The Patina of History -- Durham's Green Door Research

In recent weeks Durham, adventurer-proprietor of the Ringing Anvil workshop, was engaged in the task of researching the signs and sigils--and writings?--observed on the Green Doors in the sea-caves of Ocean's Throat, and sketched out by himself and fellow adventurers on a not-too-distant expedition. This research was mostly conducted in the library of the Kantor Kabljauhof, taking advantage of his association with the tavern there, and with the fact that one of the library's primary subjects is foreign languages.

To end of translating the strange markings, Durham spent two long weeks poring over various tomes, grammars, and syllabaries, trying to match the markings to a known language, and thence to piece together what meaning might hide behind the strange markings ... 

First, a description of the topic of research:

As seen on the door, there were a number of images of men, seemingly smiths and shipwrights and perhaps scribes, etched into the strange green metal of the door as if at work on the construction of a great galley. Interspersed among these images were columns of signs, almost certainly writing--but not only a single system! On the one hand, if this is some kind of parallel text, it might prove useful for translations across; but on the other hand, it makes the initial research rather broad and disjointed, as one seeks not for just one script and language, but several.

For two weeks, Durham worked at this project, and though the progress was slow, he did at least make some headway. To wit:

Week Ending 3/6
The first week Durham actually began more broadly, asking around for legends of ancient smiths working strange green metals, or other unique alloys. This would prove useful later, though the fruits of legend would not immediately seem borne out.

For of course, many are the tales of legendary smiths. Anciently, Khalepsh (sometimes confusingly called "Khalepsh the Midwife") was said to have taught men how to smelt ore and wright it with a hammer when men had forgotten their skill. Too, there is a legend among humans that the Kzinti knew nothing of artisanry until the trickster-hero Iotok taught them how to smith metals into their deadly wtsai swords; the Kzinti, of course, deny this. Etc. etc.

But in view with his later research, this next legend stands out; its being told to Durham helped him recognize certain familiar names and thus narrow the later research:

There is a local legend about Hamdi the Voyager that he and some of his companions (including Altayra bint Morwe in at least one version) once went seeking the ancient Hall of Mn the Shipwright, who was said to have served a line of Sea-Kings, the greatest of which was Taharqu. The details vary, naturally--that Mn was lame; or lamed by the kings to keep him captive; that he built a wondrous ship of bronze for his masters, the kings--or that he built a ship of green for Taharqu alone; that his halls lay below the sea, and that Hamdi and his companions somehow were able to breathe beneath the waters. ...

Week Ending 3/13
With all these fables rolling around in his head, Durham made his way to the library of the Kantor to investigate the sketches of the etching themselves. His first goal would be to identify the scripts; beyond that, hopefully, to translate them!

Alas, it is not a simple task to translate ancient languages. Much time could have been spent (wasted?) perusing the stacks just to identify the system of writing--but this is where the background of the legendry helped narrow things down! Mentioning the legend of Mn and Taharqu in particular at some point, the librarian of the Kantor, one fine-skinned and golden-eyed Iselda was able to point out that Taharqu was among the great kings of what were the ancestors of the Denyali people, and that his kingdom spoke and wrote in the Old Misranite tongue. And indeed, some of the writings were thus identified as at least using that script; as to the other major samples of writing, they seemed to be written in Classical Tsurriya, an older version of the native tongue of Gadeed.

Unfortunately, translation proved beyond Durham with only a week's work--not helped by the fact that the sketches are not complete! On the other hand, he was able to identify the name of Taharqu in the Old Misranite script; and armed with this knowledge, he was able at least to find a general history of the old Sea Kings of the Denyan islands which included the account that Taharqu was known to have an invincible fleet because of a great galley that he commanded, clad in armor and impervious to weapons. It was said to have been built by Mn, and other fanciful qualities were ascribed to it--flight, descent into the depths, etc.--but even so, Taharqu (or a successor, its unclear) was defeated in a rebellion led by the king-governor of Tsurr.

Trying to trace the galley, which fell into that king-governor's hands is difficult ...