A Tale of Madness Extra: Prologue: “Nashakra 1”
He had no titles. He had no name. He simply was what he was and he was not what he was not. He floated through the Great Void.
For as long as he could remember, he was here. He was here because of his mission. The mission was a part of his existence—the task with which he was born.
He was The Ever Vigilant, The Watcher, The Silent One, The First, The Last Bastion, The Protector. The Guardian.
He Guarded Himself. He was important. But he knew not why.
Here he drifted, floating around. His immense form that barred description was still, never moving. If anyone had seen him, could have seen him, they would have thought him dead.
But he was not. He was neither alive nor dead if such concepts could even be applied to him in the first place. He was always awake, always watching, constantly vigilant.
He had asked himself these questions many times in the deepest parts of his unfathomable mind.
“Why was he born, or was he created?”
“Who or what created him?”
“Why was this his mission?”
“Why was he protecting it?”
“What sought to bring it harm?”
“Who were the enemies?”
“How did they look like?”
“What gave him his life?”
“What gave him his mission?”
He did not know any of the answers. But he did not despair at the lack of them, for he knew that the answers would reveal themselves with time.
It was because he knew that nothing existed without reason, and the reason for his existence would make itself known at one moment in time, and, when it did, he would have his answers.
All he must do is wait. And wait, he did. If any way to tell time existed here, it would have been billions of years. And as he knew, his answers he received.
The void was infinite even to him. He could only see so far and then he could see no more but on an on it went.
In the void. Full of darkness. Coldness. Nothingness and Chaos, which gave birth to countless creatures.
The innumerable primitive beings, talked, fought, worked together and opposed each other, died, and came back to life, paradoxical contradictions. They grew. Evolved and Built. Some remaining monsters others founding civilizations.
“Why were they born?”
“What was their mission/intention? Is it the same as his?”
“Did they even have a mission bestowed upon them?”
“Did they ask themselves the same questions?”
“Did they even think?”
“Were they destined to clash?”
They could not detect his observations. They were less than he was.
“What was he?”
He did not communicate with them, although he could if he wanted to, but that was not his mission. It was better to stay hidden, to be unknown. So that few things would threaten him or what he had to protect.
Universes were born from the Great Void. And they returned to it. Torn apart. Becoming chaos once more. Only to be reforged and reborn. Looking just as black from the outside absorbing the energys of the void to grow in size. Expanding.
There were countless clusters of Universes that were similar to each other or so alien they could not be described. They clustered together.
A Universe was born and gave birth to countless dimensions. The how did not matter. Only that it did.
There were truly an innumerable number of them, some as small as they could possibly be. Others appearing to be truly infinite despite the impossibility of it. The laws of nature were different for each.
Time had given him answers and more questions.
He focused on a particular Universe. A single dimension within filled with countless things and sub dimensions.
Gravity was on whatever ground one walked on. The plants slowly filled their worlds and pillars with life. It was chaotic.
There were no uniform laws that applied. Planets as big as entire galaxies. Galaxies as big as star systems.
One was clad in black ice kilometers thick others were covered in vegetation, black forests stretching on for eternity, bearing fruits or leaves that looked like eyes.
Swamps of corruption and poison. Rivers of fire, land covered in black pulsing flesh.
Pools of unknown liquid from which new creatures spawned birth to something new.
Writhing masses of flesh, with tentacles and eyes, countless eyes crawled from these pools.
Creatures consisting of vines blooming with flowers radiating fear while leaking their bloody nectar. Nectar which stunk of rotting corpses.
Flying eyes framed by tentacles floating around. Leeches as big as a small boulder flying in great swarms sucking the life juices from whatever creature they came across.
Trees with eyes on their trunks filled with black blood. Releasing around them a sweet, enticing smell of rotten corpses and the copper smell of blood, trying to lure their prey.
Grabbing whatever came near them with their roots and tentacles, stuffing it into one of their dozen or hundreds of maws that revealed themselves. Growing as big as hundreds of meters.
Worms and other monstrous earth-life going along their life beneath the ground.
Strange elongated creatures, glistening moist and enriched from the foul liquids they exited.
Some had any number of arms and legs, maws and wings, tentacles and tails, their forms so varied and chaotic, some shifting, looking like chaotic forms of insects, animals, plants, humanoid, or any combination of these and more, whom words could not describe.
Beings that were clearly dead, and yet they moved, they lived.
Something new was always born that even he could spend an eternity cataloging them all. These new things interested him greatly, and he pondered many things with his mind.
Some could not move when being looked at; some grew stronger or weaker the more other beings knew of their name. Others could only speak in rhymes, while others could not kill directly.
More of these “afflictions” existed, countless more, acting by some unknowable rules, laws, and concepts that were part of their being, some so multifaceted and exotic they once again barred all descriptions.
The creatures were primitive, primordial; they were raw. Some appeared broken and incomplete. Many soon expired and perished. Others continued a wretched and pitiful existence that even his heart was feeling heavy. Still. He did nothing.
Many questions remained, far too many, but time will give the answers to him.
He inspected more and more of these Dimensions and their Universes. Countless more as they drifted trough the void.
Time passed, and changes were happening in many dimensions.
Energy formed matter and this matter came together. Combined, it created stars, worlds, moons, and black holes.
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More time passed, and some worlds gave birth to primitive life, weak and short-lived. Much of it perished and died out. Others thrived, built societies, entire civilizations, and developed, and the first Psions appeared—those who could use their minds to achieve supernatural things.
Psions used their minds to Interact with another or their surroundings, to create psionic energy to make fire and lightning, or to power their tools, to look at things from afar and create runes, and the possibilities were limitless.
These civilizations grew in power; they reached beyond their world and traveled the void with strange vessels they built, spread and discovered new things every day, and created more and more. They were Builders. Conquerers. Destroyers. Creators. They Consumed leaving but a lifeless husk.
They encountered other life and went to war, amongst themselves or each other, some even claiming that life was of the most significant value, yet they took it so easily.
The fools did not realize they could achieve far more by working together than indulging in their fear and jealousy, their vision so shortsighted. More concerned with tripping each other and dragging them down than to build into their future together.
To enrich all is to enrich oneself.
Their leaders, liars, and cheaters used any means necessary to further their petty goals, beginning wars out of a slight against one's pride. None were truly leaders of their people.
They sought to impress their ideals and ideas upon others. If one wanted to have a say in another’s life, then it was only fitting that another had a voice in their life. Balance and cycles, yet they could not understand such simple Truths.
They always lacked, for they never planned for a genuine eternity. But, of course, anything that was not intended to last forever indeed would fall apart. Was that also not easy to understand?
At these sights, even he felt disgusted, something he never knew he had. Yet, for some reason, he despised these things.
But he would not act. They were as short-lived as they were shortsighted; just as time would give him his answers, they would perish with it.
Nonetheless, they continued to build and grow, empires rose and fell, building significant constructions around stars or black holes, harvesting worlds, harnessing the energy of galaxies, they created new life, slave races their makers called them.
And as they were still discovering new things, it was inevitable that one day they would discover the dimensions that existed besides their own.
The things they found, experienced, and saw, ignited their greed. New realities for them to conquer. Exotic unknown resources and races to discover. New space to colonize. Ancient Secrets and forbidden knowledge to unearth.
And it came how it had to come. They discovered their doom. With their discovery of how to travel to other dimensions they inevitably started wars. And one day they discovered their doom. The Abyss.
Because for them, these grotesque and horrifying beings could come from nowhere else.
They did not fear it yet as they should have. Drunk and high on their power and authority, the progenitor races thought themselves invincible. They were Gods none would dare to question them. Their power was endless.
Oh, how wrong they were.
The allure of the many exotic resources in the Abyss and the power it offered them was too much. So runes and rituals were devised to summon Abyssals as they have come to call these creatures. Some worshipped them as gods, especially the slave races who had the most contact with them, for the great rulers would not risk themselves even as powerful as they were.
Others sought to imprison and experiment, to rip the knowledge of the Abyss from their minds. Yet, no matter how they tried, the minds of the Abyssals remained closed, for whoever sought to read them went mad with insanity, being reduced to a blabbering fool, madly attacking anything around them.
While the even more daring or unlucky ones sought to enter the Abyss directly, freely or forced, the Abyss was unforgiving, the invaders constantly beset by its inhabitants. The resources, however, were extraordinary and worth any risk.
Unknown to them who thought themselves to be gods, there was another threat. One they had not known about as the Universe which these fools would call their single dimension was still so young.
The space, the realm that overlapped with their own, which they had named the Astral, the dimension of psychic energy, finally revealed its true colors.
The emotions and thoughts of the civilizations and races who lived in what these races called “The Universe” seeped into the Astral, and after they accumulated for countless years, they took form.
The hatred, anger, pain, fear, despair, hope, and plenty more gave birth to countless Demons, Psychic Beings, who could invade their realm far more easily than the Abyssals.
Now the rifts that formed between the “Universe” and the Astral were no longer without danger, and entire armies passed through them, wreaking havoc and destruction, bringing ruin upon everything that stood in their path.
The Death toll was reaching numbers that could not be put into words, and no statistic would ever account for them. The many dimensions were set aflame with endless war. Chaos reigned supreme.
They possessed Psion’s weak of mind, who sought to use the powers of the Astral without sufficient training or protection and summoned more of their kind. Or simply hid, scheming for some unknowable plan.
On some worlds, they became leaders, surrendering them to their own kind, inciting civil wars, and founding new religions for those with weak minds, who were disappointed in their senior leadership.
Distrust was running rampant.
These ancient and powerful civilizations were falling apart; they thought themselves to be supreme and created their own demons. Wantonly they gave in to their desires, treating others less than dirt, and now their way of life was coming back to haunt them.
Cycles and Balance this he knew, and it proved true once more. And he wondered what existed in Balance to that which he protected and what would come to end its cycle.
Their empires fell just as he knew they would.
New races were rising in their place.
He contemplated the many things he saw and learned.
Triakrith was a big city and nestled in a valley between two mountains, a big river was running through it, many buildings made from sand-colored stone were clustered together. Triakrith housed over twenty-five thousand people and was ruled by a king.
The Royal family lived in a big pyramid at the end of the valley where the river flowed from the mountains, it was running through the pyramid and was a great feat of engineering for these people they were very proud of what they had achieved.
There was only one entrance into Triakrith’s valley so it was very easy to defend, a giant wall stretched from one mountainside to the other and was always guarded by the army. The City had never fallen before, the walls another miracle made only possible with the guidance of the gods and their wisdom.
The King and Queen had long wished for a child, while the people desired a true heir to the throne yet despite their efforts the Queen remained barren, the King already had children, seven males, and five females all were eligible for the throne, yet only a true heir would have the blessing of the gods and secure the peace of Triakith and its people for another generation.
The Kings Mistresses, women of lower standing, rich merchants' daughters, or the 4th or 5th daughter of nobility were elated at the queen's inability to conceive for it meant one of their children may take the throne one day. On the surface however they showed another side of themselves, voicing their condolences and even shedding tears lamenting the queen's fate.
But even with a true heir, a battle for the throne would be occurring that much was almost certain, a true heir, however, would have everyone's support and if done right would ensure the City's stability for decades.
The Queen came from a powerful noble and rich family, they did not take well to the queen's barrenness and tried to aid her. Thousands of prayers were offered to the gods and countless sacrifices were made finally many years after their marriage the Queen was pregnant.
The first thing they did upon hearing the news was to increase the queen's guards, many would try to harm the unborn child. The Second was to hold a great celebration with a ceremony to thank the gods at its height at the top of the royal pyramid.
A dozen cows were sacrificed by the high priest and the celebrations lasted for three days.
She awoke in darkness, floating in a warm liquid unknown to her.
She was confused and many questions were filling her mind.
Where was she? Why was she here? What happened to her?
The last thing she remembered was going to bed and suddenly there she was floating in a warm liquid, she tried to move her body, her limbs but they moved very sluggishly as if the body she was in was not her own, or her old one.
She was struggling with her limbs and with her current situation.
For reasons beyond her she could not fathom what had happened to her.
The only thing she could come up with why she was fine with floating in warm liquid with her entire body without breathing was maybe because she has been reborn.
Could she have been so immensely and unreasonably lucky to get the chance at a better life?
She could not be sure yet but she would most likely find out soon.
The world around her was contracting, she was being squeezed from all sides like going through a tunnel of slimy flesh, she was moving of this she was certain now.
And suddenly she was surrounded by air. She was wet, cold, shivering, rough hands gripped her, she opened her eyes and saw that a black-haired woman was holding her.
She was shocked to realize that she had indeed been reborn again, her thoughts had almost stopped but were not so out of it to forget to act like a normal baby.
She was reincarnated as a baby. It was a big shock but she reined herself in fast. The mind could easily adapt to new situations. She had been a human on a 21st-century earth so she had read many books and novels. Many of them portrayed some form of reincarnation.
She started to wail so these people would not suspect something was wrong with her the last thing she wanted was for them to think she was stillborn. She also tried to move her limbs as best as she could, but her limbs did not respond to her as she would have liked.
A room from a sand-colored stone, that opened onto a big terrace with pillars supporting the ceiling, big red curtains were fastened on the pillars and acted to separate the room from the terrace.
The walls were decorated with many paintings and symbols, men with spears, a throne, a ruler and a crown. Ancient Battles. Gods and many more beings of myth all in intensive coloring. Ceremonies, people kneeling in worship.
A big bed was in the room with its head against the wall, and two double doors on the far left and far right sides of the room. Some stools and tables were also there, together with scrolls stacked high on the many shelves built directly into the walls.
A woman was on the bed, most likely her mother. She had a really beautiful appearance with straight black hair and was young looking, probably in her thirties. There was a nightstand with golden goblets decorated with gemstones.
She was happy and elated the goblets were maybe made from solid gold and decorated with gemstones so her family must at least be very rich, maybe this was even a fantasy world? Was there magic? And could she learn magic? Or had she used up all her luck in her rebirth?
She was suddenly lowered into a basin of warm water where the woman washed her off, and then dried with a coarse blanket, and being inspected by the woman afterward.
She felt quite embarrassed at this, but what could she do? She was a baby again. She wondered what her name would be, and how she looked.
She wondered who her parents were, maybe she was lucky enough to be a princess, and her new surroundings were already speaking volumes about her new standing in life.
Yet before she could contemplate any of these things anymore she noticed that all the people in the room were staring at her quite aghast. Just what made them look at her so strangely?