Nilsa
Nilsa, a Curious Jack Who Explores Yesterday
Nilsa is a Curious Jack who Explores Yesterday.
Nilsa and her twin brother, Alaric, were pretty much joined at the hip throughout childhood. She was the stronger and faster of the two, which they both credited to her being twelve minutes older than him, and she led the way in search of adventure and mishap. Her family lives on the outskirts of Pridian, a small town at the foot of the Ferly Mountains, beneath which lie the ruins of an ancient city.
Decades ago, a stone quarry was dug into the side of the mountains, but some years ago the stone cutters reached the underground city and it has since become a boundless source of numenera, and has attracted the attention of scholars and explorers from all over the Ninth World. Raised on their father’s tales of the curious objects that had been discovered and the wonderful ways in which they had been used, Nilsa and Alaric were drawn to the site and anything to do with the numenera.
They were the youngest of eleven children, most of whom followed their father into the quarry when they were old enough to work, digging up stone for local masons and numenera to be developed by craftsmen or sent to the Aeon Priests for study. Nilsa didn’t wait so long, and there were many times the two of them snuck home before dawn, bringing their night’s haul with them. During the day, they would experiment with their findings, trying to figure out original purposes and potential modern uses.
When they were twelve, one of their experiments triggered a photon blast that blew out the back wall and crushed them and one of their sisters under the collapsed roof. Furious at their recklessness and terrified of the legal ramifications of both theft and unsanctioned experimentation, their father confiscated their stash and commanded a more legal approach to their explorations: don’t enter the quarry until you work there. Their mother proposed a safer alternative: study history before digging it up; that included researching locations and artifacts, and learning about the many dangers involved in such a risky venture.
This incident served to ostracize the twins even more from their peers, who held to the superstition that twins were one person manifest in two bodies, and they were further unsettled by Alaric’s vast knowledge and Nilsa’s intense fixation on the past, to the point of taciturn unsociability.
The twins had plenty of time for study between adventures while one or other of them was laid up with an injury and a book. Alaric was more studious and enjoyed these times of research. He often suggested excursions to town so they could attend public lectures or sneak into the laboratories and watch experiments being conducted. Nilsa, too, enjoyed these quiet times learning about the objects they had seen and heard of, but only as a conclusion to one adventure and an introduction to another.
She had always assumed she would one day work in the quarry, but the prospect held no allure, the humdrum existence of working in the same place, doing the same thing, day after day all her life, which could be shortened by an accident, like the firedamp explosion that claimed her older brother. She liked the quarry well enough, but mainly for the treasures it yielded: relics of times gone by. She longed to know of those times, how people lived, what they did with these objects, and how she might use them. She was too practical to pine after the past, but increasingly she yearned for the knowledge that was once commonplace.
Slowing down a bit, the twins adopted their mother’s suggestion that they research locations before exploring them. The library and tales of explorers provided a wealth of information about ancient sites, and this approach spared them many injuries, especially Nilsa, who was always in the thick of the action. When Alaric was accepted into the Academy, Nilsa determined she would not work in the quarry, but instead joined a group of explorers searching for a forgotten city said to have crowned the Ferly Range about two weeks’ journey to the north.
Nilsa had already visited the city and soon became an invaluable guide. The explorers, in return, taught her much about the relics they uncovered. Deciding this was a life more suited to her liking, she returned home after that trip only long enough to update her kit pack and bid farewell to Alaric and the rest of her family before joining another expedition.
Nilsa and her twin brother, Alaric, were pretty much joined at the hip throughout childhood. She was the stronger and faster of the two, which they both credited to her being twelve minutes older than him, and she led the way in search of adventure and mishap. Her family lives on the outskirts of Pridian, a small town at the foot of the Ferly Mountains, beneath which lie the ruins of an ancient city.
Decades ago, a stone quarry was dug into the side of the mountains, but some years ago the stone cutters reached the underground city and it has since become a boundless source of numenera, and has attracted the attention of scholars and explorers from all over the Ninth World. Raised on their father’s tales of the curious objects that had been discovered and the wonderful ways in which they had been used, Nilsa and Alaric were drawn to the site and anything to do with the numenera.
They were the youngest of eleven children, most of whom followed their father into the quarry when they were old enough to work, digging up stone for local masons and numenera to be developed by craftsmen or sent to the Aeon Priests for study. Nilsa didn’t wait so long, and there were many times the two of them snuck home before dawn, bringing their night’s haul with them. During the day, they would experiment with their findings, trying to figure out original purposes and potential modern uses.
When they were twelve, one of their experiments triggered a photon blast that blew out the back wall and crushed them and one of their sisters under the collapsed roof. Furious at their recklessness and terrified of the legal ramifications of both theft and unsanctioned experimentation, their father confiscated their stash and commanded a more legal approach to their explorations: don’t enter the quarry until you work there. Their mother proposed a safer alternative: study history before digging it up; that included researching locations and artifacts, and learning about the many dangers involved in such a risky venture.
This incident served to ostracize the twins even more from their peers, who held to the superstition that twins were one person manifest in two bodies, and they were further unsettled by Alaric’s vast knowledge and Nilsa’s intense fixation on the past, to the point of taciturn unsociability.
The twins had plenty of time for study between adventures while one or other of them was laid up with an injury and a book. Alaric was more studious and enjoyed these times of research. He often suggested excursions to town so they could attend public lectures or sneak into the laboratories and watch experiments being conducted. Nilsa, too, enjoyed these quiet times learning about the objects they had seen and heard of, but only as a conclusion to one adventure and an introduction to another.
She had always assumed she would one day work in the quarry, but the prospect held no allure, the humdrum existence of working in the same place, doing the same thing, day after day all her life, which could be shortened by an accident, like the firedamp explosion that claimed her older brother. She liked the quarry well enough, but mainly for the treasures it yielded: relics of times gone by. She longed to know of those times, how people lived, what they did with these objects, and how she might use them. She was too practical to pine after the past, but increasingly she yearned for the knowledge that was once commonplace.
Slowing down a bit, the twins adopted their mother’s suggestion that they research locations before exploring them. The library and tales of explorers provided a wealth of information about ancient sites, and this approach spared them many injuries, especially Nilsa, who was always in the thick of the action. When Alaric was accepted into the Academy, Nilsa determined she would not work in the quarry, but instead joined a group of explorers searching for a forgotten city said to have crowned the Ferly Range about two weeks’ journey to the north.
Nilsa had already visited the city and soon became an invaluable guide. The explorers, in return, taught her much about the relics they uncovered. Deciding this was a life more suited to her liking, she returned home after that trip only long enough to update her kit pack and bid farewell to Alaric and the rest of her family before joining another expedition.
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