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The Age of Discovery – a return to the Golden Days
The reign of Ciamare in BC 535/ AS 1465 brought a return to the earlier heydays of Aquarius. The generous gifts of Amejisu II in her attempts to realign Castor manifested as a period of boom with invention and discovery. In particular shipbuilding boomed, centralised in Europa and Tethys, but also at Favonius and Calypso as the traditional trading routes became busy shipping channels. With inventions in transport came pioneers in exploration. Aquarians typical of the people with their curiosity and eccentricity to travel far and wide. The traveller Meirlias journeyed northwest from Galatea and after an arduous voyage discovered a new land. This he named Aquarid (meaning ‘Island of Air’ in Aquarian) in homage of the planet. Meirlias’ discovery was greatly celebrated and a statue created to the explorer in his (ironically) desert home of Amphitrite on Galatea. The Queen Ciamare ordered a national celebration of games and feasting in the honour and inspired a generation of other explorers as well as the artists who latched onto the discovery for inspiration. The poet Nio recorded the journey in a long epic, and stories and music were written which fantasised over what Aquarid may hold – magic, new peoples, a land of wealth? A brother/sister collaboration, Cyrajliz and Eleiye Qovedie, produced the most famous piece of this celebration. ‘Turayi Iqkonmida’ (Unknown Land) was a dark fantasy story with around 15 accompanying artworks, each around 2 metres in height and 3 metres in width. The impressed Queen displayed the works in a specially created gallery in Mara, a beautiful piece of architecture in itself and named ‘Amejisu Pareihea’, which in Lunarian translated literally to ‘Amethyst Gallery’. The reign of Ciamare had brought great happiness to the people after a century of turmoil and all mourned her death. One of the most famous pieces of Aquarian music was composed upon her death, a beautiful and classical stringed piece known as ‘Fated White Orchid’. The exploring curiosity continued into the reign of Ciamare’s daughter, Aline IV with the discovery of the Nereids (named after the male aspect of the Sajsmi) and the Naids which Aline named after the Roman nymphs. Aline was the first monarch to take an interest in a society outside of Aquarius and her interest was in the Earthian Rome. She obtained countless volumes of the poetry of Virgil and Homer, which she read avidly in her later years. Aline was very fond of her granddaughter, Aulis and would spend endless nights educating the 10 year old Princess Aulis in the new language of Latin and telling stories of Classical myth. Aulis was very eager to learn and fell in love with the Roman Society herself, devouring texts on her own impetus. The love quickly grew into obsession as Aulis dreamed of living in Rome. The death of Aline IV and her daughter in BC 450/ AS 1550 gave Aulis the throne and the greatest single change ever in Aquarian society. |