Ghyll:Ibaan Malmiz
Dibbed with quotes. --John Cowan 22:56, 17 Jul 2005 (EDT)
Although core script has been using accents unsystematically for some centuries, we owe the systematic account of accents summarized above to the early work of Ibaan Malmiz, who was one of the most promising scholars of Ghyll before he went "around the river-bend" as the saying is, and began to spout the foolish, dangerous, and pernicious ideas for which he has become so well known.
Ibaan Malmiz (-160 EC to -99 EC) Pursuing the question of his Hive-Lord, Ser Malmiz discovered heretofore unknown facts about the Looliers and their pratices. Being an inquisitive sort, he pursued the study of the only known Loolier writing and rediscovered the Clamorxian Decoding Method. Using this arcane series of textual transformations, he was able to discern that the Looliers were the inheritors of knowledge deeded to them by an ancient race of Ghyllians that had lived in The City of Spheres, Sayaziha.
In Ser Malmiz’ account, the ancients were misunderstood and were destined to always be. Ultimately, they went willingly to the slaughter just like beasts at the hands of the Looliers. This story is echoed in the epic Bordingbras his hatt! and in the demise of the Looliers themselves.
However it was first discovered, the Clamorxian Decoding Method was rediscovered by Ibaan Malmiz in -119 EC, exactly 20 years -- to the day -- before his disappearance and presumed death in -99 EC. Ser Malmiz studied Bordingbras his hatt!, the only known surviving Loolier text, as part of his Hive-Lord Question, and being absolutely certain that there was some sort of message hidden within, began applying various decoding procedures until some sort of sense came out of them. The strategies he employed became more and more complex until, in desperation, he attempted what would later turn out to be the Clamorxian Decoding Method. The Method is quite complex, and includes a set of spoken incantations and a small dance routine in its processes as well as the letter substitution and rearrangement techniques that are part of most conventional decoding methods, so it is unclear exactly how Malmiz stumbled upon it by chance, but stumble upon it he did. The very first thing he successfully decoded with the Clamorxian Decoding Method was the instructions for the Clamorxian Decoding Method, which left him slightly paranoid in his later years.
Upon discovering the Method, Ser Malmiz immediately tried to market it for all its worth. Clamorxian Decoding rings, however, did not sell well at all, and the dance routine that makes up part of the method failed miserably when performed artistically in front of an audience -- almost none of the audience members could sit still long enough. While the Method was not a financial success, it was a great academic success, but Ser Malmiz was unable to successfully patent the Method, and soon moved on to other things.
The Grimporke Grimoire takes its name from the bad ham which is believed to have inspired it, said ham having lain about after a great feast and rolled in both spilt Ball Lightning Liqueur and soured Fefferberry juice before being ingested by the unctuous author, one Ibaan Malmiz. Ser Malmiz, also known as the Drunken Prophet, was quite infamous in his foolhardy explorations of both occult lore and dubious culinary "delights". In spite of this, the Loony Loolier, as he was called due to his fascination with said tribe, made a regular diet of this unholy concoction. It is believed that this odd culinary choice fueled many of his subsequent visions.
In any case, Ser Malmiz claimed on more than one occasion to have plumbed the secret depths of knowledge of not only the Sarfelogian Mountains but also the ritual secrets of the ancient Looliers. He spent a great amount of time recording his various discoveries as a virtual hermit in the cactus forests, far from the mountains for which he is known. It is said that he was shunned by the few natives of that land because he was quite visibly and materially haunted by a rather large shining spirit that took a shape not unlike that of a great, pink Aelfant, though he was often the only one who could see it, without the "aid" of his favorite pork dish. Indeed, shortly after announcing, via postal mail, to a former colleague that he had completed his unholy work, he was seen by a local tribesman being carried off at great speed by that self-same spirit, and he has not been heard from since!
In Malmiz's terrible memoir, he claimed to have seen fabulous Sayaziha, or City of Spheres, and to have found beneath the ruins of a certain nameless desert town the shocking annals and secrets of a race older than Ghyllkind. He was rumored to be a member of the Brothers of the Lantern, but, if he was, he was only an indifferent Brother, and was no doubt expelled for worshipping the unknown entities whom he called Mmyogurt and Leemonje'lo.
Traditionally worshiped by the Looliers in ancient times, the ceremonies of Kiluma's appeasement were only rediscovered by the infamous Ser Malmiz as an answer to his Hive-Lord, and have been practiced in modified form by the Exingians for many years.
Ibaan Malmiz - The eldest and most terrible of all occultologists.
Modern Standard Ghyllian has been codified and derived from numerous sources including the languid, liquid language of the Looliers, the obtuse, and somewhat obscure, Olkuull, and the unwieldy, unglamorous Untch. Of course, Olkuull has been almost entirely swallowed by the more popular Modern Standard Ghyllian and is now spoken by just a few rather "intense" hermits who herd semi-domesticated graphorn who were made quite infamous by Ibaan Malmiz in his quest to translate the Grimporke Grimoire.
Indeed, Ibaan Malmiz has claimed that this synchronicity could possibly be exploited for useful purposes. Some occultologists have therefore begun seeking out zodiacal twins to experiment upon, in the hope that this will eventually produce an apparatus that one could use to communicate over large distances -- by inflicting a series of gruesome tortures upon the one twin, which could then be detected on the other twin.
