Tag: Chroniclers of the Codex Infinitum

#Lore 24 – Entry #120 – Sci-Fi Month II #29 – Puff the Dragon Magic

From the Personal Journal of Seiko Kajira, Galactic News Gazette reporter, assigned UEF-04 Maharani Morgiana.

I thought dragons were supposed to be exciting, and yet all we’ve done for weeks now is dig in the dirt at some old, ruined dragon city.  No actual dragons, just a bunch of really old, boring statues and carvings of them.  Oh, and the deadly wildlife.  Have I mentioned the snakes down there?  Holy shit, the snakes!  They look horrifying, their heads very much draconic, and they can spit venom.  The scouts killed one that had to be thirty feet long!  Then they ate it!  Urgh.  Count me out; the smell made my nose hurt.

Where is all the magic that dragons are supposed to be known for?  It’s the same story all over again.  I’m not an expert, right?  But even I know that on every world we’ve found these ruins on, the dragons come, they wreck stuff, they get all the races pissed off at them, then they leave.  I mean, they sound pretty unpleasant if you ask me.  Why else do they keep getting shoved off their planets, hmm?  Give me something more exciting to report on!  I fell asleep like six times just trying to write up the report I mailed back home.  SO. BORING.

I’ve fallen back to entertaining myself aboard the Morgiana since my visit planet-side, decided to advance a few of the plot lines I’ve been working on for my impromptu reality drama series.  Still plenty of people aboard during the ruin exploration to mess with, after all.  Kiara’s storyline took a surprising twist without my help, though; apparently he’s started seeing that dark elf Over-Warden.  Hasn’t helped his tardiness at all, so I imagine he’s getting abuse on and off the clock now.  The new mistress must really like his ass in those SexyTech shorts, though; he hasn’t taken them off since their first night together, and I’d swear his skirts have gotten shorter to help show’em off. 

I met one of the fighter pilots last week when I had to go blow off some steam at the gun range, Sorisana Kelvaris.  She’s practicing to become a quick draw artist apparently, even uses a big fuck-off revolver.  She’s got secrets; I picked up on it within minutes of talking to her, and not just the usual kind of secrets elves keep.  It’ll take a while for me to get her to warm up, though; she’s a cold one.  May have to start spreading some rumors, put her under a little pressure.  Wonder what kind of past she’s running from?  Hmmm…corpo intrigues are overdone and boring as hell anymore, so maybe something with the Great Houses?  Exiled princess, maybe?  Or maybe she’s a sneaky assassin type, on the run from justice, has to keep her shooting skills sharp because she can’t know when someone will find out about her?  Decisions, decisions!

I really need to start working on some of the security team guys; the ones following me around are pretty boring, though, like soldier on guard duty boring.  The CSO must’ve picked them out personally just for me; I know he doesn’t trust me.  Probably a good idea on his part, but everyone’s got their secrets; it’s only a matter of time till I find something on him that’ll spice things up.  Think I’ll start working on that orcish fellow who comes into VV’s place ever so often when he’s off the clock, Morzod Fiedskinner.  He’s got ties to the Badaxe Clan going by his tattoos, and he’s definitely seen some shit, a lot more than the other security guards I’ve talked to thus far.  Bet once I get him to warm up to me, he’ll give me all kinds of juicy tidbits.

Then there’s the twin librarians, the Seraph twins; on the attractive side for Chroniclers, and on the gullible side, too.  Probably brought up sheltered, just now getting out into the world for themselves.  Both of them usually have their head in the clouds thanks to those thought-recording implants they sport, but I think I can work with them and get something going.  They’re at that age when humans find it hard to control their baser instincts, so a little nudge here and there could get results.  Maybe I should go for the twincest crowd?  Nah, that’d be a bit too niche… But…maybe some tension between the churches would be fun?  Could try to get one twin tied up with Erisaya’s crowd, the other Yurisaya’s, then watch as the sparks start flying when their next disagreement ramps up.  Would have to be careful, though, let it build up slowly; those of the Lovely Sisters know how to read people better than I do…but what’s life without a little danger?

#Lore 24 – Entry #119 – Sci-Fi Month II #28 – The Draconic Ruins of Vellion III – A Brief Overview

From the Official Record of Seraphino Basara, Chronicler of the Lady Goldeneyes, assigned UEF-04 Maharani Morgiana.

Devouring the reports from the scouting parties that entered the Vellion system is one thing, but finally being able to set foot on the third planet itself, to see the ruins that were discovered by the ASD divination team is something else entirely!  It’s remarkable the similarities between the ruins on this world and those I’ve explored on the other side of the Demon Barrier; even from the air during our approach, I could make out the similarities…and I would daresay, the identical nature of the structures.  The shaping of the draconic reliefs upon the upper level structures, the arrangement of the buildings themselves atop the mountain in relation to the planet’s solar cycles, even the presence of a massive draconic statue at the center of the ruin site…it’s almost…eerie just how much it reminds me of the ruins found upon the Dragon Isles of Andyllion.

I would daresay this discovery alone fortifies the Draconic Migration Theory, if not outright proves it.  I may be a bit presumptuous in that declaration, but how else can the presence of a place like this be explained?  How did the ancient dragons reach the Vellion system through the Demon Barrier?  At the very least, they would have had to have shifted to another plane and traversed through it and came back, but even planar travel into the Demon Sector is at best unreliable, at worst, deadly.  Did they…or do they…possess an advanced technology like the ATK drives, or some form of magical travel we can only begin to imagine?

But I digress; that’s a topic for another time.  As to the ruins on Vellion III…given that we’ve only been on site for two weeks, I don’t have all the data, certainly, but between myself and others who have began studying the ruins, we can ascertain certain facts regarding the history of this location:

  • The draconic language found on this world is identical to that of the worlds on the other side of the Demon Barrier. The inscriptions within the ruins themselves are readily readable by anyone who is familiar with the script of the language, and even includes High Draconic phrases.  The diplomatic party who ventured to the local kobold settlement were successfully able to discuss their history in relation to the ruins using the same language, modified slightly for the local dialect that developed.  I fear we may have adversely affected the development of their culture by revealing that we are not of this world, but who is to say that they would not have encountered “travelers from beyond the stars” eventually anyway?  At least our goals did not require violence upon them.
  • Like other known draconic sites, there is a historical record, the Magna Historiarum Draconis, marking the beginning of the draconic presence upon the world. Though local events are expectedly different, the same general pattern of development is present.  In short…the dragons appear upon the world, bringing their servants, primarily kobolds with a mix of other races, with them.  They construct their various empires and civilizations across the face of the planet, either benevolent or malevolent, all of which eventually decline as the dragons seemingly lose interest and withdraw, their former servants turn upon them and each other, and they eventually vanish, the Historiarum remaining unfinished.  There is also a massive portal chamber, likely how the dragons perhaps arrived or left the world, though long since destroyed, as is typical; likely it was destroyed by the final dragons to leave the world.
  • Based upon our analysis, the ruins here are approximately five thousand years old, making them amongst the newest ruins found to date. Without delving deeply into the vast history of the planet’s multiple societies, we cannot understand the true impact of this site and others like it that no doubt still exist upon the planet.  It will take lifetimes (relatively speaking) to properly study the histories here. 
  • The mysterious group that preceded us inside the ruins would seem to contain at least one properly trained archeologist, given the care and attention that was given to the excavation of the vault near to the destroyed portal chamber. Though we cannot ascertain with one-hundred-percent certainty if any relics were removed, it appears that most of what remains in the vault (some gemmed gold and silver treasures, ancient scrolls in preservative tubes, and other such items) was perhaps examined, but returned as they were found.  In a few instances, during prior excavations of similar sites beyond the Barrier, documentation was found indicating other worlds visited by the dragons that led explorers to them, so it is entirely possible we may have leads to other worlds possessing draconic sites.  Further analysis is still pending.

Needless to say, we could likely spend years upon Vellion III at the very least, so our teams are trying to expedite our analysis as much as possible, given that Captain Silvercask has already inquired as to whether we have located any information relating to other sites.  Assuming that it was a Trailblazer team that preceded us, there is likely a clue that we have yet to uncover which they have already acted upon, but as soon as a determination is made, we will alert command so our course can be decided upon.

#Lore 24 – Entry #113 – Sci-Fi Month II #22 – Chroniclers of the Codex Infinitum

From the Personal Journal of Seraphino Basara, Chronicler of the Lady Goldeneyes, assigned UEF-04 Maharani Morgiana

My first strange new world!  I probably shouldn’t be getting so excited over the short visit we had in the Charvis system, but I simply can’t help myself.  Seraphina thought I was being a bit too excitable too, but she was just disappointed there weren’t any ruins to explore.  Did the planet or the solar system look particularly different from any of the others we’ve been to?  No, not really.  But it was just knowing that it’s all the way out here, on the frontier, and home to a true frontier colony that made it such a unique experience!  Getting to speak with the colonists, hoping for a successful new life far away from the rest of the world, tempting fate and putting their lives on the line just to see their dreams of free living come true.  It’s such a classic tale!

I recorded as much information as I could into the official records, of course, but still feel the need to say more in my personal journal.  It is one of the tenets of the Goldeneyed Librarian to record one’s own interpretation of experiences along with the facts of the event, after all.  How else can the Codex Infinitum be updated properly?  Oh, there is just so much we don’t know, so much we could know, if we could but glimpse its pages!  I digress, though; sometimes I do tend to ramble…

The colony itself, a pleasant enough little village by the name of Swiftwater Creek, will likely grow into a proper town and likely even larger soon enough.  Our planetary scans indicated that the world is stable, the system itself shouldn’t experience any particularly devastating solar events for the foreseeable future, and raw materials and food were plentiful.  The colonist’s rangers described some of the predators in the area they chose to settle within as comparable to most worlds, not the highly aggressive ‘Demon Sector” variants encountered on some worlds.  It’s entirely likely they are upon this world too, and simply haven’t been encountered yet, but the colony is well defended, and keeps their ships in working order should they need to evacuate in an emergency, or at least, as well as can be expected.  I would assume they’ll have more assistance coming soon, given that A3 have staked claims on several of the asteroids in the belt, and on the moon.  Some of the colonists I spoke to were understandably apprehensive about the coming corporate entities to the system, but others, as much as they wanted to get away from such things, find the idea of aid close by reassuring. 

Perhaps in a few years, once we’ve reached Marchosias, I can return to Charvis and see how things have progressed?  It would certainly make an interesting follow up to this entry, I think!  I’m not the only one, either.  My brother and sister Chroniclers, well, most of them, were just as eager to explore this world as I was, in their own ways.  I’m just now starting to look over all the scans that were done, and while nothing leaps out as amazing, I’m still going to perform my due diligence so that we can properly discuss the colony during our next long jump; I believe it will be another few weeks before we’re due to drop out of hyperspace again.  Some may dislike the slow speeds we’re limited to by the bulk of the Morgiana and her docked support vessels, but I find that it’s absolutely perfect for getting caught up on our collected notes and data; we should easily have it properly processed and catalogued by the time the next courier missile is launched.  I must say, since the Chroniclers adopted these Thought-to-Text and data processing implants, it’s made our jobs much simpler and more efficient.  Having the group discussions in a virtual space took a little getting used to, but I’ve come to enjoy our times in the VR version of the ancient Great Library on Andyllion.  My only real fear is running out of space in our storage matrices, but we should be able to create new ones should we find ourselves with the need for them.

I am curious, though; given that there are only a hundred of the Chroniclers aboard, will we be enough to properly record all that should be saved?  It seems like such a small number, but it is more than the first three expeditions had, and they seem to be getting along fine.  Perhaps I’m just worrying over nothing here, idle thoughts, I suppose.  Anyway, I think I will venture out into the Morgiana now that we’ve returned to hyperspace and get the impressions of some of the other explorers who were along with us.  I am rather curious what the reporter, Seiko Kajira, thought of her interviews with the colonists, and some of the scouts who got to explore some of the different regions of the surface of Charvis VII. 

So much work to do!  So much information to record!  Truly, exciting times!