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Old 10-14-2011, 06:26 AM   #3
Astromancer
 
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
Default Re: 'Imperial Culture' (non-canonista)

If I find my thread on Bric-a-Brac of the 3I, I'll post the link here, but I fear Mongoose games cleaned out their system.


However, here's a few little items....


The Jewel Books
Duke Albert (make him a close relative of which ever early emperor you prefer) was interested in two things above all. The Folklore of Terra and quality Primary Schooling for all children. Being highly talented, well connected, and very long lived (even for someone with Vilanni heritage) he made his mark in many ways, but the best known way is The Jewel Books.

The Jewel Books are collections of Earth's folktales and Fairy Tales retold in the laguage of the 3I (many scholars say that the Jewel Books created Sylean Standard's literary form). Duke Albert was both a master prose stylist and a truely great storyteller so the Jewel Books get read. Both children and adults love the stories.

Each Jewel book uses a gemstone in its title, "The Ruby Book, The Emerald Book, The Coral Book " for examples (Duke Albert admited that Andrew Lang's Fairy Books of Many Colours was an inspiration). The Jewel of the title also relates to the contents. The Coral Book, the Aqua Marine Book, and The Pearl Book, have many sea stories in them, however, The Pearl Book also has large numbers of East Asian tales as well. The Emerald Book has many Irish and Arab tales in it. The Onyx Book has both Mesoamerican tales and Ghost stories. Several books use Vilanni and other languages names for their jewels (the Aqua Marine, Rose Quartz, and Tourmaline Books for example). Duke Albert wrote around thirty volumes.

Because the stories were created with excellent lesson plans by the most influential educator in the 3I, schools picked up the Jewel Books early. Because kids loved the stories, and adults found them wholesome and safe, they became classics.

Like the works of Shakespeare, scholars have numbered every line of the Jewel books. Thus every line of the Jewel Books is a numeric code. As the Jewel Books, because of the opportunities they offer the illustraitor and book designer, are constantly printed as actual books (as well as computor files) they are a constantly availible and highly covert code reasource in plain sight!
This is well known. Many crooks use it, because it's still tough for the police to crack. The police on many worlds deal with the Jewel books as a standard reference text. Crime writers of the 3I tend to over use the idea in pulp fiction. Many con artists use mysterious Jewel Book codes in their scams.

"Like a Jewel Book Tale" is a common phrase. It can mean lovely, etherial, phoney, delusional, or false/deciteful. "Tell me another one Al" (refering to the author) is a common way of saying the author is either deluded or lying.
More later, including Candy Colours of the Third Imperium!!!!
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Last edited by Astromancer; 05-25-2019 at 01:54 PM.
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