ROLEPLAY

I sit here in the Sanctuary, some call it our Refuge, and pen these words into a journal I shall keep while we wait for the word that will let us return to our lands.

I was not born when the first Great Swarming drove us from the Old Lands.  I was raised in the Deep Roots by the village that I called home.  My "father", Odo, watched over me more than most, but even he abandoned me in the end, leaving for the New Lands long before my need for him was over.

It was Spring in the fourth Atys Cycle of 2562 when we first knew that it was more than just a minor eruption of Kitin activity.  It is summer now, and I cannot remember the date because of all that has happened so fast. 

First we were told to evacuate to the capital cities, then, quickly, to move to Pyr with all we could carry.  Finally came the word that we must travel to the Kami Oasis in the depths of the Scorched Corridor.  There was a journey indeed.  So many fell, some restored to health and others, their Seed exhausted, falling forever.  I was brought back many times, and came at last to this cool green land, after seeing Elias Tryton activate the rainbow gate that brought us here.

What is real? 

All these images of the last few days?

What I felt those long years ago as I prayed to Jena for enlightenment?

The vision of Tryton, apostate, saving the homin races yet again?

Who saved us?

Was it the Kami demons ranked to one side of the gate that led us to safety,  fighting the Kitin that threatened us all?

Was it the Karavan ships and Disciples ranked to the other side of that gate, fighting the Kitin on their side?

Was it Tryton, making the gates that his disciples gathered the materials for?

Did any of them actually bring us safely through?  Was it not homin determination that won the day?

Could we have won without them, and if so, without whom?

I am not sure. 

While we dwell in Sanctuary, while we wait for the word that the kitin horde has slaked its lust for homin blood, I will think on this.

15 Medis 4AC, 2563

It has now been a year since we first came to this Refuge. The various leaders declared this to be the official day of celebration of our rescue from the Second Great Swarming. There were no fireworks, because none of them were transported on the few packers we managed to bring with us, but we gathered and remembered those who fell in that last horrific trek to the Kami Oasis.

The Refuge is all that we were promised. There was sufficient food to start with and there are enough small animals and edible plants on this small island in the Bark to supply three times the population we have. The seasons are about those of Majestic Gardens and no one has had to suffer. Compared to the camp in which I grew up, it is paradise indeed.

The various civilizations have set up camps, but most people live nearer to the central camp of the Rangers and Trytonists and there is little racial friction other than the occasional question of who was to blame for the Second Rising. I doubt that it can be assigned, and stay free of the discussions.

We were assured today that the Second Swarming is still active. How our leaders know is a mystery, but both the Rangers and the Trytonists seem to have resources that are unknown to us.

Of the Karavan and the Kami, there is nothing here. The Zorai mystics claim to know that their Kami spirits still thrive, but we have seen none of their “welcomers”. The same is true of the Karavan. Their technology, what little we have of it, still works, as does healing, but we see none of their Disciples.

I have kept busy helping other homins gather food and repair equipment, but remain apart from most of my fellow Karavan followers.

15 Medis, 4AC, 2564

Another year on this island. Another celebration of our rescue and remembrance of the dead.

Most homins are adjusting well to living here. There are more children every year, and since there are no creches, they are in sight, running around all the time. I have taken to teaching some of the older ones the history (the little I know of it) of the Tryker, and also of the four nations as they existed between the Swarmings. I hope they learn something from it.

I spent some time last spring exploring the edge of the Sanctuary island. It is surrounded by steep cliffs, just as Silan is. In the distance I can see other patches of apparently habitable green land above the inhospitable tangle of bare roots below.

I continue to suffer from the unanswered questions I have about the Kami and the Karavan. I know that I felt the spirit of Jena that one time these many years ago, but Her disciples and the creatures of the Kami are conspicuous by their absence here and by their lack of significance in the events of two years ago. If the Karavan were so helpless against the kitin, how can they possibly be effective when the Dragon wakes?

On the other side, the Rangers and the Trytonists are active in support of their fellow homins without regard to race or belief. If only I could break through their reserve and talk with them.

17 Medis, 4AC, 2565

Running low on paper. I didn't realize I had so few scraps of it. Must remember to harvest some fiber and see if I can make more. Fiber and sap perhaps? I will keep the comments short.

The remembrance was subdued this year due to an incursion by a pack of zerx that were predating the herds of bodoc and arma that we depend on for food. They were finally killed, and the Rangers blocked the hole that they came up out of. But if zerx can come – we have organized patrols to keep an eye on the animals and keep an eye out for new things. (No one is saying the word kitin.)

15 Medis, 4AC 2566

The observance of the Exodus has changed from a solemn ceremony to a raucous party. This may be due in part to the discovery by the patrols of a patch of stinga in the northwest corner of the isle, allowing for the creation of new supplies of stinga rum, including some very good home-brews.

I predict a fresh crop of babies in a few months. They will be lovingly tended, of course, but what true future do we have to offer them? This plateau is large, but not so large as to allow us to increase our population without thought to the future.

Finally figured out a recipe for paper, but it takes a full cycle to cure to usefulness and the biggest pieces I can make are a quarter the size of this one. It can't be what was used before, but I haven't found a paper-maker amongst the refugees.

I pray daily to Jena for enlightenment, then go about my business of helping our colony survive.

20 Medis, 4AC, 2567

Recovering from my injuries after the most recent Festival. A group of young homins calling themselves Reborn Marauders disrupted the ceremonies and had to be put down by force. They were put in an enclosure under guard and healed.

I was asked to teach them the truth about what happened in the Second Swarming. I entered the enclosure and had just gotten to the point where the marauder leader Akillia called upon those who had embraced her cause to stay behind and battle the kitin while the rest of us escaped. They cried out that it was lies, then jumped me and beat me severely. Strangely enough, it was one of the marauders who came with us, an older fellow named Suboxide, who was the first to respond and rescued me. I wish I had studied hand to hand combat more. Even at his age (which in all honesty is not that much more than mine) he had the eight of them all on the ground and groaning in short order.

21 Medis, 4AC, 2567

Suboxide has volunteered to sponsor the “Reborn Marauders”. They were remarkably subdued when brought before the leaders and agreed to abide by his will. He has invited me to help teach them crafts and harvesting and what I know of history and religion. Once I have ceased aching, I will do so.

15 Medis, 4AC. 2568

The school that Suboxide set up has borne strange fruit. We now have what is almost a collegium of the nations. The older children are being taught not just by me and a few others, but in an organized fashion so that they will know our history at least as far back as the emergence from the First Swarming and what we found in amber cubes. The races do not agree, of course, but all races have a chance to teach. Even in the absence of the Karavan and Kami, there are also classes dealing with those mysteries.

On the edges of the plateau there have been more incursions of beasts, but the carnivores have been beaten back and the herbivores led to pastures. The Rangers tell us that they have been sending out exploring parties and say that there have been signs that the Swarming has been collapsing of its own fecundity.

There have been a lot more of the sounds of Atys recently. Groans and echoing booms. Sometimes the ground shakes with the noise. The sounds are especially loud these last three spring seasons.

The Festival passed in quiet memory. Several more of the older of us who survived the Exodus have passed in the last year, their Seed weakened beyond recovery. I cannot think but that they would have survived longer if not for the rigors of those days.

I improved the paper recipe so it only takes a month to cure. As a result I have been able to donate substantial amounts to the school for use by the students.

27 Thermis, 2AC, 2569

Two days ago the entire plateau was shaken. Many of our buildings were broken, but luckily we lost no homins and there is plenty of wood to make more. There was a great cloud of dust that cloaked the sun for most of a day. Now that it has cleared we can see that a great trunk has erupted from the roots near the Refuge and now towers over us. A council was held of our leaders and the Rangers and Trytonists and an announcement was made that we had witnessed a rare event of Growth, but that there was nothing to fear. Perhaps this region is not as safe as we at first thought.

10 Harvestor, 3AC, 2569

For most of this last year the trunk that erupted has been growing, and it is now clear that it is not just a trunk but a new branch in the canopy. It has arched over the one that is almost overhead, and the two seem to be merging. The sounds of the growth are almost continuous, though not very loud. I made a trek and looked down the cliff and saw that the root surface is bulging up around the trunk. The Trytonists and the Rangers continue to assure our leaders that there is nothing to worry about, but I am not so sure.

They have also announced, well ahead of the usual Festival, that there are signs that the kitin swarming is playing itself out. It is not yet time to return to the New Lands, they say, but it may only be a year or so.

7 Folialy, 4AC, 2569

Two days ago there was a tremendous sound as if fireworks were being set off and a large sub-branch of the new canopy ripped loose. It seemed as if it took forever to fall from its height, twisting as it came free. The broken end looked as if it sped up and it became clear that it was coming towards us. It was not a direct hit, but it caught the edge of the island and dragged at it, ripping up plants and the bark beneath and shaking the settlement worse than the initial growth spurt had done. There was a pause in which the only sound was that of rending wood, then the island shook again as the tip of the branch penetrated the root surface.

This time most of the houses withstood the shaking, but our refuge was not so fortunate. There is now a great canyon on the east side of the island and the branch acts as a bridge down into the Roots. We have set a patrol at the top of the branch, but how well that will work if things start coming up is anyone's guess. The creatures of the roots are all strong.

15 Medis, 4AC, 2569

This may be our last Festival here. The Rangers have said that the Second Swarming has almost completely played out and that we may soon begin trekking through the roots to get to Silan, which was largely untouched. There, they say, we may find again passage to the ruins that remain in the old New Lands and there our young can hone their skills before they, too start the reclamation of what was once ours. Our leaders have already taken their immediate guards and headed for Silan to see what the situation truly is.

This is a bittersweet day. We have word that the kitin are less aggressive and plentiful, but we have also lost our Refuge. It is no longer a safe haven, but now only a gate to a new beginning. There will be much work to do, and there is much of it that I can do, but it will be up to our sons and daughters to finish the rebuilding and push homin civilization past the point where we had brought it.

The Kami and the Karavan, I am sure, will try to push us to their own ends, mysterious as they are. There will be those who take up the marauder path, whatever that may turn out to be in the end. For me, I will work to build civilization, but I will no longer adhere to the disciples of the Karavan, only to my faith in Jena.

5 Folialy, 3AC, 2570

I sit here in the Guild Hall of Phaedreas Tears and put pen to fresh new paper.

After a full Atys Cycle since we began coming back to our old "New Lands" we are finally pushing back at the Kitin.  The Fyros were first, of course.  Three coordinated groups of homins attacked the Kitins that had been dwelling in Mounds linked to the surface from the Roots.  The fighting was intense, but homins of all races helped in the common cause.(*)

 I hear that in a few days the Corsairs will be leading a contingent from Fairhaven in a similar mission, and that a descendant of Stil Wyler, Gwineth Wyler, will be leading a force from Avendale.  I have heard rumors of another force gathering in Windemeer, but have no certain knowledge of it.  The Corsairs village was near ours in the Refuge, but they kept themselves to themselves.  They have always been a friend of the Tryker.

This is all good, but I also hear rumors of old factionalism rearing up again.  Homins telling other homins to convert or die.  Homins holding guild loyalty higher than a simple kinship between homins of all degree.  Will it never cease until the Great Dragon comes forth?

Night thoughts of a Tryker who has lived perhaps too long.

17 Folially, 3AC, 2570

I am battered and bruised and need to repair my equipment and sleep but I will write a brief note here in my journal.

I wrote a public account (*) of today's attempt to drive back the Kitin.  We were successful, but only barely.  I emphasized the positive and the valor and skill of my comrades, and there is truth in every word, for they were both valiant and skillful.  The truth of the matter is that we won, but at great cost and just barely.  I speak of the force based out of Fairhaven, as that is the one I was with.  I have no idea how difficult the forces from Windemeer and Avendale found the action.

Why did we have so few?  I did not put this in the public report, but it was because a large portion of the homins who might have come to press back the Kitin were fighting over the ownership of an Outpost in Witherings.  What I wrote about only a week ago has happened.  How can homins feel that such petty things are above the need to make these lands truly our own?  I do not know, but it saddens me.

Now I must prepare to trek to Zora.  I hope that I will be able to join with other homins there.  I will sleep now, and then repair my equipment.

25 Medis, 3rd AC, 2570

It has been some days since I published my account of the battle of Witherings (*) and have still yet to fully recover.  It may be that I am feeling my age, but I awake at night from nightmares of the huge green kippee workers that stunned me and my comrades into the dust, and the brown kinchers and the pale grey soldiers...

There were not enough of us. Not nearly enough.  And yet the word had gone forth by the usual means.  Was it that the Zorai did not care to liberate their lands?  I cannot think so, for I saw the generals, and especially Dachi Han, infused with strength and power far beyond that of normal homins.  The land must have kept them well when we needed them, for we did need them.

Jena kept my Seed intact, despite grievous wounds, and I was healed more often than I can easily count. Why there were so few of us present I do not know this time. I will pray to Jena for enlightenment, and hope that She will inspire more homins to undertake the last Cleansing, in the lands of her favorites, the Matis.  If the downward trend of homins showing up continues, I daresay that we will not prevail in that battle. Another month, then it will be time to drive the last of the Kitin off.

Only a few more pages left in this journal.  I will have to start a new one soon.