TLDR
State funeral, three salons with Princess Ensah’s set, then a research expedition to Al-Hakim University. The sanctum documents start giving up their secrets: star charts, leylines, a dead monastery, and a jeweled orrery.
Key Developments
- Assassination rumors now circulate in three versions (elf / Ikram / Imperialist cabal); elves being attacked — see The Attacks on Baahir, The Elf Scapegoating
- The document diagrams may be star charts over leyline confluences; leylines may be mutable — see Leylines, The Recovered Documents
- The Monastery of the Dawn emerges as a lead: church artifacts, centuries of pilgrimages, a jeweled orrery, sudden death ~100 years ago — see The Monastery of the Dawn and the Orrery
- Scholarly network established at Al-Hakim University; Master Bahadir researching the strange math
Notes
- Full State Funeral is in a couple of days
- Two scholarly traditions, slightly intertwined historically
- Religious
- Focuses on Religion & Magic
- Aristocratic
- Burgher classes have mimicked this a bit the past few hundred years
- Al-Hakim university
- Started as a liturgical institution 250 years ago
- Founded partly to legitimize the new regime
- Over time, it expanded past pure religious studies
- Main center of learning for both traditions
- Religious
- Gnaeus starts working on his calligraphy
- We arrange an invite to three events where Ensah will be, goal being to make scholarly connections for future use
- State funeral happens
- Long, tedious, nothing of particular note
- Rumors of an attempted assasination of Bahir floating around
- One version mentions an elf tried to kill him
- One version says Prince Ikram tried to kill him
- One version says it was a secret cabal of Imperialists
- First gathering with Ensah’s Set
- Princess Ensah is accompanied by a very large woman
- Master Ibek
- Chats with Gnaeus
- Scholar at the AHU (Al-Hakim University)
- Studies Trade as an arithmetic exercise (proto accounting/economics)
- Ethnically Azari
- He suggests we speak with Master Bahadir at the university
- He’s a little strange, but likely the most knowledgeable regarding mathematics at the university
- Master Jahir
- Chats with Farraj
- Religious scholar at AHU
- Regarding finding strange locations
- He suggests chatting with Master Najlad
- Studies using stars to navigate over long distances, astronomy basically
- Master Humron
- Chats with Haroun
- Not affiliated with AHU
- His patron is House Al-Busra
- Religious Scholar
- Sanctums come up and he mentions that there was a monastery (Monastery of the Dawn) near Halwa. They were old and well respected for a while
- There was likely some site of religion’s significance that led to them founding where they did
- They mysteriously died out about 100 years ago
- Second gathering with Ensah’s Set
- Haroun hits it off with and has an interesting conversation with Lady Nusra Al-Busra
- Long standing companion of Princess Ensah
- Studies Poetry, Calligraphy, epic Poetry
- Married to a captain in the Eagle Knights
- Haroun hits it off with and has an interesting conversation with Lady Nusra Al-Busra
- Third gathering with Ensah’s Set
- Farraj spots a distant cousin Lady Rasia al-Rabi
- She’s been an attending lady to Princess Ensah for two years now
- She seems to genuinely regard the Princess highly
- And perhaps, Barhir, less so
- Introduces Master Zumini
- Painter, sponsored by Princess Ensah
- Specializes in Ink Brush Paintings
- Cat-lover
- Gnaeus meets Safia al-akar
- Not a Noble
- Family are merchants here in the capitol
- She won a calligraphy and poetry contest sponsored by the Princess
- Short form
- She’s clearly interested in Gneaus
- Farraj spots a distant cousin Lady Rasia al-Rabi
- Ari reports on the local Elven Community
- She made a few contacts and got a general idea of the community
- They’re worried about the rumors regarding an elf being involved in the assasination attempt on Prince Bahir
- Some elves have been attacked
- At least one house has been burnt down, though it’s unclear if that’s related
- The elven assasination rumors did appear very quickly → The Elf Scapegoating
- Farraj visits Master Zumini’s studio
- Much more minimalist (impressionist) style than traditional realist
- Farraj purchases a cat painting
- Gnaeus commissions him to paint portraits of the Ulpius Colony
- A week or two after the funeral, we head off to the university
- Region around the university is known for hazelnut production
- As well as other nuts and wines
- About four days into the trip we encounter a group of distressed scholars taking refuge at a local wine hall who were robbed on the way back to the university.
- 20 Bandits
- Obviously waiting for travellers
- Proprietors of the wine hall haven’t heard of any banditry but do remember a group of highland mercenaries who came by about a month ago. Their leader mentioned they were looking for another contract
- We escort the scholars past the ambush location without issue
- Region around the university is known for hazelnut production
- Arrive at the University
- Introduced to the Dean of Theology, Master Razom by one of the scholars we escorted
- He suggests we meet with Master Baram regarding holy sites and obscure religious lore
- Master Baram
- Temple of the Dawn
- Old writings indicated that they had some number of Church artifacts, details unknown
- May have received a significant gift from one of the surviving princes of Averoigne after the third crusade
- Their disappearance was perhaps kind of sudden, though he doesn’t know of any church records describing why they vanished
- Sanctum
- Nothing comes to mind
- Temple of the Dawn
- Master Bahadir (mathematician)
- It’s a line of scholarship he’s not seen before, or perhaps more presentation? It uses mathematical notations he’s unfamiliar with
- He offered to research it and we have Ari make him a copy
- Master Najlad (astronomer)
- We see his telescope
- He gives us an overview of how to utilize proto sextants for navigation
- Could be useful on the ocean
- Something about his studies makes Gnaeus think it could be related to the documents we have
- Some of the documents have diagrams that are similar to Master Najlad’s stellar diagrams
- While copying the documents for the scholars, Ari mentions that some fo the diagrams look like star charts overlaid on leyline confluences
- The implication is that the leylines are mutable, like the stars, perhaps depending on star configuration
- Master Najlid mentioned that leylines are, at their source, of old elvish sources
- Master Beczat al-Azari, chief archivist
- Seems very nice and helpful
- Berdi, one of his assistants, helps us find books
- He mentions that the order of the phoenix confiscated many books, which are likely in the holy city
- We spend several days exploring the various collections
- Research in the library results
- What Master Najlid is doing is not as revolutionary as he says
- We found references to similar devices used in the old empire by House Mennenius
- History of the order of the dawn
- Pops up here and there
- Multiple mentions of important people making pilgrimages there over the centuries
- We find another account of the gift that was given to the order of the dawn
- A magnificent jeweled orrery → The Monastery of the Dawn and the Orrery
- What Master Najlid is doing is not as revolutionary as he says
New People Met
Master Ibek · Master Jahir · Master Humron · Nusra al-Bushra · Rasia al-Rabi · Master Zumini · Safia ibn-Akar · Master Razom · Master Baram · Master Bahadir · Master Najlad · Master Beczat al-Azari · Berdi
Loose Threads
- The ~20 bandits on the university road — and, separately, the highland mercenaries the wine hall remembered a month earlier who were looking for a contract. Nobody has connected them.
- Ensah’s unnamed very large companion
- Bahadir’s pending research on the notation