All Things Uru

2 September 2013

In continuing my petroglyph surveys here on the surface, I have been keeping a continual watch for D’ni-related glyphs. Today’s expedition has had some intriguing results.

I stumbled across a Mudhead (Koyemshi) glyph and immediately was struck by its resemblance to a maintainer helmet. A brief refresher of kachina lore online revealed that the various kachinas are said to have visited the Hopi in ancient times, emerging from the mountains, teaching the people many things—how to farm, how to behave, right from wrong—coexisting with the Hopi for a while, and then leaving again. It appears that Hopi religion and lore considers them to be advanced beings rather than gods, and their ceremonies are focused on remembering what they were taught and embodying the essence of these visitors of the past.

Mudhead petroglyph near Albuquerque New Mexico:

In the native religions, Mudheads in particular are interesting, being something of a combination of ritual clown and rule enforcer. Typically, ritual clowns simply exaggerate human faults or act out unspoken conflicts or concerns, just as the old European jesters did. However, the Mudheads seem to be a bit different, many acting as enforcers of rules and meting out public punishment to transgressors. All rather maintainer-like, really.

I found some interesting renditions of Mudheads on the Internet. There are numerous portrayals of the modern clown costumes worn by tribal dancers; however, I was more interested in older images portraying the original beings, rather than the costumed re-creations of more modern times.

Carved wooden Koyemshi, circa 1880:

Current-day clay re-creation of Koyemshi:

Current-day clay re-creation of Koyemshi:

The first image is an antique carving (circa 1880) of a Mudhead; the other two are modern clay re-creations of a Mudhead.

Maintainer helmet, type 2:

Maintainer suit, type 2:

Maintainer helmet, type 1:

Maintainer suit, type 1:

3 August 2013

In revisiting the historical images of the Rivenese natives, I am struck by their resemblance to the Apache of New Mexico. The old photos I’ve been able to find on the Internet show Apache men wearing very similar attire to that of the Rivenese men (though the Moiety uniforms are quite different from the usual native garb).

Particularly noteworthy is the red headband and the leggings with soft knee-high boots worn by both the Rivenese and Apache men.

Apache family portrait, circa 1898:

Geronimo, circa 1860:

Rivenese natives:

Rivenese natives:

Traditional Rivenese men's garb:

27 July 2013

Optical viewer technology is used in numerous places in Teledahn. There is one built in on the “umbrella” platform and three are installed in the shroom office complex, two on the middle floor, overlooking the Age harvesting machinery, and one in the overseer’s shroom office, overlooking the waterfall.

The only other places I’ve found similar viewers are in Sharper’s Ae’gura office, in the Tokotah spy room and on the Tokotah rooftop. The first two of these seem to have been installed by Sharper from parts he presumably found in Teledahn and both of these viewers appear to have provided him with information about DRC activities. The viewer on the Tokotah rooftop seems to have been used by the DRC to watch explorer activity on the Ae’gura plaza. Since the Tokotah rooftop apparently was used by DRC staff as a group office space of sorts, perhaps it disturbed Sharper that they were spying on visitors from there. It might explain why he had such a distrust for them, why he decided to keep an eye on their activities himself.

I cannot tell from close examination whether the Tokotah rooftop viewer was already installed when the DRC began repurposing the rooftop space, or whether they may have installed it there themselves. Quite honestly, I cannot think of a reason for the D’ni to have put one there.

Tokotah rooftop viewer:

Tokotah plaza view:

Palace view:

Guild Hall view:

Neutrino beam reflection:

Interestingly, when the Great Zero neutrino beam passes by, it lights up the lens casing on the rooftop viewer.

Spy room viewer:

Spy room viewer closeup:

DRC Tokotah office view:

The spy room viewer allowed Sharper to watch DRC activity in their Tokotah office. It’s interesting to note that the abandoned DRC work still laying about there includes numerous Teledahn linking books.

Baron's office viewer:

Baron's office viewer closeup:

Tokotah rooftop view:

Bridge and library view:

Kadish gallery view:

27 July 2013

I don’t know why I never really noticed this before, but the Ahnonay counter bears a solid resemblance to some decorations inside the neighborhood classrooms. The counter, of course, has numbers encircling the facing whereas the classroom decorations do not. Nevertheless, I am guessing that they both represent the same thing.

Classroom decoration:

Ahnonay counter:

While examining the counter decorations in the classroom, I looked more closely at the tilework along the edges of the floors and ceilings. Strangely, many of the numbering tiles were installed upside down, with the numbers reading from right to left. But more importantly, I noticed how the D’ni used colors to group and distinguish both their numbers and their alphabet.

Classroom number tiles:

Using colors, they are grouped in fives, with the initial five (1-5) color-coded in red. The next group of five (6-10) is color-coded yellow. The third group of five (11-15) is color-coded blue. The fourth group of five (16-20) is color-coded yellow. And the fifth group of five (21-25) is color-coded blue. So it appears that red always designates the initial grouping and subsequent groupings alternate between yellow and blue.

Classroom alphabet tiles:

Similarly, the alphabet is divided into five color-coded groups, with the initial group color-coded red and subsequent groups alternating between yellow and blue color-coding. There are 24 letters in the D’ni alphabet, so the final groupings are a bit dissimilar from the number groupings. Looking at the alphabet tiles, it’s a bit difficult to determine exactly where the divisions truly are; some of the letters appear to sit somewhat in-between the color boundaries.

12 July 2013

I have been revisiting RAWA’s commentary about the Cleft location and continue returning to the statement:

The Cleft was already known to be in New Mexico when I started working here at Cyan in 1992, and I was first learning D’ni history from Rand. It’s important for it to be there for back-story reasons. Just one simple example: Rand and Robyn lived in New Mexico growing up; they never lived anywhere near the Middle East. Other reasons for the Cleft in New Mexico are out there, but still have not been discovered, so I’ll leave it at that.*

--RAWA, March 10, 2010

If I’m reading this correctly, then there is a clear connection between the Millers and the Cleft; the Cleft must be in New Mexico because the Millers grew up in New Mexico…

The only obvious explanation I can conceive for this is that the Millers are connected somehow to The Stranger… If The Stranger is their ancestor, then perhaps this is how they came to know the stories of his experiences with Atrus and his family. And perhaps this is how they came to know of Katran’s journals. Could The Stranger have kept the journals and passed these historical treasures on to his descendants?

Along those same lines, I keep wondering about the early journals of Anna and her father. Perhaps all the old family journals were entrusted to The Stranger at some point. If this is the case, then there might be a much more interesting connection between the Millers and the DRC and Zandi/Loftin. It could even be possible that the Millers started their computer game business with the intention to somehow publicize this ancient history once the DRC was able to verify the historical existence of the Cavern and the D’ni. Before this, the Millers could have believed that these old family histories were simply stories, yarns passed down from generation to generation…

Rand Miller in his Relto:

Jeff Zandi at the Cleft:

So assuming there is some truth in this, how would it have worked? How did the connection between the DRC and the Millers really begin? Rand seems the likeliest initial connection since he was working here in the southwest in the early days of the D’ni Restoration Foundation. Could he have gotten wind of the Cavern discovery made by Elias and Fighting Branch?  Or might it have been the other way around? Did the Millers already know Zandi or Loftin? If they were old family friends, then perhaps the knowledge of the old journals might have inspired a search for the Cavern… Zandi seems a likelier candidate for this interest than Loftin, particularly considering his eventual obsession with the D’ni…

And yet another interesting possibility… I’ve suspected for a long while now that there are Rivenese descendants here in the American southwest. Perhaps this is the Zandi connection… I find it quite likely Katran would have realized that many of her people were already here as a consequence of Gehn’s experiments with the fissure. Although the remaining Rivenese were moved to Tay just before Riven was destroyed, we have no known history about the Rivenese stranded here on Terra. Perhaps Katran tried to search them out when they moved to Tomahna from Myst.

I could well imagine Katran maintaining a relationship with her fellow Rivenese here on Terra. Just as Atrus was concerned about preserving the D’ni and their culture on Releeshahn, so too would Katran have the same concern for the Rivenese.

So how many families here today have Rivenese ancestors I wonder? Could the Zandis be among them? Could the Millers have Rivenese ancestry as well? Could these inter-family relationships go back to the times of Atrus and The Stranger?

● ● ●

In recalling how Atrus apparently mistook Dr. Watson for The Stranger, an even more interesting possibility occurs to me… that Dr. Watson could be the connection to The Stranger. If he bore a strong resemblance to his ancestor, it would be no surprise that Atrus mistook him for his old friend…

So what would this mean then? That the Zandi-Watson connection is what started the early DRF activities? If Watson is a descendant of The Stranger, then it might be that Watson had inherited all the old journals, which in turn inspired Elias and Loftin in their search for the cavern. Such a connection would also explain why Elias left nearly everything to Watson.

Yet according to RAWA, there also is a Miller connection here… how would that fit in? Perhaps they also are part of this circle of acquaintances from the early days? Could they have been involved in some way with Watson or Zandi? Heck, it’s not that far-fetched that they could be relatives of Watson; cousins or something along that order. It might explain why Watson turned to them to help him raise money for the DRC restoration work…

Dr. Watson at the Watcher's Pub:

6 June 2013

In considering the notion that the D’ni who left the Cavern shortly after arriving on Terra remained on the surface, I am realizing that at that time, the New World was populated by primitive hunter-gatherers and the last of the prehistoric megafauna. The newest archeological evidence shows that such human groups were located throughout both New World hemispheres beginning at about 55,000 BP (or earlier, since new sites continue to be discovered). The earliest sites on record are in South Carolina and Brazil. Thus, if the prevailing theory of human emigration is correct, it follows that even older sites will be found in the northern zones.

It’s difficult to imagine what the New Mexico area would have looked like back then, except that it would have been dramatically different from the lands we see here today. Considering how many millennia the D’ni explorers would have had to do so, they easily could have traveled the globe many times during those intervening years. In other words, their presence could well have influenced any and all human cultures over the past 10,000 years.

So how would they have influenced the surface dwellers? I suppose it depends on the knowledge and technology they carried with them. If they carried Linking Books and Writing materials, then theoretically they could have built a Linking network across the surface (assuming they had an Age Linking Book that could act as a Nexus of sorts). Once they had traveled the globe, they could have created Nexus Links to wherever they chose on Terra.

Could such Books survive even today… perhaps as religious artifacts? Or perhaps carefully hidden to protect them from the elements or discovery by non-D’ni? The indigenous peoples surely would have regarded these newcomers with wonder, even awe. Or with suspicion.

Thus, I have been pondering some of the old legends of gods who visited, of god-kings, and the old obsession with royal bloodlines; of unusually gifted humans who were well ahead of their time. The legends of Quetzalcoatl here in the New World; or Imhotep from ancient Egypt; or even Krishna in ancient India… could they have been descendants of these D’ni explorers? For that matter, many of us today could have vestiges of D’ni DNA with us. Would this be why some of us have felt “called” to the Cavern? Is this what draws us back toward this ancient heritage, what urges us to rebuild the ancient city in the Cavern?

Krishna, ancient India circa 5100 YBP:

Imhotep, ancient Egypt circa 4650 YBP:

Quetzalcoatl, Mexico circa 2100 YBP:

6 June 2013

I’ve always been struck by the apparent paradox of New World civilizations. It is the one place where we see more primitive societies populating the areas that researchers and theorists tell us have been populated the longest. Usually it is the other way around, that more recently inhabited regions have more primitive societies. It takes time to develop permanent homes, agriculture, architecture, “styles” and customs, economic and trade relationships, cities, politics…

The complex societies and architecture in the New World are all found toward the south; the farther south, the more sophisticated. Yet the prevailing theory is that humans emigrated into the New World via the Beringer land bridge in the far north.

The historic analogy is with the spread of Anglo settlers in the New World. The first settlements were along the eastern coast in the Americas, with settlers moving gradually farther and farther to the west. And the level of sophistication in these settlements played out just as one would expect, with the more established communities developing architecture, roadways, “styles” and customs, economic and trade and political structure. The more western communities were cruder, being decades if not centuries behind their more established kin to the east. Even today here in New Mexico, we remain something of a backwater. Being less connected, being separated by spans of empty lands, slows the process of co-mingling and the adaptation of “things” from other communities.

Mayan pyramid, Chichen Itza Mexico circa 3800-300 YBP:

Olmec head, Mexico circa 3500-2400 YBP:

Tiwanaku settlement, Bolivia circa 1600-1000 YBP:

Anasazi settlement, Pueblo Bonito New Mexico circa 1200-800 YBP:

Toltec settlement, Tula Mexico circa 1000-800 YBP:

Inka settlement, Winay Wayna Peru circa 700-500 YBP:

Aztec pyramid, Tenochtitlan Mexico circa 500-200 YBP:

6 June 2013

I have been wondering exactly what it would have been like here on the surface in New Mexico back in the days when the D’ni first arrived in the Cavern. So I have started to research this via the Internet.

The landscape essentially was very similar to what we see here today, with most mountains, rivers and valleys already formed. It still was volcanically active, with the eruptions that created Bandera Crater in the western part of the state in progress. Six thousand years later, the activity which created the nearby McCarty’s Lava Flow would begin, joining the already active volcanism in the eastern part of the state which was creating the Carrizozo lava field. 

Bandera crater:

Zuni Bandera field (McCarty's Lava Flow):

Carrizozo lava flow:

The climate was much cooler and wetter, with snow-capped mountains year-round, active rivers and grassy plains. A perfect location for herds of grazing mammals and those who hunted them.

New Mexico flora 10000 YBP:

At 10000 YBP, we have the Clovis and Folsom cultures present in eastern/north-eastern New Mexico. Megafauna were plentiful throughout the region. Mastodons, camels, saber-toothed cats, horses… they were all present. And they all disappeared relatively suddenly and rapidly.

Could this disappearance have been connected with the D’ni??

Mammoth hunters:

Rio Grande valley flora and fauna:

Human prehistory timeline:

Human prehistory timeline:

9 May 2013

Today’s enigma is the Cleft, the Lodge and Tomahna. Tomahna in the sense of the home Yeesha grew up in (rather than Tomahna as a name for the surface world of the D’ni Age).

According to the Book of Ti’ana, the Lodge was about 12 hours north of the Cleft and caldera (it took from sundown to dawn to walk there), so probably about 24 miles away. The Lodge was built upon a ledge jutting out from a rock wall rising from the desert floor, with a water source 60 feet below in a chasm. The Lodge itself is above the desert floor; the moon and desert landscape can be seen from the Lodge windows. And a nearby ridge overlooks the Lodge.

Although we already know that Wingrove never visited the locations when writing the three books, I have surmised that he must have been given recovered journals penned by Atrus and Ti’ana (and perhaps Aitrus and even Ti’ana’s father) as reference materials, in addition to Katran’s journals (which are the official sources of information used). It’s fairly likely that some of these journals contained the survey data done by Anna and her father; if this is so, then the descriptions of relative locations should be fairly accurate.

From The Stranger’s records of his visits to Tomahna, it’s clear that it was located within a reasonable distance from the Cleft and caldera, though it is far enough to warrant the use of a transport vehicle. During the days of Yeesha’s youth, it seems that Atrus used the Cleft for storage and so made frequent use of his transport vehicle to journey between the two locations.

I have been wondering if Atrus moved his family back to the Lodge when Yeesha was born, rebuilding it and renaming it Tomahna, the D’ni word for Resting Place or Home (more or less a direct translation from Lodge). From The Stranger’s records and images, it looks like Atrus modified the area considerably, adding numerous buildings, as well as research and power equipment. The images from The Stranger’s records certainly match the Wingrove descriptions of the Lodge quite well…

Tomahna atrium, daytime:

Tomahna atrium, night:

And in light of Atrus’s work on Tomahna, I’ve wondered about all the Ages Atrus Wrote and outfitted; he did an enormous amount of work on all of them and I’m not sure how he managed it. Although the D’ni are longer-lived, I rather doubt that he could have built everything we have seen by himself within that amount of time. Did he have the Bahro build it for him? Or did he have possession of the D’ni Descriptive Book? Either of those possibilities makes more sense than the notion that he managed to outfit dozens, if not hundreds, of Ages by hand.

Tomahna lake, daytime:

Tomahna lake, night:

The only direct information I have been able to find about Tomahna when Atrus lived there were the comments Katran made about it when The Stranger visited them there for the first time.

Breathtaking, isn’t it? We call it Tomahna. We moved here after Atrus finished Writing Releeshahn. He wanted us to have a new home too.

29 April 2013

I’ve always been intrigued with Gehn’s story. In trying to understand his view of life, I must start with his early experiences in D’ni. Finding himself caught up in the controversy of a surface dweller becoming a part of D’ni society, he surely represented both the hopes and the fears of the D’ni who favored and abhorred the notion. It seems to me that once he was born, he took Ti’ana’s place as the object of the controversy; and he was far more helpless to cope with becoming such a target. In his place, I think I would have been deeply conflicted, both loving and hating the human half and the D’ni half of myself. Considering the need to become a part of the D’ni world, ultimately one would feel compelled to reject the human half. Children long to fit in even more than adults and this would have been the only real option for Gehn to find a place and become accepted there.

Gehn reminisces about his childhood:

It still puzzles me how readily Gehn blamed his mother for the tragic end to the D’ni civilization. Had his father Aitrus known the larger story, he would have done exactly what Ti’ana did—present the council with the evidence and let the council determine the right course of action. I suppose Ti’ana’s presence exposed the embedded racism within the D’ni, essentially forcing them as a culture to confront this flaw within themselves and then decide what to do about it. Obviously, it created some deep divisions, but I see this as an opportunity they had to grow up a bit more… Gehn was eight years old when D’ni fell and he and his mother made their new home at the Cleft. Six years later, he left to find his fortune amongst the Terran surface dwellers. Five years after that, he returned to the Cleft with Keta, who then died giving birth to Atrus. Gehn was both a father and a widower at 19. Those five years with Keta seemed to have been the only happy times in his life up until that point; and retrospectively, the only truly happy times he ever knew throughout his life. All I can do is speculate about what might have happened during those five lost years, but it seems that he found himself in a way, found happiness in wandering amongst the surface dwellers, and seemed to be deeply in love with Keta. She seems to be the only person he ever really loved. So her loss was devastating. His “humanity” seemed to have been tied to his relationship with her and it crumbled away with her death. Gehn seems the epitome of a man become cynical and bitter about the idea of love. He had finally found something he’d longed for throughout his young life only to lose it with the birth of his only child. So Atrus unwittingly became the manifestation of Gehn’s duality, his inner turmoil. As was Gehn, Atrus also was part human, part D’ni; and Atrus was Keta’s gift to Gehn, a symbol of their deep love, as well as that which cost Keta her life. A love/hate paradox all over again.

Gehn remembers Keta:

Gehn had armored himself as a young child in D’ni; found a way to tolerate the racism and begin building a life and future for himself. He lost all that when D’ni fell but set out to replace it later when he left home. Once again, he began building a life and future for himself only to lose it again. It seems he must have decided that having hopes and attachments was too risky in the end, only a fool’s errand. And so he closed himself off forever to others. He became the aloof “god” who was invulnerable and flawless. Perhaps he willed himself to become an idealized being, and then deluded himself into believing he had the power to ordain such a transformation. In the end, he went to enormous lengths to hide, to avoid… I find myself wondering what might have happened differently if Keta had survived. Who would Gehn have become if he’d been able to grasp and keep his experience of love? And I wonder if Yeesha has ever considered intervening with Gehn as she did with Kadish…

Gehn as a god:

29 April 2013

I have been wondering who the Amad might have been in the times of Gehn and earlier.

There is a group of ancient New Mexican peoples called the Gallina, who were wiped out in the late 1200s it seems. One of the intriguing bits is that their architectural structures were somewhat unique compared to the other native peoples of those times. They are noted for their rounded stone towers, though the exact purpose of those towers is debated.

Ruins of a Gallina tower:

Ruins of a hidden village:

Another very interesting bit of the Gallina history is how they seem to have been hated and feared by the other natives. No one knows why, though I suspect some of the current-day tribes know but aren’t telling… for I found an interesting reference to an Anglo researcher speculating that the Jemez peoples were descendants of the Gallina; her report was met with anger by the Jemez peoples who insisted adamantly that they most certainly were not of Gallina ancestry. Sure sounds to me as though they know a great deal more about the Gallina than they are revealing to outsiders…

Earlier that month, I had made a brief trip into the Gallina region, a broad valley extending north from Cuba, New Mexico. The area remains a cultural backwater well off the tourist track: poor villages, largely Hispanic, are scattered along the trickling headwaters of Capulin Creek. My guide was U.S. Forest Service archaeologist Bill Wyatt.

Archaeology in the Gallina area began relatively late. In 1937, Frank Hibben dug the Cerritos site, finding burned rooms and towers and eighteen bushels of burned corn. Two of the towers contained human skeletons; one still had three arrows embedded in its chest, another two arrows in the hip, yet another a severe wound above one eye. Hibben also found the skeleton of a female still holding a bow and some arrows.

From Hibben’s time to the present day, no part of the Anasazi domain has produced as much evidence of prehistoric violence as Gallina. More than half the excavated sites contain the remains of murdered men, women, and children. And though the valley lies far to the east and south of the Colorado Plateau, it too ceased to be occupied around 1300.

As I toured the valley with Wyatt, I realized that I had come across no stranger ruins anywhere in the Southwest. The normal height for Anasazi walls is about five feet. In Gallina, they average nine, and the walls are thicker than could possibly be required just to hold up the roofs. Each living site is guarded by a tall circular structure that may have been a lookout tower. In gloomy, cul-de-sac side canyons, small villages huddle on cramped ledges. “This whole place just breathes paranoia,” Wyatt said at one point. And later: “You get the feeling these were the bad guys. It’s as if the others said, ‘OK, you can live in this area, but we don’t want you showing up anywhere else.’”

From Gallina I drove south to Jemez Pueblo, where I met William Whatley, a long-haired maverick who for nine years has worked at the Pueblo, the last four as official Jemez tribal archaeologist. Like Bruce Bradley, Whatley had learned how to listen and not to ask rude questions. By fiercely championing Jemez claims for land and sacred objects, Whatley slowly gained the trust of the people.

Earlier ethnographers had concluded that the Jemez were the descendants of the Gallina Anasazi. Whatley flatly contradicted this assertion. As we sat on the porch of the visitor center, he told me the parts of the Jemez migration epic that he was allowed to share. “They have no Gallina stories,” he said. “You’ve seen those sites? They don’t look anything like Jemez dwellings. These people aren’t descended from Gallina.

“Over the years, the elders have given me pieces of the migration story. The whole thing takes twelve hours to tell. But the gist is this. The people came from the Four Corners area, somewhere near Sand Canyon. As they migrated south and east, they left markers. I’ve actually found some of these on the ground, just from the elders’ descriptions—markers that no living Jemez have ever seen.

“On their way here, an advance party of Jemez came through the Gallina area. At first they were treated hospitably by the people living there; then the Gallina turned around and killed the Jemez. The Gallina people didn’t realize that the large main body of Jemez was coming right behind. That main body eliminated all of Gallina, maybe in only a few days.”

I mused on the Jemez oral tradition, which, before Whatley, no Anglo had been privileged to learn. I realized that it explained a lot. It accounted for the end of the Gallina in 1300 and for the extensive evidence there of violent death. And it might be one more piece of the complex puzzle of the abandonment.

--David Roberts, “In Search of the Old Ones”, 2010

Many of the excavations done of ancient Gallina settlements reveal blitzkrieg-like massacres, where villagers were suddenly slaughtered and their bodies left to rot; or were dumped into their towers and burned. What could have inspired such fear and hatred in the other natives? What made the Gallina so different?

Perhaps they were a lost colony of D’ni settlers? Particularly if they had kept some of the D’ni technology and developed some variants of their own, they would have seemed odd to the other natives. Archeologists seem to think that the Gallina tended to keep to themselves, were reclusive, which ties in with the D’ni tendency toward isolationism.

At any rate, if any of this speculation holds water, it could explain how Gehn came to meet Keta during his surface wanderings. If her people were all but extinct, then she would have lived in fear, either by living in a secret, hidden location, or perhaps even as a maligned slave of another native tribe. Either way, Gehn would have pitied her as someone whose life mirrored his own history. And so perhaps Keta led Gehn to a cache of her people’s old technology.

Certainly, nothing now remains of that technology on the surface here in New Mexico. So once Gehn found it back in the 1700s, he must have removed it to Riven. It could well be that he spent many of those wandering surface years collecting all the Amad technology he could find. Many years later, long after Keta’s death, he wrote about the connections he believed the Amad had with the D’ni. Perhaps these early years helped to inspire his later obsession with all things D’ni.

One of Gehn's linking book "cages", powered on:

One of Gehn's linking book "cages", powered off:

One of Gehn's linking book "cages", powered on, viewed from the back; note the power cable:

Gehn's imager chair:

Gehn's personal hand-powered imager, containing Keta's recording:

Hand-powered schoolroom imager, containing Gehn's recording:

Gehn's temple imager:

Gehn's temple imager, closeup:

29 April 2013

Keta/Leira was a surface dweller from Earth.

--RAWA, November 14, 1997

Keta is Atrus’s mother. She is human.

--RAWA, June 2, 1998

Kenen ahtsoo? Shorah teh. Tahgahmem Tashn botaygahn shem b’fahsee.

[Is it ready (Testing?) Hi there(?) (Giggles, indistinct D’ni words) Thou knowest, I will love thee (forever).]

--Keta, date unknown

The construction of the imagers has proceeded without fault. It is interesting to see how easily I’ve been able to adapt the D’ni technology to mimic that of the Amad; in some ways the similarities between the two cultures was striking. I wonder if perhaps there had been communication or commerce between the two cultures in earlier times; maybe Keta’s people were even descendants of the D’ni. It pleases me to think so.

--Gehn, 83.5.14

It’s late and I cannot sleep. I’ve lost so much in my life. My people, my father, my son, and you my wife—Keta, you were the only true kindness I have ever known. Watching you flicker there in the Imager… I sometimes wonder if you were real. If I could restore your life with my pen, I would do so in an instant, and leave the rest of the world to their own wretched fate.

--Gehn, 87.6.20

Today’s enigma is Keta and the Amad. In addition to the above information we have, there is her inscription to Gehn on her photograph.

Keta:

Her inscription reads “To Gehn, my husband and my salvation. I dedicate myself to the love that rescued me.”

Although her imager message is spoken in D’ni, the photograph inscription is in English, implying that Keta was fluent in both. Could she have been taught one or both by Gehn? We do know that Gehn could speak and write both English and D’ni.

Keta’s utter devotion to Gehn says a great deal about her history, I think. She seemed to have been in dire straits of some sort when Gehn met her, for she attributes her very survival to him and remained poignantly grateful to him for the rest of her life.

Clearly, Gehn had some sort of exposure to the technology of Keta’s people. But I’m wondering if the Amad were a nearly-extinct race at the time Gehn encountered them. The few records we have seem to show that Keta had no one to turn to when she became ill while pregnant with Atrus. Gehn’s resentment of Anna and deep shame at being half human would have been powerful deterrents to visiting Anna at all. I think it extremely likely that he knew very well there was nowhere else to go in their time of crisis.

So perhaps Gehn found and tinkered with Amad technology in those earlier years; perhaps there was little left of the Amad glory days but the ruins of their homes and inventions. The only fairly solid dates we know about Gehn’s early life as a D’ni refugee are that he and Anna made their home at the Cleft when he was eight; he left to seek his fortune when he was 14; and he returned there with Keta when he was 19. So when he left home as a teenager, he would have traveled by foot, encountering the Amad somewhere during this time. Thus it seems quite likely that the Amad were not terribly far from the Cleft area, which would place them somewhere in the US southwestern regions or perhaps farther south in Mexico.

20 April 2013

In continuing to ponder the Teledahn questions from my last entry, I was startled to notice a familiar drawing on the Cleft work desk. I don’t recall ever noting it before, so either have never noticed it at all, or had long forgotten its presence there.

A slightly ragged copy of a drawing also found in Sharper's Ae'gura office:

A copy of this drawing is pinned to the wall in Sharper’s Ae’gura office (the Baron’s office).

A copy of the same drawing on the office wall:

An unrolled, flattened copy of the drawing:

I’ve been wondering exactly what these schematics are depicting. Presumably something in Teledahn since Sharper has displayed it alongside all the other Teledahn-related drawings. Mechanical works for something in the Age, no doubt. I PMd AlanD for his thoughts, as he’s an experienced engineer, and he had a most interesting idea regarding all these drawings…

There are several other drawings of interest in this office. The one on the desk has always struck me as a hodge-podge, rather like a scratch pad.

A second similar drawing on the office desk:

Unfortunately, the writing is pretty much indecipherable, though I’m pretty sure it isn’t D’ni. The grid looks calendar-like to me; perhaps showing a six-day work week? There are numerous labeled arrows which hint vaguely at a relationship between the odd central drawing and the shroomie silhouette drawn along the right edge. The four red rectangles at shroomie’s sides are a mystery, as is the rectangular pattern in the upper left corner. The presence of the Greek letter psi indicates that a surface dweller drew that part at least, though its surrounding medallion-like drawing is enigmatic. I haven’t yet fathomed which meaning of psi is intended here…

There is a third drawing that isn’t laid out anywhere in the room but is kept rolled up in a container along with copies of the other two drawings.

A third drawing rolled up and stored in a nearby container:

The same drawing unrolled and laid flat:

Unrolling it and laying it flat, it is quite a strange mix of drawings, with many elements of the other two drawings superimposed over each other, as well as some new images. It looks very much like a practice sheet, though it also appears that a number of different artists are responsible for its numerous drawings.

In AlanD’s PM, he’s suggested that perhaps these sheets are examples of D’ni image storage technology, consisting of layered images that can be viewed or extracted using specialized equipment. He also suggested that Sharper had found and been experimenting with this equipment, creating the layered drawings we find in his Ae’gura and Teledahn offices. In pondering this possibility, I realize it makes a great deal of sense. Sharper wrote in his journal about discovering a cache of D’ni notes and journals in the Teledahn office above the control room and subsequently hiding it from the DRC. It would make a great deal of sense if he found additional D’ni items elsewhere that he would find a private place like the Baron’s office to test it, away from the DRC’s eyes and ears. It’s still a mystery where such equipment might be now, though…

The fact that Sharper kept these drawings here (and numerous copies of them, so far as I can tell) implies that he was using them, that he understood them; or perhaps that he even made them or added to them himself.

13 April 2013

I talked with AlanD earlier about his Teledahn research and he pointed out that the three Age paintings in the Baron’s office are views of the known areas we can explore. We spent some time in Teledahn looking for the vantage points for each. All three images are from above the ground and so we were only able to approximate each vantage point at the time.

However, I was intrigued enough to return with some climbing gear to see if I could photograph a matching view for each painting. The results are quite interesting.

It’s impossible to know just yet how closely the Baron’s office is connected to Teledahn itself. Sharper doesn’t say anything in particular about this in his journals, nor does he mention whether the paintings were already on the walls when he found the office and moved in. At first I thought it likely that Sharper had taken some photos and got them printed as paintings and then framed. After all, he had climbed all over the Age during his restoration work.

But I’m not so sure that explanation is viable anymore…

I was able to climb rather precariously to two locations where I could move around a bit and find some near-exact matches for the outdoor paintings. However, the indoor image of the hut was more difficult. I was able to match the view pretty exactly, but only by suspending myself from the ceiling with a rope. It was a nerve-wracking experience and I was grateful for the safety net of my Relto book.

Baron's office painting of hut:

Current day photo of hut:

The view of the tower was also a bit unnerving as the rock face I climbed was quite steep. However, a slip simply would have landed me in the water, so I was able to spend more time moving about to achieve the best match I could manage. The mushroom on the left simply couldn’t be aligned to match the painting…

Another interesting dissimilarity is with the tower mechanical works. In the painting, it’s in a sad state of disrepair with many of the screws missing, the tower platforms with the control levers also missing, and the “umbrella” mechanism at the top being somewhat shredded. Sharper used a large shroom trunk to support and guide the screws which power the gate; my best guess is that he found it submerged in situ, for it appears to be the base for the partially submerged shroom cap which is present in both the painting and in our present time.

Baron's office painting of tower:

Vantage point for current day photo:

Current day photo of tower:

But the third painting was the most telling. I had to climb to the top of a large shroom just off the main catwalk to find the vantage point and even so, this required me to stand near the very edge of the shroom cap. This view clearly was looking toward the lagoon gate, yet the painting itself not only was from a time before the gate was installed, at that time, this part of the lagoon was filled with a forest of shrooms. Additionally, there is no sign of the “hidden valley” landform where it should have been, to the side of the shroom forest; and the landform to the left also is sized differently. Clearly this painting was done before Ventus had the gate installed, and back in the days before the shrooms were over-harvested. But how to explain the discrepancy with the landforms? Is there some sort of geologic movement at work? Is that landform rising? 

This in turn makes it quite clear that these larger shrooms are quite ancient. They seem to be extremely slow-growing, for their shapes have changed little since the time of this painting.

Baron's office painting of gate:

Vantage point for current day photo:

Current day photo of gate:

Strange that the shrooms seem to be more constant across time than the landforms…

Might this have any connection with the mystery of the “luminary” racing across the sky here? Might it be providing geological stability in some way? In re-reading Sharper’s journals, he never mentions the “sun” or a “solar disc”. However, he does make a single

noteworthy mention of something that he describes as weapon-like.

5/28/2000 Found a new book today. A very special book.

8/12/2000 Nick stopped by and we’ve got a little more information. Looks like there is some kind of weapon in our hands. At least it could be used as a weapon. After the lights.

At this point in the journals, Nick has been translating many of the D’ni writings Sharper had found in the upper shroom office and deliberately withheld from the DRC. Sharper’s new book seems to be different from all that, though. But it seems that a few months later, Nick’s translations make it clear that there is something in the Age that is powerful enough to be used as a weapon. Sharper seems to know exactly what it is, for his final short sentence indicates that he will work on it after he finishes repairing the lights. Yet as far as I can tell, he doesn’t mention it in the journals again.

8 June 2013

Hmm, things are getting curiouser and curiouser. I managed to find a better Watson picture of Yeesha and crop it. Here are the comparisons: 

Front views: 

    Side views:

  With the improved front view from Watson's photos, I'm not even convinced that these two tattoos are the same. The overall shape is very similar but the patterns appear to be quite different. 

Just. Too. Weird.