Day 22, Fall of 416 AV
Early Evening
Aylasa Caves
Early Evening
Aylasa Caves
It had been quite a while since the last time Eridanus had managed to practice drawing djed out from the remains of a creature. His team had been involved in several... operations that left him too exhausted. The day or two after those operations generally involved him sleeping a lot and doing his part in helping out the daily chores of hunting, cleaning and cooking that kept the group alive in the wilderness. Today was the first day of proper downtime that they had, and he felt that he had enough energy to pursue this interesting art.
This time it was rabbit meat again, due to his team mates' apparent love for hunting the furry little rodents. Unfortunately, its skull had been crushed by the careless hunter that was Coinsmith. Fortunately, the only part that remained recognizable was the fragile collection of bones that formed the shape of one of its loopy ears. The other was also crushed beyond recognition.
Eridanus shrugged; that would have to do.
Due to the fragility of the ear bones, it would be difficult to carve anything into the small and uneven surface area. He only had his dagger, and lacked any specific tools meant for intricate work, and it was likely that the force of trying to dig his dagger into the bones would shatter the soft cartilage holding it all together. Instead, he borrowed a quill from Middleman for the job.
This time, he was going to go for something new. Instead of writing specific words, or drawing pictures, or even attempting glyphs in an effort to draw forth the latent djed within the dead animal, he would do something else. Due to the many spaces between the thin bones connected together, it would be impossible to draw any proper objects or write any proper words or symbols even with the quill.
With that in mind, he first drew a large circle that covered as much of the collection of ear bones as possible. Of course, there was not enough surface area to draw a full circle. Instead, he simply continued the circle where the bones separated, and drew on the surface when there was a surface to draw on. That gave the illusion of having a circle exist on the bones, for one could use imagination to fill in the rest. He drew it carefully such that, should the spaces not exist and a surface was in place of the spaces, the circle would be roughly geometrically correct.
Next, he began to draw the shape of three broken circles in the rough shape of a triangle. Again, the shapes that he drew were not fully connected due to the spaces between the different small pieces of ear bones. Yet if one were to look at it from afar it would not be difficult to deduce the intended shapes.
In the first circle, he drew the shape of a musical note. Taking experience from his past life as a vantha and a musician, he started inking a circle, making sure to fully blacken the small dot. Then he started with a stem that raised above that dot, and ended off with a squiggly tail. As he figured that music was a universal language with its place in djed cosmology, as it was passed down by a certain god of music, the shape of the note itself should have some power in activating djed due to its place within the djed universe. With the drawing of the note, he essentially represented the concept of sound, or hearing, by trying to extract the rabbit's superior hearing by the use of the ear itself as well.
In the second circle, he drew a blocky outline of an arrow pointing upwards, then filled in the arrow with ink. Arrows and directions were also universal concepts, and in this case the up arrow represented the idea of increase. By the laws of nature humans were meant to remain on the ground. However, despite its mortality, humanity always sought to reach the heavens, to ascend to gods and to progress. That was the rationale behind the name of "Alahea". Drawing from this common understanding of the arrow and directions, the up arrow therefore represented aiming for the sky, and served as an indicator of progress.
In the third arrow, he drew two lines at perpendicular angles to each other. One could view it as a cross, but it was more of a 'plus' sign from mathematics. Gifted from the gods, the mathematical symbols were also a universal language amongst the sentient races, just like music. Interestingly, the four basic mathematical operators had the same signs and functions throughout Mizahar - the plus, minus, multiply and divide. With the addition operator, the ethaefal imprinted the idea of increase as well in the third circle, though this time it was less of a metaphor for progress like the second circle but more of a solid and unquestionable statement of addition. There was little doubt in meaning when basic mathematical functions were used, and this was one of them.
Next, in order to connect the entire network of symbols to ensure their dependency and relationship, he drew lines connecting the circles to each other, then painted lines connecting the circles to the larger circle outside.
In order to represent all of these energies being concentrated on an focal point, he drew a smaller triangle in the middle of the circles that were already arranged in a triangle, making sure to place it in the center of the large circle as well to emphasize the point of centrality. Next, he drew a circle that covered this triangle, using the shape common to the focus sigils in glyphing to gather the energies drawn from the separate malediction circles and to channel them to the user from there. In order to do so, he filled in the overlaps of the malediction circle to specify narrowing of the energies and directing of it.
This time it was rabbit meat again, due to his team mates' apparent love for hunting the furry little rodents. Unfortunately, its skull had been crushed by the careless hunter that was Coinsmith. Fortunately, the only part that remained recognizable was the fragile collection of bones that formed the shape of one of its loopy ears. The other was also crushed beyond recognition.
Eridanus shrugged; that would have to do.
Due to the fragility of the ear bones, it would be difficult to carve anything into the small and uneven surface area. He only had his dagger, and lacked any specific tools meant for intricate work, and it was likely that the force of trying to dig his dagger into the bones would shatter the soft cartilage holding it all together. Instead, he borrowed a quill from Middleman for the job.
This time, he was going to go for something new. Instead of writing specific words, or drawing pictures, or even attempting glyphs in an effort to draw forth the latent djed within the dead animal, he would do something else. Due to the many spaces between the thin bones connected together, it would be impossible to draw any proper objects or write any proper words or symbols even with the quill.
With that in mind, he first drew a large circle that covered as much of the collection of ear bones as possible. Of course, there was not enough surface area to draw a full circle. Instead, he simply continued the circle where the bones separated, and drew on the surface when there was a surface to draw on. That gave the illusion of having a circle exist on the bones, for one could use imagination to fill in the rest. He drew it carefully such that, should the spaces not exist and a surface was in place of the spaces, the circle would be roughly geometrically correct.
Next, he began to draw the shape of three broken circles in the rough shape of a triangle. Again, the shapes that he drew were not fully connected due to the spaces between the different small pieces of ear bones. Yet if one were to look at it from afar it would not be difficult to deduce the intended shapes.
In the first circle, he drew the shape of a musical note. Taking experience from his past life as a vantha and a musician, he started inking a circle, making sure to fully blacken the small dot. Then he started with a stem that raised above that dot, and ended off with a squiggly tail. As he figured that music was a universal language with its place in djed cosmology, as it was passed down by a certain god of music, the shape of the note itself should have some power in activating djed due to its place within the djed universe. With the drawing of the note, he essentially represented the concept of sound, or hearing, by trying to extract the rabbit's superior hearing by the use of the ear itself as well.
In the second circle, he drew a blocky outline of an arrow pointing upwards, then filled in the arrow with ink. Arrows and directions were also universal concepts, and in this case the up arrow represented the idea of increase. By the laws of nature humans were meant to remain on the ground. However, despite its mortality, humanity always sought to reach the heavens, to ascend to gods and to progress. That was the rationale behind the name of "Alahea". Drawing from this common understanding of the arrow and directions, the up arrow therefore represented aiming for the sky, and served as an indicator of progress.
In the third arrow, he drew two lines at perpendicular angles to each other. One could view it as a cross, but it was more of a 'plus' sign from mathematics. Gifted from the gods, the mathematical symbols were also a universal language amongst the sentient races, just like music. Interestingly, the four basic mathematical operators had the same signs and functions throughout Mizahar - the plus, minus, multiply and divide. With the addition operator, the ethaefal imprinted the idea of increase as well in the third circle, though this time it was less of a metaphor for progress like the second circle but more of a solid and unquestionable statement of addition. There was little doubt in meaning when basic mathematical functions were used, and this was one of them.
Next, in order to connect the entire network of symbols to ensure their dependency and relationship, he drew lines connecting the circles to each other, then painted lines connecting the circles to the larger circle outside.
In order to represent all of these energies being concentrated on an focal point, he drew a smaller triangle in the middle of the circles that were already arranged in a triangle, making sure to place it in the center of the large circle as well to emphasize the point of centrality. Next, he drew a circle that covered this triangle, using the shape common to the focus sigils in glyphing to gather the energies drawn from the separate malediction circles and to channel them to the user from there. In order to do so, he filled in the overlaps of the malediction circle to specify narrowing of the energies and directing of it.
"Malediction Circles" :
Finally, he left the ink to dry for several moments, before he calmed himself and used his dagger drop a bit of blood onto the product. The circles having called forth the latent djed from the remains, the blood simply disappeared as it was absorbed into the bones, causing the creation of an item that exudes a larger aura than most mundane objects.
