User:JohnB/The Book and the stone 1

Setting and Story:

Set on a planet called Nirn located somewhere in the Lesser Magellanic Cloud, the social make-up is part Roman empire, part Medieval Europe, and part steppe-land nomads. For intergalactic aliens, they are surprisingly backward; however, a visit by two Earthlings from the Milky Way galaxy brought a more sophisticated mode of calculation that revolutionized their use of numbers.

The story starts out in a steppe-land region called the Grazelands, where a young teenager sees a stone fall from the sky. A map that had been found in the library of Bethamez and the lodestone that fell from the sky inspire people to find out what is on the other side of the world.

A Note on the Naming of Continents:

Renaissance Europeans took to personifying the continents as the demigoddesses Europa, Asia, and Africa. The great Waldseemuller map "Universalis Cosmographia" (1507) included a coastline of what by then had been explored of the New World. Because the Italian geographer Amerigo Vespucci was the first to publish what other geographers were starting to suspect--that this coastline had nothing to do with Asia (after all, where's Cipangu [Japan]?)--Martin Waldseemuller gave him the tip of the hat and named the New World...Amerigo? No, it had to be America to be consistent with Europa, Asia, and Africa, and that is what it has been called ever since.

To see the development of world geography from the Behaim Globe onward, download a virtual globe app called "Marble" at marble{dot}kde{dot}org{slash}install{dot}php. There are versions for Windows, Apple, and Android.

Dramatis Personae:

(in order of appearance)

Asantus: A Dark Elf from the Ahemmusa Ashlander Camp on the northern coast of the Grazelands. He turns 14 in this story and receives a gift and a prophesy from the Daedric goddess Azuras. They turn him against his people, and the people turn against him, so he leaves for good. His bluish skin and ruby-red eyes set him apart from other elves.

Edwinna: The Breton house steward of the Guild of Mages in Ald'ruhn. Good at magic but lacking imagination and knowledge of anything not having to do with magic. She researches artifacts taken from the Dwemer ruins, but she seems more preoccupied with having Archmage Trebonius removed as head of the Mage Guilds, not so much to do away with an incompetent leader as to advance her own agenda.

Cyreril: (Pronounced Ki-re-ril) Aka Master Cyreril. A crotchety High Elf scientist, mostly in the field of astronomy. He secretly loathes the mages. He was instrumental in popularizing the new method of calculation brought by earthlings who visited Nirn from the Milky Way galaxy. This method advanced the science of open sea navigation tremendously. He eventually takes Asantus under his wing to teach him more about navigation.

Aldaril: A High Elf playboy who is nominally a member of the Archeological Institute of Tamriel. His rival Peragon, a Wood Elf, tried to kill him by leaving him in the darkened Library of Bethamez to find his own way out because Aldaril had preempted and taken credit for some of Peragon's research. Aldaril lays claim to being the true finder of the Bethamez Map.

Delamer, Maurice: The dashing Breton captain of the expedition. Competent and visionary but inexperienced in open sea navigation as it is still a science in its infancy. Well-manicured pencil moustache and beard. If this story was filmed, he would be played by Robert Downey Jr.

Prester John: From 'Presbyter Johannes' who first appears in a 3rd century pseudographical work called The Acts of St. Thomas regarding his mission to India. How Christian Ethiopia got conflated with India to the extent that it came to be called "Greater India" (India Major) is something of a mystery. So ingrained was the tradition in Western thought that when the Portuguese arrived in India they mistook Hinduism for Christianity. There is no connection to the Seven Cities of Cibola that the Spanish Friar Marcos de Niza claimed to have discovered in 1539. This sent Francisco Vazquez de Coronado on a wild-goose chase through my native New Mexico, not realizing the Zuni pueblos were actually those "cities of gold".

The First Mate: An unnamed assistant to the captain modeled on Starbuck, the first mate in Moby Dick. He trusts Vaezbrub's judgment over the captain's and is at constant loggerheads with the captain.

Vaezbrub: A Dung Elf Bastard Lunatic from the Progress Quest world, which happens to be an archipelago on the way to the mystery coast on the Bethamez Map, the existence of which the explorers have made it their goal to confirm. The captain soon learns the madman isn't really as mad as he first seems, and the captain has made him his personal soothsayer. If this story was filmed, I would act him myself because there is a close affinity between him and me.

IXOHOXI: The love in Asantus's life as promised to him by the goddess Azura. A 14-year-old Asantian Elf, her name in their language means "strangely contrary", i.e. always and never upside-down and always and never backwards. Unlike most people who are saddled with an unfortunate name and change it at the first opportunity, she embraced hers becoming quite a headstrong girl. Her companions often say of her in exasperation, "It's IXOHOXI being ixohoxi!" The daughter of the village healer, she is apprenticed to her mother.

Arowhena: A young Cymrian woman who the captain rescues from a steam centurion trying to prevent her escape from slavery in the Land of Machines, Erewhon. Malnourished and almost naked, she recovers to become one of the most radiant women in Tamriel.

A Nautical Note:

Those readers who might take umbrage of my lack of sailing experience and my use of incorrect terminology should read the approach to the Strait of Magellan in "Two Years Before the Mast" by a guy surnamed Dana who was nearly blinded by measles and became a merchant marine to regain his health. This involved a two-year stint sailing from Massachusetts to California. See how an old salt would tell his story:

"...the cry of "All hands ahoy!" was sounded down the fore scuttle and the after hatchway...we found a large black cloud rolling on toward us from the south-west and blackening the whole heavens. "Here comes the Cape Horn!" said the chief mate... In a few moments, a heavier sea was raised than I had ever seen before, and [we] plunged into it, and all the forward part was under water; the sea pouring in through the bow-ports and the hawse-hole and over the knight-heads, threatening to wash everything overboard. In the lee scuppers it was up to a man's waist. We sprang aloft and double reefed the topsails, and furled all the other sails, and made all snug. ...We clewed down, and hauled out the reef tackles again, and close-reefed the fore-topsail, and furled the main, and hove her to on the starboard tack. We sent down...the royal yards, and unrove the gear, but all the rest of the top hamper remained aloft, even to the sky-sail masts and studding-sail booms."

(Ha-ha-ha! Whew!)

Translation: they had a hard time getting around the Horn.