Day 83, Fall of 416 AV
Morning
Aylasa Caves
Morning
Aylasa Caves
Back to the pile of resources again. Fortunately, the descending chill that signaled the onset of winter proved to exhaust the humidity in the region, as well as cooling temperatures to where open corpses could be preserved to a point. Eridanus sat in the midst of his pile of resources, the arrows from two days ago placed neatly against the wall, arranged side by side, while further from the wall the bolts from yesterday were arranged. That was to free up space for the third part of this project, which was to work on the larger category of eagle wing bones that he picked out.
He planned to somehow craft the shape of the wing bone into a tiny throwing dagger, since the individual bones that he deemed as the larger ones amongst the pile were too big to fit into any bow or crossbow, yet too small to serve properly as melee weapons. The logical conclusion would be to use them as manual throwing weapons. He had often seen entertainers juggle and throw such daggers, and he felt that he could replicate their shape. Whether his knives could actually fly properly would be another matter, but that was what Malediction was for - hopefully to somehow magically make up for his severe lack of actual skill.
Taking his beloved dagger the vantha began to cut away at a selected piece of bone. The main aspects of a throwing dagger, from his memory, were only two parts - the blade and the handle. That was pretty obvious as well, for the former was where the knife would stick into the target, while the latter was where the thrower could hold the weapon without cutting himself. As Eridanus was making it all from bone, instead of iron and leather like normal throwing knives available at smithies, he could afford to use the entire piece of bone for both segments.
First he cut a shallow line at about half way in the bone. Due to the small size of the bone - in comparison to iron forged melee weapons - there had to be enough space for the handle. Besides, he remembered that throwing weapons had generally an equal ratio in terms of length for the edge and handle. Thus, this shallow line would be the indicator for him to separate the two segments.
He decided to work on the edge first, for that was where he most familiar with, since he was the owner of two, quite deadly long swords. The edge was after all merely a smaller version of the blades he owned. Since the bone currently was in a solid and awkward rectangular bar-like form, he had to first cut away the excess bits of bone. Squinting at it as he visualized the general shape of a blade, he began hacking away at the unwanted layers of the bone that he designated as the 'blade segment', cutting away more at the end since blades generally started out wider at the base, then pointy at the end. The rationale for doing so was obvious - one could not hope to stab anyone with a blunt end. It would no longer be a throwing dagger but a throwing... object, if that was the case.
Thus it could be said that he was carving away to arrive at an elongated triangular shape, like a tiny replica of a blade's edge made of bone. When he arrived at the vague shape, after spending half a bell chipping away at the excess layers of bone, he was left with what could be passed off as a toy. It was blunt and dull.
However, it was not important for the sides of the blade edge to be sharp. That was important for weapons that required slashing, but this was a throwing weapon that required for precise penetration of the target at the point. Thus, he could not care less if the sides were blunt. In order for this to work properly, he had to then sharpen the point of the weapon. With this in mind, he proceeded to hack away at the edge, slanting his cuts at an angle so as to create some sort of crayon that was made of bone.
Wait something is wrong.
He realized that this just looked like a larger crossbow bolt that was quite badly shaped. He had been cutting away at the general excess areas, but he realized that the blade was still like a rod! Blades were meant to have an unequal depth to width ratio, with a flat cross-section, and he slapped his forehead at such an elementary mistake. It would truly be embarrassing should he present his throwing dagger that looked more like an over sized pencil than a projectile weapon.
Thus the craftsman carved away further at the blade, not stopping until he ended up with a more blade-like blade. One that had a flat surface, thin depth and one that truly looked more like an edge of a mini sword rather than an apparatus of students and artists. Next, he proceeded to work on the point of the blade, carving away to result in not just a pointy edge, but also a reasonable sharpness extending from the point of the blade, giving it a vague triangular shape that corresponded to the two edges that slanted away from the upper vertex of a triangle.
With the blade done, he proceeded to the handle. There was little to do for the handle, for it needed to be thick enough for comfortable grasping. However, what he could do was to smooth the surface and to cut away the unsightly protrusions of bone. In order for there to be proper flight there had to first be structural symmetry, and so he began work on the handle with that primary goal in mind. The ending joints at the base of the handle he shaped with his dagger until they were more of a square-like shape, then he continued up the handle to give the entire thing a more simple shape with simple lines. Then he began to scrape away at the surface to dull the sharp ends that might hurt users holding on to the handle until the surface of the bone handle was relatively smooth and safe to hold on to.
Grasping the finished product he waved it about, imitating throwing it though he would not do so. Well, his half finished product, if he wanted to be precise. There was more fun things to do with it.
Grabbing his quill and ink, he went went ahead to consider the crude looking throwing knife. To be honest it looked god-awful and did not resemble what he visualized in his mind. However, he had spent the last few bells working away at this object so there was a certain sort of "parent's bias" that he had towards it. It had an edge and handle, separated by a little chunk of bone that he left that served as the segmenting partition that separated the two.
First, he began with a circle at the center of the segmenting partition. The best thing about circles were their neutrality. Of course, they could represent many other things if they were activated in certain contexts appropriately, but on its own nothing spoke of neutrality better than the circle. That was a reason why the symbols that formed the heart of a Legacy Crafter were collectively referred to as "malediction circles" rather than "malediction squares" or "malediction diamonds".
Since the piece of bone between the handle and edge was more or less at the middle, it could be seen as a middle and neutral ground managing the throwing force that began at the handle, and the damaging force focused in the edge. The circle could therefore be an actual, mini malediction circle within the context of a larger one that encompassed the weapon, and so with the symbol of the bird he drew forth the eagle's identity from that circle that would serve as the central flow of power that he would direct to the rest of the knife.
Next, he drew the outline of a rectangle on the surface of the handle. The handle was the foundation for which strength flowed through, and acted as the primary staging grounds for intentions to be declared before the throwing of the weapon, and so the rectangle served as a sign of sturdiness, to determine one's intentions as stoic and unshakeable. Motivations were important in battle, and to flinch meant death. There must be unwavering determination, and the rough outline of the rectangle signified the start of these desired virtues. Next, he began drawing three consecutive diamonds into the rectangle, laying them atop one another. An interesting observation to make was that the juxtaposition of these diamonds with the rectangle also created the unstable, directed shape that were the triangles, all with varying directions, sizes and intent. Understanding that aspect of geometry meant that he had to carefully draw the diamonds, modifying their dimensions if necessary to maintain any semblance of equality.
With the basic groundwork for sturdiness laid with the shapes, it was time to direct these stoic intentions to a purpose. The triangles would have to be disrupted, for there was no place for them at the base of the weapon, which was the handle. This was done by creating lines linking the sides of the diamonds, heading upwards and essentially cutting through the triangles, rendering them obsolete. In doing so, to maintain thematic unity he made sure that the lines were all parallel to each other, and that - when unbroken by the diamonds - actually formed a large greater line. This would be important for the next step when linking the foundational energies at the base to the circular attribute at the middle of the weapon.
With in the diamonds, he carefully drew three small circles, untouched by the walls of the diamonds. One curiosity, however, was in drawing the circles in increasing size from the base of the handle towards the middle segment of the dagger. This represented the entirety of the violent energies present in the intention of use of the weapon, and represented them growing as it was directed towards the blade of the weapon, guided by the lines he just drew previously. By placing these circles in the diamonds, which were themselves within the larger rectangle, he was ensuring that these violent energies were still contained by the security of the sturdy foundational shapes, for it was not time to unleash them yet, especially when the prime attribute of the eagle had not even been activated.
Now it was time to create the link, which was precisely what he did. First, he continued on the two lines unifying the diamonds together, stretching them upwards until they coincided with the circumference of the central, mini malediction circle. Then, in order to enhance the direction of the energies from the base to the prime attribute, he made three points at the top point of each diamond. For the nearest diamond to the circle, he drew to curvy lines, bent to the left and right for symmetrical purposes and to equally divide them out before joining them again. This was actually a version of the switch sigil used in play. The other points of the diamonds were also similarly done, though their curved lines were longer in order to reach the circle. Every angle, every point was calculated and measured. There was a reason behind everything. The nearest diamond was connected at the bottom of the circle, while further diamonds connected higher up the circumference of the circle. This was because the malediction circle that accessed the djed of the eagle would receive the foundational energies from the base, filling the circle from the bottom-up. As the level of djed continued to rise, it would receive both indirect energy from the bottom that belonged to further squares, but also pure direct energy from the further squares as the level of djed rose to a higher level to meet the higher connecting points. That allowed for better transference of energy, and was a prime method in djed path manipulation in methods involving multiple, complicated switch and path sigils.
Now what was left was the expression of these foundational energies that were augmented with the djed of the creature. The first symbol he drew was the most obvious sign of intention. He traced a large arrow on the blade of the bone dagger, with the base of the arrow beginning from the upper peripheral of the central malediction circle, while the pointing end close to the sharp end of the dagger.
In order to concentrate the massive concentration of strength into the blade, he started with the simplest symbol of instability, of direction, of directional vengeance, and of the many-to-one switch glyph. The base coincided with the bottom of the arrow, absorbing the energies in full, and the tip of it pointed upwards, concentrating and harmonizing the gathered arcana in and racing them upwards in full force. Racing them towards the business end that would likely generate plenty of hurt for the unfortunate victim.
Similar to how blades of a melee weapon vibrated, causing greater damage in their penetration, Eridanus sought to imitate this effect in a ranged weapon, seeking to create a greater burst effect upon impact. To that end, he began with a thin line from the tip of the triangle, drawing it in a wavy, curvy line within the arrow. This not only sought to replicate the vibrations, but also represented the maelstrom of chaotic forces that began at the beginning of the weapon, now having progressed and transformed to this point. It was unstable, it was dangerous, and it was massive, waiting to be let out. Waiting to be expressed.
And thus he allowed for its expression. First he drew two lines leading out from the curvy S-shape line, breaking the solidarity of the shapes so far that followed the theme of having either shapes staying within shapes, or coinciding. The two lines were aimed outwards, but swerved back in midway to meet with the point of the larger arrow. Then along the entire length that were in line with the sharp end of the blade, he drew lines going outwards, pointing in all directions. The symbolism spoke for itself here, the intent was clear. The breaking out of the shape was the seed of chaos, cultivated as it was directed back to the original straight force derived from the stability at the start. Corrupting the entire mass of energies at impact, at the edge, the power and djed would then explode in all directions, causing a splintering and massive damage.
Guided by the powerful aerial capabilities of the eagle, this weapon derived its strength in several ways. Firstly, from the intentions of the user, secondly the latent prowess of the creature from which this weapon from derived and thirdly the myriad of shapes and glyphs that massively augmented and directed the flow of power throughout. One could even say that they were micro-managed to a fault, and it was an extravagant waste of effort on an item meant to be a one-use weapon. However, in a way it was similar to how signature poisons were viewed - one-use, powerful pieces of artistic revelry and splendor. Over the rest of the day, he continued to use the rest of the pieces, only finding two other acceptable pieces of bone large enough to satisfy his expectations. Whittling them down to acceptable shapes, then drawing his complex diagrams into them took the better part of the day, and by the time he was done it was already nightfall. Not to mention colder. As a finisher, he carved shallow lines over all the ink to ensure some level of longevity for his beloved masterpiece, then dropped a single expression of his life essence directly over the mini malediction circle that graced the central segment of each dagger. He would be able to use two of them to identify their destructive effects, and most likely keep one as a keep sake and as a reminder of his genius.
It was a good day well-spent.
He planned to somehow craft the shape of the wing bone into a tiny throwing dagger, since the individual bones that he deemed as the larger ones amongst the pile were too big to fit into any bow or crossbow, yet too small to serve properly as melee weapons. The logical conclusion would be to use them as manual throwing weapons. He had often seen entertainers juggle and throw such daggers, and he felt that he could replicate their shape. Whether his knives could actually fly properly would be another matter, but that was what Malediction was for - hopefully to somehow magically make up for his severe lack of actual skill.
Taking his beloved dagger the vantha began to cut away at a selected piece of bone. The main aspects of a throwing dagger, from his memory, were only two parts - the blade and the handle. That was pretty obvious as well, for the former was where the knife would stick into the target, while the latter was where the thrower could hold the weapon without cutting himself. As Eridanus was making it all from bone, instead of iron and leather like normal throwing knives available at smithies, he could afford to use the entire piece of bone for both segments.
First he cut a shallow line at about half way in the bone. Due to the small size of the bone - in comparison to iron forged melee weapons - there had to be enough space for the handle. Besides, he remembered that throwing weapons had generally an equal ratio in terms of length for the edge and handle. Thus, this shallow line would be the indicator for him to separate the two segments.
He decided to work on the edge first, for that was where he most familiar with, since he was the owner of two, quite deadly long swords. The edge was after all merely a smaller version of the blades he owned. Since the bone currently was in a solid and awkward rectangular bar-like form, he had to first cut away the excess bits of bone. Squinting at it as he visualized the general shape of a blade, he began hacking away at the unwanted layers of the bone that he designated as the 'blade segment', cutting away more at the end since blades generally started out wider at the base, then pointy at the end. The rationale for doing so was obvious - one could not hope to stab anyone with a blunt end. It would no longer be a throwing dagger but a throwing... object, if that was the case.
Thus it could be said that he was carving away to arrive at an elongated triangular shape, like a tiny replica of a blade's edge made of bone. When he arrived at the vague shape, after spending half a bell chipping away at the excess layers of bone, he was left with what could be passed off as a toy. It was blunt and dull.
However, it was not important for the sides of the blade edge to be sharp. That was important for weapons that required slashing, but this was a throwing weapon that required for precise penetration of the target at the point. Thus, he could not care less if the sides were blunt. In order for this to work properly, he had to then sharpen the point of the weapon. With this in mind, he proceeded to hack away at the edge, slanting his cuts at an angle so as to create some sort of crayon that was made of bone.
Wait something is wrong.
He realized that this just looked like a larger crossbow bolt that was quite badly shaped. He had been cutting away at the general excess areas, but he realized that the blade was still like a rod! Blades were meant to have an unequal depth to width ratio, with a flat cross-section, and he slapped his forehead at such an elementary mistake. It would truly be embarrassing should he present his throwing dagger that looked more like an over sized pencil than a projectile weapon.
Thus the craftsman carved away further at the blade, not stopping until he ended up with a more blade-like blade. One that had a flat surface, thin depth and one that truly looked more like an edge of a mini sword rather than an apparatus of students and artists. Next, he proceeded to work on the point of the blade, carving away to result in not just a pointy edge, but also a reasonable sharpness extending from the point of the blade, giving it a vague triangular shape that corresponded to the two edges that slanted away from the upper vertex of a triangle.
With the blade done, he proceeded to the handle. There was little to do for the handle, for it needed to be thick enough for comfortable grasping. However, what he could do was to smooth the surface and to cut away the unsightly protrusions of bone. In order for there to be proper flight there had to first be structural symmetry, and so he began work on the handle with that primary goal in mind. The ending joints at the base of the handle he shaped with his dagger until they were more of a square-like shape, then he continued up the handle to give the entire thing a more simple shape with simple lines. Then he began to scrape away at the surface to dull the sharp ends that might hurt users holding on to the handle until the surface of the bone handle was relatively smooth and safe to hold on to.
Grasping the finished product he waved it about, imitating throwing it though he would not do so. Well, his half finished product, if he wanted to be precise. There was more fun things to do with it.
Grabbing his quill and ink, he went went ahead to consider the crude looking throwing knife. To be honest it looked god-awful and did not resemble what he visualized in his mind. However, he had spent the last few bells working away at this object so there was a certain sort of "parent's bias" that he had towards it. It had an edge and handle, separated by a little chunk of bone that he left that served as the segmenting partition that separated the two.
First, he began with a circle at the center of the segmenting partition. The best thing about circles were their neutrality. Of course, they could represent many other things if they were activated in certain contexts appropriately, but on its own nothing spoke of neutrality better than the circle. That was a reason why the symbols that formed the heart of a Legacy Crafter were collectively referred to as "malediction circles" rather than "malediction squares" or "malediction diamonds".
Since the piece of bone between the handle and edge was more or less at the middle, it could be seen as a middle and neutral ground managing the throwing force that began at the handle, and the damaging force focused in the edge. The circle could therefore be an actual, mini malediction circle within the context of a larger one that encompassed the weapon, and so with the symbol of the bird he drew forth the eagle's identity from that circle that would serve as the central flow of power that he would direct to the rest of the knife.
Next, he drew the outline of a rectangle on the surface of the handle. The handle was the foundation for which strength flowed through, and acted as the primary staging grounds for intentions to be declared before the throwing of the weapon, and so the rectangle served as a sign of sturdiness, to determine one's intentions as stoic and unshakeable. Motivations were important in battle, and to flinch meant death. There must be unwavering determination, and the rough outline of the rectangle signified the start of these desired virtues. Next, he began drawing three consecutive diamonds into the rectangle, laying them atop one another. An interesting observation to make was that the juxtaposition of these diamonds with the rectangle also created the unstable, directed shape that were the triangles, all with varying directions, sizes and intent. Understanding that aspect of geometry meant that he had to carefully draw the diamonds, modifying their dimensions if necessary to maintain any semblance of equality.
With the basic groundwork for sturdiness laid with the shapes, it was time to direct these stoic intentions to a purpose. The triangles would have to be disrupted, for there was no place for them at the base of the weapon, which was the handle. This was done by creating lines linking the sides of the diamonds, heading upwards and essentially cutting through the triangles, rendering them obsolete. In doing so, to maintain thematic unity he made sure that the lines were all parallel to each other, and that - when unbroken by the diamonds - actually formed a large greater line. This would be important for the next step when linking the foundational energies at the base to the circular attribute at the middle of the weapon.
With in the diamonds, he carefully drew three small circles, untouched by the walls of the diamonds. One curiosity, however, was in drawing the circles in increasing size from the base of the handle towards the middle segment of the dagger. This represented the entirety of the violent energies present in the intention of use of the weapon, and represented them growing as it was directed towards the blade of the weapon, guided by the lines he just drew previously. By placing these circles in the diamonds, which were themselves within the larger rectangle, he was ensuring that these violent energies were still contained by the security of the sturdy foundational shapes, for it was not time to unleash them yet, especially when the prime attribute of the eagle had not even been activated.
Now it was time to create the link, which was precisely what he did. First, he continued on the two lines unifying the diamonds together, stretching them upwards until they coincided with the circumference of the central, mini malediction circle. Then, in order to enhance the direction of the energies from the base to the prime attribute, he made three points at the top point of each diamond. For the nearest diamond to the circle, he drew to curvy lines, bent to the left and right for symmetrical purposes and to equally divide them out before joining them again. This was actually a version of the switch sigil used in play. The other points of the diamonds were also similarly done, though their curved lines were longer in order to reach the circle. Every angle, every point was calculated and measured. There was a reason behind everything. The nearest diamond was connected at the bottom of the circle, while further diamonds connected higher up the circumference of the circle. This was because the malediction circle that accessed the djed of the eagle would receive the foundational energies from the base, filling the circle from the bottom-up. As the level of djed continued to rise, it would receive both indirect energy from the bottom that belonged to further squares, but also pure direct energy from the further squares as the level of djed rose to a higher level to meet the higher connecting points. That allowed for better transference of energy, and was a prime method in djed path manipulation in methods involving multiple, complicated switch and path sigils.
Now what was left was the expression of these foundational energies that were augmented with the djed of the creature. The first symbol he drew was the most obvious sign of intention. He traced a large arrow on the blade of the bone dagger, with the base of the arrow beginning from the upper peripheral of the central malediction circle, while the pointing end close to the sharp end of the dagger.
In order to concentrate the massive concentration of strength into the blade, he started with the simplest symbol of instability, of direction, of directional vengeance, and of the many-to-one switch glyph. The base coincided with the bottom of the arrow, absorbing the energies in full, and the tip of it pointed upwards, concentrating and harmonizing the gathered arcana in and racing them upwards in full force. Racing them towards the business end that would likely generate plenty of hurt for the unfortunate victim.
Similar to how blades of a melee weapon vibrated, causing greater damage in their penetration, Eridanus sought to imitate this effect in a ranged weapon, seeking to create a greater burst effect upon impact. To that end, he began with a thin line from the tip of the triangle, drawing it in a wavy, curvy line within the arrow. This not only sought to replicate the vibrations, but also represented the maelstrom of chaotic forces that began at the beginning of the weapon, now having progressed and transformed to this point. It was unstable, it was dangerous, and it was massive, waiting to be let out. Waiting to be expressed.
And thus he allowed for its expression. First he drew two lines leading out from the curvy S-shape line, breaking the solidarity of the shapes so far that followed the theme of having either shapes staying within shapes, or coinciding. The two lines were aimed outwards, but swerved back in midway to meet with the point of the larger arrow. Then along the entire length that were in line with the sharp end of the blade, he drew lines going outwards, pointing in all directions. The symbolism spoke for itself here, the intent was clear. The breaking out of the shape was the seed of chaos, cultivated as it was directed back to the original straight force derived from the stability at the start. Corrupting the entire mass of energies at impact, at the edge, the power and djed would then explode in all directions, causing a splintering and massive damage.
It was a good day well-spent.
