[h2][center][color=Brown]Raethel Norvegicus and the Rattus People[/color][/center][/h2] [center][i]Some years prior[/i][/center] The trials of sailing the boats along the coastline had evolved in time. Namely, after the original flaws in design had been investigated and either corrected or doomed that craft's design, the refined water craft would take to the coastline again, this time for longer and longer periods. After a point it stopped being about finding faults and issues with the designs and became more about weighing the pros and cons that each design could offer. After months of trails the design selected was effectively just a bigger and wider version of the river craft, but rather then risk open waters a different journey of discovery was suggested. Those craft that had traveled along the coast northwards made several notes on a large landmass in the distance that was connected to their own via a sand covered passage. Since they didn't exactly know what was on this new land at this moment in time, the possibility of danger was present... even more so since almost all Pretender sightings suggested that they traveled along that passage in order to reach Rattus held lands. So rather then sail directly to this new land in order to test the craft out on open salt water, the idea instead was to sail along the sand passage to investigate this new land... and then sail back via open water so that in the event that the ship was damaged, the crew wouldn't have to be concerned with walking all the way home in possible Pretender held lands. Surprising to many, Raethel insisted on being apart of this expedition. Officially he said it was so that they could give the regent speaker a chance to get used to the job, but privately it was because Leucopus was going and he wished to spend some actual time with her that wasn't going to be interrupted by his duties as Speaker. Plus it would be nice to actually leave his homeland to see a new land for himself. The journey along the coast took a couple of days and for the purposes of this record were largely uneventful. It was mostly just Rattus either working the oars, fishing or resting (or in the case of Raethel and Leucopus, snuggling up together). The new land in question slowly became visible on the horizon and it was easy to see how it differed from their native homeland; It was green... and the green seemed to reach up into the sky a fair ways. The mystery of the coloration was quickly answered as they drew near this once distant shore; The land itself seemed to be covered in trees. Massive trees. Plant life as well littered the shade of these giants. While the river provided life to plants and greenery, it was generally localized within an area around the river itself; You could literally have one paw on ground able to support plant life and one on dry, barren sand at the same time. There didn't seem to be that disparity here. It was just green and brown. Going through their supplies and deeming that it would be more then enough to cover the trip and the test back home they decided not to disembark... but Leucopus found Raethel staring at the trees on more then one occasion... and before they underwent the true test she decided to ask her lover what was on his mind. "[color=brown]...I was just thinking... remembering actually. One of the early river craft designs was made out of wood. It was a pretty good design too, but since trees are a rare resource back home it was beaten out by craft made out of reeds. We didn't even have an ocean craft made out of wood because there weren't enough trees and the followers of the wind of life deemed the matter not worthy of accelerating growth. But a settlement here... well, not only could we build craft out of wood here, but we could ship it back home and we'll never have wood issues again.[/color]" Of course, it was just an idea at the time... but once the test run across open water proved successful Raethel decided to revisit the minds behind the original wooden craft and had words. Words turned into action as something of a call was put out for settlers of this new, green land. It took a bit of time, but soon reed craft were sailing out to drop off bands of Rattus on a suitable looking shore so that they might dig in and set up a new settlement. There were obstructions of course. This new land that the Rattus began calling Greenland had challenges of its own that the desert simply didn't, but once the Greenland settlement was properly established both above and below ground it quickly grew into one of the most important trading hubs within the Rattus nation; It's ability to produce and supply wood, new samples of plant life and even animals that the homeland lacked made in highly important... but the settlement wasn't content with merely being apart of an important trade hub. On the shoreline, new buildings were being produced above ground for a grand purpose. While reed craft had proven their worth and would continue to see use by the Rattus in both river and ocean activities, the cold hard truth was that for longer journeys, reed wasn't going to endure the rough conditions for an extended period of time; Sure it's possible that such a craft might make it on a one way trip, but the Rattus wanted to have a reasonable chance of making it safely back home. For that to be a reality, the Rattus were going to have to discover the secrets of woods. And what better place to learn those secrets but their first true dockyard? [hider=Summary] Having discovered that there was land across from where the river mouth is via the testing of their ocean craft designs, the Rattus decide that one of the final tests on open water, rather then going out to this land and then coming back, was instead to sail along the coastline to this land and then cross open water back home. Raethel himself goes on this trip because he needed a bit of a brake from being Speaker for a while and he wanted to spend some time with his lover Leucopus who would also be on the trip. Having arrived at this new land (which the Rattus would end up calling Greenland because of just how green and full of life the place is when compared to their original homes, through currently on the map it is listed as the Araucarian Forest) Raethel makes a plan to set up a new settlement here because the amount of wood that this forest has to offer is too great a boon to pass up. The Rattus sail back home without incident and Raethel seeks out some Rattus that came up with the idea of trying to make boats out of wood instead of reeds originally, even if the idea was scraped due to the lack of wood that their homeland provided... and alongside a number of other settlers they go to develop the Greenland settlement to serve as both a major supplier of wood and other resources new to the Rattus, but also serve as a center for wooden ship production. [/hider] [hider=Spirit] Start: 8 +1 for being apart of a post for longer then a line. +1 for being main character. +1 Med length post -10 The establishment of the Greenland Settlement offering a flux of bountiful resources to the Rattus homeland, as well as the establishment of wooden boats/ships and a dockyard to start making them. Divine Quest: Claim the Land of Deserts and Hidden Rivers for the Rattus (In progress) Divine Quest: Discover a new land across the sea (Plus discover the ability to sail on the ocean) (In progress) Divine Quest: Create safe passage through the Great Dragon Range so Rattus can explore the other side. End: 1 [/hider]