Illusion, looking from the south east.

In the foreground can be seen various buildings, elements recognisable from earlier Ages and areas, all leaning at precarious angles. The land beneath them seems to have suffered from subsidence -- or might their foundations be insufficient to take their weight?

In the middle distance is the flooded conservatory; the initial link-in point is close by. To its left is some kind of forcefield cage or container; fluorescent creatures that make me think of giant jellyfish float within that space. The vegetation to the right of the conservatory looks to have seeded itself from the new (old) Deepwater. The upper sky platform in this area houses a small library -- see below.

In the far distance is a wrecked ship, adjacent to one of Filbert Holmer's clocks (we've been using those to try to synchronise time in the various regions). From the clock body emanates a strong electric discharge.

Other than the sound of wind and waves, Illusion is silent. It is a twilight region -- like Winterfell, like Tyr in the old world of There. It took a little time for my eyes to adjust to the low level of light, but then I picked my way from the link-in point by the flooded conservatory, attempting to reach the buildings to the south east.

Progress was slow -- sometimes I was wading through shallow seawater, while at other times I was clambering over narrow curlicues of land. At one point I needed to push through thickly growing vegetation, finally emerging in a small cove with two small boats half-pulled from the water.

From here I took a spiralling path up to a sky platform, then again to another that housed a small library on three sets of shelves, arranged in a triangle. From the book titles, it looked to be part of Quin's extensive collection. So why was he focusing on quantum physics -- perturbation theory in particular, as far as I could tell -- in this desolate spot?

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Cross-world story and project planning: Devokan forums

Quin has re-started his logbook. Hopefully his entries will explain what is going on... In person he remains as elusive as ever.

Quinquifid wrote:

It has started. What I predicted would happen has begun -- ironically with the regions linked to the island we instinctively called "The Source", the island of Deepwater. Without the funds to maintain and direct the flow of dark energy, the regions it sustained are slipping from our reality into another, inaccessible to us.

I confess I was not altogether straight in my recent, unexpected meeting with Ms Dot. The truth is that I have been able to record the information, the structure embedded within those lands currently undergoing a changed chirality. The insights and techniques I gleaned from Mr Legate's Descriptive Book of Serene a year ago proved invaluable. I am reasonably confident that, should opportunity present itself in the future, the regions may once again be recovered. Such a contrast with the original loss of Devokan!

Herein lies the difference between then and now, between that world and this. Now we are able to conserve what we have built. Now, all is not lost forever.

And with that major task complete, I had better remove the crates from the office in Rosehaven -- there are mere days to go before the end of the lease.

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Dot, I know we're slated to vacate today, but I hope that you return one more time or that this note will make its way to you.

I write this hastily because I am gone again tomorrow. I don't know when I'll return in the next two weeks. I am well, yet unwell. I have asked Yrs. Solaken to postpone my Guild ceremony for several months. He was dismayed, but looked at me curiously as though he had expected it.

No, that's unfair. I rationalize that it's unfair. I insist that it's unfair!

I know that you will hear what I have said, and I know what you will think of what I am saying now. But I own what I say, and that is that. I will not take it back. I empathize with Quin just now possibly more than I should, such is the situation at the moment.

Ghaelen

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A story: CavernScents Journey

Ghaelen: KI# 23059

Last edited by ghaelen on Mon Jan 02, 2012 6:16 pm; edited 1 time in total

Happy New Year everyone.

Adam

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If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing well (AND being paid double rate to do it at the same time!). KI# 98874

Happy New Year, Adam, and everyone else!

Apologies for the delay in responding but I've been busy this past week, first ensuring that the offices in Winterfell were left clean and empty (they were, apart from an odd-sounding note from Ghaelen -- I do hope she is OK), then checking events in Restoration.

Quin was there, on the island of Pathways, installing some sort of orb in the roof of the pavilion on the central plateau.

"That looks like the orb in Serene, except it's blue rather than red."

"Yes," Quin said tersely.

"What's it for?"

Sighing heavily, Quin laid down his tools and proceeded to explain, in great technical detail. I suspect he was trying to make me feel foolish (you know the sort!), but I was able to catch the gist. Unlike the red orb in Serene (associated with creative destruction), the blue orb is related to those that originally transported the essence of the tree village across to this new world. I gather Quin is hoping to use it to help maintain Skysong and Pathways as a new base for us. (I don't know where he obtained the funding for this -- I didn't think I'd better ask!)

He finished his explanation with a question: "Have you seen the activity to the west of these lands?"

No, I hadn't. Apparently some new islands were emerging from the sea. "It's not something you might be responsible for, Quin?" I asked, remembering how Skysong had appeared a year ago, in similar circumstances.

"No, they are nothing to do with me, and totally unexpected. I had a brief word with Elspeth. She wondered whether they might be from the ancient estate of De Landria. I'm intending to do some library research to try to find out more -- once I get some peace and quiet to get this job finished."

I can take a hint.

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I've just received a letter with a Caledon Oxbridge postmark:

Quinquifid wrote:

Dear Ms Dot

My research here is progressing slowly. Medieval Latin is not easy to interpret at times, and as for the script!

I have found elements that may be worthy of further investigation, however.

Did we ever discern the purpose of the small green orb on Waysmeet?

Your colleague
Quinquifid Oddenfen

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Quin's comment about the green orb on Waysmeet piqued my interest, so I decided to study it further. Accordingly I set off for Devokan Tao, the hub housing linking book to the various regions on Restoration.

Here I hit a problem: The linking book for Waysmeet was correctly displaying the region's image -- just as we see in the Nexus in Uru -- no grey cloud. But when I touched the panel, I did not link.

I tried the other books in the hub. All were working as they should, other than those for Waysmeet and Touchstone, which again showed the correct image but did not link me to the island where the Trust has its main HQ.

I tried an alternative method of linking to Waysmeet, via a GPS-style function built into the communicator I use in that world. I searched for Waysmeet, then for Touchstone -- "None found" was the troubling result each time...

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It's been two months since I last wrote an entry here. Where did the time go?

So what has been happening? Quite a lot, in fact.

February saw various anniversaries come round, some sad, some joyful -- and associated events in the Cavern and elsewhere.

After the celebrations it was back to work -- this time in a parallel instance of the D'ni worlds, helping to test alterations and fixes to the KI system. That took up most of the rest of February.

In the meantime, Quin was flitting back and forth among the libraries of the Steamlands. I occasionally got a chance to ask him how his research was going, but his answers were typically noncommittal. I did detect a slight lightening in his mood though -- as though some worry had been relieved.

When I finally was able to return to Restoration at the end of the month, a surprise was waiting for me. A rearranged map! Waysmeet and Touchstone back in place! New lands too (Moonshadow and Kamar)!


Restoration Regions 26 Feb 2012

Had Quin found a new source of funding? I know he was talking to Elspeth about it -- or perhaps Elspeth herself was able to organise something via her contacts among the Sisterhood she belongs to.

Of course, not all these lands had a corresponding linking book in the Devokan Tao hub -- and there wasn't room for additional books anyway. So that became the task for March.


Expanded Devokan Tao hub, 10 March 2012

During my work on the linking books, I changed the names of a couple of the islands on the map above: so "Deepwater" to the north became "Deepwater Primordium" (since we suspect it predates the version of Deepwater Nalates and Quin discovered when they traced the source of the orbs just over two years ago), and "Devokan Deepwater" became plain "Deepwater".

Finally, this weekend, I took time to simply explore and enjoy the lands here, remembering...


View from Deepwater 18 March 2012

Deepwater and Waysmeet -- the two regions Quin, Paislee and I delighted to see when we first came to Restoration (OSgrid). In the distance are the hills of Pathways, the Tower of Memories with its banners screen-printed with images of the lost world of Devokan, and the viaduct and lab built to plans rescued from the original Selenitica before it was destroyed.

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A rather troubling report awaited my return to the Trust offices:

ghaelen wrote:

I was right. She is mad. I have evidence for anyone willing to join me in this wretched local. I have been too busy traveling from the ruins to Revnekan to do much more than scribble in my journal. Finally, this week, I have managed to chronicle a few days after our immediate arrival. I hope to document some of the personal observations I have made during the last two months; I also hope that I can set down the absolute craziness of those months.



Winter Arrival, Dusk. Ars Paganus

I've just realized, as I look again at some of the images, that there are objects at certain places in the landscape. Odd. I am sure there was nothing there when I took pictures last week. Perhaps it was a trick of the light -- I was very tired.

Two more months of this. Six more months of my contract. Time is slogging; I feel as if I am in a tar pit with only my own feeble strength to pull myself out.

And when I followed up the link in ghaelen's note, my concern grew...

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Cross-world story and project planning: Devokan forums

The Trust's work in Restoration is beginning to be noticed by other organisations. This week I noticed a new comment on the photo of the expanded Devokan Tao hub (see above), from someone named John "Pathfinder" Lester:

Pathfinder wrote:

Simply amazing. I am going to bring my Hypergrid Adventurers Club on a tour of these regions this week.

Hypergrid Adventurers Club? Who on earth (or anywhere else) were they? A Google search elicited the answer, and eventually the route they were planning to take across the metaverse.

So, on Thursday 12 April 2012, I joined the Hypergrid Adventurers, using the hypergrid to teleport in stages from Devokan Tao down to the gathering place on Jokaydia, then journeying back again with the group.

The tour itself started at Devokan Tao, in the hub. In true Uru fashion we all lined up to use the linking book to Waysmeet, the tree village (the book is on the central ring of desks).

From Waysmeet we flew to Deepwater, followed some of the processional walkways, through the temple, then used an archway portal on the north side of the island that linked us to a cave underneath the central lake. Embedded in the cave's floor are remains of some sort of mechanism -- by appearance older than the buildings on the island's surface, yet suggesting a more advanced technology.

Another archway portal in a side cave whisked us to Starfyre, to the edge of the wooded grove.

The view from Starfyre

From there we returned to Devokan Tao and used the linking book to Tao Lia. There the time of group exploration came to an end, but friendships across world-grids were confirmed and personal invitations extended to return and explore more -- there really is a lot more to see!

The official account of the meeting, complete with many photos, is here:
Hypergrid Adventurers Club visits a Myst and Uru inspired world: Devokan Trust on OSGrid.

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Abandoned farm

The Journey in Uru starts in a desert. I'm not sure whether this latest discovery of Paislee's might be in the same general location -- or even the same world.

Yet both have a story to tell...

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The work of the Devokan Trust seems to be coming to the notice of a wider public. As a result over the past month or so I have been conducting tours of the lands and regions of Restoration for different groups and individuals, even being interviewed on more than one occasion.

Both land and sea still hold surprises for me. This evening, I was diving in the sea of Satori, beneath the enigmatic pairs of metallic and ceramic structures (might they be some kind of communication tower?). A small area caught my eye...


Satori underwater scene

The static photo does not do justice to the subtle shifts of light, colour and movement.

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Tao regions

Yugen, Ki, Rivages du ciel, Tao Lia and (in the distance) Kamar -- discovered and restored by Shenn Tao

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A new name in the hood list of the Nexus machine caught my eye: Revnekan Healing Institute. What were they doing in the Cavern?

Of course I had to investigate. The messages on the hood imager -- there were three of them -- were cryptic. But what else did I expect?


Revnekan Healing Institute hood imager 29 June 2012

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Dot wrote:

A new name in the hood list of the Nexus machine caught my eye: Revnekan Healing Institute. What were they doing in the Cavern?

Of course I had to investigate. The messages on the hood imager -- there were three of them -- were cryptic. But what else did I expect?


Revnekan Healing Institute hood imager 29 June 2012

My dear Dot,

I'm have seen this message as well. And there are more!

Interesting news, Dot. Missing healers have returned to Giloveelay. I don't expect you to know anything about this, since it doesn't involve the restored Guild of Healers. The ancient history of the Revnekan Institute and my studies there are both a part of my life outside the Cavern. But the creation of a Revnekan neighborhood in the Cavern brings the two together and I feel I should explain. It involves a long-ago healing trek, a sabotaged linking book, and the eventual return of members of the group (all but one). I am curious to meet the returned healers and and to listen to their story. I know they had to link from one devastated age to the next in order to finally come to one that was populated. That was D'ni! I understand from Mentor Kridash that my presence at the Revnekan Institute brought some attention to the Cavern, which few Giloveelayans had ever been to and most had never heard of. However, Mentor Jurel had once mentioned a strange, unproven connection between the two ages back when Veovis released the poison. After Kridash and I had talked about it last year, he began traveling to the Cavern specifically to link through ages, leave linking books and notes, and search for clues as to where the group might be. I don't know the details, but I know he had help, because he also left them KI’s. Modified ones, maybe, with his info in them?

I think it is time I start asking him questions.

It is rather sad they had to arrive to the Cavern in the state it is in. But -- they bring their skills with them! New things to learn New hope for the Cavern -- if they continue to return to our Cavern once they are back at the beautiful Institute on Giloveelay.

I have so many questions now. Did Jurel know they had returned? Is that why she opened the Revnekan Healing Institute Neighborhood?



Maybe Kridash opened the neighborhood because the linking book would take them there from another age. But why didn't Yrs. Solaken know about all this? Kridash kept no secrets, well not that anyone has told me about.

There is a great deal of excitement at the Institute now. All of Giloveelay is celebrating, in fact. The survivors are legendary!


But Dot...

That message....

That really is an odd thing for Jurel to say in response to reading that someone is looking for her. She had to have read Drinia's message, and Kridash's reply. It isn't odd for her to say in general (she says things like this often), but it is odd for her to say in that context. I don't understand it at all.

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We are the shapers and the caretakers of this metaverse. How we honor ourselves and others largely determines what we bring into being.

A story: CavernScents Journey

Ghaelen: KI# 23059

Last edited by ghaelen on Sun Jul 29, 2012 4:05 pm; edited 1 time in total