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#1 Multilingual 

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Analysis report of the kitin fragment submitted on 2612-2-1-7 by Melga Folgore

Context

Fragment found in the Almati Wood kitinière, next to the lifeless body of Orphie Dradius.

Analysis

A trained eye will quickly recognize in this fragment a tapered section of the abdomen of a kirosta, characterized by a bifid ending composed of a cornicle and a stinger.
The abdomen of a kirosta consists of four segments:
  • first segment, connected to the thorax, ascending ;
  • second segment, vertically positioned, descending and very constricted at its junction with the third ;
  • third and fourth segment, horizontal, darted between its long legs by the insect.
The fragment contains segments 2 to 4, as well as the complete appendages. It is thus an abdomen that has been sliced up between the first two segments. The size of the abdomen is relatively modest for a kirosta, between those of the abdomens of "nettled" and "incensed" kirostas.
The color of the specimen is totally singular and fascinating, of a black that does not reflect any light, emitting only here and there vermilion gleams forming spots or lines, depending on the angle of observation. This color has never been observed before, except perhaps in the native varinxes of the Primes Roots or the gibbaïs.

First hypothesis: this kirosta would be a mutant specimen, selected by its hive for its color supporting the camouflage in the dark places.

Accelerated decay

Three days after being brought back to the Academy, the fragment began to give off a very stench odor and black mold formed on the surface of the chitin.
After five days its condition had deteriorated further: the chitin was now soft.
So I ordered the sample to be cut into three parts (the three segments) and each one to be stabilized in its original state in a Daïsha stanza.
I also took some mold samples for further analysis.

Second hypothesis: this kirosta would be a sick specimen, affected by a powerful pathogen causing a severe necrosis.

Conclusion

This last hypothesis seemed to me, given the rapidity of the degradation, the most plausible. But it is also the most promising: the identification of the pathogen in question could indeed prove decisive in the fight of the Homins against the kitin populations.
This is why a new study has already been launched to find the pathogen in the wild with the help of samples taken.

••••••
Daeronn Cegrips,
Master of the Chair of Knowledge
Entomologist

Edited 5 times | Last edited by Ghost of Atys (3 years ago) | Reason: adding [de] translation

#2 [fr] 

Enfin, Daeronn avait remis son rapport sur le dard noir. Et le rapport était.... d'une pauvreté absolue. Tout ce temps pour ça? Couper un dard en trois morceaux et les stabiliser dans une stance de Daisha, constater que le dard était noir et qu'il y avait de la moisissure dessus qui était probablement derrière sa décomposition?

Non, Daeronn ne pouvait être aussi médiocre. Azazor supposa alors que ce rapport n'était que la partie émergée de son enquête. Quand il disait que quelques échantillons de moisissures feraient l'objet d'analyses ultérieures, c'est que c'était déjà fait. Peut être même que des armes anti-kitin à base de ces moisissures étaient déjà en cours d'élaboration, voir finalisées. Et qu'elles joueraient dans la balance pour "motiver" les rangers à choisir un nouveau guide propre à arranger l'Empire.

Oui, ce devait être ça. S'il avait été Daeronn, il aurait agi comme ça. Toujours avoir un coup d'avance. Mais Daeronn était-il ce genre d'homin?

Edited 2 times | Last edited by Azazor (3 years ago)

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fyros pure sève
akash i orak, talen i rechten!
élucubrations
biographie

#3 [de] 

Werter Meister Cegribs,

verzeiht das ich euren Bericht erst jetzt entdeckt und zu Kenntnis genommen habe. Ich danke Euch für Eure Mühen und Euren Willen dies Rätsel aufzuklären.

Ich denke ich spreche für alle Ranger, wenn nicht gar alle Homins von Atys, das eine mögliche, effektive Waffe im Kampf gegen den Erbfeind, die Kitin eine Entdeckung von höchster Wichtigkeit ist.

Sollte es sich tatsächlich um eine Krankheit, einen Parasiten oder ähnliches handeln, stellt sich natürlich die Frage nach dessen Gefährlichkeit für Homins. Jedoch denke ich, das Ihr alle nur erdenklich Vorsichtsmaßnahmen treffen werdet, um die weiteren Untersuchungen zu sichern.

War es womöglich das was Kommandant Dradius entdeckt hatte? Starb sie durch das Objekt ihrer Untersuchungen?

Die Vorstellung, das die Kitin in der Lage sind ihre Brut zu beeinflussen, um spezielle Fähigkeiten oder Merkmale zu stärken, ist schrecklich und in höchstem Maße alarmierend. Sollten die Insekten dazu in der Lage sein, wird unser Kampf Ausmaße annehmen die wir uns in unseren schrecklichsten Träumen nicht vorstellen können.
Die diversen „Spezialisierungen“ die wir bisher in den Schwärmen beobachten, sind folgen natürlicher Anpassung an ihren Lebensraum, wie sie auch in Bienenvölkern oder Ameisenvölkern vorkommen. Die Gabe der bewussten Manipulation der Fähigkeiten einer Brut würde den Bestien eine gewisse Intelligenz zusprechen, die weit über eine instinktive Reaktion auf eine Bedrohung hinaus ginge.
Eine schreckliche Vorstellung.

Vor langer Zeit, während einer der ersten Expeditionen in den Almati-Bau hinab, fanden wir Eier welche, durch unsere Anwesenheit angeregt, Kipuka und Kinrey entließen. Diese Bestien waren von ungewöhnlicher Färbung. Schimmernd blau und orange, ihr Panzer war trotz ihrer Jugend hart und extrem resistent gegen Magie.
Zuvor hatte ich derartige Bestien nur als, von uns Homins so genannte, Schwarmführer gesehen. Beispielsweise in der Schlacht um Pyr, im Pluvia, 2. AC 2531. Dort grub sich eines dieser Wesen aus der Borke und erreichte mit seinem Kopf die Höhe der Stadtmauern.
Jedoch war die Annahme damals, das diese Wesen eine Art große Waffe oder eine Art „General“ darstellten. Die Implikationen werden mir erst jetzt so recht bewusst und ich wage kaum den Gedanken zum Ende zu führen.

Ich bitte Euch, werter Meister Cegribs darum mir oder einem anderen Vertreter der Ranger alsbald die weiteren Ergebnisse eurer Forschungen mitzuteilen.

Der gemeinsame Kampf gegen die Kitin muss höchste Priorität für alle Völker haben. Wie dereinst im Vertrag der Vier Länder vereinbart.
Neue Erkenntnisse über den Feind und dessen Schwächen sind von größter Bedeutung für diesen Krieg.

Hochachtungsvoll,
Lylanea Vicciona.
Ranger

Edited 2 times | Last edited by Lylanea (2 years ago)

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Lylanea Vicciona
Bard of the Four Lands

#4 Multilingual 

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Salazar couldn't stop staring at Cegrips' report. That was it? That was all? Just a lump of theories, none of them backed by facts? A couple of samples taken, but still - after months! - not analysed?

And all that fuss about the stinger rotting after three days, although no-one knew how long ago it was cut from the kirosta. Orphie Dradius was missed for three weeks already before she - and the stinger - were found. There was no kirosta corpse nearby, just that stinger, which made it possible that she found it somewhere else, or cut it from the kirosta somewhere else. The kirosta might have been alive and then killed by her, or already dead when she found it. Actually the strange colour might have been an implication of the state of decomposition under the conditions of the kitin lair, with fungi or somesuch endemic to that place. And then - yes, of course it could be a mutation. It could have been ill. But then it also could be a new breed. There were many, many possibilities.

Anyway, that report could have been written just a few days after the discovery, after the rot set in on the stinger, the samples were taken, and the parts of the stinger prepared - and therefore useless for further study of its substance.

The whole thing was a disgrace. If Cegrips could not come up with something spectacular from the samples, this would not go down as the most shining hour for both Cegrips, nor Pyr Academy. And as far as the Rangers were concerned, they hardly learned more than they already knew.

---

Salazar Caradini
Filira Matia
Royal Historian
Member of the Royal Academy of Yrkanis
First Seraph of the Order of the Argo Navis

#5 Multilingual 

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Letter from Mona di Fareni to Barmie Dingle
Date: 14 Folially 2622-3
Re: Study of a kitin fragment

If Fyros had planned to attack me, they could not have found a better way than to send me this letter. I regret to inform you that its contents have vanished into thin air in my laboratory. I also deplore the loss of several of my plant specimens under study, which were sprayed with the substance. Only specimens of psykoplas withstood well, absorbing the black coloration. My colleague Chiaera Cuirinia is investigating the subject. 
I have no other conclusion to communicate to you at this time.

--
Duchess Mona di Fareni

#6 Multilingual 

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Letter from Haido Xuan to Barmie Dingle
Date: 17 Folially 2622-3
Subject: Stance of a black stinger fragment

Our Venerable Tao Sian, who heads the Temple of Knowledge, has entrusted me with the analysis of the Daïsha stanza received from the Imperial Academy and containing a fragment of the black kirosta stinger found near the body of the deceased Orphie Dradius, former Ranger Leader.
   
The stanza of Daïsha is a proven means of preservation, invented during the reign of Lin Cho. Once set in amber, the object remains inert, stable and frozen in time, but still observable through transparency. Yet, this is not the case with the present stanza, which shows several internal cracks in which a black essence has spread. 
The kitin fragment is visibly in an advanced state of decomposition, which seems strange to me because kitin shells usually remain hard after the death of their wearer, which allows among other things to use them for various craft creations.
The surface of the chitin shows abundant spumescent molds, testifying to the vigor of the decomposition. Their black coloration, identical to the color of the chitin, is singular. Visually, everything is black on this sample, including the flesh visible where the fragment has been sliced apart, as well as all the fluid matter oozing from the whole. Does this support Daeronn's theory of a pathogen? Which one would cause this staining?

As a precaution, before opening the stanza, I preferred to show it to a specialist in stanza and cubes, so that he could formulate an opinion on the alteration of the amber. He confirmed my fears, mentioning extreme cases such as attempts to put pure acid in stanza. He suggested that I have the monks do a purification. Meditation by the gaze on the amber is a complex phenomenon, which allowed the discovery of the principle of amber cubes from the stanza. I was curious to know what the monks would have to say when connecting with the stanza. I entrusted it to the Temple monks for several days, at the end of which they told me that they had had a lot of torment in trying to purify it. Their verdict is that the fragment expresses a profound disharmony, a corruption of matter, a supernatural power. They see there the evil work of the Karavan and have solemnly enjoined me to have it destroyed by lightning. I reported all this to our elder Tao Sian and we agreed to consult the magnetizers of Jen-Lai to conduct another examination.

--
Haido Xuan
Dynastic gardener

#7 Multilingual 

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Report submitted on 22h - Holeth, Nivia 30, 3rd AC 2625 to the Jen-Laï archives by Haido Xuan, Dynastic Gardener.

Tao-Sian gave me a Daisha stanza containing a fragment of a Kirosta dart. This Kirosta dart had been found alongside the lifeless body of Ranger guide Orphie Dradius in 2612 and initially given to Daeronn Cegrips for analysis. Due to the rapid and unexplained degradation of the dart, it was cut into 3 fragments, each placed in a stanza to prevent decomposition.
But the stanza itself appeared to be affected by the same alteration, as confirmed by the temple bonzes. Through gaze meditation on the amber, they determined that the fragment expressed a profound disharmony, a corruption of matter, a supernatural power.
We then turned to the Magnetizers. Qai-Zhan, the master magnetizer from Jen-Laï, wanted to harmonize the amber of the stanza with the thoughts of a group of homins who would have brought peace, harmony and kami goodness. In theory, this should have stopped the amber destructuring and allowed the opening of the stanza.
But despite all our efforts, the stanza exploded. Qai-Zhan maintains that he had the impression that the Kamis' conjuration was aggravating the situation just before the stanza exploded. This is, of course, strictly impossible. On the other hand, our group's inexperience in the practice of meditation must have resulted in fatal disharmony.
When the explosion occurred, some of those present thought they saw the silhouette of a kirosta. For some, it was black. Others saw it as red. But it was all a blur, and only lasted as long as the blink of an eye.
After the explosion, I searched in vain for the pieces of the kirosta dart. All I could find was a black liquid, of which I took a sample. But the behavior of the amber of the stanza never ceases to worry Qai-Zhan, and I'm afraid the analysis of this liquid won't give us much more to go on.

Haido Xuan
Dynastic Gardener
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