[Summer Vacation 01]
Report 78644: “On the world plagued by angels” - investigating alternate universe 01
-Karakael z Karakit Karun, on order of Vara the Darkling Wind
My experiences in this world, despite my perceptions being slightly altered by a virus, have been positive. This universe gives me a small measure of hope for humanity. Of the societies I studied, few had any major defects. None were outside the realm of ‘normal’ human creation though all had been helped along by creatures similar to The Visitor.
The single most interesting thing I found about this world was how all the ‘tribes’ of people had adapted to either live at peace with the world around them, or to help make it better.
I stayed mostly in a land called Artemisia or “The land of the Sages”. It was an easy going culture, despite being classified as a ‘false utopia’. According to my references the people there descended from “American Indians” [Link: Encyclopedia Brittanica]. Much of those early cultures still remain in Artemisia, with some significant changes. It is a matriarchal society with separated genders. The “method of control” or “fault” (though from what I’ve seen few suffer from it) is forced impotence of males.
Of course this policy was no trouble to me, but I can see it being very trying for others of the male gender. Still, it is a novel solution.
One of the young women who helped me in my research (one Arakny) kindly lent me her ‘library’; a device much like one of our thinkhives but used instead to store all of the human knowledge in their entire history. Quite an impressive creation, though frustrating to use.
Through it I learned of several of the other cultures, though many were more similar to “guilds”. Classified as “The Seven Set Upon Salvation”, The Beast Masters, The Guardians, The Sisters to Trees, The Artemisians…of them, I found traveling as a Guardian the easiest. Their mode of dress allows concealment of the face and their duties can easily explain away my scars, as well as my reason for traveling.
When she found me The Visitor had dressed as a Sister to the Trees. It fit her well, and to a certain extent was not a lie; she has planted the requisite ten thousand trees in her life time. She was able to assist in explaining some of the history of this world, though I have found much of it corresponds to accounts of “20th century Earth”.
[Cut: pp. 3-45. Attached]
In conclusion, this world was a useful beginning point in my journey. Few of the cultures I saw had more than passing similarities to any utopias filed during the Inquest, though none were truly unique. The tenacity shown by many of the peoples was truly impressive, though I find it disappointing that they had to be prompted by an outside force. This calls to question whether we humans are capable of true change without “benevolent outsiders”. We cannot always rely on Suns or Gods to save us, yet there has been little I’ve yet seen to prove that we have any other choice.
((OOC: So begins Karakaels "summer vacation". He should be posting both RLs and similar 'reports' all through out the summer. All of the information he gives should be accurate to each book, though it might pertain to unimportant details.
Tepper, Sheri S. A Plague of Angels. New York: Bantam, 1993
If you are wondering, yes I am a complete book-geek))