30th Entry: Regrouping

Journal of 'V':

From the 2017 BFA Student Thesis Exhibition display

"Through Fire We Crawl"

"THROUGH FIRE WE CRAWL" is an illustration thesis project designed to be a collection of artifacts from an ancient, technologically advanced civilization that was destroyed in a series of natural disasters of apocalyptic proportion. The journal is from one of the very few survivors.

The journal will continue to be updated.

Please keep checking back!

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!! Important !!
About the Journal & Foreword

This journal was found in the Tersian Caverns by a phantom researcher, whose name will not be disclosed. This phantom/rogue researcher had collected multiple clues to help him/her solve the journal's mysteries and find proof of the Order of the Amber Lotus's underhand dealings, as well as the strange origin of their leader, Embrias. The latter goal was not accomplished in its entirety, since many crucial details and pages toward the end of the journal have been torn out or burned.

Months after discovering the journal, the researcher mysteriously vanished.

In the next tabs are all the clues that have been gathered by the researcher and below is the journal in modern blog format with adjacent annotations by the researcher.

Unfortunately, due to the blog format, the journals will have to be read from the bottom up, from oldest to newest.

Researcher's annotations
Underlined items were underlined in the physical journal
Two stars (**) means that the researcher had deemed these particular sections important. Entries with stars will have their own section.

The spiritual beliefs in the journal are not intended to be declarations of religious truth. It is a fantasy world steeped in metascience and various branches of philosophy, please remember that.

The views and beliefs in this journal do not necessarily reflect the views of the author.

Comments and questions are encouraged.

Example pages from the Physical Journal

"Through Fire We Crawl" BFA Student Thesis Exhibition Display

Story Concepts: Amira and Channeling

Amira: Can be roughly translated as 'Heaven', although this translation does not imply religious association, but instead an association with metascience. Amira is essence, it is energy (both spiritual and physical).

There are two classifications of Amira: Inactive and Active. Inactive Amira is also known as The Collective. It is the place from which all souls come and where all souls return to be recycled. Active Amira is found in spiritual forms as Essence, and physical forms as Matter. Essence is most prominently in mediums such as blood, spinal fluid, magma, and sap, to name a few, and can also crystallize into powerful storage devices over thousands of years in remote caves, creating the crystals used in all Crystal Technology. Matter is anything we deem as 'real' in our world. Light, heat, atoms, bodies, wood, etc.

Channeling: This is a type of magic casting, but with a certain science to it. In this society, the minds of the people run at their optimum capacity. They have the ability to channel energy from the Collective and set it to complete a specific task. Most often, the unique behavior of their channel allows them to be able to accomplish certain tasks easier than other tasks.

Channeling, however, comes at a particular price. If you imagine the channel as a wire linked to a large power source, and you send energy through it long enough, it wears out. This is the same way with the soul. The more one uses channeling, the shorter the duration of their life.

There are two classifications of Channeling: Automatic and Specialized. The main difference between the two is that Autos have little to no control of how much Amira they use or when. Specialized Channelers are simply Autos who have undergone training to improve their control and extend their lifespan.

Story Concepts: Crystal Technology

Automatonic Channeling Crystals (ACC’s): These special crystals are considered automatons themselves, even though they have no physical working parts. This is because they still run on a specific ‘program’. The task being to act as a gateway to the Collective and, in most cases, interpret data stored in the target crystal. Contains Amira that has been programmed to complete a specific task.

it allows for one to bypass one’s own natural channel and prevent its overuse, allowing for a longer life.
Allow those without channeling abilities to access the Collective by acting as an artificial channel. (i.e. Reader Crystals)
Can allow for different channeling abilities, depending on the programming of the crystal.
- More powerful programs can allow for more difficult channeling abilities, such as specialized channeling
Automatons: Can be used to give function to a limbed automaton via task programming.

Data Storage: can be used to permanently store information found in various states of Amira, such as memories, physical attributes, environmental data, or

Codex (Plural=Codices): Storage of books and texts permanently into facets of crystalline structure via focused light. Read either by using projection or seen directly in the mind via Reader Crystals.
ADC’s (Amira Data Crystals): Storage and retrieval of memories via an embedded Reader crystal. (Reader converts Amira in spinal fluid into data, and transfers the data to the ADC)

Multi-program crystals- (self-running, do not require a channeler to use data: Cut into even parts and each part programmed with something different, and then recombined and secured.)

Solar/ Energy Crystals: Storage of energy as data. Data transferred into another part of the crystal with a specialty ACC program designed to manifest data as it would have originally existed. It is more of a playback of daylight than the emission of its own light.

Story Concepts: A Little Mureian History

The Mureian civilization (pronounced moohr-EY-ahn) is tens of thousands of years old. So old, in fact, that their calendar includes six Eras of 500 to 4000 years each. New Eras begin at major turning points in history, such as social revolutions or major catastrophes.

The year is written as [# of era]E [# of years since the beginning of that era], for example 4E 376 would mean 376 years into the 4th Era.

The dawn to the 5th Era (5E) came at the end of a 100-year war which crippled the world's capitalistic economy enough for societies to find it necessary to move to a new type of economy. The 5th Era was the birth of resource-based societies and a boom in human ingenuity, technology and enlightenment. The warring countries of Erocoss decided to work together and join as a union of Provinces for the betterment of all; all still individual, but of one nation.

The Province of Soh'beq (so-BECK) was the original home of the Mureian people. Even though they’ve long since expanded beyond the boundaries of the city of Mureia, they have adopted the name of their original city as their heritage and culture.

Extra Information:

University of Rue: The center of learning and study in Erocoss. It is ageless and no one can remember when it was originally built, since records of that time was destroyed thousands of years ago in a fire.

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