Sea-Elvish proverb.

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"

Sketch of a Sea-Elvish Guardian.

"Sea-Elivish Guardian Heyehea on board the fighting tower "Red Sunset" off western Tuyun, with long distance storm-merchant vessel "Pelaan" to starboard."

[Pelaan = Eider Drake in Rrettirremin, the commonest Sea-elvish language]

Stained Glass Dragon from the Sharmail Library

Close up of dragon Stained Glass

The whole Stained Glass Window as drawn

"Stained Glass from the Sharmail Library. 

Faadon Naano 2404"

Close up of Runes on the tail of the dragon

[The runes on the tail of this Dragon are not Magish as one might expect, but look perhaps Dwarvish.  Either way they are indecipherable at present. They may well be a spell, rather than a written phrase.  The Magish Rune for Dragonic protection is used prominently in the center of the image.]

Musings on the bones of Dragons...

"The Sharmail Library Dragon Skull."

 Fragment # 1

"The Sharmail Library Dragon Skull - sketched in the scant minuets that where afforded me by the zealous librarian."

On the reverse, in an uneven script - 

"Bilge-skinned librarians! She hit me with a book crook, just for trying to touch the Dragon skull.  I thought she was reading!"

"Horse skull for comparison to Dragon"

And in more even script, bellow - 

"My suspicion is that this is a baby skull.  The fontanel is still open, the plates yet to be fused and the egg beak is still intact, and under developed.  A still-born dragon maybe?  It is a mere 3 feet in length.  If their patterns are wedded closely enough to the Organic world the teeth indicate they are not milk feeders!"

Fragment # 2

"Horse Skulls have a similar structure to Dragons, though the latter also owes its form to birds and dinosaurs.  Are they from an Organic lineage??"

Comparison of Dragon and Wolf's leg structure.

 Fragment # 3

"Dragon's leg bones."

"Wolf leg bones for comparison."

"Drawn in a hurry on a beach of the first Island of the Jagraana Archipelago north of Beorg while cowering behind a giant limpet."

"Dragon in "High Walk"" - leg bones

 Fragment # 4

"Crocodiles have a walk called the "Low Walk" and another called "High Walk". It appears that Dragons are in some ways similar..."

"Dragon in "High Walk". My mood:- Concerned."

"Wings (not to scale)" - Bone structure

Ottarolian dinosaur hips and badger hips

Fragment # 5

"Wings (not to scale)"

"My Dragon leg (Jagraana)

Primative Dinosuar (e.g. Central Ottarol)

Pterosaur (e.g. Northern Ottarol)

Bird (e.g. Northern Ottarol)

Bat (e.g. Tuy F'Fowyap)"

"Allosaurus Fragilis Skull"

Fragment 6 #

"Allosaurus Fragilis skull from  Uryupinsk trader, who acquired it in Alaran. Thought to originally have come from Ottarol"

On reverse - 

"Structure of the Fragilis is very open, and in many ways similar to birds and to the Sharmail Library Dragon Skull.  Birds and Dragons fly - Fragilis, as far as I am aware does not.  Is this an adaption for a speedy and fish based diet? More importantly - Why do Dragons have all these poetic resonances with the birds and beasts of the Organic Physical world? If, as I suspect, they are essentially poetic creatures, what does this say about their magical Faerie structures? Do they rhyme as well with the other realms? If only I had had the patience to complete my shamanic training!  Why does the horizon always call so strongly??"

"Allosaurus Fragilis"

In search of Trolls...?

"Troll Rock formation"

"Troll carving?"

Fragment #1

 

"Troll Rock formation from Gortyn. Is there then some truth in the idea that the rare Trolls turn to stone?  Or is this some totemic carving, weathered and cracked?  I did not wait to find out."

"Weathered Troll rock."

Fragment #2

"I have a hunch that Trolls still exist in the southern lands of Gortyn."

 

"Stone Arrow Head"

Fragment #3

"We came to these distant shores in search of the rare Trolls, the aboriginal inhabitants of this ancient lands. But after 3 days walk inland I had seen no sign, no path beyond that animals make, no house nor tent nor sheltered cave, nothing, save this stone found on the second day that might be a primitive arrow head.  I was about to turn back to the coast when the mountain scrub-land cleared and revealed what I have named (in my arrogance) "The Valley of the Ancient Gods".  Around me on the rocky crags are ranged the widely spaced statues (I hope that is all they are) - great heads and torsos of colossal giants with jutting brows and chins, weathered and cracked like they have stood here for eons. Some are clearly the features of Trollish beings while others are so warn by time it takes the presence of the former to correctly divine their form.

"Hurried sketch of Troll rock head. It there a hint of an Elvish ear?"

It was about noon that Elrash reminded me of the rumor that stone and troll-flesh are much the same substance.  I started to sketch, but as the shadows lengthened his words began to play upon my mind, and returning to where only an hour before I had sketched a better preserved specimen I found it not.

We slept that night deep in the under-brush, and heard mighty drums on the heights... We could not find the valley come dawn."

"Sketch of well-preserved Troll statue."

Fragment #4

"Perhaps these rocky Giants I have witnessed where not the Trolls I sought - the old texts speak of true Trolls as not that much bigger than a tall Sea-Elve, though stronger by far. Could instead these vanishing statues have been a wild band of Faerie making a long escapade into the world of the physical, far from the interfering machinations of the magic-fascinated introverts of our organic races?  If so, long let them dance!"

"Sketch of a well-preserved Troll statue. The ear is clearly and distinctly elvish in character.  Why? Where not Humans the mid point between Trolls and the Elvish people?"

Introduction by Faadon Naano

"To who ever finds this basket of leaves: Well Done!

This is the detritus of Faadon Naano, explorer and map maker. I may not b the neatest, or the best read, or the best at spelling, but, by all the Gods and most of the faerie, I am the furthest traveled!

And today I travel yet again - to the frozen wastes beyond Yeno to the ancestral lands of the clever Ice Dwarves, to yield to my curiosity their secrets - and so, as I make my ship, Acreshi (or "Hungry Albatross" in the common tongue), ready for departure I find I am in need of space, and so I release these loose bound thoughts to the winds, a basket of fallen leaves. Do not burn them straight away - the right scholar might pay well for the old notes of Faadon Naano..."