==[[ System Interlude by Naron ]]==

Excerpt from a treatise on Classes granted by divine grace towards Xanthus, within his 23rd year as a priest of Naron.

There are some rather specific issues which must be overcome and other such requirements which must be met for an individual to receive a specialized class, unless of course they somehow chance upon it via pure luck, as the case has sometimes been throughout history. The first issue is that no one actually knows how to receive a class, unless they have one of five resources available to them. There could be a "voice of the gods" actively trying to help the individual, or something like an apostle, devout, priest, or even cleric. Information might be available from a library or bookstore where an inquisitive and dedicated researcher might find a book regarding a class (or, in rare cases, multiple classes) which had its requirements previously discovered and documented. One might be able to find the requirements stored in a church athenaeum, previously dictated by a god that was discovered by a devout worshiper, and then annotated and preserved by the priesthood. A god might grant the knowledge directly to a blessed and devout individual such as one who's worshiped hard enough. The final thing that may occur to receive one, would be to have a truly lucky individual be a part of an ancestral tradition or, in other words, partaking in a familial class.

There are, of course, additional hurdles to finding a SPECIFIC class using these methods. Most quests that are given by the "voice of the gods", or by the gods themselves, do not necessarily allow an individual to accomplish the requirements for the class they desire. Most quests just allow an individual to obtain generic classes, get better equipment, or even just acquire som monetary capital. It is almost unheard of for a quest to be geared towards a class the individual would like, unless that individual had found an acolyte or apostle of Faentes who then blessed them. Those previous instances pertaining to the "voice of the gods" have been known to have some amount of influence been put upon them from the acolyte's previously mentioned. However those certain proclamations, once identified, were quickly snatched up and sequestered or paid extremely well by high ranking officials, and others who have copious amounts of money to be downright impossible to know about except for those among the higher rungs of a social ladder. There are, of course, other less influential proclamations from the 'voice of the gods', which while costing less, have a rather different set of problems associated with them.

To get those low costing proclamations that haven't been sequestered by the nobility, one must find a priest willing to bestow it. However, most generic priests are not inclined to just hand over the secrets they've acquired from their respective gods. Although while most that are willing to give them up, have cost a lot less than those pertaining to the acolytes of Faentes, they are still not cheap and also have far less influence on the contents of their god's class message. Additionally, the priest may have been expressly forbidden from sharing the specifics of the class that they have knowledge on, thus making it impossible for them to legitimately 'sell' the proclamation. Finally, some priests aren't really of the helping sort, and the individual might just have a easier time surviving in a domain than to get one to actually help you, as certain faiths are dangerous towards the common folk. The same limitations hold true for searching the church athenaeum, as one either has to impart themselves into the benefits of the church's clergy, or simply sneak in without being noticed by either the gods or the priests themselves. The other options only become progressively more complicated, though, in terms of actually obtaining anything relating to a specialized class.

For example, the most simplest solution I've listed, that being to simply visit a library or buy a book on the class, comes with its own caveats. Most towns, if they even have a library or a bookseller, are not going to just store a random book titled "How to Acquire Geomancer-type class", let alone the specific class the individual desires. Even major cities are unlikely to have such a rare book sitting on the shelf. People in general also come with their own considerations as well. For example, in a certain farm village, there could be a person that has obtained the [Farmer] class. While they are more willing to give out the requirements which led them to that class, as it most likely would be an easy class to obtain, there are other classes, whose requirements might not be hard/easy enough to warrant the class, such as a [Wizard]. For those who hold those types of classes, it's more of a danger if they would fail achieving it, then they would be to actively get it. Plus, for those that automatically belong to the more high classed individuals, such as an [Arch Wizard], they may not like the requirements being widely distributed, as they feel it could cause unknown destruction upon the country they reside in, the requirements themselves put a certain type of person into them and any other that tries will inevitable fail or die unless they have a certain [Affinity] for it, or it could be for any other variety of reasons, be they personal or not. However, despite all of the things I've said so far, there is a straightforward way to actually gain a class you want, as long as you find the right god.

Basically, there are a multitude of gods who have the same provisions towards the same classes, so even if you don't know who would have the class you would be looking for, if you were to find yourself to a god, they could happily point you towards whoever you're looking for if they aren't one of the ones holding that class. However, even this comes at a cost. If an individual finds a church of a god who is willing to grant the knowledge of a class' requirements, if the individual's soul was pledged to another god at their birth, had a previous consideration towards a certain ideology rather than the one they are asking from, or the individual just does not mesh with that god's realm of influence, they might not hear any response, even with their most devout of prayers. In some cases, the individual might even be cursed for trying. Luckily, such restrictions and undue punishments can often be easily overcome by doing a series of dedicated services for that god. Unfortunately, getting the class specifics from that god might not even be possible even then once those actions have been performed. If the god, which the individual has spent time in service towards, is part of a certain aspect or realm of influence, they still might not be able to provide the requirements for a class which falls under the auspices of another god's realm of influence. This, of course leaves the most reliable, but least controllable way to gain a class, dependent completely on the luck of the draw at one's very birth.

Familial classes which can be passed down are noticeably extremely hard to obtain. Families which have met certain class requirements in the past, and have often collected the first Legendary Class of that kind and other such rarities, they can, and often times do, set their own conditions as to whom the class can get passed on to, whether it's belonging to those outside of their family or not. The usual requirement (although not absolute) is that the recipient be kin who has completed a number of tasks set towards them, either in honor of their achievement or recognition about their ideology. This does tend to avoid the class being passed on to a less desirable candidate, like a murderer who is now trying to become a Holy Warrior, whose aspect is of Grans, but can also lead to the requirements for the class being lost to slight alterations in tradition. Eventually, the tradition happens to shift too much, leading towards the actual requirements no longer being a part of the activities themselves, and the class is lost to that family. Most Legendary Classes are no longer available due to such mistakes, lost in time and translation.

All of these hardships, complications, and other difficulties leads to one reason why Historians are so often sought. Historians are bestowed with the ability to look into the past by their god, Naron. No one is exactly certain how, but based on hints, accidentally, dropped by certain Historians, which I shall not name as I try to maintain some level of dignity, some have speculated that Naron literally places a copy of his Tome into the heads of those chosen to be his Historians, although he only ever allows them to look at a few pages at a time. This is, as it sounds, more of a hindrance than anything else until the Historian gains the experience needed to parse and search through the contents to find the pages with the desired information. This often takes at least 50 or so years, depending on how strong that Historian's mental strength is, before a Historian is able to find specific information on request. One Historian described it as searching for information on a lord's father and instead, pulling up a scene of a woman gardening, watching a random court case for a taxable carriage, or a man just baking some bread all happening at the same time. Because of this difficulty, some Historians tend towards the more crazed parts of the mind, sometimes even having permanent mental conditions because of it.

To put it in a better light to provide a bit more information as to why this is not particularly good; If the god someone worships gives that person a skill which randomly makes them believe they are a different person every time they try to use it, more often than not, that person will get lost in time, as it were. If they delve too deep, they might even come back believing themselves to be that baker of yore I had written about earlier. More times than not though, this isn't too big of a deal. No one really cares if a person suddenly gains all the skills of a baker and then loses all their experience with their previous abilities. Unless of course, those unfortunate souls would go through events like the Calapse of Jorun, from the eyes of Conqueror Sovnak, or are put through the event of sudden inexplicable rape. Then, they could turn into a murderer, a crying mess, or someone completely insane with knowledge dangerous towards those that surround them, or even their own bodies until they regain their faculties, either due to other priests being called in to tend towards the mind sickness, or the mind just degrading the harrowing experience from their heads. Now, I'd advise each and everyone of you reading this to take the time and thank the gods that there are no more absolute insane people in the world than there already is. The Gods know that it's basically all up to them whether or not that we Historians get murders with access to all of our abilities inside of our heads, all the time.

==[[ ]]==

He had heard that Historians were an odd bunch, prone to losing themselves in the past that they searched. Unfortunately, that is exactly what Gerung had to deal with. The Historian he had hired was supposed to look into the class that was his family's legacy and find the actual requirements, or even just instructions on how to get the requirements, from Gerung's long dead, great-great-great-how-ever-many-greats-grandmother, Selish Foartin. As far as he could figure out, she was the only one in his family to have gotten a legendary class, but it had never gotten passed on. Sure, the class wasn't the greatest, nor the most powerful, like a Sage or a Conqueror, but it was called a Legendary Class for a reason. From what his family had taught him, it had potential to overturn entire kingdoms if used right. So, when he finally was able to get away from his family, leave his town, and journey around until he finally found someone who could give him cold hard facts, it was understandable that he wanted to absolutely murder the possessed man that had been in front of him.

Historians were, as he found out, quite expensive to get a hold of, and then they had cost even more to actually make sure they didn't become the very thing their hires sought out. His Historian had almost guaranteed that he wouldn't get lost in time finding his information, and had thus charged him extra. However, when he had received almost all of his funds for travelling, in Gerung's eyes at least, his Historian had managed to become Selish, which... complicated matters a tad. Gerung had no idea when the original mind would come back, nor could he, as only Naron could be able to coax it back with the help of some other gods of mind. So, he was forced to grovel, lick, work, and all other sorts of menial things that he had thought he left behind at his old home, before the hag-possessed-man even released any information.

However, at this point, he had managed to get the information on all of the requirements he needed for his class. Thankfully, he had already met most of them, according to the local [Analyst]. While it may not have been the advanced class of a [Reader], in which he may have wanted to ensure the information was better legitamized, the person he had managed to get in contact with, a nice ev whose sandy locks almost seem to cascade, was good enough in his books. According to her, he had met the strength requirement of 50, as well as, reaching the constitution threshold of 25. For the other things, he just managed to look towards his simplified self-check. In it, he saw that he had managed to acquire the prerequisite class, Beast Tamer, which he knew about a long time ago, but what he didn't know at that moment in time was the level. Looking back, he couldn't quite seem to remember if he had hit level 50 yet, as his particular class didn't have anything regarding self-grandiose statements when hitting the benchmarks. Thankfully, he had managed to reach that class level to the goal of 50. All that was left, was an event requirement, which somewhat surprised him, as he was sure that his race level might have to come into play, but from what Selish had said, that didn't necessarily matter all too much. At first, Gerung couldn't really understand what the kind of thing an event requirement would, or even could be. Selish was apparently prohibited from saying what exactly the event he had to accomplish was, probably due to an Oath or something, with his luck, but from her understanding, and based on her past experiences, the event could literally be anything, as long as it had to do with the class, and the voice of the gods recognizing it as such. She could only provide her own experiences, although she wasn't sure if they were still applicable in this place and time. So, with bated breath, the old maiden had laid bare her tale. However, Gerung didn't really pay attention to it all too closely, except for a few key facts. For her event, she had subjugated and tamed the majority of a White-Furred Yetish population that lived among the mountains. She had told him that she was unsure whether or not it was the location, the creature in question, or even the time in which she lived that allowed her to be granted the class, but from the story, Gerung had thought he had managed to figure it out.

To become a Beast Master, one must simply control an entire population of a beast within an area.

That was what felt right to him. That was the course he felt he had to take, and for the past couple of months, he had driven himself to do so. He didn't know if the quality of a beast had any impact, or not, or whether what counted as a specific area, but he figured given his abilities, there was only really one thing he could do. He had to travel to a domain of a god. He figured if he was able to capture the entire population of a beast within a domain, he could outdo his ancestor, and probably gain access to an even better legendary class, or perhaps advanced levels from his acquiring of it. Something within him told him that that was the right course of action. So, he headed to the second-nearest domain that he knew of, Growets Caldera.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Growets Caldera was, in fact, one of the domains of Marank, which he surmised, would be teeming with monsters and beasts. It also came with a better caveat than the actual nearest domain. That one was a particularly nasty domain of Deryl, which would have come with the caveat that a person was stuck within the domain until the person could destroy/beat all of the things that existed within that domain. This was sometime the case when it came to people who had found themselves stuck inside the dungeon. At least with Marank's caveat, you cannot leave until you've shed copious amounts of blood, left Gerung with the possibility of survival, rather than pitting him up against other people, whose classes might outshine his own. Plus, it was proven that as long as any blood was shed, it did not matter to who it belonged to, as the circular hole around it had opened up for someone to enter all the same.

So, once he had reached the domain, and killed a lot of living rats he had kept in a bag so that he could get inside, he tried to find a relatively good beast to capture. Sure, he could go for capturing and taming the entire population of flatres that nested within the trees, and while that would be safer to do, he wanted something...interesting. Something that had screamed...him. He had waited nearly two whole days trying to make a decision on whether to climb over the caldera's edge and get further into the domain, before he was approached by a lone wolf. It was bleeding heavily from its leg, and due to the copious amount of fur surrounding its head, you could not even see its eyes anymore. He saw an opportunity then, so he tamed it, healed it with some spare potions he had packed, and hunted for more of its kind. It was slow going, of course, as in the beginning he only had the one, but eventually, he had ended up with around 50, some big, and some small. Of course, there were a couple casualties getting this many. His taming skill particularly did not hold up well when working upon elderly beasts or newborns, as they either had too much will to fall under his control, or basically no presence for the skill to latch onto, so he had just left them behind to fend for themselves, or when the opportunity arose, fed his growing legion. However, even with that, some of his wolves were beginning to show signs of dissent. His skill, while foolproof in its execution, had a lingering time effect. If the tamed beast did not want to be tamed, then the effect simply fell off a week after its inception, and he was getting awfully tired trying to reset the skill each and every day, and judging from the wolf's information, there was only one other population of them within this domain. With that, he had hoped perhaps his ability would grow further than its capped limit, but something was off about this last population. This one wasn't like the others, where there were nearly 5 or 10 per pack, discounting those elderly and young. This was amongst the largest he'd come into contact with at around 25 individuals. So, with trepidation, he had met them at their home and started combat with him.

At first, he had simply thought the fight would go how all the rest went, and he'd basically overrun them with the amount of wolves that he had or slowly pick off the ones that straggled from their others combat formations. However, this clan was most definitely stranger than simply its number entailed. They were stronger too. They clashed with them for around 2 or 3 days, only ever having his forces stopping to feast upon the carcasses of the deceased around them. With the tactical wherewithal about food that he had instilled into his force, they had managed to kill some, but only obtained a net positive of 3 more. The only reason that he had not simply taken a hold of the entire rest of the population then and there, was because there had been others that were sent away to hide and the ones he had been battling had some sort of escape combat skill, where their speed almost quadrupled as they ran away from him in varying directions. Thus, he had spent the rest of the week trying to track down the stragglers, and only ever finding two of them.

After that, he had been stuck for a couple weeks trying to find the last vestiges of the population. At some point, he would find traces of them. Paw prints in the mud, some kills strewn about in haste, being left behind, that kind of thing. It was only when he saw tracks leading further into a cave into the side of the Growets Caldera, he knew that he had cornered them. They were essentially trapped between joining him, fighting him, or taking their chances with the advanced beasts and monsters further within. And thus, he brought his entire might with him. All of his wolves backed him, as they fought their once brethren inside the crystal lit caverns. His skills allowed him to enhance the strength and agility of most of his subordinates quite noticeably, as well as allowing some of them more fighting prowess. Sure, he had been stuck at his class's max level for awhile now, but there was a reason that most parties had wanted him specifically on their team. His skills mostly relied on strengthening others, rather than himself, sure, but his raw level and his stat values were so high that he could manage most other normal Bide one handed.

As more and more wolves were brought under his influence, he could feel the changes happening, his breadth of power was expanding, and the class he had, was slowly becoming more. Then, he felt it slow, and stop. It was done. Even with all of the fighting that his wolves were doing, and all that was left, his class had finalized. He was now, and would forever be, a Beast Master. His moment of elation, while great, was perhaps a bit too short he surmised, as, with his new senses and class benefits, he could tell that something was casting magic behind him, and it was closing in fast.

He turned around and caught the forearms of...he wasn't really sure what it was. It kind of looked like an elewaiy or an ev. Except...it wasn't. With a bit further inspection, he noticed the ears were shorter, and quite a bit more round. It had a weird nose type he wasn't familiar with. Whether or not this thing was intelligent, he couldn't really be sure. Many monsters and beasts had the ability to camouflage as a sapient and trick their prey into walking into their mouths, so he wasn't too sure on that front. What he could tell about it, however, was the magic surrounding its hands.

That...that was a staple for any magical traps he'd seen back when he was part of a team. Whenever you made a mistake or tripped something up, an arrow, a spear, or even a bolt would appear to stab this inside of you, the magic causing instant decay. Thus, the only remains you would see would eventually be rotting flesh, bones, or even dust depending on the severity. The severity of this magic would've turned him to bones. He grinned at the thing standing in front of him.

Whether or not it was intelligent or a beast, it was no matter. This thing could survive the rigors of Decay. That, in and of itself, was something worth noting. He had not heard of anyone who had been able to cast it, without suffering some debilitating illness or disease which killed in a couple weeks, days, or hours depending on the severity being used and how much it had been used. And this thing, this wonderful thing had managed to do it without even spitting up blood or causing his hands to deteriorate besides a few skin flakes. Whatever the case it may be, this thing had attacked him, and he was going to claim it.

So, without further ado, he jabbed his hand straight through the thing's stomach, before having his arm retreat back just as fast. With a baleful cry, the thing fell to the floor, it's magic destabilizing. 'That's the thing with mages though,' Gerung thought, 'You interrupt their casting with any big sensation, it just goes poof.' Unfortunately, it wasn't as big of a problem he thought it'd give the thing. Apparently, this thing had regeneration. Sure, it wasn't exactly the fastest, but the fact it still had it, said a fair bit about it, especially since it had stopped bleeding out of its orifice rather quickly.

"You've got a nice body, don't ya? Why don't you fall under for me then?" He activated his [Animal Submission], but it didn't seem to affect the thing. Although he saw the slight wince on its face.

"So, you've also got a mental resistance skill, I take it. A bit bothersome for me, but that's perfectly fine. The thing about resistance is," Gerung leans in closer, his nose almost touching the still panting beast, "resistance fails eventually."

So, that's where he stayed, continuously pouring on the effects of his skill. Every so often, the thing would try to run away, just like it had the first time, but Gerung would just stab it in the stomach again to keep it in front of him. Sure, it was taking a bit of effort to continuously pour the skill onto the thing, but Gerung wanted to test his new Beast Master skills upon it once it had become his. With the effects that he could pile unto this thing, it could become a formidable siege weapon.

Sure, he might've had to pull his attention away after awhile. The wolves, without constant supervision, were more than likely to just fail at their given task without constant monitoring. The wolves may have been smart, but it wasn't like they had any knowledge of tactics. It was to a few of these questioning sensations he got over the links between him and his horde that made him look away from his current task, to find that, yes, the plant thing was still at large. He hadn't known when it had arrived, nor why it started attacking the wolves only he had, but he was sure of one thing. He couldn't tame a plant. He tried multiple times, but the effect seemed to slide off of it. He made sure to tell the wolves that, while ripping and tearing were good options, why not take it to one of the cavernous pits around here that one of the turned wolves has passed on information about.

However, looking away from the thing he was trying to subdue was almost the most costly mistake in his short career as a Legendary Class. He couldn't tell when the thing had gathered energy, nor when the spell actually activated. All he could tell was that in one moment, he was fine, and in the next there was a spear going through his chest. Thankfully, it wasn't near any of his vital organs, like the heart, but it did somehow just...appear in his stomach. With a sigh, Gerung removed the spear, and shaped flesh so that no intense bleeding would happen. His pack was outside the cave at the moment, and that was where he had his potions. He could always shape flesh with his affinity, but that didn't really help grow any back. More often than not, that would just delay the problem, as all the bleeding had basically been turned into internal bleeding. It also didn't help that [Body] could only affect so many people.

He had to give props to the thing, he had entirely forgotten that this particular spell existed. It had been awhile since he started out, and most people didn't really look into the various variations that a magically conjured weapon could take besides a sword and a bow. He had only ever seen one instance of a magic spear in the capital, and even then, it didn't seem all that impressive. He surmised that the man was simply being kept around for mainly decorative purposes He only realized now, that that was the point.

He turned back around to face the thing, only to find it already in its face. And the punches it did, while not really all to heavy, had been laced with enough speed, that it didn't really matter what kind of strength was behind it. He was being turned into mincemeat after just a few seconds. That would not do.

He had already conquered most of this wolf population here, it was fine to send some in between him and his adversary. This, however, turned out to be another costly mistake. He never specified which ones, so it was up to them to decide. That, with their built-in loyalty to him, had made all the wolves stop what they were doing, turn towards that battle, and abandon all other actions they had been pursuing. This, while helpful towards the personal fight, did give breathing room for the other wolves in the cave, the ones that he was here to subjugate in the first place. So, while taking a breather, they all rallied behind the plant, before coming together as one towards the new battle. This, however, would also take a bit of time to organize. Enough time, for something interesting to happen.

You see, most weapons that are conjured by magic tend not to stick around for long. Most people don't really have the finer amounts of control necessary to continuously pump their weapon for the duration that they wanted it. Most people that had access to enough mana to generate a mana weapon weren't really warrior material. Sure, most adventurers could have magic that they're capable of using, but more often than not, that was just a racial trick, or an item that could produce the effect, never actually magic conjured by a person. Sure, some were willing to obtain magic, even with the chance of magical dissemination that could happen from time to time, but almost all who go through it successfully were scholars who had the knowledge to do so, as well as the knowledge to stay away from battle.

Most adventurers who even had access to magic mostly did it so that they would not have to rely on potions anymore, personally strengthening themselves with extra vigor, health, stamina, or speed. Plus it was more the case that most people never had affinities for healing magic or other types that would affect the body. That's where magic weapons came in, if you were ever able to figure out what the spell actually does. If you had enough magical control, you could change the purely magical weapon to take on one of your affinities. This leads most people to secretly conjure a sword of fire, bow made of wind, or some other nonsense. If anyone did see, they would most likely just say that they had to learn a different spell. Only if you looked in a book relating to the subject, would you actually see that it could do that, but as it always has been, most adventurers weren't really...keen on spending their time in a library, unless it was to look up for a new combo they could perform with their given skills. No, more often than not, they'd be out hunting bandits, destroying roaming monsters, or getting rid of some harmful dungeons.

That was why it came as a complete shock to Gerung, that the spear that the thing had held, did not fade away once thrown, and also seemed to just utterly destroy his buffed up wolves. Sure, adding 100% strength and health to a target creature of your choice was an excellent idea for buffers, but when it came to it, in the raw magical aspect, it didn't stand a chance against something which turned your muscles to dust within about 5 seconds of contact. So, Gerung did the best thing he could do, since he noticed that his entire army was so dumb as to continue running headlong into being wiped out by one person with a spear that tore through everything he held. He ran.

'While getting the thing would've been nice,' he thought, 'I'd much rather live to see another day now that I've gotten my legendary class.' And if he had anything to say about it, that would be it. He would've run out the cave, chugged a couple potions, went back to civilization, and start taming the things that a beast master was known for taming, dragons. Sure, he would've definitely gotten better equipment for that task, as well as a couple of people to back him up, like in his adventuring days, back when they actually got him money before the taxation act happened. Unfortunately, that path had somewhat been closed to him, as the plant creature was currently between him and the door.

Thankfully, he had one thing he could use to help. It would mean not being able to use it during his 1st dragon taming, but right now, he figured the situation had called for it. So, with a heavy heart, he activated his costly speed talisman. His body suddenly felt so energetic, like he could control every fiber of his being to motion, but he knew that it was just the sudden change doing things to his perception. So, with his advanced speed, he ran under the plant things legs, and jumped on top of the wolves behind it, to finally put himself in an advantageous position. Unfortunately, that is when a stalam burst from the ground mouth ready to swallow.

For all of those who don't spend much time in caves, a stalam is basically a low tiered monster that camouflages itself as a stalagmite. When prey gets close, it basically opens its head up and tries to eat it, mainly feasting upon the surprise of its victims. This, of course, would be much scarier to the average person, if the thing wasn't the size of an average foot. It was meant to eat small lizards or big bugs after all, not people. So, for whatever reason, this stalam thought that it would be high time to check if any bugs were nearby. This had, the unfortunate side effect, at least for Gerung, to cause him to rip the monster in half with his leg and trip into the ground. This, was enough for the plant thing to catch him, and begin to strangle him

It wasn't really strong enough to do so however, only enough to keep him in place. That was when Gerung noticed something rather peculiar about his surroundings. He could no longer hear any mental conversation, no one was asking for his help. This could only mean one of two things. If he had been in his right mind, he would have figured it out. However, with the talisman pumping energy into his body, he could only think that his beasts were coming to his aid sensing that their master was in danger. Unfortunately, reality had gone the other way he hadn't thought of yet, and so he was unprepared for what came next. It came as a complete surprise to him when he turned his head away form the plant, only to find a serrated spear tip five cent away from his face. Then he was no longer able to think of anything at all, as it all faded to black.