November Dictated Rambling Part Two

[raquinn]

This was yesterday.


Humans forget that Alast is not the land of their inheritance. This was first a Klamon country. Humans came later.

So humans originated in Ostrin and then when the landbridge formed they traveled north. I think dragons were always throughout Lemy'es, that's a given they being even more ancient than Humans or Klamon.

So, you have that.

Thinking of old stories. I was listening to a short story being read by LeVar Burton because I'm into the LeVar Burton Reads podcast right now and binge listening to the last eight years worth of episodes-anyways, so we have Traveshaer's fables. He's Ela'yan so that goes back a couple thousand years, talks of dragons and things I sus=humans did a pretty good job of eradicating Klamon from human history, leaving whatever atrocities may have been done during the wars and possibly fairy tales that do not paint them in a good light because you want to perpetuate that, you want to perpetuate the idea that these people-creatures are evil and should be eliminated. That was the governmental line especially in central and western Alast.

So you have more ancient stories. I'm sure there's a Cain and Able like story, the first murder. It basically boils down to killing for greed, killing because you want something someone else has and punishment for that. I guess that could turn into the Klamon origin story. Explaining why they have multiple forms on the human end. That they were turned into this creature as punishment.

The Klamon tell it as being a blessing from the creators/organizers. At least in Getie'an they use a word that is equivalent to organizers because they are not creating stuff out of thin air, they're just organizing what was already there into a higher form, so they refer to them as organizers, which might translate weird for human languages because their mythology pushes more towards creation than organization.

So the organizers created everything and when they saw how Klamon and Human could compliment each other and help each other, not just ridding Alast of the dragons, but being able to advance knowledge and technologies, they blessed the Klamon with their human forms so they could live among humans more easily. Let's face it because when your body is designed to climg things moving through human spaces is a little difficult because we are flat-footed walking creatures. We can climb, but not how Klamon can climb. So they were blessed with these additional forms so they could be with humans, not to say that a human form is the best, most efficient thing to have, but it's just the way it went.

So I have Sray, she's being allowed to expxlore the area, she's learned from a combination of Thelus and Kith Serrith that the valley Engama sits in was initially residenced by Klamon, and technically before that humans, humans were in the family and Klamon were in the mountains and working jointly side by side and then there was war etc. and soforth. The Klamon managed to push humans out of there, but then the Meim came back and pushed them out.

So it might not make sense on the outset to say Meim suffered severe losses, they probably wouldn't have the force to shove out a bunch of Klamon, but if they were allowed to use full force I think it would be much easier for them.

I suspect a lot of Meim died during the wars, during raiding of some of the schools. The further it spread the less sympathetic the Klamon were in raiding said schools. Started out with ok, just do it during breaks, you know, want to minimize loss here. It is a school, there might be terrible people here, but it is still a school. You don't wan tto kill a bunch of kids because they happened to be in the way, but as the war went on, especially Kallah, she would be less disposed to mercy.

But Meim, given their oaths and sofroth, if they are in a mixed company we'll call it, they are typically not goign to be using their Meim skills offensively or defensively. Some may have reinforced armor or something like that, but you also have Kallah going around and murdering people. Finding key points, knowledge holders, power brokers, etc. and soforth and surgically eliminating them because she is out for blood, revenge, all of it.

So anyways, we've got that going on, have Sray out to explore so she gets two-thinking of the calendar-two in before the fire. I don't think she finds anything at that point, I don't know if she encounters the Pahlsonn in one of thsoe two. I think the first one is fairly uneventful. So far as post fire, one she has to recover first. There's a week and a half where she is completely out of it and then Teigan coming, things kind of resuming to normal, does she even feel strong enough to do the thing? And then "Sir, I want to resume what I started before the fire."

I think she find evidences, I don't think she find anybody and they did a pretty thorough job of clearing it out, but you'll have remnants. You'll have remnants, structures hiding up there. Built into cave systems, you have carved literally into the rock. There was electricity, you're talking Brehtsoln too, maybe Zegdaen, but both of them are capable of manipulating electircal charges. I'm sure at that point they figured out how to charge up and store electricity. I don't think, I'm not sure if after 100 plus years the wiring would still be working-well 70 plus. It's possible that somebody may have remained for some time, but it would be, you know, they'd have been stranded because the Meim basically sealed off the valley from the rest of the Anleizer range so if anybody did survive they would probably try to get the heck out of there.

Because while Humans might not be able to reach their dwelling places because compared to Klamon we can't climb worth crap, but I think there would definitely be strong feelings about sitting there watching them take over the valley and claim what was without having the numbers and ability to do anything about it.

So, finding something of what remained, anything human-accessible would have been ransacked, that's for sure. Anything not so human accessable-there's accessible and there's accessable, right? So I'm sure there'd be some places which Meim would be able to create some sort of scaffolding or whathaveye to be able to gain access to it, but how much they really want to do that...

So I've got that, she finds something it's going to be way up in there and she doesn't find it until probably the end of second term or the beginning of third.

Silfiya volunteers to go with her. she can only go so far. What are you looking for?

Evidence of what remains, that they were here. That they existed, that they could come back.

So Brehtsan and Getie'an are-have two different writing systems.

Seeking what remains. She feels a little weirdness about it because she's Getier and not Brehtsoln, but it is still a Klamon connection. So she's trying to do some reverence to it, she doesn't want to just poke around people's stuff, but she has curiosity going there.

This whole story she's figuring out where she fits in the world as this hybrid who isn't fully human, who isn't fully Klamon. You know on the one side she was effectively rejected by her father's people because of her mother and on the other side she knows that humans wouldn't accept her. I guess they're operating (they the Sollit Hillenbohns) on this lie that the Klamon wouldn't take them back. Yes there's the whole risk of the Meim think, it was, for the most part, or at least they believed that they were just after Kayrin. Everybody else could have stayed, she just had to go. Teigan wasn't going to abandon his wife or ask his kids to abandon her either so off they all went. And he had assumed that the other Klamon wouldn't want to mess with it either. They had the Kethissen Zok'hiers that helped them through the Anleizers, but the assumption was that other Klamon would not want a human woman hanging out with them and Teigan held the fact that it was because of the Meim not because of the humans. If it was just plain humans they would not have been so quick to abandon her, but because of the Meim it was "nope, not touching that."

One because the Meim were evil with the whole experiments thing and two because of their abilities. I guess it is a more level playingn field, tipped a little more towards the Meim's favor. I don't know if the Klamon ever actually figured out how to disrupt Meim structures, but once the're in place they are kind of there. I just think it would take a lot of energy for them to either get through a Meim structure and once you do that you're kind of wasted out and don't have energy for anything else. So the thought of trying to have to deal with them because they can round about tell if there is a meim structure just for the fact that if they're looking at you and can't feel you they know what's going on. Beign able to block your body heat or electrical output without a visible object there is a telltale sign that there is Meim construct involved.

So, they wouldn't want to mess with that.

Sray is in the weird position of being able to see, feel, and maniuplate these structures, though by the end of first year she's still pretty far behind. She naturally makes really strong ones and durable ones, but you know, she's slow as snot. Super slow, very tiring, but anyways ...

So going back, where was I? Overarching story, Sray trying to find her place in the world, but also as I had with that last conversation between Sray and Tos the whole grief thing. So here she is 22 years old now at the end of the story and you have the relay attack, one you're facing your own mortality, the mortality of those around you and she's asking herself is it really worth it? she's asking herself why her, what the heck did she ever do? And then you have Tos standing there saying "You know? You haven't really greived like you should, Ms. Emotional stuffer." She's been holding in you know, she had to grow up quick. Ten years old, they're forced out of their home. She has to be the big girl, help with her siblings, she's always helped with her siblings, but you know it's more dire now you're traveling cross-country for weeks, months, she suddenly has to be able to hide her markings because it's not just a funny thing she can do to look more like her mom, it's what she has to do to prevent any humans noticing that she's not (fully) human.

All that pressure over 10-11 years. all that supressed mourning from losing everything that she knew. Language, culture, family, friends, whole way of life and not really feeling secure after that. You know, yeah they lived their life in Jon they never had anything awful happen until the Meim got involved again, but she had to live every moment when she's around not her family wondering if she is going to screw up. Worrying if her brother is going to screw up. Between the three of them Janef is the most level-headed maybe. She can get emotional, but she's generally of a bouyant personality, she was young enough she didn't really, experience Geteilpohth like the other two did. Kallon is right, Sray remembers more good and bad.

So we have this final scene where she just begins processing it all. Allows herself to grieve and feel the full weight of it. I suspect, because in that moment she's not going to be paying enough attention to keep her markings in check. There's a whole crap ton of emotions going there and she kind of, even though consciously she doesn't want to tell Tos for fear of his reaction she still just bawls it out. She almost tells him, but not quite. I'm pretty sure there's somewhat, I'm pretty sure her markings are visisible at some point and Tos is Tos and just doesn't say anything.

So Tos is a pretty open guy, but he's also learned a trick or two from Sray. Knows she doesn't want to talk about it. Knows that anything she says about her time before Jon is like little hidden treasures. At this point he's just waiting for her to tell him whatever it is that's keeping her at arms length.

So he took Kallon's suggestion/advice to heart to wait for her to say it. Even if someone else tells him he's waiting for her to say it. Even if he notices something, suspects something, he's waiting for her to say it because that's the way he is. so I suspect this final scene in Fire Forged Key is where he realizes the full truth, but he sits on it.

So I think we have some of what, mostly those first three weeks of second term filled out. Meeting with Thelus, meeting the other apprentices, journeymen, finding out a little about Engama's origins. Kind of being pissed off about it. Poor Kith Serrith he's like...

So he had relatives in the experiments. I assume, obviously he came down the male line so he has a some-times great grandfather involved in the experiments to some degree and got his two daughters involved in the expeirments. One of them ended up on Lunais and the other one I don't know if she never took or when the war broke out if the child was abandoned or killed or what happened there, but Kith comes from the brother of these two women. He goes down that line.

Sray doesn't know for sure that her family was involved in the experiments. I don't think she grew up knowing her grandmother's maiden name so I don't think she recognizes the Zhyeldinvyu name. Her parents would recognize it, but she's not sharing with them that information.

She has a vague suspicion that maybe she's related to Keishan and Ruleth, but she's not sure and she's not brave enough to ask anyone about that. Teigan would know the names because he knew Kijoth and Kijoth would have shared Ruleth's name. He took the knowledge that he was hybrid to his grave, but I think the Sollits would know that Keishan was involved in the destruction of the school and that it was to free those who had been kept in and they just kind of gloss over the fact that his daughter had a hybrid baby. We don't talk about these things!

Sray is dealing with the thought that she has some type of ancestor who. So she's dealing with the fact that a Hillenbohn, you know, basically lead a genocidal rampage to clear out the valley and claim it as their own, which is a bit more violent, but no less degredating than what Serrith's ancestors did. You know, such is such.

So post fire I think she has to work a little bit harder on Mishor to let her roam the mountains again because they could be up there!

"Do you really think they would stay this close?"

I don't know if she tells anyone about the Pahlsonn encounter, probably not because that's the way she is.

So when she finds something, because I think it is just a matte of when. What exactly does she find? I suspect it would be some type of residence. Klamon are social so they hang out in social groups so they tend to have somewhat communal living. But in a big valley like that there might be multiple small residences of extended familys rather than a big communial deal with multiple families.

So with the Vegtahn Rivlay they had a large communial deal with multiple families living in the same big structure because of limited areas with good water sources. So they are off of a tributary of the Milash so they're not obviously not right on the river. Due to prior conflict living right on the river was probably abandoned so they reside at a tributary off of a tributary. That is, perchance seasonal, but in the valley that Engama resides in you have multiple water sources because, it's kind of modeled after the Provo canyon, you have one big river that runs through the center and multiple tributaries that run off the mountains and feed into it. It's a lot wetter climate, they don't have to worry about water and concentrate around a single reliable water source and can spread out more hither and yon.

So I think she may find a smaller residence. So the place she has gone to previously, I don't know if there would be anything to find in that area. I mean, it's got all the elements, vertical faces, difficult for a human to get to, leaps and glides.

It's not even a glide they say.

yeah I don't know if she would find something around the area she had been. There has to be multiple pockets around the valley. It would have been an area that would have sustained a fair population of Klamon. But yeah, I don't think she finds anything until later. I think she's kind of confined to just daytime exploration. I don't think she would-she doesn't like inconveniencing anyone anyway with ther little sideproject here, but she probably would draw the line at leaving someone in the woods in the dark while she goes off exploring, takes a four hour nap and then does some more.

First trip out she has Silfiya and Kem. She allows Kem to join her, Kem's excited. Keep Silfiya company if I go somewhere they can't follow.

She knows there's critters in them there hills, maybe not so much kinus, but the pahlsonn are about so safety in numbers and Silfiya is good enough at the Meim constructs she could keep a pahlsonn at bay. Might be called pahlsohn in Kamenan because they like their "oh."

There's going to be finding of things. Figuring out what exactly she finds and relying on electrical lights. I don't think she would be able to prime up the system. The Getier have electricity, but they're probably working off a steam turbine system and then you have Brehtsoln and they can directly manipulate electricity and they just need something that will hold a charge. They aren't generating electricity with turbines. She wouldn't be able to jumpstart the battery. She would need a torch or something. So she would have to have a torch or something to take with her to see things inside the structures. She would be exploring them by whatever natural light is available and firelight.

Now that said I suspect because of their reliance on electricity I don't think the Brehtsoln would be as worried about natural lighting in their structures because why? You have electric lights, why worry about natural light when you can just flip on a switch?

She may try to flip on a switch or two, but there's no juice. The question is are, any lower structures she found would have been ransacked, anything higher would have been fairly well-preserved. I don't know how much of their stuff they would have taken with them or if they would have just-see I think there would have been stockpiles and when the finally decided they were losing the battle they decided to get out of dodge. You know, they're pretty sure the Meim aren't going to pursue them deep in the mountains and it would be packing enough provisions to get them deep into the main branch of the Anleizers and that's it. There would probably be old food storage left behind, sealed.

They would, there would be some things left behind.

So what would Sray pack? Edibles, water obviously, something to light or at least some sort of kindling. She would probably take a notebook for notes and a pen. There's not a whole lot in common between Brehtsan and Getie'an because they developed in-well they had some shared time before the wars obviously, but you have 150 years of minimal interaction.

So Klamon and sailing? I don't think sailing is a big thing, but I think there is occasional trade between the groups, but you have to avoid the humans so the Toltkraets are the most isolated, they're more likely to sail because they're in that little peninsula, but possibly only summer, but maybe they're not north enough for it to matter with ice flows and such, but maybe.

So yeah, what she finds... all the thing that you leave behind when you're abandoning everything to save your hide.

It took two years to clear them out. yeah, you wouldn't be able to just create a bit wall and shove everyone out. That would require too much work so on the north end of the valley they don't really worry because there isn't anything passable by humans. The South end of the valley are lower, which is how Sherodd and Teigan got in and then you have the East side, which is where they would worry about Klamon intrusion. So they would be trying to keep them out so on the south end there is technically a path through. It's the east end that there would be somewhat more of a solid structure. I suspect, I mean it's not going to go like super high I don't think. i think it just basically needs to be enough for Klamon to know "hey, Meim here do not cross."

You could show good faith by getting rid of you wall. I don't know where the Kethissen Zok'hiers are. Obviously they are in/around the Anleizers. They might be maybe not quite level, but around the branch where Engama is. They probably have some ancestors that were pushed out of there.

So you have the negotiations in which Kallon shows up. Nobody expected him to be there, but there he is. So would Prisha go with him, she'd want to go with him. She would probably be with him and Dheillan too, reluctantly, but someone has got to represent the Elder Council and Beheil.

So Sray writes Kallon and cryptically tell him that hey, we're going to try and do negotiations again and he's like "not without me!"

She figured he wouldn't want to be anywhere near any Meim thing, but he's thinking if they want to talk they have to talk about EVERYTHING.

So he's got Dheillan, Dheillan's Getie'an is better and Kallon's Brehtsan is ok, it's been a couple years. We have three years, I think Kallon would have been in Beheil about a year. You're forced to learn a language you can catch on fairly quickly I guess.

Prisha would know it somewhat, of course she has more human languages, too. So all the Lunaisan hybrids know Kamenan and the pretty much all speak it like a native since it is the primary language of the Brotherhood so to speak. I think it's a slightly, it is different, they've, they have gone back to Alast and picked up more contemporary words there, but their use of it is still a little different than someone born in Kamenlohn.

Anyways Prisha speaks Kamenan, she speaks Gollanan, she speaks one or two others depending on- I'd have to look at her pedigree again because I think the Mothers made a point of "you should speak the language you look like."

So you have that going on and you have Yurrein Nelendor who is there officially for the Brotherhood, unofficially for the family and Prisha is there and he's like "Girl, you're going to make this a lot harder on all of us."

Rothan tells him "everbody on our side is going to know what you are so you have to come straight with somebody."

Of course the Klamon have this weird history of being aware of the Meim, but I think that is a combination of the war thing. I think they tried to tell humans "hey you have this organization that did a whole lot of bad crap and we were just trying to get our kids back."

The Meim purposefully wove itself into governments. They sought, trained these crafts, have people loyal to them. The government wasn't wanting to hear any of this and is so entrenched with Meim that it almost is the Meim. I mean I'm sure there are leaders and soforth that aren't Meim, but the Meim wants and has and maintains its influence through that.

You have Sray, Janef, and Silfiya serving as translators for the Meim, you have Yuri who has his Meim agenda and also his ulterior Family agenda.

So what does-the Family wants to be able to be out in the open. I think Yuri's assignment would be to find some sort of back door negotiation that would allow for trade or free passage for Lunaisans who whished to integrate more with the Klamon. So there's that.

Marked by their deeds, their skin no longer smooth. Cursed into an animal form.