* Purloined Letters: #1 - A first look at this strange distant world, its secrets and its culture.

06/15/2017

Dear Professor Mandrake,

I hope this letter finds you well. I am sitting in a ‘restaurant’, it’s a place to ‘restore’ one’s energy, but they are essentially like any other roadside inn, just without the rooms upstairs. Other than that, their common room is pretty much that of a good inn or tavern, they even have huge stables, as big as our fields, where they park machines, instead of animals, that move them around! Despite all that, these restaurant-inns are functionally similar to our own taverns in terms of services.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, I want you to know that getting this letter to you was a task in and of itself. The portal opened in a rather remote island. There is a small settlement nearby, but it’s as dangerous as the darkest lair I ever visited in our realm. Remilia, of course was happy to stay, and she’s going to help deliver these letters when I send them. But you should also know that sending them is the problem.

You see, the people here don’t need to give items to each other to transfer messages over long distances. The nature of the machines they use still eludes me, I have never seen things like these in our world. I know you don’t like it, but I implore you to think of the magic of the Old Kings, that is what these machines look like!

So, finding the means to send a letter back to Remilia without fully disclosing its purpose has been a challenge. The remote and crumbling economy of the portal island only makes it harder, their impoverished lives, are like those of our peasants. Whether I have been able to overcome it or not, I will know from your answer to these words.

I befriended a local, named John Johnny. He was instrumental in helping me understand and blend the culture on this side. So far, the people I have met have been not that different from our own. Perhaps Rothman the Great was right about his theories and we share a heritage?

I share this questions with you, as I continue to think of them myself, but I have to leave now, not because the restaurant-inn is closing, in fact, as unbelievable as it sounds, these restaurant-inns open all day every day! Even if nobody sleeps in them.

I wish I had more time to tell you about the food and go further into detail on the culture and machines I’ve seen here, but some of the locals are insisting in showing me the “Blockchain”.

I don’t understand the concept yet, but it reminds me of the kind of thing the Royal Spymaster spewed in his visit to the Tower just before I left.

So I will delve into this matter and assemble a proper report for you. My local friend has suggested that my letters should only take a little more than a moon to reach you. A Moon! Imagine that, and you thought that the red-haired Royal Page was a good messenger? John Johnny has said that with some more digging around, my letters could get to you in only half a Moon! I don’t understand, however, why digging would be of use, perhaps what fuels their machines comes from the ground?

At any rate, I need to leave. I should probably mention that their days last the same as ours, but it seems like their planet has a greater inclination in regards to its star than our own. I have not made the measurements first hand yet, but the wise people of this world share their knowledge freely.

The numbers at the top of this letter are the local date, measured forward from an arbitrarily designated moment of spiritual significance to the local culture.

2017 is the number of orbits the planet has completed since that moment. The other two numbers roughly follow lunar cycles and day/night cycles, I have trouble remembering which is which. For some reason, they continue to use a 365 day calendar, even if they know full well it is inaccurate. For us, it has been ten Moons and seventeen Suns since I left. Strangely, they call orbits around their star ‘years’ too! The configuration of their Solar System is the same as ours, as expected, just with different names for the planets. They are named after their own mythological beings.

That inclination difference I mentioned also means that, away from the equator, the temperatures swing between extremes, water can freeze and heats can be lethal. Why would they colonize such a land still escapes my understanding, but massive cities are built far away from the center of the planet, and so I am living in one of them. It would seem like Moggi's theory of greater empires appearing always near the equator was also wrong.

If just a few months have already changed our understanding of our own people and our world, imagine what we’ll get after years! I’ll attach some more of my notes, I particularly recommend reading about the intricacies of the scatological function in this culture, just to pique your interest: their cities have labyrinths of stone underground, with only one purpose: moving human waste from one place to another. I call them “Strong’s Labyrinths”. I haven't seen a city that doesn’t have them yet, but John Johnny assures me there are cities that don't.

With that I can only ask that you give your answer to Remilia as soon as possible, she will find me. We’ll discuss later, first I need to know we have been able to establish communication.

Your faithful student,

P.S. The numbers at the top of this letter are the local date, measured forward from an arbitrarily designated moment of spiritual significance to the local culture. 2017 is the number of orbits the planet has completed since that moment. The other two numbers roughly follow lunar cycles and day/night cycles, I have trouble remembering which is which. For some reason, they continue to use a 365 day calendar, even if they know full well it is inaccurate.

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