Lore questions.

Arbre

I found a book on it in Anaphiel's house yesterday (which was supposed to be the Bahir'an Manor back in the day).

Neoma

If it's the same book I found, it states in there that Nebre'seir did not create or invent that language and that it came from Yrtez.

Arbre

You open a simple book entitled, "A copy of Nei'srata" to page 1 and begin reading.

"A copy of Nei'srata", Page 1, by Aren Ratek Yaslana.
---------------------------------------------------------
The language of Nei'srata is very ancient, only held up by a few of the
members of House Nebre'seir and kept in great secrecy. For ages the
language was only taught to those of the house who wished to learn it
but, as I see the language dying with the disappearance of the only two
consanguine who -truly- knew it, I feel the need to share with you all
what I have learned in my brief lessons. As said by Qeddwyn, this
language originated with Yrtez and how it got into House Nebre'seirs'
possession is unknown to me other than they simply found it hidden away.
This ancient language is a part of Spirean history and should be used
with respect when spoken.

Veovis

Arbre said:

You open a simple book entitled, "A copy of Nei'srata" to page 1 and begin reading.

"A copy of Nei'srata", Page 1, by Aren Ratek Yaslana.
---------------------------------------------------------

I can't tell you if that's official or not, as far as what Qeddwyn supposedly said. Sarelle and Zahmekoses and I worked on the language for a while and then we all stopped for various reasons. I don't remember anything about the language being Spirean in origin.

Calipso

What exactly -is- Nirvana? How did it come to be?

Ciarelle

Deepest Stygian night steals over the land as the symbolic hourglass empties and turns, ready to begin a new day.

It is now the 16th of Haernos, year 414 of the Midnight Age.

Today is the Day of the Catapult.

What is the Day of the Catapult?!

Aishia

I think it was the day people catapulted themselves into Kerrithrim

Toz

Every part of me desperately wants that to be true, because that's a glorious mental image.

Yusri

It is.

Lin

That's really a thing that happened. Anfini will still declare "HAPPY CATAPULT!" on CT just because saying it makes me hav a giggle m8.

Eleanor

And then when nobody was looking, Osifer took the catapult and dragged it home to put on his porch.

And the best part is, yes, we are dead serious.

Maghak

Calipso said:

What exactly -is- Nirvana? How did it come to be?

It has no real place in the current cosmology, as it predates it by many years, but it could be thought of as a pocket realm forged by the mental power of those who visit it as a whole.

Xavin

Maghak said:

Calipso said:

What exactly -is- Nirvana? How did it come to be?

It has no real place in the current cosmology, as it predates it by many years, but it could be thought of as a pocket realm forged by the mental power of those who visit it as a whole.

Honestly, I always thought it might be some shard of the spirit plane.

Haven

So... it's like the first havens but pre-endgame? I always thought it was just some disconnnected "lower" plane of the heavens that the angels allowed you into considering the messages.

"You beg your guardian to grant escape and a safe refuge."

"Your guardian takes you by the hand and the world begins to fade slowly to black."

"Your mind fills with light as reality fades back into view."

Tada! Nirvana.

Razmael

Damariel said:

Did you know...

...that owing to an overabundance of events involving the shards of the Sword of Truth, saying the word "shards" around Razmael will cause him to ditch you from the game as a kneejerk reaction?

Xavin said:

Maghak said:

Calipso said:

What exactly -is- Nirvana? How did it come to be?

It has no real place in the current cosmology, as it predates it by many years, but it could be thought of as a pocket realm forged by the mental power of those who visit it as a whole.

Honestly, I always thought it might be some shard of the spirit plane.

I feel like you did that on purpose.

Xavin

Razmael said:

Damariel said:

Did you know...

...that owing to an overabundance of events involving the shards of the Sword of Truth, saying the word "shards" around Razmael will cause him to ditch you from the game as a kneejerk reaction?

Xavin said:

Maghak said:

Calipso said:

What exactly -is- Nirvana? How did it come to be?

It has no real place in the current cosmology, as it predates it by many years, but it could be thought of as a pocket realm forged by the mental power of those who visit it as a whole.

Honestly, I always thought it might be some shard of the spirit plane.

I feel like you did that on purpose.

<_<

Maghak

Don't go all to pieces, Razzle Dazzle.

Arbre

Maghak said:

Don't go all to pieces, Razzle Dazzle.

We don't want to have to pick up all the shards and put you back together.

Tina

So seems like it keeps coming up, it is lore, it isn't lore, it was just a story, a myth.  So I'd like clarified once and for all.  Three children prophecy.  Is it a real thing still in our lore, or just a story?  And if it is a real thing, which version is real.  Seems like every org had their own version of it.

Maghak

I don't really see a meaningful difference between 'a myth' and 'a real thing in our lore', to be honest! The Three Children prophecy is part of the Aetolian cultural mythos as well as a facet of the meta-mythos - I'm unwilling to confirm either yes or no. Given that it directly influenced the fall of Kelsys, the wars in the Age of Despair and events spanning well into the current age, it seems like a positive thing that every org has their own version kicking around.

Xavin

The first Child happened pre-artifice. The consensus is generally that the second was the Shadow Mother.  The description of the third Child is vague enough that it could pretty much be anything/anyone.

While I generally don't care for the whole Naldareth line of roleplay, I understand its appeal. That said, I am sort of glad that there's not really any orgs out there anymore with a stated purpose of 'waiting for the third Child'.

Damariel

Haven said:

What's the dominant race in Sapience? Like the one with the largest population/greatest influence? I don't think there is one race...I want to say Sapience has always been org-centric lorewise as opposed to race...right? o.o

This is an interesting question, so I am porting it over from the rage thread and spitballing what I think the answer is.

In short: it depends. Overall, in the present day of Aetolia, Humans would undoubtedly claim the title. You'd probably find a Human majority in a lot of the villages, especially the further south you go; north, Humans form a smaller section of the population. You can observe this in the form of Duiran having a lot of fae creatures, for example - and Spinesreach, both in its NPC and PC population, features a disproportionate amount of Xorani and Trolls.

Also worth pointing out is the fact that there are quite a lot of NPCs who are described ambiguously - the presumption in ambiguous cases is Human, but I would invite you to challenge yourself to see these NPCs other ways.

Many of the race's origin stories presume Human as a starting point, with the other races being special cases; but it is arguable whether there is anything to most of these origin stories. They may be 'just so' stories, told to explain differences between mortals that are not well understood.

The fact remains that according to help files, Humans were not always the dominant race, and probably arose as such during the Third Mortal Epoch owing to a combination of factors. During the First and Second Mortal Epochs, other non-Human empires rose and fell, most notably the Indorani Empire - which was in no way majority Human. Although Humans (or at least, human-like people) formed the core of the ruling class, said empire also used Dwarves, Ophidians, Rajamala, Trolls, Orcs, Ogres, and lots of other southwestern populations as enforcers, shock troops, assassins, spies, and everyday administrators. At that point in Aetolian history, Humans were pretty spread out, with their largest population center in Thera. It's likely that the eastern coast of Aetolia was inhabited by Kelki and Grook majorities, with smatterings of other races.

So in addition to Humans breeding very, very fast, the war between the Indorani and the warriors of Light probably did a lot to significantly diminish various southern populations; if you think that a war occurring centuries ago would have a negligible impact upon present-day populations, bear in mind that there are parts of the world that are still thought to suffer from poverty because of Genghis Khan's brutal methods of conquest - and the Mongol hordes didn't even have supernatural magic on their side, just a lot of guys with horses and bows. That, plus Ankyrean influence (and subsequent Ankyrean wars) probably accounts for the now-massive population disparity that we see, and the prevalence of Humans in all corners of the world - the great majority of Humans didn't fall within the direct radius of the Indorani or the Ankyreans, and so they didn't suffer the worst of either dystopic reign. Other races, with more localized populations, tended to get hit harder when bad times came their way.

Disclaimer: This is not official lore, just my own speculation based on what we know at present.

Raeche

So, what is the level of technology like in Aetolia?

Damariel

Huge question. My favorite kind.

Wildly inconsistent, as far as the continent of Sapience is concerned - in some respects, we're nearly up to the level of the Industrial Revolution (see the steam clock in Spinesreach, Kelki clockwork devices, the puzzle cube, possibly some of Qeddwyn's artifacts), but forging processes are still comparatively primitive and there's no firearms (although we do have fireworks). Aetolians demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge of medicine and biology, and have taken large steps toward understanding the frame of their world (Zahmekoses' treatise on Systemic Theophysics and corpuscles; for contrast, we in the real world didn't prove the existence of molecules or atoms in a definite sense until we had much more precise tools).

Note that assuming that technological progress is a simple rise, and not a rise and dip, is dangerous both in Aetolia and the real world. Read up on the Ankikythera mechanism for one real-world example of very sophisticated machinery; many civilizations, including China, the Maya, the Minoans, and the Romans, had advanced pipes and plumbing and a thorough understanding of water pressure. This has not, to the best of my knowledge, been duplicated on a large scale anywhere in Aetolia; even Spinesreach is still using wide, expansive sewer tunnels.

Some stark differences from comparable real-world societies: magic. Magic has stood in for a lot of technological processes, rendering such things as firearms obsolete. When you can throw around fireballs or use your mind to destroy someone, an arqebus or musket seems like kind of a bad investment. Why would you create a gun that's liable to blow up in your face when you need it, in favor of a more reliable process? The Aetolian population also has a much higher overall literacy rate than China, European monarchies, and the Ottoman Empire.

This is huge. It means that the population is likely much more informed and much more critical than comparable populations of the time, and suggests that political power is derived not from control of knowledge or religion (the Aetolian attitude toward religion trends much more skeptical), but the necessity of unity in the face of other enemies and control of expertise - i.e. while you can learn a little bit of magic elsewhere, the best and most precise magical training comes from guilds. Dogma, overwhelmingly, seems to be used to control people in the larger cities, rather than the smaller settlements. This is relevant to technology in the sense that the common people probably develop a lot of their own tools and processes for getting jobs done on an independent level - invention and mechanical prowess would be relatively decentralized.

In short: Assume an overlap of the technology and knowledge available to 14th and 15th century Europe, China, and the Ottoman Empire, unless otherwise specified; we're nominally a medieval setting.

Teani

To add to this, I believe we have been told that the Dreikathi (or Albedos in general) are considered more advanced than anything we have in Sapience. The people in Kelsys were considered ahead of their time with the clockwork machinery and considering how expensive artifacts are, it's safe to say they can't be readily duplicated by just anyone. Also, the Gods do have Their powers to create mystical things, while mortals are left with their wits.

Damariel

This is correct. Roughly speaking, Albedos is post-Industrial and Aetolia is pre-Industrial. The Dreikathi invasion featured airships, biological weaponry, and ylem technology beyond anything that the continent is currently capable of creating.

Moirean

Oh man, anktihythera device - one of my life goals is to write a Stephenson-esque novel fictionalizing its origins. 

Maghak

Keep in mind additionally that a lot of the technology that Aetolians are finding here and there predates the mortal age. Spinesreach in particular did not actually -build- their clockworks or steamworks - they repaired them from preexisting Ankyrean (see: heavily Roman or romanticised golden-age Grecian) installations that run as much on magical handwavium as steam. Creative tweaking of the laws of physics is entirely possible when you're a Divine-favoured precursor race, and I like to imagine that enchantment is a lot like code; some of the best coders are the worst at documenting their work.

Raeche

I'm having a bit of a nerdgasm thinking about this. Especially the bits about how magic affects (and stunts) the development of technology and the fact that Gods who actually communicate with mortals means an equal (or higher) level of revealed knowledge v.s. rational knowledge. Two little tweaks that creates huge contrast to our real world. I'm going to spend some time thinking about how it explains more of the differences between Aetolia and real life.

Eleanor

What I really like is that you can really tell where Aetolians' priorities are.

We don't have plumbing, guns, industrial machinery, or particularly advanced war machinery... but what we DO have is twelve different and distinct kinds of underwear.