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diff --git a/out/apocrypha/anintroductiontoapocrypha.html b/out/apocrypha/anintroductiontoapocrypha.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..05f94a8 --- /dev/null +++ b/out/apocrypha/anintroductiontoapocrypha.html @@ -0,0 +1,61 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> + <head> + <meta charset="utf-8"> + <title>An Introduction to Apocrypha — AndrewDM</title> + <link rel="stylesheet" href="/main.css"> + <link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" href="/index.atom" /> + + </head> + <body class=""> + <header> + <h1><a href="/">AndrewDM.me</a></h1> + <nav> + <ul> + <li><a href="/">Projects</a> + <li><a href="/changelog.html"><abbr title="Blog">Blahg</abbr></a> + <li><a href="/about.html">Andrew</a> + <li> + <form method="GET" action="/search.html"> + <input type=search name="s" placeholder="Search" /><input type=submit value="🔍" /> + </form> + <li><a class=feed href="/index.atom">Feed</a> + </ul> + </nav> + </header> + <article> + <p>Tags: <a class="tag ap" href="/tags/ap.html">Apocrypha</a></p> + <h1 class=title>An Introduction to Apocrypha</h1> +<p>Apocrypha is a world of mystery and forgotten history, built from first principles and the realization that even simple truths have consequences.</p> +<p>My goal with building the world of Apocrypha is to create a generic fantasy world which is both suitable for books and for use with TRPGs, and is designed somewhere on the coherency spectrum between the Forgotten Realms and Discworld.</p> +<p>Though it is being designed to function with the 5th edition of <a +href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons">Dungeons & Dragons</a> in mind, I am also haphazardly designing a TRPG of my own which may be abandoned along the way, but draws inspiration from Apocrypha as well as breathing life back into it. Over the last 2 months, I’ve found that working on one usually generates ideas that are applicable to the other, and overall energy for both projects benefits from this dynamic.</p> +<p>Occasionally Asked Questions</p> +<ol type="1"> +<li>From a Forgotten Realms standpoint, “does the Weave still matter?”</li> +</ol> +<p>There is no Weave, nor are gods’ domains delineated in the same way as FR.</p> +<ol start="3" type="1"> +<li>“Why in a D&D 5e-esque world have the elves and spellcasters not taken over despite the advanced age of the former and the quadratic power curve of the latter?”</li> +</ol> +<p>My previous answer to this was chopped up and dumped in several dumpsters in several different states, so I’ll expand below.</p> +<p>Creatures don’t have DNA. Alchemy is not chemistry because there are no chemicals. Plutonium isn’t an element: fire is.</p> +<p>All creatures share a common ancestry. From the primal elementals, to the mischievous fey, to the inscrutable nim, all are born by the spontaneous generation of the physical from an immortal and unchanging essence. I’m working on how they are all related, but their forms are determined by their essential natures.</p> +<p>The “planes” are just reality through a broken prism (in that they started out with a common starting place for the condition of the world, but since each has slightly different properties, due to the absence of certain things (like say, gravity) or their distortion (like the duration of magical effects lingering twice as long), they each have developed differently (and different kinds of creatures have been born there).</p> +<p>Magic comes in as many forms as creatures do.</p> +<p>Since creatures and magic and the elements and planes all have the same ancestry in the grand scheme of things.</p> +<p>Wizardry, specifically, is the capturing of a specific magical essence in the form of a spell.</p> +<p>This ‘bottling’ allows you to take magic with you from place to place. and release it. But the power of most non-wizardry magic ebbs and flows based on large geographical region (which I’m still working out, since I don’t have most of the other magic systems worked out yet). For example, druids can produce effects much more powerful than those of a wizard if they are within their grove. So high level wizards trying to take over an area and being repulsed by the locals is a fairly common trope.</p> +<p>As is practitioners of various regional magics attempting t extend their influence by changing the lands around them. The Song of Conquest is a kind of regional magic (or more like ancestral magic, because it comes from the people, not the land), that has spread quite far and is the power behind the empire (in addition to them discovering wizardry and having a big army and the largest navy).</p> +<p>So, the reason that elves/wizards haven’t taken over the Empire is because of the Song of Conquest (which only humans/halflings/faunus/orcs have access to) and the nation state (because it’s a #human empire which isn’t racist towards elves per se, but you know).</p> +<p>Also, “there’s always a bigger fish.” There are dragons and nim and patrons and icons that are more powerful than wizards, and gods above those.</p> + + </article> + <footer> + <p>The content of this page is Copyright © 2017 <a href="mailto:ImFromNASA@gmail.com">Andrew Murrell</a>.</p> +<p>This page is licensed under the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA-3.0</a> license.</p> + <p>Page source: <a href="anintroductiontoapocrypha.md">anintroductiontoapocrypha.md</a></p> + <p>Website source: <a href="https://git.andrewdm.me/www.git">www.git</a></p> + </footer> + </body> +</html> diff --git a/out/apocrypha/index.html b/out/apocrypha/index.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2c260d2 --- /dev/null +++ b/out/apocrypha/index.html @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> + <head> + <meta charset="utf-8"> + <title>Apocrypha — AndrewDM</title> + <link rel="stylesheet" href="/main.css"> + <link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" href="/index.atom" /> + + </head> + <body class="index"> + <header> + <h1><a href="/">AndrewDM.me</a></h1> + <nav> + <ul> + <li><a href="/">Projects</a> + <li><a href="/changelog.html"><abbr title="Blog">Blahg</abbr></a> + <li><a href="/about.html">Andrew</a> + <li> + <form method="GET" action="/search.html"> + <input type=search name="s" placeholder="Search" /><input type=submit value="🔍" /> + </form> + <li><a class=feed href="/index.atom">Feed</a> + </ul> + </nav> + </header> + <article> + + <h1 class=title>Apocrypha</h1> +<ul> +<li><span class="link-main"><a class="" href="anintroductiontoapocrypha.html" title="Published on 2017-12-25 (updated on 2017-12-25)">An Introduction to Apocrypha</a></span><span class="link-categories"><a class="tag ap" href="/tags/ap.html">Apocrypha</a></span></li> +<li><span class="link-main"><a class="" href="region_thecentersea.html" title="Published on 2017-12-25">Regions of the Center Sea</a></span><span class="link-categories"><a class="tag ap" href="/tags/ap.html">Apocrypha</a><a class="tag ld" href="/tags/ld.html">Lore Doc</a></span></li> +<li><span class="link-main"><a class="" href="region_theempire.html" title="Published on 2017-12-24">Regions of the Empire</a></span><span class="link-categories"><a class="tag ap" href="/tags/ap.html">Apocrypha</a><a class="tag ld" href="/tags/ld.html">Lore Doc</a></span></li> +<li><span class="link-main"><a class="" href="region_thenorth.html" title="Published on 2017-12-23">Regions of the North</a></span><span class="link-categories"><a class="tag ap" href="/tags/ap.html">Apocrypha</a><a class="tag ld" href="/tags/ld.html">Lore Doc</a></span></li> +<li><span class="link-main"><a class="" href="thegournalgeographicaffairs.html" title="Published on 2017-12-23">The Gournal of Geographic Affairs: The Sun-Touched Mountain</a></span><span class="link-categories"><a class="tag ap" href="/tags/ap.html">Apocrypha</a><a class="tag wb" href="/tags/wb.html">Worldbuilding Prompt</a></span></li> +</ul> + + </article> + <footer> + <p>The content of this page is Copyright © <a href="mailto:ImFromNASA@gmail.com">Andrew Murrell</a>.</p> +<p>This page is licensed under the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA-3.0</a> license.</p> + + <p>Website source: <a href="https://git.andrewdm.me/www.git">www.git</a></p> + </footer> + </body> +</html> diff --git a/out/apocrypha/region_thecentersea.html b/out/apocrypha/region_thecentersea.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..80a55dc --- /dev/null +++ b/out/apocrypha/region_thecentersea.html @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> + <head> + <meta charset="utf-8"> + <title>Regions of the Center Sea — AndrewDM</title> + <link rel="stylesheet" href="/main.css"> + <link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" href="/index.atom" /> + + </head> + <body class=""> + <header> + <h1><a href="/">AndrewDM.me</a></h1> + <nav> + <ul> + <li><a href="/">Projects</a> + <li><a href="/changelog.html"><abbr title="Blog">Blahg</abbr></a> + <li><a href="/about.html">Andrew</a> + <li> + <form method="GET" action="/search.html"> + <input type=search name="s" placeholder="Search" /><input type=submit value="🔍" /> + </form> + <li><a class=feed href="/index.atom">Feed</a> + </ul> + </nav> + </header> + <article> + <p>Tags: <a class="tag ap" href="/tags/ap.html">Apocrypha</a><a class="tag ld" href="/tags/ld.html">Lore Doc</a></p> + <h1 class=title>Regions of the Center Sea</h1> +<h1 id="the-center-sea">The Center Sea</h1> +<p>The Center Sea is the beating heart of the civilized world. Tributaries from all directions meet and mix here, bringing ships together from all the nations of the world, laden with goods and with ideas.</p> + + </article> + <footer> + <p>The content of this page is Copyright © 2017 <a href="mailto:ImFromNASA@gmail.com">Andrew Murrell</a>.</p> +<p>This page is licensed under the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA-3.0</a> license.</p> + <p>Page source: <a href="region_thecentersea.md">region_thecentersea.md</a></p> + <p>Website source: <a href="https://git.andrewdm.me/www.git">www.git</a></p> + </footer> + </body> +</html> diff --git a/out/apocrypha/region_theempire.html b/out/apocrypha/region_theempire.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..092e505 --- /dev/null +++ b/out/apocrypha/region_theempire.html @@ -0,0 +1,88 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> + <head> + <meta charset="utf-8"> + <title>Regions of the Empire — AndrewDM</title> + <link rel="stylesheet" href="/main.css"> + <link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" href="/index.atom" /> + + </head> + <body class=""> + <header> + <h1><a href="/">AndrewDM.me</a></h1> + <nav> + <ul> + <li><a href="/">Projects</a> + <li><a href="/changelog.html"><abbr title="Blog">Blahg</abbr></a> + <li><a href="/about.html">Andrew</a> + <li> + <form method="GET" action="/search.html"> + <input type=search name="s" placeholder="Search" /><input type=submit value="🔍" /> + </form> + <li><a class=feed href="/index.atom">Feed</a> + </ul> + </nav> + </header> + <article> + <p>Tags: <a class="tag ap" href="/tags/ap.html">Apocrypha</a><a class="tag ld" href="/tags/ld.html">Lore Doc</a></p> + <h1 class=title>Regions of the Empire</h1> +<h1 id="a-brief-overview-of-the-empire">A Brief Overview of the Empire</h1> +<p>The Etracian Empire is the largest empire in the world, and the second largest in history (only falling behind that of the dominion of the giants during the Days of Thunder).</p> +<p>Though in past ages, the empire grew through conquest, in the modern days, the holdings and influence of the empire expand primarily through colonization and diplomacy.</p> +<h4 id="q-a">Q & A</h4> +<blockquote> +<p>How long has the Empire been around?</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The current count places the empire’s history into 111 ages, but how many is that? The current age has lasted 62 years, but some have been less than a year, and some longer than a century.</p> +<p>The best tax records in the oldest provinces say the empire is about 30 generations of elves (or 3000 years) old. The average length of an ‘age’ is therefore, about 100 years.</p> +<blockquote> +<p>What is the General Edict?</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The General Edict is a system of laws and codes given by Josef IV. It has been in place for a little over 60 years.</p> +<p>As a legal system, the GE has done a better job of keeping the nation running than the previous code did (the previous Emperor’s reign was rife with civil war, do in large part to the Emperor’s power to easily disenfranchise noble families that “showed disloyalty”).</p> +<blockquote> +<p>Who is the current Emperor?</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Emperor Josef IV is the official name for Lady Lizbeth Yates, the eldest daughter and only remaining survivor of the Yates line. Though technically, only a man may claim the title of Emperor [what kind of primogeniture is this?], few complain that the Lady Lizbeth legally declared herself a man (or rather, few who complained about the matter remain among the living).</p> +<h2 id="regions-of-the-empire">Regions of the Empire</h2> +<p>The Empire is a massive, powerful, and infinitely subdivided nation with an exceptional record for stability matched only by its inimitable bureaucracy.</p> +<p>It contains three major geographic and political classifications for its lands: states, provinces, and colonies.</p> +<h3 id="the-continental-states">The Continental States</h3> +<p>[I don’t the upper bound on states, but there are at least three, known collectively as the Midlands]</p> +<h4 id="the-midlands">The Midlands</h4> +<p>North of the Marble Isle</p> +<p>[I need to figure out the bodies of water to get more details.]</p> +<p>Etra, Vala, Isla [transcribe from notebooks]</p> +<h3 id="the-provinces">The Provinces</h3> +<p>There are several provinces which are much less wealthy than the central states, but contain the majority of the empire’s population.</p> +<h4 id="the-north">The North</h4> +<p>There is a great difference between the area of the north claimed by the Empire, and that controlled by the Empire. The only area of the North from which the Empire has ever successfully collected taxes is the southernmost border settlements in the Chill-Lands (of which there are 12) and the narrow strip of land directly surrounding Fort North.</p> +<p>It is often said that a single southern town could more than match the value of the entire Northern province of the Empire, and that may be true in terms of wealth or resources, but in reality few forts anywhere in the Empire can brag the same quality of recruits brought into the Imperial Legion as from the tiny northern province and outlying regions.</p> +<p>The occasional goliath barbarian or glacier dwarf fighter making their way south and wanting to try their hands (and axes) at Legion life is more than enough incentive to keep the Empire’s northern holdings fully staffed, supplied, and cared for.</p> +<h4 id="the-midwood">The Midwood</h4> +<p>The Northwestern-most stretch of the Deepwood, this is the most ‘civilized’ area of that great forest, or at least that most citizens of the Empire could ever hope to reach.</p> +<p>Full of elves, gnomes, florans, faunus, halflings, and their kin, the Midwood is one of the most ethically non-human locations in the empire. Regiments of the Empire’s military raised from the Midwood are often called ‘menageries’ and use strange, but undoubtedly effective, tactics in combat.</p> +<p>[The ghostwise halflings come from an ancient ruin just outside the midwood.]</p> +<h3 id="the-colonies">The Colonies</h3> +<p>Colonization is the empire’s newest tool for expansion.</p> +<h4 id="cover-islands">Cover Islands</h4> +<p>Oft beset by pirates and even more often by deadly storms, the Covers are an expensive and dangerous colony to keep. That said, the islands remain one of the few places for the empire to acquire rare volcanic minerals and alchemical agents useful in the development of magical weapons.</p> +<p>After the Black Tongues were disbanded in the Empire, many fled to the islands, where they find, fewer and more lax regulations on their activities.</p> +<h3 id="the-golden-road">The Golden Road</h3> +<p>Running from the Citadel of Ice in the North to the Feet of the Last King in the South and twisting, diverging, merging, and turning around all sorts of places in between, the Gold Road is revered as sacred, and it’s tireless, invisible creator worshiped by those who would seek safety traveling along its many gleaming golden cobblestones.</p> +<p>The Golden Road belongs to the Golden God, though it is claimed by the Empire where it overlaps land claimed by the Empire. That said, the Golden Guides maintain control of the road regardless of the claims.</p> +<p>You need a Golden Guide for the golden road, or you’ll travel 100 miles and never lose sight of where you started, or worse, you’ll go 90 miles to see your destination right ahead of you, then 90 more without it seeming to get any closer.</p> +<p>The Golden Guides are either Travel Domain Clerics or (Fiend or Celestial) Warlocks. Despite the ambiguity, the Golden God himself is actually an Icon and a Fiend, a powerful one at that, and was involved in the discovery of the spell which created the tiefling pact. Once a gnome, the Golden God can be built as a [Gnome (Fine) Wizard 15 (Transmutation)/Patron 5/Icon 5].</p> +<p>The Golden God always needs more gold for the road, and the standing orders of the Golden Guides are to find and aid parties that can supply large quantities of gold. The Golden God builds the road daily, moving it slowly towards an unknown end.</p> +<h4 id="lair">Lair</h4> +<p>The whole of the Golden Road is the Golden God’s Lair. The gnome himself is cloaked in a Perpetual Greater Invisibility spell (via level 5 Icon power) and can cast <em>fabricate</em> at will.</p> + + </article> + <footer> + <p>The content of this page is Copyright © 2017 <a href="mailto:ImFromNASA@gmail.com">Andrew Murrell</a>.</p> +<p>This page is licensed under the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA-3.0</a> license.</p> + <p>Page source: <a href="region_theempire.md">region_theempire.md</a></p> + <p>Website source: <a href="https://git.andrewdm.me/www.git">www.git</a></p> + </footer> + </body> +</html> diff --git a/out/apocrypha/region_thenorth.html b/out/apocrypha/region_thenorth.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..84577b5 --- /dev/null +++ b/out/apocrypha/region_thenorth.html @@ -0,0 +1,67 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> + <head> + <meta charset="utf-8"> + <title>Regions of the North — AndrewDM</title> + <link rel="stylesheet" href="/main.css"> + <link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" href="/index.atom" /> + + </head> + <body class=""> + <header> + <h1><a href="/">AndrewDM.me</a></h1> + <nav> + <ul> + <li><a href="/">Projects</a> + <li><a href="/changelog.html"><abbr title="Blog">Blahg</abbr></a> + <li><a href="/about.html">Andrew</a> + <li> + <form method="GET" action="/search.html"> + <input type=search name="s" placeholder="Search" /><input type=submit value="🔍" /> + </form> + <li><a class=feed href="/index.atom">Feed</a> + </ul> + </nav> + </header> + <article> + <p>Tags: <a class="tag ap" href="/tags/ap.html">Apocrypha</a><a class="tag ld" href="/tags/ld.html">Lore Doc</a></p> + <h1 class=title>Regions of the North</h1> +<h2 id="regions-of-the-north">Regions of the North</h2> +<p>The North is comprised of seven major areas, the White, the Wall, the Wastes (or Spiritlands), the Chill-Lands, Fort North, the Vast, and the Sunpeaks.</p> +<h3 id="the-white">The White</h3> +<p>The White is a region of bitter cold at the northern edge of the world. It is constantly snowing from an eternal blizzard that swirls around the edge of the world. It’s chilling winds and subzero temperatures make the White one of the most inhospitable places in existence. But it is not empty.</p> +<p>Ice wights roam the icy plane, remnants of those who knew the land before the coming of the storm. But even these are benign compared to the greatest danger of the frozen north, The White Death.</p> +<p>Her lair lies hidden in mountain crag, covered deep with snow. The greatest of her kind, the White Death is an ice dragon of unspeakable size and power. It is said that she has seen beyond the boundary of the world and glimpsed the great beyond. She wants to forget.</p> +<p>Her presence in the cavern inadvertently protects one of the eight Shadefalls (the permanent anchor and gateway to one of the eight shades, in this case, the Icebright), from which she also is able to draw energy to heal herself and power her Icy Breath, which magnified by the power of the Shadefall, has the ability to turn creatures fully caught in it to ice.</p> +<h3 id="the-wall">The Wall</h3> +<p>TODO - Goblins, Giants, and the Throne on the Golden Road</p> +<h3 id="the-wastes-the-spiritlands">The Wastes (the Spiritlands)</h3> +<p>Roving tribes of frost goliath and half-frost goliath barbarians roam the area known as the Wastes. Drawn to the area by the presence of the Giants to the north, the barbarians are always alert to the dangers of the Frozen Throne and regularly form war parties to destroy whatever designs or advances are made by the Frost Giant kingdom.</p> +<p>They do not do so out of any loyalty to the empire, but out of a sense of reverence to the land itself and for some, a sense of paternalist duty towards the unknowing smallfolk to the south.</p> +<p>The tribes come together for the biennial meeting at the ancient circle of stone known as ‘gianthome’. It is a sacred location and is said to be the location of the ancient ritual which created the first goliath.</p> +<p>TODO - Gianthome Circle, non-goliath inhabitants, faunus, spirits</p> +<h3 id="the-chill-lands">The Chill-Lands</h3> +<p>TODO - Twelve-Towns</p> +<h3 id="fort-north">Fort North</h3> +<p>The only part of the north which can accurately be described as being controlled by the Empire.</p> +<p>TODO - Fort North</p> +<h3 id="the-vast">The Vast</h3> +<p>The mountain plateau of swirling frozen wind and thousands of natural shifting gateways into the Icebright. The entire area is suffused with magic, which causes creatures that spend too long inside the area to grow in size and risk becoming shaded.</p> +<p>A creature shaded by the Icebright, cannot leave the Icebright or the Vast without suffering penalties [???]. A creature born in the Vast which has resistance to either Radiant or Cold damage may be able to gain the benefits to size given by the Vast without becoming shaded.</p> +<p>TODO - magic of the vast, geography, peoples</p> +<h4 id="cities-in-the-vast">Cities in the Vast:</h4> +<h5 id="monastery-of-the-north-wind">Monastery of the North Wind</h5> +<p>TODO ##### City of Glass Home to a powerful sorcerer [Air Genasai Frozen Heart Sorcerer 18/Patron 5] who TODO</p> +<h3 id="the-sunpeaks">The Sunpeaks</h3> +<p>Huge mountains. Connected to the Upperlight. Sun-soul monks and clerics of Tabor. Conflict with the Coastal Colonies (and Black Tongues, who have tried to take it over) . Not officially part of the empire, though not for lack of trying on the part of the Emperor and the nearby barons.</p> +<p>TODO - Description of warming due to gateway, sunlight, constant daytime</p> + + </article> + <footer> + <p>The content of this page is Copyright © 2017 <a href="mailto:ImFromNASA@gmail.com">Andrew Murrell</a>.</p> +<p>This page is licensed under the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA-3.0</a> license.</p> + <p>Page source: <a href="region_thenorth.md">region_thenorth.md</a></p> + <p>Website source: <a href="https://git.andrewdm.me/www.git">www.git</a></p> + </footer> + </body> +</html> diff --git a/out/apocrypha/thegournalgeographicaffairs.html b/out/apocrypha/thegournalgeographicaffairs.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..40f419a --- /dev/null +++ b/out/apocrypha/thegournalgeographicaffairs.html @@ -0,0 +1,67 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> + <head> + <meta charset="utf-8"> + <title>The Gournal of Geographic Affairs: The Sun-Touched Mountain — AndrewDM</title> + <link rel="stylesheet" href="/main.css"> + <link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" href="/index.atom" /> + + </head> + <body class=""> + <header> + <h1><a href="/">AndrewDM.me</a></h1> + <nav> + <ul> + <li><a href="/">Projects</a> + <li><a href="/changelog.html"><abbr title="Blog">Blahg</abbr></a> + <li><a href="/about.html">Andrew</a> + <li> + <form method="GET" action="/search.html"> + <input type=search name="s" placeholder="Search" /><input type=submit value="🔍" /> + </form> + <li><a class=feed href="/index.atom">Feed</a> + </ul> + </nav> + </header> + <article> + <p>Tags: <a class="tag ap" href="/tags/ap.html">Apocrypha</a><a class="tag wb" href="/tags/wb.html">Worldbuilding Prompt</a></p> + <h1 class=title>The Gournal of Geographic Affairs: The Sun-Touched Mountain</h1> +<h1 id="the-gournal-of-geographic-affairs-the-sun-touched-mountain">The Gournal of Geographic Affairs: The Sun-Touched Mountain</h1> +<p>Welcome Readers, to the second Special Edition of our illustrious catalog of facts and figures.</p> +<p>Last year, after our exploration of the Lowerdark’s Cragmag Caverns proved such a fantastic success, we set our sights higher: to answer a [nagging] reader’s question. Lola, age 8, from the Valanacian city of Florora, has been sending us letters. Over two hundred letters to be precise. Each has asked the same question,</p> +<p>“Deer GGE, what is the talest mowntun [sic] in the world?”</p> +<p>And while we don’t usually reward improper spelling, her insistence, and the fact that no expert in the world seemed to know a precise answer, convinced us to settle it once and for all. Who knew that simple question one year ago would spark a fantastic journey of discovery and collaboration that may have ramifications beyond what we dreamed possible. Returning laden with treasures only one month ago, the GEE (& co.) Expedition has brought us the greatest treasure of all: an answer.</p> +<p>Dear Lola,</p> +<p>The greatest mountain in the world stands atop the far-northern range of snowy mountains known as the Sunpeaks.</p> +<p>Since the entire northern ridge is filled with enormous mountains dwarfing (or maybe even gnoming) all other mountains found elsewhere, it was rather difficult for our sages here at the Imperial Center for Geographical Excellence to locate the general area of the range in which the peak might exist, much less its correlative parallel, and the sheer size of the range combined with its namesake ever-present blinding sunlight made clairvoyance and scrying spells of little use above 50,000 ft.</p> +<p>Yes, you read that right. 50,000. That’s almost three times the height of Mount Pang and twice that of the Skyknife, but in the Sunpeaks, that’s barely passing for average.</p> +<p>But fear not dear readers. The Geournal for Geographical Excellence is here to quench your thirst for knowledge. For comparing the several dozen peaks which form the Upper Cluster, we had to go to extreme lengths (and heights). Simply put, we had to go there.</p> +<p>With our collaborative sponsors, The Community Climber, Aerial Affairs, Snowpeak Tea, and a grant from the Ministry of Maps, we raised 1.3 million Imperial silver swans (a little more than the monthly taxpayer cost to support an entire legion of cavalry), to finance a voyage into the unknown, staking both our reserves and our reputation on the Expedition.</p> +<p>We spared no cost, hiring only the best of the best. Trackers, weatherworkers, guards, and guides, we set out into the Plateau of the Sun to find our answer.</p> +<p>Six months we searched the pockets of mountains that exceeded our 50,000 mark, listening to local legends, sending up balloons, and using a combination of our savvy and our ability to take small arcane gateways to cross from peak to peak. And those were fruitful months, even though we had yet to locate our quarry, days spent mapping and drawing, nights spent gazing into the clearest sky anywhere in the world (and then mapping and drawing it too)!</p> +<p>We had found mountains. Tall ones. But had we found the tallest?</p> +<p>We wouldn’t know for almost three more months. The answer, it seemed, was always no. We would crest a peak, only to find another rising above us on the horizon. We had to to maintain a constant litany of darksight spells to see (without going blind) and frost spells to avoid melting (while in the sun) and fire spells to avoid freezing (while in the shade).</p> +<p>We had to conjure air to breathe.</p> +<p>And it was in these inhospitable conditions that we found them. Not mountains, those would come later, but our guides and our salvation.</p> +<p>We were somewhere precisely north of the 47th parallel, when one of our forward seers called for a halt. He had found a body. We assumed the worst, and began to prepare a frost-bag for storing it to take back with us when we came down the mountain (as we’d had to do with most of our veritable zoo of animals by this point).</p> +<p>Imagine our surprise when the body rose to greet us with a smile.</p> +<p>He was a bald human man, and no more than a few years into his young adulthood, and was absolutely blind, and fairly near naked. He led us to his small mountain abode, filled with others like him. They called themselves monks, but when I asked them about their order, they had none!</p> +<p>Though I would have offered the poor unregistered fellows use of my official quill and Imperial ink (had it not been alternatively frozen and then boiled) to register with an approved order, they assured me that they had no interest in the ways of the ‘folk from down below’. Upon our request (and a few oddities accepted in exchange, namely a small bowl made of True Timber and a pair of hollow diamonds) the unregistered ‘monks’ agreed to aid us towards our goal (though I gathered the distinct impression that they very much acquiesced primarily in order to rid themselves of us).</p> +<p>Two weeks after meeting with the ‘monks’ we had found it.</p> +<p>The Sun-Touched Mountain.</p> +<p>So, Lola, I’m sure you’re lost interest by now, being the petulant and insistent child that you are, but deep within the Sunpeaks, beyond the ken of the civilized peoples, stands the tallest mountain in the world.</p> +<p>We didn’t climb it; we didn’t dare. And our humble guides requested that we saved ourselves the trouble. For we had found it. High above the world, on a ridge of mountains the locals call ‘The Edge’ stands the impossibly massive peak.</p> +<p>Shrouded from below by almost constant cloud-cover and the jutting cliffs of that massive ridge, we only dared observe it from afar. The expanse between the ridge and the cluster we found ourselves on was measured in miles.</p> +<p>Our best calculations put the height of the Sun-Touched Mountain at a staggering 179,400 ft. And at it’s peak, a brilliant day’s Sun.</p> +<p>I’ll never forget the sight.</p> +<p>Thank you Lola. Now please stop writing us.</p> + + </article> + <footer> + <p>The content of this page is Copyright © 2017 <a href="mailto:ImFromNASA@gmail.com">Andrew Murrell</a>.</p> +<p>This page is licensed under the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA-3.0</a> license.</p> + <p>Page source: <a href="thegournalgeographicaffairs.md">thegournalgeographicaffairs.md</a></p> + <p>Website source: <a href="https://git.andrewdm.me/www.git">www.git</a></p> + </footer> + </body> +</html> |