PLACEHOLDER OBJECT IS PLACEHOLDER. a in c major 440 vibrations per second ]]>

Thanks to Theo for the Rope Ladder Knot Model! Thanks to Ehren, Hazado, and Adam {Hoikas} for helping with the Sun-at-Night issue! Thanks to Adam, Tweek, Hazado, dpogue, Doobes, and others for Korman help with various issues. Thanks to Iwonk, Nosila, SkyisBlu, & Ametist for being camera region feedback suggesters! Thanks to Rarified for expediently handling my multiple uploads to Minkata during testing. ^u^ Thanks to ALL of the Open Uru and Minkata Testers for helping get this over the line! (Seriously, thank you for putting up with my insanity in this place.) Thanks to Cyan for the Various Textures and Sounds used and modified from the asset repositories given to us under the terms of the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ And thank YOU for coming to visit this age. I hope you enjoy the views! :D ]]>

12/27/21 Last Night I had a Dream. I saw a garden age, and a girl living there. Athsheba, from the Chezahcen Cathedral island. Not sure how I knew it, but I knew it. Dreams are like that. In the dream, the girl was carving a face out of a cliffside - aging over time as the face grew more defined. Then, its eyes opened and it wasn't just a stone face gazing at me, but the living personification of the artwork from the Cathedral of Chezahcen herself. Dreams are weird. Driven a bit by this, I asked yesterday on the forums if I could get permission to look through the document and book archives we have from the DRC. Patrick pointed me towards who could give (and did give) me the go ahead. As long as I restrain myself from using any of the books on a whim, I'm good to go and... And... I'm not sure what I'm expecting to find, but, maybe, if Athsheba's seeming habit of clearing out everything when she moves is actually a habit... I would hope maybe she left the age book behind somewhere if she moved on to Releeshahn or elsewhere? But given her existing habit... Still I'm just curious if we can find the Garden Age she lived in. I honestly don't expect anything to come of this, but I figured I might as well start a journal anyways. I guess I'll see what tomorrow brings? 12/29/21 It's late, and I'm heading to bed soon, but I found a reference in one of the old document folders of barely surveyed Ages. Eder "Naybree" - meaning 'Double Root in D'ni'- is the rough name given on the document, dated from late November of 2007, and it's accompanied by a description. This is the standout bit: "There's a broken bridge breaking (sic) the age in half. There's a row of statues near it, repetitions of a woman's figure with arms stretched upwards." Improper use of 'breaking' aside, this sounds similar to the row of statues at the Cathedral Island's shoreline. I think I may have Athsheba's post-fall home if I can find the Linking Book to it. There's also a description of the book cover, so I might be able to sort it out. If so, thanks go to you, unnamed DRC surveyor. The rest of the age's description is fascinating, though. I think the name is drawn from the duality written into the Garden's environment? Either the physical nature of the ground (split in two pieces?), or something in the heavens. Moons, perhaps? One of the standout remarks was over "an impressive night sky," after all. 12/30/21 Calum took a look over everything I'd found last night and agreed it looked like a viably plausible location for Athsheba's garden sanctuary. I'm searching for the book now. It's got to be here somewhere. 1/1/22 It amuses me that Calum's decided to join me, to help keep me company he said, and yet just set up a laptop to run anime on in the background for noise. I think we've gotten distracted with watching it half the time we've been looking. I can't complain, though. I've had something of a headache today so it's nice to focus my attention on something else for a time. There's a lot that was left behind in the archives- a lot of documents and unrelated materials to each other. I'm sure it was properly sorted at some point, but between multiple location moves and multiple others digging through them for various things at different points in time, it's become something of a mess in the here and now. Still, despite my looking for a specific book at this point, I'm doing my part to help get things sorted and back into a semblance of order. Calum finds it amusing. "A new year means a chance for a clean slate, but you have to put energy into making it clean." He'd said. Then he went on a five minute ramble about cleaning up his own bedroom for the first time in years after the fire scare the other day. I'd say something sterotypical about 'boys and their messy rooms' but I'm no better, honestly. I don't think I've cleaned my room since I moved in. I think I should probably should do that too. After I find this book. 1/3/22 I think I've found it. The linking panel shows what looks like a statue of the right stylistic design, carved out of the rockface... This might be *IT,* if I'm lucky. I'm calling Calum. --- This is definitely the place. Right next to the link-in gazebo is a statue carved so very similarly to Chezahcen's artwork. It's been pulled right out of the cliff- continuing on with it's original structural duties of holding the above rockface intact, while also being something far more intriguing than plain rock. This definitely isn't native to the age, if the piles of debris behind the link-in are anything to go by. Chipped rock, shattered fragments, crushed stone debris... I can only imagine how long Athsheba was here working on just this one piece alone. There are ladder-like structures on the walls near the link-in, how strange. Ground path near the link-in is very much in dire need of repair. It's quite broken up. There are more statues further along, nearer to the bridge as noted in the survey report. One of them is far smaller, and holding a firemarble orb. I'm astounded by it all, meanwhile Calum is over fretting over a broken bridge. I keep hearing him mutter-mumble, bouncing between 'deliberate sabotage' and 'geographical instabilities'. The river doesn't seem to have risen high enough to destroy the bridge originally. The cliff walls do show some signs of stress in this area, though. Most likely the giant tree roots, if I had to guess. Are each of these trees on the other side reaching for the river or is there something more going on? I have to get a closer look... --- I jumped the bridge, much to Calum's dismay. It's still sound on the other side. He followed reluctantly, but is vowing to put in a replacement bridge if we fully restore this place- and please, Calum, I saw how you looked at those statues. This place is related to the Cathedral, of COURSE we're going to restore it. The other side of this garden is paradoxically, on one hand, remarkably well kept, and yet on the other, completely overgrown. There are MASSIVE trees here, growing into their surrounding objects. It's like Kadish Tolesa, all over again. Except, there's more to it. The trees all grow very tall, then bend all in one direction, as if bowing to the wind- the vine-like growth drapes down from some of the branches like... Not-quite Leaves? That can't be right because there's a staggering amount of the same overgrowth of the same vine like plant on the ground everywhere. Is it even a vine? Calum's testing it now, jumping on some of the ground-based overgrowth. It seems very... 'Springy' doesn't seem like the right word to me, but neither does 'rigid' to be honest. Regardless, it's able to support someone's weight above the ground. As a side note, we've certainly made enough noise by now that if someone were here, they would have heard us. I fear for what that may mean. --- There's a giant face carved out of a corner of the back wall- not quite like my dream but close enough... How strange. The eyes are made up of displaced firemarbles from... the toppled pillars, it seems? There are enough of the things at the Link-in without their orb-ornaments that it's hard to say for certain, though. Near the face is an abandoned bedroom, from where I write now. There's no sign that anyone has lived here in quite some time, however, fortunately for us, there's no signs of any skeletons either. Calum and I are in agreement that Athsheba packed up and moved out again at some point. I'm inclined to believe she fled to Releeshahn with the other D'ni survivors back in Atrus' day. Calum begs to differ, getting one of those looks in his eyes. Of course, it could be she left for other - maybe not greener but possibly less overgrown? - pastures in this age that aren't *here,* in this part of the garden. It looks like there are things up on the cliff, but there aren't any handy ladders carved into the rockface here- or maybe there are but they're overgrown? It's hard to tell for certain with all of the overgrowth. Calum's talking of bringing some rope and doing some free climbing to see if there's anything of interest up there. But later, he says. For now we're heading back to report our findings to Patrick. 1/4/22 Calum's been surveying Eder Naybree more directly today, and is submitting a formalized report to Patrick to get insight on what we should do about the age. I want to restore it. Calum's gotten in one of his moods about trespassing in people's homes. AGAIN. It was annoying enough with the Cathedral, but come on, Calum! You can't keep citing that as an excuse to not restore an area! The Cathedral, Elonin, now here? I'd say you ought to stop being squeamish, Cal, but at this point three times is a pattern and I'm genuinely getting concerned over your sudden aversion towards trespassing in long abandoned homes. It's not like Athsheba even DIED here! She clearly left this place for others to find eventually, given the journal in the Cathedral. There's not a single trace of ANYTHING salvaged from the Cathedral here, so she either didn't come back here, or she did, with everything, and then took it somewhere else. But considering we didn't even find a book hidden anywhere in the main garden, or any tools, or even a scrap of cloth... Athsheba left this place. There's no room to be squeamish about it. She's not haunting this garden, and I doubt that if Chezahcen were real, she would have any opposition to here either, and that's inspite of the giant head statue with the firemarble eyes that Athseba clearly carved out of the rocks! Goodness gracious, I'm getting myself all into a huff. I need to relax somewhat. --- Caught up with Jules briefly at the tail end of the Relaxation Session. He had a fairly good New Years, it seems! I'll be pestering Calum to forward him some of the photos from Naybree later. Had dinner, and Calum's now sent off the report to Patrick. All I can do is hope he approves a speedy restoration to this place. Beyond the main path needing work and the weeds needing trimming, I honestly can't see this place taking too much more work to get through the phases to release. ...I really want to restore this place. Times like these I wish I was something more than just a Linguist. Maybe I'll message Patrick and see if I can take on the project for myself, maybe? ...Ugh, I'm just being over-ambitious at this stage, aren't I? 1/6/21 Couldn't help but explore the garden again tonight. It's remarkably green in its diametrical states. Twin Root- Naybree. There certainly are a lot of roots, though. Maybe there were only two roots in the River originally? Or is it referencing the moons? I can't say for certain. Because I wasn't here when this age was new, obviously. Something about this place just feels... other worldly. Like I'm missing something obvious. Are they even roots in the river? And the vines, could they not be vines but roots? Tree roots? Do I have the whole ecology of the Age upside down and the trees we see in the air aren't trees but roots in and of themselves? Is this WHOLE Garden overgrown by nothing but *One Giant Tree?!* That surely can't be the case, can it? But the way the 'branches' spear into the walls and the way that they do is concerning. I'll have to ask Calum what he thinks. This Age is certainly remarkable, to say the least. 1/11/22 Calum has finally started work on building a replacement bridge. He's borrowing the same philosophy he's done for the floor in the Pod, it seems. I wonder where he got the materials from? He's been upset by something though. When I ask him what, he just brushes it off. Says it's something to do with one of Patrick's projects and that it's nothing I need to worry about. Well, here I am worrying. The last time he got like this it was over the Vertigo Crystals. ...I hope he's not performing experiments with them in private again. --- Look at me, I think I've finally caught Calum's journaling bug. Once I've started writing, I just can't stop. I'll admit I'm just itching to see something related to Athsheba and the Cathedral out there in the public light. I could write down everything I know about the girl and her life in this journal, but then there's the part of me that wants to just let people speculate and delve deeper into the story as the Age presents it...? Then, when we finally release the Cathedral, it could all click into place. But, am I truly that cruel to make people be forced to sit and wait to figure out what we already know? No, I'd think not. A Few Fun Facts We Know About Athsheba: She was a D'ni girl who lived with her parents on a private island out on the lake- the Chezahcen Cathedral Island as we call it now. She seems to have been quite the burgeoning artist, able to make colored paints and smearing them about on the walls of various places- here and the Cathedral alike. Her family had ties to stone carvers of some kind. Whether they were the Guild of Artisians, or just habitual carvers of massive stone artworks, Athsheba does seem to have studied enough to be able to refine her skills to the levels shown in Eder Naybree. Athsheba has a habit of clearing out her living spaces of anything that's NOT tied down when she moves, making finding anything left behind something she either missed, or decided to leave behind intentionally for some reason. (Given how thoroughly the Cathedral was emptied of furniture, I'm inclined to believe the latter.) Assumptions: I'm inclined to believe Athsheba was raised somewhat atypically for the D'ni around the time of the Fall. Likely, she grew up with one foot in the cavern, and one foot in a private age I call Exten-col. Given the heavy depictions of Chezahcen across the garden, I believe Athsheba was very likely a devout follower of Exten-col's hunting goddess, especially in the time after the Fall. Though she did not write about it much in the one journal we- OH. There's a thought. I could copy my notes on translating that journal into this book, couldn't I? It'd certainly be a more worthwhile use of the page count. TRANSCRIPTION NOTES FROM ATHSHEBA'S JOURNAL. The Journal recovered from the Cathedral is written primarily in a child-like D'ni handwriting style. There's some maturation over time, but I suspect Athsheba didn't have any impetus towards refining her handwriting over time given her situation. Her word choices are also, well, Childish, to put it kindly. It's also hard to translate correctly given in some cases there's scribbled messes that look like they should be one word, but may infact be another, due to the way the shapes were blended together. The early entries of the journal depict a child's day to day life in D'ni. It's hard to tell at what age the girl started writing the journal itself, as she didn't date the book beyond a given day of the week. Not even a year! She lived with her parents - whom we only have her Mother's name, Aleshay, to go by - on an island in the Cavern of D'ni. Athsheba's first few entries depict the average child's lifetime in D'ni. The "We went to the store today", "Momma bought me a new dress", and "Mommy said something funny!" type of entries. I believe she was pre-teen at the time of starting this journal, and more than that, pre-Guild indoctrination. She does not mention schooling. Given her nebulous age, it's hard to place whether this is merely due to her youth, or if her parents were deliberately keeping her out of the Guild systems. Given their family history, I could see the latter being a possibility. The only implications of schooling are towards the Arts, that her Father was teaching her how to mix paints and use carving tools. But that could just as easily be the family trade more so than any formal learning. The journal entries aren't sequential by day, either. For a surface equivalent entries would go from "Saturday" to "Friday" to "Tuesday" to "Monday" for the first few entries. Infrequent entry keeping at its best, and I suspect Athsheba had trouble keeping up her diary keeping. After a given point, she seemed to stop paying attention to such matters entirely, and stopped even adding a notice of which day was which entirely. And then comes the Fall. Athsheba recounts it after the fact in a frantic, jumbled manner. She was definitely traumatized, to say the least. Athsheba and her mother went to 'The City'- I'd assume it's the City Proper, not Ae'gura- for shopping. As they're there, there's a "loud noise" and then "a dark sky" that came "CRAWLING" in. (Crawling was heavily underlined and exaggerated, clearly for its massive emphasis and scale in her mind.) Aleshay used a piece of clothing - I'm assuming it's a scarf - to protect Athsheba from the gases. This was a sacrificial move, due to the fact that Aleshay was now exposed fully to the deadly gas Veovis and company unleashed upon D'ni. Aleshay tried to take her daughter to a library- only to "fall asleep" before they could both get through a book. It was here a kindly woman appeared - her smile seemed to be the only thing Athsheba remembered. Her smile, and the phrase: "Your story does not end here." Athshbea called it "Sad." I would put it as "Knowing." It's unclear what happened in that moment, save that Athsheba was sent through a book. She describes hearing bootsteps, and then arrived here in the Garden. Given the savior didn't follow through, the end result of what happened there could be any number of possibilities. Athsheba's entries become more sporadic after that. She describes Eder Naybree in detail, though she doesn't give the name - How could she given she didn't know the book she was sent through? - citing the moons and the stars as primary features. She also talks about going down the river - which is presently blockaded in the modern day - to explore more of the age itself. She cites various friendly wildlife, and foraging for food. Making paints 'like daddy taught me' and 'carving away time'. I can't imagine she wrote in this journal very frequently- given how limited her ink supply must have been, and how little 'new' she had to write about. Given the trauma she endured, I can't see her having much to want to talk about either. She doesn't mention a Return Book, though there must have been one. We couldn't find it on our visit, and neither did the initial surveyor mention finding one in their notes. I'd imagine it was here, somewhere, given one of the later entries is, in essence, "I returned to the Cavern." There's no fanfare, so the Book must have been well kept. Athsheba returns to D'ni several times. The first such entry noting the bodies are gone. She remarks about how quiet and dark things are. Eventually, she makes her way back to the island she grew up on. She's looking for the "Family Age" that they kept. Over time, she describes "securing things to the Garden." Likely this is where she's moving objects from the Cathedral to here in Naybree. She has her frustrated digressions where she tries to puzzle out the various mechanisms. She quotes from the Hymn Book we also found alongside her Journal- these specific entries: "Then a challenge I shall give you. A Hunt that is a Journey in Seven Goals." "You are wise for listening to my words so carefully already. Indeed, your Hunting grounds Are Both Of These Ages, as well as this, your own home. They are but steps of the same path." "Distance Traveled is Distance Traveled, for your Links will carry from one place to another." "First, choose freely among your destinations, Explore, Hunt, and Observe. Some paths will be open to you directly, others will be hindered by other goals. Second, discern from these three starting points where you must Travel, so that you may Proceed Beyond the Hindered Paths with the aid of those walking this path as well." The Goddess sang, and asked, "Are you saying you wish to perform this task alone?" "Then there is a path. A single path through which you may proceed alone. However, This path is dangerous, and you are liable to fall to your doom should you fail to navigate it." "Third, on the mountain are lions. Count them all, for they are many, and they represent your Gates. However, you will first focus on those who Pack together as a group, for they guard many treasures." "Fourth, you must open the Lion's Gates, both for yourself, and for others. Fifth, when the last Gate is Opened, you will find a long path in the dark, and whose end seems uncertain. Should you succeed in your attempts to proceed alone, here is where your path begins." "Sixth, Travel through history, and along the canals of my Grounds, and learn of the steps I took Long Before I was clad in the Mantle of my Predecessor. Long before I was known to you or any others. Long Before, When I was once in your barefooted role, young huntress, clad only in my furs, and scavenging my cloth from the Hunt. Finally, when you have arrived at your destination, you will have seen all that I have seen... You will Return." "For when the day is done, one always returns to where their journey started." "Count not my Iterations, for they are but the stages of my own Journey. I grow, as do all living things grow." By following these quotes, Athsheba reports finding the Family Age Book she was seeking. She doesn't call it by its name, but by other translations, I believe it to be the age I've taken to calling Exten-Col. Then, her last entry cites that she is leaving the journal in the Cathedral, for some future visitors to find, so that her story could be known, and known that it wasn't finished. ------- 1/20/22 I can only assume that Athsheba's absence here in this Age, along with any traces of any furniture from her family home, means that she's left for greener pastures- ideally Releeshahn. It's possible Atrus' Restoration found her either here, or during one of her visits, or through her journal. After that, who knows. For all I know, she relocated to Exten-Col, and took everything with her. If that's the case, a link to the Age may be here somewhere. Behind the river, is the most likely case. I wonder if I can find a way over that blockage? 1/23/22 Calum finished installing the bridge at some point, it looks like. It's a very nice bridge! 1/24/22 Damn it, Calum, how do I let you talk me into this kind of experimenting? Shardifying Vertigo Crystals to induce a resonance between them to try to get a crystal in one age to transfer the design of a statue to ANOTHER age is- I can't believe it actually worked. It replicated the statue down to its chisel marks! Yes, it was super sized- but to the MARK. He's got that far-off look in his eyes again, like something's possessing him. Unfortuantely, I'm fairly certain that this time it looks like it's *merely* just his own idle mind planning something and not the off-put resonance of the crystals harmonizing with his brain in absurd ways. He said something about wondering if he could use the Crystals to create a link to the family Age. I told him to hold his horses and let me see if I could find some way out past the blockaded river. No sense creating a risky experiment when you can just waste time hunting for a book that may or may not exist. And if it DOES? Well- then that's good news for the both of us. Rei'schu/Exten-col- the Family Age. I want to find it. It's just now there's a bit more urgency to the matter. I'm feeling an itch... Similar to the Call we all feel to D'ni, except this time it's born out of urgency of trying to do something for someone else. What we call the Call... The D'ni had a word for it: "Zandni", loosely meaning "the Gravity of D'ni." And if there really is such a thing as a "Gravity" to a place, then I suspect Calum is feeling a pull to somewhere far, far away from Earth, the Cavern, and civilization as we know it. I really hope he's not about to pull a Phil Henderson on us. 2/1/22 It seems Calum's been busy when I haven't been looking. He sent me a message telling me to take a look at the new views. So, I'm taking a quick look during my lunch break. It seems he rebuilt the bridge (though I really preferred the old one) and he's put in rope ladders, as well as clearing away some overgrowth that had been covering some ladder mounting points! I also noticed that Calum had some structure-testing tools on the cliffs near the Link In- I suspect he's evaluating the ladder-rung-like formations for weight support. Still, not my main concern. I'm climbing these new ladders now. --- The cliffs are definitely covered in pictographical markings. Athsheba must have painted these...! Beyond that, we now know where the Maintainer Mark is in this age. Athsheba even carved a tiny, almost chibi-styled statue of Chezahcen to sit near it. How adorable! I feel a little sad for the little statue now, honestly. How long has she sat alone for? Well, no matter, little one, I'm sure you'll have plenty of company soon enough. :) --- Idle curiosity had me counting the tree roots in the river trench. I lost count several times, not that it mattered really. I wonder if I could use them as a climbing bridge to get over the rock? Something to try when I have more free time, maybe. --- Got that free time tonight. I'm going to do it! --- The view from up on this rock is incredible. I'm surprised I managed to get up here, in all honesty. I think I might've broken one of the ropes on Calum's new bridge, though. Oops! The water courses, gurgling below me... I'm reminded of the quoted passage in Athsheba's journal. One wrong step on my part, and I fall. It's probably a good thing I've got a waterproof bag on me right now. --- I had to leap into the water and swim the rest of the way. But I've made it to a dead end. Tree roots continue to block the path further down... but that's fine. I've found a small cave- a fissure in the wall made by the roots breaking through. Athsheba's been here. Two of the garden's light posts have been moved back here, somehow, and more than that... I've found a Book. Two books, actually. One goes back to the Cathedral. I recognize the room in the Linking Panel. The other I don't... I can only dream that this is... But... Well. Honestly. I don't know what to do now. Exten-Col. Rei'schu. Do I really finally have it in my hands? I- I should take this to Calum. ...Why am I hesitating? --- I've taken the books. Both of them, and returned to Relto. I need to sleep on this. 2/21/22 Calum's given me the go ahead to take the Naybree Book to Patrick for Final Review before submission- now if only I could just get Patrick to reply to my request for a meeting. I only have so much free time in a week! Especially when that week is my vacation week. Calum and Jules did a great job cutting the overgrowth back. 2/24/22 The Garden's review has stalled, it seems. What's going on? --- Apparently Patrick and Briggs both voiced concerns Calum was pushing Naybree's restoration too far ahead. Trying to meet some arbritary deadline to get the age out there early. I honestly don't see what else there is to do here in the Garden but there's apparently concerns of some kind. But, I suppose my thoughts on the matter may have been what pushed Calum towards accelerating things? Maybe I should have curbed my own enthusiasm a bit... I should've realized something was up sooner and asked Calum to take a break. 2/27/22 Theo contacted me this evening regarding some questions he had about Naybree's canyon area- along with questions which beg my idle mind to wonder where the water for the fountain and the water falls comes from? I think the water fountain is the usual closed loop system we see in the Gardens and in the Hoods, though I can't tell where the source for the actual river comes from. The emitter points seem to be heavily artificial in the way artificial waterfalls tend to, but the water has to have had a natural origin point to be redirected? Oh well, unanswered questions about things I have no idea how to contend with. Water mechanics are not my area of expertise. Honestly, Calum might be able to answer that better than I ever could. But I won't ask. I suspect that if I bring it up to him, Calum will start obsessing over it to the point of insanity and get distracted. I swear that boy gets torn off on the most strange tangents sometimes. --- It's a shame my vacation week is over now. I still never managed that meeting with Patrick. If I can't arrange one, we can't get Chiso stocked with the Naybree book, nevermind these Caltauc documents I need to hand off in person rather than using our usual dropoff system. I suppose that'll answer that question in the end. I mean, I could just drop it off somewhere, but even so. I added another post to the dniexplorer.com forums. Hopefully Patrick just missed seeing my last one due to how busy his schedule is these days. I know he's not brushing me off because I know HE knows how important these specific documents are. Still, a girl can only wait so long before getting a tad impatient. Speaking of impatient, Calum just texted me with an excited series of photos... of a Model Kit from 2001? Well, I can't chide him for having his hobbies outside of the Restoration. Still, atleast buy the thing before sending me pictures of your find, Calum. I suspect I'll be spending my next translation session with the ambient background noise of model kit nippers and plastic parts being snap-fit together. 3/1/22 Calum just texted me with a question of whether I'd be okay with Naybree being delayed a quarter to provide a thematic bunching of ages again- the "Garden Quarter" he called it. Apparently it's looking like one of Patrick's garden projects and Tweek's garden projects may coincide together in terms of 'doneness'. Honestly, I'd rather they just release things as they're ready rather than delaying things, but Calum seemed particularly amused by the idea, so... I can't complain if they go through with it. I've got an appointment with Patrick after the AGM this week, unfortunately Jules can't make it so I'll be bringing Jules' notes over for Patrick to review, I think. Just one more document for the stack of things to hand over. ...Now why's Calum texting me if I have any tiny screwdrivers for? --- Another Deep City Lecture? D'ni Legal System, hm? A bit quick of a turn around after the AGM, though I'd hope not conflicting with other events. I really wish they'd announce these things more than a week in advance. --- Was in the Garden, up on the cliffs, when the most irritating thing happened- a gust of wind blew furiously against the cliffs and utterly wrecked the rope ladders. Now, I wasn't stranded, mind you. I could have Relto'd out at any time. But I messaged Calum about it right away and he said 'stay put' and came hurrying over and began rebuilding the ladders from scratch. It was interesting to watch him work, to say the least. 3/4/22 I do wonder, sometimes, when Calum finds the time to do the things he does. Apparently the ladders still weren't up to someone's satisfaction and he redid them again. A forum post he just made says he wont be attending the AGM tomorrow, though. Boy needs his rest, for sure. --- Calum texted me around 11 PM. Apparently, the damnable first ladder broke again. And he couldn't just Relto out because he left his book down in the bedroom- dummy. So I had to go fetch his book and throw it up to him. I asked him, "Why are you working on this so late?" "I was trying to fix the ladder so it wouldn't break again." Dramatic Pause. Calum fixed me with the most annoyed look in the world. "It broke." I've told him to take the weekend off. Just what I needed before the AGM. And honestly? Screw ladders, if they're going to be causing this much trouble! We'll work out some other means of getting up there, I'm sure. But. No. Not tonight. Maybe not the foreseeable future, even. Screw ladders. Honestly! First me, now Calum... better to leave the things out if people are going to continually risk getting stuck on the cliffs for the time being. --- I've collected most of the debris - how did this thing even break so thoroughly? It's like the rope knots just evaporated somehow . I don't even know. I'm not going to bother with piecing that together. It's late and I need my sleep before tomorrow's AGM. 3/9/22 I wonder, sometimes. Did Athsheba sit here atop these cliffs, watching for people to link in? Did she hide up here, waiting to see if anyone would arrive? Given we know the answer is no, it's sad and happy all in the same breath. It's happy, because that means Veovis' corpse wagon never deposited a corpse into the Age, poluting it and killing anyone who got close... Yet, it's sad, because Athsheba would have sat, waiting to see if someone appeared. And they never did. Did she know? About Veovis' plot? How much was she aware of, the true cause of the Fall? How much did she understand about D'ni's collapse, and how much did she misunderstand? Things are often misinterpreted, perceived in the shadows by a child. But this kind of traumatic event is... I wonder. I really wonder. What did Athsheba think, while she was here in Naybree? A bigger question is, who was the woman who saved her after Athsheba's mother died? What did SHE know? Why did she save some random girl beyond doing the right thing and saving a life? Was she on an important mission? Was she nobody important? Was she a traveler from another place just passing by? So many questions about what happened during the Fall. So so many. A part of me hopes she's still alive in Exten-col, and that we can ask her questions if we go there. 3/20/22 Thanks to my previous efforts to sort everything together in the archives, I inadvertently lessened a lot of the work I needed to do this time- although it's still taken most of the day to get to this point. Like we suspected, Eder Naybree seems to have been written around the period the DRC called the "Garden Binge"- around 8100 DE. From what I've been able to piece together regarding the Age's ownership documents, the Age of Eder Naybree was originally written as a Retirement Gift for a dearly beloved family member of a member of the Guild of Writers- someone low enough on the totem pole that they weren't high up enough to have their name recorded, alas. There isn't much else on the records of the family in question- not who wrote it, or who it was even a gift for- possibly that information was lost, or the DRC didn't leave it somewhere where I could find it. I can keep looking for it, but given we don't even know who wrote Eder Gira, Kemo, Delin, and Tsogal... I'm not hopeful in that regard. It seems that the Age stayed in ownership of the family for the next five hundred or so years, before being donated to a Private Collection around the year 8620 DE. It changed hands about five years later, going into another Private Collection, and from there it almost regularly bounced between private collections every thirty-to-thirty-five years until settling into a Public Library around the year 9200 DE. It stayed there for about a hundred years, and then it began to be traded between public libraries, it looks like, before being loaned to a public venue of Garden Ages that was being hosted at one of the City Proper's libraries shortly before the time of the Fall- around the year 9381 DE. The document trail ends there - which leads me to suspect the garden exhibition either lasted for the next 19 years until the Fall, or it stayed at that library after the exhibition event ended. Likely the later, more than the former. What other documentation we have regarding the age showed it was sizably popular to remain in active circulation at the time of the Fall. 5/23/22 More delays to Naybree- concerns over the sturctural issues in the walls that the tree branches have burst through. If Calum's tired texts are anything to go by, he's not pleased by the amount of botanical questions being thrown his way. "Trees don't work like that!" Well, Surface trees don't, but with the Art, anything is possible- from water-borne bacteria that's heatphobic to a giant, all consuming tree. And so I sit here on the cliff, watching the sunset, and pondering recent events. I feel it doesn't need repeating, but it always strikes me as sad that Athsheba spent so many years of her life here. It's clear as day to see that she spent a long amount of time carving out the bedroom cave, and setting up her book podiums in the back... It's clear she spent a lot of time working and refining shapes out of things. And then later transfering her younger carvings- the images of the girl, and the animals, and placing them on the walls. The most obvious one in the back cave and clearly held some kind of significance to her. I can only imagine what message she was trying to convey, though. The bird, and the deer like creatures, plus a goat like beast? She hid these on purpose for some reason, though I can't fathom why. Something to do with Chezahcen's religion? How long did she live here for? 50 years? 100? How long before she moved back to the Exten-col age? I can't see the multitude of statues, so pain-stakingly carved and so similar to eachother, to have gone by very quickly. It's hard not to think of Athsheba as just a scared little girl, but she was only that for a small portion of her overall lifespan. She's a grown old woman now, if she's even alive still. What kind of person was she, when she decided to move? It's a damned shame she left her journal in the Cathedral, and didn't even write in it very often. Didn't date it when she did. I can't blame her, not wanting to mark the passage of time, but she spent an unknown amount of time here and it's-- it's so sad that she was alone for so much of it. If I ever meet her in person, I have so many questions. 5/30/22 Naybree is oddly comforting in its quiet chill given recent events. I don't know if there's really anything else to say on the matter. 6/5/22 I'm now officially heading up the final stages of Restoration for Eder Naybree with Calum off in Rei'schu/Exten-col. I suppose it makes sense for me to carry things over the finish line, but even so, I wasn't expecting to pick up the final slack towards completion. I'll admit I'm a little at a loss as to what to do here. I think Calum handled the majority of everything that needed doing. At this stage I'm just going to have to take care of any lingering issues or concerns the others may have regarding this age. I suppose we'll see how that all plays out. 6/25/22 Calum's back from Rei'schu this morning, and working at Naybree again. Much more focused than he was the last few days. Though, I caught him scribbling furiously in that tree journal again for some reason. Not sure what he's doing there. [Written on the last page of the book:] I think this age is about ready for release. Time to be an unrepentant tease and leave a few goodies behind for folks to find! If you've read this far into this journal, thanks for giving my words some time. Oh, and the password is "Burning Sunsets are Amazing!" ;) Just to let me know you got this far. Hehe. _Kelsei A. Taylor]]>

OBSERVATIONS ON NAYBREE'S PLANTLIFE. -by CALUM TRAVELER- "THE TREE" Age appears to be covered in a single giant tree like life-form. Shares visual similarities with Kudzu and Mint plants on Earth- trending towards exponential growth. This is its canopy. The 'Tree' is upside down compared to Earth Trees. Its leafy greens are on the ground, and its roots spear into the air. Sturdy wood like material- more like living Tree Roots than regular tree branches on Earth. Seems to grow into a lattice like network of layers- capable of supporting the weight of many individuals at once. Doesn't seem to have a dislike of any materials- will gladly punch through rock and stone just the same as it'll grow over it. Cutting requires significant effort. Bolt Cutters with motors preferred. Observing over time, it seems that the "Tree" for lack of a better word, will spear its roots outwards in all directions, starting small until it can make contact with a water source- no growth observed past the river. The roots in the water- maybe its branches- make more sense in that regard. What confounds me is the massive series of trunks spearing into the air. They go tall, until they reach the point the wind starts to affect them, and at that point they begin branching outwards all in that same direction. Not just contained to the Garden area- some can be seen in the area above the cliffs. The canopy carpeting/blanketing everything seems to grow at first with more branches- thinner and a slightly different bark type- before extending even thinner branches from there. These branches interlink in lattice like formations before beginning to harden and sprout leaves. They seem to like to grow around things over growing into them, for some reason. A consumption vibe we see with several rocks and light poles around the garden. Possibly the 'Tree' is trying to eat the garden? (Honestly don't know.) Once a layer of carpeting/blanketing has been accomplished, it seems more roots are grown outwards with intent to repeat the process- consuming even MORE of the garden. It's a layered approach, growing layer after layer overtop previous layers. Lower layers seem to lose their leaves after being over grown in some areas, and not in others. May be a gradual process? Regardless, lower layers seem to be 'absorbed' into the upper layer after some unspecified point. I have no idea what the heck this plant is even doing- if it can even be called that. It's branch like methods spearing all over the place remind me vaguely of a mushroom type plant. Briggs called them " chubby noodle trees " and honestly I can't disagree. They barely look like any trees I know of on Earth. With Naybree being "Root Two" literally in D'ni, I'd have to assume this Age started with two trees that merged into one and just started growing exponentially in a race to consume eachother. But that's speculation. Could've been a reference to the moons, if that's the case. Honestly, this tree is some of the only native plant life I can see in the Garden's back half. If this age had ANYTHING there that wasn't the "tree" before this point, it's long dead. Just some small shrubs and other bushes/fern-bamboos in the front half remain. --- "LUNACY" I think I'll take to calling the upsidedown fern-palms "Lunar Fernboo"- as they're in purple/pink and blue, like the moons. Is the pink/purple an exact match? Not really. They seem to have a bamboo like growth cycle to start- more of the underground splintering that buds above ground, I'm starting to detect a theme in this age, for sure. You'll see shoots poking up out of the ground in places, and then over time, growing fern like extensions around them, with a result that looks almost like inverted palm trees. I'm reasonably certain these things are the same plant- but I can't figure out why one half of the front of the garden is blue, and the other half is purple. Proximity to water source maybe? I've used some break-offs from the stalks for the pole-posts on the second bridge reconstruction, they're sturdy enough to resist bending, but they drill and cut easily enough- unlike the Chubby Noodle Trees and their tough-as-diamond wood/bark, alas. These seem well trimmed despite the age being abandoned for a long time- natural break points? Possible some migratory wildlife is trimming them. Need to observe for longer term to get a better idea of how these things grow. --- "BUSHWHACKED" Reminiscent of scrub-bushes we see in various ages- Relto, Er'cana, etc. They're a vibrant blue under the right lighting conditions. Very pretty for bushes. Hardy, too. They're growing up in and around the Lunar Bamboo without much complaint. Some of them get tall, but other stay stout and short. Some get REALLY big. Not sure if they berry or fruit- haven't observed in age long enough to see if they do or not. Not sure how they seed themselves. Possible they're not native to the garden originally and seeds were blown in on the wind?

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