The Royal Ontario Museum

The Royal Ontario Museum had been established in 1912 as a museum of art, world culture and natural history. One of the most notable locations in the city of Toronto along with the Metropolitan Toronto Zoo, the Ontario Science Center, Roy Thomson Hall, the recently opened Princess of Wales Theatre and the Silver Snail comic book store, the Royal Ontario Museum was one of Tyler's favourite locations. He had been three or four years old when his parents had first brought him to the museum and immediately, he felt like he had been brought to another world filled with the great splendors of the past. It was a great adventure and one he enjoyed having again and again.

Wearing a suit that previously belonged to Laszlo's son, Tyler entered the museum and smiled as he looked down at the image of a lion upon the floor. There was the image of a camel and a crocodile as well, in addition to what Tyler believed to be whatever the Mesopotamian equivalent of a sphinx was called. All these people were just standing around talking to one another, probably never even knowing what they were standing upon or close to.

Walking away from Laszlo and Cagliostro, Tyler looked upon a statue from the east. He believed it to be a Buddhist statue, but he was not entirely sure.

"Uh, Tyler!"

Tyler looked over to Laszlo asked: "Yes?"

"I don't see Rosie, so it doesn't look like she is here yet. How about you go look around for a bit, but stay on this floor alright."

"Sure, Laszlo, whatever you say."

Making his way from the entrance, Tyler strode to the Gallery of Chinese Architecture, the largest collection of Chinese architectural artifacts outside of China. Upon seeing the Ming Tomb, he wondered who could have originally been within that large domed burial mound, never dreaming that it has once held the remains of the legendary Ming general Zu Dashou. Of course, Tyler had never heard of Zu Dashou, due to the fact that he did not know the names of any people who had belonged to the Ming dynasty. The Northern Wei, the Tang and the Yuan dynasties he could name people from, but as for the Ming Dynasty, people from that period were a complete mystery.

Looking at the various items from the Ming Tomb, Tyler paused. Looking back and forth, he noticed that a bronze statue, or whatever it was made of, of a Bactrian camel was missing. Was it his imagination or that the statue never been there at all? He could have sworn it was. He distinctively remembered there being a statue of a camel from the Northern Wei dynasty near the Ming Tomb… Alright, maybe it wasn't Northern Wei, but he remembered there being a statue of a camel… Maybe… Perhaps it was just off-site.

Making his way past the Ming Tomb and the spot that he believed a statue of a camel should have been, Tyler approached the life-sized replica of a Chinese imperial palace. Yellow-glazed roofs reserved for emperors… If purple was the colour of rulers in Rome, then it seemed it was yellow in China. Had that been the case with every dynasty? Tyler had no idea, he knew that the Northern Wei dynasty had been a Proto-Mongol state, founded by the Xianbei of the Tuoba clan, but would the roofs of their palaces have been a different colour before the rapid Sinicization that Emperor Xiaowen had introduced? What a wonderful question.

The Northern Wei… Now there was something he had to see.

Exiting the Gallery of Chinese Architecture, Tyler entered the Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Gallery of China and proceeded to explore one of the oldest cultures in the world. While he searched for the artifacts of the Northern Wei, he still took time to look at the artifacts of other dynasties such as the Han, the Tang and the Ming. Upon seeing some small earthenware figures of cavalrymen on armoured horses, a look of puzzlement spread across Tyler's ruddy countenance. Were these from before or after Xiaowen's Sinicization? Looking to some other earthenware figures from the Northern Wei dynasty, this time depicting officials, he imagined they must have been from after Xiaowen's Sinicization. They looked fairly Chinese, not at all how he imagined Mongol, or even Proto-Mongol officials and cavalrymen to look and yet… He could not remember when Xiaowen had ruled the Northern Wei Dynasty. Looking at the dates given, he had no idea if they came before or after Xiaowen, he who had changed the name of his clan from Tuoba to Yuan.

Xiaowen's Sinicization had done more than just change the name of his clan, it was true. It had caused division in his dynasty that would ultimately lead to its separation into the Western and Eastern Wei dynasties, short-lived dynasties, but dynasties that existed nonetheless.

That had not been the China which Marco Polo had seen, Tyler knew that well. Though the Xianbei called their emperors "Khan" as well as "Son of Heaven", both of which were documented in the Northern Wei balled simply titled "the Ballad of Mulan", Marco Polo had actually come to China when Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, was ruler of the Yuan Dynasty.

When had Tyler first been introduced to the tale of Marco Polo and his amazing travels? He was not sure he could remember, some time in the Seventies, he knew that… Or perhaps he had not? He could not rightly… No, he had! He had read "The Travels of Marco Polo" when he was in the fourth grade… which had begun in 1979 and ended in 1980, so maybe he hadn't been introduced to the story in the Seventies.

The sound of footsteps soon came to Tyler's ears, footsteps in high heels. Normally, he would not have noticed footsteps, but being the only other person in the gallery, how could he not?