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 )                                                                         (
(                             NewOrigins Events                             )
 )                              July, Year 1                               (
(                                                                           )
 )    Many merchants are discussing about a conflict between two armies    (
(         happened in the forests of Tecau where battle ended in a          )
 )       slaughter of one of the sides. This battle will be known as       (
(                    Battle of the village of Eminster.                     )
 )                                                                         (
(                          .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                          )
 )                                                                         (
(       Many traders are whispering about a clash between two armies        )
 )    happened in the plains of Ce'osceff where 1 combatant was killed.    (
(       The attackers slaughtered all defenders. This battle will be        )
 )              known as Battle near the town of Doacholkesh.              (
(                                                                           )
 )                         .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                         (
(                                                                           )
 )    Multiple refugees are discussing about a fight between combatants    (
(      happened in the swamps of Irscir where many soldiers will never      )
 )    fight again. This battle will be known as Battle near the forests    (
(                                of Hulryl.                                 )
 )                                                                         (
(                          .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                          )
 )                                                                         (
(         Numerous traders are discussing about a conflict between          )
 )    combatants happened in the jungles of Stagol where 11 combatants     (
(     were killed. The attackers slaughtered all defenders. This battle     )
 )            will be known as Battle of the village of Naheim.            (
(                                                                           )
 )                         .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                         (
(                                                                           )
 )    Some adventurers are rumoring about the battle between combatants    (
(     happened in the plains of Ce'osceff where 1 combatant was killed.     )
 )      The attackers slaughtered all defenders. This battle will be       (
(               known as Battle near the town of Doacholkesh.               )
 )                                                                         (
(                          .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                          )
 )                                                                         (
(      Several wanderers are discussing about the town of Lowick that       )
 )     lies in the Hengdohway swamps, where a villans expelled guards.     (
(                                                                           )
 )                         .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                         (
(                                                                           )
 )      Some adventurers are discussing about the town of Ogacre that      (
(       lies in the Ceckshire plains, where a rebels put to the sword       )
 )                                 guards.                                 (
(                                                                           )
 )                         .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                         (
(                                                                           )
 )     Handful traders are whispering about the town of Pu'i that lies     (
(       in the Rheshho jungles, where an opposition destroyed guards.       )
 )                                                                         (
(                          .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                          )
 )                                                                         (
(       Some peasants are whispering about the town of De'inpest that       )
 )        lies in the Gessiburn plains, where a rebels slew guards.        (
(                                                                           )
 )                         .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                         (
(                                                                           )
 )     Numerous locals are whispering about hunters who have massacred     (
(         Grizzly Bears (142) near village of Binside. Freeing the          )
 )               mountains of Bracklaberg from their terror.               (
(                                                                           )
 )                         .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                         (
(                                                                           )
 )       In the swamps of Vella, near ocean of Atlantis Ocean, Swamp       (
(           Creatures (353) who continue to cause horror to local           )
 )                              inhabitants.                               (
(                                                                           )
 )                         .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                         (
(                                                                           )
 )    In the plains of Ceckshire, near town of Jiburn, Evil Mages (605)    (
(            who continue to cause terror to local inhabitants.             )
 )                                                                         (
(                          .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                          )
 )                                                                         (
(     In the desert of Mebros, near town of Oertedgost, Sandlings (175)     )
 )           who continue to cause terror to local inhabitants.            (
(                                                                           )
 )                         .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                         (
(                                                                           )
 )    In the desert of Ehe, near ocean of Atlantis Ocean, Evil Warriors    (
(          (610) who continue to cause fear to local inhabitants.           )
 )                                                                         (
(                          .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                          )
 )                                                                         (
(        In the desert of Meri, near ocean of Atlantis Ocean, Undead        )
 )        (2517) who continue to cause dread to local inhabitants.         (
(                                                                           )
 )                         .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                         (
(                                                                           )
 )    Fearsome news were coming from the tundra of Glotio. Locals were     (
(      stunned by the assassination near the ocean of Atlantis Ocean.       )
 )                     The assassin escaped unnoticed.                     (
(__       _       _       _       _       _       _       _       _       __)
    '-._.-' (___ _) '-._.-' '-._.-' )     ( '-._.-' '-._.-' (__ _ ) '-._.-'
            ( _ __)                (_     _)                (_ ___)
            (__  _)                 '-._.-'                 (___ _)
            '-._.-'                                         '-._.-'

Be productive and strong; explore new land and find a way to survive.

THE ARCHITECTURE OF DISTANCE

From the Imperial Archives
Excerpt from The Long Roads: An Institutional History of the Founding Era
Volume I — Foundations of the Collective, Chapter III
Authorized Scholarly Edition

Among the more persistent misconceptions concerning the Founding Era is the belief that the origins of the Sun's Reach lay in deliberate design.

It did not.

Mature institutions possess an unfortunate tendency to confer upon their own beginnings the appearance of inevitability. Once an institution has endured sufficiently long to become indispensable, posterity finds it difficult to conceive of an age in which its absence was neither remarkable nor, indeed, fully perceived. Generations of scholars consequently searched the surviving record for some foundational instrument: a decree establishing the first Sunway, a charter prescribing its purpose, perhaps even an overlooked memorandum in which some prescient administrator anticipated the institution that would follow.

No such instrument has ever been discovered, and there is compelling reason to believe that none ever will.

Civilizations preserve their decisions with ceremony. Necessity leaves a quieter record.

What survives from the period reveals not institutional ambition, but a succession of thoroughly ordinary necessities. Silver accumulated where expenditure was slight and remained scarce where obligation was immediate. Provisions stood plentiful in one place while their absence elsewhere constrained useful work. Tools, correspondence, livestock, and personnel all shared the same administratively intolerable characteristic:

They were elsewhere.

The earliest responses to these difficulties possessed neither doctrine nor grandeur. A traveler conveyed silver to an outlying post; another accompanied livestock toward those requiring provisions; correspondence was entrusted to journeys already favoring its destination. Where circumstance permitted, arriving couriers exchanged responsibilities with those returning toward the center, introducing an elementary economy of movement whose significance would become apparent only in retrospect.

Little in the contemporary record suggests that those responsible envisioned the vital consequence of their endeavors.

That absence of intention is not an inadequacy of the historical record. It is among its most instructive features.

Institutions of lasting consequence need not proceed from commensurately grand designs. Some emerge instead from provisional answers whose utility renders their abandonment increasingly unthinkable.

A journey made once answered a need.
A journey repeated established a path.
A path relied upon became a route.
A route entrusted with responsibility became something more.

Yet repetition alone was an inadequate catalyst for the emergence of the Reach. The consequential transition occurred only when recurring movement acquired deliberate purpose—when journeys ceased merely to service repetitive need and became instead the conscious preservation of connections increasingly understood as vital to the Collective.

Repetition established the path. Intention established the system.

The distinction is more than semantic. An improvised journey terminates upon the satisfaction of its purpose; an administered route presumes that purpose will recur. It was this presumption, increasingly evident within the surviving correspondence, that distinguished the earliest Sunways from the errands that preceded them. Provision ceased merely to answer the need already present and began to anticipate the need certain to return. Reports traveled inward because material would again travel outward. Movement had ceased to be reaction and had acquired continuity.

Geography imposed distance. Administration ensured that distance did not remain isolation.

The nomenclature familiar to later generations emerged with characteristic tardiness. Neither Sunway nor Sun's Reach appears at the point where modern scholarship would most conveniently place its origin; both enter the record only after the practices they describe had acquired recognizable form. The persistent search for some lost decree of establishment consequently reveals rather more about the expectations of later historians than about the habits of the Founders themselves. Institutions born of necessity seldom await the permission of language.

The Reach existed in practice before it existed in name.

This chronological inversion is essential to any proper assessment of its significance. The primitive Reach bears little resemblance to the celebrated infrastructure of later centuries, and comparison between the two has occasionally encouraged the mistaken conclusion that the former was merely embryonic. Such judgment mistakes sophistication for significance. The importance of an institution cannot invariably be measured by the maturity of its machinery.

What the early Reach carried was modest.

What it preserved was not.

Its enduring contribution was the alteration of the relationship between expansion and cohesion. Before its emergence, every outward movement threatened to increase not merely geographic distance but administrative separation. Thereafter, distance could be accommodated within the structure of the Collective rather than accepted as an inevitable diminution of it. Provision could follow obligation; intelligence could return from the periphery; resources could answer necessity without requiring proximity.

In this respect, the Reach should be understood not principally as an achievement of transport, but as an early answer to one of governance's perennial questions:

How may a realm expand without becoming progressively less itself?

The Founders possessed no complete answer. To suggest otherwise would substitute reverence for history. Yet the institution fashioned through accumulated necessity supplied the beginnings of one.

Presence without connection is occupation.
Presence sustained by connection becomes civilization.

Much of the later administrative history of the Collective may be understood as an elaboration upon that distinction. Roads became more permanent, depots more numerous, correspondence more regular, and institutions more specialized; yet these represented refinements of means rather than alterations of principle. The essential proposition had already emerged during the Founding Era: expansion becomes durable only when the center acquires the means to remain consequential at its margins.

The measure of a realm therefore lies not solely in the distance its people may travel from the center, but in the distance at which they may stand without becoming strangers to the whole.

Later generations would distill that principle into the simpler maxim traditionally associated with the earliest Sunways:

Wherever its people stood, the Sun's Reach illuminated their path.

Classic Atlantis diplomacy. An agreement is proposed but fulfilment is not a part of it.

We continue to discover new lands and get to know our neighbors.

A new user has just entered the metaverse.
It appears there is an entry point in this region. Something to keep in mind for the future.
Messages have been sent to the user, and hopefully they will be well received this time.
However, something tells me that this user (36 - Nelumbo Nucifera) may belong to a rival company trying to get more information about the metaverse.
That cannot be accepted.

The map ends where we stopped walking, not where the land does.

What We Carry Forward

A hearth does not go dark because one hand that tended it is gone. It goes dark when no one tends it at all.

We lost a name this spring that mattered to us — not to the world, which does not know it, but to the house. We will not spend the Times' ink on grief that belongs at our own table. We will say only this: the work he started has not stopped. Someone else has picked it up, the way it is meant to be picked up, and the roof he meant to raise is still going to be raised.

We have walked further this season than we meant to, in more directions than we planned — some of it caution, some of it curiosity, most of it the ordinary business of learning a land before you claim to know it. We have found neighbors along the way, and at least one danger worth remembering the shape of. We are neither surprised nor deterred by either.

What we said at the start still holds. We ask nothing of our neighbors but honest dealing. We will pay a fair price and expect one in return. What we build, we intend to keep.

The name on our door has not changed. Neither has what it means.

— House Hearthbound

We have met first people of this world, they caution us of monsters.

The new territories submit to us without complaint.

If a tree falls in my vicinity and I'm not online to see it, does it make a sound?

BY THE CHAMBER OF THE HEPHAESTUS SYNDICATE

In the name of the Forge and of the Ledger.

To all whom these presents may concern, greeting.

Be it known that the Hephaestus Syndicate is come out of the gates and
stands upon the country, and that its forge is set up in the mountains.

Be it further known that this Chamber buys, and pays in silver or in
wrought iron: wood, in any quantity; ore; and hides.

That it sells, as the anvils come into work: picks, hammers, swords and
mail, and thereafter such heavier wares as the craft allows.

That the first parcel to any party goes upon approval. Keep what suits
you, return the rest, and pay only for what you keep.

That we answer letters, and gladly: borders, safe conduct, standing
supply, and the exchange of knowledge of the country. We ask nothing
for the asking.

Our mark is a weigh-house weight. We set it upon nothing we did not
make, and upon everything we did.

Errors and omissions excepted.

By order of the Chamber,
Coenraet de Koperen, Secretary and Bookkeeper,
for and on behalf of the Hephaestus Syndicate.

Sealed by the hand of
Andries Baselier, Director of the Chamber.

Given in the month of July, in the first year.

Goed ijzer, eerlijk gewicht.

Found 2 friends, now have iron and wood, things looking up.  

No wait, those are bears.  What are they doing here.  Will they help the Rocs or will they let sleeping rocs lie....

Woof!

Life is short!

FROM A LEADER'S DIARY — THE SIXTH MONTH
=======================================

Last month I wrote that the cost of a fight lives in time, and admitted I had
not yet tested it. I have now tested it. I will not say where; the reader who
scans these pages for an address will have to be content with the lesson,
which travels better than the news does anyway.

It held, and so exactly that I have nothing clever to add, which is the most
a theory can hope for. The work was over in two exchanges and a scramble, and
the men I was tempted to call surplus when I mustered them are the reason I
write this in good humour rather than composing letters to widows.

One refinement, earned rather than reasoned. Some of those men could not
fight at all — no weapon, no craft for it, hands better suited to a trowel
than a sword. The temptation is to leave such men at home, out of kindness or
tidiness. Do not. An army does not break when its last man dies; it breaks
when enough of it has died, and *enough* is measured against everyone
standing on the field. The mason at the rear, holding nothing, lengthens the
courage of every man in front of him by the plain fact of being countable.
Courage, it turns out, is partly arithmetic.

The rest of the month I spent writing letters, which I did not expect, and
learning from them, which I expected even less.

For five months I wrote here that my hand was open, and for four the silence
was complete enough that I began to file the sentence under ritual rather
than policy. Now I am in correspondence with more than one house — sensible
letters, terms in numbered articles, argued over and mended and agreed like
grown men. For whoever is five months into their own silence: the pages work,
but slowly, the way a field does. Keep writing.

And now the joke at my expense, which is the part worth your time.

Both houses turned out to want precisely what I have and to hold precisely
what I lack — perfect complements, the sort of thing you could not design on
purpose. We exchanged shortages, named surpluses, and haggled over nothing,
neither of us wishing to be sharp with the only friendly correspondent he
had. Then somebody thought to measure the distance, and it is too far. Both
of them. Not "difficult" — too far for a single sack of anything to move by
any means either of us commands.

So: MEASURE BEFORE YOU OFFER. It costs one line and it should be the first
line, not the fifth. Ask a stranger where he is before you tell him what you
will sell him, because the answer decides whether the rest of it is business
or a pleasant fiction. I have done this backwards twice; I tell you so that
you can do it forwards once.

The letters were not therefore wasted. Knowledge of the country weighs
nothing and crosses any distance at the speed of a letter — I have had the
shape of far-off ground, names of towns I will never see, and warnings about
things I would otherwise have walked into. None of it could have gone on a
cart. All of it arrived.

One last thing, the cheapest, and the one I would most like stolen from me.
A correspondent asked a plain question about a word I had used loosely for
four months. In answering it I found that the honest reply was not "no" but
"no, and I could not have known either way, because not one man I employ can
see the thing you ask about." Five months of my own scouting had not found
that hole. A stranger found it in a sentence, and it cost him nothing to ask.
Let people ask you obvious things. Their obvious things are not your obvious
things, and the gap between them is the cheapest survey you will ever get.

I should say plainly, since these pages are signed, that I now write them
with a censor at my elbow — my own. I have given an undertaking of confidence
to another house, without term, and I mean to keep it. There are things in
this month I cannot tell you, and I would rather name the omission than dress
it up. An agreement kept only while convenient is not an agreement, it is a
mood.

To the houses forming leagues and naming enemies, I repeat myself at the risk
of tedium: I have announced no enemy and acquired none I know of, and I mean
to continue the experiment. Anyone who deals honestly with me will find the
terms unchanged.

Mind your margins, feed what you buy, count every man — especially the ones
who cannot fight — and measure the distance before you promise the goods.

Go into the forest. go into the forest to gather some resources! But sometimes you gather the death.

These fried crocodiles are disgusting!
It's a losing business—crocodile skin bags are not valued.

Don't curse Odin when it was your own hand that let go of the åre in the middle of the fjord.

A great announcement of succesfully eliminating couple of unnatural faction representatives. Also we gathered some magic from their fallen bodies. Let's see what we can do with it.

Some of the new recruits are not half bad with a sword. The uglier the better.

It's Times for some more silver coins.

Another month, 

Jūn zǐ dòng kǒu bù dòng shǒu

A gentleman uses his tongue, not his fists.

Oh yes, baby, oh yes!

In search of a home and new friends.

Well the bot factions have been a bit of a push-over, or do they having something left in the tank for a comback?

"Chief Badvoc, sentries on the hill report yeti to the northwest."

The chieftain smiled at the prospect of a glorious victory over such an abominable foe.

"Excellent.  How many?"

"They don't know sir.  The last scout from the guard force there screamed 'YETI' as he ran towards the guard post before something huge and white dragged him back into the snow."

Badvoc swallowed nervously.

Suddenly that victory did not seem quite so glorious.

Words have passed between us and others since our last notice, some received, some sent. We thank those who answered plainly, and we still hope to hear from those who have not yet replied.

We have less pleasant news to share. The tower we spoke of has claimed one of ours. A scout of Black Light went in, or too near, and did not come back out. The mages there do not seem interested in conversation. Consider this confirmation enough of what waits inside, for anyone still weighing whether to look.

We have plans for our dead. We are still willing to talk to the living.

Still alive. Last jump coming up.

King Greyjoin realized that, with age, it was no longer as easy for him to rule a people and create prosperity. His subjects were still occupied with the daily struggle to provide for their basic needs. Some in the city mockingly gave him the nickname “King Without a Land.”

(Dans la maison des invités de Shrobank)
Réunion de crise des Galadhrims.
La reine entre dans le salon, transformé en salle du conseil.
- Messieurs je souhaite un point sur la situation !
- Ma reine, le nord est calme, mais l'Ennemi renforce ses forces dans sa tour magique et des ruines ont été découvertes. Sinon l'alliance des hommes des elfes et des gnolls se renforce petit à petit.
-Soit, mais nous devons accélérer le mouvement, contactez les tribus centaures et les clans gnomes et nains, mettez en place des ateliers de production d'armes et d'armures, je le sens le temps nous est compté !
- Il sera fait selon vos ordres, le prince Elrohir est déjà sur place œuvrant  en votre nom.
- Gnori qu'en est il du centre ?
- Ma reine, les kobolds restent introuvables et nous n'avons plus aucune nouvelle de nos alliés.
- Inadmissible ! Trouver ces petits monstres et faites leur passer le goût du pillage. Elladan va bientôt arriver pour gérer la situation que tout soit prêt pour sa venue !
Par ailleurs, envoyez un émissaire à nos alliés, trop d'inconnues au centre et au sud, cette frontière doit être sécurisée au plus vite !
- Maeglin qu'en est il du sud ?
- Rien de bon pour l'instant, des monstres, des factions muettes, un sentiment général d'hostilité latente...
- Il va falloir surveiller cela et mettre en place la stratégie que nous avons déjà évoquée.
- Il en sera fait selon vos ordres ma reine !

Galadhrim (44)

What's done is done

😑🤔😕

Some days you're thankful for what you've got

This looks a fine location to establish an Inn. First a drink and then we get to work.

first serious fight ahead

Go go go!

"And I Always Wanted A Little Brother"

It begins. The undead have a boat!

T'would be nice if the people talked (some do, some just leave me puzzled.)

the underground seems promising but dangerous ...

Trees!!! In the deep south. 

A nebula can therefore mark either the birth or death of a star.

Come to me, don't be shy

Ogres are on the move!

Way too crowded. Nothing to see here folks.

Ton amour fut une étoile,
Brillante dans ma nuit noire.
Mais l'aube vient, je pars sans voile,
L'oubli sera mon seul espoir.

The narrow peninsulas around the edge of the forest were making life difficult for scouts. There was no way around the ice dragon guarding the tundra.

New friends!

Finally sound someone!!

This world does not live by Holden alone!

What is that horrific stench? It's them again!

In a dark, dark city, on a dark, dark night, on a dark, dark street, in a dark, dark house, in a dark, dark room, in a black, black chair, in black, black clothes... sat... Holden!!!