The Old Ye Bard
Prince
Registration Date: 2006.05.25
Posts: 3,351
Location: CHIM
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 [Fiction] Edesil the Explorer |
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Edesil the Explorer - By Erka
- So did I ever tell you about when I was on commander Flavonius ship
back in my navy days? Cairn asked soulfully looking into his nearly
empty glass of Alinor wine.
- No, I believe you didn't, and neither have I heard of this Flavonius
commander, Foryn answered truthfully. So are you going to tell me?
- Sure, but first another glass of this splendid beverage. Just a minute, he said and waved at the barkeep.
The atmosphere at the Counts Steak was as lively and crowded as any
other Middas night. And so it wasn?t long before half a dozen regulars
were gathered around the table to hear what ol? man Cairn had to say. A
good story was always appreciated.
- So as I was saying, when I served aboard the Sliver in the southern
Abcean, there often came up stories from the old days, spread mouth to
mouth by all kinds of sailors through the years. I heard a particularly
interesting one when we were docked in some port in the western
Summerset. Sitting at some bar just like this one actually, Cairn said
and gestured around. I don?t believe I ever retold the story before so
you?ll have to excuse me if something sounds extra odd.
The crowd was high with anticipation now and most of the chatting from the nearby tables had also ceased.
- Many years ago, a high elf named Edesil had heard a rumour of the
Thras. Or the Maormer, who were supposed to live on islands in the
southern ocean. Adventurous as he was, Edesil wanted to be the first
elf to make a complete map of the supposed kingdom. For after
researching for two years, he found out little else than that Thras, or
Pyandonea was a crescent shaped formation of isles an unknown distant
south of the Summerset Isles where he himself lived. How large the
group of isles were, he did not know.
Cairn took a pause and sipped on his wine.
However, Edesil was determined to find out more, and gathered eleven of
his closest friend. And suggested that they went on an expedition. So
one year later the group had a ship with all sorts of supplies ready.
And set of shore in the middle of the summer. They were all good
sailors, and rumour has it they only knew good weather the first five
weeks of sailing.
- That is guar heaps! A young energetic wood elf in the crowd
interrupted. The southern ocean has never had five weeks strait of
sunshine around midsummer. It is known for extreme tropical storms
around that time! But a dozen of angry looks from the rest of the
listeners made him shut up.
- And after five weeks, Cairn continued as if he had never been
interrupted, the first land was sighted. This was however the
uninhabited island of Drambad halfway to Thras, which I actually
visited in my youth. Commander Flavonius had gotten the mission to put
a border monument between Pyandonea and Tamriel on the middle of the
island, you see. So in a way, I have been in Pyandonea.
- Wait a minute! The Woodelf cried out. Why do you keep switching
between calling it Pyandonea and Thras?! And how can you say you have
been in Pyandonea when you don?t even know if the rulers of the kingdom
know about this "border monument"? Now people were really losing temper
with this annoying guy, and a Nord even whispered;
- One more comment and your head goes in the fireplace. Which made the Woodelf take back his comments.
- Anyway, Edesil and his followers didn't stay long on the Island;
Cairn proceeded again. They only measured its size, placed in on the
expedition map. And kept sailing, and after another five weeks, land
was becoming visible again, but this time different than Drambad. In
the ship log, Edesil described the land from the distant as a large
"bent" island stretching from the southwest to the northeast, forming a
huge bay that seemed extremely deep in the middle. Two days later,
Edesil wrote that the land was infact two very big islands and a large
amount of smaller ones surrounding them. And very early on in his log,
he noted how largely the tidal water must affect these islands seeing
as how they were very low, and not at all wide from the north-western
side to the south-eastern. There were no hills on the horizon in any
direction. And on the fourth day after land was initially spotted, (due
to the wind Edesil had to cruise against land, and weird underwater
currents seemed to be present as well) the expedition members could
finally land on the beaches of Pyandonea.
Cairn emptied his glass of Alinor wine for the fourth time this evening.
- Ahh, I'm really tired. So I?ll get to the point of the story. Edesil
spent a few months on the Islands, learning about it and drawing maps
as he went. He also got to know the local population quite well, but
unfortunately he was determined to be remembered as the one who put
Pyandonea on the map. And in his documentations he mainly focuses on
the geography of the island. Which is very much *hick* useless to us
today, as the latest expeditions show that the island have changed
shape dramatically. Likely becouse of underwater volcanoes, the Islands
are entirely made out of corral you see. However, that doesn?t explain
the infamous "sinking of Thras", my theory on that is simply that it
was high tide at the time of the observation and that all of Thras
actually completely submerges at certain phases of the moons. I'm not
some kind of astronomy fetcher, but I?ve seen and heard a lot in my
*hick* days. And that theory there seemed the most believable when I
first heard it.
- Yeah, right. So you claim that the destroying of Thras by the All
Flags Navy never actually happened?! The Woodelf took word for the
third (and final) time this evening. Imperial propaganda? A massive
cover-up? The empire fooled us all? "What actually happened was that
the lunar Lorkhans decided to shove some water over Thras that
particular time when men from Tamriel visited", the soon to be thrown
in the river Woodelf continued. And I guess you explain the Thrassian
plague by that talking mudcrabs brainwashed by Akatosh mixed poison in
the local wells? I CAN TELL YOU ALL THAT.... A Nord and an Argonian
grabbed the wide gapped Woodelf in his hands and feet. And cheered on
by the rest of the bar they stomped him down in a barrel which they put
lid on and rolled out of the door and into the wide river running in
the middle of town just outside the tavern door.
- Please proceed Cairn, Foryn laughed as the noise from the Woodelf disappeared farther and farther away.
- Uh, where was I? Oh, right. What we do know is that Edesil saw the
population of Thras as equals, the longer he stayed in Trash the more
he started to count himself as one of them. And he in time probably
over exaggerated the similarities between Altmer and Maormer. In his
early notes on the Thrassian population he calls them highly skilled
seamen, and sophisticated merchants with a hierarchy built around wine.
And furthermore, wine was also used as...
- Wine? Foryn interrupted looking sceptical.
- Oh, yes please. I was getting thirsty; Cairn said waving around his empty glass again.
- No, Foryn smiled patiently. I mean that you just said that the Thrassian population had a hierarchy based on wine.
- Ah, right. I meant boats, boats were very important. And note that
Edesil never used the word Sload when he described the population of
Pyandonea. But again, I don?t *burp* know a lot about what Edensil
thought of the Maormer. As the man were mostly about drawing them...
umm maps.
So what finally happened to the maps? Well, nobody knows. But my guess
is that they are all archived in some elven *hick* big shots treasury,
and that if you go deep enough underwater those maps are still
accurate. And that umm concludes the story about the first man, euhm
elf to put Thras on a map.
The crowd was very impressed; it seemed plausible. But when was the
last time ol? Cairn ever told a non-fictional story? And how to explain
all the loose ends of the story? There seemed to be a lot more to it,
but that the man was simply too tired and drunk to go through it all in
detail.
- That?s quite the story; Foryn said sensing that Cairn wasn?t going to
be awake much longer this evening. But he wanted to ask some questions
before the storyteller fell asleep. I just have a few questions; Foryn
began.
But ol? man Cairn was already asleep.
__________________
"Call it what you like"
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