12 the tablets - 2 (1/2)

Catarina shared our translations of the two tablets, and the old pair left. That left the twins and me by ourselves.

”So, about what we discussed,” Pratt began to say, but didn't finish.

”Yes,” I replied immediately. ”You'll teach me pictorial.”

”And you'll teach us Vikari,” Dia said.

”Shall we begin?”

The twins went first. And they made a great pair, as expected. Pratt was the voice, Dia was the hand.

”Consider elementals. The basic characters represent ideas. In somewhat the same way, pictorial characters too are representation of ideas. The difference being that the ideas are perceived as linguistic constructs in elementals, whereas in pictorial they are visual constructs. And that creates room for expressionism. Let's say, we're describing dawn. In elementals, the characters for the sun, light, weather and other heavenly objects, come together to form a rune which describes dawn. Because the entire rune is of a linguistic construct, the understanding is highly dependent on personal interpretation. In pictorial, the construct of the rune is what is seen visually. So, every dawn is unique. And understanding is limited only by the extent of imagination. So, every pictorial rune must be read as if looking at a distinct painting.”

As Pratt paused, Dia took over. She drew two dawns side by side on a whiteboard, and then translated them in Nashi.

Looking at my face filled with concentration, Pratt spoke slowly.

”Pictorial would be the natural bane for you, since they are the complete opposite of descriptives. But when you do get the hang of it, you'll see that that's not actually true. Other than the fact that pictorial have no linguistic characters, and descriptives have no non-linguistic characters, the two give the same importance to detail.”

”I get it,” I said. ”But I need more practice.”

”And that's what I'm here for,” Dia said, taking over the voice too.

”The general idea is the same in all pictorial. It's like art. All art from a particular period, have an underlying feature. And that feature is what separates the different periods and styles of art. The implementation of colour. The brush strokes. The sharpness or bluntness. The point of view of the artist. In the same way, different pictorial runes vary from each other. Nashi and Vyaraishi differ in the perspective. Vyaraishi was a civilisation of the central flatlands, while Nashi was higher up on the mountains with a view of the sea down below. The geographical differences are evident in their perception of the world, and it shows in the runes. Nashi have a more dreamlike quality. Vyaraishi are more grounded, more practical, you can say. I'll send across a few simple runes of each. You'll get the hang of it easily enough.”

Pictorial runes were very interesting because they posed a critical question to my theory. What importance would the environment have to pictorial runes?