A Far Land

[Muchoman798 5]

A note is seen, directing you to the nearest bookshelf. You search for a book titled "Patria Abiit," a new print written in an archaic language. The book's pages are a warm yellow, not made of paper but of parchment, and the edges of each page are browned; not of age, but of dirt. The book is bound with the hide of some animal, perhaps a deer's, as it is softer than leather tends to be. The covers are beautiful, engraved with images of fallen castles reclaimed by nature. You open to the first page of the tome, and see a section titled "Praefatio."

Many people have asked me who I am. Questioned my race, my nationality, my allegiance. Never have I been able to give an answer. Never have I been able to figure where I come from or of whom I was born. A bubbling curiosity has developed because of this; a wandering of the mind from place to place that the body could not carry out. I've been hard pressed to find a time when I have not asked a question, even if I am pinning down a thief on the King's rooftop or being attacked by an Undead conjurer.

Now is no exception. I am asking a question on the topic of where I have just left. Was it a single, isolated ruin that used to be part of Oren? Or was it an ancient civilization, fallen to the years? I know not for certain, but I will speculate. Hopefully some other bold adventurer will take the path I, literally, took and gaze upon the spectacle I am about to describe.

But before I can venture into more detail, one must know that I am often mistaken, and all of my assumptions may be as well.

Your intrigue sparked, you choose to read further, seeing the next topic, "Meridi Orientem Aran."

For a majority of my years, I have lived with a group of fighters, the Guardians, who reside near (what used to be) Kramoroe. After a time, I got tired of this life, and left for many years, only to come back very recently. Now, a wooden path has landed itself very near the Old Base, and I chose to follow it. Many times, I went only a few hundred meters to hunt and kill the creatures of the eve; the fetid, rotting risen dead.

I could tell many stories of how I have fought these awful, rancorous creatures, but that is uninteresting compared to what lay over the path. What lay beyond the horizon's horizon. Terra longinqua. Does not this short description of the far path seem so far beyond intriguing? It certainly did to me. So I walked. After about two kilometers, I found myself in what the label on the road said it led to. The badlands.

Now, this desert was certainly interesting. So I spent a week exploring it before I found my way back to the road. Permit me to say, I loved this land. There were castles all over, high forts, quarries, all sorts of exotic creatures of the wild desert. But I got bored of it after a while, as I do with everything. So I found my way back to the path.

I realize now I neglected to say the path was headed south for the first couple kilometers. It is too late now to change the ink that is already laid, but I'll point it out. The path went south for the first two, three kilometers.

Walking further down this now meandering path, I saw it run along the line of the desert and a green, lush land. I question not why these two landscapes were so closely bound, for it is the nature of Aegis. When I came to this boundary, looking around seemed quite interesting to me, so I looked left. There was a high dune. I looked straight. There was a path ahead, to unknown adventure. I looked right, there was a fertile landscape. I looked behind, and I saw a battered house on an island.

This house was constructed in the style of the humans, with wool walls, for a grand insulation, logs as support beams and wooden planks, all running parallel each other to create the floor. It came to me to explore the building, and I swam the thirty or so meters to get to it. I ran upstairs. There was a nice sitting area with a bedroom adjacent. I bolted to the main floor. There was a parlor with a closed of bathroom. I climbed into the basement. There was storage. Reeds, cobbled stone, paper, and a few pieces of parchment. I must admit, I am a thief, and I stole many parchments to later recount my tales upon.

Having finished exploring the building, and night having again fallen (I believe it was my ninth night in the wilds on this trail,) I went up to the bedroom to sleep. The next morn, I felt refreshed, and swam back to the trail to continue my journey. At this point, it had turned to the east.

Ten more days I walked, late into the vesper hours on each. Nothing of particular interest occurred. Then, I found the wall.

Another section begins, this one with a title in your native tongue. "Hound of the Night"

This wall was not an obvious one at first. There was no gate. There was no pattern to its design. In all honesty, I could have very easily mistaken the two, crumbling towers around the path for two old temples. In fact, I did. But I ended up looking behind myself after going through the two structures, and saw a long bit of stone protruding opposite the path on either structure. So I went back to it.

Now, I looked more ta the old towers. They had an ivy growing on almost all parts of it. The parts without were crumbling on their own, not aided by the roots of the vines. The crests of the crowning were topped by marbled stone, and very regal looking. For hours, I wondered back and forth and back again along this wall, looking for a way to get atop it. I finally was able to climb upon a tree and began my hop into the wall.

I leaped before I looked, and almost fell down a five meter drop. Realizing I was about to fracture my legs, I clamored for the inner edge of the wall, and climbed back up. I peered into the crevice that almost ate me up, and saw small chunks of ancient stone, completely disintegrated on the grass below. My guess is that this was the remains of the wall's platform, devastated by time. But why was there grass lurking in the crevice? Grass with contours even? I venture guess a second time, and say that this was present due to the wall sinking into the earth.

Leaping from the wall to the ground, having had my curiosity fulfilled, I found my way back to the wooden path, and continued down. Into my vision came a formerly grand castle atop a mountain. I decided to climb up the mountain to explore it. Inside of these eroding defenses, I found little of interest. There was a keep tower in the center, and four small towers at each corner of the castle, but little more. There were only two things of interest from this castle: the conclusion I could draw, and the great vantage point of the surrounding lands.

The conclusion I drew from the dying, unstable castle was as follows. Since there was no one to maintain this small structure, it was definitely abandoned. Since it was in such terrible condition, it was clearly ancient. Since it had no wood left, all of that had rotted away. I also know that it takes near two centuries for wood to be completely consumed by nature. But then history would remember this place. Considering it takes near 1,500 years for stone to crumble in this way when it is layered as thickly as is needed for fortifications, and the only reason it would fall apart is because of abandonment, I surmise that this land, all of the ruins (there are more you will soon learn of) have been uninhabited for nigh to half again the age of Oren. One thousand-five hundred years.

After having this momentous though dawn upon me, I looked out at the world around me. I saw ruins, and ruins, and ruins. I could only venture to three different locations before having terror struck into me.

The first seemed to be an old temple, with the ceiling totally collapsed in and only the supporting columns standing. It built in a circle, and out the front, I found a pathway leading to a destroyed road. Inside of this temple, there were only bits of cracking stone bricks, some enveloped by a layer of moss. This temple may have not been of note were it not for the fact of five Nether bits, four lit on fire, having found themselves placed in the temple. From the castle, I had known this was a forgotten nation, but not why it was destroyed. Perhaps they were struck by the Undead before anyone else? Or perhaps some great explosion, originating from this temple, scared the people off. I do not know.

Whatever the case, I went on. I walked to another set of ruins, this one being just a few pillars surrounding a heavy, stone brick floor. There was nothing of note here.

Then I heard a cry. A whimper. My spine shivered, and I almost ran the other way. But, I had to know what made that noise. My curiosity overwhelmed me.

It was a dog, sitting in what used to be a window in one of the ruins adjacent the one I just visited. This poor thing was crying, I can only assume from a longing for its master. I had no clue as to how long this canine had been sitting there, but from the chunks of stone in its fur, I had to guess longer than dogs can live. The ruin it was in was different, a small circle with a few markings on the ground and the pillars that still stood. I did not know what any of them meant. A cold breeze passed over me, and I realize it was getting dark out.

In a panic, I sprinted in a random direction looking for a complete, safe structure. I saw a light, and naturally ran there. I did not wonder why a light existed out here, but was merely glad that it was. I went into a wooden fort that was embedded in the wall of this dead nation. Then it struck me.

It was made of wood.

People were here, in this land. Why would they be here? Did they put the Nether stone in the temple? Why did they need a fortification in a dead nation? There was no way the wood could have been here for as long as the nation had been dead, so I ran in terror.

One may think me stupid, since the wood could have been from a century past, and now that I think of it, the wood was. But that does not negate the fact that I ran out.

When I ran, I did not know when to stop. Eventually I did, having run near to half a kilometer. Bracing myself on my legs, I looked up and saw something through a gap in the crumbling wall. There was a town just past the wall. My curiosity (and idiocy) forced me to find a way to get to it, so I did. Having gone in a river and down a water fall, I found myself in this town.

"The Last Adventure"

This town had wood in it, but I was not fearful of that. It was sooner obvious to me that no one could live here than it was that people might. The roofs of every building were collapsed, the support beams having withered to dust. Most of the wood had been turned to dirt, and the mush that remained could hardly bear my weight.

There were about nine buildings in this town, with two roads. Some had signs over the doors, saying who owned the house. Most did not. But I ignored this, for I saw something more interesting.

I saw an image that reminded me of a dream. A recurring dream. I saw three cobble stone towers in mountains just north of the town. Each was connected to the next by a corridor, and the corridors made archways over the valleys between the towers. It was beautiful. It was something familiar. I went into the mountains to find a way to get to the towers, but could not find one.

Having explored all that I could handle for a month, I used my spongy soulstone to take me back to Al'Khazar to write my adventures. Now, they are in your hand. And I am asking you a few questions.

What was this nation? Could it be older than Oren? Older than any nation currently?

Who lived here? Humans? Elves? A dead race?

Why did it stop existing?

Was it a place of evil? A bastion of good?

Why did the people need walls?

Where did this nation first start?

When exactly did it first begin existing? Did it die at only a century old? Or did it die at a thousand? Will Oren survive any longer?

Who else knows it exists?

How did it get there? How much longer will these ruins stand?

And finally, will you go there?

Oh, and by the way, I call this land "Meridi."

The book ends, and you put it in the bookcase again. You go back outside to the board where the note directing you to the library was posted, and ponder whether or not to leave a response. Then you wonder what language the book was written in the whole time and how you understood it.

((Thank you for reading! I know it was kind of long, but I really wanted to just share my adventure and hope other people go there, because I am genuinely interested as to what these ruins are about.))

[Lykos 276]

This is kinda weird. Far in the South I have a keep and castle that fits the description of the castle you visited perfectly in this story albeit the fact that my keep isn't crumbling ruins.

[Muchoman798 5]

Perhaps the structure with the three towers is the one to which you refer. But I highly doubt it is the one that is crumbling.

((I think the place I wrote this about is in a place the admins are creating (it doesn't seem finished) for those who go far off the beaten trail.))

[steelersfan1221 300]

Moved to the Great Library. It shall be sorted into appropriate category shortly.