Investigations into the Shine

“Third Autumn 12. We have now made our fourth attempt to cross the Shine, and reach the border of the Darklands at the Scarred Bluffs. Now, as with the three times before, we have found ourselves somewhere entirely other than we should be. Keeping the sun to our left in the mornings and our right in the afternoons, we still arrive back at the border of the Shine after five days of hard travel that should have covered well over one hundred leagues. My current theory is that some unknown property of the sand here produces a mirage powerful enough to misplace the sun, moon, and stars. Further research will be needed. I can report at least one major step in progress though: in Pashaan, we were allowed to study the so-called Shine-rot. It was an old man who refused to leave his home some twenty years ago, when the Shine finally overtook it. Though we estimate that the Shine expands at a rate of approximately three to four inches in a month, there are sometimes what the people here call a Shine Storm. In this very odd phenomenon, which I have not yet witnessed, the sands of the Shine withdraw from one place by some dozens of feet, and in a single day, stretch into some new place. This is always accompanied by a sand storm, during which people often go missing, and are never found again.”

Third Autumn 18. Shine-rot resembles a kind of leprosy, but does not appear to be contagious. Pashaan maintains a council of elders, and the seniormost among them have been a treasury of information. They say there is no treatment for it, and that even when removed far from the Shine, the disease advances at the same rate. Remarkably, this aligns with our investigations into plant life as well, which will not recover health again once they have begun to die at the Shine’s approach, no matter how far removed or how carefully tended. According to these elders, the disease is very slow. It first attacks the brain, causing periodic disorientation or forgetfulness. After a year or two, the ability to move can become impaired or even randomized. According to one elder, Mor’esh by name, short fits of madness may occur at this stage. A year or two after that the lesions and hardenings of the skin we all associate with the disease begin to appear, followed by gradual emaciation until death. I do not believe our company is in any danger, however, as they all agree it takes years of exposure to the Shine for the rot to begin. They still all discourage us from a fifth attempt to cross it, but I believe their reticence is derived from a general superstition.

First Winter 3. In Pashaan and Velsen both, there is a kind of distinct culture that has arisen around living so near to the Shine. Though they try to keep it out of our sight, knowing that we are representatives of the Crown and that such superstitions are outlawed, we have still been able to record some of it. Firstly, by the occasional slip of the tongue, it has become clear that they regard the Shine as a sort of living thing. From a purely scientific point of view it has been interesting to observe this, and to see how ancient man must have anthropomorphized those forces of our world which he was at the absolute mercy of. I have found some evidence of offerings, and even one stone altar on the side of Velsen that faces the Shine. When asked, of course, the residents fiercely deny any such thing. These traditions seem to be cumulative and generational, as the border towns nearest the Shine are composed preeminently of generations displaced by its growth. Each family here can tell you the name of the town their people once lived in, even if it was centuries ago, and there is automatic kinship between families who once came from the same place.”

Excerpts from the journal of Scholarch Leitral,
Recovered by a Courser from the saddlebags of a horse found outside Pashaan.
Secured by Scholarch Tayn in the 120th year of our third kingdom.

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Helmond and Breach Storms

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The Man They Name The Lion