Lot 12A: The Feast of the Dead Manuscript
Antiquary Auctions has enclosed all the information you need to bid on Lot 12A in this convenient brochure with state-of-the-art holo. Below, you will find a description of Lot 12A, pertinent documents from the War Crimes Tribunal (or WCT), and even a rare translation by its infamous founder. From the far reaches to your homeworld, Antiquary Auctions brings you the absolute strangest in alien artifacts.
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Description: Lot 12A may be the most fascinating item up for auction in recent memory. This ancient and mysterious curio consists of four one-by-one-meter sheets of dark green, organic material (probably the skin of an extinct, indigenous fauna), and dazzling pictographs cover the surfaces, rendered in lustrous cyan ink. The “parchments” are in fair condition, though water damage renders some glyphs illegible. Each parchment sits in its own Icebox for customer satisfaction, integrity guaranteed by Cry-O-Matics.
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History and Subject Matter: Outlaw archaeologist Dr. Ch’jij, whose barbaric crimes made famous her obsession with the Manuscript, excavated these parchments with her own hands (as it were!). Drawn from the Hearth Temple ruins, she dubbed her find The Feast of the Dead Manuscript. Dr. Ch’jij estimated that these parchments were created 1400-1800 years ago, during what the indigenous culture calls Yujich, the most violent epoch of Procyon Prima’s history. Few artifacts survived from this period, making Lot 12A an extraordinary purchase for any consumer, on any world.
As you will see from the translation below, the ancient text appears to be an education manual of some kind. Its Narrator uses an ancient linguistic case, the second person parental, offering counsel in martial, matrimonial and culinary etiquette. Gentlemen, let’s hope our brides don’t take up these customs!
Blink HERE for Rear Admiral Luther Handrigan’s account of first contact with Procyon Prima eighty years ago.
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Ownership: Antiquary Auctions must warn consumers that establishing ownership of Lot 12A has been problematic since two parties have claimed title to it. The original owner was, of course, Dr. Ch’jij. As a result, the notorious Moons University, where the doctor held tenure, makes claim to this lot. So does the estate of Field Marshall Diego Handrigan, commander of the orbit-to-surface campaign, whom Dr. Ch’jij brutally assassinated.
In its capacity over intersolar trade, The War Crimes Tribunal has named Diego Handrigan’s estate the proper owner of Lots 12A-12T. All funds earned from this auction will go to the Handrigan estate as restitution for the Field Marshall’s assassination and for the unspeakable savagery Dr. Ch’jij and her colleagues performed on his body after killing him.
Blink HERE to view Armada News coverage of Dr. Ch’jij’s murder trial. Blink HERE to read pertinent WCT articles.
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Translation: So consumers may better appreciate the oddity of Lot 12A, we have enclosed the only existing English translation of The Feast of the Dead Manuscript. Dr. Ch’jij herself completed it for offworld colleagues, shortly before the Armada’s siege of the Moons University guerilla compound. Academic buyers may be interested in Lot 12G, a sample of which appears below.
Dr. Ch’jij’s Translation Notes, abridged from Lot 12G:
“We have never found anything like the Feast of the Dead Manuscript before. At a time when our children turn to outsider ways and prefer the infiltrator’s name, ‘Procyon Prima,’ to the proper Ul’jit, we now have an older, richer past than we ever dreamed.
“Translators have previously interpreted the Yujich picto-glyph ‘[chefs/women]’ as compound word ‘war-maidens’. But using a foreign idea such as war says more about modern, cultural pollution than it says about our Yujich ancestors.
“As this Manuscript reveals, the Yujich competed with rival, sentient predators whom they regarded as soulless. This might have the appearance of war to offworlders, but to the Yujich women, their rivals were food first and foes second. Accordingly, I have emphasized the word chef in my translation.”
(Translated from the Hijese by Bombardier Rodrigo Toofay of the Armada’s High Atmosphere Wing; Baccalaureate, Xeno-linguistics.)
