Lara documents

The Lara documents are a set of documents in D'ni discovered by Domasio Lara around 1890 CE, and related papers in English and Spanish. They may or may not be a hoax. In 2007 CE they were acquired by J.D. Barnes, who asked for help translating them.

The documents are catalogued using a system developed by J.D. Barnes. Each document name begins with "Lara", then there is a three-digit code for which set of papers it is in, a period, and finally a three-digit code for the specific document.

The veracity of these documents is currently in question. Some or all of them may in fact be forgeries or other hoaxes. The DRC was not involved in their acquisition or recovery, and have not provided comment regarding their authenticity. They should therefore be read skeptically.

Lara 001: Cahy'leh's letters

Lara 001.001

The first document, translated by tobyas and released December 26, 2007 (Leevobro 24, 9663), was a letter from a young Surveyor named Cahy'leh (Kay'le) to his friend Ardis, a Maintainer. It was written shortly after the Garternay exodus. In it Cahy'leh describes the square root of 2, irrational numbers, and the Pythagorean theorem, and worries that irrational numbers might signal that D'ni was unstable.

Lara 001.002

The second letter, released January 18, 2008 (Leevosahn 13, 9663) and also translated by tobyas, is Ardis's reply to Cahy'leh. Ardis writes that he asked other people about it, and they said that those mathematical principles were well-known. He also wrote that, if D'ni was unstable, it would have been destroyed by then. Ardis seems to be methodical, while Cahy'leh was more impulsive.

Lara 002: D'ni parables

Four parables were translated by Whilyam and released January 7, 2008 (Leevosahn 4, 9663). They deal with people's relationship with Yahvo and they stress faith over following commandments, as a contrast to what Gish taught. The first, second, and fourth were found together, but the third was a separate piece.

On March 16, 2008 (Leenovoo 1, 9663), four more parables were released, again not from the same sources.

The ninth document was obtained from a copy of the translations compiled into a PDF after the fact; its original release date is presently unknown.

Lara 002.001

The first parable deals with an old painter who painted the king, though he had never seen him. A young man accused him of stealing the painting, but after the old man's death the king saw the portrait. Conversely, the young man died and was never recognized by the king. This parable was written after 775 DE, because it mentions the J'taeri district.

Lara 002.002

The second parable takes place in or around the reign of Shomat. To show his faith, a man proposed going on a long sea voyage. The king called it foolishness and forbade him from going. However, Yahvo told the man that he should go, so he did. When the ship came back, he was the only crew member who had died, but he had become well-respected.

Lara 002.003

It is unclear when the third parable was written, though one guess is during the reign of Asemlef, because of its xenophobic message. In this one, a D'ni explorer got caught in a flood without a Linking Book, and the natives of the age did not help him. Yahvo came and told him that he should learn to never trust ahrotahntee. He then made the flood kill some of the natives. After the flood he converted the natives to believe in Yahvo.

Lara 002.004

In this parable, Yahvo appeared to a depressed man and told him to stop making excuses, and that he should work believing Yahvo was with him. He did, and he became wealthy and powerful.

Lara 002.005

In 3908 DE, an apprentice learned that his master was a client of prostitutes and told his fellow apprentices. One did not know about it, one did not care, and one had help set it up. He left in disgust at their three responses, and the shop later "fell apart". This parable is clearly a statement against prostitution.

Lara 002.006

Two twins were very close until one of them married; then one prospered and the other grew jealous, but neither was happy. They decided to switch places for a year, and at first they liked it, but then they became unhappy and switched back. From then on, they helped each other and were happy. This parable tells people they should help each other and be happy with what they have.

Lara 002.007

In 6138 DE, a group of barbarians, the low-speakers, overran the people of Ishveer, a civilization D'ni had traded with. Asemlef destroyed them because they did not worship Yahvo. This parable emphasizes piety over material goods.

Lara 002.008

This is not a parable, but a journal entry from one of the low-speakers from 002.007. Curiously, they spoke D'ni while the people of Ishveer did not. The entry describes the Maintainers' attack and says that they planned to rebuild underground.

Lara 002.009

This ancient tale tells of a "soul helper" who instructs his fellow Ronay in the ways of showing devotion and love to Yahvo, and how that devotion will benefit them throughout their lives.

Lara 003: In the Chinaman's Eye

Lara 003.001

This document, translated by belford and released January 11, 2008 (Leevosahn 7, 9663), is not a D'ni text. It is a memoir written years after Lara returned to the surface.

A priest well-educated in a world mythology wrote this memoir after 1906 CE. The events described in the document took place a few years before that. At a Mexican-American War veteran's saloon, the Chinaman's Eye, he learned that Lara had come there years ago with some documents, among them a book, and became friendly with his wife, Mary. One night Mary disappeared while reading the book; none of them knew what happened but it is safe to assume it was a linking book. Neither the priest nor the soldier opened the book. The priest left, and when he came back the soldier had gone; again, undoubtedly through the book. The priest kept the book.

The document says that Lara managed to take a linking book out of the cavern, but he did not use it and probably did not look inside it. It is unclear how the priest's story was added to the rest of the documents, or what happened to the book.

Lara 004: Rehgahrovaht

Rehgahrovaht (regarovat), or The Great Five, was translated by Whilyam and released January 18, 2008 (Leevosahn 13, 9663). They are sections of a story relating the encounters with Yahvo of a woman named Hahno (hano).

Lara 004.001

This is the preface, which gives background information on the story. Yahvo said he would appear to her five times, once every twenty-five hahrtee. It is another instance of woman being chosen by Yahvo as prophets.

Lara 004.002

Hahno's husband, Airehm (Irem), left her when they become poor. Yahvo appeared to her as a poor man, whom she was kind to. When a man acted immorally in front of her, Yahvo revealed himself and destroyed him.

Lara 004.003

Hahno and Airehm became rich. They were invited to an man's house for a party. Yahvo, as the man, said that there was no morality, so Hahno denounced him in public, for which she was scorned.

Lara 004.004

Yahvo beat Hahno in the form of Airehm, accusing her of bringing dishonor to Yahvo. She said that she loved Yahvo and Airehm and hoped he loved her too. For this, Yahvo made them happy for another twenty-five hahrtee.

Lara 004.005

Airehm and Hahno bought a food age and became philanthropists. Airehm gambled all their money away in the racing age of Tahsheetahj. Hahno heard Yahvo, in the form of the owner of the racetrack, telling a rider to lose the race.

Lara 004.006

Twenty hahrtee later, Airehm died of a disease. Five hahrtee after, Yahvo vame to Hahno in the form of a child. She said she had learned to love and glorify Yahvo and to be honest, kind, and faithful. She wrote that down and sent it to the king (probably Ailesh), and then died.

Lara 005: Great Stair Lectures

These are a set of lectures given by a former Burial Worker named Tr'releth (tr'releT). He stood on top of the Great Stair and gave one lecture a yahr, each yahr going down a step until he reached the first landing, for a total of 87 lectures.

Lara 005.001

This lecture, released on January 18, 2008 (Leevosahn 13, 9663), was only one sentence long:

Stone is always heavier in your own hand.

Lara 005.002

This lecture, also released on January 18, 2008 (Leevosahn 13, 9663), describes how Tr'releth's father, a Maintainer, made him learn that beauty was not in physical things, but instead in people's cooperation. Tr'releth said that the D'ni people were fighting too much and destroyed what they had made. He asked the people of D'ni to work together despite their disagreements.

Lara 005.003

On February 28, 2008 (Leevotar 17, 9663), J.D. released two more lectures. In the first one, Tr'releth said that his aunt said Yahvo loved the innocence of a child. When he saw some children drowning baby animals for fun, he realized it was not a virtue, because they do not understand right from wrong. He then said Yahvo loves people using knowledge without bitterness.

Lara 005.004

This lecture is a story. A friend of Tr'releth, a Maintainer, became sick and went insane. Another friend, a Healer, told his family "Yahvo does not give us a stone that we cannot carry." Hahrtee later, the Healer was mauled by a wild animal, and Tr'releth repeated the phrase to the body.

Lara 006: Te'nur's letters

Lara 006.001

Marcus Wheeler translated the next document, a letter from a Writer named Te'nur (te'nUr), which was released January 24, 2008 (Leevosahn 18, 9663). It seems to have been written with a variety of inks over a period of hahrtee, and is in bad condition.

The letter is addressed to a fellow Writer named Mor'ahn (mUr'an). The first section seems to be small-talk discussing guild news. The last paragraph gives hints of a conspiracy, mentioning a letter and book left in a pub for Mor'ahn (probably the Kahlo Pub) and "trinkets in their respective locations". Te'nur also brings up the possibility of the two of them working with a Writer by the name of Kor'etah (Kor'Eta).

Based on the mood changes in the letter and another, unreleased letter, Marcus Wheeler has concluded that Te'nur may have had multiple personality disorder.

Above one illegible line of the letter is a sentence in Spanish translating to "What lies they spread." It is likely that Lara wrote that, but it is unclear what he meant. This sentence suggests that someone learned D'ni long before the DRC came to the cavern.

Lara 007: Musical scores

Lara 007.001

The first musical score was restored by turjan and released on January 30, 2008 (Leevosahn 23, 9663). It was entitled rebUgin tromex eDeren (reboogin tromets ederen), meaning "The winged creature rests".

turjan theorized that the D'ni had a set of scales, represented by the big number on the left: 1, in this case. The other numbers are then degrees of notes away from the scale number, so if it were in the la scale, "1" would be "la", 2 "ti", etc. The three levels represent the length of each note. This is just a theory, however, and may not be accurate.

Assuming that the 1 meant the scale of la, turjan recreated the music on a reconstructed maral-obe.

Lara 007.002

The second musical score was written by a D'ni named Aylahn and restored by turjan, with help from the Assemblée de Restauration de la Musique D'ni, as well as Owehn from the D'ni Linguistic Fellowship. It was released on February 8, 2008 (Leevotar 1, 9663) and was entitled KoDotAganij (kodotaygahnij), meaning "I was loved". The song laments the separation from a loved one.

turjan recorded a version of the song on ahnomeprad ("water from rock") and maral-obe.

Lara 008: Map of unknown age

Lara 008.001

The first map was restored by belford and released on February 1, 2008 (Leevosahn 24, 9663). The image is not of the map itself, but a tracing of the map's features into a computer program. The original map was in bad condition and had notes in D'ni on it.

The map depicts a bay with three islands. There are buildings on all the islands and on the mainland. The central island seems to have a boundary around it and a path or pipeline on it. At the bottom left is a pink flame shape with unknown meaning. All around the water are circles of varying sizes. Their meaning is also unknown but is too regular to be a natural phenomenon.

Lara 009: D'ni games

Lara 009.001

The first game, called johvets (jovex), was restored by Blade Lakem and released on February 1, 2008 (Leevosahn 24, 9663). The rules were restored from a D'ni game book in poor condition. There were many variations on the rules, so this is just the most basic version.

The game involves eight regions of the board ("ages"), which are divided into smaller regions. Some regions are called "link-in points", with two to four in each age, for a total of 23. There are three tokens: units (which the player uses to control regions), linking books, and link-in points. There are two to five players.

To win, a player must control three quarters of either the linking books or the link-in points. A book is controlled by being in the same region as it; a link-in point is controlled by having been the last player in that region.

Players can link to other ages or move to adjacent regions, taking books with them if desired and possible. Decisions for each unit are told to a judge, who follows specific rules for allowing certain moves. All turns take place at the same time, so there is a system of reinforcement: a player can make one unit reinforce another units decision, and if two or more players' units try to go to a single region, the one with the most reinforcement wins. In the case of a tie, none of them move.

After the units have been moved comes the supply phase. For each link-in point captured during the turn, a player receives either a unit or a linking book. Writing a linking book causes a corresponding link-in point to be placed too; from then on, the book can be moved, but the link-in point cannot.

The game is one of strategy and cooperation, but it is very likely that alliances made would be broken frequently.

Lara 009.002

The second restoration was released on February 6, 2008 (Leevosahn 28, 9663), also by Blade Lakem, and is a set of games that use a common board and tokens. The board is called a "star of Tsorahnee" (known as a Metatron's Cube on the surface) and uses tokens in the shape of "perfect cuts" (known as Platonic solids).

The first game involves players taking turns moving the tokens along the lines of the star, with one's opponent deciding which token the other player must move. A player wins when the other player is forced to move a piece such that three pieces are in a row in adjacent circles.

The second game uses two sets of tokens and plays out like the game Nine Men's Morris.

Lara 010: The Mistakes

Lara 010.001

The Mistakes is a psalm which advises the reader to embrace their mistakes and seek to aid or forgive those who commit their own. It was translated by Whilyam, though like Lara 002.009, the translation's publication date has since been lost.

Notes

Unfortunately, the translations of these documents were posted on the DRC's web forum, which was not effectively archived by archive.org. The document summaries were retrieved from MystLore, while the documents themselves were retrieved from an explorer's backup on All Things Uru.