A Basket of Leaves

Some novel eating implements

2011-03-31T16:20:00.004+01:00

Dwarvish Eating Knife - "A simple Dwarvish Eating Implement"

Fragment # 1

"A simple Dwarvish Eating Implement - From The Draran, home of Ok's Western Rebels

- A two movement eating meathod is employed - 1. Chop; 2.Skewer.

The other hand is left free to rest upon the axe in the belt.

They use flat slabs of wood.

These ancient rebels of the long extinct empire have not really developed much, being as xenophobicly superstitious as their forebears and completely surrounded by supposedly haunted forests of the interior of the Free Lands. I was treated roughly, and only escaped with the aid of my anthropological knowledge of ancient Dwarvish superstitions - ie I lied through my teeth. This is the advantage of being in an isolationist enclave - They all think like each other and have no experience of thinking any other way. This eating knife was also used in my escape. I think the Dwarve would have survived, though he may now be blind in one eye."

Elvish Eating Implements from Nanth Gaer

Fragment # 2

"Nanth Gaer, the capital of Gaer, is, of course, a sham. Its soul purpose is to provide a focal point for the diplomatic and military efforts of its neighbors. Its 'parliament' is made up of elected representatives of each of the Elvish tribes who can be bothered.

It is, however, a good sham. And to keep up the appearance of a modern sophisticated city some outrageous parodies of the etiquette of her neighbors can be observed. A good example of this is the current eating implement employed.

Most of Gaer eat using their fingers, as they have always done. Soup is avoided, and drinks are taken from fluted beakers. A normal knife is sometimes employed. In Nanth Gaer it is different - here they place little leather and silver sheaths on the ends of their fingers and employ dainty skewers in the off-hand. This gives the illusion of great finesse, while allowing the Elves to eat food easily. Hugely complicated rules are employed in feasts dictating how and when and which one to use for each course. Reproving and disdainful glances are shot at those Humans or Dwarves in attendance who fail in this knowledge. They have not, of course, been informed of the latest etiquette dreamed up by the council specifically dedicated to such useful illusions of civilization. This always puts the Elves at an advantage and sets their diplomatic 'guests' on edge.

I, of course, saw through the show within an hour of setting foot in this eccentric 'capital city', but it is amazing how easily the simplistic minds of the aristocrat can be befuddled by such pompous buffoonery seemingly for months on end."

Some rambeling notes on the Galmearan tribes of the Cochnai

2011-03-22T14:00:00.003Z

This woman called herself by the trading pseudonym of "Thread Spruce" after a moderate sized spruce that produces fine black thread roots that can be used as a cord. She sat for me in her families hut by the bright light of the lace-working torches. Although they ware thick cloaks and delicate fabrics when outside, they go naked in the warmth of a hut or temple. She is from Cimbowli in the Cochnai, a strip of mountain and coniferous forest that borders the Frayan bog. The Kreyicians would say she is from one of the 'Civilized Tribes', so called because they live in permanent dwellings, engage in trade and cultivate the summer soils.

"The so called 'civilized tribes' of the Cochnai engage in exquisite crafts. Gathering the bog-cotton from the western marshes of the Frayan they spin fine cotton threads and knot them into delicate lace using bobbins of polished ivory and pins made of stiff ridge bristles from a local variety of hairy pig. They also make tallow, resin and skin candle lamps, by whose soft light they spend the long winter nights creating lace.

They trade in the north in the summer with the sea-elves and to the south with the few Moryan (gypsy) tribes who venture that way.

Stip of Cochnai lace

The patterns on the lace are all deeply spirit based - but this is not known my the humans and elves who end up wearing it far away. To the foreign wearer it is merely swirls, leaves, flowers and animals."

[Here Faadon had attached a number of samples of the lace, but unfortunately for us he seems to have later un-attached them, presumably to ware or give away. Thus we are left only with a few simple remnants to illustrate this craft.]

"The Galmearans of the Cochnai call this trade lace "seed spirits", and trade them with the intention that the appreciation of nature / spirits will be stimulated by those that ware it. In some ways it works. In the Kreyic border regions where much of it ends up the people believe it is woven by the faeries, and those wearing it must respect the forces of nature. It has its own quiet cult among the peasants.

When the lace reaches Kreyic it is in the hands of the Moryan (gypsies). The Moryan stick to the border regions as the cultural hegemony is less restrictive here. They themselves have become symbolic of a free society amongst those who are involved in the periodic peasant rebellions and surf uprisings of the territories. As their home is often the green-wood they have become in Kreyician border folklore as equivalent of "the Wild" - a term used to promote a sort of primitivism and an ideal of natural pureness. Given the poverty imposed by land ownership on these oppressed people it is not surprising. The Moryan are sen in direct contrast with the "Dirty Civilization" of the city and castle based inner counties of central Kreyic.

Some Cochnai lace from the hem of a Kreyician peasants skirt. Unfortunately this old and re-used scrap was acquired from the gallows after a peasant uprising. Its owner was a young woman whose first child had died from malnutrition. After birthing a second she and her husband had then retreated into the royal hunting forests and built an illegal home where there would be no tax. During this rebellion they where found, and in their home where three wounded rebels she was treating. All the adults where hung, and the boy taken by the kings knights to train to be a man-at-arms or bailiff. I will not say how it was achieved, but that child is now living peacefully with the Moryan in a distant land.

The lace that the Moryan are trading thus became a small token of this rebellion - it was, after all, how many of the Moryan where clad. Surfs and peasants thus adorned themselves in the rich lace and tassels whenever they had any surplice to spend.

Some finer decorated cloth - 'winter plants'

Of course it did occasionally leak up the social hierarchy, but like all aristocratic fashions it quickly faded. Lower down it persists, and has done for many hundreds of years, the individual animal / leaf / energy symbolism of its creators lost and consumed by a struggle for freedom. It becomes a symbol for natural non-centralized, non-hierarchical society. In this way the Cochnai creators achieved, partially, their ideas of "seed spirits".

The only major difficulty for the Cochnai Galmearans, if they knew the whole story, was that it also promotes wide spread illegal farming and hunting, which from a balanced natural point of view can be far more destructive than the wild chaises the aristocracy maintain for their personal pleasure.

The people of the Cochnai also make delicate tassels and intricate wood inlays. They create big carvings of deities, but these are not traded. they are "mature spirits".

They farm small areas during the summer for plant food and they milk the semi-domesticated hairy pigs. They live in sedentary villages and maintain a network of pathways.

Cross-section of a temple building.

Front view of a temple building

Their form of nature worship is the most dogmatic and least individualistic of the Galmearan tribes, and involves temples (large hall with a host of carved and dressed deities at one end. They have no priests, but for three moons a year everyone dedicates themselves to worship. In summer it is to the Sun, using trance and fasting, and involves invoking fey spirits. In winter it is a dedication to the Earth, involving meditation. In either spring or autumn, depending on the particular town, it is dedicated to celebrating Plant and Animal life. This involves feasts, social festivals and energetic ceremonies.

Celebration of Water was also carried out, but how or when or by whom was not disclosed to me, though my wife gave me an infuriatingly knowing look (which she then denied) when I told her of my frustrations in discovering it. I can only conclude that they told her something of it freely enough, and this is because she is female."

Dwarvish Pickles and other culinary adventures

2011-03-12T22:17:00.000Z

Fragment # 1

"Dwarvish pickles and Chutneys are second to none. I would heartily recommend the combination of Nazouralian Oat Plates, mature cave-cured mouflon cheese and a good ten year old Dwarvish chutney, washed down with some heather ail or de-fortified Fjoar. A rich mountain feast!

However, avoid shank of trilobite marinaded in vintage algal ferment - the must stink clings to the back of the tongue for a good half-moon. The trilobite 'globes' in earth-ball vinegar are a different mater entirely, and recommended in moderation."

Fragment # 2

Dwarvish bowls and spoon.

"Dwarvish Bowls

The two bowls pictured are from Garthvanittborgoch. Pot # 1 is a typical eating bowl, I am told identical to ones used in the lower countries. The shape owes its existence to the Dwarvish preference for low things. This bowl will have more of the lower part of a soup, and is thus considered to lend the food a higher quality, without letting it go cold. The spoons go with a specific bowl to which they are shaped. This is annoying to the outsider, who wishes they would instead concentrate on shaping spoons to the mouth...

Pot # 2 is a traveling pot, spherical only to keep the heat. The lid is made from a bladder (unspecified) treated with chemicals and then lashed to a mettle collar at the bottom of the pot this renders it waterproof, allowing it to be chucked into the pack with out consideration of leakage. Chutney pots are of a similar design, though are conical rather than spherical..."

Fragment # 3

"Dwarvish washing up consists of placing the dirty vessels and cutlery into a soupy chemical bath, followed by a pure water rinse - no scrubbing, but very thick gloves."

Map of the Galmearan freelands, detailing the tribes as defined by the Kreyicians

2011-03-01T17:22:00.011Z

"Freelands map"

"This dreadful map is one I copied at Dyn Cwmroch in Kreyic, on the eve of invasion, whilst negotiating and inebriating a Kreyic lord. It has been compiled by both the military magicians of Kreyic using remote sensing and by hostile spies on the ground. as such the tribal divisions are questionable, being based on visual cues and military interactions only. It is, however horrifyingly accurate given these limitations. I fear for the future of the Galmearans even more than I did.

It shows the extent to which semi-peaceful co-opting of land by Kreyic in the south has already occurred. Squared town icons are non-Galmearan, doubly squared if walled. Galmearan bases are dots if un-walled, dots with circles if walled and dots with tents if only seasonally occupied. Three dots indicate a ruin. Only land marked with vegetation or mountains is that considered by her neighbors to be unclaimed by an official nation."

Tribes as defined by Kreyic and their location

The Naya Towwan Mountains (north to south)

The Water Chariot Tribes

(These island dwelling tribes where named after their use of dolphin pulled hide boats. They interact closely with dolphins in much the same way other Galmearans interact with deer. Somehow, despite the seasonally frozen waters they posses the ability to swim amongst the pack ice. They are a distinct sub-race of Galmearan, the same as the Whale Singer Tribes.)

The Mauljajodd Tribes

(These tribes share ancestry both of the Galmearan Water tribes and Dwarven rebels who fled the Dwarvish Empire over 1000 years ago. They are the only people I know of to have this interesting mix of ancestry. They live in shallow natural caves and are astoundingly hardy, especially by Galmearan standards. Most Dwarves and many Galmearans think of them as mystics and visit their oracles. The name derives from the Dwarvish surface Kroltz "Maul Jaðod" meaning "Death Bay")

The Whale Singer Tribes

(These tribes are true mystics of the element of water, from an ancient ancestry that can be traced back across all the migrations of the Galmearan people. They sing to Whales, including to an ancient Mage in the body of a grey whale who forwent the Magish transition to human form, preferring to stick to that of the larger water realm.)

- The Temple of the Water

(This temple is the latest incarnation of this place, a truly Galmearan affair, woven into the natural fabric of the coast of its island. Galmearan priest/esses are often seen floating out at sea. There is also an occasional colony of Mer-people, that rarest of the Magish races, who visit as part of their seasonal migrations.)

The Tribes of Centaurs

(Little is known about these nomadic tribes. Are they truly a tribe of Galmearan-esk Deer-Centaurs, as the Dwarvish mercenaries reported to Kreyic, or was it a trick of the light?)

The Griffin Riding Tribes
(There are certainly Nobel Griffins breeding here, big enough to bare aloft Galmearans. They have been reported doing this by Dwarvish spies, but how wide-spread this practice is is unknown. This area is one of very few on the globe where the Nobel Griffin lives.)

- Abooiana

(Being primarily fish eaters the colony of Nobel Griffins and Galmearans nest here together by a large lake, high up in nest dwellings constructed on conifers growing out of cliff faces with creeper walk ropes interconnecting them.)

- Biyiyihya
(This appears to be a smaller, even less accessible version of Abooiana.)

The Cursed Tribes

(So named after their apparent ability to resist all Dwarvish advancement into the mountains. It is known that any undertaking by the Dwarves of the nearby Nordvall goes unaccountably wrong in this area, especially after Galmearans of the Cursed Tribes have been spotted. Rumors abound that the mountain range is home of that true native life-form of the earth, the living mountains, and inexplicably on this occasion their silicon hive-minds have sided with the Galmearans against the Dwarvish city-states of the Nordvall, Ceamol and Kahn. Certainly the area was once Dwarvish, and the remnants of their ancient empire can still be seen in places - but when the very rock has turned against you no Dwarve can dwell... It is truly a cursed land.

The Cursed Tribes have a strong tradition of walking - a long walk is thought to be able to cure all ailments of the mind, and most of the body. They even have medical practitioners called 'Walkers' who will walk with the afflicted. The last part of any cure, the walk home or back to the tribe, is always conducted alone - the 'Walker' always takes a separate path.)

- Shard

(A well fortified natural pillar of rock, with shallow caves peppering its flanks like woodworm holes. There are lots of goats about.)

- Keld

(An ancient imperial administrative surface fort used to wage terror and thus control the surface farms and 'wood mines' in the time of the empire. The upper levels of Keld now serve the Galmearan shamans and warriors of the Cursed Tribes. They use the fort as a meeting place to learn the ways of their tribes. Keld still stands on the path of a long imperial tunnel through the mountain range, though the maps of how to use it safely are usually thought to have been long lost. There is, however, a rumor that Ok's western rebels of the mountain called "the Draran" in The Raheeni still retain this knowledge. The network of surface passes in the mountains around Keld are still maintained by the 'Walkers', albeit in a much narrower and less even form than previously. Many Dwarvish would-be raiders and salvagers have met their deaths in landslides trying to use these apparently sure paths. In local Dwarvish folklore Keld is the home of Make - the goat daemon of mine collapse.)

Frayan (north to south)

The Witch Tribes

(Most of the reports from this area talked of the tribes doing inexplicable things. Since they where unexplainable the spies deduced it must be linked to religious activity of some sort, and as they where known not to have a state or capital city or any other administrative paraphernalia loved by priests they where therefore deemed to be practitioners of witchcraft. And several of the spies did appear to become possessed and absconded to the other side.)

- The Temple of Fire

(Built in and around an active volcano in a marshland prone to summer fires and random explosive gas events the pilgrims who come here to learn of this element go naked except for a dark paint made of animal fat and soot. They usually have no hair.)

The Wild Tribes

(This fearsome group of nomads ware oiled skins in winter and moss leg wrappings in winter and have feathers in their hair. Some have been observed riding giant bog deer - an exceptionally rare species, though most ride elk. They hunt with otters and are well versed in bow-craft and the use of bolas and the sling. When in combat they come clad in a seemingly impenetrable armor. How it is manufactured is unknown - but it appears magically strong and light, and slightly flexible. An area best avoided by the maliciously motivated.)

The Whispering Grass Tribes

(This apparently peaceable group of families living on the long-grassed mosaic of lakes and islands that are the Frayan marshlands dress head to foot in fawn coloured leather. They have short curly hair (unusually for the Galmearans) and lead a seasonal life of secrecy hunting wild water fowl and fish. They appear to hibernate through the winter in grass globes constructed just before the first snowfall. In the summer they dwell in small conical tents)

- Moot

(This is a summer meeting place, by a vast goose colony, where the abundance of eggs and white meat allow a festival to occur. On one occasion the Kreyician spies did observe it being broken up by a marauding party of bears. Instead of fighting them or scaring them off the people simply took to the water in skin boats and waited until the bears went, some two days later. The festivities where then resumed.)

The Daemon Tribes
(Only one Kreyician spy returned from this area, and he was mad.)

- Inishamayan

(Amongst his incoherent babalings the spy mentioned dances carried out on this island. To quote him "There they hungry are, WATCH OUT! Dancing like the cranes, their beaks - oh their beaks - They called the island Inishamayan I tell you! Inishamayan - don't go near if you value you pizzle! AND WATCH FOR THE EYES!! Oh the eyes! Tall as houses. Oh the eyes... Slender they are, red and black and white and the colour of flesh... All up and down and no sideways, like lines of rain in the grass. That daemon island, those dancers, KEEP AWAY, cant keep away, stay BACK, I CANT!! ohhh ohhh... Breasts like eggshell, nipples like flame. OH THE EYES!!! Watch for the eyes my friend - the cranes will eat them as you stare like onions - and your lolling leching tongue - peck peck peck PECK!!! AGHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I swam away I swam away I was hungry I wanted the bulrush roots so I swam but the burning beaks followed me they stilted followering yab yab ligaaaa!....

Is that a duck pie? Yum.")

The Clay-god Tribes

("These tribes appear to worship clay idols that they build around the marsh. They are usually formless and hollow, fired from the inside without expertise. The clever among them occasionally build small temples around the mightiest of them, though most are allowed to weather outside back to the soil. They constantly seem to be in search of new gods as the ones they have do not appear satisfactory. They are thus considered a particularly unintelligent and stupidly focused set of tribes. simple military tactics should deal with them swiftly" - Kreyician spy report. I happen to know from personal experience that these "clay-gods" are in fact chimneys from winter hibernation huts. Structurally they only last one season, so the huts are ceremonially burnt and the crumbling chimneys are abandoned each year, when a new area with fresh driftwood fuel is moved to in the subsequent winter. They are in fact more intelligent than most Galmearans in their management of resources. Almost none die in winter. Their Gods are not their chimneys (they are animists, so their chimneys do have spirits) instead being part of the most common Galmearan pantheon, that with the family of Earth, Sun, Water, Greenwood and Fire at its head.)

Cochnai

The Civilized Tribes

- Nanda

- Cimbowli

- Ilmolio

- Aataifohegil

- A'Eatabooa

- Pirooahie

- Bwenan I'Sowin

Shenambi Forest (north to south)

The Fish Eater Tribes

- Burilis

The Red Axe Tribes

- Naratacea

The Cat Woman / Cat Faced Tribes

The Cloud Weaver Tribes

Estoadai Grasses

The Blue Axe Tribes

- Eianae

- Olkie

The Raheeni (The Inertia)

The Tented Tribes

- Shelaada

The Noble Tribes

- Lismad

- Lowea

The Sluttish Tribes

- MaBrae Staa

(Ok's Western Rebles - isolated Dwarvish Hive

- The Draran)

The Vay Mountains (north to south)

The Tall Tribes

- Difani

The Dark Path Tribes

- Thiow Thiow

- Chiooriss

The Canny Tribes

- Agwan

- Deer Avon

The Wild Wood

The Deep Tribes

- Greenwood Temple

The Tribes of Death

The Shadow Tribes

The Higher Grasses (north to south)

Nomadic Tribes

The Daemon Music Tribes

- Uradeur

- Earth Temple / Temple of the Deep Earth

- The Colmarsh

- Dihrlarm

Mwnnwdd Abeata Hills

The Weapon-maker Tribes

- Old Red

- Old Black

The Middle Grasses

The Incense Tribes

-Matalean

The Eastern Forests

(Blackbeard's Eastern Rebles

- Urikjolt

The Featherheads

- Tamdrey

Hobdowns

No permanent tribes

- Teash Traiding Camp

Shi Hills

The Tribes of the Cities of the Skies

- Minx

The Dark Woods

The Leafbright Tribes

- Gaeib

Marrin Hills (east to west)

Tribes of Spears

- Felt

Shining Tribes

- The Temple of the High Sun

Drisghol Hills (east to west)

The Many Coloured Tribes

- Grange Mass

Man-mother Tribes

Lliddydram Woods

The Invisible Tribes

- Ambara

Vayrean Hills

The Weak Tribes

Deep Oak (north to south)

The Hiding Ones

- Moss

The Tribes of Many Arrows

The Tree-hut Tribes

- Ameahga

- The Last House

The Lower Grasses

The Sitting People

Ceolarai Forest (north to south)

Gypsy Tribes

Bandit Tribes

- Ealosai

The Faceless Tribes

The Cortez Mountains

The Far Away Tribes

Some scetches and notes on the Difani, or 'Tall Tribes', of the Galmearans

2011-03-01T15:54:00.001Z

"Portrait of Shinka of the Difani"

"Shinka of the Difani on New Defences"

Fragment #1

"Shinka of the Difani on New Defences

From what the Humans call "The Tall Tribes"

- Short hair from cutting to weave into fabrics - energetic signature of artist - cut every 9 years. Peoples age sets are defined by this.

"Quilted panel - dyed fine woven rabbit wool."

Quilted panel

(Dyed fine woven rabbit wool)

[anti-clockwise from top left]

* Black Berry (belly-button)

* Red Berry

* Pink-white shell

* Representing Deer

* Galmearan

(Dark-green nettle cord knots)

* Black/brown

* Dark brown

* Light green

* Light brown

* Light brown-green

* Light green

* Light green / dark yellow

*Dark yellow"

"A Difani Blade" - an Eashay

Fragment # 2

"A Difani warrior always keeps a hand on their weapon - partly this allows rapid drawing, partly it serves as a reminder of their role, and partly it is because being unsheathed they would otherwise stab your legs when you ran or sat down...

The Difani do not use scabbards as such, instead resorting to platted string. Great skill is needed to draw the blade smoothly. This ensures both that no-one carries a blade without good training and also it makes it almost imposable to draw someone elses blade.

Ever economical and resourceful, the people of Defani have developed their weaponry from their tools.

This blade, called an Eashay, is very close in design to the tool they use to prune and coppice the hazel and a small but well thorned tree, local to the area, called naois. Naois buds are gathered, dried and powdered to be snorted like snuff. This aids concentration when weaving.

The original tool has a lighter handle and no blade other than the saw.

The steel used is Dwarvish, and thus of the highest quality. The people of Diffani trade woven cloth and embroideries for their imports.

Imports include the aforementioned Dwarvish steel, as well as some Dwarvish rock powders used to colour and fix their bright cloths. They also trade with other Galmearan tribes for forest colours and for some of the raw wools they then spin and weave. Noticeable among these are rabbit wool and deer fawn under-wool, as well as certain dried lichens. They also use bog-cotton and other grass-stem fibers that are gathered originally by the bog-hoppers of Llanwern as well as those Galmearans in the "Frayan" marshes to the north. Their must be an extensive inter-tribe network across the Freelands that bring the goods to the mountains. Of course no coin would be used, being Galmearans, so all trade would be barter based.

One day I will follow the bog-cotton from Teash trading camp just over the Llanwern border, and see where I end up, and if I survive the wild tribes and the death tribes the Human spies seem to fear so much..."

"Naois"

Fragment # 3

"Naois.

"Naois Flower - drawn with experimenal
pallet - not a success."

Naois grows naturally as a single maiden, up to 6 legs (24 hands) tall - this is roughly 18 feet using the common measurment. However, as the flowers (and their harvestably mind-focusing buds) grow only in carnivorous lesions on the third-year wood the Galmearans of Difani first coppice the tree every five years for four consecutive seasons, until an ideal of 30-40 stems are shooting from the base. These are then pollarded at roughly three hands. Each year the stupor inducing thorns are meticulously pruned off with great care."

Today I Rage

2011-03-01T14:45:00.006Z

I Hate Humans

Fragment #1:

"I Hate Humans.

I will make the sea boil, the hull hiss and the sailcloth crack.

Today I Rage"

Fragment # 2:

"Imp in the bilges eating my spare halyard. I trapped it in a jelly-pan. Next self-important human aristocrat donkey-bothered filcher who tries to nick some thithe off me gets an imp in their garderobe!"

[There is no way to tell what sent Faadon into this mood - this fragment is a loose leaf unconnected to any other. It may be that t he picture is an actual depiction of the Faerie Realm, but Faadon was quite open with the fact that he never managed to master much of the shamanism or magic craft that would have allowed his to travel easily to there. Instead it could simply be an expression of his feelings. He is not known for his steady mood when dealing with officialdom, as the second fragment shows.]

A breif history of the Galmearans (slight nudity)

2011-02-15T17:10:00.002Z

Galmearan Elder calling herself 'Milkweed' of one of the 'Shadow Tribes'

Note scrawled in margin-

"First draft. This is how I understand it anyway. I gained my knowledge from the Abail Elves and by talking to a Galmearan elder calling herself 'Milkweed' of the one of the 'Shadow Tribes' (as the Kreyicians would name them). I have sketched her on the reverse of this page. Being almost 60 she is very old for a Galmearan, and very fond of hot herbal infusions."

In a book of notes for various books -

"Long, long ago, at a time when the Dwarven empire still straddled the globe and humans had yet to land on the coast of Ottarol there lived a race of people named the Galmearans. Born of Elvish ancestry they treated the forest as their home and all beings as their family. Standing at most at 5 feet high their slight frame seldom left any sign of their passing and few people even knew of their existence.

And so it would have continued if it had not been for the insatiable hunger of the Dwarven empire for wood to fuel her furnaces and food to feed her workers. Having devoured the forests west of her the ravenous empire turned her eyes south to the seemingly deserted forests of the Galmearans. Being a peaceful and dispersed folk the Galmearans failed to recognize the danger until it was too late. With Dwarven axes at their heels the Galmearans fled north beyond the leafy bows of Gaer to the dense forest that used to stand on the land of Kreyic.

For many hundreds of years the Galmearans lived in peace and solitude in the dark woods of Kreyic. They had learned the bitter lesson of survival the hard way and haunted the trees the way spirits might do, terrifying anyone who dared set foot on the soft loam of their forests with an elaborate system of switch back paths and traps. They also started learning the arts of war such as archery and knife craft. Soon such Myth had grown up about the forests that no soul who valued their future would enter.

Sadly the very thing that saved their lives also sealed there fate. Humans from the continent of Tuyun landed on Ottarol’s eastern shore at Brach. Being men of grand ideas the leaders at once made war with the Elves hoping to steal their lands. Though the humans had much steel and magic they where ill knowledged on the Elves of Gaer. The humans of Brach found their own numbers severely lacking and the dream of a quick victory turned in to a long, long battle. After several decades of war the humans eventually acknowledged defeat and the elves banished the remainder of the army to the haunted forests of Kreyic. Although severely reduced in number the Kreyic army was still large enough to hold off the Galmearans and form their own kingdom.

The Kreyician humans expanded to the sea in the east, the plateau in the west and Gaer in the south and so yet again the Galmearans where pushed north, wedged between the collapsing Dwarven empire and Kreyic. And so they still reside, piteously few in number held in the last large tract of 'uninhabited' forest on Ottarol.

Kreyic prospered, her wealth known the width and breadth of Ottarol. Peace rained with her gentle hand for a thousand years or so until the west wind sent a parcel of hunger across the plateau to Kreyic. Tens of thousands of locusts descended of the fertile land of Kreyic. Soon starvation swept the land and all went hungry. In the desperate quest to search for a cure to this pestilence Kreyic turned her eyes to her neighbors and so she noticed the silent haunted forests of the Galmearans that lye in the north where the locusts could not go. And so yet again the lands of the silent folk was under threat from outside.

Woman of the 'Shadow Tribes'

This is the history of the Galmearans, of how they came to be where they are and, although they hold no grudges, of whom they must be wary. This tale paves the way for many others for at this point so begins the War of the Mistake, the war that could so easily have wiped out the dryads of the forests, the Galmearans."

A breif encounter with some Dwarvish industrial music

2011-02-11T13:55:00.003Z

Parts of some sub-machine melodic instruments.

"I was, it has to be said, snooping around when I encountered these fragments of the deep forges. I had previously spent my time at Nordemriecargor politely engaged in barter, but as the second day of discussion over the comparative worth of silver and coconuts drew to a close my eyes where aching for the sun, and my lungs for previously unbreathed air. I should, I suppose, have stuck to my Dwarvish minder, but in need of mischief I soon gave the poor surface-dazzled miner the slip, and chose my path with will-full abandon. I soon found myself following some unusual booming noises to a largish shaft and wheel.

Outside two highly skilled but rather tetchy upper-class Dwarves where tinkering with some gaudily painted mettle tubing. Finding a comfortable spot among the vegetation free scree I sat and did the quick sketch overleaf [above]. Having good sharp hearing from my Elvish ancestry, and a rudimentary understanding of Kroltz from my time in the southern mines such as Stordonafagel (these northern Nazouralians being above such plebeian activities as speaking 'common') I was able to ascertain the purpose of the pipes.

In the Kingdoms and Queendoms bellow there are (as I had imagined) vast workshops, forges and foundries. These often employ up to two hundred or so Dwarves, all engaged in the noisy practicing of their arts. In some there are, as well as the beating of many hand held hammers, the pounding of great water-driven forge hammers, whose blows can reverberate throughout the entire hive. In order to keep focused on the work in hand it is a convention that all work to the rhythm of these vast hammers, entering a sort of meditative trance. It has been found in certain hives (such as at Nordemriecargor) that this can be enhanced further by the introduction of a melodic element. This is improvised around the central rhythm in order that this rhythm does not become soporific.

Of course the instruments in question need to be very loud, using scale, magic and certain alloys in order to amplify them adequately. This is what the acoustic engineers (as the two artisan Dwarves turned out to be) where doing on the surface, away from the interfering beat of the hammers. The instrument parts had been lifted up a series of vertical wheel driven shafts.

The instruments themselves seemed to consist of some sort of trumpeted harp; part of an array of paddle beaten pipes; and one of a series of water-power driven bellows used to play some kind of over-sized and over engineered whistle. This instrument the two Dwarves talked about in such passion and technical detail I was unable to get more than the vaguest notion of what it was like. All the instruments where painted in bright colours.

Unfortunately for me, before I could embark on a more detailed drawing I accidentally dislodged a stone with my foot and the sharp-eared Dwarves spotted me. I hailed them and approached in what I hoped was a nonchalantly friendly manner. They did not respond well.

More fortunately for me, before they had actually reached me (I think with the intention of testing their drawn war-axes on my skull) my bumbling minder also arrived on the scene and apologetically led me away backwards, his face draining of all colour as he bowed repeatedly to the two artisans, placing gold coins for them on the floor.

He then insisted I did not mention anything about my encounter to anybody in the Hive, a request to which I gracefully acquiesced.

My trading was concluded with surprising speed that night, and I got a reasonable price for my coconuts, all things considered."

A description of Cananshall

2011-02-09T12:09:00.000Z

Cananshall

"An outline of Cananshall

Canashall is a large open plain, home to the Plain-Elves (also known as the Dim Lwis - 'Grassy Nomads'). This was once mostly a forested area, except in the far south, where the earliest Dim Lwis lived. These early Dim Lwis where small in number and really just a collection of tribes that lived on the edge of the forests of Gaer. This ancestral land is what is now in depute with the later arriving Humans of Domtajoya, a regretfully permanent state of raids and counter-raids having developed.

During the time of the Dwarvish Empire the area of modern Cananshall was deforested for the pits and furnaces in the north. The encroachment east of this deforestation was only held in check by the marshy swamp forests of Darngaer, where Dwarvish military tactics did not work due to the lack of solid ground.

When the Dwarves had deforested the mineral poor area it was abandoned, and the ecology of the plains to the south took hold, including large herbivores such as horses and bison. Following in their wake came the Dim Lwis and slowly the area of Cananshall as it is know today was born.

An old map of Cananshall, from imperial times, but before Humans.

The Dim Lwis do not have permanent dwelling places, but they do have a series of meeting points for certain people or certain times of year. In old maps one never finds these marked, and I suspect they are not in fact that ancient. It may be a phenomenon of the last thousand years or so that larger regular gatherings of the Dim Lwis took place. They speak a dialect of Calobelvan. The people of this area are famous for their stamina, being able to cover terrific distances with a endless skipping lope that a sprinter might be able to out run for the first hour, but would overtake any other race come nightfall. They live for the main part in tall many-poled tents and travel on foot with horses and bison and dogs pulling their belongings on wheeless carts consisting of two long poles with a sling of hide between them.

I chose to highlight Hwngadiaer as the capital because it is perhaps at times the biggest, but they would not regard it as a capital city as human lands might.

Rivers of Cananshall

Laldarin - (Opposite of Oak River / Relaxed Oak River) - In all probability this was called Darin (Oak River) in pre-imperial times and renamed subsequently in recognition of the deforestry, and the fact that beyond it to the west there was no oak left. Now some oak has regrown, and the Dim Lwis, as well as the tribes of Darngaer, tend to be pretty relaxed!

Lwnivanin - (Silver Song River / Silver Is Who River) - Most likely this is Silver Song River, being fast yet steady and with clear mountain water and a silvery stony bottom. Avan is a rhythmic wailing walking song, while Van is to speak. However the name could simply be Silver River, with weird ancient elvish grammar.

Meanathin - (Beautiful Snow River) - this river swells when fed by the spring-melt of the mountain snow. It is also so fast it flows white for the first three-quarters of its length. It is exceptionally beautiful.

Some of the meeting places of Cananshall

(Notes on the dialect - these annoyingly elegant people will not stick to one form of words when bending it to braking point might make it trip off the tongue even more beautifully. So my apologies, but I could not translate all of the names, and I very much doubt an elder of a Dim Lwis clan could either.)

Faerncer - (Wolf Wood) - A meeting place for certain northern tribes. Some coppice is practiced here for tent poles.

Gandeal - (Lone Hill Windy) - A isolated hill in an otherwise gently undulating landscape. A meeting point for some festivities and prayers

Neqabesh - (Eating-Teeth Cat?) - This pointy peeked island of mountains has somehow never been taken by warvish might from the Elvish people (at least they say so). It is considered a holy places for death and war. The older people go here to die, often climbing the mountains looking for the mountain cats that live there in order to ensure that the sacred cats get to finish their lives.

Lasuli - (All Cloud?) - A dark place of frequent cloud - no travelers have been here and lived. Although, having said that, there is also a rumor that this a a trading place with the Dwarvish black market!

Nisi - (?) - Not much is know about this place at present - When I turned up it was simply a big flattened area covered in horse droppings. Maybe it was the wrong time of year...?

Hwngadiaer and the tents - the main tent is a vast home of meeting.

Hwngadiaer - (Summer Garden) - The summer meeting point of the Dim Lwis. This is where almost all of the tribes gather for mid summer revelries, with tribes turning up from late winter and others leaving in mid autumn. The grazing here is exceptionally lush, due to many hundreds of generations of concentrated manuring and grazing. Here is a happy place where one can witness the best of the plains people - singing, storytelling, magic and animal care.

Aesgstea - (Knowledge? / Raging?) - Home of the tribal councils that come together when the Dim Lwis need to act as one. This happens only every few years or so. There is no prescribed time.

Harean - (?) - This is the only permanent dwelling of the Dim Lwis, though the inhabitants themselves always change. It is a trading spot to meet with the other Elvish people to the east and north.

Mordeantha - (Spirit / Ancient Birch Air?) - A mysterious meeting point, possibly connected to a semi-cult based around a long departed Mage who lived near by.

Madwasha - (Bones Blood Water) - A peaceful place devoted to child-rearing. Once the site of a bloody battle with the southern Humans.

Hathesa - (Warm ?) - A winter gathering spot for some tribes.

Muliseadath - (The Nomad's ?) - A trade center for goods going to and from the south. Only very brave Domtajoyan traders would risk the Disputed Land to reach it, but the high profits make it worth it... I got a very high quality rug for my boat from here, and some fine rum. The river is still navigable this far in land."

The Magish Alphabet

2011-02-08T09:54:00.001Z

Magish alphabet

[From 'An Anthology of the World']

"Appendix 3

Alphabets

Magish (old common) Magish

Magish is the ancestor of modern common, and follows the same rules. It's still used on Partway Island and some Tuyun Countries and, of course, by the Mage's. It is divided into five Families, usually arranged in a circle with G at it's center.

X H E C N / M W S Z N V / U L O K A / Y T I J F / R B Q P D

The numbers used with this alphabet is based on the number of corners they contain : -

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

[Most people who can read modern common with ease can also interpret Magish, given a few moments contemplation.

The red decorations are as follows -

Top-left - Old Gaer symbol of the sun;

Top-right - Old Gaer symbol of the moon. The Calobelvan written around it reads - "- Shal (Sun) - Car (Tree/Truth) - Aer (Ground) - Ash (Water) - Ath (Sky) - Mhoor (Spirit) -" (presented together they mean balance)

Left border - Sand-Dwarvish pattern, also found on some Galmearan materials.

Right border - Modern Gaer (Elvish) design, used frequently.

(These two pattern presented as complimentary patterns indicate the breadth of alphabets covered in Appendix 3, coming from almost opposite types of societies and races]

Some maps of the Globe

2011-02-04T16:37:00.000Z

[I shall publish Faadon's descusion of these maps at a later date - for now here are a few raw maps...]

A view of the Earth as it would be seen on the back of a dragon flying very high over the continent of Ottarol. In the center right is the ancient homelands of the Dwarves of Rock. The dessert at the bottom is the home of the sand Dwarves, while the crescent in the center is where one can find dinosaurs. Essam, bottom left, is the now deserted continent where the Mage-created lifeforms such as Humans, Elves and Dwarves where created.

A rough design for a Sea-Nation trading map of the globe. It serves the ego of the Sea-Elvish captain rather than any practical sense, not even having the currents depicted.

The captain who commissioned this map was obviously most interested in the trading opportunities in north-eastern Ottarol...

...and in Tuyun. There is an established trade rout following the currents and the winds between them. Yeno, the island in the top right, for instance, is not named, for the Ice Dwarves here do not engage in trading.

Ottarol , Gortyn and Essam depicted in the opening page of a book called "An Anthology of the World"

Tuyun, Tuy F'Fowyap and the Jagraana Archipelago in the same book.

A Show Of Skill - an anciant poetic Elvish ballad

2011-02-04T16:04:00.000Z

Ancient Elvish design depicting 'inspiration'.

"A Show of Skill.

The first tale of the fall of peace.

An ancient story from before the coming of the Dwarves or the Humans to the Elvish Shore.

The first paragraph in the original Calobelvan-

Deanor mo teihc, o Rian, Al mo gaer o balewin.

Ca fi o fean ma varg Mo shall al col laeg,

A mo lune luel yalamor Nawlag yal teihc o morin

The first part in a rhyming Kreyician translation to Common, collected from nomadic minstrels -

Daernor of Rian was called the bow,

Through out the forest of Balwin,

His moves where fast, his temper slow,

The trees of the forest were his kin

His bow he bent like the crescent moon,

Though his strength belied his grace

For he talked with birds and sang their tune,

And by his side the deer kept pace.

Clad in green and bronze was he,

In robes of finest spiders silk

Embroidered thick with leaf and tree

As fair and fine as all his ilk

With shafts of ash and bow of yew

Skilled with hand and sharp of eye

Straight and true his arrows flew

As fast as the falcon cuts the sky

One day while walking near his home

He met a friend he knew quite well

And as they walked upon the loam

Of a gathering that friend did tell

"In south and the midday heat

By the river and the willow tree

The gypsies of our folk will meet

They hope to test in archery

They hope to find the smoothest flow

The keenest eyes and steadiest hand

The greatest pull of elf and bow

The finest archer in this land"

These words of the passing test

His friend told Deanor in mirth

Little knowing of the deep unrest

His passing story would unearth…

Deanor's soul burned bright with joy

It burned up high within his chest

He swore by the wood of his travois

That he should show them his prowess

And never more could he be calm

Never more could he keep still,

Until he had shown them of his arm

Until he had proved his finest skill

Like the sun he ran to the place

He knew that they would meet

Like the swift in all its grace

He ran with pounding heart and feet

A straight translation in to Common of an ancient version held by the Abail Elves (edited lightly so that it makes sense)-

Deanor of the bow, of Rian, Living in the forest of Balewin.

You could see in his grace That the sun was in his arrows,

And the silver moon herself Had blessed his bow of yew.

She shone full upon his strength, Yet full eclipsed upon his fate.

An elf clad in green and bronze, Shirt embroidered without space.

On his front was the leaping deer And on his back shone the moon.

His step was light on the earth, Only plants passed his mouth.

He used his bow only for sport And had never yet drawn blood.

You might well say, and be right, That he was an odd elf to do battle!

Four march’s down a posted-path, Was Rian from her nearest neighbor,

But in the corner of the seasons The Lwis of Pinseawin meet,

To trade in goods and gossip, And dance and tell good tale’s.

One fine spring, on new years day, Deanor set out for the tribal camp.

His best bow was across his back And a quiver of arrows at his side.

He was quick stepping and fleet footed For he wanted to game in archery

Against the finest shots in Pinsaewin For he heard that few where better.

In the camp where he was headed The games had already started,

And the gaming was hard and fast Between Waudvall and Windreel.

Waudvall was tall and dark of eye, His past was sad and his face was grim.

His tribe had fed the great gray wolves With more than just their prayers,

Slain by a rockfall on the mountains While on the high summer meadows,

Picking herbs and making dry bale’s To heal those of the forest loam.

No leaves or cut root or flower Could he heal his battered tribe,

And after mountain shacking grief He left them to return to earth.

Windreel was of the fine Gay~lwis Who dwelt in Cean o laeg’s splendour

She dressed as brightly as anyone And wore scarlet ribbons in her hair.

Her skill went all throughout Gaer, for she was a prodigy of excellent stock.

She was a maid of the fern creepers, and wore the blood proudly on her face.

For two days they won all games None stood before the black and red

And the third day they faced face, The three part game for only them.

An ashen wand of naked white was set At fifty paces in the woodland gloom.

And each turned their backs in tension And at a cry they swirled and shot.

Out they sped, crow and pheasant, Arrows like two forks of lightning.

The wand shattered like a totem stick, As even as if split by a craftsman’s axe.

The red feathered behind it in a tree, The ravens arrow splitting it knock to tip.

The watchers cheered and smiled, Waudvall raised a brow and bowed.

She was good and he a game down, Spirits willing he would gain the next.

They walked onto a hills cleared top, Where trees where kept from growing.

It was a hill of flowers, nectar in the air, Lush and verdant, cool and bright.

Across its brow was a line of sticks, Straight down wind for all its length.

Windreel drew till she near shook, And sweated down her bloody cheeks.

A whistle to summon the wind, She raised her bow and loosed her fingers

Up and up her arrow flew straight, Like a sparrow hawk it rose to the sky.

It kissed the clouds before falling back, Over the brow of the hill and beyond.

Not since Fearndram, the mountain man, Had any Elve seen such a shot.

Waudvall’s eyes darkened as he stepped up, His arms bare and his hood down.

A single tear slipped down his cheek, For he had given this game to the dead.

He stood as still as a watching deer, His huge black bow limp by his side.

Silence fell upon those assembled, For none wanted to see the giants fall.

With a cry of rage and of pain He raised his bow and drew and let lose.

He moved fast, his arrow faster still, Leaving the crowds eyes behind it.

They walked up the line of sticks, The others followed reverently behind.

They crossed the brow of the hill, But no arrows could they find!

They walked down to the wood And there like a faeries charm,

The pheasant arrow stuck proud For Windreel had shot her line true

At her side Waudvall let out a cry And a smile stoked his lips,

For twelve feet on, his raven stick And he claimed the shot for history.

So one each they went down the hill And beside the river washed their arms.

~*~

Draw back your engaged minds To the elf of bronze and green,

For Daenor had reached the camp And sat in a willow of ancient age.

With interest he watched the elves As they bathed at the waters edge,

The tall dark man in deep hyreadd And the girl with blood streaked cheeks.

The last game was the hardest yet For it involved both skill and speed.

An elf with strength in her arm Would toss ten javelins across the path.

Together they would try their craft And hit them like a leaping deer.

They spread apart and aimed As the first pale spear took flight.

Two arrows left two bows at speed And a third hit them in mid-flight.

A cross of wood from three arrows Fell stricken to the leaf strewn loam.

The bedraggled crow and golden pheasant Captured in an eagles mettle grip,

For from his ancient willow perch The bow of Daenor had slain it’s own.

Waudvall put down his bow in anger But Windreen set her chin.

The second javelin sailed up high And yet again a cross of wood.

Daenors bow was hungry still, And took down the scarlet prey.

Like followed like for nine shots Till the last javelin flew fleetly forth.

Then Windreel tossed herself down And shot so low and early,

That passed beneath the eagles flight And chipped the slender spear.

With a grin Daenor leaped down And bowed to the ground in praise.

Waudvall scowled and stepped up, With dignity he notched an arrow,

And raised his black, six-foot bow And fired up into the suns face.

Swiftly took he another arrow And shot his first in a perfect cross

Windreel raised her bow of bleeding yew And fired at the sun in like.

Her second arrow hit her first, But a T and not a cross did make.

Daenor smiled but raised his bow And bent it like the crescent moon.

He sent his arrow at the light, And a second to follow in its wake.

They struck like a raptor strikes And a cross of wood was made.

So joined it fell like a wounded bird, Towards the startled crowd

But Daenor raised his bow again And stuck the falling trophy.

And thus like a meteor it fell, A star that showered glory

Waudvall touched his shoulder And Windreel went onto her knee.

There was no doubt in Pinsaewin That Daenor was master of his craft."

Some extracts of the Dwarvish Language (Kroltz)

2011-02-04T12:31:00.001Z

"Old Dwarve."

"Here is a selection of Dwarvish words I learned over a very enjoyable keg of Fjoar with an elderly Dwarve in Stordonafagel. Strictly speaking the words are 'Krotlz', that is the language spoken over most of the former empire of the Ottarol Dwarves (who are themselves 'Dwarves of Rock' if we are being strictly taxonomic, and not to be confused with either the Sand-Dwarves of the southern deserts or the Ice Dwarves of the isle of Yeno).

The slightly erratic nature of the words collected can be excused both through the strength of the Fjoar and the senility of the Dwarve (whose name I never did attain). The pronunciation wasn't helped by the Dwarves lack of teeth...

To find such an elderly Dwarve so close to the surface was something of a surprise, but this was Stordonafagel, and really nothing can surprise one about this outrageous and anarchistic mine.

To talk of grammar is a boring pass-time unworthy of my hang-over, needless to say it is reasonably similar to the Common Tongue. You will get by trying that, any way.

"Maul val urinol melgul!" as my elderly Dwarvish drinking companion would say!

Or was it "Maul val melgul urinol"?"

[As I delve into Faadon's basket I am sure I will come across more Kroltz words, and will add them to this post as I do.]

The Common Tongue in to Dwarvish Krolz -

Common	Dwarvish
-’s	-ul
Algal brew (alcoholic)	Fjoar
All unconquered lands in the time of the empire.	Ärolgoganott
Alloy	Chilal
Anvil	Nazoural
Arsenic	Foryen
Bay	Jaðod
Big (wide)	Gos
Black	Kurick
Blood	Maurd
Boar-backed surface house	Prokðain
Border	Kuln
Breath	Palk
Bridge	Tørsk
Bright/colourful	Stord
Canal	Jourch
Cap	Ðarl
Cauldron	Melg
Child	Korri
Chisel	Ngal
Clean / whole / safe	Yan
Crystal	Jain
Death (the spirit and the thing)	Maul
Deep	Sjo
Defensive family home	Brocken
Defensive hole	Borgoch
Defensive tower	Broghaw
Dry	Urinol
Dwarvish leader, first emperor. [19344 - 19438AC]	Gogia
Eagle	Gothöll
Eater	Ndgar
Empire	Gorgastot
Face / Honour	Karn
Forest	Druck
Fortified cave complex	Chugörg
Frail	Ðræleng
Give	Mosta
Goat	Shork
Goat Daemon	Make
Goblin	Furdich
Goblin daemon	Molk
God spirit	Jíraspölk
Goddess Spirit	Jíraspurl
Gold	Åsen
Gorge	Garth
Grait	Mjork
Grand eating/meeting hall	Hjørig
Hair	Galn
Hall complex	Slesvig
Hammer	Körra
Haunt	Nill
Haunted	Nillurg
Haunter	Nilla
Head waters	Jod
Hidden	Olingskog
High	Salen
Hills	Rene
Holding	Prild
Horn	Darrað
Horse	Nir
Ice	Thor
Inside	Ninkas
Iron	Garil
Iron clad cart	Gariminch
Island	Kveln
King (post empire)	Gogan
King (pre-empire)	Dugach
Kingdom	Goganott
Lake	Toc
Larder / stockroom	Aga
Law & protection	Garm
Leader	Archgalm
Lodge hole	Bak
Low	Vig
Many	Voll
Mine	Grintok
Mist	Shear
Moor	Snorri
Mountain	Träs
Name	Son
Natural cave	Chanagan
Noble, royal.	Oða
North	Nordemrie
Oak	Barg
Of	Val
Of (belonging to)	Gau
Open to the sky	Kglalg
Outside	Nendes
Palace	Ona
Path, minor road	K’drass
Peace	Tusk
Pebble	Surgol
Pike	Vuldeg
Pit shaft	Cargor
Poison / harmful	Yen
Promise / oath	Ärol
Quarry	Fägel
River	Fwndeyk
River (Old pronunciation)	Föndek
Rock / land	Ott
Shield	Ureck
Short for Chugörk	Görk
Silk	Mārt
Sky	Lalk
Slave	Ludnaun
Slaveholding (imperial)	Prildän
Slope	Arakon
Slopes	Arakonul
Small	Oge
Small foot track or pass	Chamach
Smith	Borðalm
Smoak	Shgor
Spirit	Spur
Stone (a -)	Valg
Stone (the substance)	Nörd
Store hole	Uearkven
Strong	Gdraling
Surfaced road	Ramach
Tall	Lidn
The	Nitt
To	Kay
To make with metal.	Borð
Tortoise	Eck
Tribe	Nemoin
Truth	Ðu
Tythe	Havamál
Underworld	Hellig
United	Nuldurg
Vein of crystal	Yansk
Warrior	Chaic
Watch tower	Krowg
Water sodden	Bríg
White	Forn
Whole	Su
Wild	Mward
Wind	Melg
Wolf	Njál
Woman	Günk
Womb	Angünga
World	Ottsu

Dwarvish Krolz in to the Common Tongue -

Dwarvish	Common
- ul	-’s
Aga	Larder / stockroom
Angünga	Womb
Arakon	Slope
Arakonul	Slopes
Archgalm	Leader
Ärol	Promise / oath
Ärolgoganott	All unconquered lands in the time of the empire.
Åsen	Gold
Bak	Lodge hole
Barg	Oak
Borð	To make with metal.
Borðalm	Smith
Borgoch	Defensive hole
Bríg	Water sodden
Brocken	Defensive family home
Broghaw	Defensive tower
Cargor	Pit shaft
Chaic	Warrior
Chamach	Small foot track or pass
Chanagan	Natural cave
Chilal	Alloy
Chugörg	Fortified cave complex
Ðarl	Cap
Darrað	Horn
Ðræleng	Frail
Druck	Forest
Ðu	Truth
Dugach	King (pre-empire)
Eck	Tortoise
Fägel	Quarry
Fjoar	Algal brew (alcoholic)
Föndek	River (Old pronunciation)
Forn	White
Foryen	Arsenic
Furdich	Goblin
Fwndeyk	River
Galn	Hair
Garil	Iron
Gariminch	Iron clad cart
Garm	Law & protection
Garth	Gorge
Gau	Of (belonging to)
Gdraling	Strong
Gogan	King (post empire)
Goganott	Kingdom
Gogia	Dwarvish leader, first emperor. [19344 - 19438AC]
Gorgastot	Empire
Görk	Short for Chugörk
Gos	Big (wide)
Gothöll	Eagle
Grintok	Mine
Günk	Woman
Havamál	Tithe
Hellig	Underworld
Hjørig	Grand eating/meeting hall
Jaðod	Bay
Jain	Crystal
Jíraspölk	God spirit
Jíraspurl	Goddess Spirit
Jod	Head waters
Jourch	Canal
K’drass	Path, minor road
Karn	Face / Honour
Kay	To
Kglalg	Open to the sky
Körra	Hammer
Korri	Child
Krowg	Watch tower
Kuln	Border
Kurick	Black
Kveln	Island
Lalk	Sky
Lidn	Tall
Ludnaun	Slave
Make	Goat Demon
Mārt	Silk
Maul	Death (the spirit and the thing)
Maurd	Blood
Melg	Cauldron
Melg	Wind
Mjork	Great
Molk	Goblin demon
Mosta	Give
Mward	Wild
Nazoural	Anvil
Ndgar	Eater
Nemoin	Tribe
Nendes	Outside
Ngal	Chisel
Nill	Haunt
Nilla	Haunter
Nillurg	Haunted
Ninkas	Inside
Nir	Horse
Nitt	The
Njál	Wolf
Nörd	Stone (the substance)
Nordemrie	North
Nuldurg	United
Oða	Noble, royal.
Oge	Small
Olingskog	Hidden
Ona	Palace
Ott	Rock / land
Ottsu	World
Palk	Breath
Prild	Holding
Prildän	Slaveholding (imperial)
Prokðain	Boar-backed surface house
Ramach	Surfaced road
Rene	Hills
Salen	High
Shear	Mist
Shgor	Smoke
Shork	Goat
Sjo	Deep
Slesvig	Hall complex
Snorri	Moor
Son	Name
Spur	Spirit
Stord	Bright/colourful
Su	Whole
Surgol	Pebble
Thor	Ice
Toc	Lake
Tørsk	Bridge
Träs	Mountain
Tusk	Peace
Uearkven	Store hole
Ureck	Shield
Urinol	Dry
Val	Of
Valg	Stone (a -)
Vig	Low
Voll	Many
Vuldeg	Pike
Yan	Clean / whole / safe
Yansk	Vein of crystal
Yen	Poison / harmful

Before the Begining - book of "Ddoe"

2011-02-02T12:14:00.000Z

Page 6 -

Page 6 of 'Everything'

"Before The Begining

"Before the beginning" said the Mage of Waun Fach, after much hassling on my part, and an entire firkin of Minchen whiskey on the part of Orddk (it is truly inspiring how much alcohol a Mage can drink!) "Before the beginning there was nothing. Then it exploded..."

The 'Nothing' explodes

Orddk let out a short bark of a laugh and frowned, worrying, no doubt, about the liquor he had wasted to obtain this nonsense. I, however persisted.

"So what made the nothing explode?" asked. I was excited that at last we might be on the verge of obtaining knowledge of the penultimate "BEGINNING".

What a fool."

"So what made the nothing explode?"

[Note on the image - This image is of one of the inner rooms of Waun Fach, the independent Mage mountain in the heart of Kreyic. The furniture appears to be Elvish, while the tapestry on the wall looks like primitive Kreyician work, and the fire dogs are in an ancient pre-imperial Dwarvish style. The Mage of Waun Fach is pictured here inhabiting it's latest elderly host, with whom it has been twinned for at least 130ish years.]

Page 7 -

Page 7 of 'Everything'

"A Mage never seems to part with information that is not obscured completely by riddle and mystery...

"Nothing made it explode for there was nothing anywhere. No life, no planet, no rock, no water, fire or air, no time and no nothing."

"What a lode of scrag!" exclaimed an exasperated Orddk. "I know all about explosions, you need something to explode, any fool can see that... Come on, Mage, we want the truth, not vagaries and fancy!" It always amazes me how a Dwarve of less than a century can be so rude to a being that was born before the founding of the races (and ultimately had a hand in it, but we shall come to that...)

Orddk the Dwarf, smoking his pipe. The Mage sign of the Mage of Waun Fach is above his head.

"Never-the-less," continued the mildly inebriated Mage "I am informed by those who study such things that the absolute void that failed to exist before the beginning wasn't there, and then it exploded, and ceased not to exist."

So much for Magish knowledge.

A Dwarvish mining explosion.

What we do know for certain is that there was an explosion! The Dwarves are..."

Page 8 -

Page 8 of 'Everything'

"...the cheif source of knowledge on this. The mistics of the lowwer Queendom[s] of the Dwarves, known as the Maids of Rock, have gathered samples of rock from accross the globe (including some plucked from the sea bed by the Sea-Nation [Sea-Elves]. Indeed it was for this purpose that the Dwarves first invented the under-water-boat, or 'Carreshran', a craft now sinonimouse with the Sea-Elves.).

From these samples they where able to tell that the oldest parts of teh planet had been melted some 600 million years ago, though some say it was 3,500 or even 6,000 million, which fits with the anciant Dim Lwis tribes conviction that mother Earth is 5,005,206,993 years old.

It seems probable that at its formation the earth was like a globe of molten magma like a bead dropped by an incompetent glass-blower. They also theorized, when it was proven by the sea-nation that the earth was round, and not flat like lead poured upon the floor, as previously thought, that the Earth formed a globe in the same way that a molten mettle will form a ball when dropped off teh top of a tall tower (though in the earth's case we haven't reached teh bottom yet!) The Dwarves where also instrumental in t the Western Elvish descoveies by providing (for the pricey sum of..."

The Carreshran, or submarine boat of the Elvish sea-nations

[On the Carreshran - This is a peddle powered boat tht is made out of a hollow tree trunk and weighted with lead. It swims like a cross between a jelly-fish and a dolphin, with opening and shutting fins on its side that run back and forth along rails and open and shut simply by being pulled through water. The pod attached to the roof floats on the surface when the craft is near the surface and internal peddle powered bellows allow a transfer of air. They are buoyed to float just above the surface, and most simply used forward motion and tilted tail to descend. Some, however, compress air and take in water to be steadier when deeper down. All Carreshrans are incredibly dangerous, which perhaps accounts for their popularity amongst the sea-nation.]

Page 9 -

Page 9 of 'Everything'

"... 10,000 pit props a year) the Stella Eye, a vast Double Lens, set on the steadiness rock on the continent, that could plot the movement of the stars. It was found, over many, many years, that all stars, being distant suns and planets, moved from a central point, the ancient heart of the explosion...

~Tad~"

"The Stella Eye"

Western Elvish Astronomy is a complex process, akin to meditation, based on the premise that while complex thoughts and consideration can be paid to the cosmos, the information gleaned is ultimately useless. This lack of purpose is said to be its ultimate accolade, improving the soul without directing it.

Inside the Stella Eye. Some Dwarves consider this devise diabolical (studying the roofless chaos), but the Hive that created it was in desperate need of Elvish wood.

Cara and the Running of the Deer

2011-02-01T15:47:00.000Z

"Cara - a Galmearan at the Temple of the High Sun"

"Cara - a Galmearan at the Temple of the High Sun, preforming a ceremonial rite called "The running of the Deer". This seasonal right is preformed in late spring, and is in veneration of the end of the Hungry Spring and the coming of the Bounteous Spring.

The ceremony starts the night before with a fine feast of new fresh food and a long sleep by a warm fire.

Galmearan

Then, before the sun is up both Galmearan and deer take to the forest floor. The Galmearns where cloaks of leaves and have masks that are made up to look like deer, and bare a symbol of the sun on their brow. The stags amongst the deer have their velvet covered antler buds gently bedecked in moss. Those who use magic to retain their antlers year on year will through moss from the ground all over the heard.

The day is then spent running from sunny glade to sunny glade in a sort of hide and seek / tag with the sun and each other. There may be more to it than this, but I could not get any sense from anyone, except that at some point honey is consumed.

I have no idea what they do if it rains, though my guess is that the day is not date dependent.

Cara, the Galmearn pictured here, paused long enough to be drawn. I had met her on a previous visit to the Freelands when she was a girl, siting by the fire one night in the border lands of Kreyic while me and her parents had traded skins for long knives. She and my son Eshran communicated, as children can, without the use of words. I still have the crude wooden deer they devised from a pine cone. I was amazed to find her again and have the pleasure of seeing her grown into her own person and enjoying the theatrical delights of the Temple of the High sun - the closest Galmearans have to a city dwelling.

The infectious glee of the day was hard to contain, and as Cara ran off after a passing troop of galloping and bellowing deer I found myself yelping with laughter and spinning madly on the spot at the joy of being alive.

Red Deer Hind

If it hadn't have been for that wild moment I doubt the wild boar would have minded my presence, nor that beautiful red hind have found me and carried me to safety on the most exhilarating ride of my life. There is nothing like a face full after face full of leaves at 50 miles to the hour to get the blood flowing and the heart thumping. I know now a little of why so many Galmearans are addicted to riding deer!

At the end of the day somehow rider and deer have found each other, and the Galmearnan-less deer and the deer-less Galmearans have generally paired up for the day and everyone (including very small children) charges thought the woodland at breakneck speed to the top of the biggest hill to watch the sun set. A great cheering and bellowing goes up from the time the sun touches the horizon to when it finally vanishes behind it, rising up the hilltop as the graying light first touches those lower down till at last the tallest Galmearan standing on the antlers of the largest stag at the hills crest is cast into the shadows and silence. Everyone then melts back into the darkness with the stealth that only deer and Galmearans can master. I do not know where they went. It took me two days to find my way back to the temple - my Gods was I hungry!"

Female of the Dwarvish Race

2011-01-30T10:11:00.002Z

"Chjurat - A female of the Dwarvish race"

"This young Dwarvish woman has only come to the surface colony of Garthvanitborgoch in the last few days. Most Dwarvish women find they do not like the surface, and prefer the security of the deep Dwarvish Queendoms. They are, however, generally very fine craftswomen and the surface is home to a few masters of certain crafts that are so skilled that apprentice women may come up to study under them. Female Dwarves on the surface (with a few exceptions) are generally quiet and subdued, though it is said this is not the case in the deep caverns, where their complicated society can often lapse into entire weeks of wild song and dance, and heavy drinking is the norm.

"Young female Dwarvish apprentice"

Th young woman pictured - called Chjurat - was reluctant to talk to me - I think I was the first non-dwarf she had seen. However after the consumption of some of her Fjoar (algal beer) she told me a little of the role of women in a Nazouralian Dwarvish hive. Apparently they hold a lower (and thus more important) place in the society, being the roots of the culture. Only certain males permitted to dwell in the lower Queendoms - namely children who have yet to reach adulthood; 'fathers' (sort of communal uncles for the hive children); apprentices learning a trade from skilled artisan women; and the elderly Dwarvish men who can retire there. The next level up, the Kingdom, is mainly male, with only apprentices, merchants and artisan crafts women being frequent visitors from below. Most long term courting is done as apprentices. Between the two places is a tangled maze of public drinking halls, frequented by Dwarves of both genders. The surface (where Chjurat and I where) is pretty much considered a wild and uncivilized frontier, only useful for trading for exotic surface materials, such as wood.

Chjurat was pleasant company, with a much louder voice when drunk, and a wicked laugh. Her beard (female Dwarves posses finer quality beard hair than their male counterparts) was platted in loops, the latest fashion amongst the young women of the deep, and wore a long leather apron over a fine spider-silk tunic and decorated iron boots. Behind her , built into the apron, was two iron candlestick holders, designed so that they where behind the head, preventing blinding, yet being double cast no impenetrable shadows. She professed no particular love of the adventure or romance of the surface but had great respect for her craft, and it was only with certain surface masons that she could perfect some of the finer points of a mason. Male Dwarves where uncustomarily polite around her and she treated them with the same respect if they where elder, or regal benevolence if they where younger. However there was some disapproval of her behind her back amongst certain traditionalists for having talked for so long to a surface stranger.

The day after our meeting I found Chjurat had been directed to undertake some masonry in the deeper caverns while I was given a tour of the merchant quarter of the surface and was persuaded to part with both spices and gold in return for a collection of fine paints and stains. I never met with her again."

Carpet Page for Book One : Birth of "Ddoe" (Everything)

2011-01-29T22:33:00.000Z

Birth (Ce)

"Ce - 1"

Gaer Elvish (Calobelvan) Translation -

"Birth / Start / Creation / Turning / Increasing / Spiral - Book 1"

[The term Ce - pronounced 'key' - is a complex one and can mean any of the above, or more likely in this case a sort of amalgam of them all.]

"Birth - Book 1"

"5 ~ 5 Abail"

[Page 5 created by the Elves of Abail]

Some Exploits in Dwarvish Caverns

2011-01-28T16:14:00.009Z

Nazouralnittotzu

Fragment #1

"Some names of the primary surface hive vents and mine exits, and their meanings

Druckborghaw - "Forest Defensive-tower" - An isolated fortress colony. The tower in question is the outer protuberance of the inner fortress, fasioned in a large mountain stack surrounded by a coniffer forest managed for pit props.

Gunkglalgchanagan - "Woman of the sky natural cave" - An old and mystical Dwarvish hive mouth set in a land studded with many vast natural caves, the largest of which takes the form of a miniature womb-cave of a deep Queendom, the main difference in form being that it is open to the outside along one edge. It is believed a sky goddess denned up here to birth her children the bats.

Oddachailhjorigork - "Nobel Chailh's Grand Eating Hall Fortified Cave Complex" - The name of this wealthy hive fort was left over from imperial days. Who Chailh was is a matter of conjecture, though presumably the 'Gork' (Fortified Cave Complex) was added to the name later as the settlement grew. This has long been a center for industry, harnessing the water of the Fwndyke Gartian.

Nordemriecargor - "Northern Pit-Shaft" - This settlement also dates back to imperial times, only this was more of a gulag for dissident Dwarves. Although harsh to look at it is rumored to lead to some of the deepest and oldest Nazouralian Queendoms.

Borgbarddalm - "Defensive Smith" - Know for it belligerent and highly skilled artisan smiths. Where travelers go to who wish to own high quality weaponry .

Olingskogslesvig - "Hidden Hall Complex" - Not much is known about this subterranean city, other than it is very large and has a surface exit.

Ddraeleng Trass - "Frail Mountain" - this mighty mountain copper mine is so riddled with shafts and adits that to walk across the surface is to risk almost certain injury. However, being Dwarves they could not countenance open cast mining and thus the removal of the almost pure copper mountain, so the entire thing is diligently propped and banked by a dedicated team of engineers.

Garthvanittborgoch - "Gorge of the Defensive Hole"

Garthvanittborgoch - the capital mine exit of Nazuralnitotzu

The capital mine exit of Nazuralnittotzu, the secret fortified gorge from where the Rebel Dwarves held off both the empire and the revolting Human and Elvish slaves. It has never been captured. The mountains around are black from the coal smoke it belches day and night, venting the deep forges of the King and Queendoms bellow. It stands on some of the best veins of lead and silver in the north. Though these days the upper levels are open to non-Dwarvish travelers, snooping bellow the first line of inner defenses is treated with very well organised intolerance - I still have a lump on my shin bone from my arrest.

Nordott - "Stone Land/Rock" - Where the best building stone comes from.

Dugach Borgoch - "King Defensive Hole" - An entrance to a hive of Dwarves who owe their lineage to rebels who lived independently in secret in the days Empire. Off the beaten track - her residents are closed and private even to other Dwarves - they are known in Dwarvish circle to be a bit in-bred. Her artisans know everything about underground food cultivation however.

Stordonafagel - "Bright/Colourful Palace Quarry" - This place is amazing in the Dwarvish world on three counts - Firstly the main surface settlement is not in solid rock but on deep deposits of highly varied clay. Secondly many of the mines and pits are open to the sky - many even 'open-cast'. Thirdly is its shallow nature - only a few hundred feat deep. It is the home of the pigment mines which Nazouralians use to decorate their halls. There is a thriving and vibrant culture here of singing and fighting and the arts. It is also peculiar for having little regard for the gender boundaries in force in most of the rest of Nazuralnittotzu - Male and Female Dwarves mix freely and some Dwarves are known to have lived here all their lives without visiting the deep places. A plaice to experience the true strength of Dwarvish Beverages. I would name them if I could remember anything about them.

Sjocargor - "Deap Pit-Shaft" - This place is almost the exact opposite of Stordonafagel - gray and conservative and intolerably dull. I shall say no more about it, other than Dwarves who have visited its deeper parts say if anything the conservativeness increases with depth.

Asen Gorg - "Gold Fortified Cave Complex" - An outpost for other Dwarvish outlying hives to trade with. Unbelievably rich. Most caverns will be lined with gold or obsidian or marble in tasteless excess. Far too gauche for me."

Fragment #2

"Nazouralnittotzu - once the rebellious frontier region of the old Dwarvish empires, an exile home for the unpopular and the destitute of the old deep King- and Queen-doms of the Dwarvish homelands, and now the one of the only surviving Dwarvish regions from that dreadful and amazing time in this part of North Eastern Ottarol. While there are isolated mountains around in the north where clannish hives of Dwarves carry on in the face of their isolation, Nazuralnittotsu is the only purely Dwarvish fully functioning country to survive.

"Skroam Blackbeard - surface leader of Durik Yolt, a lone mountain hive in the far north. This young Dwarve is almost unbelievably cunning, ruthless and loyal to his hive - a paragon of his people."

If you walk the corridors and caverns of this amazing relic of empirical Dwarvishnes you would be forgiven for thinking you where stepping back into the heart of those industrious times, but you would be mistaken. The Dwarves here are fiercely independent - all their songs and ballads relate to the brave souls who stood up against the old empire, who dug deeper than any official from the true heartlands could have guessed at, who formed deep secret kingdoms in the hot rock of the under-mantle and womb-like Queendoms even beneath them. And so it was that when the rebellions of the servants and slaves of the empire finally bought its vast reign crumbling mightily into dust this corner of the old Empire carried on. Here they kept few non-Dwarvish slaves - it was Dwarves who did the work, here they where themselves slaves , but clever slaves, artisan slaves, rebel slaves - and yet, and yet...

One of the battlement corridors of the cliff side walls used to keep the mountain border with Gaer cleanly defined

They where still Dwarves, still capable of amazing societies, of amazing organization of amazing energy and invention. This is how Nazuralnittotsu survived the post-empirical genocide, when Human and Elvish slave rose up and murdered Dwarvish master, and how, even a thousand years on they have never transgressed their own borders, nor allowed them to be transgressed..."

Fragment #3

"Dwarvish coridor decoration -

Plain surface corridor

A fighting corridor on a surface portion of the deference's of the mountain border with Gaer. These corridors are hurriedly made and un-decorated. No paint is used because the sunlight will fade the colours within a few hundred years, and this brief spell of time is just not worth building for. Some are decorated by apprentices first learning thier craft.

The deepest that I could get in Garthvanittborgoch.

Another Dwarvish warning door. I regretted choosing this one.

This was the deepest I could creep before being caught in Garthvanittborgoch. The bat wing labyrinth above the doors is a representation of one of the defensive strategies of a Dwarvish cavern. Two of the doors are connected by a vast winding corridor, while only one leads down to the next level. Picking a door at random may simply get you a few days (or more) of walking up and down stairs laced with traps. The iron bindings on the doors are secret symbols to help choose the correct door.

Decorated ceiling from Oddachailhjorigork

This Ceiling was from one of the oldest and deepest parts of Oddachailhjorigork that I could access. As always an image of Make the Goat God of mine collapse stairs down to frighten the real god away. on the cusp of the barrel roof are makers marks and possibly some initials in old Gogian script. these give the families of all the Dwarves who worked on this section of hall.

The runes around Make read - "Mak - Nila Gau - Nit Arcon" - "Make - hunter of - the slopes". This is a reference to the belief that Make dwells on the surface (proving his diabolical nature) and only comes bellow to hunt the incautious Dwarves who have not given due diligence to their work. The labyrinth along the spine of the roof can be followed. In ancient times this gave knowledge of the way ahead to the initiated, but now this knowledge seems to be lost."

Pressed Flowers

2011-01-27T23:36:00.001Z

[These two pages of pressed flowers where found in a half finished anthology of cartography, sandwiched between a political diagram of Kreyic and a large attempt to map all of north eastern Ottarol. I have no idea why he collected them, but Faadon Naano seems a dreamy kind of a fellow, given to following his fancies...]

"Herbs from the forests of Mwn, in Kreyic."

Fragment #1

"A few herbs from the forests of Mwn, in Kreyic, collected one time when my brother said a prince had 'summoned' me for some kind of tedious address thing. In a few ways I regret not going. Getting my boat - Acreshi - out of that Human harbor unscathed took quite a bit of planning, what with all those bailiffs and guards all over her, but it had been such a lovely sunny day for a walk, and the woodlands looked so appealing... Still, at least that boring prince never got to see my face, should we ever cross paths again! My brother is still angry about it though. Cost him an illustrated map of the forests to cheer that prince up again - said it took him two months just walking the ground!"

"Medical herbs collected in Zingomoogaer."

Fragment #2

"A few medical herbs collected in Zingomoogaer from an olive grove in spring. The Elvish folk here are so much more to my temperament than those stuffy Human nobles. Is it not the case that a lazy evening by a bonfire is a far more pleasurable place to quaff ale than some dusty hall full of speeches and etiquette and standing up and sitting down on command?

Having said that, an anonymous looking Elvish tribal leader insisted that I attend some kind of solemn crop blessing thing tomorrow at noon, all long chants and intense 'meaningful' expressions, so it looks like an early start. The tide turns an hour before dawn..."

The Heron Clan

2011-01-26T19:27:00.001Z

"The Heron Clan, Darngaer"

"The Heron Clan are small but significant. Primarily a fisher clan they number just over 50 (2330 Kreyic Calendar). They range over one of the busiest routs for trade vessels between Nazuralnitotzu and Darngaer, on marshland near Farin."

Book of "Ddoe" (Everything) - Introduction

2011-01-26T14:53:00.002Z

[This introduction has many paragraphs in an Elvish tongue that can be quite hard for those used to the common tongue. Please bare with it. If it is too much of a challenge, simply enjoy the pictures.

This unfinished book appears to have been destined for the Library of the Mage of Waun-Fach. It was a joint collaboration across races, for which this was a second draft - an attempt to set out the illustrations and text. Unfortunately this version, condemned to the basket of Faadon Naano, was incomplete. Faadon's connection to the book is through Pip Cerrig, his nephew. Pips father is Karl Cerrig, the map maker of Kreyic who is either Faadon's brother or half brother. Certainly for a man that high up in the hierarchy of human Kreyic Karl seems to have an unusual touch of the Elvish about him, and cannot bring himself to live too long away from the sea...]

Front Cover

Front cover of "Ddoe"

"Ddoe" [Dd pronounced as in a hard Th]

[Gaer Elvish (Calobelvan) translation - "Everything"]

Page 1

Page 1 of "Ddoe"

"Ddoe - 1(12)(11)3(11) - Lalsadaceocal"

Gaer Elvish (Calobelvan) Translation -

"Everything - 39,915 [years] away from creation"

"Everything - 22222 AC"

[A.C. = "After creation" - Quite a discrepancy! I suspect Human/Elvish disagreement!]

"Vaga ma negal enimova o mo fuaninanl enimofuain o Abalyo nuf mo ilmiranke o mo Shamail astaen; mo Grit Pip Serig o Glascwm Mawth, enimopinscfoarinan o Craic; Aarrddc, ma Dongil enemofoarin; Tad, ma Grit lwis; and Ewis, ma Galimean lalins.

~*~

Ddade:- Mo o ar nuf enimov o mo astaen o lara ar fi o fechmhoor ig sadar mo erins o lara cal met a ceremay erin astaen o mo ca ma blar sadar foarin o lara mhor."

Direct Translation from Gaer Elvish (Calobelvan) to the common tongue -

"Of a combined writing of the master scholars of Abalyo use[ing] the broken-birth of the Sharmail [Priest-meeting spot] ?Library?; the Human Pip Cerrig of Glascwm Mouth, 'out-loud reader' of Kreyic; Orddk, the Dwarvish scholar; Tad the Human nomad; and Ewis, a Galmearan refugee.

~*~

Quest:- the because is use writing of the knowledge of all is known of the history flow, towards the present of all folk are, and help build knowledge of the many a soul/spirituality towards the mastery/full knowledge of all spirits/will. "

"Sharmail"

[The illustration shows an interpretation of the old writing houses of Sharmail, where on warm still days the side panels of the room could be removed to allow the light in. This scholar and his room show some classic examples of grown furniture and architecture. In some cases additions to the library where planned three generations in advance in order to allow the correct pieces to be grown. You can see here the prominent use of tree-nails. Above the scholar on the wall are a few of the old spirit-signs of the Elvish people. This picture is late in the day for Sharmail, for it depicts the use of iron bindings, and more importantly, of books. Early Sharmail only housed scrolls.]

Page 2

Page 2 of "Everything"

"Ce O Mo Enimova"

Direct Translation from Gaer Elvish (Calobelvan) to the common tongue -

"Birth Of The Writing"

"Origins of the writing.

The Elves of Abailgor used the part of the library that was taken from Sharmail, seat of Gaer-Elvish knowledge since pre-6000AC. in 20882AC, when Wingaer dissolved, to Abailgor, the peace-meeting site of all the ancient families of northern old Gaer. This contains snippets of knowledge from the ethereal Mage Monilan [Mage-sign], who has long deserted the Elvish Shore. They also used the extensive annuls of the guardians of Aldurelws, who met with many travelers, including the Galmearan, as they passed through the pass of Minabiag and recorded these tales for posterity...

Other sources used where:-

The library of Pip Cerrig, being compiled over many centuries by his family and thought to be the largest in Kreyic;

The open parts of the libraries of Waun-Fach and Tiron, the former thought to be the most comprhensive on Ottarol, and the latter containing most of the languages ever spoken and many more besides;

The minds of Orddk and Ewis, who hold the history of their people, and that of Tad, who has also many tales from teh more removed parts of the east.

Pip Cerrig."

[Some discussion on illustrations and symbols -

There are three Mage-signs used. Monilan's is in its origional form , while Tiron and Waun-Fach are both slightly elaborated. Waun-Fach is thought to have got his sign from the ear of the silver Lynx, his preferred host before the coming of Humans. Tiron is thought to be linked to Wood-Sorrel, but no-one knows why. Very little is known of Monilan.

Mage-signs are used when writing about Mages as they use shape rather than sound in the Faerie dimensions to communicate.

Tiron Mage-sign

Monilan Mage-sign

Waun-Fach Mage-sign

This Rune of dragonic protection (bellow) is used frequently by Elvish, Dwarvish and some Human cultures. It represents the balance of the Physical, Conscious and Faerie.

Dragonic Rune of Protection

Karl Cerrig is the father of Pip Cerrig, and Pip continues to use his fathers logo on his official projects. the use of Faadon Naano's logo is interesting. Although he is not credited for this project the use of his sign, coupled with the fact that this book has turned up in a collection of his old notes, suggest he was intimately connected with it...


Faadon Naano's sign

Karl and Pip Cerrig's sign

This picture is of the group working around a round table. Orddk is on the left, then comes Pip, then Ewis, then an inebriated Tad. The style of the archetecture suggest they are at Pips house in Glascombe Mouth, Kreyic. As the Abailgor elves would not travel this far it begs the question - who did the drawing? Could it have been Faadon Naano?]

Around the round table

Abailgor? Or Sharmail...?

Page 3

Portraits of the writers

[The dry fallen leaves represent the old leaves of paper used to compile the text. The snake, with its triple tongue, hinting at the Dragonic rune of protection, represents a renewal of these old texts, a sloughing of old hardened skin of rivalry and a restoration of balance.]

Ewis

[Ewis is depicted with the mountains of Nazuoralnitotzu in the background, returning to the old hunting grounds of her people and living off the rich fruit that grow there.]

Orddk

[Orddk is pictured in a Dwarvish doorway at Farin, just inside Darngaer, where he comes from. This is a place of peace in the face of hostilities from all surrounding people, a mixing place for Elish, Human and Dwarvish traders. Above his head is the goat god who terrifies the superstitiouse Dwarvish miners. The only thing that scares this god of mine colapse is his own image, hence it is everywhere in Dwarvish towns around Nazuralnitotzu.]

Pip Cerrig

[Pip Cerrig depicted in the simple robes in fashion at the moment in Kreyic, with a background of one of the shelves of his library.]

Tad

[Tad is a Moryan, a 'Gypsy' as some say. Her name is not her real one - as with all Moryan to avoid trouble they use pseudonyms based on their real names. Her pseudonym, she has said on occasion, is a shortening of Tadpole, but no-one believes her. Here she is seen growling at the illustrator, a typical pose for this player of theater. Behind her is one of the vans of her people. Undoubtedly it is not hers. No Moryan would want to go down in print with too much reality around them encase it turned around and bit her.]

The Abail Elves

[This is a group portrait of some of the Elves who helped with the book. Typically for their people not only are the scholars depicted, but so are the fisher-people who fed them, the camouflaged warrior who guarded them and hose-keeper who cooked and cleaned for them. On Abail all these duties are considered necessary parts of writing a book.]

"My Wife"

2011-01-25T10:43:00.002Z

"My Wife"

Fragment #1

"My wife, studying one of her rare bardic texts. My curiosity is only matched by the depth of her soul."

"By the light of the sunset"

Fragment #2

"By the light of the sunset my wife composes her lays. Today, far from any land, I listen to the gentle slap of water against the hull and reconnect with the fierce peace of the Sea-Elvish side of my ancestry. I love my life! Salt on the lungs and lips... To drift from Continent to Continent with my most beautiful wife, listening to her songs and stories - how she twists and twines simple communication into passions as deep as the ocean or as high as the sky, darts them through the minds of her audience as quickly and as delicately as a fish among the coral, and how she tolerates my insistent need to dissect fish eyes on the galley table...

Damn, reminds me, I left the puffer-fish guts where the baby can reach it..."

'Cat-Faced' Galmearan woman in winter garb.

2011-01-23T21:37:00.000Z

Galmearan woman

"Galmearan woman, from one of the 'Cat-Faced' tribes in winter wraps. Her earring is bone. Her under-poncho is bark-cloth and bog-cotton traded for honey with neighboring groups. Her outer wrap is bear skin. She carries a sharpened digging stick."

A map of the "Elvish Shore" (slight nudity)

2011-01-21T15:25:00.004Z


A map of "the Elvish Shore" by Faadon Naano

The Elvish in this banner reads "[th]e elvi[sh] [sh]ol" - The 'l' at the end must be a miss spelling - it should be 'r', the character to the right.

Green Man from above map

We will look more closely at the main map later, but for now will content ourselves with the border. The pattern of spiraling vegetation is a variation on an old Elvish one. In the modern age, when the Elvish peoples feel themselves to be in somewhat of a winter for their race on this part of Ottarol it is without leaves, except for close against the green man, the symbol of the green god who gave life to the paper which made it. This means the original (perhaps this is the original) was drawn on Gaer tree-paper, rather than Vellum.

A similar green man from a much older Elvish map

The depiction of a Dragon and a Unicorn is also an old Elvish devise. These two beings are believed to be the creatures most in balance between the three substances of matter, consciousness and faerie.

Dragon from the map above

Unicorn from the Map above

Unicorn from an older Elvish Map

The beings at the top are a reference to the fact that though this area is referred to as the Elvish Shore this is an anachronism. Now there are Dwarves and Humans living in this area, and the Elves are no longer a united race but split into countries.

Forest Elve

The first depiction is of a traditional forest dwelling Elve of Gaer. With longbow in hand and curved blade by side this being carries the long banner of history in their hand.

Dwarve

Next comes the fearsome Dwarvish iron clad warrior who first arrived in this land in the early days of their ancient empire. Now they inhabit rebeliouse Nazuralnitotzu and certian remnant townships on the Western Plateau. They bare aloft the broad axe of their people, symbolizing the cutting and the carving out of these lands into nations. The Galmearans who they drove out of these lands are not depicted.

Plains Elve

Here is the long legged Plains Elve of Cananshall. Although their people roamed the area before the coming of the Dwarves it is only through the deforestation of the Dwarvish Empire that their current lifestyle fully developed. They are depicted carrying an atlatl, two small spears to through it with and a long barbed spear. The atlatl symbolizes the length of their limbs, the two darts their speed and dispersed population. The long spear symbolizes their own unconquerable strength. Above them fly two birds symbolizing freedom, and beside is a mobile tipi symbolizing that they are forever on the move, while no Plains Elve can be depicted without a horse!

Human

Lastly is the Human. in an old pot helm and a hunting spear. Faadon Naano has chosen to depict them as the noble but poor beings they where originally when they came to these shores. This is probably because given the choice between the northern Kingdom of Brach, with its often overblown and cruel leaders operating in a strictly feudal society, and the Common Lands of Brach to the south where an older and more democratic system based of gift giving and bravery is in force, Faadon felt the later better fitted the flow of history. The castle depicts their reliance on these structures, and the banner planted in the earth depicts how reliant they are on personal stakes in land. It is shorter than the elvish banner given their shorter time here. It is also set up to show their historical opposition to the Elvish people.

Compass Rose

At the bottom of the map is Faadon Naano's elaborate illustrated compass rose.

Domtajoyan human and Cheetah

Domtajoyan trade goods

To the left is a dark skinned human from Domtajoya, the Human land in the extreme south-west. Behind him are trade goods symbolizing the wealth of the region, as well as the fact that most contact in the region is through trade rather than conflict. The Domtayoyan man brings decorated carpet, a famous export of the region, a jeweled knife, a snake skin belt and a box of spice. Behind him are the long grasses of the fertile bits of his country and the sacred cheetah of his Savannah. He carried in his hand a ceremonial hammer-axe, as used on state occasions.

Elvish Shaman

Elvish trade goods

The Elvish woman is a shaman from the north eastern Sharmail Island region. (This area is called the Haunted Islands on this map - this is the Human name and serves the purpose of making the surviving underground vaults of this ancient library relatively undisturbed - this is a trick learned from the Galmearan people.) She brings fruit from the forest gardens, a sealed drum of olives from her trade partners in Zingomoogaer, and the vital reason for her continued existence on this island, copies of the ancient elvish books. Behind her is the timid sacred deer of the island, and thick vegetation. Her weapon is the saw-spear, developed from the tools the elves have both used to tend their forest gardens and defend their privacy.

The strait horned cow skull is from the Cananshal region, and the spear looks like the ceremonial spears of Darngaer, both regions central to the map.

Sea-Elvish proverb.

2011-01-20T19:59:00.002Z

A Wangrey in an old book of collected pages copied from the vaults of Sharmail Library

"Gwamling wangrey,

Gor err sallosallay!

A Fleet of Castle-rafts

You are very two faced!

Gwamling = Fleet / many

Wangrey = Floating fortified raft castle

Gor = you

Err = big

Sallosallay = Double faced / human

Meening:- If you have many boltholes to run to, how can you be trusted?

Secondary implication that humans always come to any event with many prepared escape strategies (i.e. they are untrustworthy and cowardly)

Wangrey are only used as a hiding place and hiding should be an admission of defeat. It is dishonorable to attack someone hiding in the tribal Wangrey.

Pronunciation - this proverb is in Rrettirremin, a language where double letters are rolled and all edges sanded down like driftwood"