Least I am trying!

I know that I will never rise in the ranks of the guild and I am happy with that. The main thing is that I tried and put all my effort in to trying. Yes I have grown and am better for it, but I have now come to an impasse. I do have something good to offer, so what if it is donkey work, someone has to do it. Workers are the backbone of any society or community and without us things would grind to a halt, and anarchy would ensue. This is something that the D’ni lost track of, in my opinion.

Knowing ones place in society or a community isn’t about class and in my opinion I think it is destructive. But having a place or a purpose, if you will and finding that place can be difficult for some, it was and is for me. But what is important? Well personal growth for one, to strive to be better than a year ago; the willingness to learn new skills and how one uses them, for progress not for hindrance. Something else that I think is equally important is how one behaves towards others. Behaviour breeds behaviour after all and that goes for the good and the bad. It is also up to others to realise that the differences between us make up the whole. How we look and react to the differences between us all as a community says a lot in my book. I am the least, but at least I try to keep my feet on the ground and a level head and not to judge others by my own standards, to tolerate the different, and even to embrace it. Rant over.......

Where was I, oh yes the GoMe well with this experience under my belt I am finally starting to get an idea of what I am good at/for and what I am not, regarding this underground restoration. It’s not about thinking big all the time or being on a level above others, mind you I have never been like that anyway, “competitive”. It is about what we do for each other and why we do it. Most of the time intent is more important than the deed.

I consider myself to be intellectually sound, but highly educated I am not. After all these years, my lack of education has come back to haunt me. So what do I do in this world of literacy and high standards? Well step back a bit for one and re-evaluate my position in the guild. That will not stop me from growing further though, I have started something now that will endure as I have endured. I never thought I would love being involved in this type of community but it happened, why, because unlike the D’ni there are some that embrace the differences and try to make something good no matter what your background.

It has slowly become apparent to me that I am good for the “behind the scenes” work. Now this is ok if we had more volunteers. Yep volunteers, as we work towards the restoration for love, not money. It is always hard to find backers for big projects like this, I suppose no one has thought about the prospects of the travel industry doing well out of weekend breaks in an age far, far away. Hmmmm “Linking Mile points”, how would you calculate that? It would definitely give them all a headache trying to work that one out.

Now this volunteer work is also good as I have an innate sense to help others as much as I can, not for a pat on the back but because it is the right thing to do; so yes I am a serf through and through, the least and proud of it...

Anth-bahro-pology

Man, times are tough up here these days, petrol prices on the increase, that is why I like to link places – it doesn’t cost much right. What does it cost to link, well I don’t know about the cost these days but for the D’ni of old, well the price was pretty high I would say; the cost to themselves, to their society and the costs to the other races that were subjugated and turned in to slaves. These are the type of things I lie awake at night thinking about, which ultimately led my thoughts to the latest Bahro situation. Yeah I know that aren’t coming to the surface but they are still down in my instance of the city, with their deathly screeching cries echoing throughout the great expanse.

Now when I say Bahro, I mean the ones that are the here and now, you know the ones that have been drinking that stuff that gives you wings. Ok, if you didn’t know that the Bahro had wings - I can only apologise. Anyways if you are not familiar with the Bahro or the term Bahro I shall endeavour to explain the best I can. Now I am now expert but far as I can tell this term stems from a derivative of the D’ni language when the people split up and went off to another world called Terahnee, covered in the Book of D’ni; one of the myriad of written works that is out there for all to see. As far as I can tell from what is out there, Bah means Beast and Ro means People or Person, so Bahro, beast people or the Least. The Least, that is what the D’ni calls the lower classes of society. What they call themselves is unknown but the Bahro have seemed to have adopted the term. Perhaps they don’t have a name. I saw an article the other day in issue 15 of the Archiver, saying that the Bahro are a different creature as the ones that were imprisoned in Teledahn. Hummm I wonder...

Transition

I can feel the tension in the air of late as we all wait for the public instancing barriers come down, everyone changing this and that, new groups popping up, established groups giving themselves an overhaul . Everyone is busy and hoping that there are ready, some are and always will be ready, but a budding guild in its infancy; well we are doing our best.

Well nothing much has happened since I last wrote, I haven’t written much at all in fact and that bothers me. There are a few articles floating about but nothing meaty, nothing to get my teeth into. GoMe is keeping me really busy, or am I keeping myself busy, hum, I will have to ponder that one...

...pondered long enough, who cares as long as I am happy and nothing or no one suffers, like making my colleagues look silly. Another thing I learnt this week is always whisper the word liaison when in the company of other seasoned explorers.

After last weekend I am expecting the GoMe rule book to land on my door step, an updated version with a section titled: How to act like a Modern Guild Member. Ouch!

I distracted myself earlier by doing some exploring and checked out some new ages that have come on to the market recently; I wouldn’t call it a black market as such, more like grey market and it is not as though we pay for them. Some good writing skills emerging, it wouldn’t surprise me to see them getting as good as a D’ni student before too long; looks around to see if there are any writers lurking.

It has been suggested by my fellow Guild members that I need a desk in our Bevin, gees we are already planning on redecorating and we haven’t even got back down there yet. Could you imagine a GoMe yellow Bevin; might brighten the place up a bit. Hope I get a nice comfy chair... hey let’s face it there is plenty of room, might as well get a bed down here as well. Well you try to do an all nighter when you have a Guild meeting on and then have travel home again. Nope, I having a cot in Relto and a Bed in the Bevin, now where do I put it? Yes definitely need a comfy chair, one of those recliners, yes that should do it.

I still wonder if the Bahro are playing nice and will we be in danger if we do back down as a group; well the most we saw of the Bahro was in the public instances and on occasion in Relto, and that was only when there was a public gathering. Ok I hear them in the cavern when I am down there by myself but I have never seen one. So I conclude from this that they do not like crowds...there are in need of some therapy I think.

I saw this the other day and it is something I will remember and nourish with good intent.

A clever person turns great troubles into little ones and little ones into none at all.

MORE work! MORE fun!

Well I haven’t had much time lately, haven’t been anywhere near a linking book for weeks now, I’m getting withdrawals. Plus all my journals and most of my photos were destroyed, so there was only one thing for me to do, bury my head in my work. Since the DRCs’ announcement, that cavern will open back up sometime in the near future, but under another new name; MORE, an acronym for Myst Online Restoration Experiment. I wonder if there is a Guild of Acronyms, down some musty old basement where a couple of people throw acronyms at each other until one sticks, can I get a job there please.

Where was I, oh yes, an experiment for whom and what purpose and what’s with the online bit? The online bit; probably means that we will get public instancing back, in the same way as IMing works on the internet as in a members only instance, it must be. I wonder if the Bahro are playing nice. I think the experiment bit is to see if the community, overseen by the DRC, can make the restoration happen without a financial backer. It appears that the DRC will use our cavern entrance and members fees to cover running costs. It’s been rumoured that they will charge 25 American dollars for six months, now that’s a good deal. Far as I can see this whole venture will be based on trust, trust on both sides of the camp. The DRC working with the community; some will find it ok, but some groups have been anti-DRC for a long time. I see friction a head, but I hope not.

Saw a good one the other day, MOREon, but my favourite is MOREish, I love word play, seems such an intelligent sort of humour and whit.

Can’t keep my mind on one thing presently, ok that’s it, since the announcement we at the Guild of Messengers and at The Cavern Today Archiver have been franticly trying to get all the relevant information out to the community. Well they do say you learn from your mistakes, and these last few weeks have been no different, what a learning curve we are all on, especially at the GoMe where we are all newish to the guild and are just starting to get things together. But as with both community based groups, we are so short staffed, but we have had a few new recruits though, before and after the good news, but we need MORE. Sorry could resist the pun. What’s a messenger to do?

I suppose I am lucky to have the time and money to be a fulltime explorer and prospective Guildsmen, sorry Guildsperson. I must give at least 4 to 5 hours a day to my messaging duties, which include writing, which I know is too much for others, but as the old saying goes, many hands make light work; then I might have more time for exploring and analysing, fun.

Time to have a nosey over at the GoW to see if any new ages have been found, they like to call it written. You don’t write an age; you write a link to the age, Gehn couldn’t understand that and look what happened to him. I often wonder how he would have turned out if he never went to the GoW at the age of five and stayed with Anna for a few more years.

Wow my brain is fried; all I can see is the GoMe logo...............

The New D’ni

Find a way, make a home; both Yeesha and Dr Watson said it and now it is real. Yes, some explorers have taken this literally and found new homes to gather and explore, whilst trying to keep the cavern community together. But this could also be interpreted for us, the surface dwellers, to write new ages. This has lead to a heated debate, among the explorer community as to whether we are ready for this great responsibility. Yes humans have been writing ages for some time now, how they started no one really knows and some don’t seem to care, maybe one day we’ll find out. But what matters is that we can write descriptive books, well some of us can. We know this because Ti’ana (Anna) herself was human. Admittedly she was taught by the D’ni but nevertheless Anna did have the capacity to understand the concepts of writing ages. Catherine, Atrus’s wife, wrote an amazing age which turned the known laws of the D’ni Art on its head, again not D’ni but Rivenese. But not everyone can write these amazing books, me included, just in the same way that not all D’ni could. History has taught us that writing ages is not an easy task and comes with great responsibility and this is where the debate has split the explorers into different camps, with different and sometimes strong views and ideas. Here are just a couple of those views.

Explorer written ages, it’s an affront to the Art, some have inferred. Others have said I’m paraphrasing here, don’t reopen the cavern at all, forget it and move on. I think the latter would be a shame, just to walk away from the biggest Archaeological find of our time, yes a real shame. The things we could learn! Well MORE on that later.

Personally I have explored some of these newly written worlds, some I only stayed for a short while, due to certain instabilities, but some are just outstanding. Like sitting in the cave in Maw, looking up at the sky and listening to the bird song, all the while trying to figure a way out, or going for a starlit paddle in Zephyr Cove, absolutely stunning. I am impressed how far these and other explorers have come in such a short time. I say a short time because relative to the D’ni learning process for writers, it is short.

These modern day writers are still making great progress and to think they have had no formal training like the D’ni of old, it is a true testament to their dedication. I don’t see it as an affront to the Art but as homage to those skilful writers. Perhaps writing and then walking around the age can give the writer a certain perspective on how a good descriptive book was written, but this too can be fraught with danger. Gehn and Esher spring to mind not to mention geological and environmental instabilities. Maybe that’s the point to learn, to grow and to better ourselves through this collaboration of knowledge. Not to take things for granted, to use this ancient Art for good, together as a community. But whatever the future holds there is one thing I am sure of is that the D’ni will live on through us; are we the new D’ni?