Tympi's Journal
Table of Contents
Tympi's Journal was originally discovered by DAN Wildcloak on Nurend 13, 308 while the Spiritual Travelers were investigating Tympi's House. It is gradually being read over by the one person in the group that can read the strange language within: Hysteria.
The journal itself is made of high-quality paper and bound in a hardwood with a gold filigree around the perimeter. At the center of the cover is a simple spade-shaped leaf design which is recognizable as a Mothlight Leaf, and the cover and paper are likely made of Mothlight Tree wood.
There aren't really dates to separate the content, perhaps not something that the author had a grasp of.
Over the next several months my eyes were glued to her. I was still growing, but not as fast as it had started out. I practiced flying with my new wings, they were purple just like I had been before my slumber, and a fine powder fell from the fur that covered them as I flew or bumped into things...clumsy. I didn't have anyone to talk to during those months, I just protected my sister. She slept most of the autumn and all of winter away, wrapped up safe and warm. When she emerged she was just a little butterfly. A monarch no larger than half of one of my wings. We recognize each other, we understand each other, and I hope that we will have many years to get to know the world around us even better.
It started with my front legs, they've thickened slightly and the "feet" have rearranged into something hand-like. It was unusual walking on them, but they are becoming useful, and my mind has already adapted to start using them. The light that comes from these trees...it is significant. I can tell that something is awakening in me. Ilven isn't too far behind in terms of metamorphosis. My posture seems to be correcting itself so that my hands and arms are higher above the ground. I now walk on my middle and rear legs while my upper body continues to contort away from the ground. Each day my middle appendages feel weaker, they're receding and wilting away while my rear legs grow stronger and longer.
I woke up again today... Ilven said I slept through the whole summer, just like when we first changed. She watched over me though, and she says that her time will come in the winter months...how does she know? We spent the autumn together finishing a home she had begun putting together in the bough of this tree, it's so beautiful, and my new ...humanoid, faerie-like form helped a great deal. I've discovered during this construction project that I can actually control plants to an extent, moving and reshaping them, changing their colors, I feel a connection to everything around me, like the forest and myself are one and the same. Ilven slept through the winter, as she predicted, and I kept her safe and warm in our new home. It really was just like back then... When she woke up she looked a lot like I do now, but with the fiery monarch wings she's always had, and her skin was incredibly pale. Despite everything that had happened, it felt like we had a home again. This strange land we had woken up in those 50 years ago was now more familiar than anywhere else we'd ever been.
It finally bloomed! It's nighttime, the first night of autumn, a rather pleasant evening. Something unexpected has happened. Along with the gorgeous flower revealing itself as it blooms, a creature has...crawled out from within the petals. It looked a lot like how I imagine i must have looked. This larval form is likely just the first of many stages in its life. I think I'll name them Anvi. I can't wait to see what you turn out to be, Anvi, I'm sure it'll be amazing.
A year has passed since Anvi bloomed, the new spring season is coming to an end and it seems they've entered some sort of hibernation. Over the last year they've grown quite a bit. Unlike Ilven and I who were still just tiny caterpillars when we spun our cocoons... Furthermore, Anvi isn't spinning a cocoon, they're just sleeping. As the summer months passed, Anvi slept, and as they slept, they changed form...it was like watching Ilven all over again. Today, as I'm writing this, they're finally waking backup. He's a powder-blue and indigo winged luna moth, the “tails” from his wings stretch down below his feet and end with a gradient up into a bright orange-red. His eyes are black while his antennae are a very dark blue and his fur is a bright, almost white, blue... He's the first of many Mothlings.
I stayed with her, and we kept at it until she was exhausted. It was months until something finally sprouted, and just like that her tears stopped. I was so happy for her, she seemed to have some untapped potential after all. I'm really excited to see what comes of this.
We kept an eye on this sprout as it grew up into a flower. As it began to bloom we stared, and, just as it had happened centuries ago, a small caterpillar crawled out of the flower. Ilven named them Flu, and they have awoken with the appearance of a Pipevine Swallowtail after hibernation. I'm looking forward to seeing all the different Myotlings and Mothlings playing together. It's such a peaceful, joyous time.
The friends that Ilven and I met have been doing a lot of traveling together. It's so much fun to just roam the forest and learn new things again. I could feel myself growing stagnated staying cooped up in the village. While I do love taking care of the kids, I feel like there is still much for me to learn in this world. The more mothlights I plant the more of the forest I can see, and the easier it is to get around. We even left the forest! I had no idea such a big world was out there. We crossed a river which Spenolt seemed to have an intense connection with, through the desert, and into these grasslands with horrible winds and lightning. Meli was eager to get back to her home here at the edge of a forest and I even planted a mothlight tree nearby so that I could visit her easier. Her village was full of mushroom people like her, they're all so cute! But during our travels I felt something. Something incredibly unpleasant. We stayed in Meli's Garden for a bit until I had time to figure out what it was. I'm gazing into my lantern as I write this, and what I'm seeing is worse than I thought. Darkness is spreading through the forest at an alarming rate. Mothlight after mothlight is becoming unusable as the area is shrouded in nothingness. It's almost solid, like a wall of ink or something... I needed to get back home immediately. Ilven was asleep, it was Winter, after all, and the children needed to be protected.
We never saw what did it, I can barely remember what its voice sounded like, but I distinctly remember the phrase "Let me help, your victory will be payment enough."
This story is frightening, unusual, I am unfamiliar with some of these things, but the feeling of falling before ending up in this realm is one that I can still remember from several thousand years ago. I believe that this happened, anyways... He showed up on the shores of Spenolt's River, he said he could feel pieces of himself washing away. Thoughts of home, sentiments, misery... he was so grateful to be fished free of those waters he wouldn't let go of me for several minutes. It took him a lot longer to be ready to leave than other travelers, he spent a long time in the village, but everyone seemed to enjoy his company anyways. Well, everyone but Ilven, she still can't seem to get over outsiders. She says that they'll be our downfall someday, they're too risky... I just can't leave them alone to die though.
I gave them a place to stay for some time, Ilven still doesn't agree with helping outsiders like this...she's always so worried that they'll hurt the children. Anyways, they have already taken advantage of the hospitality of all the talented mothlings, and we went out to learn about the forest together for a few weeks. They're a natural! Their knowledge of plantlife, despite being based in a more arid environment, has really translated well. I have no doubt that they'll be able to survive here. Their journey lies beyond the forest though, and it's time I let them go. Can't hold onto them forever, after all.
He's learning about plants and survival techniques incredibly quickly for someone so young, Everyone in the village just adores him too, and I really hope that we're able to find his sister. He says her name is Anise. Basil and Anise... We're heading out again soon. I'm making this last entry in case we end up leaving the forest for awhile and I don't make it back home for a bit.
The Diary
Lost in a Strange Land
Earliest Memories
My earliest memories... well, to think that I have memories, and words to put those memories in to, but that is a topic for another time. Today I woke up, and I now have a concept of not only who I am, where I am, what I am, and everything involved with myself...but I now have a concept of the past. It wasn't quite as instant as that though, I feel like I've been waking up a little more each day, and now that I can actually reflect on it I can confirm that there's definitely something happening. I'm writing these with my antennae, as they twitch and shift leaving marks on leaves, my legs and the tails from my wings providing different shapes and intent. The idea of langauge is still so knew, yet I can somehow write my thoughts coherently... My earliest memories felt like an ideal place to start this record though, and what I remember most vividly is falling, something liquid and sticky...blood? Sap? I'm not sure, but as the falling and churning continued I found myself unable to perceive for some time. When I woke back up I saw the beautiful world around me. There was so much to eat, to see, and so many dangers to avoid. She was with me then, I remember seeing her crawling about. She must have come with me, and I'm still glad she did even after all of our disagreements. We lived longer than any caterpillars should. We took care of each other though, and over the years as the caterpillar thoughts began to recede we began to have a deeper understanding of each other, a concept of family. We were able to find food, eat, and live our caterpillar lives without much of a care for many years, but then one spring morning I began to feel even more of an understanding of myself...and as I spun a long overdue cocoon around myself I knew that when I next opened my eyes I would be more different than I could ever really expect.Metamorphosis
When I next opened my eyes I felt as if I were looking upon the world for the first time. Summer was coming to an end, and while before I had a grasp of what was around me as "Food" or "Danger" or "Friend", things started to have names now. I could see a plant and know that it aught to be called something... the bark reminded me of stone, and the wood inside that I could get to felt incredibly durable. Stone? Durable? What were these words? Where did they come from? As I looked about amazed by the world around me, I knew that something was missing... where was Ilven? Who? My Caterpillar friend...she was watching over me as I slept, and now I should do the same for her, but I could not find her amongst the leaves. Realization dawned on me...she may look different. She may look as my discarded shell does. Hidden somewhere away from predators. I found myself using reason, how bizarre. With this new thought in my mind I was able to locate her, and being careful not to disturb the inner workings of her silken chamber. Doing so I immediately realized how much I had grown. The cocoon I had departed not too long ago was now half my size, yet the sun had only set once or twice since then.Over the next several months my eyes were glued to her. I was still growing, but not as fast as it had started out. I practiced flying with my new wings, they were purple just like I had been before my slumber, and a fine powder fell from the fur that covered them as I flew or bumped into things...clumsy. I didn't have anyone to talk to during those months, I just protected my sister. She slept most of the autumn and all of winter away, wrapped up safe and warm. When she emerged she was just a little butterfly. A monarch no larger than half of one of my wings. We recognize each other, we understand each other, and I hope that we will have many years to get to know the world around us even better.
Home
I don't know how I know, but it has been 50 years since we crawled from our cocoons. Not much has really felt worth writing about. We were just floating about, growing, learning... There's a tree I found nearby, it's so beautiful. At night it glows, the light it emits makes me feel comfortable like I'm "home". I've been eating the leaves from this tree, I am feeling something...different. Perhaps it is just my imagination, like I'm looking for something new. Ilven thinks there's something going on too though...It started with my front legs, they've thickened slightly and the "feet" have rearranged into something hand-like. It was unusual walking on them, but they are becoming useful, and my mind has already adapted to start using them. The light that comes from these trees...it is significant. I can tell that something is awakening in me. Ilven isn't too far behind in terms of metamorphosis. My posture seems to be correcting itself so that my hands and arms are higher above the ground. I now walk on my middle and rear legs while my upper body continues to contort away from the ground. Each day my middle appendages feel weaker, they're receding and wilting away while my rear legs grow stronger and longer.
I woke up again today... Ilven said I slept through the whole summer, just like when we first changed. She watched over me though, and she says that her time will come in the winter months...how does she know? We spent the autumn together finishing a home she had begun putting together in the bough of this tree, it's so beautiful, and my new ...humanoid, faerie-like form helped a great deal. I've discovered during this construction project that I can actually control plants to an extent, moving and reshaping them, changing their colors, I feel a connection to everything around me, like the forest and myself are one and the same. Ilven slept through the winter, as she predicted, and I kept her safe and warm in our new home. It really was just like back then... When she woke up she looked a lot like I do now, but with the fiery monarch wings she's always had, and her skin was incredibly pale. Despite everything that had happened, it felt like we had a home again. This strange land we had woken up in those 50 years ago was now more familiar than anywhere else we'd ever been.
Awakening
The First Mothling
A hundred years have passed since we arrived in this realm. While it was once seen as a strange new land, I now realize that I know almost nothing about where I came from. My caterpillar brain had no concept of family or friendship, and the plane of reality I may have originated on is of little consequence. I know with utmost certainty that I was not significant until I arrived in this realm, but why was I brought here? I was practicing...moving the flowers, making them bloom, mixing seeds and applying different spells and thoughts, different muds and mixtures. I developed a seed, a special soil, and I cultivated this new flower in the home that Ilven and I built within the bough of the Mothlight Tree. I had already grown and developed many flowers and had made a meadow that now surrounds this tree. I prayed, meditated, channeled all the energy I could into this seed... I didn't know why. I didn't know what I was really doing, but something was guiding me, almost subconsciously, to do what I was doing. When it sprouted I cried, and as it continued to grow I continued to study it, to learn all that I could, and to pour even more of myself into it.It finally bloomed! It's nighttime, the first night of autumn, a rather pleasant evening. Something unexpected has happened. Along with the gorgeous flower revealing itself as it blooms, a creature has...crawled out from within the petals. It looked a lot like how I imagine i must have looked. This larval form is likely just the first of many stages in its life. I think I'll name them Anvi. I can't wait to see what you turn out to be, Anvi, I'm sure it'll be amazing.
A year has passed since Anvi bloomed, the new spring season is coming to an end and it seems they've entered some sort of hibernation. Over the last year they've grown quite a bit. Unlike Ilven and I who were still just tiny caterpillars when we spun our cocoons... Furthermore, Anvi isn't spinning a cocoon, they're just sleeping. As the summer months passed, Anvi slept, and as they slept, they changed form...it was like watching Ilven all over again. Today, as I'm writing this, they're finally waking backup. He's a powder-blue and indigo winged luna moth, the “tails” from his wings stretch down below his feet and end with a gradient up into a bright orange-red. His eyes are black while his antennae are a very dark blue and his fur is a bright, almost white, blue... He's the first of many Mothlings.
Ilven's Ambitions
It has become apparent that Ilven is...well, not as blessed as I seem to be. She's beautiful, and amazing, and my sister, but she doesn't seem to have the magical connection that I do. It sounds so harsh and vain, even when it's just being written down, but it's true and she's come to notice this as well. She's asked for help creating her own "Myotlings", and I feel obligated to help her with this. I've found that I'm capable of making one mothling every hundred years, by the time Ilven had started begging for help making her own I had already grown three of my own and two had bloomed. She seemed to be jealous of such an ability, or perhaps there was something more pure about her desires...either way I agreed to help. So we sat in this meadow, just the two of us, my mothling children were out roaming the forest, their flowers carefully protected. It was like old times, Ilven and Tympi at it again. Learning about what we are capable of in this world. I showed her the process of making a seed, had her copy me, and tried to explain the process of prayer, meditation, channeling energy, and just listening to the voice inside and doing whatever it says. She tried, and tried, and tried... until she began to cry, and seeing her tears made me cry with her. Something was wrong. Or so we thought.I stayed with her, and we kept at it until she was exhausted. It was months until something finally sprouted, and just like that her tears stopped. I was so happy for her, she seemed to have some untapped potential after all. I'm really excited to see what comes of this.
We kept an eye on this sprout as it grew up into a flower. As it began to bloom we stared, and, just as it had happened centuries ago, a small caterpillar crawled out of the flower. Ilven named them Flu, and they have awoken with the appearance of a Pipevine Swallowtail after hibernation. I'm looking forward to seeing all the different Myotlings and Mothlings playing together. It's such a peaceful, joyous time.
New Friends
The forest is apparently full of other creatures. We knew this. We hid from the dangers the first few decades, and, in a way, we are still hiding. We've built more little homes for our children, and a lovely little village has formed. Over the years they've gained their own personalities, ambitions, and lives. Years, decades, centuries, even a millennium or two went by. Everything was so peaceful, and the only time a mothling suffered was from some accident in the woods, but even if they perished their flower would just rebloom and they'd be back again before too long. It was...morbid, but in a way it was a relief to know that as long as their flowers were alive we would see them again. I developed a way to hide their flowers in the beams of light emitted by the mothlight tree, and I planted more throughout the forest to spread their light. Ilven and I even made some new friends with the other beings in the forest during this time. A mushroom by the name of Meli, a hag named Simol, a jellyfish named Spenolt, and, now and then, we would have the company of a wonderful Eadarling named Croak. They each had their own little societies...well, everyone but Croak, not sure what's up with him, but he's nice to have around. He seems to be the only Eadarling that can exist during both the day and the night, which is most unusual, and potentially useful.The friends that Ilven and I met have been doing a lot of traveling together. It's so much fun to just roam the forest and learn new things again. I could feel myself growing stagnated staying cooped up in the village. While I do love taking care of the kids, I feel like there is still much for me to learn in this world. The more mothlights I plant the more of the forest I can see, and the easier it is to get around. We even left the forest! I had no idea such a big world was out there. We crossed a river which Spenolt seemed to have an intense connection with, through the desert, and into these grasslands with horrible winds and lightning. Meli was eager to get back to her home here at the edge of a forest and I even planted a mothlight tree nearby so that I could visit her easier. Her village was full of mushroom people like her, they're all so cute! But during our travels I felt something. Something incredibly unpleasant. We stayed in Meli's Garden for a bit until I had time to figure out what it was. I'm gazing into my lantern as I write this, and what I'm seeing is worse than I thought. Darkness is spreading through the forest at an alarming rate. Mothlight after mothlight is becoming unusable as the area is shrouded in nothingness. It's almost solid, like a wall of ink or something... I needed to get back home immediately. Ilven was asleep, it was Winter, after all, and the children needed to be protected.
The Age of Darkness
Retreat
I made it back to the tree, the first one, the one we built our home into and planted a meadow around... Everyone seemed fine, but I KNEW danger was coming. Something unknown. I've never been this terrified before. I followed my instinct as I always did, and I managed to find a way to hide the entire village, not just their flowers, but the mothlings, the myotlings, their homes, the first tree too. It was all safe and secure, nothing could hurt us here. Ilven was still safe in bed, the children were all fine but frightened, and I spent some time calming them down. Everything was going fine...and as the winter months were coming to an end, as Ilven was about to awaken to see the new realm I had manifested... I saw it. Or, rather, I saw nothing. The world outside had turned black. The wall of darkness, the rippling inky blackness had completely filled everything that I could see. A few dark spots on a map were now the entirety of reality. Ilven woke up, she was frightened and I calmed her as best I could. Our friends were out there somewhere worried, and I had a feeling we would all need to work together to put an end to whatever this was. Additionally, Ilven had another thought on the whole ordeal: "What happens to the village when there's no more light?"Out of Options
Ilven and I risked it all and left the village behind. We were out of options and staying there would've likely meant certain death anyways. There was nothing to see outside, but the world was still there. Not being used to being so blind I was bumping into everything, and no matter what I did I couldn't muster up enough energy to pierce this darkness. By some miracle, however, our friends were there, just outside the tree, and we began our journey across this vast and imperceptible expanse. While it was awful and frightening, there was at least some solace in that we didn't have to go at it alone. Each gate we were able to make it to was sealed somehow. No energy was making its way in or out, probably dampened by whatever presence was causing this darkness. A vision suddenly struck me as we passed yet another inaccessible gate. It was the first thing I had seen in months, and while it was still entirely within my head it felt real, perhaps an actual light in the darkness. The vision I saw was of a barely lit throne made of some matte, flat and smooth stone with an impressive gradient of greys throughout its surface. The light on this throne seemed to be coming from above and hardly providing any light at all, and I could barely recognize something within the vision before it faded to pitch black once more. I know I saw the roots of a tree, and---We never saw what did it, I can barely remember what its voice sounded like, but I distinctly remember the phrase "Let me help, your victory will be payment enough."
Travelers
Ever since the darkness receded and we had our home back, a great deal more outsiders began to accidentally find their way into the gates. Some are seen just as they vanish again, some show up in areas that I can't see before being taken by something else, and a few are lucky enough to be rescued and shown the way of the Gates before it's too late. It's been a few thousand years since we drove back the darkness, but I've decided to include three of the travelers I encountered and was able to help.Ansel
This one was a bit unusual, even for the variety of lost travelers I frequently encounter. He was apparently on vacation with his family. The last thing he remembered was his brother staying back at the "hotel" while he went skiing with his father. He was in the mountains of all places! How'd he end up here? Anyways, he said that at some point the ground just gave way, where there was snow and rock suddenly it just dropped. His dad was a good distance ahead, didn't here him scream as he fell. He claims that as he fell he couldn't see or hear anything around him, but he heard a bell ringing from a "phone", the sound of his brother's and sister's voices talking about him, and the last thing he heard before blacking out was the sound of a siren.This story is frightening, unusual, I am unfamiliar with some of these things, but the feeling of falling before ending up in this realm is one that I can still remember from several thousand years ago. I believe that this happened, anyways... He showed up on the shores of Spenolt's River, he said he could feel pieces of himself washing away. Thoughts of home, sentiments, misery... he was so grateful to be fished free of those waters he wouldn't let go of me for several minutes. It took him a lot longer to be ready to leave than other travelers, he spent a long time in the village, but everyone seemed to enjoy his company anyways. Well, everyone but Ilven, she still can't seem to get over outsiders. She says that they'll be our downfall someday, they're too risky... I just can't leave them alone to die though.
Vera
This one called themselves a "Murid", a species of ratfolk from a world they referred to as "Taranel". Apparently they grew up in a desert ruled over by a very old and powerful creature called Ulktorov, a Sand Great Wyrm! This creature, according to Vera, liked to dig underground and built itself a subterranean lair. This traveler belongs to a whole tribe of murids that "worship" and "pay tribute" to a spiritual plant at the center of their village: A Blue Agave, and according to legend this plant provides some form of life energy to the surrounding plant life. I tried to learn how they got here, but they didn't seem to remember much about what happened. A heavy rainstorm was the last thing they can recall, trying to get back to their village, and then the next time they blinked they were still in a rainstorm but instead in the middle of my forest!I gave them a place to stay for some time, Ilven still doesn't agree with helping outsiders like this...she's always so worried that they'll hurt the children. Anyways, they have already taken advantage of the hospitality of all the talented mothlings, and we went out to learn about the forest together for a few weeks. They're a natural! Their knowledge of plantlife, despite being based in a more arid environment, has really translated well. I have no doubt that they'll be able to survive here. Their journey lies beyond the forest though, and it's time I let them go. Can't hold onto them forever, after all.
Basil
The most recent of travelers to happen into this realm, and one of the least violent entrances too. He didn't fall in, or get pulled into a vortex of some kind, or get lost in a storm...it seems this one intended to come here somehow. He claims his sister built a gate...a new Gate? The fact that such a thing is possible is incredibly intriguing! Think of all the amazing outsiders we could meet, all the fun stories they could tell, wacky artifacts from far away lands, so much potential to learn and grow and .. .anyways. Basil came here with his sister, or chased after his sister when she wandered through the gate she made. She was no where to be found though, and we've been looking for her for the last few days. He seem perpetually hopeful that he'll find her despite the lack of any success. We haven't even found any signs that she is here at all, but he just keeps searching.He's learning about plants and survival techniques incredibly quickly for someone so young, Everyone in the village just adores him too, and I really hope that we're able to find his sister. He says her name is Anise. Basil and Anise... We're heading out again soon. I'm making this last entry in case we end up leaving the forest for awhile and I don't make it back home for a bit.
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