Raaezen's Gift

A gift of hides to ensure the people did not remain hidebound...
Sentries posted at the southern gates of Bainshaebo didn't know what to think when a gangly-looking Freelander marched right up to them carrying an enormous pack of bound hides upon his back. He demanded to speak to someone important: most Freelanders tend to avoid settlements unless out of extreme necessity. Deres had yet to return from his great tour abroad, and the sentries did not see fit to bother the Lady of Flames with a mere Freelander. They directed him to the nearly-completed as-yet unnamed great archive in the northwest quadrant of the city. The Freelander thanked them and proceeded on his way, drawing startled glances from passersby as he carried his burden through the recently-paved streets. After a great deal more walking he arrived at the superstructure and scrutinized it. Any other Freelander would feel repulsed by city architecture, but this man seemed satisfied and undid the straps to his pack, plonking his bundle on the floor. He pronounced his task "complete", turned, and walked the way he came. The newly-trained scribes asked his name to notify Deres when he returned. He referred to himself as simply Raaezen.

Purpose

Raaezen's Gift represents probably the oldest, most comprehensive collection of Thangien history, myth, and geographical data pertaining to both City-dwellers and Freelanders. Because information existed in a purely oral form before the Founding, the scribes and archivists had to piece texts together from various accounts. The collection included Freelander-exclusive versions of popular stories such as the Cresta and the Imp, the Silver Tree, and the Celestial Brothers pre-dating the Dread Winter.

Document Structure

Publication Status

In the modern day the Gift is available for viewing to any and all visitors to the Archive. Eyurodin's mechanism allows for specific pages to be consulted with the push of a button. Each sheet is preserved in impregnable transparent material and the mechanism will rotate to bring the requested page before the viewer. Smaller recreations are available from copyists for public distribution, but nothing compares to seeing the original first-hand.

Historical Details

Background

The staff of the archive had expected to simply fill the vast shelves with new knowledge going forward, since their accumulated history from the founding amounted to a drop in a bucket. They had relied upon ink and crude hide since their nomadic days. Raaezen's Gift exposed them to a new form of parchment-making and spurred changes in both training copyists and binding texts. It was often joked that Raaezen had to have skinned half the Kirya population of Kundain to create his legacy.

History

Bainshae and Kundai had drafted up plans for a immense repository of information, a well that had yet to be filled. The superstructure would not reach full completion until millennia later, and the scribes had very little to work with at the time. When Raaezen wandered in and deposited his load, the scribes didn't know whether to open and examine it now or wait for Deres. Curiosity got the better of them and they undid the thongs holding the compressed bundle together, wondering how on earth such a stringy man as Raaezen could have carried such a tightly-compressed pack.
They were shocked to find not tanned, stretched hides, but lovingly-crafted sheets of fine vellum of the like they had yet to produce. Among the trove were stories written down in Thanctiorn, the fledgling written language of Thangiens, maps drawn of locations along the planet's equator including places Deres had yet to visit, detailed warnings regarding the Eastern Jungle, and historical references to the Dread Winter, Celestial Brothers, and the Weeping Death. The scribes worked to replicate the technique since Raaezen did not stay long enough to share, and after much trial and error created parchment of comparable quality and strength.

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Raaezen the Wanderer by Mardrena

Made with BlackInk

When Deres returned from his great trek and finally made his way to the archive, he found his contemporaries buzzing about the trove. They described the stranger as best they could and Deres wished to see him right away, but he had left the city long before Deres' return, and trying to find a specific Freelander in Kundain is....like trying to find a specific Freelander in Kundain. Deres was shocked to find accurate reproductions of cave drawings he'd come across in the Northern Ring, far more detailed than his hasty scribbles in his journal. He despaired knowing he would never meet this fine fellow face-to-face, whom he considered an equal, but decided in honor of his contribution to Thangien culture, the newly-completed superstructure would be dubbed the Archives of Raaezen.

Public Reaction

The general public did not think any more of the eccentric Freelander upon his arrival or departure. When the superstructure was properly named they assumed "Raaezen" referenced an associate of Bainshae and Kundai, or perhaps a relative. Only the staff that day know his true significance. He had come and gone so quickly the only description of him remaining today came from the archivists and copyists.

Legacy

The Gift was treated with utmost care and respect, but came perilously close to being completely destroyed during the City Strife years later. Yapign's youngest son Yanwis saw the sheets and planned to cut them to pieces and use them for unsavoury purposes. Llaudaind residing in the Archive managed to distract him with whimsical llaudauns while scribes discreetly swapped the real sheets with blanks. Because the llaudaind were permitted to come and go as long as they provided amusement to the Vulgar Tyrants, they were able to smuggle individual sheets out hidden within their costumes, or in some cases, as part of their costumes.
The Gift in its entirety was thankfully saved, along with other priceless treasures such as Deres' journals, Bainshae and Kundai's original plans, and various works of art. Eventually Yanwis grew bored and set his eyes once more upon the Gift but found only a stack of blank parchment. Enraged, he ordered every llaudaind within sight rounded up and brought to him, torturing them cruelly and indulging in unsavoury desires before they ultimately expired. The Gift and other rescued documents were safely stored in the highest halls of Peirolyth under the watchful eye of Eyurodin, Lady of Flames. When Yanwis finally met his ignominious end in the Bloody Bricks, the Archive was thoroughly cleaned and painstakingly restored and the Gift encased in a special mechanism that provided protection to each sheet while allowing them to be examined by visitors and scholars.

RaaezenOld.jpg

Raaezen Early Concept by Mardrena

Pencil doodle

Type

Record, Research Notes

Medium

Vellum / Skin

Myth

The Cresta and the Imp

Location

Kundainian Plains

RaaezenExteriorb.jpg

Archives of Raaezen: Exterior by Mardrena

Pencil sketch