Ysstrhm, the Book of Doors

By Douglas Browning

The six volumes of the Ysstrhm series are works of high fantasy and the world that they presuppose is not ours. Its a world that includes magic, distinctive customs, and flora and fauna that resemble ours only in respect to the presence of humans, cats, canines, and bees. There are, for example, no horses that may be ridden into battle. But there are battles in the story that is told, as well as suspense, mystery, quests, losses, love, and sex. In the present volume the maps and explanatory appendices that were scattered among the six volumes are gathered together with some revisions and a few items of additional material. It provides doors into the unique world of Ysstrhm.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 20, 2010
• ISBN: 9781450025263

Douglas Browning

Douglas Browning, retired university professor of philosophy, lives outside Georgetown, Texas, where he labors at length over poems and novels, stays up throughout the night reading, writing, and listening to jazz, and enjoys life in his countryside hacienda with his talented and beautiful wife.

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Copyright © 2010 by Douglas Browning.

Library of Congress Control Number:               2010900160

ISBN:                       Hardcover                         978-1-4500-2525-6

                                 Softcover                           978-1-4500-2524-9

                                 Ebook                               978-1-4500-2526-3

This book is an additional seventh volume of a six volume work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales are strictly coincidental.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

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Contents

preface

I: Terrain

Features Of The Land

Maps

II: Chronology.

Annals Of The Valley

III: The Basic Order

The Basic Order

The Core Triad: The Moons

IV: Measures.

Measures

Keeping Time

V: Calendar

The Seasons

The Days Of The Nine

Festivals And Special Dates

VI: Animals And Plants

Animals And Plants: Basic Divisions

Animals

Plants

VII: Kith

Kith: Pups, Humans, And Cats

Chaves And Other Groupings

A Note On The Croat Chave, Mainly The Women

Family, Wedlock,

And Mating

Names And Naming

Some Families

VIII: Magic

Magic

Individuals Of Magical Powers

Enchanted Things

Magical Energies

IX: Personal Matters

Food And Drink

Clothing And Jewelry

Sexual Customs

Tools And Utensils

Books

Education

Health Care

Birth, Death,

And Other Rites

X: Communal Matters

Religions, Gangs, And Circles

Crime And Penal Matters

Markets And Commercial Matters

Crafts

Transport

XI: Language

A Note On Pronunciation

A Note On Spelling

Colors And Sheens

Common Phrases And Curses

Forms Of Address

Point Of View In Telling

Sexual Terms

XII: Sayings

About Sayings

Sayings

XIII: About Some People

About Some People

XIV: Words And Terms

Words And Terms

preface

The story told in the six volumes of the Ysstrhm series, from First Flight through Quest’s End , takes place in a world of fantasy with its own history, terrain, customs, forms of magic, animals, and plants. In the present volume the maps and appendices which were scattered among the six volumes are gathered together with a few revisions and a few additional items in order to allow the reader a more comprehensive elaboration of the background that was presupposed. It is intended as a book of doors into the unique world of Ysstrhm.

For a fuller exploration of Ysstrhm the six volumes of fantasy fiction are of course essential.

I

TERRAIN

Features Of The Land

The major geographical configurations of Isstrahm are the Valley, the Westmountains, the Eastmountains, the Grasses, the Desert, and the Sea.

The Valley

The Valley spreads for approximately 17 margins (115 1/2 miles) from the reservoir on the River in the north (at about 1900 steps or feet in altitude) down to the end of the River delta on the Sea in the south (at sea level). It widens from about 1 1/2 margins in width in the north (10 miles) to about 7 margins (about 47 1/2 miles) along the Sea. Its widest point is about 8 margins (54 1/2 miles) from Urfall, across the Clowm to the rise of the Westmountains. The main geographical features of the Valley are:

The River, originating as a stream that begins on a plateau of about 3500 feet to the northwest of the Valley and the Westmountains, enters the Valley as the River proper from a reservoir on the stream about two miles north of the first settlement of Old Town. After some winding it ends as a broad river (about 1/2 mile wide) entering the delta and then flowing into the Sea. Various streams from the Westmountains and the northern farmlands flow into it, as well as two small rivers, The Run, flowing equably with a large steady volume from The Clowm, and The Torrents, a large stream flowing from the Westmountains that becomes periodically a raging torrent. The River is crossed by several bridges, the largest of which is found about a margin and a half below the Dimlake dam where the Mawm of the Great Bridge crosses the River. Dimlake dam is the only dam on the River of any size, though a small dam at its beginning above Old Town survives.

Lakes. There are two lakes of some size. The largest is The Clowm in the east of the Valley (about 20 miles at its widest and longest points, but being irregular in shape, about 320 square miles in area), with a small island and a causeway jutting into it from the east. It is apparently very deep in some places and its waters are uniformly blue. A smaller lake, Dimlake, was created on the River by a dam. It begins where The Run flows into the River and is 7 miles long and 3 1/2 miles across at its widest point. Its waters are a rather murky green. There are a number of small ponds and springs.

Urfall. There is a river which flows into the Clowm from the Eastmountains. About a half mile before it enters the lake and visible from the lake, it plummets down the heights about 200 feet in a waterfall. This is Urfall. The river is not named, but is often called the Urfall river.

The Par Rrelom. The sparsely populated area which lies between Midmount and the Wonnwol. Once more densely populated, it has many streets and vacant buildings. A cobbled avenue, the Great Par Rrelom Mawm, runs through its western edge, connecting at its northern end and merging indistinguishably with the avenue, Perfect Way, which continues to the causeway leading to the island in the Clowm where the Palace is located. Snydur Pup’s home is in the very middle of the Par Rrelom.

Marshy areas. There are only two large swampy areas in the Valley. The delta of the River, commonly called the Marsh, is quite extensive (a good 46 square miles) and harbors small settlements of hunters and fishermen, as well as various semi-aquatic animals. Stone dikes or levees confine it on its west and east sides and then continue north along the River to the Torrents and a bit beyond. Devi Bog, which lies south of the Par Rrelom near the Sea, is much smaller, about a quarter of the size of the Marsh, but it is much more difficult to enter. It teems with animals and birds. There are numerous swampy areas, tiny in comparison with Devi Bog, in the farming and herding flatlands in the northeast of the Valley and at the southeast of the Clowm.

Timmesfel Ethcaach is the only other fair-sized stream that flows into the Sea, though there are a few other small streams or brooks. It begins on the slopes of the Eastmountains in the area known as the Par Rrelom between Midmount and the Wonnwol, converges with a sizeable stream from the southeast slope of Midmount, and enters Devi Bog near the Sea, from which it flows into the Sea.

Midmount is a rounded rise southwest of the Clowm and midway between the Westmountains and the Eastmountains. It is crowned by two closely connected heights, Midmount proper which rises to about 3600 feet and immediately to its south Nnoor (ñoor), a mesa-like area which flattens at about 3000 feet. The western slope rises rapidly from about 500 feet, but the eastern slope is gradual and descends to the valley in which the Par Rrelom lies. On its western side are found strip mines that yield various building materials, metals and precious stones. The only prison in Isstrahm overlooks these mines.

The Avenue, a cobbled and often paved road runs the length of the Valley slightly to the west of the River. It is very broad and busy south of the Torrents.

Population Centers. Approximately half of the seven hundred thousand people who live in Isstrahm live in an area, called The City by those who live there, which lies between the Torrents and the Sea on the west side of the River. More sparsely settled areas line the Avenue north to Oldtown, with the exception of an abandoned city area immediately north of Dimlake called Dead Town. The area between the Clowm and the River, north and south of the Run, once densely populated, is now considerably less so. The area between Midmount and the River to the west is similarly moderately inhabited. It is important to keep in mind that most areas of the Valley except the farming and herding lands to the northeast were densely populated at one time or another, so that houses, streets, buildings, and so on remain, even where there are very few people. The greatest part of the Valley resembles an abandoned city. It is fairly common for people to move from one vacant house or building to another one nearby as the family grows or shrinks. But since there is very little movement from one margin circle to another and since the population has become remarkably stabilized, there tend to be no noticeable increases or decreases in the population in any area.

The Westmountains

The Westmountains run alongside the Valley, separating it from the Desert, for the length of the Valley. It ends at the Sea to the south and plays out in the north into a plateau that begins about two margins above the reservoir at the beginning of the River. The tallest mountain, in its northernmost third, is Uurtak, which rises steeply to a height of 11,700 feet. Just north of it is the second tallest mountain of the range, Moc at 6800 feet. Marff rises to 5100 feet from the plateau just north of Moc. The other mountains of a significant height are, descending from Uurtak to the south, Eutalore (5300), Gondwaol (5800), Torbeth (4200), Tchagif (3900), and Westmount, which rises steeply from the edge of the Sea (4100). A small mountain that rises just to the west of Westmount is Distr (3200). Westmount and Distr end the Westmountain range, for no mountains are visible to their southwest along the desert coast of the Sea. Between Torbeth and Tchagif there is a col at about 1900 feet from which The Torrents flows to the east and a long, often dry canyon, narrow and deep near its beginning, runs to the west, eventually cutting through the edge of the Desert as it curves north along the western slopes of Gondwaol and Eutalore.

The Eastmountains

The Eastmountains, strictly speaking, begin with a small mound, Fup, which rises about 500 feet above the southern tip of the Rim, which is itself about 3500 feet in altitude. From this mound the Rim tumbles down steeply to the Urfall river to the south. On the south side of the river the slopes of the mountain Thil (4800) begin. On these slopes, overlooking the Urfall river, can be found the Winnow, a small but deep sinkhole at the bottom of which is a deep pond and into which surrounding springs feed. The Eastmountains continue southward below Thil with a few small risings (Vion, Vov, and Nvm), a flat plain, the Enscarf (2000), grass covered and blanketed with a wispy fog in the mornings, before rising to the mountain Woltix (4700). Southward beyond that mountain begins the fog-shrouded plateau called the Wonnwol (2500) with the steep little mountain Sool (4100) standing alone half way across, its rocky tip visible above the fog. This fog, fairly light and wispy at times but heavy at others, is present throughout the year. The Wonnwol is, so far as one can tell, an area of dense frusk forest and occasional Boznut trees. It is known, however, that just to the east of Thil and Woltix lie a scattering of small lakes, also shrouded in fog, that have come to be called Deeplakes. A trail enters the northern edge of the Wonnwol just between Woltix and a rise called Toborm Mound to its south, but it plays out long before it comes near these lakes. Almost no one ventures far along this trail and, of those who do, even fewer return. The Wonnwol ends at its southern end at Rhulan, the second tallest mountain visible from the Valley (7500) with its steep and rocky descent to cliffs at the edge of the Sea that effectively terminate the southeastern extent of the Valley. The heights of Zaw are visible to its east (4900) and the volcano Balgoom (6200) rises alongside the Sea to its southeast. Whether there are other mountains along the Sea farther south of these is unknown, for a constant Wonnwol-like fog south of Balgoom obscures any features of the terrain.

The Grasses

The region called the Grasses is a broad expanse of ritta and winnoh grasses, within which small areas of damgograss and other growths may be found. It begins east of the Backroad which runs for about 8 margins along the northeast of the Valley at the beginning of the rise to The Rim, a long broad ridge or plateau at the highest level of the Grasses (3500 feet in altitude) that curves for almost 100 miles from north of the mines of Old Town down to and inclusive of the rise of Fup. (It can reasonably be assumed that this plateau is continuous with the fog-free plateau to the northwest of the beginning of the Valley and from which the stream which becomes the River begins.) Herds of damgos abound all along this uplift from the Backroad east. The Rim effectively marks the eastern edge of the Valley. It is, like the Wonnwol, shrouded in fog, wispy at its western edge and becoming very dense a stroll or so farther in. It is thought that this fog is continuous with that of the Wonnwol to the south and the area which can be glimpsed south of Balgoom. In a very real sense this constant fog closes off Isstrahm to the east, just as the Westmountains close it off to the west.

The Desert

The Desert spreads to the west of the Westmountains at an elevation of about 1600 feet. Scrubby near the mountains, it becomes rocky and sandy farther west, stretching flat and forbidding for as far as the eye can see. To the northwest of the mountain Distr in a large depressed bowl in the Desert (400 feet on its flat bottom) lie the salt flats, which seem to stretch westward for many miles.

The Sea

The Sea to the south of the Valley is red in color, ranging from a bright scarlet to a muddy red near the River delta and along the coast. It is salty and abounds in marine life. The small settlement of Mad Seasuch in a cove between Rhulan and Balgoom and the smaller settlement of Lostworld in an inlet between Westmount and Distr are the only places of human habitation outside of the Valley proper. There are no islands within sight of inhabited land, though a large sandbar (the Great Cuscbar), visible at low tides, lies six or seven miles off the coast where the waters from Timmesfel Ethcaach and Devi Bog empty into the Sea.

Maps

mapYsstrhm.jpgParRrelom.jpgTerrainFirstQuest.jpg

THE TERRAIN OF THE FIRST QUEST

TerrainSecondFlight.jpg

TERRAIN OF THE SECOND FLIGHT

IsleofKings.jpgPalace.jpg

THE PALACE

Challories.jpg

II

CHRONOLOGY

Annals Of The Valley

There is no historical record for the first five hundred years of the following chronology. Much of it comes from a bundle of pages scribed, according to lore, by a person called Teller, whose actual name and gender is unknown and even whose existence has been doubted by some. It was an account that was once revered but since the Wasting lost forever. How much of the story that remains is an accurate telling cannot be determined. Sometime around the year 500 the account was continued in sparse detail by another unknown scribe and passed down to the early Wisemen, who continued it, and eventually found a place for it in their library at the Bulwark. Since the origin of the Wisemen is itself unknown, none of this background is altogether reliable. Still, it was around the year 50 in the calendar of Uusthar (therefore according to the older chronology some 1045 years after its beginning) that the Wisemen revised and perhaps rewrote fragments of the earlier materials and continued with the account. These fragments, beginning after the beginning account below, have been edited and restructured for the present purpose. As originally recorded they remain in any case unknown and unread except by a few of the succeeding Masters of Learning. The final listing of the year 1722 in the Uusthar calendar has been added.

The Beginning

Their home smoldered in a desert, split and open to a drying sun. A hundred or so terrified people looked out on a waste of sand and rock and no water as far as the eye could circle. In pain and panic they gathered their treasures together and huddled with them under a large piece of the wreckage. The plants were dead or dying in the dryness and no rain fell. It was clear to most of them then that they must search away from their useless home for a better place. On the fourth morning 78 men and women, four head of the great milk and meat providers, several smaller meat providers, and a few canines set out on foot carrying seeds, cats, several nuclear bee hives, and enough water and food for thirty days. They went to the east into the rising sun. Some were left because they would not go. And they died.

The troop walked across the sand towards more sand, always keeping the morning sun in their eyes. When they reached the first water hole, in sight of very distant white tipped mountains, only 62 remained alive and all of the smaller meat providers had been eaten. Thirty-three days had passed and all water and almost all food were gone. All heavy baggage, including most weapons, had been dropped on their way and the bulk of the precious seeds were lost or had been fed to the milk and meat providers, of which only three remained. Two nuclear bee casks remained undamaged. After two days and facing starvation, they moved towards the mountains—all except twelve who were unable to walk and two who elected to stay with them. (And these died soon.)

As the 48 came nearer to the mountains they saw winged things overhead and tufts of blackened grass underfoot. They took heart. But then the one remaining female milk provider died and they lost heart. With a renewed supply of meat they moved on listlessly and silent. Then they entered an even more forbidding stretch of desert which spread for about forty walks to the foot of the mountains. All signs of alien life except the few winged things disappeared. Seven more people died before the group made its way to a lone pinnacle of rock in the desert which lay perhaps ten walks before the rise of an enormous mountain. There they rested in its shade, buried their newly dead, slaughtered the remaining bull, and, discarding all but the very barest essentials of water and food, set out, 39 together (two more having died), with four canines, two cats, two bee casks, and a few small sacks of seeds. At the close of that day they camped on the edge of a wide ravine which lay at the very foot of the mountains. They could see shrubs in the bottom of the ravine and larger bushes of some sort in the mountain passes. Bare hints of clouds formed late in the day, then disappeared.

In the morning they found their number diminished by three, who were buried in the sand at the bottom of the ravine, which they then followed southward. The ravine narrowed and eventually a small trickle of water appeared in it. They followed it for hours, climbing, until it ended at a ridge. Before them they saw a pass between the nearest mountains and they made their way towards it. Just before darkness fell they topped another ridge and made their meager camp. There was much muttering and little sleep that night. Odd sounds and calls were heard and several of the group were greatly frightened by what they described as whispers and hissings in their ears.

At the first hint of daylight they crossed the ridge and followed another trickle of water that grew to a small stream that, before long, cut a deep canyon through the heart of the mountains. Then they rested for the night and ate everything they had left but a few strips of tough meat. There were many peculiar bushes about and small trees, scorpion-like creatures, and a few winged things, somewhat smaller than those they had seen before.

The next day they continued until the canyon walls, often no more than twenty feet apart, stood up a hundred feet or more on either side and blotted out the sun. Some said the whisperings increased, though others heard it not. Suddenly at dusk they came to the end of the canyon as its stream emptied out, now flowing with a decent volume, into a forest a walk or two away. They howled with joy. From their height at the foot of the mountains they saw in the dim light that they had entered a large mountain-ringed valley, though it was not until early morning that they could see its green lushness spread out before them, approximately 50 walks across and at least 100 walks long, with a large and placid river flowing down to a deep red sea some 25 walks south. Almost directly to the north-east, beginning some 25 walks distant there was a large blue lake which seemingly ended against the distant cloud-shrouded mountains. To the east there was a smaller mountain or large knoll plopped down in the middle of the valley. They had crossed the desert and the mountains and they had found the unexpected.

But the dawn brought something else. Five persons were missing, as well as one of the canines. The barking of the latter led them to the group on the rocks above, or at least to the three survivors, the other two having died with convulsions after eating the watery berries of a small thorny tree nearby. The three were brought back, but only one them ever spoke again. His body jerking and knotted, he died, alternately muttering and shouting about the mountains that whispered and the rocks which called his name. The small group scrambled in terror down stream and away from the rocks. From that time on the mountains to the west of the valley were avoided, and this changed very little for the next 3000 years.

Now there were 33, two of whom were listless and mute and had to be led by the hand as they made their way down the stream, away from the mountains and their whispering and to the edge of the forest. Making camp early, they talked everything over, exhilarated at their discovery of the valley and its prospects and yet terrified by their recent experience. They decided to fashion spears and clubs from the larger bushes about them and move cautiously to the large river next morning in hopes of discovering a site for a more permanent camp. This never happened. During the night their camp was disrupted and trampled by a herd of huge, irritable, stupid, and tough-skinned animals. Moreover, as a scouting party of six set off towards the river the next morning, they were, they said, set upon several very large, confusing creatures that, impervious to their clumsy weapons, devoted themselves to pulling off the arms and legs off the men they were able to catch. The remaining three members of the scouting party returned in terror and the entire group immediately pulled back is disarray towards the mountains. After a hurried conference, it was agreed that the deeper forests towards the south and the sea were too dangerous to attempt and that, in fact, the river in that country was probably too subject to flooding to afford a settlement.

They therefore turned north, hugging but not entering the dreaded mountains and watching for the thinning of the forest and the narrowing of the river. There were now 30 humans (23 men, of whom four were helpless, and 7 women), 4 canines, 2 cats, and one bee cask, the other of which had been dropped, broken, and abandoned in their earlier scramble away from the edge of the forest. They clubbed to death and ate small animals, somewhat like rabbits and lizards, that they found along the way, drank from the streams that tumbled from the mountains, and delicately tasted various roots and berries. In any event, most of them survived, though a sudden downpour had caught the party in a low area near the mountains and a sudden torrent of water had swept three of them, all the seeds, and most of their new weapons and supplies away. Most survived. They continued their trek, dogged by an outbreak of painful cramps and continuous diarrhea, their clothes tattered and unprotective, hope almost lost, fear ever present.

They did find their home, however. They had been in the valley eight days.

The first settlement was beyond and above the forests and high in the valley near where it seemed to end in a sudden uplift towards small mountains to the north. It sat on the banks of the great river that flowed into the sea some hundred walks or so south, though here it was small and occasionally but a trickle, yet becoming a raging torrent after the rains. Still, the terrain was perfect for damming the river and irrigating the rocky soil. The mountains are close to the west, but not too close; no one complained of the whispering. To the east the land turned up suddenly and rose, rich in ore, to a large plateau that was blanketed with tall