Summer 67, 510
Ororadaruma walked into the library and placed a gold Miza in front of the librarian. The human looked up with a questioning look on his face, one eyebrow raised at the Jamoura who had paid without stating a purpose first. But the man had been there for decades, and more than a few of the large semi-humanoid scholars had passed through over the years. He could wait for the reason. "I wish to rent a private room for the day... and to have access to historical records."
The librarian nodded and led Ruma through the dusty shelves to a doorway with a relatively well-designed lock on it. "Through here, you have use of it until you leave the building or until sunset, whichever comes first. "
Ruma thanked the man with a nod and began browsing through the shelves, using his opposable toes to hold books and walking with his hands. After a span of an hour or so he retreated to the room he had rented, closing and locking the door behind himself to begin researching human characteristics.
The first book was about human culture and history, fairly boring since he'd read all of it before. He scanned a few paragraphs as he absent-mindedly took notes in one of his blank books, and then placed the book to one side. He noted a few more despotic rulers than he'd normally seen, but almost all of them were confined to the Syliras area, and there was no reason to believe those were inserted for any reason other than regional preference. Still, it would be a fascinating case-study if he were to ever become fortunate enough to locate a living relative or a first-hand account of their habits from family members or from the men themselves.
The second book was a treatise on economic theory and the natural circumstances that would be created should magic ever be invented to bring solid matter efficiently into being. Another highly uninteresting read, punctuated by a brief moment of interest when the writer theorized that the Jamouran ancestral memories may be a product of magical 'cloning' of brain matter between generations. Complete hogwash, of course, but still an interesting theory.
The third book was on human use of magic throughout history. Ruma had never before seen anything remotely close to this, but most of it was unimportant, since wizards in human society (other than a few clans) seemed to be shoved to the outskirts of the productive chain, catering either to the desperate, the rich, or the high-born. And, sometimes, to other wizards. They were almost a race in and of themselves. The most fascinating thing that Ruma saw in the book was something alluded to as 'the language of wizards,' something he'd come across before being referred to as 'Glyphing,' supposedly one of the easiest methods of magic to learn, and entirely supplementary. It detailed how to learn Glyphing in the minutest, and contained mention of another discipline, Animation, the altering of nonliving objects to imbue them with living properties.
Fascinating...
Flipping quickly through the rest of the books he'd collected and marking down anything excessively interesting in them into his notes, then returning them to the shelves and pulling every book he could find on Glyphing and Animation. The first was fairly common, but in the entire large library Ruma only found two books other than the one that had introduced him tot he subject that even made mention of Animation. One was a rather incomplete list of magical disciplines that was more of a pamphlet than a book, and the other explained only the bare basics of the art. Setting the Animation book aside for later, Ruma pulled the book on Glyphing towards himself and began reading, marking down information on the characteristics of the art.
Ororadaruma walked into the library and placed a gold Miza in front of the librarian. The human looked up with a questioning look on his face, one eyebrow raised at the Jamoura who had paid without stating a purpose first. But the man had been there for decades, and more than a few of the large semi-humanoid scholars had passed through over the years. He could wait for the reason. "I wish to rent a private room for the day... and to have access to historical records."
The librarian nodded and led Ruma through the dusty shelves to a doorway with a relatively well-designed lock on it. "Through here, you have use of it until you leave the building or until sunset, whichever comes first. "
Ruma thanked the man with a nod and began browsing through the shelves, using his opposable toes to hold books and walking with his hands. After a span of an hour or so he retreated to the room he had rented, closing and locking the door behind himself to begin researching human characteristics.
The first book was about human culture and history, fairly boring since he'd read all of it before. He scanned a few paragraphs as he absent-mindedly took notes in one of his blank books, and then placed the book to one side. He noted a few more despotic rulers than he'd normally seen, but almost all of them were confined to the Syliras area, and there was no reason to believe those were inserted for any reason other than regional preference. Still, it would be a fascinating case-study if he were to ever become fortunate enough to locate a living relative or a first-hand account of their habits from family members or from the men themselves.
The second book was a treatise on economic theory and the natural circumstances that would be created should magic ever be invented to bring solid matter efficiently into being. Another highly uninteresting read, punctuated by a brief moment of interest when the writer theorized that the Jamouran ancestral memories may be a product of magical 'cloning' of brain matter between generations. Complete hogwash, of course, but still an interesting theory.
The third book was on human use of magic throughout history. Ruma had never before seen anything remotely close to this, but most of it was unimportant, since wizards in human society (other than a few clans) seemed to be shoved to the outskirts of the productive chain, catering either to the desperate, the rich, or the high-born. And, sometimes, to other wizards. They were almost a race in and of themselves. The most fascinating thing that Ruma saw in the book was something alluded to as 'the language of wizards,' something he'd come across before being referred to as 'Glyphing,' supposedly one of the easiest methods of magic to learn, and entirely supplementary. It detailed how to learn Glyphing in the minutest, and contained mention of another discipline, Animation, the altering of nonliving objects to imbue them with living properties.
Fascinating...
Flipping quickly through the rest of the books he'd collected and marking down anything excessively interesting in them into his notes, then returning them to the shelves and pulling every book he could find on Glyphing and Animation. The first was fairly common, but in the entire large library Ruma only found two books other than the one that had introduced him tot he subject that even made mention of Animation. One was a rather incomplete list of magical disciplines that was more of a pamphlet than a book, and the other explained only the bare basics of the art. Setting the Animation book aside for later, Ruma pulled the book on Glyphing towards himself and began reading, marking down information on the characteristics of the art.