Tales of Greater Zesipia

Shamuse

Excerpts from Shamuse Research Notes by Alyath Hedah, Irogshen Ministry Scholar:

...I began my research at Abtal University upon receiving a grant from the Irgoshen Wartime Ministry. Abtal being a city formerly ruled by the Irgoshen Republic—my homeland and allegiance—had become an established authority on the subject of shamuse. Despite the Zesipians' conservative position on shamuse, the lingering Irgoshen ties upon the city and its progressive views on knowledge allowed its study to flourish here. I received the grant thirty years after Abtal's annexation to the Zesipian Empire when the Zesipian–Irgoshen War ended. While beneficial to my personal pursuits, I had an obligation to share my findings—specifically of Zesipia's advancements on shamuse—to the Ministry. Unlike the Zesipians, Irgosh views shamuse to be an asset on the battlefield...

...Aki Leilan 10, 853 CA. Subject was a middle-aged Zesipian fisherman from Teltilan who demonstrated the ability to read my memories. After several evaluation sessions, the subject had accurately recounted my experiences, including the extrasensory details of sound and smell. During post-evaluation interviews, the subject described the process akin to "searching a cluttered shack for a long forgotten heirloom," and, once recovering the artifact, the memories "explode with vivid imagery." I noted the subject showed significant exhaustion after each rendition of memories, and he even fainted once after retelling a particularly involved memoir...

...Aki Tenou 30, 853 CA. Subject is a Zesipian elven girl from Seribee. My sessions with the girl proceeded with me retelling a folktale from my Irgoshen childhood. Her imagination would engage and refract imagery from these stories into a lucid reality. I realized, under the circumstances, that the scenes before me were artificial, yet they had all the tangibility of genuine experiences. One particularly distressful vision, a reaction to the fable of the boy who drowned on advice of the fox, had refracted a vision of myself submerged in deep water, the swelling rush across my ears and suffocating seizure. It left me gasping for breath long after the vision passed. My mind accepted these visions as truth and my body accorded...