From a distance, all you can see is the rings. The planet is impossible to land on, but we managed to get one probe through the mess.
It found ruins on ruins and in the middle, a society of child-looking humanoids.
I don’t know if rescue is even possible, but we got a message pod through, and, based on discrete sampling by our probe, an aid packet.
Where are the adults? What can we do for these kids?
All right, today we’re figuring out the word for Diplomat, the title for many people to graduate Estiessyaa house.
Let’s see, the English etymology of the word… is one of those weird ones, where state papers come from the Greek word for folded paper.
I’m thinking blunted-spear is the word for diplomacy.
And it looks like I have:
paiterz, snow-spears, with the quote “The Cālenyena call almost everything long and pointy a spear. When all you have is a hammer, etc.”
The Arran/West coast word for spear-leaf: adavijamin (Spear-blade is adavi in that language) Continue reading
Chapter 6-11, Book One: Saydrie
The monitor had come down from somewhere in the north, escorted by two soldiers and walking as if she thought that the ground in the enclave would stick to her and ruin her boots.
The biggest building in the enclave was the Temple of the Three, but instead of that room, she had called them all into the town hall, every child of the appropriate age, past the changing of the voice but before the full adult growth had been reached. Not that most of them weren’t already taller than the monitor, Saydrie noticed, not without some rather unkind pleasure.
She had a list of names and read them off – or attempted to. “Genkee. Zadree. An- Tanton. No, I said Zadree.” Continue reading
For a little fun, I’m going to go back to something I did a long time ago:
What would your name be in Calenyen?
But more than that, what student would you be in Edally? What house would you be in? Talk to me, and we can come up with your Edally/Reiassan name and student!
Here’s one version of Clare’s:
and @rixScaudu’s
Every one of the nine houses of Edally Academy has its own tower (which serves as a dormitory and social area), its own classroom building, its own uniform colors, and its own sigil.
Kaarson House covers Economics and Agriculture: the business, as their current Head of House has said more than once, of living and then of thriving.
Their uniform is fully in the realm of Rienaasanun (Reiassannon in the Bitrani): neutral brown, forest green, and grass green adorn these student of life and the living.
Their sigil is a parsnip, Reiassan’s signature starch crop, a stubborn root that will grow anywhere, even on the side of a mountain, and which can survive most of the natural predators to such things; the parsnip is crossed over the horns of a goat, the animal which serves the Calenyena as meat, milk, and wool source as well as serving as a riding beast.
Bapzhoom House houses those who wish to learn about anatomy and medicine. This school has existed from the very first days, and its uniform being almost entirely in the realm of Mindfulness. Tienaabaa (Bitrani: Tienebrah), the deity of mindfulness and change, cold and thought, is still a matter of some dissension among various groups. After all, Rienaasanun is the deity of healing… Continue reading
First: A New World
Previous: Experimenting with History
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Kael looked between Caron and Hallsey, wondering exactly what she’d said that was getting her such strange looks from both of them.
“Are you offering… to teach us? On something like a regular basis?”
“But not potions,” Hallsey added to her friend’s question. “But like… how to find out history?”
“That depends.” Kael was feeling out her answer as she went, but she was pretty sure she was on the right track. “Do you want to learn potions, history, or both?”
“Are you for real?” Caron stared at her. “Are you really – I mean, what would you charge?” Continue reading
First: The Testers
Previous: The More Things Change…
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Mom Cara shed her white suit, revealing herself to be still rather like herself. “Not everyone has extreme visible changes. I run a few degrees colder than I used to, and I tend to be a little quicker to fly off the handle if I don’t pay attention, but I still look much like myself. And I’m still myself, Kelly-boop. I promise.”
“I believe you.” Nobody had called her Kelly-boop in years. She found herself wrinkling her nose the same way she had back then, before she found out that it would end more quickly than she’d thought. Continue reading
The first thing we did on landing was set up a null-charge shield around our living pods. The lightning storms – “dry lightning”, my granny would say – come down so frequently it was three days before we saw the sun.
Flora and fauna here seem adapted to the storms. Either they have channels for the electricity or they’ve learned to hide from it.
I tell you, a thing that looks like a giant moose with electricity arcing from its antlers is a terrifying sight.
But the mountain cat leaping into the storm was even worse.
We haven’t lost anyone yet, mostly due to an abundance of caution. I’m not sure how long we’ll be able to say that.
We have figured out the trick.
We nearly lost Ewro and Tagked, but we figured it out.
There’s a combination of trees and a certain element that completely repels the lightning.
And certain vines are lousy with that element.
We’re now living in a clearing in the forest under a very nice net-and-canopy that keeps us safe.
And we’re herding Giant Moose and Red Pigs, which are neither really red nor really pigs.
This might work out.
The galaxy is full of surprises.
This planet is very nearly lifeless – scant vegetation, only a few lifeforms, most of the water heavily salinated, burning sun. Humans COULD live there, but only as a last resort.
Yet our first probe found life and civilization.
Not a lot – and it turns out not CONSTANT civilization. No, this place boasts an impressive natural cave system, and in there it turns out there’s a vast smugglers’ hideout.
We left a sneak-probe and took some notes.
I’m starting to think some other civilization is using Subsector 23 as a dump.
Ok, that’s not the weirdest part of 7-23-2. The weirdest part is that the dump – decommissioned ships, from the looks of it, gunners and cargo ships – is set up like we’d set up something with no breathable atmosphere. Double airlock on a dome near the landing bay, a deep underground facility staffed by five life-signs.
Yet the air here is perfect for human life and on the other side of the plant, away from the desert and the dump, is lush, green terrain.
What DO these aliens breathe?
The lightning storms! The wild lightning arcing across the northern hemisphere of this planet! It’s beautiful, albeit deadly.
But the southern hemisphere is just as rich in metal as the northern, and there are wide grasslands and hilly regions between the mountains. The soil might be shallow; there’s metal close to the surface everywhere. But very large herbivores and rather large carnivores roam the surface, even in the north. This planet can sustain life.
We sent a team to see just how MUCH life.
This last star system on the edge of the sector might explain much about the entire sector.
We found a dead planet covered in ruins first, and then a planet almost suitable for humanoid life – covered in far newer ruins. Its satellites – three – were covered in the detritus of what looked liked several wars.
On the far side of the last satellite, we found a small grouping of aliens still alive. We sent down a greeting probe and, with it, a query: Did they need aid or rescue?
They shot a rocket at our ship and nearly managed to hit us.
7.23.3
First – Previous – Landing Page – Next
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He leaned against his Owner, his head on the taller man’s shoulder. “Would you drop your Mask, sir?” He was feeling incredibly brave today.
“I suppose I could do that.” Timaios shifted and, when Ctirad peeked, was stone and horns and still smiling. “I would ask you to do the same, but I’m afraid you would take it as some sort of tit for tat situation.”
Ctirad swallowed. “I like you – I like you liking me, sir,” he offered. “I don’t want to ruin that yet.”
“Do you honestly think, with a Change like this, that anything behind your Mask would bother me, my sweet man?” Continue reading