Post by Tallaith on Jun 1, 2009 18:55:10 GMT -5
((I think this needs to be posted here as the IC reason we can utilize Kinship chat over long distances and why Members can fast travel to the Kinship house. So many folks ask about it that I decided it was important to share.))
In a great House in Falathorn, a small room is set aside for a lass to write letters, study her trade, and find a haven of peace. There is a modest writing table in the corner of the room and tucked in a drawer, wrapped in a scrap of threadbare velvet, a curious treasure rests.
A collection of cloak pins is revealed inside the simple wrappings. The glittering trinkets are a badge of Kinship that some fair folks, all travelers though all on very different paths, bear with pride. The pins are made of pewter, inlaid with silver scribed with delicate runes, and made in the form of intertwining leaves that cradle a single, shimmering splinter of some rare gem. In the soft candlelight of the study, the stone refracts a multitude of colors; perhaps the true nature of the stone's appearance is known only to the observer, and the truth lies only in what they believe.
The pins are the rarest of gifts, to be borne with pride and modesty. The shining gem is a shard of palantir, one of the seeing-stones of times before memory. The palantiri are the cause of much good and also much evil; a seeing stone drove Denethor to madness and despair, draining his strength and humanity as he struggled against it's corruption.
Not all palantiri are the servants of Shadow, however. Some are lost and shall never be known again, while others show only what they are turned to reveal.
The pins are given to all Storytellers of this House, as both a mark of belonging, and also because of the special abilities they lend to the bearer. This small fraction of a lost stone allows all who bear it a gift. In the tiny surface, the reflections of others who bear them can be seen, though unclearly and as ghosts. Voices can be carried because of the palantir; those who bear these pieces of a lost and wondorous treasure can speak to one another though they are at times many months' travel by land apart.
There is also a heavy chest in the corner of the quiet study. This trunk's lock is never used as it is open to all; inside, stored in a plain wooden box, is a collection of maps. These maps are all the same, wrought by a careful and skilled hand. They show the area around the House in careful detail, notated with silvery runes that are at times volatile, seeming to dance in the light, and other times seem to slumber.
These maps too bear a gift, infused with the same magic that allows some trackers and rangers to find a fast path that moves them many days' travels in only a moment. This map, however, only brings the bearer back to the House. It's power is limited to the use of only the map's owner and has only a fraction of the power the runes that some hunters bear, requiring time to rest itself and regain the mysterious favor that allows it this small miracle.
These gifts, the cloak pin and the rugged map, are perhaps more valuable to those that bear them than mithril. They are to be accepted only with the understanding of the great responsibility the owner takes with them; they are given in kindness and welcome as a token of frienship that will last through any travels and trials.
In a great House in Falathorn, a small room is set aside for a lass to write letters, study her trade, and find a haven of peace. There is a modest writing table in the corner of the room and tucked in a drawer, wrapped in a scrap of threadbare velvet, a curious treasure rests.
A collection of cloak pins is revealed inside the simple wrappings. The glittering trinkets are a badge of Kinship that some fair folks, all travelers though all on very different paths, bear with pride. The pins are made of pewter, inlaid with silver scribed with delicate runes, and made in the form of intertwining leaves that cradle a single, shimmering splinter of some rare gem. In the soft candlelight of the study, the stone refracts a multitude of colors; perhaps the true nature of the stone's appearance is known only to the observer, and the truth lies only in what they believe.
The pins are the rarest of gifts, to be borne with pride and modesty. The shining gem is a shard of palantir, one of the seeing-stones of times before memory. The palantiri are the cause of much good and also much evil; a seeing stone drove Denethor to madness and despair, draining his strength and humanity as he struggled against it's corruption.
Not all palantiri are the servants of Shadow, however. Some are lost and shall never be known again, while others show only what they are turned to reveal.
The pins are given to all Storytellers of this House, as both a mark of belonging, and also because of the special abilities they lend to the bearer. This small fraction of a lost stone allows all who bear it a gift. In the tiny surface, the reflections of others who bear them can be seen, though unclearly and as ghosts. Voices can be carried because of the palantir; those who bear these pieces of a lost and wondorous treasure can speak to one another though they are at times many months' travel by land apart.
There is also a heavy chest in the corner of the quiet study. This trunk's lock is never used as it is open to all; inside, stored in a plain wooden box, is a collection of maps. These maps are all the same, wrought by a careful and skilled hand. They show the area around the House in careful detail, notated with silvery runes that are at times volatile, seeming to dance in the light, and other times seem to slumber.
These maps too bear a gift, infused with the same magic that allows some trackers and rangers to find a fast path that moves them many days' travels in only a moment. This map, however, only brings the bearer back to the House. It's power is limited to the use of only the map's owner and has only a fraction of the power the runes that some hunters bear, requiring time to rest itself and regain the mysterious favor that allows it this small miracle.
These gifts, the cloak pin and the rugged map, are perhaps more valuable to those that bear them than mithril. They are to be accepted only with the understanding of the great responsibility the owner takes with them; they are given in kindness and welcome as a token of frienship that will last through any travels and trials.