Beneath

As cold as Venalem is I find it rather pleasant in comparison to Dahtahmnay. As fascinating as Dahtahmnay is the coldness of the Age puts me off wanting to spend any length of time there.

Venlam is quite frankly remarkable, all the little components in the Age that lock together to build an ecosystem that works remarkably well for what the D’ni used it for.
Whilst I sadly did not discover any specimens of the beetles I did get chance to study the machinery there and how the process worked. I think with some experimentation I may be able to duplicate it on a smaller level.
The machinery needs some work before it is in working order again, but if we can get it repaired and the Age released we could have a source of ink for the community providing we can find a source for the beetles.

In the mean time I have set aside a Korteenea and bottle of ink for study, perhaps I can unwrap some of the mysteries of the manufacturing process. Small brush strokes to reveal the larger picture.

Locating ink and Korteenea continues to be an issue. We have gone through multiple locations in both Ae’gura and the City Proper in search of both. But over the last 200 plus years the stocks have been plundered by various groups and by other explorers looking to Write their own Ages. In the mean time our own meager supply is slowly dwindling as is my own personal stock.
Without new sources of Ink and blank Books they will soon become an even rarer commodity.

I am hoping one of the Ages passed on to us by the DRC will help with one of these problems. Venalem is an arctic Age where the D’ni bred beetles to be used for the manufacturing of ink. Despite my tiredness I think a trip to this Age is required, if I can learn more about the beetles and how the ink is formed perhaps I can start making my own.
The D’ni used pods native to the Age in a machine that would spin them slowly with the beetles inside, this would speed up the life cycle of the beetles and bring them to maturity faster. I just hope there are live specimens of the beetles to be found would they be on Venalem already or did they import them from another ink Age I had heard of?

Last night I spent a few hours in Kirel with Chloe, Whil, Emor, and Adam attending the All Guilds Meeting. We decided it would be a good idea to give a short talk about what we’re doing, the Ages we are working on and field some questions. During the topic I spoke a little bit about Rebek and figured I should bump the Age up the list and visit it.
First thing this morning I Linked through to take stock of what needs doing. From the roughly drawn maps I had seen I knew it was a pretty big Age but much like Kahlo, being there yourself is when you actually appreciate the size. The first thing I noticed were the masses of boulders floating above my head, gently shifting their position. I know the DRC had cited environmental issues and more specifically magnetism concerns and I can see why. I am more than a little concerned about them falling down upon my head.

I decided to head out of Rebek and return with a hardhat, it isn’t perfect but it affords me a little protection and a greater sense of security.
In regards to the magnetism I did notice it interfering with my KI slightly, especially in a couple of the KIimages I took on the “red side” as I call it.
The Age is kind of split into two. On the one side you have this lush green area that is rich in wildlife, I call this the “green side” and on the other there is barren lava fields spiked with stalagmites and fumaroles. This is the side I have been calling the “red side”. It is clear to see why the D’ni used this Age for hunting slaves, not that I condone the activity but the land is littered with tunnels, hallways of rock and other such things that make it perfect for hiding in.

There is a considerable amount of work to be done however. The DRC had gotten a fair amount done (some of the machinery is working I noticed) but it is going to take a lot of time to get this Age up and ready for release.

This does raise a question for me though, one of morality I guess. This Age was used for slaves, hunting & killing in the name of sport. Is it really right to release the Age to the public so they can play games of a similar nature? Of course they’d be playing against fellow explorers and there wouldn’t actually be any killing. But I can’t help but feel it would be extremely inappropriate, like it is downplaying what was carried out on this Age.

Is the Age redeemed if we take its dark past and turn it into something innocent? Is it redeemed if the innocence is based upon said dark past? I’m not sure how I feel about this yet. From the documentation I have been compiling on the Age its inhabitants were more or less hunted to extinction, that is when they started shipping in other slaves with the help of Manesmo.

I have spent the last couple of months traveling to the various Ages I now have in my possession, today it was time to visit Kahlo. I wish I had gotten around to it sooner Kahlo was one of those Ages I had longed to see but the amount of Ages we working on and the size of some of them (Kalamee for example is a very large Age) makes it difficult to keep up.

I met up with Whil and we proceeded to head into the Age. The DRC had done a pretty good job the the restoration process before hand it seems that the Age wasn’t released during their time due to problems with the creatures. Not sure what exactly the problem is but I’m guessing in the two hundred years since the D’ni were around they have “gone wild” again. Chloe and Adam had spent a fair amount of time on Kahlo before Whil and I finally got around to visiting the Age, they were working with some of the Kamkenta, the strange manta ray like creatures that populate the Age.

Kahlo is simply huge, indeed the previous photos that had been released from the Age doesn’t really do it until you’re down on the ground to appreciate how big everything is. Colossal bones of some creature litter the Age and weird plants grow from strange pods that look like eyeballs.
I would have loved to see this place during the time of D’ni. I wonder if they brought spectators into the Age itself to watch from the cliff side, I know they used to show the races on the imager within the Kahlo Tavern.
I wish the DRC had noted where they found the Book originally though, I’m guessing it was kept in the back room behind the bar in the Kahlo Tavern. I need to go over the documentation I have managed to compile and see if I can find anything that relates to the location of the Book. Unfortunately it seems my notes on Kahlo have gotten muddled up with my notes on Pento, not looking forward to having to sort that mess out.

Thirteen new Linking Books sit on my desk, along with countless documents relating to the Ages and areas of D’ni that are contained in those Books. They arrived from the DRC in a large crate after spending the last month sorting out and signing all the necessary paperwork in order to be allowed access to these Ages.

But, it is finally done and after so many years of grasping at the intangible I finally have access. It is clear from taking a quick look over the DRC’s restoration notes for these Ages that it is going to be a huge undertaking, there is so much work to be done. We’ve put a team together composed of members of various restoration groups like the CRS, SR to take this on.

The next couple of months are going to be busy, so many places to visit and assess. Tomorrow I shall start with Kalamee, and from there we shall see where it goes. But for now I need to rest for the hour is late.