Zonshacho Zerofæ culture

The Zonshakho Zærofæ ([zoɳʂɐχo zərofə]) culture

Expressive dance
Dancing is an art, a reflection of the soul. And we Zonshakhniens love dancing at any happy event, to thank Telyu, the all mighty, for all the blessings he gave us, using slow and fluid moves to express what's on our minds, praising our mighty God and sharing precious moments with Him, and also thanking Him for it. New connections are established between us and we become one mind, one soul. Dancing freely is a sort of meditation, to relax, find our inner peace and breath life.

--Muriel Dib (talk) 21:00, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

The rain dance
Water is life, without it we can't survive. Raining is a source of power and has multiple functions, essential functions. And this is why we have a special dance, when it rains, to thank Telyu for his glorious gift. Simple moves and hand gestures are performed in the Temple while repeating prayers out loud. Then each one of us submerge their head into the Sacred Water to personally thank Telyu. After it rains, we all reunite to celebrate the huge grace the Mighty Telyu gave us, and thank him again for all his thoughtful gestures.

--Muriel Dib (talk) 18:57, 12 January 2016 (UTC

On important events
We celebrate the birth of the baby by dancing a sacred dance, eating "Zlu", and praying to Telyu to thank him for his gift,our new born. We also don't celebrate birthdays. A birth is an important event for us Zonshachiens, we feel really blessed about them. We throw the dead body in the water to purify it from every sin committed in the dead person's life and to free him in Telyu's paradise, in the new world,the eternal one. The married couple jump together into the water and kiss each other in it to get the blessings of the mighty Telyu. --Erika Younan (talk) 20:52, 15 January 2016 (UTC)
 * 1) At Birth
 * 1) At Death
 * 1) At weddings

Paint
Our people are very artistic and creative we collect some colorful fruits and vegetables like strawberries, kiwis, tomatoes and more we smash them, then mix them together to create beautiful colors then we add water to the mixture as it purify it to paint our masterpieces to honor Telyu. --Maria Farhat (talk) 16:37, 15 January 2016 (UTC) --Erika Younan (talk) 20:52, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

Music
Our music is based on water sounds, water drops, flowing sounds, or any sound the water can possibly produce, creating tempos and beats, for religious purposes and local festivities. Relaxing music, it helps us focusing on our daily work, and enjoy our selves in different celebrations. Drops, flows, squirts, rain, etc... every single drop of water has it's own sound, effect, deepness. This kind of music makes you question your self, and repulse the mess in your soul, in your mind, in your life. "Water is fascinating! It can create a whole new universe by it self..."

--Muriel Dib (talk) 20:36, 12 January 2016 (UTC)

Instruments
Since everything is based on water, then so are our intruments. We find different shapes of them, and of course they all create water sounds. Wood is also a part of them, since we have alot of trees and vegetations. The simple sound of water reminds us of our creation,our origins, our first connexion with the sea, with our God,with Telyu.
 * "Topo": made of wood and water, to create light drop sounds.
 * "Zyba": made of two dishes and water, to create waterfall sounds.
 * "Neflz": made of three wooden sticks, to create tempos and beats.
 * "Khap": made of pure water and a long stick to disturb the water's surface in order to create a backgound sound for the music.

--Muriel Dib (talk) 20:59, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

Weapons
As we go fishing, hunting, and killing our weapons got modified and became better. This is why we find so much deadly weapons, and new ways of killing. These are the names of some of our weapons:khypy, abo, rey, bza and more. These are mostly made of wood we find floating on the surface of the ocean, or maybe sea plants.

--Muriel Dib (talk) 16:40, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

Food
Food, our source of life, without it, us Zonshachiens die. So to prevent this horrible fate from becoming reality, we built farms. So, we have a multiple amount of those on shore, but not all of them have comestible food, some of those farms are based of flowers, or just animal farms. But, we do not eat only vegetables and fruits, we hunt for meat too.

--Henrico-Pio Basile (talk) 13:57, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

Vegetables/Fruit Farms
In those farms, we planted: We also plant trees and exotic fruits in some those farms: And within those farms, our brilliant engeneers incorporated fully-functional remote-sprinkling systems that can be activated only in the farmer's home.
 * 1) "Zalno" (Strawberries)
 * 2) "Zopu" (Bananas)
 * 3) "Zefba" (Kiwis)
 * 4) "Zytu" (Peaches)
 * 5) "Zetpo" (Melons)
 * 6) "Zekhno" (Tomatoes)
 * 7) "Zyly" (Chilies)
 * 8) "Zonpapo" (Potatoes)
 * 9) "Zfetu" (Wheat)
 * 1) Some "Zelnon" (Lemon) tree
 * 2) Also some "Zunkhyn" (Pumkins)
 * 3) And some "Zunkhnonz" (Mushroom)

--Henrico-Pio Basile (talk) 13:56, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

Meats
The nutrition coming from our farms isn't enough to make our children grow and doesn't give us enough energy nor strength. That's why we have charged some of our fastest and strongest men, along with trackers, to track down, chase and kill some of the surrounding animals and harvest their flesh and meat (the flesh is for clothing purposes). some of the meat we actually eat: But meat supplies are never out of stock because we have women and men fishing, so that we always serve fish with the food. But not all types of fish are used for casual eating: We don't mind eating different fish for no occasion, but the necessary fish must be the dominant.
 * 1) "Zupo" Meat (Pig Meat)
 * 2) "Zukhu" Meat (Deer Meat)
 * 3) And even some times "Zyzu" Meat (Zebra)
 * 1) "Zlu" (Salmon) Served for happy occasions like marriage or new born
 * 2) "Zfu" (Tuna) also called the death fish
 * 3) "Zou" regular every day fish

--Henrico-Pio Basile (talk) 18:43, 14 January 2016 (UTC) --Muriel Dib (talk) 22:00, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

Language
The Zonshakniens speak the Zna language,

The Zna
--Yara Feghali (talk) 19:52, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

Some Important Words To Know
--Yara Feghali (talk) 18:14, 15 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Hello: Zokhayp
 * My name is ...: Ze khom bo
 * What is your name ?: Zbokh yom khom ?
 * How are you ?: Zif Reyo
 * Fine and you ?: Zfekh yo
 * How ?: Zif
 * Water: Zerofae
 * Goodbye: Zoghabi
 * Death: Zofa
 * Fish: Zikh

Body language
--Maria Farhat (talk) 18:23, 14 January 2016 (UTC)
 * 1) Hands up : Hello
 * 2) Hands down: Bye
 * 3) Raised shoulders: Sad
 * 4) Chest to the front: Happy
 * 5) Two finger on your nose: I love you
 * 6) Tap your shoulders: come
 * 7) Tap your feet: danger

A floating town
We worship Telyu, so, we built a floating town on water, to be protected by Him, to be closer to Him and to have a link with Him.

--Henrico-Pio Basile (talk) 19:09, 9 January 2016 (UTC)

The base
Our town is floating on water because our engineers built a base for it. They gathered strong men, which cut and tied trees together from a near by forest, to form a base that floats on water.

--Henrico-Pio Basile (talk) 19:09, 9 January 2016 (UTC)

The Sacred Temple
At the exact center of our base, we built a Sacred Temple, which helps us worship and pray to Telyu. We chosen the exact center of our town to symbolize that Telyu is the heart of our floating town, and without Him, we couldn't have built the town. We disposed the houses of our citizen into a pattern to form circles around the Temple, not only to equilibrate our base so that it doesn't tip over, but also to symbolize that Telyu has to be at the center of our heart, at the center of our mind and at the center of our soul.

--Henrico-Pio Basile (talk) 19:09, 9 January 2016 (UTC)

Houses Design
Each men, before 6 month of his marriage, must gather wood, build a smaller version of our base, attach it to the central one, and build a new house, and design it as he like, on top of it, by his own. This act, will symbolize later on that the men who constructed the house is the protector of his family, and that he is aware of the responsibility of creating a new family. That's why you'll notice young men entering the forest with axes, and coming back with piles of trees. and that's why when you walk down the streets of our town you'll notice that not all of our houses are the same, and you will also notice that some of them are a little to much creative.

--Henrico-Pio Basile (talk) 19:09, 9 January 2016 (UTC)

Our solution for the floating base
So our base on which we built our homes isn't stable, and can float away from shore. And for this problem, our engineers have built a perfect and fully-proofed solution. They gathered a great amount of rocks, and built 4 humongous pillars that connects the bottom of the ocean to it's surface placing them at strategical well studied spots thus providing the best stability when the top of those pillars and the wood are attached together using ropes, creating what we like to call the base (it might seem unrealistic but trust us; our engineers are the best) .Since they are such amazing builders, they didn't stop there, they even built two wooden arced shaped bridges that extended from the base into the sandy shore, just like 2 hands extending from a wooden body  grabbing the sand and, bonding the shore with the base.

--Henrico-Pio Basile (talk) 19:09, 9 January 2016 (UTC)

More buildings on shore
Our town isn't just the base, our houses and the Temple, but we also have a grave yard on shore, to burry the death, a marriage court, to celebrate couples bounding together, a bunch of divers gardens: from flowers to decorate our houses, to plants that gives us food like corn and apple trees, and we also have our kitchen and the storage room on shore. Because our cooks were complaining about the endless motion of the base, created on every passing wave, that was not letting them cook properly, and we built most of the kitchen out of stone, so that the fire created inside of it for cooking purpose doesn't burn the entire kitchen. And we had to make our storage room next to the kitchen so that the cooks doesn't loose there time walking back and forth the floating town to get and retrieve ingredients. --Henrico-Pio Basile (talk) 08:55, 9 January 2016 (UTC)

Zonshacho Zerofae Religion
We are a culture which has ONE AND ONLY GOD. Our God is the very essence of Water, He is known as Telyu, he goes by many forms: Rain, Ocean and River. He is aware of every thing we do and say.

--Frederic Nasrallah (talk) 21:17, 12 January 2016 (UTC) --Henrico-Pio Basile (talk) 19:09, 9 January 2016 (UTC)

The way we communicate with Telyu
We communicate with Him by reaching a certain state of mentality we can only establish while submerged in water, particularly our heads (to be able to speak or questions and hear His answers), but in order to heal our wounds we immerse the concerned organ in water which get cured instantly. In our mindset the more we can feel our God the more he is indeed, therefore we use larger surface of water in order to intensify the quality of the relation.

--Henrico-Pio Basile (talk) 19:09, 9 January 2016 (UTC) --Frederic Nasrallah (talk) 21:17, 12 January 2016 (UTC)

The Sacred Temple
Based on this concept, we have a Sacred Temple which is located at the center of our floating town, so that no one is ever far from Telyu and every one at any time and in circumstances can enter the Temple and ask Him for help. Our Sacred Temple is basically formed by a circular woody wall with no windows -so that there is nothing that will distract us while praying, and so that our link with Him will be as good as possible- and with an inverted cone with an empty middle on top of it. Inside of it, there is a Hand crafted "zerofe chalupo" (water container) that is placed in the exact middle of the Temple so that the purest form of our God -rain- will be stored in it and we can all come to make peace with him or show our gratitude by submerging our head in it, or just meditate near it.

--Henrico-Pio Basile (talk) 19:09, 9 January 2016 (UTC) --Frederic Nasrallah (talk) 21:17, 12 January 2016 (UTC)

Telyu
We fear our God Telyu, that's why we constantly pray for him and thank Him for his gratitude, we particularly fear Him for His powers. He could at any moment cause any of us to drawn killing us one by one if He wished to, or causing us to starve by excessively watering our cultivation (by making it rain) which could eventually leave us with no food left. Telyu has two faces, the first one being the "satisfaction" face, the one that causes fish to rush into our baskets, or make it rain just enough so that our cultivation flourish and provides us with plenty of food. On the other hand when he is mad the "angry" shows up (reasons are mostly unsatisfaction caused by a lack of praying, absence of gratitude or even a disagreement between us), He could simply ravage our town by sending out an immense wave, but this rarely happens, because we are fully aware of our actions and we take enormous precautions by thanking him as humanly possible.

--Henrico-Pio Basile (talk) 13:36, 6 January 2016 (UTC) --Frederic Nasrallah (talk) 21:17, 12 January 2016 (UTC)

THE FLAG
Our flag is represented by 3 stars in different shades of blue, that are placed at the center of our flag, and of a 3 shades of brown that fill the background. It all symbolize to something, 3 stars to 3 different aspects of Telyu: Rain, Sea, River, at the center of all things, and 3 different colors of brown that symbolize the base, the zerofe chalupo, and the 2 bridges. --Muriel Dib (talk) 22:01, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

how it all began
As our nation began to expend and our civilization started evolving we've created history throughout the many years we've been around here. we forged our very own mindset and defined the very meaning of living as we saw it, well... that's what we thought until one day... ONE DAY.

expectations vs reality
we thought our education was flawless, we raised our children the best way we could,but every rule has it's exceptions turns out these exceptions were two young children by the name of butro and pelno. we first knew both of these kids weren't like any others and they will be the reason that everything would change.

butro and pelno
butro and pelno were born in the first half of the second century (counting from when we first arrived here). descendant twins from the 1st generation of zonshakhniens. even though butro was blind and pelno deaf they both completed each other and find what they were missing in one an other. they were both strangely attached to water and couldn't pass a day without getting in contact with it. they would spend a whole week just standing side by side exploring what the sea had to offer "examining" every grain of sand together. butro would dedicate his time describing to his brother how the elements sounded like,  using his body language,he shifted like the sand to show pelno what it would sound like to catch sand and slowly letting it go or how the water sounded like when it hurls down the rivers,while pelno explained what everything around them looked like he described water in all it's form and his brother would listen carefully and pay close attention. what was surprising for the villagers was the way they communicated with each others such a unique way that let no one else understand what they were "telling" each other. The chemistry between them was so intense that it made other inhabitants intrigued. doubts spread among the people they were suspicious and wondered if no external forces were interfering in their relationship ,but they spoke little about they're suspicions.

The story
turns out little wasn't enough and when the two twins turned older and learned more about life they found no time to spend together on the shores but enjoyed spending with other people, they still shared the same passion for water over the years. pelno was more like the extrovert brother sociable, beloved by his entourage while butro was a quite of an introvert guy locked in his own world he enjoyed moments of solitude but is still very bound to his brother. the fishing tournament was a tradition among the Zonshakhniens, a competition that would occur in the season were the fish was most abundant, all teenagers would reassemble in the center of the floating city to prove themselves worthy of earning the title of "telyu"(back then telyu was the term used to describe kings and winners) all the citizens were present and for all competitors failing wasn't an option .the tournament began all participant were gathering as much fish as possible and what surprised every one was the extraordinary fact that butro was leading by a huge advantage, his brother pelno unsatisfied and driven by jealousy jumped head first at his brother in intention of drowning him and as pelno was jumping to get his brother ,fish rose from the sea surrounding the greedy brother before swallowing him in the abyss of the deadly ocean and at this particular moment a strange occurrence took place and for the first time of his life butro was able to see and he witnessed the whole event which left him in such a chock that he fell unconscious following his brother into the deep darkness of the ocean needless to say that we never saw the twins again. our religion revolves around this event that shows both faces of our god telyu named so after the title we gave the winner of the competition which our elders decided to ban for ever. some still believe this is a legend but the depths of the oceans hides something else.