Journal Entry one; Sylvia McNealman(Masika Kazemede'Mensah).

"To speak one's given name outside of the desert is forbidden. Therefore each of the halfling clans have their desegnated Surname 'psuedonym'. In the case of the Kazemede'Mensah[Third Born, Trader Caste] we are referred to and only known as 'McNealman' by those outside the desert. It's a well kept secret, despite the fact that it has been documented, and our true names may not be spoken outside the desert.

It is custom that when a Mensah has matured to adult-hood they may choose a first name to use for all purposes outside of the desert. This causes some frustration in me as well. My brother, Asim, has been gone for...eight or nine years now. So many birthdays come and gone and I do not even know the Psuedonym of my brother. As one can imagine this makes him a very tough person to track down word from, and an even tougher person to send word to. Though, ever since a caravan returned about eight months ago that had been attacked and it was reported to me that a group that has now reached an almost infamous status saved them from attack.

Most specifically the word of a Mensah halfling, a member of my own clan, had saved a great many of them from fires and certain death. The caravan leader said that many of them stayed behind with this noble halfling, feeling as though they owed him a debt. I sometimes have delusion of grandeur, and picture my brother pulling wounded and dead halflings from a fire and then burying them. I think, though, that it's too good to be true; it merely keeps my mind off the fact that he very well could be dead and probably is. He was strong spirited and outspoken, in a world of people twice or thrice his size I'm sure he opened his mouth and was strangled to death by a pub patron long ago."

End Entry One.