Ruins as Remains

In classical memory theory, once you memorized something you were essentially stuck with it forever unless you somehow managed to forget it. There was no active process you could turn to which would delete a memorized thing. I believe it was John Chrysostom who spoke of trying to forget information and compared it to mentally burning pages of parchment or papyrus: you would still be left with the memorial ashes, which would in turn trigger an entire sequence of signification that brought to mind the original information anyway. In this way, all ruins are memorial remains—a broken temple, a shattered castle, a burned out villa. As long as anything is left, it serves as a memorial trigger.

But this can be applied to the world at large as well as the mental cosmos. Perhaps not perfectly (for what mental construct can translate without some changes into the real world?) but enough to suit our purposes. We can think through memory here to come to an understanding of ruinous signs and what they portend or foretell.

We must first take stock of the cycles of the world: great wealth and sophistication followed by social decay and ruin. These cycles are not unavoidable, but they have happened in the past. When society suffers decay for whatever reason, technological advances are often lost, particularly in those societies that have heavily specialized means of production (like Rome, for example). During this process, active living places are transformed into ruins. The ruins, however, serve to trigger a memorial sequence that reminds us of what once stood there... as long as we know what the ruins were meant to represent.

As time goes on and the original generations who lived within the memorial-ruins give way to others, the sequence continues pointing to the past... but the construction of the past deviates further and further from the experiences that formed it. Eventually, it may give way altogether: the past as alien construct which the viewer cannot understand. Thus, extremely ancient ruins give way to entirely fictive pasts constructed to explain them while ruins that were made nearer to the viewer's own time period tend to have more or less "grounded" connections.

But ruins are something special; they are not just the remains left behind by other civilizations, they are living semions, signs whose meaning and signification evolve over time. They can point the way to strange and mysterious pasts (as archaeological study would have it) or they can be the foundation of completely new constructions. The most important thing is that the meaning or purpose of the original ruin may not always be clear, sensible, or intelligible. While it is interesting indeed to think of why a thing was made when we design it (and it brings a good deal of flavor to it) we can design ruins that have no purpose, or that had a purpose but that those now in them could not figure out.

A History of Ninfa

Ninfa is the largest island of the Trident Isles, but it is also the name of the city that is located upon that island. The mercantile compact which rules the Tridents (comprised of the Afasen College, the Ivory Coin Traders, and the Guild of the Open Palm) has its headquarters here at Ninfa. The Fleet of the Trident also resides at anchor here, and the Whitestaff Citadel is located on the harbor.

Ninfite and Tridentine history doesn't go back a very long way compared to the ancient settlements of men throughout the north. The islands were colonized in the early Eighth Age, before that having been primarily the dwelling-places of lizardfolk in the low-lying swamps and sahaguin off the coasts. This was during the heyday of Ishtria, long before it was broken into the many semi-independent Dominions that comprise it in the modern age. The Ishtrians had subjugated the Hadashen tribes (which would eventually lead, in the end of the Ninth Age, to the creation of an independent kingdom of Hadash) and had won many wars with their ancient foes, the Khewedi.

Seeking expansion and a foothold into the north, the Ishtrians followed the ancient example of the Khewed kingdoms. Where the Khewedi had sailed to Highstone and Colona to begin their conquest, the Ishtrians required a nearer base of operations and they chose the Trident Isles. For nearly two hundred years the wild islands were tamed. Bounties and mercenary parties did most of the work for Ishtria, drawing many soldiers from across the North to fight and kill and die in the swamps and the coastal tidepools where inhuman creatures still dwelt.

Rumor persisted that the islands had been a place of human habitation in the early ages of the world and that a secret port had been constructed to bring travelers to and from the mythical island-kingdom of Sintarra, but this port was never found. The Ishtrians built a fortress amongst the rocky mountains of the isle of Ninfa and presided over the Trident Isles until the Ninth Age when the Hadashen Tribal Rebellion spilled over into the Tridents and the Tridentine people declared themselves free.

Ninfa proper had been growing ever since the colonization, serving as the chief port for reinforcing the Ishtrian garrisons and moving men and material across the Trade Sea. In the wake of throwing off the Ishtrian shackles, the seat of government in the Isles devolved to Ninfa. A large segment of the Ninfite population was Aellonian, and so Ninfa adopted an Aellonian style of governance for its first centuries. To whit, all men and women who lived on the Islands were declared citizens of the Trident and all future outsiders who wished to acquire citizenship would have to serve the Tridentine government. A single Tyrant was elected to rule Ninfa and thus the procession of the Nine Lawgivers began.

These Lawgivers structured life on the Isles. They fostered the growth of mercantile companies and the inclusion of merchants, helped to quash the rampant piracy and lawlessness of the outlying isles, and constructed the infamous prison-mine, the Creak and Clink. The Lawgivers have lent their portraits (and their title) to the Ninfite platinum coin: the Nines of Ninfa.

After the death of Lawgiver Ahaj in the latter years the Assembly could not choose another to replace him. The Afasen College, which had been founded in Ninfa under the Lawkeepers, forwarded their own candidate but this prompted immediate response from the Ivory Coin Traders (whose ships ferried goods to and from the Onyx Cities on the Zeshimite coast) and the Guild of the Open Hand (which was a known thieves organization). As a compromise, the early 10th Age saw the establishment of a triumvirate of uneasy peace between the three great trade guilds.

However, as the Age wore on, they grew more comfortable with one another. Informal agreements became formalized into governmental structure. The once-dangerous council meetings became routine and the compact settled into the task of governing the Isles. They too repressed piracy, reinvigorated the old Lawgiver's Guard of the Whitestaves, encouraged trade, and paid for the foundation of numerous temples in the city and the outlying Isles. They greatly expanded the Creak and Clink and from it began to extract small fortunes in copper and iron.

These are the Trident Isles of today: fiercely multi-ethnic, fiercely free, and fiercely mercantile. Ninfa stands as the crossroads of the world.

Mundane Items: The Metalogicon

Written in the Ninth Age, the Metalogicon is one of the great works of the central Thyrnessan period. It is a modern interpolation of a more ancient work which collates and analyses diverse philosophies from Aellon and Miles but focusing mostly on the application of logic itself to various philosophical schools. The main elements come from Avaridus' codification of logical systems, but the work itself was authored by a Quilian monk of the city of Miles named Theolendus.

Widely considered to be sacrilegious in its contestation of many details of the so-called revealed mysteries of Orijen and Aeldus (in the record of Hierian faith known as the Scroll of Law), Theolendus Gravus was eventually expelled from his order and forced to live in exile in a land more accepting of his analysis—namely, High Aellon itself. He spent the rest of his days living in Chimeros and dwelling amongst the books rescued from the fall of Byblos.

While not a magical manual (like the Tehkne manuscripts of the Old Empire), the intense study of the Metalogicon can provide one with benefits beyond normal reading. Indeed, anyone who takes the time to read a copy of this revered book and study it over the course of three months can purchase (at no slot cost) the new proficiency Logic (Int -3) which, when checked against, allows the character to make one test or proficiency check as though their wisdom were actually 2 points higher.

Updates updates

Lotta irons in the fire - from looking for a job to running a million games to writing a play, things have just taken me away from the blog. I will resume regular posting soon, hopefully next week.

Stay weird, people.

The Burning Glass and Reading Stones

Optics and lenscraft didn't really hit its heyday until well into the Renaissance, and even then the equations necessary to create extremely reliable lenses weren't developed until centuries later. However, the classical world did have its share of optical science (and the Arab philosophers after the Muslim Conquest had many interesting things to add to the science).

The first thing we'll look at is the so-called "burning glass." The most famous of these is, without a doubt, the lens of Archimedes of Syracuse which was said to set the ships of Rome on fire during the Punic Wars. Whether or not that's true, the burning glass did in fact exist in the classical world and was sometimes in the guise of a transparent urn full of water or of a series of joined mirrors. The sacred fires of classical Greek temples were not to be lit with profane sources, but rather directly with the sunlight—this was how that was accomplished.

Another important development that we can see represented by the Visby Lenses is that it was possible through practice to achieve a magnification technique not equalled by theory and equation until the late 1950s; the Visby Lenses might have been what were known as "reading stones." These are essentially glasses that don't go on your face but rather rest on the document you are attempting to read.

Just some things to think about the next time you want to dole out some treasure... or if you feel like creating some new and interesting magical items.

Harps and Things

In the 10th Age there are, just as in the world of real men and women and harps and things, several families of stringed instrument (many referred to as harps) that are played by the various cultures of the land. Listed here are some videos and pictures as well as brief descriptions of where each instruments hails from.

The Elvish Greatharp - Based on the Finnish Kantele. Sitting and traveling greatharps.

The Eylic Hand Harp - based on the saxon lyre known as a hearpe

The Milean Lyre - based on the Roman lyre

Dwarves play a version of the Eylic Hand Harp known simply and appropriately as the Dwarven Harp.

Other string instruments of common use across all cultures include the lute, the rebec, the viol, and the hurdy gurdy.

The Sage's Sanctuary: Silanoran, the City of Flowers

These pages have been penned by Soroviel the Scholar

In answer to your questions, I have prepared these pages. Within them shall ye find the histories of this ancient city and the legends of its fall. Included as well are the fortunes of the Murastirial house and the legendary Eferian Cloak as well as several of mine own theories regarding its present location and the theories of many scholars since the War of the Moon.

The Founding
The Fifth Age poet Saransiere gained great fame after reporting his sight of a star falling from the heavens. It struck the earth in the midst of the Arvoreen Meadows, many days journey north of that city. Saransiere claimed to have been seeking inspiration and of a night he looked up to see a great tail of fire streaking down from the Vault of the Sky. It gouged from the very earth a great lake, which subsequently filled with water. He dubbed the waters Sillamuravesi - the Moonstear Pool. Word of the wonder spread, for the star was still present in the low waters and many flocked to see it. It was not one of the bright stars valnaseren but rather isseseren or a dark star made of iron rather than pure crystalline minerals.

He built his own home there, and soon thereafter a temple of Senia was founded. Many pilgrims came to drink of the blessed heavenly waters, which were then associated with the Dish of the Moon. Tulians came as well, and a double-foundation was built upon the banks of the pool. The king in that age gave rulership of the city to Saransiere, naming his family Murastar - the tearful.

The Flowering Circle
The Murastirai loved Silanoran with great fierceness. As the Tywyn of the city, Saransiere's nephew Alascorin caused to be builded there the Flowering Circle. Some ways from the Valnatula river, amongst the great wide meadow of blossoming asphodel, goldenrod, and meadowsweet, there was constructed this great circle of the Silver Road. It brought many more pilgrims to Silanoran and eventually the kings of Arvorienna deigned to construct a summer palace there by the waters.

The Love of Anunia
The city was considered very holy for its double-temple, but more important to the Murastirial line was the worship of Anunia, the Lord of the Wind. They constructed many temples and monuments to the Wind Lord and oft there was poetry performed along the shore of the lake in his honor. The hosts of Silanoran marched beneath a triple banner of Senia, Tulia, and Anunia and they were known as the Varimornan hosts or the Armies of the Three Colors. These knights came to be protectors of Arvorienna and the lands south, and fought in several of the Arvoreen Wars against the Anarean folk as well as in the Wars of the Lance against the goblins.

Tulomor Murastar, Tywyn of the City in the year VI.337 and also Windspeaker of Anunia in that time, was given a great gift by the temple: the Eferian Cloak which was said to be woven of the fabric of the heavens itself.

The Cloak of Eferus
Imbued with the spirit of the West Wind, the Eferian Cloak has many and sundry powers associated with its use. Since no Vesimian document ever speaks of its recovery, I am forced to believe it lies within Silanoran still. Many scholars believe that the cloak was spirited from the city... but I do not believe this to be the case, elsewise it would have surfaced in the years since.

The Enätys Silanoranin Murastirai reads:

VII.37 -- The delegate from the Mount of the Winds outside of Aroviënna has gifted our lord, Tulomor, with a great aegis. It is called the Cloak of Eferus, and many mannish and elvish artisans labored to complete it. The mantle is of the finest blue brocaded with golden and orange thread from Meirienia. It has been laid about with many enchantments, and the Windseer promises that he who wears it shall never come to harm.

While the Festal of the Moon War furthermore says:

In the year 688 the royal family was utterly destroyed. The news came to the Tower of the Sun-Watchers by fateful messenger. Tyrmaa is a small settlement, so we received word later than everyone else. That has always been the way as long as I have dwelt there. King Morfínderon poisoned, Queen Luvoristen put to the sword… the Summer Palace attacked...

Silanoran itself, gem of the northern coast, was sacked only days afterwards. We heard of the cities' defense: the Murastirai with their bladedancers, the retreating highborn guard… but the Vesimian armies poured from the Flowering Circle like endless rain. Turoëlayn Murastiran was said to have personally accounted for some fifty Vesimän bladesmen, for he wore the mantle of Eferus. 

Whether Turoëlayn escaped, we do not yet know, but there are many who claim the Murastirai hoards where sealed in their tombs against the invasion when the foes could no longer be held. I doubt that any but one of that family could open those crypts, so at least we need not worry about the Vesimän soldiery taking hold of their treasure-host and turning those weapons upon us.

Se Lange Silanorin contains the following passages:

All the southern meadows were afire. The Vesimän sotamnai burned everything upon emerging from the Asentanith Ympera (Flowering Circle) so that they could hold mastery over an empty landscape and not be attacked from the high grasses. They surrounded the Summer Palace and soon garrisoned it with their forces. For a week or more a brief and fierce war raged in the city between the ever-expanding sotamnai of the Vesimäns and the Murastirai in the city. At the forefront of the fighting was Turoëlayn Murastiran, clad in the Eferian Cloak and wielding the sword Valosbrén (Bright-silver). 

The sotamnai overwhelmed his forces and scattered bones before the gates of his palace. Turoëlayn himself was lifted up onto the shoulders of the men and then thrust within his vault. They closed the door and the noranai took control. They heard his screams of indignation, but not a nouriso among them knew how to open his locks.  

Whether the Cloak was buried or hidden before the last Murastar, Turoëlayn, was imprisoned in his own vaults I cannot say. However, there is a scholar who lives within the city known as Alomyr who may know more of this matter, having studied it for many years from a position of relative safety.

The Fall
Silanoran was undone by the Flowering Circle, for it was through this entryway that the Vesimian forces attacked. There was a desperate stand at Saranor Tower, where the Varimornan Sotamnai destroyed the bridge that forded the Valnatulva. The foes camped in what was then the Old City, quartering in the city buildings. This became their foothold in Silversong for many years. Several strikes towards Arvorienna were turned aside only with the aid of the Green Wizards.

During this time the last few Murastirai founded the Silver Order and joined with the Green Wizards to harry the Vesimians. This caused great destruction near the Well of Sighs (the Battle of the Well) and at the head of the Calodymir Spur (the Battle of Calodymir Bridge). Nevertheless, Vesimian knights held the city for most of the war.

A further note: Queen Lurovisten, who despised her husband Morfínderon, spent most of her later years in the Summer Palace of Silanoran where she was eventually slain by assassins. It is said that the ruins of that place are avoided by all monstrous beasts of the wood, and for good reason.

The City Today
The Moonstear Lake has been sullied by some dark force; the once blessed waters are murky and filled with a strange filth. Reports of adventurers who have dared it speak of a dark shadow beneath the water that circles the mound of the star near its northern shore.

As for other beasts... orcs and kobolds as well as ogres have oft been seen in the southern parts of the city, particularly out on the Charred Mere where the Flowering Circle once stood. I have seen rumor of gnolls from the west having come to the region as well. From time to time Satyrs may emerge from the forest to do their worship at the Fount of Mirth where once they met frequently with the elves. Highmount, in the northwest, has been the traditional approach into the city since the Tellabryn River is fair water and clean (and its bridges have not been destroyed like those of the Calodymir and the Valnatulva) but I have seen reports of ankheg up along the ridge there.