Bartholomew Survayor
01-01-16, 12:36 PM
Art stared over the balcony from his home in the upper tier of Senmira, a city in southern Kebiras surrounded by mountains, looking down into the one thousand pools for which the city was named, there were infact seven hundred and eighty two individual rice paddies that divided the upper lake of Taiyo and the lower lake of Tsuki, the Sun and the Moon, He had counted. The waters themselves were clear and Cyan in hue matching the surrounding plant life. As he understood it, most large bodies of water were green to blue, this was a very strange concept to him as he had always been surrounded by something different but soon he would find out for himself, today was the day he would be able to leave and explore the outside world for himself just like his grandfather had. His home was in the hanging section of the city that had been carved from the rock itself to create homes for noble families and important public buildings that overlooked the entire city that spanned a nearby cliff face.
Art strolled along the stone balcony leaving on the wooden rope bridge that connected his family home to the stone discs that hung at set intervals and had myriads of bridges attached to them, Living in the upper city was not for the feint of heart as it was a long way to fall should something happen to the bridge you are walking on. Everything was well maintained however to avoid anything like that happening. Art continued to stroll, looking at the people as he approached the grand hall of the Dao Palace. He passed some elves, slaves, Art always went out of his way to notice them and show them attention as no one else would, but more often than not they would cower in fear or shy away as they had learned that earning the attention of your betters was usually bad. He felt a little bad for the slaves but that was life, some were meant to rule others were meant to serve and in this place, humans were supreme, he had heard of the others but only ever seen elves and always as slaves, The Arbiters that ruled the city were very strict on who could enter and leave, even he had needed to apply and make his appeal in front of them. He had received a message that it had been approved but would need to come in person in order to sign for the documentation that would permit him to come and go to the city as needed.
“O-oh, um hello there Warden Til, I am here to p-pick up my..my documents please.” Art stuttered noticeably placing the message he had received onto the counter. As he spoke to the Warden, a clerk who dealt with the day to day running of the city.
“I am sorry to hear you will be leaving us Master Survayor” The warden responded taking the message, looking it over and then filing it away.
“I-I-I I do in fact plan on coming back, Warden Til. O-O-Once I have seen the outside world.” Art smiled watching the warden with barely contained excitement.
“Yes… an explorer, That gave the Arbiters a bit of a headache trying to decide what what seal to give you, you will technically be classed as a merchant for now. But that will let you travel in and out of the city, as long as you don’t loose this.” the Warden placed down a sort of octagonal silver coin with a flower engraved in it and a turquoise stone set in the center, along with the associated documents in a gilded scroll case. “Just sign here please.” he added pointing to another scroll with an agreement and rules for being a merchant in the city, Art had read them all before and little applied to him so he happily signed it then took the scroll case and merchant seal. “Ancestors guide you.” The warden finished inclining his head and inspecting the signed paper before filing it away in the desk under him.
“Ancestors guide you.” Art replied before leaving with a slight skip in his step, examining the merchant seal he had been given. It was very much like a piece used in the game of Bafang. Played with different sided dice, four to ten, each side of the octagonal counter had an indication on it for a dice it represented. Placing it on a board, usually four by four, an opposing player would place another piece, if the edges matched up were empty, nothing would happen. If one had a dice and another was empty, the empty tile would flip, if both edges had dice on them, both players would roll the dice shown and the winner had the highest number. The counters were two sided, black and white, with an etching in the center usually of a beast or monster but always showed the same dice in each position. There were also rules for getting advantage and going up a size in dice as well as special tournament rules and randomly determined blockers at the start of each match. Art liked Bafang, he almost never lost at it, he had quite the collection of counters and had even won a tournament while the interest had him but he didn’t play much anymore. He thought he should take a set with him just incase he met anyone outside who he could introduce the game to though without official pieces it would be hard to organize a really good Bafang scene, but once they knew the rules he was sure they could just make there own though it did apparently take the Dao Monks fifty years to get the balance right, having to come out with new versions nearly every cycle.
Art strolled along the stone balcony leaving on the wooden rope bridge that connected his family home to the stone discs that hung at set intervals and had myriads of bridges attached to them, Living in the upper city was not for the feint of heart as it was a long way to fall should something happen to the bridge you are walking on. Everything was well maintained however to avoid anything like that happening. Art continued to stroll, looking at the people as he approached the grand hall of the Dao Palace. He passed some elves, slaves, Art always went out of his way to notice them and show them attention as no one else would, but more often than not they would cower in fear or shy away as they had learned that earning the attention of your betters was usually bad. He felt a little bad for the slaves but that was life, some were meant to rule others were meant to serve and in this place, humans were supreme, he had heard of the others but only ever seen elves and always as slaves, The Arbiters that ruled the city were very strict on who could enter and leave, even he had needed to apply and make his appeal in front of them. He had received a message that it had been approved but would need to come in person in order to sign for the documentation that would permit him to come and go to the city as needed.
“O-oh, um hello there Warden Til, I am here to p-pick up my..my documents please.” Art stuttered noticeably placing the message he had received onto the counter. As he spoke to the Warden, a clerk who dealt with the day to day running of the city.
“I am sorry to hear you will be leaving us Master Survayor” The warden responded taking the message, looking it over and then filing it away.
“I-I-I I do in fact plan on coming back, Warden Til. O-O-Once I have seen the outside world.” Art smiled watching the warden with barely contained excitement.
“Yes… an explorer, That gave the Arbiters a bit of a headache trying to decide what what seal to give you, you will technically be classed as a merchant for now. But that will let you travel in and out of the city, as long as you don’t loose this.” the Warden placed down a sort of octagonal silver coin with a flower engraved in it and a turquoise stone set in the center, along with the associated documents in a gilded scroll case. “Just sign here please.” he added pointing to another scroll with an agreement and rules for being a merchant in the city, Art had read them all before and little applied to him so he happily signed it then took the scroll case and merchant seal. “Ancestors guide you.” The warden finished inclining his head and inspecting the signed paper before filing it away in the desk under him.
“Ancestors guide you.” Art replied before leaving with a slight skip in his step, examining the merchant seal he had been given. It was very much like a piece used in the game of Bafang. Played with different sided dice, four to ten, each side of the octagonal counter had an indication on it for a dice it represented. Placing it on a board, usually four by four, an opposing player would place another piece, if the edges matched up were empty, nothing would happen. If one had a dice and another was empty, the empty tile would flip, if both edges had dice on them, both players would roll the dice shown and the winner had the highest number. The counters were two sided, black and white, with an etching in the center usually of a beast or monster but always showed the same dice in each position. There were also rules for getting advantage and going up a size in dice as well as special tournament rules and randomly determined blockers at the start of each match. Art liked Bafang, he almost never lost at it, he had quite the collection of counters and had even won a tournament while the interest had him but he didn’t play much anymore. He thought he should take a set with him just incase he met anyone outside who he could introduce the game to though without official pieces it would be hard to organize a really good Bafang scene, but once they knew the rules he was sure they could just make there own though it did apparently take the Dao Monks fifty years to get the balance right, having to come out with new versions nearly every cycle.