“In the Era of Foundation, this area was known by another name: Balgumthyḷūr—the City of the Marsh Roads. And this hill that you we are upon didn’t yet exist; the land was as flat as could be, surrounded by marshes on all sides. It served us well enough to keep the Demons at bay. Though every now and then they would cross it by way of their twisted monstrosities. We had the means to repel them quickly, with little damage of our own. Yet this story has little to do with the Demons for now.
“Concerning me, I had grown up in a rather well-to-do family and all seemed well for a while. I had exceeded the expectations of many of the Servants in the knowledge I ascertained and it was not long before the Zūryashhaḥ had heard of my feats.
“They one day came to visit, and as was expected of me, I tended to all that they desired of me, whether it was food, or procuring various materials for them, or even washing their feet. I often engaged them in various debates and of course I lost most of them! But they could tell how astute I really was and also where my fault laid.
“They said to me, ‘O child, though much knowledge you possess, there is one thing that you lack that will not allow you to best us.’ And I asked them what that was, to which they replied, ‘Devotion.’
“Now, me being naïve as I was, I scoffed at that remark and in haste responded, ‘What need I have for such an idle activity? Can not the truth of the world be ascertained by knowledge alone, as has well been shown by many before me? Devotion is for the meek who have not the foresight to see to their own wills and strengths. I thought you sages to be wise, but I see I am wrong, for you speak no differently than the Servants in their high temples praying to those worthless gods.’
“I should count myself lucky that the sages merely laughed this off and didn’t burst into anger at my uncalled for words. ‘One day you shall realize its use and purpose: the forefathers, the Gods, and That beyond all, deserve such a thing from all who reside on the Earth. Do not think you can live without their aid, for it is by their grace that you exist here and now and can speak as such. We shall warn you, however, that a grave calamity shall befall you and when it does, only then shall your journey toward truth at last begin. Until then, your idle speculations will have to hold, though we say that they are ultimately of little use.’
“They took some jewelry from us to bring back to their wives and I did not hear from them again. The years then passed, and I eventually grew to become the patriarch of my household. Yet I paid little attention to its affairs, enamored as I was by the development of various weapons and contraptions for use in the ongoing war against the Demons. From the Central Banyan Forest toward the Cedar Forest was a line that was virtually set to hold back the advance of the Yavhaḥṃār.
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“During this time, Balgumthyḷūr served as a prime stop for many of the expeditionary forces. It was during this time I had created the remarkable flying castles, the Drasūvayeznd with the help of the Pakṣhevahm, and they thereupon with the firepower laid waste to the Northlands.”
“You made the Drasūvayeznd!” shouted Tūmbṃār startling the mage.
“Well, to assure you once more, yes, indeed I did, and many more things. But to continue on, those conniving rangers of the night were able to replicate our designs, greater and more terrible than anything we could muster. And ere long they had annihilated most of the Drasūvayeznd and decimated most of our forces. Then the Demon Lords caught wind of where these weapons were produced. Needless to say, they found out about my assistance and sent a clandestine force to annihilate us and, unfortunately, they were successful.
“Now you may wonder how they could do so, given they had not in all their attempts before succeeded. Well, it would so happen that they this time descended from above, with their malicious serpents and replications. The city was in flames, blood flowed in the streets and the estate of my household was torn to the ground. All within dead. I alone escaped, at the expense of even my wife and children. And what was once a great city was now no more than rubble. The Demons thereafter gained a greater foothold, from which their relentless excursions descended upon the rest of the Ṃārhaḥn.
“Coming back to me, I was now a vagrant, having retreated into the southern woods. It was there in my misery and destitution that I happened on some brigands who were quite eager to rob me of what I had. But approaching me and seeing I had nothing of interest, they then desisted and of all things brought me into their fold.
“Having naught left and nowhere to call home and the Demons ravaging the outside world, I learned from them the art of murder and thievery, and over many years we would kill those fleeing into the woods and loot what they had. It was quite odd that we even engaged in such things. For what good was the gold and jewelry we had up to that point collected? It was not as if we could spend it on anything of worth, even to buy food. But it seemed these brigands had only sought such activities to sate their boredom. And even I could not help but feel the same. What more regard should I have had for life when it seemed that the world was to end at any moment? A foolish notion, I tell you, but I would soon learn my lesson.
“One day, as I was patrolling the forest, I spotted a Zūryashhaḥ and one who seemed to have many luxurious items on his person. As any self-respecting robber would do, I approached him and told him to leave those items behind. I would let him live in this circumstance, for it would bode ill to kill any of the Servants or the Zūryashhaḥ.
“But instead of dropping them, he instead sat upon a nearby rock and said, ‘So how goes your search for truth, child?’