Completed Get Antiquated

[Chandray]

Timestamp: During the later part of Spring 514 AV ~ Chandray Arrives to the Antiquitues Society ~ Chandray had finally got around to join The Antiquities Society. She had heard a lot about it and knew it was located in the southern part of Riverfall along a main thoroughfare. At the moment she was walking there, using her city map to navigate and find the way. It wasn't farm from Zhongjie Warrens and she would find her way there without problems. She had learnt to know the city a bit by now, and though she still used the map, she hardly ever felt lost. She wasn't lost, but she knew she was late. She had been playing fiddle, forgotten the and started out later than she had planned to do. But hHere was the warrens now ... she looked at the map agian and tuned right,followed the street downwards and the turned left after a while, and soon she arrived at her goal. She stopped outside. It was an old house, the premises of the Antiquities Society. It also looked quite impressive and exiting. The things she had heard were promising and exactly what an aspiring future explorer and treasure hunter needed. The Akalaks were obsessed with their past and finding their lost city which has been buried somewhere beneath the Suvan Sea. And through the course of this obsession they often recover artifacts that are either from Valkalah or refer to Valkalah. These items, along with pre-valerians artifacts were housed within the Antiquities Society in its collection. Some of the more interesting and fascinating pieces were displayed in its museum. They also offered lots of knowledge and opportunities for learning. It seemed like a perfect place for her to go ... Chandray entered courtyard out front. There was a statue of two winged carnivorous creatures feeding on a gazelle locked in stone. She watched this piece of akalak art thoughtfully and wondered if this too was something ancient and perhaps even prevalterran, or if it was new. There were people in the courtyard, some of them having a picnic, others just standing in small groups and speaking. She passed by them, looked into what seemed to be a warehose, passed by this too and went in through a door she hoped was some sort of main entrance to the museum. She didn't know so much about where she was supposed to turn for membership and classes, but approached an akalak who seemed to work there and asked him where to turn. The tall blue man had been watching items in a counter, but now his icy gaze turned to her. He was tall and blue of course, like they all were, the akalaks. But it was a long time since Chandray had found them all alike. This man had a well shaped face, half-long hair, and a calm and thoughtful demeanour and facial expression. She thought he looked a bit surprised, like he had been deep into his onw thoughts and not noticed her unti she spoke to him. "The introduction program? Yes, right, we are starting this today. And it seems to be time for me to go upstairs. We are gathering the participants in the program at the second story. You can buy your membership there too." He smiled brieftly and made a gesture to a big stairway. "It's time to start. I think you may be the last one to arrive, actually. Follow me." He started walking and Chandray followed.

[Chandray]

~ From Kara Bloomsheart, she buys a one year membership and recieves a compass rose medallion. She also buys notebook ink and quill. Maltar introduces himself and Kara to the Group and the Introduction Course starts ~ A group of people were gathered on the second story and the akalak told Chandray to walk over to them - the female employee who was with them would take care of registering and payment for membership. Chandray did as she was told. For 50 gold mizas she got a one year membership and access to their courses. She paid and received a Compass Rose Medallion which is the Societies' Symbol. Chandray put the string with the medallion around her neck and wore it as a necklace. There were simple notebooks for sale too, and quills and ink, so Chanday bought this too, so she could make notes. The total price for the writing items was 5 gold miza. The notebook had black covers of stiff, waxed cloth and the paper was coarse, yellowish and of questionable quality. This didn’t matter to her. She wasn’t a professional scribe and her notes would likely not be so impressive. In case she really found she needed it she would buy a better notebook later on, she thought. This one would do for now. The akalak she had followed upstairs was now standing in front of the group for the introduction program and about to start to speak. A quick glance at the others told Chandray they were five in total : herself, three akalaks who were looking very serious and one really odd being, one of those water beings seldom seen ashore, a charoda. “Welcome here and welcome to our introduction course”. The akalak looked at the group, his face calm and neutral. “I’m Maltar, President of the Antiquities Society. And our friend here - he pointed at the female employee - is the Secretary of the Antiquities Society, Kara Bloomsheart. We are going to help you learn the first basics in the fields of knowledge we pursue here.” He made a break. The bronze skinned and slightly shimmering Kara Bloomsheart smiled and the akalaks in the student group hummed something in agreement, while the charoda and Chandray stayed silent and just waited for the man to go on. “Firstly, I will tell you all a bit about akalak history. A few of you may already know it all, but I want the whole group to understand the reasons for why I have founded this society. I will tell you about the Valterran and about the akalaks and our lost capital, Valkalah. If you want to take notes it can be good if you find a good place for your ink bottles now. ” Maltar spoke in a strikingly clear and structured way and seemed to be utterly focused and knowledgeable - it was hard to say how he managed to impress Chandray this way when he had said so little, but he sort of emanated high knowledge. It made her feel inspired and she was really looking forward to learning from him. Chandray opened her bottle of black ink and put it on a small shelf nearby. Carefully, she opened the notebook and dipped the tip of the quill in ink and made ready to take notes. The charoda did the same, while the three akalaks just waited in a stoic and respectful way that without words made it clear they had heard already heard everything about this topic before, at least at basic level. Chandray had heard about the world history and the Valterran too of course, but she expected it to be something new and much more interesting now when it was going to be told by an akalak. Ledger- 50 gm for Membership in The Antiquities Society during Spring-Winter 514 AV - 5 gm for a Notebook, Quill and Ink

[Chandray]

~ Chandray listens to Maltar’s first History lecture and learns a bit about The Prevalterran World History ~ “As I think you all know, the Valterran was the disaster that tore the world apart and created Mizahar as we know it today. I will tell you more about this later. But first I will first speak about the old times and the things the knowledge that had been preserved about the world before the Valterran. Much of the history of that time has been lost of course, but pieces and shards of it were passed on from the survivors of the catastrophe. We Akalaks have a long life span and there’s those who can become about 450 years old, so you could believe that we must know everything about the old world.” He shook his head, not dramatically, but in a calm way, with an expression on his face that made Chandray think of him not as just knowledgeable, but as wise. A man of wisdom. She went thorugh his words in her mind and memorized them, and then she listened with intense interest when he continued. “But this isn’t the case, alas. Our race was nearly wiped out in the Valterran and our city Valkalah sank in the ocean. Shards and pieces of knowledge was saved, some of it not much more than legends, but may things were lost. The old times are like a silent land, the people who once lived there long forgotten and gone. Once in a while we find one of those shards and pieces, like enigmatic tokens left for us to speculate about, while we walk blindly on what we think are paths into the past ...” Maltar looked at the group of students. They seemed mesmerized, the akalaks too, no matter they had heard this before. They hadn’t heard it told this way. A smile moved over Malkar’s face, like he was satisfied with their reaction. His gaze wandered over face after face and stopped on Chandray. Once again she was going through the his words in her mind and memorizing them. Now she also used the quill, put it carefully on the first blank page in her notebook and wrote : " Akalaks were nearly wiped out in the Valterran. Much of the past lost and forgotten. We can only speculate about the past." “Humans” said Maltar. “Humans are the most prolific race on the continent of Mizahar. But the Humans are believed to have come to Mizahar from another place. This is legends, lost in the mists of time. But everything in our world is the doing of the gods of Mizahar, and it’s said the gods of changed the humans and made them something else than they once were, made them beings of Mizahar, made them theirs. They humans are considered to be the oldest race in today’s Mizahar, and others were modeled after them ...though the akalaks, true children of gods, have been around about as long as the humans.” He smiled. “Some akalaks are old and has been around for hundreds of years. But the knowledge they have are shared with all of Mizahar. Anybody can visit the Valkalah Library and read anything they like there. We restrict knowledge from no one. So. Despite our long life span we have no more information than people of the other races.” This was said with in a quite proud voice. Chandray could admire and appreciate what he said, because it seemed to be about some of her core beliefs : the importance of cooperation between good people to make the world go round and the importance of doing the right thing. It wasn't so easy to make neat notes in the book when she was standing up, but she held it near her body and with the front cover folded back for a better grip. She dipped the quill in ink again and wrote : Everything in the world is the doing of the gods. The humans came from an unknown place. The gods took them, changed they and made them theirs.Other races were modeled after them. The akalaks are an old race too, children of gods. They share their knowledge with all and thus know no more than the other races. “I believed you knew more than others as you have so long lives” she said. Maltar shook his head. “Only if we kept all knowledge to ourselves and didn’t share. When knowledge is shared, age isn’t important. I spent many years learning. Today you catch up. But let’s go on. There’s more history I want to make sure you all know about. “ He made one of his pedagogic pauses and Chandray read through all her notes. It seemed like she had got it all. She was keen on learning all she could, so she decided to go on like this, memorize, make notes and look them through, ask a question once in a while.

[Chandray]

~ Chandray listens to Maltar’s second lecture and learns about The Valterran History, the lost cities Suva and Valkalah and, and the purpose of The Antiquities Society. ~ Maltar waited until the students were ready and then he started speaking again. “So now you have learnt that the akalaks know about as much as other races about the world before the Valterran. I will tell you more about our race later on. But now it’s time to say a few things about the Valterran itself. Many things can be said about this. But I will not speak so much about the causes and what exactly happened. I will mostly focus on what’s the main things for us in the Antiquities Society - the changes to the geography and the consequences for the cities of the old times, an in particular the cities and other places that were lost.” Chandray was about to make a note again but felt a soft nudge in her left side. She glance at the student next to her : it was one of the akalak students, tall and blue and ... oh, were they not all always tall, blue, athletic and muscular. This one had a mischievous smile on his face. “Hey, “old” human” he said in a low, joking voice. “Want to learn more about us akalaks? Are you free after the classes? “ It wasn’t so serious of Chandray to answer to that blatant attempt to make a hit at her and during the lessons and right in front of Maltar too. But it was a quite attractive looking akalak, with that charming smile and the joke he’d made, so Chandray gave in to her more unserious side for a moment. She smiled back and looked seductively into his eyes for longer time than necessary, while she let her own smile grew from just polite to quite inviting. “Perhaps” she whispered teasingly. Maltar was speaking again and she turned her attention to what he was saying. “For thousands of years, Mizahar was divided into two main nations - Alahea in the east and Suvan in the west. But the great war that is named The Valterran resulted in the complete and utter reshaping of the continent of Mizahar. Fire erupted. Djed ran wild across the land. The old nations were totally destroyed and lost millions of citizenry in one short time. Nothing was left unaffected. The face of the land, its flora and fauna, even it’s very nature changed, while those that survived were taking to the subterranean depths. This way, the first and second generations of humans after the Valterran withstood the ravages below ground or in isolated locations throughout Mizahar and not until the third generation did they emerge and begin to take stock.” Chandray listened with full attention, did her best to memorize the words and also jotted down notes as Malkar spoke. She dipped the quill in ink and wrote: The Valterran reshaped Mizahar totally and obliterated old nations and cities totally. Millions of people died. (She stopped a bit at this figure. Had there really been that many people? She was hardly able to imagine it.) She wrote a few more notes : The survivors hid under earth for two generations when people finally dared to go out they came out to a totally new, changed and unknown world. Maltar continued. “The fourth human generation began to rebuild. Now, however, is the fifth generation of human life after the Valterrian - the sundering of the world. Examples of Cities that were destroyed in the Valterra are the cities Suva and Valkalah. There are more, but I will not take time to speak about all of it right now. Well... “ He made a very short pause before he went on. “Suva, the capital of the former Suvan nation, was completely obliterated. It is said to have been a wonder of architecture and military defense, and to have been the home to over a million people at its apex. The Suvan Sea now occupies the space where Suva once stood, and anything that may remain of it is far beneath the waves. And the city of the Akalaks, a great inland city called Valkalah, is now located somewhere in the southern region of the Suvan Sea's sea floor, having been completely destroyed and submerged during the Valterrian. Here Maltar made one of his longer breaks so the students who wanted to take notes could do that. Chandray went through the things he had said in her thoughts - she had listened well and memorized much while he spoke. Once again she dipped her quill in ink and made notes in order to be sure to remember what she had learnt : Suva, a wonder of architecture and military defense, was totally obliterated. It’s now under the Suvan Sea, if anything left at all. The akalaks’ city Valkalah was submerged too, somewhere in the southern Suvan Sea.” “Are you doing anything to retrieve things from Valkalah ?” she asked. “Is it possible to dive down there and examine it?” Maltar shook his head. “Nobody has been able to pinpoint exactly where the ruins lie or if there is anything remaining at all from the city. We Akalak are very interested in our past though, and hope to one day find our lost city. This goal is what our Antiquities society is working for. There are however artifacts which were for different reasons saved and that are either from Valkalah or refer to Valkalah. These items, along with pre-valterrian artifacts are housed within the Antiquities Society in its collection. Some of the more interesting and fascinating pieces are displayed in its museum that is on site. “ He stopped talking and drank some water and Kara Bloomsheart went to speak with him about something Chandray wasn’t able to hear. She saw him nod. Whatever it was they were speaking about, she used the time to read through all her notes from beginning to end. She read each one of them, and made a small mark with the pen in front of each of them until she had worked through the whole list. She felt like she already had learnt lots or things about history. “It would be interesting to dive and search for the lost cities” the charoda student said. Chandray turned to the fishfaced being with sudden interest. A charoda. Someone who would actually be able to search the depths of the Suvan Sea. Why hadn’t they ... She was about to engage in a conversation but Maltar was starting to speak again so Chanday just scribbled down a question : why hadn’t they used charoda and perhaps the konti’s too for diving and finding their lost city? Or were they actually doing this, but hadn’t succeeded yet ? At some point she was going to check this up, but not right now. Maltar’s voice was calm and he seemed dedicated to his task. “I think we have the history and background well in place. I will now proceed to tell you to about which skills and areas of knowledge we teach here. It will of courlse only be an overview, in this introduction course.”

[Chandray]

~ Chandray listens to Maltar and learns the first basics about what the skills they teach in The Sociecy is about and how they are related to each other as a skillset. This includes Archeaology, Anthropology, Geography, Cartography, Spelunking, Climbing, Glyphing and Reading of Sings & Symbols. ~ “I will first of all go through all the skills one by one and tell you what they are about, so you get an overview of the total of them and understand how, in what way, they are connected ” said Maltar. “When you have understood and learnt the big picture, we’ll go on and learn some more about some of the specific skills. If you want to learn more you’ll need to sign up for separate courses after this introduction. ” This sounded fair enough. Chandray had just had a brief look at the list of possible classes but she wasn’t sure she really knew how all those things were connected. She could guess a bit, but guesses wouldn’t take her anywhere. She needed explanations. She waited expectantly for Malkar to start for real. “Firstly, Archeaology.” He looked at the students to make sure they were showing attention. “ Let’s start with the definition. Archaeology is the systematic study of past human life and culture. And you do this by the recovery and examination of remaining material evidence, such as graves, buildings, tools, and pottery. In short, you search for places and items and use them to make theories about how people in the past were living. It is possible and even desirable to learn some basis about this skill by taking classes and by reading, but in order to develop higher competence you will need to work at digsites and examine places and items in practice.” Chandray dipped the quill in ink and wrote a short note : Archaeology is about studying old places and things and that way try to figure out how people lived in the past. Alright, now she had learnt what the purpose of Archeaology was and knew a bit about how she could learn more eventually. Maltar continued. “Secondly. Anthropology. Anthropology is the study of sentient races and their life. It is a broad scientific discipline encompassing physical traits, culture, language, customs, art of various races and beings, and their evolution in time. Archaeology is a related science to this, as the past and the present are related to each other. Those two sciences will give us information about a race and their life, in the present and the past. They support each other and it can often be good to learn both of them.” He made a small pause and went nearly at once : “Since Mizahar is a melting pot of different races and cultures, often dramatically diverse, Anthropology is a very useful skill for those who plan on visiting many distant lands or blend with other races. While staying in a foreign location may result in lore being gained, one trained in Anthropology will have a significant advantage in interpreting reactions and understanding and lifestyle of other cultures. Also, an Anthropologist will adapt to new cultures and learn new languages much faster than one without this skill.” Chandray wrote again : Antrophology and Archeaology in combination covers the total of life and cultures and their evolution from the past to present time. It good to learn both sciences. They support each other. She sure wished now that she had listened better to her parents when they had tried to teach her about things like this. But she would put in extra effort now instead. She added a note: Anthropologist adapts easily to new culture and learn languages fast. They understand foreign races better and it’s useful when you travel to unknown places. Well, she thought she understood this now. Again, Maltar spoke on. “So Arheaology and Anthropolgy gives you the knowledge you need to create the big picture and understand the life and people on a complex overall level. The remaining skills comes in pair too, you could say. Geography (the layout of the world) and Cartography (the art of making and reading maps) are the skills you need to find those places of interest for archaeologists and anthropologists. Spelunking (to move in cavers) and Climbing (to go up or down vertical places) are skills you need to enter and examine ruins, caves and underground places in order to examine them. And Glyphing and the knowledge of Sings and Symbols, finally, are knowledge you need in order be able to examine and understand artifacts and other items you may find there.” Maltar had a way of explaining rather complicated things in a clear an easy to understand way, Chandray though. This set of knowledges and skills made perfect sense now. As Malkar had made a pause again to give them room for making notes, she dipped the quill in ink again, put it to the paper and wrote the following : The conclusions about the total about other races life now and in the past are done with help of the skill in Archeaology and Anthropology. This can be complicated. But first you need to be able to navigate and find your way there in the first place. So you need to know the layout of the world (geography) and you can need to make and read maps (cartography). When you are in you need spelunking to move on in caverns and you need climbing to go up and down in difficult places with no stairs. And finally you need to be able to examine items and understand the glyphs (glyphing) and signs and symbols in them (symbol knowledge). She looked at the notes, satisfied with herself. Now she had the total written down, in her own words. And she felt she understood this on an overview level, albeit it was obvious that there was very much that remained to be learned. The things she had learnt right now were the very first brief basics, but even if it was just a small step forward it was still a step forward, she thought in her usual optimistic way. Maltar was wrapping up the introduction now. Once again he told them they would need to attend special courses for each of the sciences and skills if they wanted to learn more. They were welcome back when they had decided what to study in depth. Good ideas for how to gain more knowledge could also be to visit Valkalah Academy, The Library and a few more businesslike training facilities in the city. Chandray wrote the tips down in her notebook and followed the group downstairs and out. She would think and plan and come back another day.