Vorinemtaj

Vorinemtaj, the Place of Arrival, is a site of considerable cultural importance to the Çerid. It was at the site of Vorinemtaj that they first arrived on Micras in the wake of the Translocation, and was the center of their civilization for the first year or two of Çeridgul's existence. Stewardship of the site was given to Kadri and her husband Tibed - the hero of the Translocation - and was inherited by their descendants in the female line, who retain it to the present day. It is an integral part of one of the largest estates in all of Çeridgul, certainly the largest to be found outside the deserts; this is due to its special role as a place of learning and remembrance - a combination of university and museum.

Vorinemtaj Proper

The heart of the estate is the site itself, which sits partway up the side of a steep-sided valley in the humid highlands on Blue-Green Island. It consists of a wide shelf of rock, surrounded on three sides by higher cliffs, while the fourth is a drop overlooking the valley floor below. The site appears to have been the location of a waterfall in the distant past; water fell into it from a notch above into a roughly bowl-shaped pool on the shelf, and then through a channel into the gully below. At some point the stream above changed course, possibly resulting in the small but picturesque waterfall several dozen meters further along the cliff; nowadays the old flow remains only in a comparative trickle observed during heavy rain, and in the smoothly eroded surface.

Included in the latter is a stretch below the old waterfall where the turbulence of the falling water eroded an number of overhangs, extending the edge of the shelf backward into the cliff. The galleries formed by this action, shielded from wind and weather, are the core of the site.

The Doorstone

It is in one of the galleries that there are sited the remains of an artifact, referred to as the Doorstone, said to have formed part of the link between Micras and the Place That Was. It consists of fractured pieces of stone covered with engravings amidst a tangle of what appears to be, by its green color, thin strips of oxidized copper. Accounts of the Translocation state that, when whole, the Doorstone was a stone disk with its carvings inlaid with metal, but that it was deliberately destroyed by the Çerid to ensure that they could not be followed by their former masters, the Tall Ones.

The broken stone is roped off and guarded; it is permitted to see it from beyond the rope, but not to touch it nor to make any drawings of it, nor - given the recent chance of humans arriving with cameras - to take photographs. It is felt that if the symbolic design that the Doorstone once held were to be successfully recreated, it might call the Tall Ones into the world and precipitate a terrible war for survival.

Walls of Memory

Though the newly-arrived Çerid had a forward-facing attitude toward life and were keen to make a fresh start in their new home, they held as much respect for the need to remember the past as any human civilization. During the quarantines of the Great Plague, Vorinemtaj was an easily fortified location and, aside from Kadri's family and several others, housed many of the older Çerid who had been unable to travel long distances.

Many of these, charged with lighter duties in the settlement and knowing their brethren risked being decimated by the Plague, decided to spend their free time securing the legacy of their people by creating a record of their history and knowledge. In the same series of natural galleries that hosted the Doorstone, sheltered from rain and wind, a team of volunteers laboriously painted on the walls images all that it was felt would need to be remembered. As the Plague receded and more stable times arrived, Tibed, one of the few Çerid who knew how to write, added copious notes and explanations. The Walls of Memory are split between several galleries, roughly divided by purpose.

The Gallery of the World is devoted largely to Çer mythology, depicting the Çer understanding of the world, its structure and nature, and how it was created. Notable is the "first" scene, painted on the ceiling, with its representation of the creator goddess Taghli. The visual depiction of Taghli is generally a taboo; this painting is therefore possibly the only publicly acknowledged and accessible image of Her in existence, and is considered one of the holiest possessions of the Çer people. Showing Taghli as a Çer with a dark, shadowy body and rays of light emitted from Her eyes, Her wings are extended and dotted with stars, while in Her forepaws She holds a brown egg representing the physical world. Visitors to this Gallery are expected to begin, and end, their time there by lying down their bellies beneath Taghli's gaze and touching their noses to the floor for several minutes, and to maintain a respectfully low volume while perusing the artwork.

Also included in the Gallery of the World is a catalogue of the known kathid, their likenesses, and attributes. While depictions of the kathid, unlike those of Taghli, are not taboo, they are rarely presented anywhere other than here. Each kath has an accompanying description of its speciality, attributes, likes and dislikes. The entry for the Abyssal, however, is kept in its own alcove and is generally only viewed by students of kath-lore.

The Gallery of the People is the largest, and is collectively an account of the Çerid themselves, from their earliest days on their homeworld. While the Çerid view it, and indeed also the Gallery of the World, as factual, from a strictly anthropological point of view much of it appears to consist of myth and legend, possibly having historical bases to them or containing historical elements, but mixed with elements that seem unlikely to be true in any literal sense - even supposing that their homeworld was a far different place than Micras. The fantastical elements only recede in accounts of the last few generations before their enslavement by the Tall Ones.

The tales recounted in this gallery originally ended with the end of the Great Plague, but the most recent proprietor of Vorinemtaj, Edli, has made it known that she considers it worthwhile to continue chronicling Çer history in the Gallery. Aside from obtaining and storing copies of the records of the Vocal Assemblies, she has commissioned the painting of new scenes in the Gallery to reflect important events in Çeridgul since the Plague era, including some of the first depictions of humans in Çer art.

Pavilion

Over the bowl-shaped depression on the rock shelf, a large wooden pavilion thatched with leaves has been erected. It serves as a shaded rest area for visitors, and is typically surrounded by various itinerant vendors eager to sell items and services.

The Estate

While in the earliest years of Çeridgul Kadri's family lived where the Pavilion now stands, after the Great Plague and the end of the quarantines, she moved her family - by then quite large - down into the valley below, which afforded them easier access to water and food and more room. Although Vorinemtaj proper also lies within the estate's boundaries, most of the estate's "working" area is in the gully. The downstream end of the valley is the estate's primary access point.

House of Kadri

The physical dwelling of Kadri and Tibed after the Plague is somewhat unusual for a Çer house in that its walls are constructed from two closely spaced layers of dry stone, infilled with gravel and dirt, though the use of broom for thatching is more typical. Like the overwhelming majority of Çer buildings, the house has only one story. It is a large dwelling; although many of the children of Kadri died before reaching adulthood, there were as many as eleven of them living simultaneously with their parents in the immediate post-quarantine period.

The layout of the house is centered on a large common room, which served as dining room, kitchen, and work area. Arranged around it, at the edges of the house, are eight rooms; one, larger than the others, is the master bedroom, where Kadri and Tibed would have slept with their youngest children, six of the others would have been used by the other children; and the last one, well-insulated, would have been an incubation room.for eggs.

The house is still used as a residence by Kadri's heirs, but three of the former childrens' rooms are now repurposed for uses related to the estate's cultural mission, mostly for storing and studying written records.

Scribal School

Tibed was one of the few Çerid to arrive on Micras with the ability to read or write, and was responsible for adapting the alphabet of his former masters to writing Çervelik. Adamant that his own people should be able to write, he began by teaching his own offspring, and after the end of the quarantines he taught others that were willing to learn. From this beginning evolved the Scribal School, a complex of pavilions and storage buildings in which Çerid are taught to read and write.

The Scribal School relies on its students taking tenancy on the estate in order to help maintain the school's supplies and infrastructure, but in return they receive the most thorough instruction in reading and writing available in Çeridgul. While others who already possess the knowledge may teach it to anyone, it is often in a more rough-and-ready fashion.

Kathdaltin School

While not directly sponsored by Kadri's heirs in the same way that the Scribal School is, the Kathdaltin School has nonetheless been allowed tenancy on the estate for decades and enjoys close and cordial relationships with the other institutions sited there.

The kathdaltinid are the Çer experts in kath-lore: the knowledge of each kath, what their attributes are, their likes and dislikes. They are the nearest equivalents to shamans, priests, and therapists in Çer society, trained in helping others to welcome good influences and drive away bad ones, whether through ritual, through talismans, or through attentive listening and advice.

While they believe that kath-lore can be dangerous in the wrong hands, they will readily share it among themselves, as they take seriously their roles as spiritual advisers and guardians and wish to be well-armed should the need arise. The School is where this sharing occurs, and where those deemed worthy to join their calling can receive instruction. Many older kathdaltinid, unable or unwilling to travel long distances, come to reside at the School permanently, devoting themselves to teaching their successors.