Hi everyone...
My thanks to y'all for allowing me in here, and if I've not posted this in the right spot, mods, please fix it for me.
Ever since I started out in Myst, I've been fascinated by the glyphs, numbers and all of the components of the spoken language. But, we all have to learn our alphabet before we can write, right?
I was wondering if anyone had the time/expertise to help me out with this. Remember, I'm a texture artist and I've been skinning 3D models for over 4 years now. I'm just not skilled in building 3D models or how it works.
I started to try to describe directly what I would like to see in an age that would teach me the basics, a kind of interactive Rehevkor.
Anyhow...well, I fell flat while trying to describe it in written (technical) format, because all truth be told, I wouldn't know where to start to build something like this. So, since I don't know all of the technical mumbo-jumbo that would go into pulling it off, I'd prefer if you saw it with me through the eyes of a 7 year-old D'ni girl, with her adult self telling the tale of her first day at school.
My First Day At School
When I was a little girl, I remember the apprehension of going to strange places. None was so frightening than the thought of going to school, classrooms filled with children that I didn't know. But, in my seventh year, there was no other thought to be had about my development, I was going to school, whether I liked it or not.
I remember the orange light swelling up in the great lake that morning, as I pushed the blankets from my legs, I piled the pillows under my knees so I could sit up as high as I could to pull back the shades of my window and look out onto the city of D'ni. I could hear the footsteps passing over the stone in my home, and as I sat on my bed, cut from the stone of the room, I knew the day had come that I would face the great unknown. I remember my Mother and Father coming to reassure me that everything would be fine. I have to admit, I was very excited to go to the Great Library. I had been there many times before to link to ages where my family spent time away from D'ni. We had been to worlds filled with white sand beaches, odd looking birds and great oceans of crystalline blue.
My mother, at hearing my stirring, came into my room, helped me dress and took me down to the kitchen for a breakfast of home-made bread and gooey jam. I think I was far too distracted by the anticipation of the days events to eat much. So, noticing that my appetite was less than voracious, my mother prepared us to leave the house.
As we walked the worn stone up to the library, I could already see in the distance, the strange man that had come to visit my parents in our home just weeks before to talk about my education. My father bid him "Shorah" and presented me to him. I remember the kindness and warmth in his eyes as he asked me, "Scared, little one?" I feigned bravery as I looked at him and said, "I'm not afraid of anything." "Is that so?", he said, "Well, it sounds like you're ready, it's time to head off to the Literacy Age." He gave my parents a nod, my parents hugged me and told me how proud they were of me and sent me off with the man with the kind eyes.
As we walked into the Library, he said, "My name is Etha, I'll be looking after you in the Literacy Age as your tutor. Don't worry little one, you're not the first young person I've taken there. Everyone must go to it, it's how we learn how to read, write and count, even how to do our simple, yet daunting, D'ni Mathematics. Everything you learn to become literate, you do there. Have you ever heard of the Rehevkor?", he asked. I nodded. "Well, where we're going is a place that is kind of like being able to play with the Rehevkor." I had seen the Rehevkor in my house, occasionally my Father took it down so I could show him a word I had seen while out with my mother in the shopping districts and he would tell me what it meant. This strange man, Etha, was taking me to the place I could learn how to read and write. The thought of learning those things bothered me a bit because that meant I wouldn't be able to bother Father in the middle of one of his experiments or push shut the grand volume he was reading to sit in his lap and have him show me the beautiful glyphs that made up our language. But then, a bit of mischievousness welled up in me as I thought of reading to him, instead of him always reading to me and the surprise it would be for him if I could do it. I looked up into Etha's jade colored eyes and said, "Ok, I'm ready to go."
As we walked through the Library, I saw families heading off for the common ages to take family trips, others, like the group uniformly dressed in lime green, who, I could only guess, were part of the Guild of Chemists carrying packages full of test tubes and beakers heading off to study an age. I even saw a Crimson Cloaked man from the Guild of Legislators rush by to meet a group of colleagues that had already started to link through for what I could only guess was a lecture in a Guild of Legislator's Age.
Then, as we kept walking, we rounded the corner of one of the grand bookcases, in what looked like a well used area of the library, stood a short, yet simple, dais that had several tutors like Etha and students like myself, lined up and linking through to what I could only guess was the Literacy Age. We approached the dais and Etha was welcomed with warm greetings and was introduced to the other students like myself. The other children and I exchanged nervous glances, and before I could get too uncomfortable, Etha scooped me up in his arms and asked, "Ready to go?" I nodded reluctantly and he said, "You've linked before, right?" I nodded again. He said, "Ok, little one, then it's time to go!" He put me back down on my feet in front of the bookstand that had been set up to be lower than the other bookstands in the library. I could tell that many a student my age had been here in the centuries before me. The linking panel glowed warmly. It seemed almost welcoming. Etha sighed and said, "No use just staring at it, go ahead, link!" With that, I pressed my hand to the page and the warmth that glowed from the panel enveloped me.
The next thing I knew, I was standing at the end of a great hallway. We were inside a very large structure with columns that went as high as I could see. The walls were made from stone, just like at home, but they were a bit different in texture than what I was used to.
From behind me Etha said, "What would you like to try first? The Alphabet? Numbers? What would you like to learn first?" I had never had someone let me choose how I wanted to learn like that before, but I mustered up the courage and said, "Alphabet! I want to read to Father." Etha chuckled and said, "You're not the first to want to read to their parents, but it's a noble journey to go on. But you're right you know, no better place to start than to learn the alphabet...let's head to the Alphabet room." He pointed down the long hallway, and as we walked I noticed that there were glyphs above the doors we passed. Behind each door lay a mystery that I was curious enough to want to investigate. After passing more than a few doors, he stopped at one with a beautiful amethyst handle. "This is it", he said, and with that, he opened the door and we stepped through.
It was like entering a bizarre dream. On stands around the room, there were odd looking cryptex-type stone cylinders with glyphs carved into the stone. There were short ones that only held 3 or 4 letters to make words with, others were longer and more complex. that spelled different things. I asked what they were, and he said, "Oh, your curiosity has got you, doesn't it?" I nodded profusely. He said, "Those are the Spellers, but you only get to those after you know what each glyph is. See, after you learn your letters, we'll come over here and spell words. When it comes time for your spelling test, if you get your words correct, then it unlocks and you get to go on to the next word at the next station. Each one gets a bit harder, but, what you see at the end...Well," he winked, "I won't give it all away just yet." "Come on," he beckoned, "we need to start over here."
Etha stopped in front of a large board of sliding stones, I could tell that I had a puzzle waiting for me to solve, I knew at that moment the Literacy Age was going to be something I had to really try my best to understand. "Come stand here," Etha said, "it's time to start learning." He slid one of the stones with a glyph on it in front of me, and said, let's start at the beginning, this is the glyph that makes the sound 'v', go ahead, try tracing over the glyph with your finger." As my finger touched inside the grooves that made the letter 'v', the inside of it started to glow where I had just touched it. As I finished tracing it, the stone sort of spoke, it made the sound of the letter. "Now repeat the sound", Etha coached, and I made the sound of the letter just like the stone and Etha had. "What word do we find 'v' in?", he queried. I blurted out "Devokan!" He chuckled and said, "Right! Good job." Again he had me trace the glyph and say the letter and the sound. "Now what's the letter called?" "V!" I hollered triumphantly. He slid the stone to the side and slid forward another for me to touch.
On and on the process went, going through each of the 35 letters in the alphabet. After we were finished, I was so excited to get home. I did nothing on our walk back to the linking book but talk to Etha about the shapes of the glyphs and how wonderfully exciting learning from the "Alpha Stones" was. I asked how the stone could make the sound, and he just chuckled, "That's a story for another day! Just wait until we do the numbers!" I giggled with joy. "But what about the Spellers?" I asked. Etha chuckled and said, "One thing at a time, learn your letters, then we go on to building words. Remember, building words is like a surveyor sending a tone through the rock, we have to find just the right path to make our words, and that path is made by you learning how to write the glyphs!" We'll do that with tablets after you learn your letters. Would you like to come back and learn with me again?" he asked. Without a second of hesitation I said, "Oh yes! Please! That was great, great fun!"
We linked back to D'ni and found my parents waiting for me. I ran into my father's arms, and as he picked me up, I squealed, "Father, the stones can talk!" He chuckled and said, "Why yes, and the stone all around us has many stories it can tell, but only the ones you touched can make the sounds. But you'll have to make them talk again tomorrow and give them the words you want them to say." I smiled and asked if I could go back to the Literacy Age again, and my mother smiled, tousled my hair and said, "Of course you're going back again, it's your school! It's where you will go to learn every day until you are sent to the Guild Halls to study!"
Etha walked gently up to my parents and told them how well I had done, what enthusiasm I had to learn more. My father shook his hand and thanked him, and told him that I'd be back the next day.
I could go on for hours and hours about my adventures in the Literacy Age, but like Etha always said, "That's a story for another day."
Guild of Writers
), and pretty good at the programming aspect.