Some rambeling notes on the Galmearan tribes of the Cochnai

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."

Today I Rage

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.]

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?"