An excerpt from Ban Zhao’s Histories of the Western Hinterlands:
As one travels across the desert, one may encounter a black standing stone. Some stand alone, some are grouped with others. There are many to be found in the desert north of Lop Nur. When asked, the people of that place say they do not remember who placed them there. Truly, the hinterlands are a quaint and curious place!
Excerpt from the writings of Aureolus Philippus Theophrastus Bombast of Rûm (circ. 1650):
Ot Bitkileri: Volume of mystic secrets, rumored to have the secrets of the distant sages inscribed in a language spoken by angels and wild beasts. Secrets of vegetation unfurl beneath the crimson scroll. The Wheel of Fortune governs those whose understanding is coagulated within the crucible of its insight.
Excerpt from The Blackstone Dungeon Master’s Guide (1976):
Ott Bitkileri: Ott Bitkileri (3rd level cleric) is clad in a black robe with glowing runes. (AC 1, C 3, 16hp, #AT 1, D 2-7 (staff) ML 10). His spells are: cause misfortune (force player to reroll die) and cause light wounds (inflicts 2-7 points of damage). He carries a potion of cure disease.
From the Annals of the Oasis Kingdoms:
The magistrate of Yiwu sat before the people and pronounced judgement upon those who falsely accused their neighbors of hoarding the hill herbs, and upon those who maintained supply of medicinal tea in secret, and upon those who overcharged the ill, and upon those who falsely advertized a cure for the plague, and upon those who adulterated the tea with samphire. Then she pronounced this judgement: “Upon the liars, let their tongues be scalded with saltwater. Upon the misers, a caning. Upon the greedy, a double caning. Upon the charlatans, exile. Upon the adulterators, death. These are the ways of our ancestors.”
From Miran Cache #25: An excerpt from a letter to someone in Anxi:
Unlike the rumors one hears about Dayuan, Wenli is quite well supplied at present: caravans from the farmlands of southern Gushi have been arriving, and all the city is quite taken with their comparatively exotic fruits and quaint manufacture. The local markets are bustling with purchasers. And unlike Yiwu, we do not lack medications.
However, we do not have a ready supply of samphire, and consequently our glasswork suffers for it. If you could arrange for a shipment of the samphire that grows so plentifully near Anxi, I’m sure I could find a suitable purchaser…
Catalog item #148: lacquered scroll storage box, Middle Kingdom manufacture, decorated with the symbol of a Spirit Mountain wolf in the Xiongnu style of the horse nomads. Originally discovered in the excavation of a well.
From the Annals of the Oasis Kingdoms:
In those days, the people of Aksu dressed in mourning for their queen, attiring themselves as is proper for the Kusinne rites. They prepared olibanum branches for the procession, and set aside their differences as they united in one accord for the solemn commemoration.
From the Annals of the Oasis Kingdoms…
Karashar, beset by nomadic tribes from the Spirit Mountains, sent a caravan bearing tribute, in hopes that the horse nomads would leave them in peace.
From the Annals of the Oasis Kingdoms…
That year, Suojo was suffering from a particularly acute shortage of grain and a disruption of their trade routes due to avalanches. As the days grew warmer, the people of the city began to turn to their traditional practices in the hopes that this would make a difference…
From the Annals of the Oasis Kingdoms…
At that time it became publically known that the death of the previous queen of Kucha was due to a poison made from the hairs of the goats of the Onion Mountains. The situation in the western parts of the kingdom was rumored to be tense…
If you’ve tried to leave a comment in the past and it didn’t work, it was putting them in the wrong place. I think I’ve fixed the problem.