ROLEPLAY

Up until now:

Before the second Great Swarming (OOC: on the former Server Leanon) rumors were heard in the Theocracy of the Zorai about a number of lost old amber cubes from the old lands being spotted in the prime roots. Shortly afterwards an expeditionary force of homins of all four Nations was afterwards actually able to find three old amber cubes in the prime-roots on Thermis 15th in the 3. cycle of AtysYear 2555 (OOC: January 23th 2011) under guidance of Matis-scholars - which is why some Matis claim these cubes to theoretically now being a property of the Kingdom. Still the members of the expedition decided to hand their findings to four famous scholars who came together in Fairhaven to decipher the old amber cubes cooperatively.

These scholars are:
* the famous botanist Cuiccio Perinia from the royal Academy of Yrkanis
* the imperial historian Apocasus Menix from the Academy of Pyr
* the Sage and storyteller Neoi Sui-Reg from the Company of the Eternal tree in the Haven of Purity
* and the researcher Ba-Ben Len, former Taliar of the Trykers, first member of the organization FISCH ("Forschungsgesellschaft für Ingenieurswesen, Seltsames, Curiositäten und Heimliches") from Aeden Aqueous

After giving their best for a long time the four scientists unfortunately realized that even with all their combined knowledge the cubes were just too hard to decipher. They were very old and written in extremely difficult and also coded "letters" - most likely Zorai-pictograms as we assumed, but that was never confirmed clearly.

During the first cycle of AtysYear 2561 the Karavan generously offered to support this work with a decoding machine. However during the transportation of the very big and heavy machinery through the prime roots Lands of Umbra the transporting members of the tribe Kuilde unfortunately were held up and assaulted.

So on Germinally 25th in the 1. cycle of AtysYear 2561 (OOC: February 18th 2012) homins from all four Nations went there and first negotiated then fought the bandits "Highland Heaten" to retrive the machine. It was then transported to Fairhaven. But after that a lot of things happened and then the Second Great Swarming put a temporary end to the work of the four scholars, as everybody had to flee into Exile.

Lately the four scholars who had been able to keep the amber cubes safe during the years of Exile after the Second Great Swarming have gathered in Fairhaven again to again take a look at the amber cubes. Fortunately the Karavan decoding machine was still in place and had overcome the Second Great Swarming surprisingly well. However the scientists realized that the decoding machine is only able to translate the amber cubes into other, empty amber cubes.

So new - and blank - amber cubes were needed.

On Fallenor 21st in the 2. cycle of AtysYear 2573 (May 31st 2013) homins from all four nations speaking the dialect of Hoi-Cho/Windemeer/Dyron/Davae met in Windemeer, as the respected scholar Ba-Ben Len has told them about a Tryker merchant who had claimed to be able to provide blank amber cubes, but would need the help of a group of volunteers for this task.

The said Tryker turned out to be a young lady named Ba'Baban Burpsen (she introduced herself as "I aaam Banny! Ba'babababan BURPsen!" while spitting out a bottle cork), unfortunately a pretty drunken one. She somehow managed to "lead" the homins to Bounty Beaches, however not without falling into an alcohol-induced sleep all of a sudden on the way and nearly drowning because of that.

As soon as a herd of Shalahs was found, Ba'Baban Burpsen instructed us to dig up bark and fiber. The next step was to search for Shalah-fur on palm-trees where Shalahs like to scrape themselves against. And then also Shalah-dung was needed. I can tell you from experience that it is a very disagreeable and rather dirty job to massage the bellies of Shalahs by crawling under them and then to collect samples from the dung-hills they have produced!

Next up a source of useable amber had to be found in the ground. East and west of this spot two Shalah-dummies had to be built by the materials we had collected. Then Ba'Baban Burpsen handed Matis-helmets with horns on their sides to her volunteers. The volunteering homins now had to hide inside the Shalah-dummies and blow the horns, with a sound like "Rrrrrrrrrrrööööööööööööööhmmmmmmm" - imitating mating-calls of female Shalahs....

At first one group of homins blew their horns, until a herd of Shalah was attracted and started to surround the dummy, sniffing and showing interest. Since I was one of the homins inside the dummy I can tell you that all of us we were quite scared during these moments! But soon enough the other group blew their horns and the Shalahs stomped towards the other Shalah-dummy to take a look. While doing so the Shalahs trampled over the spot of amber hidden in the bark beneath their feet. When the Shalah had reached the second dummy the first group again blew their horns, making the Shalahs turn around and stomp over the amber-spot towards the first dummy. This was repeated several times until the volunteers had lost their nerves completely.

Finally the helpers were released from their unpleasant task and the amber was to be dug up. Some of the lumps of amber found were compressed well and really were much harder than any normal amber that you can find in the bark of Atys. These raw amber-cube-lumps were then taken by Ba'Baban Burpsen to be honed down into cubes; and she left with the promise to deliver them to Ba-Ben Len afterwards - after she had another drink or two, as Ba'Baban Burpsen put it.

We can only hope Ba'Baban Burpsen has arrived safely; or at least the raw amber-cubes have...

Glad someone is doing something about the old Amber Cubes which were lost to us so many years ago. Knowledge that we had and then lost is very valuable and we must do everything we can to retrieve it.

May all our ancestors bless us!

Thank you, Zhoi, for that summary of what must have been an amazing adventure. I look forward to hearing more about the translation of the old cubes (and even the formation of the new cubes).

Dear Zhoi,

thank you for giving everybody an albeit very short, history about the search for, discovery of, and work on the amber cubes. I would like to point out, though, that these cubes were lost by our anchestors. When rumours about their whereabouts arose, it was the Guild of Karavia and the Royal Academy of Yrkanis which equipped an expedition and the Chamber of Nobles did visit the other nations and officially asked for help. The expedition then was aided by the Taliari and members of the Akenak, who joined the Matis on the dangerous search for the amber cubes.

That the cubes belong to us was at no time really in doubt.

As the contents, however, are of interest to all people on Atys, we offered to share them as soon as they can be translated. Also as a sign of respect and trust, we invited leading scholars from all countries to help with our research and with the translation.

There is no indication the texts are written in a Zorai code; they are coded, though. The only indication we got, the only readable bit read "The wise know the key."

Having said that, I thank you for your report of the search for new cubes on which the translations can be copied at last. I am very sorry I could not take part in this, as I was heavily involved in all happenings regarding the amber cubes in the past, and in fact carried them personally a couple of times when they had to be carried; and personally arranged the safe transport from the Verdant Heights to Aeden Aqueous before the Second Swarming.

Well, wouldn't history be boring without different descriptions of it depending on who views/viewed it?
I think this makes the past all the more interesting to be studied and interpreted and at last understood.