobody's heard of.

We always have the last laugh though. Sure, you can conquer us. But can you find the place again? Didn't think of that, huh, conquer-guy?

We invented rye beer, though. Nobody else could do that. That's because they cleaned up after themselves. Some Mei guy just left the rye to rot. And once it was all rotten his wife said, "Clean that shit up," and he was all "Yeah, later." And then she was coming back, you know, and he hadn't thrown it out, so he decided to drink it. Gods, it must have been nasty stuff, but after the third pitcher he didn't care. Then he got his wife to drink it, and it knocked her flat. Just unconscious. "Now's my chance", he said. "Gonna get some tonight!" And then he fell asleep. All in all it was a pretty good night.

So you know, after that, we were done. We thought of inventing writing— we really did. We had the beer recipe to write down. But we thought, no, let the Wede:i do it, we're chilling. We invented the ship though, did you know that? We built the best gods-damned ships— we were going to rock the ocean. But... OK, you see the problem. We don't have an ocean. So nothing came of that.

But I tell you, the Mei will always be here. They can't get rid of us. And that's because of our spirit— our connection to the land— we'll never get off our asses, is what it is.