That which was and that which will be are all figments of that which are. Mundus is dying, diseased and rotten to its core. The cycles and repetitions of years wander on. Unflinching in its duty. Ignorant of weariness. Thus begins the year 2507 of the Decay. Hark! Son of Nun! For on the Day of the Descent, the world shall behold thee and marvel, “Who art Thou?”
- Attributed to Mani the Mad Prophet
----------------------------------------
Under a green canopy of Alonian wood, the world is silent. Deathly silent. Then, two tablets appear in a clearing. Black, ancient, and new. There is something written on the tablets. Maddening white letters of fire. Oppression emanates from the tablets feeling its way through the forest. The scent of blood seeps into the woods. Only one word can describe this scene - Holiness.
The forest has changed.
Yells, moans, and the clash of metal are heard toward the east in a grassy plain drenched in red. Waves of man and beast crash into each other. Streaks of light trail across the sky. Fire, Ice, and Electricity fly in all directions. Amidst this chaos, two champions clash splitting the earth below and the sky above.
“Vanish.”
A translucent red ball of light appears near the black tablets. Unfazed by the chaos of battle and the shattering of Titans, the red light floats toward the two champions in the midst of a struggle between life and death.
In the center of the waves of carnage and brutality, a young man raises his sword and strikes at a foe.
“Kugh” An armed man moans and drops to ground blood flowing out of his mouth and neck.
A mace is swung at his face. He bends his body to the left allowing the mace to miss its mark. He then thrusts forward impaling the woman.
“Ahh ….”
Widening her green eyes, she coughs out a mouthful of bright scarlet blood. Staggering forward, the young man grabs the hilt of his sword and yanks it from her chest, causing her to crumple forward on the muddy ground bleeding out.
A horn is blown.
“Retreat!! Retreat!!!”, a man yells. The young man, dazed at first, starts running with the other soldiers from the frontlines and keeps on running and running until he realizes that no one is pursuing him. He looks back. He is struck by the red light.
----------------------------------------
Far away in a gloomy windowless room with stale air permeating its interior, a voice is heard.
“Fate has changed. How is this possible? Are my eyes failing me? No, something else must have happened. But what? Nothing from the Heavens above or the Hells beneath is able to change Fate?”
Knock! Knock!
The figure covered in darkness looks at the oaken door of his room and says,
“What is it? You may enter and speak.”
A young man with blond hair and emerald eyes and pallid skin enters the room.
“O great and merciful Autarch Lang, your servant bows unto you seven times and seven times.”
After the young man’s first bow, Autarch Lang says, “Enough of the formalities. Speak. What brings you here disturbing my time of meditation?”
The young man responds, “I bring you news of the war between the Commonwealth and the Empire. It seems that they have both signed a ten year truce. Here is the report, my Liege.”
“What!?!?!”
Lang grabs the report from the man’s hands and starts to scan through it.
“Oh, I see. You are dismissed … whatever your name was?”
“Pedro.”
“Yes, Petros you are dismissed. If there is more news, knock on my door thrice.”
“Yes, my liege.”
Pedro hurriedly leaves.
“It seems that the Great Wheel of Fate is turning once more.” Lang says, narrowing his eyes at the report in hand.
----------------------------------------
A year has passed.
In the forest near where the great battle took place, the two black tablets of stone sleep. Waiting - for something - or someone.
Cackle. Cackle.
The sound of cackling and creaking of bones can be heard five strides in front of the tablets. Through the thick blanket of fog, one can see not a skeleton but a spectre of some sort, completely formless minus the streaks of green that give the creature some shape. An ominous grey gas emanates from it. The spectre is floating toward the tablets of black.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Where am I? Who am I?”, the spectre ponders to itself. It sees the menacing black tablets in front of it.
“What is that?”, it says.
The spectre tries to move away from the black tablets, but realizes it cannot. In fact, the spectre realizes that the black tablets are attracting it to them via some invisible force. Noticing that it cannot escape the pull of the tablets, it decides to not resist and let itself be attracted toward the tablets.
Suddenly the black tablets start levitating. Maddening letters of white once again appear on these tablets. An aura of oppression bursts forth from them along with the smell of blood. The spectre is shaken but not deterred. The spectre allows the invisible force to pull it toward the tablets. Once the spectre is right in front of the black tablets, the invisible force pulling the spectre ceases. The spectre tries to read the writing on the black tablets.
“The more you take; the less you have; and the more you know, the less you really know.”
“The root of Madness is Reason itself”
The rest of the letters are indiscernible.
Sighing, the spectre ponders to itself, “What is this supposed to mean?”
The spectre then hears a voice.
“Good. Very Good,” a voice says.
“Thou hast proven thyself worthy of uncreated life and uncreated divinity.”
Transforming one of the black tablets into a little white book, the Voice says,
“Take eat. This is my body.”
The little white book floats up and then floats toward the spectre. The little book levitates to where the mouth would be if the spectre were a human. Although at first hesitant, the spectre starts salivating for the book even though it is bodiless. It dives toward the book and starts consuming it without a care in the world. After consuming the book, the spectre realizes that it has a quasi - physical body now. Unlike before when it was almost completely formless, the spectre has the silhouette of a tall man. It even has hands and feet that it could use to walk around and pick things up; however, the spectre still has the ability to float around and make things levitate if it so wished. The spectre then turns toward the last black tablet which says,
“Good, now drink this.”
The last black tablet turns into a cup full of a red liquid which is placed before the spectre.
“This is my blood of my promise for the new world that will come to pass.”
After consuming the little white book the spectre is very reluctant to drink the red liquid which is why it decides to try to move away from the cup; however, the blood from the chalice surges toward the spectre’s face. The blood engulfs it.
“Very Good! I will now finally give you a name.”
“Thou shalt be named Severian Agnosia.”
He starts to feel heavy. He drops to the ground. The weight of everlasting mountains and Mundus itself is upon his shoulders. He then smells the stench of blood and of incense. He is enraptured by it and is caught in a dream. He sees himself walking through the winding roads of Mundus. He sees two old men playing on a checkered - board of black and white with carved pieces of black and white wood . One man sees him and motions with his hand causing him to fly away from their room. He is now in a devastated war zone. He sees a beautiful woman with red hair in a scarlet cheongsam standing alone blending in the red field of blood. Severian is then whisked away where he sees a beautiful tree. A tree of rainbows and crystal towering over the sky and connecting all things. Severian is blinded by a pure white light brighter than the light of the sun, but he is soon engulfed in utter darkness darker than the Abyss. He then hears a voice, “That which was not seen is now seen and those which were seen are now no longer seen,” and his consciousness fades into black.
He wakes up with the pain of his newly-formed body. He looks around. He sees that he is in a forest and it is the dead of night. The only light in the area is pale starlight and the pale green light of the moon. He looks around to see the black tablets that were with him but does not see them.
“Who am I?” he questions.
He recalls hearing a voice in his head calling him Severian Agnosia.
“I guess that will be my name for now until I learn more about who I am. What other pieces of knowledge did that voice give me?” he thinks to himself.
Severian then sees images of great cities dotted with light and unassailable walls and mighty beings who are able to bend the land and the seas to their will. He also sees a man and woman in a small cottage eating a small meal together and disciplining their hyperactive children.
“Ummmm? What does this actually all mean?” Severian understood none of it.
Pondering for half an hour, Severian says, “Hmm? Well, I guess the big take-aways are I should be wary of other beings and that there is this thing called Society which has its own rules and customs.”
Nodding at his own brilliance, Severian starts taking an enthusiastic walk into the woods.
----------------------------------------
Severian -
Rustle. Rustle. Drip. Drip.
I am currently walking through the forest observing the drips of the midnight dew and listening to the cracking of sticks. These sounds and sights fascinate me.
Oooommmm.
I hear a new sound. I look to the right toward a small animal trail. Curious, I follow the sound. After stomping through the underbrush for half an hour, I see something up ahead. A pale green light illuminates a small clearing. At first blinded, I decide anyway to stare into the green light and approach it. After coming within five paces of the light, I see the object more clearly. It is a floating key emanating a pale scarlet light. As I move closer to the key, my surroundings start to change. The smell of blood which has permeated the forest is gone. I also start to hear the sounds of howlings and snarls of different creatures as I approach the key. Undeterred, I continue to approach the key. Finally, the pale green key starts changing colors from pale green to bright blue to scarlet red. Once it is within arms reach, I snatch the key.
BANG!
Darkness overtakes me again. I wake up.
“What was that?”, I say to myself.
I stare at my hand. It is now holding the rainbow-colored key. Standing back up, I notice that the clearing I am in is no longer dark. I look up into the sky and see a bright golden sun. Seeing it is bright outside, I start walking forward. However there is a change in the forest. The smell of blood is gone and I can hear sounds of things I have never heard before.
Buzzzz
The buzzing of flies and bees near his head startles me; however, I get used to it.
After half an hour I think, “Where can I go to make things stop harassing me?”
Roaraggghh.
The sound came from the left toward a clearing of trees. Curious, I decide to investigate.