Newsletter
354-01-15
Highlights from the Archive (Summer Edition, 354)

Associates of the Archive,

I am delighted to present this season’s edition of the newsletter. As is customary, please browse the following pieces of interest catalogued this season, in line with your own research. The recent discoveries span all regions, so there will be something to pique the curiosity of any and all working with the Archive.

I wish you all a reflective, productive start to the new year.

Yours sincerely,
Charles Schlechter
Head of Region for the Department of the Archive

This was emailed to every email address in the Nemeus Archipelago, and a number beyond it. A copy was pre-emptively sent to the Archive for preservation.

Greetings, Nemeans and well-wishers. It has been a year of blessings already. Flitch Baggaban has made the berries grow ripe, and the butterflies of countless hues, catching the light of the sun as they fly. Trade, fishing and crop-rearing have all been successful indeed. As your Arkhon, I have mediated with the gods on your behalf, and I hope the results bear testimony to my success. Flitch Baggaban has been a worthy custodian of the Arkhē, and from them, across the sinews of the land, her blessing has spread.

And, in a month’s time, when Baggaban’s celestial island floats into the House of my well-favoured ancestor Antithane, I hope to more than repay his kindness to us. In Baggaban’s honour, I will host a festival of gift-exchange and tale-telling of the like the island has not seen for a generation.

Antithane, my ancestor, was a storyteller of great renown. Shirking a life of simple reflection on the things she knew, she followed the path of the gods, in always wanting more. Joining a merchant vessel, her tales and songs kept the oars swinging, cutting a path through the waves. Soon, she was a captain. And, as you all know well, her crew was one of the first to set foot on fabled Endring, land of quartz-like sand.

In her honour, the best storytellers shall compete for the crown of laurel. To succeed, tales must be well-researched, tied meaningfully to our history, rather than pure flights of novel fancy. But I extend this invitation to any knowledgeable enough to put a fresh spin on such a story. If you hail from beyond our isles, feel welcome. Nemeus is the world’s centre, a place through which knowledge and goods alike flow, to be shared, in honour of the hospitality that binds our ancestral heroes to the gods beneath their feet.

There follows a lengthy list of acknowledgements for those who have assisted the festive preparations. This includes Lars D Perks of the Complex, for his financial backing and historical consultation, fashion star Semolina Salvatierra for her aid with costumes and enhancing the size and excitement of the event, and the Archive as a whole, ‘for their preservation of past tales, on which the new must always draw’.

[OC: this festival takes place as a turnsheetable action in downtime 1.]

A reminder to all those entering or leaving the Archive that, according to Document #AR00300267, it is a legal obligation to wear a watch.

Excerpt from one of King Alden’s speeches. Written by the Royal Speech Committee (a branch of GLUMM).

Welcome, my celebrated citizens! [cheer] Welcome to the 200th year of our glorious Mayton Greynes. [cheer]

200 years ago, my great ancestor, Mayton himself, [cheer] noticed the world’s focus on preserving the past. In doing so, he understood how important it is to do more than just remember the past. He understood the importance of reusing the knowledge of the past, of innovation and discovery. He understood the importance of looking to the future. [cheer]

We now live in his future; a prosperous future, where people come together to build one of the truly great cities of our time. [cheer] We have built the Giant Canal [small cheer], reshaping the land, forging a path for our ships. We have built the internet, connecting people from everywhere, transforming communication and collaboration. [cheer]

And now, as Mayton understood, it is time to stop reminiscing about the past [laughter], and look to the future of Mayton Greynes. We are not done forging our great city. We are not done transforming every industry we touch. We are not done testing, innovating and discovering. [big cheer]

Even now, our progress is unstoppable. Every season, new paths are added to the Giant Canal, new routes to MGRail and new companies are founded by the great people of Mayton Greynes. [big cheer]

And yet, we are at a critical time, a moment to be remembered in 200 more years. [murmurring] This is the moment to reap the rewards of Mayton’s foresight. [cheer] This moment shall be seen as an inflection; [cheer] the moment when our rate of improvement became wondrous. [cheer]

Our greatness has reached a tipping point. [cheer] Our city has become big enough to last forever. [cheer] This is a tipping point, and our moment will be remembered forever. [cheer] The future is ours to build, and we will build it faster than ever. [big cheer + applause]

We invite those able to attend to visit the Archive’s latest exhibition: a collection of potsherds recently discovered on the island of Yuu, Nemeus. These are some fine examples of Pre-Isolation Nemean artistry, unearthed in a coastal village and believed to be early reflections of Alaxian worship. We look forward to pursuing this line of investigation further.

With thanks to Lutown University researchers for providing funding for this project.

First it spreads through Endring, then farther ashore. The news is striking. Kleiops the Rustfather has begrudgingly abandoned his prohibition on the use of computers among his faithful, and even of the Archive’s internet (‘though not, of course, the Trickser-Web of Mayton Greynes’).

What’s more, he himself will be logging onto the Archive’s forum, after a period of careful ritual preparation, during which every wire-box and router will be carefully decorated with swirling patterns of mother-and-pearl and clay tiles, to the accompanying chorus of prayers honouring the gods who make up each piece of the fabric.

Liria has extended her best wishes to Kleiops, and promised to get them acquainted with this new sphere of meaning. She has provided advice on the necessary rituals; her own faith’s tech-decoration is not nearly as elaborate, but the core of prayer is much the same.

This news has been widely celebrated as a sign of victory on Itztepexan forums, as their god's month rolls around. The moderator-priests hail a growing wind of necessary change.

Mumnos is not said to be pleased.

A mass email is sent to all current VAAs.

Travelers and followers of all sorts,

Let this message be an anchor for you today, on behalf of what we may yet build in harmony, guided by the ceaseless, eternal flow of our hearts. Should you find the space to do so at this moment, I invite you to take the chance to partake in a set of deep breaths with me.

In.

Out.

In.

Out.

In.

And out.

You are safe. You are where you are meant to be, precisely as you are. Somewhere, no matter how far or near the source may be, you are loved.

As is typical amongst Ystokia’s people, we are indicative of these self-same ties which envelop us, that keep us steady and rooted to the here and now. In the wake of the advancing imposition of the Machine, we are made more whole and gratified in connection and community. I do not speak of the handheld magic mirrors which bedazzle us and keep us preoccupied, away from the pleading hands that beg for us to stay and be in presence. What I offer, what I shall continue to offer across these multitudes of centuries, is the remembrance we have used these transient illusions to chase after. Something real. Something meaningful. A space that shall curate, once more, a chance to be truly seen.

The Omnus Occursus now exists so that we may yet set our differences aside, set the doomsday-devices down, and set our intentions forwards while we have the time to be together in culinary communion. As some of you may recognise, the typical Grazegathering that would be set annually throughout our own temples has been placed on temporary hold in acknowledgement of this newly upcoming event. Upon the last day of the Month of the Many next year, and to commemorate our shared universality in nature and being, a mass feast shall be held that spans from the innermost corners of Endring all the way out to the shimmering beaches that stretch out to overlook the Holy Water. Dishes and tables shall be provided from the fields of my own clergy, renowned locally for their skill with cuisine as well as generosity. To mark the end of the ceremony, we shall hold collective prayer and meditation upon the gratitude we have for our roots, where new life may hope to sprout from intermingling branches.

The current capacity we have adjudicated upon is one thousand participants. All are invited, and most welcome, within my embrace.

With love and acceptance,

Mumnos, the Shuffling Hill

[OC: The Omnus Occursus shall take place as a turnsheetable action during Downtime 6.]