First aired: 5/12/2010
Guest Starring:
Fraxknits as Nerigus Ekara
Michelle Artur as Lina Kor
Roberto Solas as Sulaman Yarem
Expedition notes - world 3
SUMMARY
Reporting officer: Karal Adrus.
Terrain & resources: Sandy desert/occasional rocky outcrops and oases. Few resources available in immediate area and (if Ekara's wheel-powered senses are accurate, for some thousands of miles around). Main exceptions are an unusual form of tree found at the oases that bears jade fruit. The jade in question is white, but not like white jade as we know it (see detailed notes below). This world also has a second type of unusual jade, black in colour and said to be harvested in underground locations. We also found evidence of unusual mystic geography (see detailed notes below.)
Culture: Two main cultures, the Kor and the Yarem. The Kor appear a largely peaceful nomadic folk migrating between oases to avoid depleting the scarce resources there. Several of their kind appeared to be blooded, though not of an identifiable element (see detailed notes). The Kor travel on foot, presumably because large numbers of horses would present an intolerable drain on food and water supplies. The Yarem meanwhile are based out of the occasional rocky outcroppings found on this world, and live by raiding the Kor. They too have a significant number of blooded amongst their number, again not of standard types. They are a warlike people with a contempt for sorcery and other indirect means of conflict (e.g. archery). Despite the constant threat from the Yarem, the Kor do not appear interested in retaliation or even much in the way of active defence. Note that, if approached properly the Yarem are not dangerous or even threatening. They are interested in trade and have items of the "black" jade to offer. They have a culture of duelling for honour or agreed stakes, as we learned to our cost.
DETAILED NOTES
Geography: See attached map.
Unusual jade types. The two main types of jade we encountered were "black" and "white" jade. I have put these in parentheses because in truth they are not similar to our own black and white jade. In colour, both are closer to their eponymous shades than the black and white jade of our world. In terms of their elemental alignment, it appears related to the elemental poles I describe below. I shall therefore refer to them as shadow jade and light jade. The light jade grows as fruit on certain trees found at oases on this world. As for the black jade, we understood that it could be found underground, though we did not see direct evidence of this. We have not as yet investigated the detailed properties of these substances, though we have taken samples for further study. Finally, it is worth noting that although these were the main types of jade we encountered, it does seem that at least some more familiar jade types exist on this world - we saw a red jade bracer, for instance, though this was the only such artifact we saw, and it was in the possession of a high status individual, suggesting rarity.
Elemental poles. Making use of our natural ability to sense the elemental poles, we determined that the poles on this world are unusual. Two of the five (Fire and Earth) seemed as normal, but the West, North and East poles we sensed as being different from normal. Although we remain somewhat sceptical of what our senses are telling us, as I write this report it appears increasingly likely that the worlds we are visiting represent a fundamental deviation from metaphysics as we normally understand it. In addition to the air pole being in the West rather than the North, two poles on this world appear to be entirely different elements, the North representing light and the East representing shadow. What this implies for wider metaphysical concepts can only be a subject for speculation at this time. Be that as it may, the locals perceived this as entirely normal and had no concept of the elements we are familiar with. (Indeed, the missing elements of water and wood would be extremely rare on the parts of this world that we know of, which is perhaps a direct consequence of the strange metaphysics we observed.)
Unusual blooded types. Just as there were two extra poles, we encountered two different blooded types. I hesitate to describe them as dragon blooded; for there is no dragon of light or of shadow. Again, I leave speculation on the metaphysical implications to others. These two types appeared the most common here (we did not encounter any "standard" blooded at all). They showed evidence of being able to use charms and sorcery, albeit in some cases markedly different from our own. The "light" blooded were prevalent amongst the Kor, and the "shadow" blooded amongst the Yarem. Correspondingly, it is hard to be certain whether a reluctance to use sorcery or similar indirect means of conflict resolution which we observed among the Yarem is something to do with the elemental nature of the "shadow" blooded or simply part of the particular culture of this individual tribe.
The Wheel. Upon our arrival on this world, our fellow officer Nerigus Ekara appeared. As recorded in previous reports, Ekara was killed in action some days previously, but her spirit and that of Karal Duros were somehow stored inside the artifact we carry with us and use to travel between worlds. (To clarify, she did not "materialise" out of the air; she was simply present with us when we arrived, as though she had always been there.) Ekara seemed psychologically well, but seemed physically uncomfortable, even somewhat ill. However, she was able to physically interact with the world around her just as easily as the rest of us. On a personal note, the team benefited greatly from near-restoration to full strength. Unfortunately, Ekara disappeared when we left World 3. It is still unknown how or why she regained material form while we were there.