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The purpose of this wiki is to be an encyclopaedia for all information directly related to the Fureian Discovery and its object, the world of Sulunga.

The Fureian Discovery

This section is an excerpt from The Fureian Discovery

In the early 1970s, then-amateur anthropologist Mary Furey was inexplicably transported to a tangential universe which became known as Sulunga. In her own words, “I entered the other place like Alice moving from one side of a mirror to the other, but there was no frame to reference nor reversed familiarity to greet me. I seemed to have had simply taken a wrong turn at a crossroad I never saw.”^[1] There was no known way for Furey to return to Earth, and so she spent the next 50 years confined in Sulunga, and was suddenly transported back to Earth during the summer of 2014.

Furey was geographically concentrated in the lands surrounding the Kut Vash (/kˠut væ:ʃ’/; English: Big Green), which she called the Kut Vash Interaction Sphere.

Furey’s time in Sulunga was spent documenting, cataloguing and researching all aspects of Sulunga as she could, the results of which she compiled into a single report titled ‘The Fureian Discovery’, which had its first draft completed in late 2020. Upon trying to have the paper published by scientific journals and universities she found it impossible to convince anyone that the documented events had taken place.

Since then, Furey’s chief aim of has been to refine the initial report into something digestible to non-scientists so that it can be tactically published as fiction, with the goal of providing a thorough account of the Sulungan universe so that if another individual is transported to it they can have a basis from which to work and instruction on how to compile reinforcing evidence that will legitimise the initial discovery by Furey. The Sulunga Wiki is part of that project.

Sulunga

Sulunga (Furey: /sʌ’lʌŋə/) is the name for the universe encountered by Furey, but also refers to the land masses and seas that lay around the sun of that place. It is populated by hundreds of thousands of faunal and floral species, most of which remain undocumented, as well as several sapient species, and one or several species that are difficult to classify with traditional terrestrial taxonomy.

A significant taxonomical similarity between Earth and Sulunga is the existence of Homo neanderthalensis (sulunganum), that is, Neanderthals that appear to be directly related to the same Homo species that lived in Europe until their extinction. However, it does appear that their behaviours diverge from both the common and controversial analyses set for by archaeologists regarding H. neanderthalensis’s social and cognitive abilities.

Its geography resembles that of Earth's, however, it operates on alien principles, and some extreme differences can be seen from a broad scale perspective. The Sulungan sun is stationary, and is suspended only a few 10s of kilometres from Sulunga’s surface, and all life, sea and land is reduced to ice several thousand kilometres from the sun’s zenith. Additionally, while there are many diverse topographical features, the surface of Sulunga is a flat plane and not a globe, with the highest points being about 9,000m above sea level.

Economically, technologically and organisationally, the societies of Sulunga can resemble those of Earth’s Early Neolithic to Middle Bronze Age Middle East, Preclassical Mesoamerica, Neolithic Europe, Pre-Columbian North America, or Neolithic to Shang Dynasty China. The majority of societies could be compared to the North American Archaic Period with an exception of the wider use of copper. Copper and bronze working has been known for many centuries, and many societies have copper industries, with bronze industry being restricted by limited access to tin. In the last half century with the discovery of a new tin deposit near Nazhem, it has become possible to sustain large bronze industries for those regions local to it. The socioeconomic systems of the societies encountered by Dr. Furey include diverse and intersecting categories of agrarian, nomadic, state, and hunter-gatherer societies.

History

Main article: History of Sulunga

Archaeological or historical periods across Sulunga are particular to their regions. However, Furey identified three broad periods of prehistory, which are intended to be taken as general indicators of the types of changes and features that might be found across the world. The beginning and end dates given are not practically applicable to any particular area. For example, the Lithic Period cannot be said to have ended in several regions.

• Lithic Period

- The appearance of sapient life, use of complex stone tools, diverse hunter-gatherer diets

- Before c. 8,000 BP

• Pre-Pottery General Modern Period

- Proto-agriculture, to regional domestication and beginning complex settlements

- c. 8,000 – 2,500 BP

• General Modern Period

- Diffusion of pottery and copper technology, advent of first urban centres

- c. 2,500 BP – present

• 1st Migration Period

- Human oceanic migrations eastward, later predominantly sunward migrations worldwide

- 1,800 – 1,200 BP

• 2nd Migration Period

- Renewed predominantly sunward migrations

- 100 BP – present

Lithic Period	Before c. 8,000 BP
Pre-Pottery General Modern Period	c. 8,000 - 2,500 BP
General Modern Period	c. 2,500 BP - present

Cultures & Demographics

Main articles: Cultures of Sulunga and Demographics of Sulunga

The cultures of Sulunga are diverse in their traditions of crafts, arts, music, clothing, languages, folklores and religions, philosophies, politics, architectures, customs, and cuisines. It is not possible to identify a unifying factor of Sulungan cultures, but cultural regions, or interaction spheres, can be identified. The interaction sphere most studied by Furey was the Kut Vash Interaction Sphere.

This region is marked by the use of shared seafaring technologies, such as the outrigger canoe and triangular sails, and a developed networks of trade and communication. Cultural ideas have been exchanged for over 1,000 years, leading many cultures in the region to having shared symbols, religious ideas, and political structures. The ritual sacrificial killing of sapient people is common (ritual sapiocide), and the tradition of constructing of ritual towers has been increasing on Nazhem. A developing tradition in the Interaction Sphere is that of divine monarchies and imperial cults, with different particular cultures realising these ideas in different ways. However, almost all peoples tend to greatly value their home-grown traditions and built identities around their differences, with some groups working hard to emphasise their uniqueness.

Demographically the most populous regions are along rivers and coasts, with major rivers boasting the highest populations. There are few regions that do not have some sapient inhabitants, but outside the main population cetres the population density can be very low. For example, Nazhem has densities of over 25 people per square kilometer along certain rivers but densities routinely lower than 3/km2 in most other regions.

Geography

Main article: Geography of Sulunga

Flora and Fauna

Main articles: Flora of Sulunga and Fauna of Sulunga

Due to convergent evolution many life forms can be described with reference to their morphological counterparts on Earth.

The flora of Sulunga is dominated by forms similar to the gymnosperms (conifers and cycads) and ferns. One noticeable difference between Sulunga's gymnosperm-like plants and Earth's actual gymnosperms is that there are many deciduous species as well as evergreen.

There are also many flowering plants with diverse forms, though actual populations are not numerous compared to conifer-like plants. A number of plants are non-vascular, taking similar forms to Earth's moss-like bryophytes, but some are larger in size and resemble early Earth's horneophytopsida or aglaophyton.

Overall, the flora of Sulunga can be said to resemble that of Earth's Jurassic period. However, the presence of diverse flowering and non-vascular plants makes this comparison limited.

Economies

Main article: Economies of Sulunga

The economies of Sulunga are generally barter and gift economies, with these systems determining how most societies distribute resources. For those regions with more urban polities and industries, redistribution economies (also known as palace economies) exist alongside traditional economies.

Economic inequality is high in urbanised regions. Other agrarian societies see similar inequalities but they can be less pronounced, and hunter-gather or nomadic societies can also see marked economic inequality. Based on rough estimations and crude conversions, an average person in the urban economies, a farmer, may expect to earn around $700 per year (USD 2015), with the majority of that being consumed as food. However, the exact value of the same amount of goods can vary greatly between, and within, regions. Most people here, and elsewhere, could be classified as living in extreme poverty, as they lack basic food security, being heavily dependent on state redistribution or on locally produced food that can be disastrously affected by seasonal droughts, pestilence or conflicts that are not uncommon.

The upper classes enjoy access to a wide variety of local and exotic foods, developed arts, textiles, decorative crafts and luxury items. Public works are built and maintained at the expense of monarchs, and grand monuments can be found in the richest cities. The wealthiest individuals may engage in urban beautification projects and the building of great houses, palaces, gardens and temples. But the chief aim of any monarch is the funding of the military, as they rely on coercive strength to maintain their power.

Long distance trade is overwhelmingly preformed over water, as land travel is extraordinarily expensive if many goods wish to be carried, due to the absence of draught animals. This makes access to navigable and interconnected rivers, lakes, and seas of primary importance to the economic interests of any settlement, and without good access to the water trade links a settlement will be isolated. Therefore, all economically developed regions are either coastal or tightly hug the banks of large rivers. Land trade with the goal of generating wealth is either short distance, or is dependent on very high-value and light-weight goods to make a journey profitable.

Polities

Main article: Polities of Sulunga