Brother Steven
Cartography Conundrum
Dear Journal,
I feel the time has come to shed some light onto the exact nature of my perilous quest.
The sought and found item in question is a 24-carat white gold tablet, 10x10" in length, with many complex wordings and symbols engraved on it, adorned in the center with a warlike mask - perhaps some great hero of the past.
After several day's worth of examination and several trips to the library, I concluded my previous suspicions as to its purpose were justified. It is, in fact, an ancient map which hopefully will lead me to the greatest archaeological find in our history... the lost city of Eusebia.
However, dear Journal, I mustn't continue without further explanation.
Cartography in the Isles of Aura is an exceedingly complex process. I will summarize the basics for you. Since about 2,300 years ago, all navigation has been based solely upon the stars. With a few year's training (and a heap of various advanced equipment for extra precision), you can find any place in our known world, regardless of height or depth. It is said that "One can never be lost if he is at home among the stars."
Fortunately, I have spent much of my life in these skies and and know these heavens well. It wasn't always like this...
Before 2,500 years ago, most historians agree that Aura was one massive continent floating wherever it pleased. And at some point, for reasons unknown, this great land mass broke apart and scattered across the known world. And this, journal, is where my problems really begin to stack up. For starters, Aura is incredibly difficult to map. It is a turbulent and ever-changing land and all charts must be revised every 50 years or so. This would be no problem if the map I have found calls upon the stars. However - it does not. it is based solely upon a series of complex landmarks and the distances and directions between them!
What's worse is that all charts on record are simply not old enough to correspond with the age of this artifact. And these distances it describes are too large to be anything but the now-extinct, afore-mentioned "Super-island".
On a side note: the start of the map is a capital city of an ancient civilization named Arravia that dominated Aura for centuries just before the great divide. This map is essentially a trade route from Arravia to Eusebia.
In conclusion, dear journal, this is my dilemma. The beginning of this trade route has long since disappeared with no accurate ways of finding it or any other of these dozen or so long-extinct landmarks and therefore the end (which is the Eusebia) is impossible to find.
But - there is one small chance. If I can find one of these landmarks and if it is in geological stasis, finding the rest of these landmarks would be child's play just by using the stars. Until one of these landmarks is discovered, this map is useless.
So... I shall write down these coordinates and donate this piece to the library of Alabastro for safekeeping!
There is now nothing I can do but continue my quest and hope to find unlikely favor in my search.
Signed,
Zenas Abbington
Cartography Conundrum
Dear Journal,
I feel the time has come to shed some light onto the exact nature of my perilous quest.
The sought and found item in question is a 24-carat white gold tablet, 10x10" in length, with many complex wordings and symbols engraved on it, adorned in the center with a warlike mask - perhaps some great hero of the past.
After several day's worth of examination and several trips to the library, I concluded my previous suspicions as to its purpose were justified. It is, in fact, an ancient map which hopefully will lead me to the greatest archaeological find in our history... the lost city of Eusebia.
However, dear Journal, I mustn't continue without further explanation.
Cartography in the Isles of Aura is an exceedingly complex process. I will summarize the basics for you. Since about 2,300 years ago, all navigation has been based solely upon the stars. With a few year's training (and a heap of various advanced equipment for extra precision), you can find any place in our known world, regardless of height or depth. It is said that "One can never be lost if he is at home among the stars."
Fortunately, I have spent much of my life in these skies and and know these heavens well. It wasn't always like this...
Before 2,500 years ago, most historians agree that Aura was one massive continent floating wherever it pleased. And at some point, for reasons unknown, this great land mass broke apart and scattered across the known world. And this, journal, is where my problems really begin to stack up. For starters, Aura is incredibly difficult to map. It is a turbulent and ever-changing land and all charts must be revised every 50 years or so. This would be no problem if the map I have found calls upon the stars. However - it does not. it is based solely upon a series of complex landmarks and the distances and directions between them!
What's worse is that all charts on record are simply not old enough to correspond with the age of this artifact. And these distances it describes are too large to be anything but the now-extinct, afore-mentioned "Super-island".
On a side note: the start of the map is a capital city of an ancient civilization named Arravia that dominated Aura for centuries just before the great divide. This map is essentially a trade route from Arravia to Eusebia.
In conclusion, dear journal, this is my dilemma. The beginning of this trade route has long since disappeared with no accurate ways of finding it or any other of these dozen or so long-extinct landmarks and therefore the end (which is the Eusebia) is impossible to find.
But - there is one small chance. If I can find one of these landmarks and if it is in geological stasis, finding the rest of these landmarks would be child's play just by using the stars. Until one of these landmarks is discovered, this map is useless.
So... I shall write down these coordinates and donate this piece to the library of Alabastro for safekeeping!
There is now nothing I can do but continue my quest and hope to find unlikely favor in my search.
Signed,
Zenas Abbington