Complete defeat? Not quite.

[Zander]

I finally gave in and asked to copy the passage relating to the tutorial landform. I still don't know why I couldn't make something remotely like it, and it's driving me mad, but I have to progress somehow. So I copied it laboriously into another Book (fortunately the quality of the paper and ink seems to be negotiable, at least at this early stage--I would hate to think I was wasting a resource in limited supply) and found it exactly as it should be. I shall have to go back to the beginning again at some point. If I cannot create a landform the way I want it, my efforts are doomed from the start.

Unfortunately, my attempt to produce a small central patch of soil resulted in the entire landmass being covered with it. Not a bad thing, perhaps, but not the desired result.

I went back to Age Two (the one with the invisible walls) and put in a sun, having found that the tutorial landform came with one already Written in. It was nice to see myself at last. The walls, though, remained stubbornly black and featureless, even when I added another light source directly in front of each. What am I doing wrong???

[Zander]

After a short pause for screaming and wall-hitting, I looked at Age Three again, and consulted the course material. No, I had followed every step as given, and yet somehow my soil had become part of the stone of which the entire island was composed, just as Atrus' ship had become part of the rock into which he had mistakenly Written it. If there was a solution to this, it was not contained in any document that I could access.

Cursing, and looking forward to the day when I would not have to link to my nascent Age every five minutes to check each baby step, I reWrote Age Three up to the point at which I was to add the soil, and studied the example given. There was a ligature symbol between the soil and the rock--one was derived from the other, which was logical, of course. And yet it nagged at me--surely that connection was covered elsewhere in the text? Why would it need to be emphasised?

I agonised for what seemed like an hour. It was ridiculously early for me to be questioning my teachers, assuming I knew better...and yet the more I thought about it, the more obvious it seemed that that symbol was superfluous, unnecessary. I forced myself to a decision, and left it out, quickly yet carefully repeating the rest of the steps I had followed before, and linked to the Age.

Success! My soil was concentrated in the central valley of the Age, and all the rest was good grey rock, exactly as per spec. I studied the gradation of the change, and found it nice and smooth, with no ugly edges. The course material would need correcting, and for that I would need to consult the tutors, but I felt a huge sensation of freedom. I had been right where the accepted wisdom was wrong. I was still the heretic.