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The Vortician Society of Scholars and Artisans Founded in the 8th of the Deep Cold, Year 69 of the Second Age Who We Are: The Vortician Society of Scholars and Artisans (VSSA) is an independently operated organization based in The Unified Domain of Vortice which strives to maintain the forward motion and prolonged growth of the city by promoting scholarship and artisanship and through the support of artisans throughout Almaris and preservation of the history of Talon’s Grotto, Talon’s Port, and Vortice. What We Do: There are two driving purposes behind the Vortician Society of Scholars and Artisans, each of which are core essentials of the organization. Artisanship: The VSSA constantly strives to promote artisanship within Vortice, and build a community of artists, craftsmen, and performers. With an overarching goal of turning the city into a hub for the arts, the organization is always seeking to provide events for artisans to showcase their works, and offer opportunities within the community for them to be recognized and rewarded for choosing to pursue their craft within Vortice. Scholarship: The VSSA constantly seeks to improve the understanding of Talon’s Grotto, Talon’s Port, and the greater world around us, focusing most heavily on the research of topics which are known to have little documentation such as lesser-known settlements, people, and places while building community involvement with the scholars of Vortice through offering scholarships and research grants. What You Get: Upon joining the Vortician Society of Scholars and Artisans, members are the first to know of organizational events, and are offered exclusive opportunities for scholarships or grants to work on research or a craft. Scholarships and grants will be announced, and selected based on the requirements for any specific grant. Joining the Society: Anyone is welcome to join the society, regardless of whether or not they are citizens of Vortice. No application must be made to join the society, but anyone in good, legal standing with Vortice is welcome to show up to the Society Headquarters at 3 Cordius Way, The Unifed Domain of Vortice. Signed, Viction Trito, Grandmaster of the Vortician Society of Scholars and Artisans. ((OOC)) Vortician Society of Scholars and Artisans Discord Link: https://discord.gg/hRStGPbcwX The Unified Domain of Vortice Discord Link: https://discord.gg/pgTXZ2sMM2

ON THE METHOD OF SCIENTIFIC THINKERS By: April Vallei’onn 3rd of The First Seed, 5 SA "The First step towards being a scientist is thinking like one," - An unknown scholar towards his apprentice. Many yearn to be able to create meaningful progress within their lifetimes. To the unskilled eye, science is only found where those who study it reside- within the laboratories and classrooms. This assumption however, is completely wrong as science is quite literally all around us- in cooking, in the lanterns used to light our abodes, even in the very fabric that we wear. One of inquisitive thought might ask how this all came to be as they notice the practices of the past and progression of the present into the future. The answer is through trial and error, but how does one create progress and significant thought? Among the great engineers, scientists and scholars lies a striking similarity in thought, despite the various differences in practices. If one was to look into the mind of a scholarly being, they would find a mind filled with logic and reason. Order within experimentation. I find that there are many intricate steps and obstructions for discovery that could be perhaps avoided with the correct documentation and thinking. At that, I, April Vallei’onn am proud to share my personal method used in my own investigations and personal queries. THE INTELLECTUAL PROCESS This intellectual process can be loosely defined as an outline to creation. It refers to the thinking and reasoning skills of those with intellectual minds in terms of scientific discovery. In short, the method and process incorporates a variety of thinking skills such as: reasoning , deduction, logicsism , research and estimation and inference. One must be attentive and possess a desire- perhaps even a craving to answer the question that has formed. Basic steps, more elaborated below flow as such: STEP NO.1 - Come up with the initial occurrence to be answered. → Make sure it is logical, and come up with variations. Make sure you are truly interested and willing to pull through. Your occurrence should be something yet to be proved. STEP NO. 2 - Background research. → Go into lengthy research about how to go about your topic. In addition to having a general education about your question, research any possible solutions, past experiments, necessary tools , ect. It is crucial to research every part of your clause, lest you wish to not understand when something goes wrong. STEP NO. 3 - Come up with a hypothesis/theory. → After in depth research, be sure to come up with a logical hypothesis on how to solve your problem, or a clause of a discovery. STEP NO. 4 - Come up with a procedure and experiment. → With your hypothesis in mind, create a logical and measurable experiment to prove your theory. This should go without saying, but write down every single thing from your research, even seemingly meaningless things such as date, time, weather, ect. STEP NO. 5 - Draw your Conclusion. → Did your procedure go how you thought would? What did your hypothesis state? The steps to create a logical and factually correct answer somewhat varies based on the context of the question needed to be answered. For example, something of astronomy and cosmetology might be necessarily harder to factualize than something of mathematics or engineering, as we do not yet have the tools to shoot ourselves up into the Celestial plane. One must be able to think about exactly what they are studying- not just the facts needed to solve it. Facts are achieved through a tradeoff: Tools and knowledge. An easy way to think about this basic setup is to put it into something seemingly mundane. Fancy yourself a humble baker in your hometown or city, be it elCihi’thilln, Karosgrad, Providence, Elvenesse ect. A mediocre baker at best. You’ve all the ingredients and tools necessary and perhaps extra to create an amazing pastry- something nothing created before. Despite possessing the physical tools, the baker lacks the knowledge of basic pastry making- of how high of temperature to place the oven on and how long. This, in turn could turn into something unwanted, or perhaps disaster. Likewise, it hypothetically could turn up into something tasty. STEP ONE: FORMING THAT IDEA “A mali’thill coming up with his hypothesis” - Unknown Art The first step towards a discovery of any sort is to obviously come up with that of the original query. The Question- the basis of all discovery, to wonder to go on to therein prove. One step from where most stop: wondering. Here at the very first step, one must consider the following: → Has my question already been answered? → Can whatever I wish to prove be reasonably measured? With this in mind, you have your question. Write it down. This perhaps, is the most easiest of the steps. Some would even write multiple versions of the question down, if experimentation later on leads onto such. STEP TWO: BACKGROUND RESEARCH Though some scholars would argue that the method of creating a hypothesis before research is best, I beg to differ. Through initial research, one could discover something imperative that they might otherwise not find: one example being that their clause is either solved or entirely false. I would always start out my research by the following: → Past Experiments done → General History on your topic → Structure of the tools you wish to use in your procedure → Safety measures, always have a plan B incase something goes wrong → Possible hypothesis → Information that is logical and factual This should go without saying, but record everything, including the faults of the past lest you wish to repeat them. STEP THREE: CREATING A HYPOTHESIS To those ignorant, a hypothesis can be defined as a solution to an unidentified occurrence, not yet backed up by scientific fact. The road to create a logical hypothesis should be based within reason- based on factually correct notions. When creating your theory, you must be able to word it correctly. Never word it as a question as you are trying to prove it true-but neither word it as an infallible fact , as it must be proven through experimentation first. You are simply making an educated guess before proving it. A rough outline of this would be like the following: → If ______, Then _______ because __________. → We will know this is true when ____________ happens because _______. This sort of thing should only be used for single experiments, if your hypothesis is proved true by your experimentation later one, I would strongly recommend to start back at step ⅔ for your next steps- lest you are all done. One must always keep in mind the following whilst creating a reasonable theory: → Can this be measured? → Is my hypothesis based on some sort of proved factuality? → Make your hypothesis clear. STEP FOUR: CARRYING OUT YOUR PROCEDURE Once you have come up with a plausible theory, you must find a way to prove it: Through experimentation, the first step being designing your procedure of course. Your way of experimentation will of course vary from topic to topic, person to person. Although I can not offer insight in every experiment to be designed and carried out, I can offer the following steps: → Designing your experiment. → This is quite self explanatory as well. Be sure to have prior knowledge of the experiments of the past and their faults and correctness. Know your variable and Constant, and how you plan to measure your findings. → Carrying out your experiment → Always have a backup plan when doing lengthy , risky experiments, lest something goes very wrong. → Writing down your steps. → Once more, this is quite self explanatory. Write down EVERYTHING. STEP FIVE: DRAWING YOUR CONCLUSION You’ve completed your experiment. Was it successful? Was it a failure? Why? If Successful: → Congratulations, you have either proven or created fact. At this point, you can either A) conclude and perhaps even publish your findings or B) go back to step no.3 and create another hypothesis , perhaps to prove something even greater than what you have already proved. Science, overall is an everlasting cycle of progression If a failure: → Why was it a failure? What step did you go wrong at? Write all of this down. Go back to step no.3 or perhaps even no. 2. Your hypothesis was proven wrong so if you wish to continue with your findings, you must create another hypothesis based on logical fact. What did you learn from this? Even if you learned what not to do. GLOSSARY → Hypothesis: A claim created based on factual evidence to further prove an unexplained occurrence. → Factual: Based on fact- already proven. → Logical: Characterized by the rules of logic- that being something that explains what something else is. → Constant: A part that does not change during an experiment or procedure. → Variant: A part that does change during an experiment or procedure.