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[h3]The Journals of Thessemalitha[/h3]
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[i]Dear journal,
Thank you for lending me your stone in this place where good clay and decent paper are in such demand. I wish to introduce myself to you formally before our cooperationship commences. Many souls in this world may see you as nothing but slabs of rock, but my kind knows well the sapience and emotions of what others may consider ‘inanimate objects’. I wish to greet you therefore, dear journal, with the same respect and humility I would offer any of my colleagues.

I am Thessemalitha, named so of my own choosing. In the first year of Our Rector, I came into this world as the majority of our kin, the Kynikos, did. Not long after my birth, I was swept up in the finest silks, fashioned by the Rector Himself, and I was shown to the libraries on the fourth floor of the Academy. Here, I was tasked with compiling volumes on the properties of stone - see? I know your kin quite well, dear journal. 

It was worthy work, certainly, but in frankness, dear journal, I always believed I was destined for greater things. Pray do not undress my outer facade to any of my later readers, for I do not wish to blaspheme - the Academy is a most holy place, and to study in the Rector’s halls has been nothing short of paradise. And yet, when the ranger Biluda convinced the Rector to open the gates and usher forth the Grand Expeditions, I was ecstatic. 

How fortunate that I would live to see all these sights, learn all this knowledge.

I joined a force calling itself the Southern Expedition. Our leader, Shirvaaz, dreams one day of journeying to the very south of this world - rumours say a great source of magic hides there beyond the edges of all land. Apart from Shirvaaz, we have Muulthas and Cylonthieus, our two guardians, and the ranger Hami. Like me, Shirvaaz is a scholar, and has been helping me order my notes and will provide feedback to my work.

It is with this greeting that I would like to initiate our cooperative relationship, dear journal. I thank you for lending me your stone pages, and hope that you will thank me for using them to immortalise my findings. We leave for the south tomorrow.

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[b][h3]Entry One[/h3][/b]
Dear journal,

I should have made more of an effort to journal our travels across the seas. Yet as it turns out, even stonewriting magic, which comes so naturally to us scholars, is not as easy to control when crossing a stormy ocean. Perhaps it was a joke by the gods, for I pondered forth a good name for the sea between these two landmasses, but had no time to write it down. It made me quite frustrated, for I have not been able to recall it since. Though then again, if it was so easily forgettable, perhaps it is better to leave the naming to future generations.

The storm tossed off quite a bit off course, unfortunately, and Hami speculates that we have landed much further west than we initially intended. The Rector’s notes told us there would be land here, too, but it seems they, as blasphemic as it may sound, could be slightly outdated. 

For now that we have finally reached land, we have come to green and mountainous soil. Hairy quadrupeds not too unlike those that roam the coast beyond Academy Island are plentiful here; they are much smaller, though, and it is almost a shame to leave here so soon when there are clearly so many unanswered questions in this region. So much to explore!

We will spend the day resting here. I will hike some distance from the camp - see what I find.

[b][h3]Entry Two[/h3][/b]
Dear journal, 

I did it. I managed to convince Shirvaaz that this region still has too much undiscovered potential to be left unstudied. He agreed - though reluctantly - and has sent Hami and Muulthas into the woods to gather building materials to set up a research camp. Meanwhile I have been sketching my observations and studying their behaviours. I encountered this strange species which I have yet to have observed in the Far North: 

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Terminusian hill elk.[/centre]

The behaviour of the Terminusian hill elk is not so different from the Northern elk in that they both consume biotic material and assume movement using four legs, also fashioned from biotic material, though neither here is it the same material as they eat. I am partial to Baldhazzahar’s writings on the lifestyles of bio-feeders for explaining how biotic feed is turned into living flesh and weave, but I will not delve into what Baldhazzar’s theory entails here. I can only say that I see no deviations from his hypotheses yet.

That will be all for this entry. I will be roaming these hills some more in search of more to study!
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[hider=Summary]
The Kynikos scholar Thessemalitha writes her journal, sayng she’s glad that she can travel and joins an expedition heading towards the south pole.
The second entry talks about how they’ve just crossed the sea between the NORF and Terminus and are now chilling in Tamarzh-Kagi (zone between Nalusa and Keltra).
Third entry is Thessemalitha saying they’ve decided to stay in Tamarzh-Kagi a bit and set up a research base. She also finds mountain goats and calls them Terminusian hill elks, because they remind her of the giant elk in the NORF.
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