The Hermit's Story
Brother Aldric was excommunicated from his order in 1349 for “an excessive interest in the specifics of human hobbies.” He retreated to a grotto in the Pyrenees, where for the next forty years he catalogued the deep, googleable particulars of every obsession the travelers brought him.
When you click a pebble in his grotto, he turns a page. He writes you a curio card — the name of a real technique, a real person, a real foundational text. He does not tell you to “keep at it.” He tells you about the Royal Wulff, or Hildegard von Bingen, or autolyse.
The four moods of study
🌅 Dawn (5–11am) — Foundational
The candle is out. The cards lean toward history, anatomy, beginner drills, etymology.
☀️ Day (11am–5pm) — Practical
Bright light. Techniques, gear, step-by-step how-tos.
🌆 Dusk (5–10pm) — Community
Amber light. Forums, people to follow, conventions, podcasts.
🕯 Night (10pm–5am) — Weird & Lost
Deep blue, drifting fog. Obscure rabbit holes, controversies, lost techniques, cult lore.
Why time of day matters
The same obsession yields visibly different cards at 2pm and 2am. The hermit's mind drifts. By candlelight he remembers the strange edge of every craft — the suppressed schools, the obsessive forum threads, the lost technique someone's grandmother knew. Come back at midnight for the strange ones.
How it works
- Pick an obsession (or rename to anything).
- Click pebbles, mushrooms, scrolls, feathers in the grotto.
- Each click is a real curio card — named technique, real YouTube video, hermit's aside.
- After 6 cards, bind the codex into a shareable PNG reading list.
- Apprentice yourself ($2.99) for unlimited cards, AI cover art, and TTS narration.