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The Idea of Metal
From here atop these ancient hills looking to the north, we see the city of Parliament, as it appears here at this time. One can see how it has always been smaller than its fame would lead one to suspect. Barely 25,000 persons reside here. Yet, it is the place of places for our people, and now even more so for recent events. Looking south from these sacred hills one sees that small river famed in song and verse flowing toward us from the Great Misty Forest. It meanders through our managed lands dividing the plain as it wends its way to this legendary circlet of seven small hills which enfold Primus University's amphitheater. Its mysterious course takes it around these hills, almost circumnambulating them, before continuing on to our city. Looking off to the far southern horizon one sees the distant blue and white peaks of the Steel Mountains. It is easy to imagine the pilgrims who seek the rivers' source in wandering in the pristine reserve amid the great valleys. I send them blessings of perseverance.The city concept is, of course, the foundation of classical urban design, indeed it is the prototypical form from which most current styles owe origin. The center rests astride a slight high ground where the solid old buildings built chock-a-block along the original enclosure form a redoubt. This is the old town, or acropii. Around this is a much larger square where the government, schools, and professional buildings are. Amid them is the market district, and street bazaars. Around that, of course, is the circular promenade or boulevard from which the main streets radiate much like the common spiders web. The concentric cross streets allow easy transport to and from the acropii and the whole is checkerboarded with park areas so that each citizen might have easy access to such amenities. The residential blocks are all in the late classical style. Each home is a rectangular building with thick heavy walls. The first story is windowless and on the second there are but few narrow windows facing the street. Each is built around a central atrium containing a fountain or pool along with a few trees and a culinary garden that the family living there keep for themselves.
Following the course of the waterway north we see it crosses range land mixed with nature reserves protecting seasonal wetlands. Beyond that are the historical townships of Ranan's Bay where our river joins many others and blends into the delta where fishing is a way of life. North of that, there is only the ocean of Peace.
As we turn to take in a view of the interior of this ring of hills, we see that though it has retained its natural landscaping and sparse covering of ancient Oak, it now includes a great amphitheater. And the Cleft of the Ring, once a fortified natural gateway to the interior, is the now is a simple pedestrian walkway with turnstiles flanked by some tumbled stonework, all that remains of the ancient defenses. Down there, even as I speak, people gather in excited anticipation of a historical event. A lecture, that, street tongue has, will unveil our distant past unto the Foundations. People who hearken to gossip say we'll learn more of the Foundation Mysteries in this presentation than from all the archeology of the last century, our modern science notwithstanding. Through the miracle of modern communications we will be present as invisible witnesses of this dim past.
The ancient amphitheater fills slowly. The acoustics allow me to hear the murmur of conversation, and the occasional laugh. Here is where our ancestors discussed the issues of human society, debating notions of state and citizen rights, reason and responsibility, justice and freedom; and here they forged the foundations of the global society that we now know.
It was on that forum that the rights of humankind were earned with both pen and sword. It was here that those seven immortal heroes made their final stand for Tourout's Tenets of Reason and for the Lander's Way. A courageous hand full stood against a tide of ignorance, the passionate, blind, intolerant hatred, that were the hallmarks of the Mystics. It was for that peaceful gate that the e senators and their guards fought a pitched battle defending this hallowed glen and its fabled trove of law and history. And it is that trove, lost before the Misty Ages, which some say, has been unearthed.
After the host of the Mystics had laid waste to everything to the south, they came here to battle the Landers on the great plains surrounding us. The tide of the great war turned on the Forum where the Senate debated, and where the stage now stands. Those defending the Cleft of the Ring held off hundreds until minutes before the vast armies clashed. When the gate was breached the guards and senators fell back to the Forum. They drew the vengeful attackers away from the path to The Lookout, where I now stand. Marner's oration attracting them though he knew it meant his death. This confused the tranced mystics even as they pressed their attack and reduced the defenders to those final seven. The mysterious power of the acoustics confused them for and for a moment there was an eerie quiet. He spoke to the Mystics before him, orating to buy moments, knowing his fate even as he talked and went amid them offering healing touches. The others, taking his secret cue, drew lots choosing a signaler. It was Wendith, who, counting her two thousand heartbeats, left and went to signal from The Lookout, while valor died on what is now the stage. She signaled until slaughtered, and died knowing she'd given away enemy positions, distribution, and strength.
The Mystics were denied this high ground and its visual command of the field during these critical minutes. The Mystics could not marshal their forces properly. However, the Landers and their allies reformed their ranks, ordered new lines of attack, and initiated the battle before anything could change. That greatest of victories was won even as the blood of those seven pulsed into the gray dust that forever consecrates this site. Every school child knows the story. That while the seven lost their lives and their hold on these heights, they gained precious time and the armies, set in motion, engaged on a wide front all along that river.
The Mystics' Immortals, and philosopher commanders had no hope of altering the ebb and flow of the vast forces blanketing the earth on that day. It was that battle which marked the turning point in the 40 year war. Truly here, the tiniest struggle was leveraged into titanic results. Soon after that war it was also here in this glen where we began to build anew a truly civil state with a basis of reason and the rule of just law.
Many students who attend the university are filtering in jostling in the aisles, filling the aural realm with a rich mixture of banter, earnest conversation, romance, and poetry. The sophists gather in knots, eagerly discussing the issues of the day, or the lectures they've heard in their various classes. The whole spectra of persons from the community are present: politicians eagerly planning, workers from the fields and shipyards, persons of all walks here tonight for a unique presentation. Everyone knows of the most recent recoveries from the ancient vaults discovered not but a few shouts hence, hold a vessel actually buried from time immemorial, containing evidence of a lost civilization. Street tongue also has it that much of what was discovered was puzzling. There had been a special investigation everyone knew that. You could not miss the comings and goings of all those in the various sciences. This activity was followed by a few days of inactivity and silence. Only the promise of a full community lecture, scheduled this very night, brought peace to the speculations that had circulated wildly around town. The lecture is the reason for the unprecedented attentions from around the world. For weeks there had been meetings and sparse public announcements which served only to whet our appetite of curiosity.
This place, which is our center, is a repository of messages vastly old, and mysterious. Yet they are as vital to us as today's sun and as rich as the soil after a warm spring drenching. Everyone was speaking of rumors they'd heard and speculating upon statements made concerning the discoveries and the hints that spoke of vanished civilizations, eons of time, and travelers from another world. Everyone knew that this night would expose to us new revelations presented via Ghost Hosts, the mind-consciousness read by sensitives tracing the mentations left on inanimate objects found in that trove. We will be able to hear from the past. It will be speaking to us even as you and I would speak. We will know their thoughts, follow their actions and understand them more. We will, of course, learn about ourselves in the process. The seating was prime-prime-prime. We are fortunate to be here for this too is history.
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