The Oracle

Fourth Passage of the Melting Moon

The crew of the Moraithian Beauty all escaped injury when one of the haul-ropes broke during the unloading of their ship. The crate being hauled, however, was not so lucky.

"We lost about a thousand limes," said Marcus, the captain of the ship. "That’s a loss of about five thousand silver."

The crate exploded open as it hit the dock and tipped into the sea. Due to the cold waters, the crew had to use nets to recover as many limes as possible, but most were scattered in the waves.

The accident happened two days ago, and citizens still report finding limes along the docks and the southern shore. The day afterward, tens of citizens were to be found scouring the shoreline, some running out into the waves to retrieve the fruit. Limes are selling for four or five silver each right now, so most people feel it’s worth the effort.

Tirian

Vadrick considers himself a connoisseur of female beauty. As a painter, musician, and clothier, he has devoted his life to perfecting the appreciation of womanly charm. His latest devotion to the cause was to hold a contest in Aranor to determine the ‘most beautiful race’. He opened the contest only to women of ‘pure blood’ – which, for the first time, gave a definition to the constitution of various races. He rated Shavay, both light and dark skinned, Jeddans, Japurans, Gypsies, Masallans, Maelmuirians, Tirané, Old Worlders, Northerners, and New Worlders.

While each of the races received their own high marks – Northerners for the best complexion, for instance, it was the Jeddans who scored the highest in all of his categories.

"I feel that I’m uniquely qualified to judge cross-cultural beauty," Vadrick insists, "namely for the reason that I am not really of any particular race. I may be one of the only people in the world who can honestly trace their ancestry to each of the racial categories I rated."

When judged for smoothness of skin, body conformation, eyes, thickness and lustrousness of hair, and numerous other factors, Jeddans came out on top.

While his contest hasn’t convinced very many people that his results are conclusive, he did cause a stir when he defined the Old World and New World races. In each of the categories he allowed only Masallan/Northern mixes – hardly representative of what most of us consider ‘Old World’. It leads us to wonder what all the rest of us, who presumably have mixed ancestry, would be called. Mutts?

Tania

Tirané warships are distinctive. Thus Captain Hawk of The Crester was quite surprised when he sighted one half a day from Aranor.

He changed course slightly to intercept the ship, and was surprised when it suddenly veered toward him!

"I wasn’t expecting a direct confrontation," he admits, "but my ship is more than capable of defending itself, so we took a tack that brought us broadside."

He didn’t attack until the first of the arrows struck his ship.

"We let them have a volley of light ballistae – it seemed enough to shake them about. We had a few lucky shots that took their ship just at the waterline – my men are quite skilled – and they must have been taking water. They turned about and started for the Old World mainland."

Captain Hawk made haste to Aranor and informed authorities, who sent a ship north along the shore to scout out the situation. But no warship could be found.

"Either they made repairs and turned back to Tirané, or their ship sunk and they either drown or managed to swim to shore," said Captain Hawk.

Many of the tribes of Tirané have little contact with the outer world, and it is certainly possible that some men heard of Aranor and decided to raid the legendary city. They probably had no idea what they were confronting.

Nevertheless, guards have been asked to carefully watch the gates and walls for the next moon, just in case a band of Tirané warriors managed to make it to shore.

Lord Kieran

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