Child: Well, So, I Have Traded My World Called Slockland

Rontuia Interview

Child: Well, so, I have traded my world called Slockland.

Child: And so, it’s essentially, I started, well I have the main continent. It’s called Rontuia. I’ve made a lot of maps for that. It’s kind of square. And so, and so the main capital is called Capital Slok. And, it, and so, that’s where, so basically, our worlds, we named them after our pets, the leaders. And so, so I have a cat named Verontu. And so he was the major dictator of Slokland. Just like Abex was in Abixia. And so, well it, so where do you want me to start kind of?

Interviewer: So where is it in relation to Abixia?

Child: Well, so Abixia is on planet Roarkak. And Slokland has its own planet. And so, so they orbit the same, the same star. But Roarkak, I believe it has an elliptical orbit whereas Slokland has a normal circular orbit because Roarkak has very cold winters and warmer summers. So, now Abixia. He’s told you about Balldrack, yeah? And everything? Oh, just about Abixia.

Child: Laughs. Well, so there’s this, on Roarkak there are several main continents. My other friend, he has Bearrakeyarran, inhabited by enormous bears.

Child: And then, also created by [CREATOR OF ABIXIA] is Balldrackia, which, and Abixia is off the coast of Balldrackia. And so Slokland has, it’s very, very high tech. I mean the capital has, it has, all the cars drive themselves. And, the capital has no, has no small streets. It’s all interstates. And cloverleaves....for intersections. And so, because the space is so, it costs so much that they can’t put interstates anywhere really. They just put them on top of buildings.

Interviewer: So it’s the buildings and then interstates on top?

Child: Yes. Well not, so, well, so let’s say we have buildings here. And then on the parts of the buildings, the interstates would be built.

Interviewer: So they’re kind of elevated?

Child: Yeah, they’re elevated on the bottom parts of the buildings essentially. Not going across the tops, but on the bottom. Yes, but on the medium levels. And there are no trucks. It’s all transported by magnetic levitation, um, rail.

Interviewer: Why aren’t there any trucks?

Child: Because trucks are inefficient.

Child: And then, so there’s the main Slokish mountain range that goes from the northwest of the continent of Ronteria down to the, the mid-south, and then it turns right to continue going east.

Interviewer: And you said it’s on like, uh, kind of a squarish continent?

Child: Yeah, sort of square, not really. (drawing a map for interviewer). I like making capes. And so, that’s the Sea of Tranquility. And capital Slok is right there. Slokish Mountains go, go down here, and then there’s other mountains here.

Interviewer: And so, is this the continent or is this Slokland?

Child: Well, Rontuia is on the planet of Slokland. And so, Rontuia, it has, so the highest mountain is Mt. Rontu. And you see the, the planet of Slokland, in all modesty, is about the size of our sun.

Interviewer: Okay, so it’s big.

Child: Yes, very. So, therefore, Mt. Rontu is one million feet tall.

Interviewer: Okay. So can people climb to the top of it?

Child: Yes.Well, oh, I need to tell you about Sloks. So the, so a Slok is essentially a very large cat.

Child: It’s about the length of that, uh, whatever you call it.

Interviewer: The cabinet?

Child: Yeah, the big cabinet. That’s about the length of a Slok. 8 feet long. So, and it’s a little higher than that table, about a foot higher. At the, that’s how long it’s legs are. So, they’re pretty big, enormous cats.

Interviewer: So, like 4 feet tall.

Child: Yeah.

Interviewer: Can you tell us more about what the Sloks are like?

Child: Well, so, so they like to, they stay awake, and well, they’re not like cats, which nap a lot. And so, well, they’re, well, essentially whenever there was a conflict, it would be [CREATOR OF ABIXIA] and my other friend, versus another friend and I. And so, Slokland has many outposts on Bearrakeyarran and if there would be a conflict from those outposts, we would probably get rid of Abixia, because, I mean there would, it was, we played this on the playground at my elementary school, so there was no real follow-up. I mean, I could have H-bombed Abixia one day, and then it would be there the next day.

Interviewer: So, did that ever happen?

Child: Yes, because we would get in conflicts about various things. There was the main, the biggest war, I believe it was in second grade, was the Rontu-Abix War where Rontu and Abix fought for control of the solar system. And, so, so that would be, and now some history of Slokland that I’ve made up, is, before Slokland there were the Vorgs, which were like, lizard sort of creatures. And, so they were lizard-like creatures that have the, that had main control of the head power. And then, so then, they were originally, and, now, now details are kind of sketchy. But the Vorgian leader was fighting the war against Abixia. And so that, and then, unaware of the Sloks in the east before the Rontu at the head of the Sloks, while the Vorgs were focused on the war with Abixia, they came over the Slokish mountains and burnt the Vorgian capital to the ground. So they drove the Vorgs off onto another continent.

Interviewer: And so, were they still around on that other continent?

Child: They don’t know. It’s just kind of ….Like a story. And the ocean between the two continents is so vast that it would take a long time to get across it, so. And it’s mainly just a jungle inhabited by rogue Vorgs.

Interviewer: So what, what’s the land like? You told me there’s like this mountain range. Do most the Sloks live in...

Child: Capital Slok?

Interviewer: Yeah.

Child: Well, so they’re, so there’s kind of a coast range here (showing on map). And most of the food for capital Slok comes from the Slok, from the Slokish River Valley. And the Slokish River flows down from the north of Slokland, down to exit right near capital Slok. And so there’s several settlements scattered in there. And then, in the east, near this cape here, there’s a large city named Capetown and then several settlements scattered throughout the plains here. And then there are a few northern hills and then some other large mountains in the far east.

Interviewer: So then which parts of Slokland do you think about the most?

Child: Mainly capital Slok and the, mainly capital Slok and the Slokish River valley. Sometimes I think about Capetown and these small settlements, but not very much.

Interviewer: Okay. Are they very different? Are the Sloks different in different areas? Or are they kind of the same?

Child: Well, not really. I mean, the settlements are definitely more, less civilized than the city of Capital Slok. But the Sloks really aren’t different besides being a bit tougher. And then Capetown is a lot like Capital Slok because the Sloks have a lot of, Capital Slok has a lot of trade with Capetown because Capetown has a lot of agricultural potential.

Interviewer: Okay. So, one thing we’d like to ask. I know that there, there might be a lot of different types of things that are important about, you know, what’s going on on the continent and the planet. We thought, if I could just kind of have you take a look over this. It’s a list of things that might be important. If you could circle any of the ones that seem most important to you, the things that you think about the most, or anything else, if you want to write it down on there (presents child with list).

Child: Oh, speaking of which, I should have brought in this slide I made.

(participant must be circling things on paper) Yeah, those are the main ones. Transportation I put a star by because it’s probably the biggest.

Interviewer: So, you told us a bit about transportation. Is there, what else, what else can you tell us?

Child: Yeah, well there’s a, so there are some settlements hacked out of the rogue growth and the far western continents. And those have a lot of potential for meats and stuff, so there are several, so there are enormous ships that carry goods from Capital Slok to the, to those continents, and back. And also, in the southern gulf, south of the Sea of Tranquility, there are several other settlements that have, they’re a bit the same as the far eastern, the far western ones. So, and, I’ve designed ships like that. And also, there’s a lot of rail and air trade between Capetown and Capital Slok.

Interviewer: Okay, there’s a railroad?

Child: Uh huh. Magnetic levitation.

Interviewer: You mentioned that you’ve designed ships. What’s that design process like?

Child: Well, I’ve also designed a very detailed airliner.

Interviewer: So have you drawn pictures of it?

Child: Yeah. And like, floor plans, and cross sections, and whatnot.

Interviewer: Wow. So, what’s that like? The airliner.

Child: Well, it’s hypersonic, which means it goes faster than five times the speed of sound. And then, and then it has space capacities, which means that it carries liquid oxygen in its tanks so that it can burn that in space too. So that it can fly between Roarkak and Slokland.

Child: Um, so those are the, and then the maglove, it goes about three hundred miles an hour most of the time. And there’re several passenger magloves and a lot of freight magloves too.

Interviewer: So, you were telling me that, yeah Roarkak, and your planet, that’s there been conflict. So, they’re different planets, so how do they communicate with each other? Is there transportation from one planet to the other?

Child: Yeah, there’s transportation as I said with the hypersonic airliners.

Interviewer: Okay, so the airliners can actually go from one planet to the other.

Child: Yeah. Well, it’s depending on the season. I mean if it’s deep winter in, on Roarkak, it may be too far away for it to reach.

Interviewer: I see. So there are points, times of the year when they are closer together.

Child: Yeah. And then there’s also satellites that the Sloks have put into orbit around Roarkak and around Slokland that transmit to each other.

Interviewer: So what is it about transportation that seems really important?

Child: Well, just designing the vehicles and things like that.

Child: So, with agriculture....The main creature is the dufus. And that’s Slokish for meat provider.And so it, have you ever seen Star Wars?

Interviewer: Yes, I have.

Child: So, you know in the fourth episode, the Banthas?

Interviewer: Uh huh.

Child: That’s a lot like what dufus look like. So, dufus, they lay, except they lay eggs, and even though they’re mammals, [interruption]...... So, the dufus, they’re uh, they’re quite large, and the, and they have fur on their backs, but their bottoms are scaly, so that other creatures cannot go underneath and uh attack them. And so, and they also, did you catch how they produce milk, but uh..?

Interviewer: Right, but they lay eggs.

Child: Yeah

Interviewer: And they’re mammals.

Child: Uh huh.

Child: And so, there’s so little space and they need shade for food. So what they do is they mainly graze in the shade of uh fruit trees. And, they’re trees, well you see, mainly there’re fruit vines and then grain trees. So, they’re corn sort of things that are produced from a flower instead and the kernels are the seeds. So it’s more like a fruit, but it’s a corn. And so, that’s the main agriculture part.

Interviewer: Okay. So, the people, the Sloks eat, they eat dufus, they eat fruit and grains.

Child: Uh huh, and vegetables. Even though they’re cats.

Interviewer: Um, and do these things taste good? Like..

Child: Yeah, well…

Interviewer: To them they do?

Child: Uh huh.

Interviewer: So, the dufus, they’re, you said they’re kind of like banthas, so they’re like elephant size?

Child: Yes. A bit larger. But lower.

Interviewer: Like lower to the ground?

Child: Yes.

Interviewer: And, do they have special foods that they eat, or…..

Child: They mainly eat, they mainly graze on grass. Which grows well in the shade.

Interviewer: And then in addition to those, are there other animals that are…..

Child: Yes, there are other animals. So, for example, there are idiots, which are Slokish for burden bearer. And so, they’re also scaly, and they’re rideable and they have two legs and they have very small arms, which makes them good for moving brush out of the way. Like riding through brush.

Interviewer: You said they’re rideable. So do the Sloks ride those?

Child: Yeah, they ride them. And then there are other creatures that I’ve made up. So basically, they way that I’ve named them is take a Greek letter and add “don” or “saurus” to it. So, for example, gammadon, omegadon, omegasaurus. I’ve essentially taken Star Wars, so what I do is I to create these creatures, I start out with a Star Wars creature and add my own twist to it.

Child: So, I, you know in the first episode, that huge sort of monster? The largest one? The one that eats the fish that had eaten the submarine, that (can’t understand what he says). So it’s that sort of thing except with a much longer snout and a larger tail. And it inhabits the depths of the oceans, and it has kind of these red headlights that come out from the side of its ears. Well, it doesn’t have ears, just the side of its head. And also, well it does have ears, one very large one on the top of its head. And it uses sonar to see where there might be some prey. Such as smaller fish. And there other, there are kelp. There is kelp forests. Except the kelp is much different. You see, one kelp could be, have like, uh holdfasts on the bottom of the ocean and then they all are interconnected.

Interviewer: So, all the kelp are kind of connected with each other?

Child: Yes, um hm. And there are dragons on the shore. They don’t breathe fire, they just call them dragons because they’re kind of scaly lizard-like creatures that have wings and also have four legs. And also there are several kinds of dragons, the largest of which has three pairs of wings, two small ones in the back for propulsion and then the, uh, two large, well, there’s one small set in the back for propulsion and then two large sets for lift.

Interviewer: So there are a few types, a few different types then.

Child: Yeah. And then, it can fly really well, but it can’t swim that well. There are several other types that are very good at swimming but can’t really fly.

Interviewer: So, what about some of the other things Slokland…You mentioned landscapes and geography? So you’ve told us a bit about the geography. What is it that makes the geography so important?

Child: Well, it’s just that I really like geography because it’s interesting on how the earth works, and other planets work. So, I just kind of created my own geography of the, and political geography of, the planet.

Interviewer: And then you mentioned architecture as well.

Child: Yes. And then there, well the buildings in Capital Slok are very uh, modern, and quite tall seeing as, as I told you before, space is very limited. Well, let’s see, I’ve drawn some of the buildings too. Well, they’re very, they’re very modern looking. Essentially, they’ll be, I have designed like a national library which is kind of… can I draw it for you?

Interviewer: Yeah, sure.

Child: (drawing) It’s kind of in this sort of shape. That’s the cross-section shape.

Interviewer: So the buildings look really modern.

Child: Yeah.

Interviewer: So there’s just kind of like big skyscrapers like you would see in a big city or something like that?

Child: Yeah.

Interviewer: You mentioned making one flag. And you circled flags here as something that’s real important. Can you tell us more about that?

Child: Well, if I’d brought the flag, I could have shown you.

Interviewer: Is there just one flag for Slokland, or are there other flags?

Child: Yeah, well, there’s one flag for Slokland and, well it’s, I’ll show it to you.

Interviewer: and you mentioned kind of the political geography, but what are the politics like?

Child: Well, so Rontu is the main, he’s a bit like the president, and the uh, he’s elected for life in office. And then because Sloks, and you have to be pretty old to be allowed to go into the presidency, or an emperorship as it is in Slokland. So that you won’t be in there for too long. Because Sloks live to very old ages.