PROJECT SAND
INTRO
2023 - Project Sand is the first of three internal projects that Sharp Corner developed this year. It tells the story of Asim, a librarian in a devastated world, and his adventures.
The city of Qalandra was a remarkable feat of engineering nestled in the heart of the Shik'ari desert. The city utilized a combination of rock materials and terlixite, a metal that reacts to the magnetic fields generated by the two moons orbiting the desert sky day and night since time immemorial. This magnetism was harnessed to power all the inner mechanisms of the city. To achieve this purpose, an array of circular rings was constructed atop the city. These rings were designed to track the movements of the two moons, ensuring that the city received optimal magnetic exposure.
However, one fateful day, a double eclipse cast a shadow over both moons for a couple of hours, completely nullifying the magnetic field and leading to the catastrophic collapse of the entire city. When the moons reappeared in the sky, only ruins remained.
The very first artifacts that Asim came into contact with were the Eyes of Solomon. The true purpose of these artifacts is to contain hidden information within the Qalandra library. However, it seems that these eye-shaped tools also store the "kairi," a Shikarian term meaning "the essence of a place.
Asim had to endure a series of challenging trials during his journey, and this eventually took a toll on his body. He began to form a symbiotic relationship with the powerful artifacts he was retrieving, becoming less human with each passing day. He ceased eating and drinking, and all he did was wander through the desert, guided by various hallucinations.
Asim explored a wide range of locations, from imperial tombs to the ruins of ancient cities swallowed by the desert sands, all with the sole purpose of uncovering the hidden artifacts concealed within the walls of each palace.
Asim was an archivist employed at the Library of Kaoraq, a small city located in the Shik'ari desert. Several days after the double eclipse, news of the disaster in Qalandra reached everyone. While many people were concerned about the city's infrastructure, Asim was preoccupied with the loss of valuable information. The Qalandra library employed cutting-edge storage devices that utilized magnetism to record information onto delicate terlixite plates, and the astronomical event had compromised these mechanisms as well. The young archivist made the decision to embark on a journey with the aim of recovering all the lost information that he believed to be crucial for humanity.
The Mask of Tarku is a funerary mask that, according to legends, once belonged to a Shikarian king. Asim discovered the mask and initially used it as a face covering to shield his eyes from minor sandstorms.
Later in his journey, Asim tragically lost both eyes due to a powerful magical flare emitted by one of the Eyes of Solomon he encountered. This incident resulted in his loss of sight, but he soon discovered that it granted him the ability to perceive the energetic wireframe of the places he visited. This newfound ability allowed him to establish a profound connection with his environment.
Enlightened by the wealth of knowledge he was accumulating and pushed to his limits by the intensifying hallucinatory experiences, Asim manually modified the Mask of Tarku to incorporate the Eyes of Solomon. Combining these artifacts opened up an entirely new realm of senses for him. However, the concept of knowledge that now stood before him was twisted and corrosive.
The Bracelet of Polaris is one of the artifacts that Asim discovered during his journey. It is said to have once belonged to Polaris, a young Shikarian shepherdess. According to the legend, the young girl became lost in a massive cave while chasing after a sheep that had strayed from the flock.
Once inside the cave, Polaris soon realized that the sheep was actually a hidden divine entity, sent to aid her in a vital mission: saving Polaris's village. She hailed from the city of Al'Mann, a complex community facing imminent relocation due to violent sandstorms relentlessly pushed by neighboring winds. These storms crippled every productive endeavor in the city and caused the population to suffer from famine and diseases. The entire community had to migrate away from that perilous region, but the dark cave Polaris had become lost in separated them from freedom.
The divine entity bestowed upon Polaris a metal bracelet. When she wore it, a radiant flock of luminescent sheep materialized before her eyes. The entity instructed the girl to harvest the eyes of each sheep and attach them to the bracelet. Upon completing this task, Polaris noticed that the artifact emitted an intense light. "Guide your people through the darkness until the last light ceases to shine," the entity told her before vanishing.
Thanks to the bracelet and the radiant light it emitted, Polaris led her people through the cave and out of the nightmarish ordeal they had been enduring. As they emerged from the rocky corridor, the final light on the bracelet extinguished into ethereal fragments.senses for him. However, the concept of knowledge that now stood before him was twisted and corrosive.