#DailyInspirations

Roadsides are often a great place to encounter plants you would not expect to find. In the above photo is a small plant of Brassica napus, a.k.a. canola. It should be flowering by now, but it likely got trimmed down, so will have to make a second attempt.

Canola is one of the most important plants grown for seed oil, and simultaneously a source of characteristic nectar, which gives the canola honey characteristic buttery aftertaste. What is even more remarkable is that it belongs to the famous Brassicaceae family, which includes: cabbage, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, kohlrabi, kale... And what all those species share is a common ancestor, which looked something similar to the canola above, but probably more shabby, smaller and living in the wild. The species mentioned share another common trait -- they were all cultivated to exaggerate, or strengthen, particular parts of the plant.

By countless sessions of trial and error, the early farmers took a single plant and exaggerated a selected part of it. Cauliflowers and broccolis are mainly flowers, kale, cabbage and brussel sprouts are mainly leaves and stalks, kohlrabi is the root, canola gives oil and greens. From a worldbuilding perspective this is a dream come true. Just take a single specie and make several variations of it, exaggerating and featuring one or two parts of it. Adding a small twist to make it stand out won't hurt, e.g., red cabbage as opposed to white cabbage.

A similar thing can be observed with celery, parsnip, carrot, dil, cardamon. They all belong to the same family. Even if they share a common ancestor in a very very distant past; the looks are close enough to make the worldbuilding around the shape possible. In this particular family are a lot of toxic lookalikes, e.g., hemlock. Another way the "let's play evolution" game can be taken to another level.

Species are not the only things one could expand that way. This scheme can be used on cultures, religions, fashion, food... One could imagine that the multitude of sandwiches, hotdogs, hamburgers, kebabs have their origins in the flat bread being filled with good stuff. Could it share a common ancestry with dumplings, who are also starch encasings of the good stuff? Maybe...

Drawing parallels for the Summer Camp will be easy as well. A single species and perspective on how to look at it, even name it is the very definition of change. Refuge can be a place where the original plants live unperturbed as they have for thousands of years or maybe people who took a cultivated specie, belief or both (entangled in a tradition ritual) to save it from decay. Where one thing thrives, very often the other/others must make room for it and either be extinct/decay or evolve with it. This again makes for a story material with conflict being a transition point/glue between the old and the new.

Four-leaf clovers come in many shapes and sizes and are often associated with rarity and luck. Not here; it is the fate of every third clover in this microcommunity.

Often it is the four-leaf clover that catches the attention, but I've found that given enough patience and square meters you are likely to find five-leaf clovers as well, with occassional six-leaf and seven-leaf clovers, though I've seen those only once in my life.

Regarding the photo above it reminds me of how often we place bets on what will happen based on our own version of normality. We live with ourselves 24h per day so it feels normal to think, act, etc. in a particular manner in a particular situation. This is refered to as "the trap of normality" and is a neverending source of conflicts and misunderstandings. In its core lies a resistance to change ones perspective for something else, typically a very different one, but not always. And when a person lives more than two roles, with each demanding a different set of rules, that is a great source of internal conflict as well.

The trap of normality can be easily seen in people really good at something; it feels natural and obvious to doodle real-looking animals, sing perfectly in tune, etc. Or be able to see problems multidimensionally (as opposed to linearly), as many neurodivergent people do. It easily connects to a darker side of not being able to see ones potential; and it is difficult to judge oneself without having a bird's eye view on ones surrounding. There's great importance in finding likely minded people who will share the views and passions, even if the similarities are not ideal; they never are, we are all unique.

Relating this to Summer Camp it gives me an idea that for change to happen, there has to be a potential for it; or will, or internal capacity, if we're talking hearts and minds. The lack of potential, capacity, ... means the change will be slowed down. Or, on the contrary, creates frustration and the emotional need to speed it up. But will it hold afterwards? That is the question...

It may look like a photo of a mowed lawn, partially dried by the scorching summer sun. And in reality, it is exactly that, except... there are at least 5 shoots of a dangerous plant, lurking somewhere. Where? We will find out in a week or so, unless something unexpected happens, yet again.

Last week I shared a photo of the Great Hogweed (a.k.a. Mantegazzi Hogweed), a dangerous invasive plant, that can grow up to 3 meters and can cause severe burns. This is not a common knowledge, so obviously when the weather was just about right the lawn was mowed, and with it the places marked with the jagged-edged leaves.

What remained, though, was a good example of how a little bit of chaos could create an illussion of peace and order. Somewhere between the dried remains hid plants, which would be just fine (grasses included), but also some seeds of flowers that will not germinate until the next year. And finally, as a cherry on top, there were several Mantegazzi hogweeds. All of that was invisible to most of the observers, and on the surface, it looked as if the multitude of species had ceased to exist, their corpses scattered around the ground. It felt almost like a battlefield.

Very often with arising chaos, it becomes much easier to hide. It's as if the details become blurred, making it difficult to distinguish one thing from another. Think about the signal-to-noise ratio, e.g., talking to a friend in a park, versus a city center or a loud concert. Similar distortions can affect other perceptions (sight, smell, touch, taste) and ideas as well. If we get many conflicting pieces of information about a certain topic it becomes unclear what part of it is real and what is not. While this is often used in warfare, it's by no means limited to it. There's, for example, sloppy research being done and slowing down scientific progress.

For Summer Camp purpose this can be a reminder of how chaos can serve as a transition betwen two stable states. By chaos I mean the abundance of information and means in general. This can as well be a time of raids and wars as well as a time of rapid progress; too rapid in fact for people to get used to it. What rises from the chaos is usually a formation of a new order and a decay/collapse of the old order; it is impossible to go back to the old times. Think language, writing, animal husbandry, copper smelting, iron and steel forging, mechanics, discovery of electricity, magnetism, radio waves, radioactivity, energy-mass equivalence, space-time continuum, GPS, the World Wide Web... Honestly, it's kind of magical how many technologically advanced features we use on a daily basis, things our ancestors would undoubtedly think a godly feat.

In a nutshell chaos can be thought of as a too big change happening over a too short period of time. It challenges existing beliefs and causes them to adapt or decay. And, as often happens in a changing world, some will try to find refuge in a more stable place. Or is it the other way around and the change happens too slow, so people find refuge in circles that want to push it further?

For unexperienced folks, such as myself, the above picture is an example of a typical, maybe a little dusty cobblestone road. It's not. What you see is the downstream section of Velika Paklenica river during summer. A great way to end the hike as it goes straight down, when you feel too worn out to bother going up and down.

Velika Paklenica is one of those rivers that obey the law of seasonality and in summer there is not enough water to fill the riverbed all the way to the sea. When going up the stream you can see how first the dust covering the stones becomes a little damp, then small puddles with green algae borders appear, then some water slowly trickling somewhere between the stones. Before you know it, after several hundred meters you stand by a typical mountain creek, overflowing with crystal clear water, with small fish swimming and hunting for the mayflies.

It was surprising for me how, when walking down the stream, the water just seemed to vanish. It felt very unnatural -- the river is suppose to flow, not stop midway through! On the other hand it felt intriguing, since this meant that in summer a good part of the river turned into a well built road. The stones were sort of polished and usually small (there were exceptions to this rule, but didn't happen too often). If walking them was possible, maybe the donkeys could walk them as well? There were many of them feeding on the greens, especially in the upper parts of the mountains, so... maybe?

This on the other hand provokes questions about seasonality. Like, how would it influence some particular parts of the world? The easiest would probably be winter and summer, where in first parts of the waterways, bogs and marshes become passable thanks to the ice, while the latter thanks to the drought. In spring many places, especially forest floor and deciduous forests becomes less visible when slowly covered with first shoots, herbs, budding trees and bushes. In autumn, the falling leaves make for a goood cover, especially for small animals, like hedgehogs. The upper branches of the trees become more visible again, while the forest floor is gilded with the many shades of gold.

For Summer Camp purposes, this clearly relate to change and refuge. Belief and decay could go hand in hand as part of the annual prayers to the gods of river and sun, fighting over domination, when some overtake the other. It could be a more dire situation, when at some point the river runs dry and the land slowly dies (decays) with it. What would remain of it after a dry season? Or two? Or three? What trees and shrubs would survive? What flowers, insects (bees included), animals? Would there be life in the upper mountains, where it is not so hot?

1. life is slowly stabilizing and I got back to planning for the Summer Camp
2. the Summer Camp themes (change, refuge, belief, decay) fit very well the ancient times of Ædeos
3. I started a series called #DailyInspirations, aiming to inspire myself and everyone interested right before teh Summer Camp
4. I'm working on the Savenian conlang (finally!!!) >:)

Following Kummer Wolfe's example of making article copies of journal entries I've made one myself for the Inspirations category, both for Foraging Inspirations and Daily Inspirations. Generally if you're looking for inspiring articles from the World Anvil Community, Kummer Wolfe's list is a good place to start.

All themes have been released! The pledge and homework waits for an update for homeworks 2, 3 and 4. Real life is stabilizing, so hopefully I'll get it done before the Copper prompt release. I can safely say, however, that my choice of ancient times in Ædeos for this Summer Camp proves to be the good one. The themes are on my side at the moment. We'll see if the promprs are as well.

Last Tuesday I started a series called #DailyInspirations with the aim to kill time until Summer Camp and get at least a little daily bite of worldbuilding. There's a little bit of everything, but most of my inspirations come from my contacts (and sometimes too close enounters) with nature. It gave me a nice boost of confidence and a sense of being productive, so I'm happy.

Saving up energy for the Summer Camp.

I've started digging into the language roots of the Savenian language and the progress is satisfying. I'm not sure if this will be enough to make some stubs for the conlang but I'll definitely give it a try!

Mission accomplished! :)

Some fifty feet away from the metro station grew a small specimen of a thornapple. I've visited the place for over 10 years and have never seen it growing there. There was a construction site over there in recent months so very likely some dormant seeds from the seed bank were brought back to the surface. For safety reasons it was removed prior to publishing of this piece.

Datura is a beautiful plant and I enjoy the little twisted, white trumpets with the characteristic shade of green of its leaves. For several hundreds of years it was used as a healing herb and a drug, sometimes a poison, especially the seeds. Even though artificial substitutes have been proposed scopolamine (extracted from the plant) remains to be used for medicinal purposes to this day.

The plant has other names, such as "devils trumpets", which is admittedly less descriptive (like thornapple, describing the shape of the fruit). Several parts of the plant were used by the native healers (by the church called witches, warlocks, ...) so by slapping a "devil" label people could be easily discouraged from using them in any form at all.

The limits of my language mean the limits of my world

— Ludwig Wittgenstein

In a worldbuilding sense this means that while the dose makes the poison (rational point of view), the name given to it provides a first impression and a sense of perspective (emotional point of view). It gives the primary shade of colour, emotion, attraction or repulsion. The importance of the name comes up quite often in myths, legends and fables. In "Spirited away" it is literally used as means to Spirited Away spoilers

Language can be a great way to smuggle pieces of lore, which hint at beliefs, superstition, likes, dislikes and preferences. With regards to this year's Summer Camp I think it'd be fun to think how beliefs have changed over time. What might've happened that shifted people's perception on certain: professions, plants, animals, natural phenomena from negative to positive or vice versa? Maybe it was related to the old superstitions' decay? Maybe the inhabitants of the world sought refuge and found it in the place they least expected? Names can tell a great story even by themselves. Think of how many tens or hundreds of them you can pass by on your way to work or school? The inspiration is endless.

When climbing Anića Kuk I was not told of the deep crevices and sharp as knife limestone edges all over the place. The view was worth it, though and I highly recommend it. It's good to have some bike gloves, though. Some parts are not so fun to climb...

Rummaging through some digital memories made me realize how some mountains, particularly made of limestone have a visible tendency to crumble. Very often the white rubble gets overgrown by grass. Not only does it make for a wonderful grainy gradient of green and white, but it also occassionally collapses a bit, shredding the green and revealing the limestone crumble.

To me the above picture is probably the most Summer Camp so far. It embodies all of the themes:

Needless to say this perspective is very subjective - the thoughts and feelings cascade, bouncing from one another lighting more fires along the way. Almost like a branching lightining, but with each fork being a thought, a symbol, an emotion.

Mountains feel like a perfect example of stability resisting change. But a more closer look shows that even that resistance has its limits. That sharp mountains slowly smooth out and crumble, becoming hills, becoming plains. And it's probably limits that are important to think about when considering this year's Summer Camp themes. What are the limits of change and belief? How safe is the refuge? How fast and selective is the decay? What remains of the people, culture, civilizations?

The image above shows a European moose blocking the path I was about to take. It was taken from a distance of about 10 meters. Don't do that... They may get irritated. As this one did.

That particular situation reminded me of a fragment from "De bello Gallico" by Julius Caesar (6.24-6.28) where he describes the Hercynian Forest and the beasts inhabiting it. Of the Alces (moose/elk) he writes:

There are also [animals] which are called elks. The shape of these, and the varied color of their skins, is much like roes, but in size they surpass them a little and are destitute of horns, and have legs without joints and ligatures; nor do they lie down for the purpose of rest, nor, if they have been thrown down by any accident, can they raise or lift themselves up. Trees serve as beds to them; they lean themselves against them, and thus reclining only slightly, they take their rest; when the huntsmen have discovered from the footsteps of these animals whither they are accustomed to betake themselves, they either undermine all the trees at the roots, or cut into them so far that the upper part of the trees may appear to be left standing. When they have leant upon them, according to their habit, they knock down by their weight the unsupported trees, and fall down themselves along with them.

— Julius Caesar, "De Bello Gallico" 6.27

Mother moose chilling with her two kids on a hilltop. by Angantyr

Surviving documents are a good source of inspiration as there is typically a grain of truth in them. Information is redacted, misspelled, intentionally corrupted... It's fun when a new piece of information is uncovered but... it's even more fun when an alternative version appears and we get to compare them!

Story-wise this gives a starting point for an interesting twist. With multiple versions there arises a question of "which is the real one?" They all can, in some aspects, be true, wrong or corrupted in others. Some texts are known only in copied fragments as the original works did not survive, which makes it even more difficult to make the right choice; and people often choose sides for the sake of simplicity. It's easier that way. And with authorities such as Caesar, one can even brag about reading of the Hercynian wilderness, citing the source material. Even if the source is difficult to verify. It's easier and people like telling and listening to interesting stories.

With regards to the Summer Camp it gives me ideas of how the information can be perceived differently, depending on the reader or the listener. I imagine a story being told by the bonfire, in which some people believe, some consider it a myth, while others part of a reality. There's a change of perspective happening afterwards, when more information is revealed and when I remember that earlier scene. I'm lead to believe a certain reality is true but it's only smoke and mirrors. It makes for an interesting read.

The plant above will cause severe burns after touching and exposure to sun light. I found it near a grocery store in Warsaw.

That particular plant is super difficult to get rid of. What you see above is the third attempt to grow back in the matter of weeks. It was already removed twice. In a way, it reminds me of the baobabs from The Little Prince. They have means of growing back even from a tiny piece of root, grow to enormous sizes (3 meters high) and cannot be simply eaten like the native Heracleum species (they were introduced as food for cattle but as to humans, the cattle was hurt by the toxins as well).

I cannot help but think that with this plant's persistence comes a shade of aggressive tenacity. Maybe it's the sharp, spiky, vividly green leaves that suggest this projection? What if this was not a plant but an idea, a secret document, an unknown technology? Things that are perceived as thoroughly removed but thrive under the surface within a small fragment, a shard, but just enough to flip the whole world upside down?

Some notable discoveries, particularly in linguistics were posible thanks to the so-called Rosetta stones, i.e., multilingual inscriptions, often in stone. The original Rosetta stone had three parts: Ancient Egyptian in hieroglyphic script and Demotic script and Ancient Greek. Since Ancient Greek was understood it was a matter of time before the Ancient Egyptian was deciphered. It took about 2000 years from 196 BCE to 1799 CE until that particular fragment gave new life to the Egyptian hieroglyphs. It inspired numerous expeditions, but also grave robbing. Many tombs were uncovered and saved for future generations, many were desecrated. All catalysed by a single stone.

Change, refuge and belief are the easier ones to see if I'm to relate the analogy to the incoming Summer Camp. A secret knowledge finds refuge underground, until times settle, then becomes uncovered to become a catalyst for change and shift of beliefs. Sounds also a bit like the One Ring, doesn't it?

What are your thoughts on using artifacts, documents and paradigm shift discoveries? Are there any that you find particularly intriguing and to which you come back to from time to time?

The plant above is common chickory. Pretty common, with characteristic blue flowers and a bitter root harvested for a substitute of coffee. But sometimes, instead of being distinctly pale blue become white. Why and how? It could be a different variety, a small mutation in some flower buds, maybe not enough enzyme to produce the colour? Sadly, I don't know.

It makes me think about the rarity of events and how big are the chances that a small thing will cause a great havoc. Lately, I heard about the rule of tens, a rule of thumb to invasiveness of the species: "about 10% of the non-native species will find their way into the wild, 10% of those refuge species will form stable colonies, and 10% of those stable colonies will become invasive". So the chances of a specie being invasive are about 1 in 1000.

Relating to the Summer Camp, this gives me several ideas. First of all, the chances are low, which means most of the time the rule can be understood in a don't worry matter: 999 species out of 1000 are harmless. Maybe a person bringing souvenir flowers, fruits or vegetables from voyages abroad? Or maybe an animal, which either became invasive or ate a potentially invasive plant before being captured. From rabits and foxes in Australia, through zebra mussels and kudzu in United States, to Sosnowsky's hogweed and american mink in Poland...

But these needn't be animals, plants or fungi. Ideas and cultures could spread similarly. Some last a season and pass, but some stick for a while longer, maybe even becoming part of the culture. Food, drink, clothes, weapons, language... Rarity is always relative. Something common in one place can be rare in another. And often with rarity comes the feeling of uniqueness, especially if there is a good story to back it up.

The wild strawberry is mostly for attention but not only. ;)

The juicy strawberries started off as these little spongy forest treats. Someone took the effort to select just the right plant and experimented with it, for tens of generations (plant-wise of course). This made me think of many other crops: wheat, plums, almonds, olives, oranges, bananas, .... the list is endless. With how knowledge was often treated with utmost secrecy in the ancient world, the pioneers who discovered them may have been revered as sages, maybe even as deities? Imagine a person spending their days on a grass plain, then after a decade emerging with a revolutionary discovery to the hunters and gatherers, and exclaiming "plant this grass and you will forget about hunger". Did that idea feel crazy back then? I cannot tell but the thought is quite amusing.

Now, one discovery often leads to another, so... We get the first people, who discovered that the very same seeds become sweet when germinating. The first people who dried those germinated seeds and discovered malt and beer. Over time the first people who tamed the grass have laid foundations for the civilization we live in today. We start with grass and end up with new products (bread, groats, beer) and professions (farming, baking, brewing, milling).

It is equally rewarding to similarly backtrace other products, e.g., metals (ore smelting), ceramics (translucent pottery), weaving (silk, flax, wool). Especially now, when most of our surrounding is transformed by technology one way or another, the inspiration can be found virtually everywhere. The stories of change. The belief that it will save/doom/make no difference. The refuge in the safe old reality or the blooming new.