Animo — erm… General Yudha — had called him into her office along with the usual crowd of trusted commanders plus Gravis, but no one really knew why. Arum had a reasonable guess though. It started to take shape after he observed Animo’s hands shaking. To his knowledge, everyone in this room had been entrusted via informal channels (aka Rogue) with at least a few vague hints about all the drama of the last two months to explain Animo’s concerningly altered behavior. Arum, being the bookworm and history geek that he was, had put the rest of the pieces together — that and he’d heard the rumors confirming his theory. People had finally realized that Animo had married into that Yudha family, and their family trip to the temple had resulted in a public service announcement informing all the whack-jobs of this fact. However, the consequences of this whole situation were anything but theoretical, and the fact that Animo was willingly submitting to therapy because of it spoke volumes about how severely this was affecting her. (Of course, he knew nothing about her seeing a monitor.)

“Good afternoon, gentlemen,” Animo began the meeting when everyone had taken a seat. “I’m going to just come out with it. I’m on my way to confront the crowds at the gate. I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors by now, and I’m sorry I’ve been keeping the details of this one closer to my chest, but…. Primordials, where do I even start?” Arum waited quietly with the rest of the commanders for her to gather her thoughts, but when she couldn’t seem to find any to express, Rapax started prompting her with questions.

“You’re confronting the crowds, General, what do you need from us?”

“Support. I need you to be my back-up because — this stays between us — I’m- I’m not sure I can do this.”

“What makes you say that?”

“These people… want something from me, something I don’t have.”

“General, we’re all aware of the prophecy and their claims that you and your family are significant to that prophecy. Is there any validity to their claims?”

“Whether there is or not, the prophecy is anything but definite, and I am allowed to choose my own path.” Arum frowned at that non-answer, but Rapax voiced his thoughts first.

“So your fear is that they might be right and you will consequently be saddled with the burden that is this prophecy?”

“I don’t believe in the prophecy,” Animo shook her head. “My fear is that, regardless of my wishes or whether the prophecy is even real, I will still be compelled to fill some interpreted role based on that prophecy.”

“I see,” Rapax nodded. “So back to my original question, what do you need from us?”

“I need you to run interference to keep the crowds away from me while I speak to them, and, Gravis, I need you to stick close to me and get me out quickly in case I start to… to panic.”

“Panic?” Arum’s frown grew pronounced.

“Yes.” She didn’t offer further explanation. “If the rest of you could assemble a unit of your men to help control the crowds, I would appreciate it. Please be advised, we have some intelligence that the people might not all be peaceful, so be on guard. Are there any other questions?” Arum exchanged uncertain glances with his fellow officers and shook his head. “Then meet me by the front palace gates in an hour with your men. Dismissed.” As the group began filing out, Animo called, “Arum, could you stay back a minute?”

Arum returned to his seat, waiting for everyone else to clear out of the office before asking, “what can I do for you, General?”

She sighed and got up from behind her desk to take the seat next to him. “It occurred to me that you would know more about… this.”

“This,” he repeated. “This, the prophecy, this?”

“All of it. The prophecy, why these people are targeting my family, the historical precedents, various interpretations on what the prophecy means… all of it.”

“I… yes? I mean, I’ve read a lot about it.”

“Teach me, then. What do you know?”

“Well, that’s kind of a massive subject, Animo.”

“Give me a brief overview then.”

“Um… ok?” Put on the spot but definitely excited to be asked about this, Arum had to take a moment to dredge up his memories of the related texts he’d read. “Well, let’s go chronologically. So, tradition says that the Great Owl declared the prophecy in 0 A.P. to the Last Primordials while the Blue Dragon took notes. Erm, from those notes, a formal prophecy was compiled. Eventually, the prophecy was circulated and people started tracking the lineages of the Last Primordials.”

“Why?”

“Why would they track the lineages? Uh, well, it’s part of the prophecy, well, one of the most accepted interpretations of the prophecy anyway. A significant part of the prophecy is about the restoration and unification of various things.”

“Like the Lost Tribes.”

“Yes, that’s part of it too. But also, the unification of the tribes and of the bloodlines of the Last Primordials. As you might imagine, because of the Last Primordials’ close associations with high profile people, most genealogical lines of interest are the royal lines of various tribes. And royal lines are generally easier to track anyway because of the strict rules of succession and such.”

“So, royal lines like the ancient Dragon King line?”

“Yup. The Yudha line is on that list, as is the ‘newer’ royal Dragon Tribe line — the Ekata line — and the Wolf Tribe Lang line and the Bear Tribe Tragen line. That’s the short list, but there are certainly lots of ‘lesser’ lines that fit on that list — low profile lines like the Arum line, actually. At this point in history, I feel like a lot of people can trace their heritage back to at least one of the Last Primordials. The thing that made — sorry — makes the Yudha line such a strong candidate is that, somewhat recently, it actually managed to unify all five of the Last Primordials’ bloodlines in a very direct way, whereas some of the other big names only have three or four of the bloodlines merged much more tangentially. Well, I guess that’s not entirely true. I’m remembering that the Tragen line had all five lines merged a while ago. There was a big fuss made about it towards the end of the sixth century, but nothing ever came of it, so people stopped paying much attention to that line. But I know I told you before about the destruction of the Yudha colony in 766 and all the theories flying around about who did it and why.”

“You did,” she confirmed. “Both the Dragon and Wolf Tribes were implicated for political reasons, but most people believed it was neither and that it actually had something to do with prophecy.”

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“Right. So there’s two different sides to the beliefs surrounding the prophecy. Primordialists, or the traditional believers in Primordialism, look forward to the fulfillment of the prophecy as the salvation of Ulakam.”

“Why?”

“Well, the prophecy promises that the world will be united. Most people think that means the world will become utopian, led by the wise and ancient Dragon King. But then, the other side of that coin fears the unification of the tribes. One book coined the term anti-unifiers to describe their beliefs. Essentially, they believe that the Dragon King will be a tyrant who will tear down existing systems and turn humanity into his slaves. So it makes sense that they would oppose the unification of the tribes or anything else indicative of the fulfillment of the prophecy.”

“And what do you believe?”

“Me?! Um…. It’s interesting? I’m not particularly religious, Animo, but it’s interesting from a historical perspective.”

“How so?”

“I mean, the prophecy has shaped history for the better part of the last millennium — religious beliefs which in turn have shaped cultural practices and priorities. There are so many theories and extrapolations surrounding the prophecy too. My favorites are the metaphysical interpretations which assume that the Great Owl was speaking on a purely spiritual, metaphorical level and not a literal one. That ideology gave rise to an entire branch of Primordialism called Avi-Kankal that believes the fulfillment of the prophecy is a personal journey in which one dedicates their life to developing a spiritual connection with each of the Last Primordials. The belief is that by coming to know each of the five Primordials, one can come to know the Dragon King himself, bringing internal peace and unity. It’s a search for enlightenment, and there are a number of temple orders that have developed from that ideology. I feel like there’s at least one such order in every main tribe that restricts their numbers to five members, each of whom study and represent one of the Last Primordials so that, collectively, they can represent the Dragon King himself. Not all of them subscribe to the Avi-Kankal philosophies, but they all have roots in that interpretation of the prophecy. It’s just fascinating!”

“Arum, what’s your take on the part of history we are living in now?”

“I’m assuming you are specifically referring to the part where you are being heralded as the supposed Mother of Prophecy?”

“Yeah.”

“You know, the concept of the Mother of Prophecy or the Father of Prophecy isn’t universally accepted.”

“It’s not?”

“No. The first known references to the Mother and Father of Prophecy were recorded in the second century before the concept went out of vogue and all but disappeared. It then returned to popular view in the late third century, giving rise to a religious ideology called the Iranti Cintanai movement, arguing that the prophecy was actually two separate prophecies that had been conflated in the dying mind of the seer. And that triggered the rise of the Palam Itai-something-that-I-can-never-pronounce — the name means ‘bridge gaps’. Anyway, the Palam sub-sect believes that the original prophecy must be interpreted because it was incomplete — either that it was recorded incompletely, declared incompletely, or the vision itself was incomplete. And that in turn led to a whole slew of sub-sects that have each filled in the apparent gaps of the prophecy with their own bridges. Fascinating stuff…. How did I get off on this tangent, Animo?”

“Uh, the Mother and Father of Prophecy–”

“Oh, right! Not universally accepted doctrine. Right. Well, so prophecy purists have looked at the history and decided that the Parents of Prophecy concept was added into the prophecy after the fact because there are no records of a Mother or Father of Prophecy in that first century after the prophecy was given. Of course, there aren’t many records from that period left to draw from, and the concept has become mainstream regardless. Even purists will sometimes consider it to be a possible sign of the impending fulfillment of the rest of the prophecy. Still others believe that the written record of that first century neglected much of the oral tradition surrounding the prophecy and was therefore incomplete. Oh… there was an owl — I can’t remember their name — but, if I’m remembering correctly, they claimed to be a descendant of the Great Owl herself. Anyway, in the third century, they confused the debate about the Parents of Prophecy being a thing or not — and I’m not going to be able to quote them accurately — but basically, they said something to the effect that ‘people are born from people, so even the Great Unifier will have parents, and will likely be a parent’. Obviously, that clarifies nothing, but a lot of people took the idea and ran with it.”

“I see.”

Arum laughed, recognizing that his geek-out was likely way more than she had bargained for. Animo looked a little punch drunk, and maybe a bit nauseous. “Sorry, Animo. Too much at once?”

“You could say that,” she said with an apologetic wince.

“That’s fair. Bottom line? While I find the prophecy and its history fascinating, I don’t put much stock in it — at least not in any of the modern interpretations of it. Historically, there likely was a prophecy given, but you have to believe in that sort of thing for it to matter. Since then, nearly eight hundred years have passed, and people have interpreted the prophecy differently throughout the years to suit their own purposes. What is real and what is contrived is anyone’s guess at this point, and sadly, there aren’t any original copies of the prophecy anywhere to reference. The oldest texts currently known to still exist only go back to 90-something A.P., and those copies are horribly damaged and probably locked away in a temple vault somewhere. After that, the next oldest records are from the 200s A.P., and they are mostly all written by various sects. There’s an insane amount of disagreement between the records. I read a comparative analysis book on the different records once…. Wild stuff.”

“Why are there so few early records, though? For something supposedly so important, why didn’t people make more copies? Or wouldn’t someone seek to preserve the integrity of the prophecy?”

“Well, they probably did,” Arum explained simply. “Sadly, there was also a counter movement in the late 300s — a really big one. A lot of those first records were gathered up and destroyed.”

“What?!”

“I know, right? It sucks. So what remains are fragments of the original prophecy, which, apparently, might have been fragmented to begin with.”

“So what do people actually know about the prophecy then?!”

“Not a whole lot, honestly. That comparative analysis book went through dozens of different records and expounded upon the contents for hundreds of pages only to conclude with a brief sum-up paragraph. The only things that seem to be universally accepted are the few things you’ve probably heard a million times. The first is the birth of a Great Unifier and the return of the Dragon King, though what that should look like is heavily debated. Second is the promised restoration of the Lost Tribes, the unification of the tribes of Ulakam, and some vague combining of the Last Primordials that most texts agree to mean the merging of their bloodlines. And third, a union of equal opposites that will somehow bring either balance or peace to the world depending on which text you’re reading.”

“What’s that last one?”

“The last one? Well, that’s the part that’s given rise to the various Parents of Prophecy interpretations, but, see, it’s super vague, and different texts provide different details about this supposed union. The thing is, what is it a union of? People? Tribes? Religious sects? And is the union even a literal thing? That is another entire sub-set of interpretations to debate right alongside the beliefs of the Iranti Cintanai movement and Palam sects. But you can see why Iranti Cintanai subscribers believe that there must have been two separate prophecies, right? The union of equal opposites doesn’t obviously fit with the rest of the prophecy.”

“Oh,” Animo acknowledged distractedly.

“Sorry. I’m still rambling,” Arum said with a snort of self-deprecation. “Are you overwhelmed yet?”

“Arum, I was overwhelmed before you started talking. You know I’m not going to remember most of this, right? You’ve given me a lot to think about.”

“That’s understandable, I guess,” he said with a grin. “I’d probably better go and assemble some men together, huh?”

“Oh. Uh, yeah. Thank you, Arum.”

“Any time. I don’t get to geek-out like this very often. It was fun! … For me, at least.”

She smiled weakly at that, though Arum could see that her head was spinning. “Dismissed, Commander.”

“General.” He bowed out.