Written By Haakon
June 23, 2020, 1:38 p.m.(7/12/1013 AR)
Festival of death is going on in the city.
Had a tapestry made to mark the occasion, as I have little taste for acting social and didn't want folk to think we Eswynds forgot to honor the Queen of Ends. Thought the Marin's cycle, from hero to damnation, and defeat in the greatest naval battle for a thousand years would be a fit subject.
I'll say this much for Arx, so many people in one place means work gets done in a bloody hurry. Weavers know their work well, and did in a few day what would have taken months back home.
Life, and death, and life again.
So it goes.
Had a tapestry made to mark the occasion, as I have little taste for acting social and didn't want folk to think we Eswynds forgot to honor the Queen of Ends. Thought the Marin's cycle, from hero to damnation, and defeat in the greatest naval battle for a thousand years would be a fit subject.
I'll say this much for Arx, so many people in one place means work gets done in a bloody hurry. Weavers know their work well, and did in a few day what would have taken months back home.
Life, and death, and life again.
So it goes.
Written By Haakon
June 9, 2020, 5:48 p.m.(6/12/1013 AR)
May the chain of true fealty never falter.
Written By Haakon
June 8, 2020, 9:30 p.m.(6/10/1013 AR)
Almost disappointed.
The notion of going to war with a battle fleet from a powerful empire half a world away was an unknown and intriguing prospect. Thirty great ships of sail, and hundreds of support craft, I'd heard.
So many possibilities.
By what art or design could they bring such an armada across the wide sea? If galleys, were there some artifice unknown to us which made the great voyage more reliable, or would they simply throw squadrons at the crossing and expect enough to survive in fit condition?
The answer, it seems, is simply that they trusted to the large ships of sail, which form the greatest part of their strength. While I've the urge to have a walk about a Eurusi ship to inspect it in greater detail, the stories out of Sungreet are that apart from differences of style and nuances of rigging, there was no ship in their company that seemed any great departure from the vessels known to Arvum.
In truth, this is good: the wide crossing has not made us primitives before a new foe, and whatever battles we face on the bloody brine will be fought in a manner familiar to us.
It is a matter of common numbers, now.
The notion of going to war with a battle fleet from a powerful empire half a world away was an unknown and intriguing prospect. Thirty great ships of sail, and hundreds of support craft, I'd heard.
So many possibilities.
By what art or design could they bring such an armada across the wide sea? If galleys, were there some artifice unknown to us which made the great voyage more reliable, or would they simply throw squadrons at the crossing and expect enough to survive in fit condition?
The answer, it seems, is simply that they trusted to the large ships of sail, which form the greatest part of their strength. While I've the urge to have a walk about a Eurusi ship to inspect it in greater detail, the stories out of Sungreet are that apart from differences of style and nuances of rigging, there was no ship in their company that seemed any great departure from the vessels known to Arvum.
In truth, this is good: the wide crossing has not made us primitives before a new foe, and whatever battles we face on the bloody brine will be fought in a manner familiar to us.
It is a matter of common numbers, now.
Written By Haakon
June 4, 2020, 12:34 p.m.(6/2/1013 AR)
Scholar, my people have a word for folk who should be dead, if only they had the brains enough to realize it.
Diwar'naed.
"They'd be dead, if they were not so dumb."
I've the sense this word will be on my mind more often, in the future.
Diwar'naed.
"They'd be dead, if they were not so dumb."
I've the sense this word will be on my mind more often, in the future.
Written By Haakon
May 30, 2020, 6:59 p.m.(5/20/1013 AR)
I feel the need to go fishing.
The reason I say this to you, scholar, rather than simply taking a harpoon and boat and being about it is to reflect on how orderly this world is.
The maelstrom which swallows the Bay of Thrax has only made this more clear. The nearest harbor is now Brighthold, and no fewer than three families own various stretches of road between the Laveer coast and Arx. The Tyde owns the ships, the Laveer owns the harbor, another family the carts, another family owns a bridge along the road, and so forth.
Going fishing becomes quite the exercise in diplomacy.
The reason I say this to you, scholar, rather than simply taking a harpoon and boat and being about it is to reflect on how orderly this world is.
The maelstrom which swallows the Bay of Thrax has only made this more clear. The nearest harbor is now Brighthold, and no fewer than three families own various stretches of road between the Laveer coast and Arx. The Tyde owns the ships, the Laveer owns the harbor, another family the carts, another family owns a bridge along the road, and so forth.
Going fishing becomes quite the exercise in diplomacy.
Written By Haakon
May 28, 2020, 8:35 p.m.(5/16/1013 AR)
The winds of fortune are curious things, Scribe.
For most of my life, the Serpents of Thrax were my dire enemy. They hunted my people and we hunted theirs. I fought them when I could, and ran when I had to. It is true that the Abandoned tribes war upon each other often, but one thing that could unite us with a bloody rival was sighting a ship whose sails bore the serpent of Thrax.
Until Marin and the Darkness in the Deeps rose, there was nothing I loathed so much as Thrax.
Then the Tyde came, and we knelt. And we lived, where so many other fell into madness, blood, and death.
So short a time later, and the Thrax seem more like us than any other folk in all the wide world. Is that not odd? Perhaps it is, but I care not. It is simply true.
For most of my life, the Serpents of Thrax were my dire enemy. They hunted my people and we hunted theirs. I fought them when I could, and ran when I had to. It is true that the Abandoned tribes war upon each other often, but one thing that could unite us with a bloody rival was sighting a ship whose sails bore the serpent of Thrax.
Until Marin and the Darkness in the Deeps rose, there was nothing I loathed so much as Thrax.
Then the Tyde came, and we knelt. And we lived, where so many other fell into madness, blood, and death.
So short a time later, and the Thrax seem more like us than any other folk in all the wide world. Is that not odd? Perhaps it is, but I care not. It is simply true.
Written By Haakon
May 27, 2020, 2:46 a.m.(5/13/1013 AR)
Arx.
The largest city I've ever seen, and larger by far than any city needs be. Folk who dwell out of sight of the sea begin to stink of rats and urine, or perhaps the stench of today was owed to so many thousands baking in the heat. Whatever the cause, I long for the cold East wind already. Tyde Tower was hospitable, the Tyde herself near to bursting with child, but otherwise much the same as years past, when the Darkness Rose in the Deeps, and a handful of perfumed Arvani came before the King of Eswynd to bid us join or die.
We joined the Tyde, years ago, before the great battles, and we lived.
Soon there will be new throats to cut, and battles to fight, for even with the Deeps laid low, it is the doom of the world that it remains full of men, and we have ever been a quarrelsome race. I do not enjoy the prospect of dwelling among Thraxians, let alone Mainlanders, but for such wants, the wind does not care.
The largest city I've ever seen, and larger by far than any city needs be. Folk who dwell out of sight of the sea begin to stink of rats and urine, or perhaps the stench of today was owed to so many thousands baking in the heat. Whatever the cause, I long for the cold East wind already. Tyde Tower was hospitable, the Tyde herself near to bursting with child, but otherwise much the same as years past, when the Darkness Rose in the Deeps, and a handful of perfumed Arvani came before the King of Eswynd to bid us join or die.
We joined the Tyde, years ago, before the great battles, and we lived.
Soon there will be new throats to cut, and battles to fight, for even with the Deeps laid low, it is the doom of the world that it remains full of men, and we have ever been a quarrelsome race. I do not enjoy the prospect of dwelling among Thraxians, let alone Mainlanders, but for such wants, the wind does not care.
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