CSGdesign

Gwenneth Gutripper, 32 Aklish St. Wow, I can't believe it's almost a year ago alreay since I've moved into The Towne. And so much has happend the past few months! I've cleared a path towards the stream behind my house. Got me enough wood fom the trees to build me a nice tool and storage shed. Now there's a nice dry place to dry some planks for the finer work, and to store my large tools. My house is so much cleaner now I don't have to store dirty shovels and dusty saws next to my bed. I had to remove some large rocks from the path, and made good use of my pickaxe. Made me some flagstones and put those on the rivers edge. No more muddy boots getting water for the animals and garden! Woohoo! But it only gets better! Remember when I hung that note at the bar in the postoffice building? ; Well, guess what: someone brought my shirt back! This guy called Michael Arsh came at my door, and not only was he holding my shirt, he's also the mayor! And kind of good looking too I must admit. We got talking, and it turns out that next to being mayor he makes his money of being a Rancher, and quite a successful one too if I'm to believe him. He even told me how he's planning to build a large ranch out of town in a year or two, and he was suggesting I'd take up the job. Imagine that! A whole ranch! I'd have work for many months on end for sure!. Ofcourse that would be in a few years, but things still got better. He had another job for me to start on right away! With some inhabitants living quite a distance from the lakeside, more flocking to The Towne, and the boggy waterway near my house only being clear enough for drinkingwater in the spring, he thought it was an urgent matter for a watertower to be built. Needless to say I jumped at the chance! It certainly was more complex then the fences, roofs and shabby shacks I've been building so far, so I made me a few designs first; Then I spent at least two weeks at sawing all the extra lumber needed. Charles Bach helped out by making all the connection pegs to be used. His furniture making skills sure showed, the pegs were a display of perfection. Then Sasuke Irimachi got to work on making all the foundations. I may be strong, but boy, that guy can haul rocks. The foundations were ready in no time, and he was kind enough to help with erecting the large supports too. I must admit working with him takes some getting used to... he's got quite strong opinions on how to tackle things, and he doesn't take no for an answer. Next to that he was very hard to understand, he's obviously from Japan or China or something, but he does speak some English, kind of. Nevertheless his work is fast and effective. Good thing the watertower is right between his and my house, so we had little trouble getting all materials in by handcart. Mine broke twice trying to get the heavy beams there, but we ended up putting one beam on both our carts, which worked great. Then it was up to me to finish the job. Despite it being quite cold and sometimes dangerously windy, I loved working on that tower. I can't tell you the joy of working on top of that tower, and seeing my house in the background just over the trees. I feel I really found the place where I want to live and grow old, it's certainly starting to feel like home. When I finished the watertower it was perfect! Ok, it wasn't. I simply dont have the right tools to make the planks fit tight enough, so the tower leaked water for 3 days straight. After that the wood sucked up enough water to expand so it didn't leak anymore. Good thing the mayor didn't come to check the work while it was still leaking. He was content. Very. And so am I. Finally I've been earning a steady income for the past months, and it won't be long till I can afford a better set of tools, so I can really show what I'm made of!!! Written by Shilka in the Tavern thread on CSGforums, The Towne sub-forum.

Gwenneth Gutripper, 32 Aklish St. Wow, I can't believe it's almost a year ago alreay since I've moved into The Towne. And so much has happend the past few months! I've cleared a path towards the stream behind my house. Got me enough wood fom the trees to build me a nice tool and storage shed. Now there's a nice dry place to dry some planks for the finer work, and to store my large tools. My house is so much cleaner now I don't have to store dirty shovels and dusty saws next to my bed. I had to remove some large rocks from the path, and made good use of my pickaxe. Made me some flagstones and put those on the rivers edge. No more muddy boots getting water for the animals and garden! Woohoo! But it only gets better! Remember when I hung that note at the bar in the postoffice building? ; Well, guess what: someone brought my shirt back! This guy called Michael Arsh came at my door, and not only was he holding my shirt, he's also the mayor! And kind of good looking too I must admit. We got talking, and it turns out that next to being mayor he makes his money of being a Rancher, and quite a successful one too if I'm to believe him. He even told me how he's planning to build a large ranch out of town in a year or two, and he was suggesting I'd take up the job. Imagine that! A whole ranch! I'd have work for many months on end for sure!. Ofcourse that would be in a few years, but things still got better. He had another job for me to start on right away! With some inhabitants living quite a distance from the lakeside, more flocking to The Towne, and the boggy waterway near my house only being clear enough for drinkingwater in the spring, he thought it was an urgent matter for a watertower to be built. Needless to say I jumped at the chance! It certainly was more complex then the fences, roofs and shabby shacks I've been building so far, so I made me a few designs first; Then I spent at least two weeks at sawing all the extra lumber needed. Charles Bach helped out by making all the connection pegs to be used. His furniture making skills sure showed, the pegs were a display of perfection. Then Sasuke Irimachi got to work on making all the foundations. I may be strong, but boy, that guy can haul rocks. The foundations were ready in no time, and he was kind enough to help with erecting the large supports too. I must admit working with him takes some getting used to... he's got quite strong opinions on how to tackle things, and he doesn't take no for an answer. Next to that he was very hard to understand, he's obviously from Japan or China or something, but he does speak some English, kind of. Nevertheless his work is fast and effective. Good thing the watertower is right between his and my house, so we had little trouble getting all materials in by handcart. Mine broke twice trying to get the heavy beams there, but we ended up putting one beam on both our carts, which worked great. Then it was up to me to finish the job. Despite it being quite cold and sometimes dangerously windy, I loved working on that tower. I can't tell you the joy of working on top of that tower, and seeing my house in the background just over the trees. I feel I really found the place where I want to live and grow old, it's certainly starting to feel like home. When I finished the watertower it was perfect! Ok, it wasn't. I simply dont have the right tools to make the planks fit tight enough, so the tower leaked water for 3 days straight. After that the wood sucked up enough water to expand so it didn't leak anymore. Good thing the mayor didn't come to check the work while it was still leaking. He was content. Very. And so am I. Finally I've been earning a steady income for the past months, and it won't be long till I can afford a better set of tools, so I can really show what I'm made of!!!

Thanks guys. I should point out that currently marsh is the only one editing city tiles, not me. The concept was borne from an idea of mine but has take on a life of it's own with all new players joining in and lending their own ideas... It's beginning to look complex, but it's only as complex as the players want it to be - it's possible to ignore all the detailed stuff and still be a part of it. Personally I'm looking forward to seeing how a town looks when many people are involved in deciding it's development but from a sim's point of view, not from a developmental over-view. Written by Shilka in the Tavern thread on CSGforums, The Towne sub-forum.

Current Mayor - Marsh (all images and city file edits done by marsh) In the Beginning there was just nature, and nothing else... This region is a large expanse of the massive freshwater lake, Mediterranean forests, and all the way to snowy mountain tops. Swampy areas are frequent. Mostly on the coasts, especially where the river feeds into the lake. The ground generally gets more marshy in the rainier months, creating seasonal streams in many places, and causes the entire valley to be very prone to flooding. So that was just some stuff I was doing with mayor-mode ploppables while I wait for the Town Planner to decide on our initial settlement.

The links are also in marsh's and my signatures. There are a few reasons why you need to be a member - including the heavy use of Personal Messaging, as well as unique identifying numbers that are forum-generated which are used in a few ways for it. Anyone is very welcome to join, or you can just cruise on over and browse through the many ideas and discussions that orbit around this project.

Originally posted by: Damastius This is beautiful. Can I move in?quote> Sure! Glad to have you. Originally posted by: Liszak It's very nice idea..but i don't get it. Can i join game? And how? quote> Thanks Liszak! I see you figured out how... that's great! For other readers, if you want to be involved, head on over to The Towne's forum and there is a whole bunch of stuff about it, and how to be involved becomes pretty clear pretty fast. Remember - there is HEAPS of detail to it, but you don't NEED to have anything to do with the details - that's just there for the people that WANT it. You can just build a house and move in and that's the end of what you do, if you want... or you can be very involved... up to you!

Current Mayor - Marsh (all images and city edits in this entry done by Marsh, automata photoshopped out and wording by CSGdesign). In 6 months The Towne has grown quite a lot. Mostly because of all the players who joined. Which reminds me, anyone who has a home can find their residencies here. An over-view of the Towne... north upwards. Most properties have had some of their land cleared to create the lumber required to make basic cabins, but there is still a lot of natural forest on private property. The Towne's center, showing from left to right the Post Office (with a hair dresser upstairs and a tiny bar), the Sheriff's Office (which also has an armory and a stable in the back), the General Store on the corner (with storage upstairs), and across the street is a tiny Anglican Chapel and above that is the Town Hall. Humble beginnings, but as more people flock to The Towne, the CBD will grow. Here we can see Belmont Street to the left and the right in the fore-ground (we're looking to the east), with Mayor Arsh's tiny ranch on the right, and Gabrog Street stretching to the left near the top of the image. Eric Lopetegui's house can be seen just to the left of the middle of the picture, and to the left of his is Robert Cahill's property, at 10 Gabrog Street. Looking out over Gwenneth Gutripper's property to the south we're looking at the shallow boggy waterway that seperates the Towne's island from the mainland, with Main Street running away from the Post Office to the south, and then curving to the east. The small cul-de-sac is Lincoln Street, with Francisco Boss's property on it. The other properties shown here belong to NPCs... and the small diesel generator that powers the town can also be made out. This image shows the northern shore of the Towne, looking to the south. In it you can see Gordon Bagge's property with his newly built stone jetty (letting him fish in deeper waters more easily). To the right (west) of that you can see Tim Howard's place, and on the opposite side of the road is Carl Grant's place... although the house is obscured by one of the many large trees that still stand on properties throughout the Towne.

Current Mayor - Marsh (all images and city edits in this entry done by Marsh). In the Beginning there was just nature, and nothing else... This region is a large expanse of the massive freshwater lake, Mediterranean forests, and all the way to snowy mountain tops. Swampy areas are frequent. Mostly on the coasts, especially where the river feeds into the lake. The ground generally gets more marshy in the rainier months, creating seasonal streams in many places, and causes the entire valley to be very prone to flooding. So that was just some stuff I was doing with mayor-mode ploppables while I wait for the Town Planner to decide on our initial settlement.

Current Mayor - Marsh Current Town Planner - Rionescu Current Game Master - CSGdesign Current Treasurer - yet to be decided Hello Simtropolans! I'd like to introduce The Towne. This is a fairly unique concept in city journal ideas... The basic concept is described here in a little bit of detail, but basically members of the forum are able to set up a sim's life within The Towne and role-play (as much or as little as you want) the life of your sim, and every decision each player (and NPC, or Non Player Character) makes affects the end result of the game. It's true Natural Growth, but this time instead of one person role-playing the decisions and lives of the sims within the town, many people are, from within the town itself, as members of it. It has a rich and evolving fabric of rules and form to provide a realistic and enjoyable world, however players don't need to be any more involved than you want to be... the intricacies and depth only exists for the game, and for players that want to explore that level of depth. You can play without even knowing about it if you want to... just by having a home and watching it grow and evolve as the Towne around your sim evolves. Currently we have just finished our first season, and are heading into our second season. Each week of real time represents 6 months of game time, so there's two weeks to a year, with each 6 month season being Summer and Winter alternatively... Each season we provide an entry showing an over-view of what has occurred in the Towne that season. Anyone can play! But you need to be a member of CSGforums to play (for a few reasons). There's much more to it than the diary of it, there's a lot of discussion and planning and suggestions and stuff, so check it out, lurk, and if you want to join in! The more the merrier!

The pontoon is available to download only from CSGfx, click here.

Initial Essay pertaining to Book I of the Great Tome Of Our Ancestors. Written by Professor N.Q.Davidson of Lektah University, Nue Praadmire. Dated 24th o'Apris, 1569 p.r. It is clear that the first Book of our great tome refers to the world as it was before the Great Evil Times (otherwise known as the Age of Light). Let's break down the book into it's verses and study what they might mean. "Book I - Part 1" Once, many many years ago, the world was a very different place. Wild things were at the mercy of men, and great towers cast shadows across the land and stood as a legacy to the determination and creativity of mankind. The dust of the moon was crushed beneath our feet, and the very Earth trembled as we clawed at it to release her lodes of Gold and Iron. We were masters of our universe, smug in the knowledge that our actions were beyond reproach. Those were the days when men could dream and dreams became real, when magic was commonplace and where no danger was too great to be overcome. How proud man was. How far he had to fall. This passage begins very clearly by telling us that at the time it was written the world was very different, and speaks of the strengths and power of mankind. At that time the most powerful creatures on earth were sharks, alligators, lions, bears, etc. None of the predators we see today were around. Archaeological evidence suggests that all of these creatures were completely at our mercy... in fact many were endangered as part of the great extinctions of that era. The passage also describes how the dust of the moon was crushed beneath our feet, which I believe means that the surface of the moon (which we now know to be a crumbling grey powder covered in craters and utterly uninhabitable) was actually walked on - perhaps even lived on - by mankind. Another interpretation used to be that the moon itself was part of the earth and was some how flung into orbit around us after or during the Great Evil Times, however we now know that the moon is far, far older than even mankind itself. The reference to trembling Earth and lodes of Gold and Iron I believe refers to our prowess at mining. In those times the Earth's riches were still in the ground, and were extracted in huge mining operations... the scars of which can be found around the world. Astounding as it is, it was actually more efficient and less expensive for our Ancestors to extract raw materials from the Earth itself and smelt them into new refined materials than it was to recycle existing materials. The magic and power they had at their disposal must have been truly awe-inspiring, and yet our Ancestors appeared totally without love and direction in the way they yielded their mighty powers. The passage then generalises about our might and superiority, speaking about our powers and magic and our total control over our environment, and observing that all this would change and we were not invulnerable afterall. "Book I, part 2" Men warred. Men delighted in finding ever grander ways of hurting each other and taking what was not theirs to take, and much of mankinds magic was made to this end. Including the Stone in the Tree... great pillars of ash and fire brought forth at the command of Kings and Daemons. But so great was the Stone Tree that men feared it... men who feared nothing feared the death brought by the Stone of Heat and Light, but the magic could not be undone, and more Stone Tree seeds were planted throughout the world, waiting to blossom and kill all who looked upon them. Until the Kings and Daemons themselves began to fear their own creations, and yet still the Stone Tree seeds kept multiplying until none among them knew what to do with them all. And the Kings and the Daemons talked and feared and cried and wailed, wishing the Stone Trees would be gone and begging that it could be so. This entry is a particularly interesting one because it speaks about the actual trigger of the Great Evil Times, but the things it describes are very vague and difficult to understand. It speaks how men were very war-like in those times (despite their incredible achievements and grand society), and that one of the things this war-like tendency lead them to conjure up was something referred to as a Stone Tree, or a Stone In The Tree, and later on a Great Tree of Stone (in a much later book). It is difficult to misinterpret this... it refers to a huge tree made of stone, which grew and blossomed in a very short amount of time (days, hours even?) and from it shone great light, heat, and ash fell from it. It also talks later about the great noise these stone-trees made, and how anyone that looked upon a Stone Tree in full bloom would instantly perish. These Stone Trees must surely have been truly magnificent in their horror. These Stone Trees were under the control of "Kings and Daemons" - who were the shattered rulers of the time. Men of power and influence who controlled individual nations. Presumably the Daemons refer to "bad rulers" or rulers of nations that opposed our own, at that time... the texts are non-specific about this. The texts then speak about how these Stone Trees were so mighty and powerful that they caused great fear even in people that had nothing to fear, and the Trees grew out of control. It doesn't speak about blossoming or blooming or deaths from the Stone Trees, so presumably the seed reference means that only the seeds multiplied by the Stone Trees were never called forth by the "Kings and Daemons" but were used instead as some kind of threat or intimidation device. Eventually they became so out of control and plentiful that the "Kings and Daemons" themselves began to be concerned by it, and seek help in removing this threat device from their world... presumably because of the death and destruction that would happen if they bloomed without the command of the "Kings and Daemons" (men of power / leaders). "Book I, part 3" But many were Men of Magic - the Sierncemen - in the DreamTime, and Kings and Daemons were of power, but the Siencemen were those who dreamed the magic into the hands of the Kings and Daemons. It was the Siencemen who dreamed the Stone Trees, and the Sciencemen who answered the cries of the Kings and Daemons. The Siencemen knew that the power of the Stone Tree was not just its fire, but also its Great Noise. The men of magic decided to use the Stone in the Tree to make a Great Noise to call forth the very heartbeat of the Earth itself and hear the Earth answer the call of the Stone Tree. By doing this they would look into the soul of the Earth and know what lived there. And so almost all of the Stone Tree seeds were gathered and given to the Siencemen, and yet the Kings and Daemons kept some to cause each other fear. And the Siencemen took the Stone Tree seeds to a great southern land of ice and snow and buried them, ready to call them forth at a precise moment and listen to the echo they made on the soul of the Earth. This paragraph refers to the "saviors" that answer the call of the leaders of the world... it refers to this obscure group of men who possess particularly strong Magic of Old as a range of names, including "Men of Magic", "Sierncemen", "Sciencemen", and "Siencemen". We now interpret this as being unsure multiple spelling of the name "Science Men" or "Men of Science" - science being the name the Ancestors used for Magic of Old, at the time. These Men of Science provide the leaders of the world with a solution for all of the yet-to-blossom Stone Tree seeds... they propose that they are used not for their heat and light (and death) but instead for their "great noise" to provoke a response from Earth Herself... using this great noise to look inside the Earth's soul. This has been interpreted a number of ways throughout the ages, but the most prominent interpretation is that the noise of the Stone Trees (a vast number of them, all at once) was used to look deep within the Earth in much the same way as a Grub Mouse taps a log to hear what is inside to hunt its prey, or a bat squeals in the night to see where it is flying. This is a type of sense that mankind doesn't have but which some animals posses, and it is proposed that the Men of Science were able to use this huge noise made by the Stone Trees to see inside the vast caverns of fire and molten metal that exist within the Earth. Why, exactly, is not specified in the Tome, and indeed the entire theory has been questioned in many different ways. Almost all of the Stone Tree seeds were given to the Science Men, but a few were kept by the leaders of the world, so that they retained some of the fear of the threat of controlling them to bloom, by the sound of it. Men of power rarely give it up if they're not forced to. The last verse tells how the Science Men took the Stone Tree seeds and buried them in south pole, which at that time was very cold and icy and uninhabited.

Thanks ?Maitre? that's great feedback! The format of it will reveal itself fully in time.

Transcript: Book II - part 5 In the DreamTime... So the Earth was uffended by our greed and lack of courage, and She began to consider how best to Reconcile with us, her children. And as we did the men of magic of sierncehood took the seeds of the Stone Trees and buried them in a perfect ring, stretching across the entire southern land of snow and ice and lifelessness. And the ring had of it 3 rows and one seed at every 1000 marks on the ring, so that a tremendous chain gave Earth a crown where the ring was always being watched by Sol. And then the Kings and Daemons said unto the siercemen - "Show us the Stone Trees how they can speak to the heart of Earth and bring us a better eye through which to see into her soul". And though many that were not of magic and even some that were warned we would anger our Mother, the Kings and Daemons cared not, and the proclamation went forth. And the sierncemen did as the Kings and Daemons commanded, and brought the drums to the very door of the heart of the Earth. And when the drums of man beat upon the doors to Her soul then a great and terrible evil that had been waiting to undo us was unleashed upon our world.

700 views - 23.10.10 Transcript: Book I - part 1 In the DreamTime... Once, many many years ago, the world was a very different place. Wild things were at the mercy of men, and great towers cast shadows across the land and stood as a legacy to the determination and creativity of mankind. The dust of the moon was crushed beneath our feet, and the very Earth trembled as we clawed at it to release her lodes of Gold and Iron. We were masters of our universe, smug in the knowledge that our actions were beyond reproach. Those were the days when men could dream and dreams became real, when magic was commonplace and where no danger was too great to be overcome. How proud man was. How far he had to fall.

Transcript: Book III - part 1 The Reconciliation... The Shield of the Earth was supported by great invisible pillars at both far ends of the world, and the Stone Trees that bloomed in unison at one end utterly smashed that pillar and the other which is tied in opposite with it was crushed equally, bringing our Mothers Shield down on us in just one short day... a day that lasted three days and three nights, but the night was of a sickening green day... the daemons trapped at the poles were free to flee across the sky and swollow up the Earth.

Transcript: Book III - part 3 The Reconciliation The next days dawn brought with it dawn of the knowledge that everything that was before was no more. Then the sickness of green that spread across our sky at night began to draw together in ripples and then great waves of Darkness and Light. And the people began to build fortresses of their homes to keep out the evil among us, because the men that fought them in our midst were too afraid. And so the evil among us took and grew.

Thanks man. No promises required - when I write a journal I enjoy the process, and sometimes ppl seem to enjoy reading it too. That's cool with me. Later on I'll probably have to make custom content to cater for this journal's requirement. I'm aiming for very non-mainstream.  :D And ya, ppl looking for unique ways of plopping content aren't gonna find that here - it's about reading a story and supporting images telling an epic story about an end-of-days that isn't talked about very often, but one which will inevitably hit us eventually - the flip of the magnetic poles.  It has happened many times throughout history, and when it happens to us it will be a disaster beyond anything that global warming or deforestation could ever be, from a socialogical point of view.  This journal explores what might happen in this event.

Thanks Phil - very awesome feedback man - hope you continue to like it... I'm gonna go really all-out with this one.

Book III - part 2 (continued) The Reconciliation... And the men that fought fire were afraid to fight these fires, because they burned under the fierce gaze of Sol, who burned and seared his anger and attention on us, while we cowered inside and waited till He went. So fires burned while people hid inside from Sol and the evil among them conspired to emerge new and dangerous in the night-time. And they came when Sol left, and they forced their way into many places they did not belong, and took and broke many things that were not theirs to. And the men that fought these evil among us were afraid to fight them this night, because they could no longer speak to each other or to their Kings and Generals, so they hid as they had hid all day. So the evil among us took, and grew, as they had taken and done unto Earth before this.

Amzing Marsh. Srsly just amazing. I am totally envious of the way you can splash the flora around and paint a landscape like that... nice photoshpping too! And the design of the spring how the vegetation sort of changes as the water gets deeper - rly nice man.

Transcript: Book III - part 2 Reconciliation... But the day of the first day brought with it a terrible and horrifying truth. Sol bore down upon us with unshielded scald and our energy of Tricity was stripped from us by the very veins that held it being ripped out of our midst in flame and sparkle Sol let our domestic lightning become wild, and it was angry and caused many fires as it screamed to be free at last. And in this way we were plunged into darkness and fear.

Thanks guys  :) It's gonna be a pretty out-there story I think. I'm gonna tell the story about what happens to Boston City (the city I've been playing for over 1.5 years now from my previous journal) and how the lives of the sims, the city, Simnation, and the entire world are changed, how they're changed, what happens to society, what emerges, etc etc. It's really opened up a lot of freedom as far as artistic license with this journal goes, so I'm hoping to make it quite the ride. It will ALL be Natural Growth (the proper definition of it, not "looks kinda realistic" as it seems to be interpretted as a lot these days)... so that'll make it extra fun fer me as the authoer  :D

Transcript: Book I - part 2 In the DreamTime... Men warred. Men delighted in finding ever grander ways of hurting each other and taking what was not theirs to take, and much of mankinds magic was made to this end. Including the Stone in the Tree... great pillars of ash and fire brought forth at the command of Kings and Daemons. But so great was the Stone Tree that men feared it... men who feared nothing feared the death brought by the Stone of Heat and Light, but the magic could not be undone, and more Stone Tree seeds were planted throughout the world, waiting to blossom and kill all who looked upon them. Until the Kings and Daemons themselves began to fear their own creations, and yet still the Stone Tree seeds kept multiplying until none among them knew what to do with them all. And the Kings and the Daemons talked and feared and cried and wailed, wishing the Stone Trees would be gone and begging that it could be so.

Transcript: Book I - part 3 In the DreamTime... But many were Men of Magic - the Sierncemen - in the DreamTime, and Kings and Daemons were of power, but the Siencemen were those who dreamed the magic into the hands of the Kings and Daemons. It was the Siencemen who dreamed the Stone Trees, and the Sciencemen who answered the cries of the Kings and Daemons. The Siencemen knew that the power of the Stone Tree was not just its fire, but also its Great Noise. The men of magic decided to use the Stone in the Tree to make a Great Noise to call forth the very heartbeat of the Earth itself and hear the Earth answer the call of the Stone Tree. By doing this they would look into the soul of the Earth and know what lived there. And so almost all of the Stone Tree seeds were gathered and given to the Siencemen, and yet the Kings and Daemons kept some to cause each other fear. And the Siencemen took the Stone Tree seeds to a great southern land of ice and snow and buried them, ready to call them forth at a precise moment and listen to the echo they made on the soul of the Earth.

Transcript: Book II - part 1 In the DreamTime... The world we knew was not what we see before us today... it was as bright at night as it is during the day, with the night always within reach but never giving us sanctuary from the Light completely... In these times we lived as one terrible village of immense proportions. And in this village was divided unto many other villages of ever smaller size until the final village of all was each of us. And yet we were one. Of the grandest oldest part of our village, great towers of magesty and beauty graced the clouds and scraped the belly of the sky. And many days and weeks distance to the edge of this village of old, where even the mighty towers' shadows did not travel to meet... nothing between us and the Light, were the open fields... And here we nurtured our needs into existance, dreaming forth food and clothes and bedding and water from the every Earth and the Light. (Thanks to Towncrafter for helping me phrase the last two verses in this entry)