The Megalith (Part 2)

Continued from http://breathofmystara.blogspot.nl/2013/04/the-megalith.html

A lesson By Mergrath the Druid of Dwarves. (translated from Dwarvish).

The group of Dwarves is seated haphazardly in the great cave. The domed ceiling towering above them, altering the voices to a form of echoing greatness. the whispers speak of rumors, legends and stories of makebelief. The hush slowly falls as Mergrath enters.

A Human, but as shaply formed as a dwarf. They call him Dwarf, yet actually he is an Earth-Elementalist. Mergrath is five foot five and about half as wide as high. He wears a proud dwarven-styled beard and is dressed in surly brown robes. His ankles are clad in leg bracers, yet his feet are bare. They seem to be more Hin-like due the hair on it. The musk of freshly-delved ores and soil clings to him like a cloud. He wiskes his beard from his mouth, and clears his throat. A strong Dwarven-like rumble. The dwarves are content; This is no normal stupid-assed mage. This person is like them; a friend of the earth.

"Listen friends" Comming directly to order.Siliencing the crowd by the mere tone of his voice.

"From the earlier story (The Death of Urt). we have learned what did happen. Remember friends, that yet to nobody will acknowledge this. Not even Immortals.Yet proof is clear as we will see in the lesson today. I know that some individuals still think as Urt being alive, and that most creatures are absolute unaware of the state the world they tread on is in. I will try to show you the evidence that was found, showing you the details of how Urt still functions (even while it is dead as a doornail)."

The room stays silent, about a hundred pair of Dwarven eyes and ears are pointed at Mergrath. Who starts casting an Illusional dweomer. Slowly an image appears. An Image of the Planet they live upon; A planet they know as Mystara and some call Urt. A great Globe of blue, green and brown, with white on the poles. Slowly it rotates, so all in the cave can clearly see what Mergrath points at. His concentration must be imense, as while he starts to speak, there is no blurring of the details.

"It was somewhere millions of years ago when the smaller Megalith was slammed into Urt-Mystara. Yet the wound can today still be seen. Contrary to what we think it was not a direct impact that merged the two spheres into each other. The shapes of thesemegalith were, like most creatures, more or less flexible. As the tension from the impact reduced due to its resistence, both shapes were reflected back hence they came. The Smaller Megalith was repelled back into space, later to be captured in the gravitational pull of Mystara. Mystara--or shall we call it Urt-- was slightly pushed away from the sun. Only a few thousand miles or so, yet still, and was locked into the gravitational orbit around the Sun as we see today".

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The image showed to spheres slamming into each other, and then slowly drifting away. a cloud of debris is clearly seen falling back to the surface. The cloud cloud of ash dispersing over the surface. the colr shifts to a darker green and blue, and slowly the white parts become about twice as large as before.

"This was the era in which the great Dinosaurs lived and ruled. Some of these creatures can still be found. There are rumors of many of them surviving in the Hollow World, others in the tropical or secluded regions of Mystara. The Impact must have killed millions of lifeforms of any kind. and this was followed by billions more as the surface became blocked by ash and dust, and the planetary body became set in an orbit of which the general temperature was several degrees lower. The dust called forth the first Ice age, of which most of you have seen the traces in the ground. Luckily the dust, fell down rapidly, and Mystara being Urt having many magical spots generated enough elemental air, water, energy and even earth to enable the creatures on its surface to survive and adapt.

The smaller Megalith, however, was not that lucky. Its mass being to low to hold on its Atmosphere of air and water, and without this delicate balance energy was smored to death, leaving nothing but a bare looking clumb of matter."

Courtesy Phenomenica.com

The Image of the moon was slowly altered, from a green lushous surface to a grey globe, dotted with ash and craters caused by the debris falling back upon its surface. it was as if centuries passed by in a few moments. The smaller Megalith, now functioning as a moon, captured most floating debris, and many pieces fell back on Mystara (these can be found by the multitude of small craters. the Worldshield protects any mater from forcefully impacting on the planet and acts like a planetsized protection from mirrors spell). 

"Some of this debris still floats in Space. most as dust, but also several large clunks of rock and metal. Some of these fall back after centuries of floating. Most of them on the Moon, some even here on Mystara. You know these as meteors"

The Image of the moon slowly faded away, while that of Mystara became bigger. Slowly it enlarged to such a size that the other parts of the sphere were no longer within range of the spell and dissapeared, leaving only a part of Mystara to see.

"We now go to the part of Impact. This is located in the region we know as Norwold. This region we call; The Great Crater. The area also known as the former Kingdom of Alinor. Rich for its metal deposits. Abandoned for (at least to me) unknown reasons. (probably war or monster infestations, or strange magic--see later here)

From Wikipedia

As the moon departed, the matter of impact was slammed away. Parts of both celestial bodies literally sprewn around like a drop in a pool of water. 

The Ground came up again, whilethe borders solidified. Within the center of this enormous crater, a small mountain can be found. The Mountain of Steel. This part is actually the greatest part of the Moon that you can find on the surface of Mystara. Embedded a mile or son in the ground this mass of matter is almost purely metallic ore. And when the tension strenth of the surface pushed all up, this mass of ore became a real mountain, centered in a valley surrounded by mountains (which were in fact the Rim). Follow thge red dotted line and see how enormous the surface area still is today."

The Mage turned and walked a bit around the illusion.

"Look clearly, and see if you can captures something very important I try to clarify to you"

A moment of Silence was followed by a soft rumble of dwarven whispers. A Slender (at least to dwarven opinion) female dwarf stupped up. Her round cheeks a bit rosy and round, frilled by her aubern hair. She stepped forward in her darkbrown leather armor. A member of the Syrklist clan.

"Daganak Daughter of Solis of the Syrklist Clan" she introduced herself.

"I see that the volcanoes can be found on the borders. And I also see that the area is composed of several large round circles. As if more material did fall. Yet I do see only one central mass ofMountain; the Mountain of Steel. Is this what you mean, Mergrath? 

She almost brutally directed the answer to him. Her deep brown eyes glinting with pride.

The buzz heightened. some giggles and some grunts. The male-dominated behavior of the dwarves did accept female input, but often ridiculizes it beforehand. Mergrath shifts it head towards the young dwarven maiden, and looks intrigingly.

"Yes You are Right. You of all has seen what I meant."

The buzz of dwarven voices arose in volume. 

Biology-about.com

"Silence Please, and I will explain. As I have said before Mystara as we know it was actually a living organism. Most organisms are build up out of cells. Tiny enclosed particles of individually areas with each there own purpose. like Plants you can examine under a magnifying class, so is Urt (or Mystara) composed of cells. Yet these cells are larger than anything we know, as the creature itself is actually the largest existing creature in the whole Multiverse, I mean as a species.Some individuals may be smaller, but the race as a whole is the largest existing. And as thus its cells are gigantic."

Original by Torfinn  Tait, Adapted self.

Some of you have dug deep into the earth and discovered that a single layer of magma is deep underneath us. This fiery mass of composed Matter and Energy together, is magical----or actually the opposite. it nullifies all magic. This is called the Worldshield.. From the Voyages of Prince Haldemar of Ar we learned that our world is hollow. and from the inside to the magma layer the distance is roughly the same. The matter placed above it, is actually the mass of cells of which the creature is composed of. As you can see here the diameter of Mystara. It contains the central layer of Magma (sometimes incorrectly dubbed Lava. Magma is underground, and lava is what has erupted on to the surface or opens up in large caves. Magma contains much volatiles (water, co2 and so2 and such), which are kept dissolved within it but at high pressure underground. Once magma erupts and turns into lava, those gases tend to bubble and escape from it, thus leaving lava depleted in gases. Most explosive eruptions are caused by gases bubbling out of the molten rock.).

On the surface has been collected over millenia (ever since the last waking period of Urt) matter, water and gasses of all sorts, thus creating a thin layer of viable atmosphere with living conditions suitable for all. Yet as you look upon the globe, you can see that the planet's surface is riddled with shapes of mountains, plateaus, depressions, and so forth. and all these areas seem to have regular borders. Why is this"

Without waiting for a response from its curious listeners, the mage continued.

Planetary mapping  studies by Thorfin Tait

"This is because of the cells. these cells measure several miles in diameter, and are rarely perfectly round as in this examle. They are layered upon eachother like the cells of a leaf. with along its cellular walls the volcanic corridors and gigantic caves.

The Image changes to a cell-shaped globe.

"In this example, you can clearly see a regular pattern of cells. In reality these cells will be much more irregular, but can still easily be identified as such.

This concept will also change the current knowledge about tectonic behavior of Mystara.

Instead of large plates moving up and over or along eachother, thus causing Volcanic active areas, earthquakes and mountains and depths. On mystara it is a bit different. The cells slowly move. Sometimes under immortal Influence (as with the Atruaghin Plateau) some by disaster, but regularly by itself. Cells are being heated from within and tend to push themselves upwards. New cells are created to enable growth in a living Megalith. But this no longer happens on mystara. 

The surface cells are slowly dying out. sometimes they detach themselves partially from eachother, thus creating the gigantic caves we know of the underground realms of the Broken Lands and of the Shadowelves", and suggested happening underneath the rising and tilted Plateaux of Ethengar

With a small cough, Mergrath changed tone.

Tectonic cell movements.

Cartography Torfinn Tait

Based upon Rifts, Mountainridges, Depressions, Plateaus and the

Great tectonic changes of the last  5000 years.

"And although the planet is still alive, we think it is also dying, literally, there is still enough geological activity for a million years or even more.The cells can rotate in any direction on the surface or even slowly tilt, creating  mountains on its sides. They may collapse into itself causing depressions, or shrink and causing great rifts miles deep. There is activity enough to sometimes lift a cell, being pushed up by some of its neighbour cells. It can be noted that in these cases near to almost giant caves will be created underneath these rising cell masses and plateaus. 

Volcanoes can thus be explained easily too. These are the veins of magma from the Worldshield (which in fact was similar in use to our heart), passing between these cells, with the intend of continuating their functions. These veins will regularly reach the surface thus creating volcanoes. This is the same function as scabs on a wound. Yet though the body of the Megalith still tries to continuate its existence, its identity, its soul, its brain, or whatever it was, has long left the Hollow World behind. Some say it imploded into itself thus creating the Sun of the Hollow World (hence its red Glow) others say it was expulged out. But we can't find it anywhere. There is a rumor of an invisible moon from the expeditiions of Haldemar from Ar, which also could explain where the matter went. Others say it is found in the still active World Shield" .

Puzzling he looked upon his crowd. Most were still listening, though some had fallen asleep. He looked into the clear and questioning open eyes of Daganak. At least she had the spirit and true interest.

Back to Mystara. The crust of Mystara, though covered with a thin (about a mile) foreign material (water, matter, air) was a way of the creature to protect its inner organs. Some of these organs had great magical powers and could be the reason of magical minerals, like the mnemnonic minerals found in former Alphatia and Dawn, or Cloudstones in Ar, or the Psychadelic crystals of the Shadow Elves. there are probably much more. they will also explain the existence of magical areras; where magic will be strong, or weakened (wholly or partially). It explains why some Elemental portals exist, die or become active, why creatures from those realms come here to explore, propagate (as seen as in Earth and Fire Elementals near the Worldshield), or feed (or be fed upon--as with the Giant Annelid on Earth Elementals). It also explains why certain magic (not all) seems to affect the seismic balance, causing or decreasing volcanic activity (measured in Seismic Force Point). But this is something I try to explain later, with a more magical orientated public.

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I hope you all learned something from this. Now you know that we are the lice in the pelt of Mystara. The Giant worms in the earth (the Purple Worms, The Annelids, the Burrowers, The  feasting upon its remains, and actually all you see is what remained of a gigantic singular creature. A slowly, very slowly degredating carcass of Urt the Megalith.

He dispelled the Illusion. The Dwarves slowly arose. Some awakened, as if they had misses something, some scratched their backs, bottoms or beards and only heard their stomach rumble. Daganak was only one of the few who went to Mergrath for some Questions. Questions He  (in this case I the writer) was willing to answer.