| July 2006 | << June 2006 | August 2006 >> |
| Leli, the Fifteenth Note |
| Ten Thousand Gates > Conversing in the Doorway of the First Coin |
Spinning, falling rain, and notes, oh the notes it has! Why such bitter music in your voices and all around when the water dances? See, see how it leaps and spins about the road and upon the roofs, and stepping here and running there - it makes me dizzy with the turning!
Dance, dance! Dance with rain and wind and oh! How I wish I could sing all these notes!
Can't you see the sad heart of it? Angry notes and bitter notes ... but oh, the colors, it is much more than black and brown and black, and spilling all and about. It is the note of Umery who sings so low above the old city, low and always with the sternest notes. Umery who never dances, no, but here is Umery in the music of the rain and upon us all!
Welcome Umery, I hear you! I hear your voice in the Song! La!
Come out, come out! Dance! Why are you all so hidden, why so turned away, why wrapped against the notes and this wonderful rain of colors?
[ Posted by Reason on July 30, 2006 | Permanent Link ]
| Ulvath, the Dying King's Champion |
| Ten Thousand Gates > Conversing in the Doorway of the First Coin |
Faugh, it burns yet! A curse of the runes, a King's Curse upon this filth-laden rain! Black upon the cobbles, black upon leather, filth upon all these huddled of low Halls and their strange hovels about - yet it burns naught and none but Ulvath and Bethen! A curse upon this witchery we have been brought to!
Black upon Leli who looks of Anseme's blood, but she cares not; to dance upon the cobbles as though a child or charmed by witchery. By my ax, there is naught of sense here for a champion thrown rune-bound.
Is this to be a Demonland? Where then are the Witch-Queen's foulnesses, waiting to be called forth to despoil Tulsrealm? I am to have no liking for this cloud and filth, be it so or be it not - and what of this Hall and archway you have found? If shelter it is, why do those of no Hall not shelter here? But see, they pass in rags without so much as eyes cast aside, burned not but wet with the filth of it, and bowed against it.
Aye, and what of he who brought us here; naught to be seen ... and no cursed filth and rain for his finery. A saga speaker who pretends to ax and shield, no more, mark my words. Plague and warm rot upon this burning, and him, and his gate!
[ Posted by Reason on July 29, 2006 | Permanent Link ]
| Great-tower of the Empty Realms |
| Garden of the Prophet > Source of All Seeds |
Far from here stands a great-tower of the Unhallowed that has stood through the Prophet's anger and ages of Faith; high and higher it stands to touch the very Void beyond the sky. This I have heard Brother Madene speak to his Brethren when I brought fare to their long-table.
Yes, good Verlan, bring forth our fare now that the Brothers feast. Praise to the Prophet upon this holy day!
This also the Brothers spoke: that Oculists mark the great-tower with their holy litanies, whence the Prophet's Fire carries war-cogs from the Void to the endless, empty seas of the Pasafek realms. The Ordained of the Mountain Vault set pennons upon the cloud-deck of their high Cathedral, whence they see the great-tower cut a line across the sunset.
Were there Void-whispers and Contagion upon the empty realms, there would be a crusade of the Order! No, tall and empty that Unhallowed tower stands, and the better for we faithful that a wide sea flows between. Shun the ancient vaults and ways in honest faith ... but let us speak no more of the works of the Unhallowed. May the Prophet watch over our souls, as well as those who came before.
We shall bring life to our pilgrimage anon. Whilst the faith of these Brethren can guide our steps, we are wise to plan well the leagues to the Mercyless Cathedral and the Prophet's Arm. Come; bring forth that which we have long spoken of and let us make a holy work of it!
[ Posted by Reason on July 22, 2006 | Permanent Link ]
| Prayer-spire of Ages |
| Garden of the Prophet > Red Realms |
Preacher Gare will not return for several days, Brother; if this message from the Ordained Jamethe is indeed for the Preacher alone, it must be that you wait upon the hospitality of the war-shrine. You will not find our fare nor vaults lacking, for all Turyth is not Great Olimpan.
If you are so determined, you will find Preacher Gare within the prayer-spire beyond the bare hills and thin-tree hollows. The sand-winds blow not; the half-desert peasants will guide you true, for they have a great and rightful respect for our Brethren.
This also is true, Brother. The prayer-spire was Hallowed long ago in the time of the Prophet; His words are yet charred into its height and the vault-ruins around, praise be to His name! For all its white forgen is ever strong, the prayer-spire leans toward the Great Desolation and charred red glass-deserts. Yet in leaning, the highest vault looks toward the Cathedral City when the Prophet's realm is seen at night, amidst stars and least-realms. For this aspect is the prayer-spire favored by Preacher Gare; from the fall of the Unhallowed came the Faith that protects and guides.
No, I will ask no further of your duty, but to request you tarry upon your return to give news of the Cathedral and works of the Order. The Prophet's will strengthen your hands, Brother!
[ Posted by Reason on July 16, 2006 | Permanent Link ]
| Litany Beads of the Voidmaster Yuvesah |
| Garden of the Prophet > Litany of the Void |
Heshrem, look not to yonder seal-gate! Attend to the vault-works as I, and as I have taught you; it is a holy of the Oculists and not for we lesser Voidmen.
We should not speak of such, but quietly. Ask not again, and I will recall a debt for it in the garden-vault! It is the Sealed Ocula of the Voidmaster Yuvesah, within which are his litany beads of old. The Void is within the Ocula beyond the seal-gate, and the Void-touched beads are a prayer greater than yours or mine. Look not towards the seal-gate pennons, lest you call Contagion upon us all!
The Oculist Tefera has given to the Prophet's service within Reante these thirty years; I have seen her chantry and clicking of beads upon the marker-deck. As will you, should you do the Prophet's will and rouse not the Voidmaster's ire. The good Oculist is the blessed of the Prophet, for His hands and His Fire hold us safe from Contagion whilst she prays within the Ocular Chapel.
Voidmaster Yuvesah of the Afrik realm set down his beads when first he stood within these vault-ways, long ago; the Prophet spoke with his voice, and the treasured litanies were perfect through and through his life of years. Since the High Ordained Mesebar, so has the Ocula been sealed. It will be sealed yet, until another holy Oculist is blessed to speak the litanies with the Prophet's voice.
The Brothers are in the shaft from the heart-vault once more - listen to their forgen-thunder through the portals! Look to the vault-works, and bow your head, by the Prophet's name!
[ Posted by Reason on July 16, 2006 | Permanent Link ]
| The Hag-feast of Purgen |
| Garden of the Prophet > Libraria Chroniclis |
Upon the last snows of Purgen this thrice-year, the peasants set with fervor to their preparations for the Festival of the Anointed Hasem. From the shaft of my Lady's spire, I saw the old men fish sleeping palen from the river-weeds. Yet the rain fell cold and hard enough to shadow the forest edge and vault-works of great Dasu in those days; even corven hid within the roosts and highest vaults. Would that the least of the faithful gave such devotion to my Lady's duties in the chill, high vaults!
The peasants name this festival day the Hag-feast, for of the holy works of Hasem of the frozen Kalask realm, her Purgen upon hags of the ice-forests is most told in Witan. Lay-brother Wagen has spoken wroth and rancor of this complexion of a holy festival, for he is oft to preach against peasant fantasies of hags in the Rur realm forests and Unhallowed forgen-ruins. Yet each thrice-year, the Lay-brother is laden once more with festival-works and the dreams of peasants ever more embellished.
The Prophet has brought a peaceful realm to the faithful of Witan, and His holy Order shields us from Contagion. I have spoken ill of the coffers of my Lord and the very heart of Witan emptied unto high-walled Fraberg and the Hateless Cathedral, but it is for the faithful to open their souls to the Prophet's will upon the Rur realm.
Close-guard descended the spire-ways as the sun came low upon the forest, for my Lady cannot abide the festival night. Her high vaults stood sealed to maid and guard as though ordered by the Ordained, and thus to the close-guard went pick of roast palen and pie from the long tables set upon the broad-deck.
A festival procession of peasantry masked as hags of the forest, loud in the chill vault-ways, came upward from the great-portal at dusk, as much as for each Hag-feast past. Yet Lay-brother Wagen had caused the old wooden feast-works to be prepared once more; the procession came atumble upon the broad-deck before twenty lusty peasants within a fulsome image of the Anointed Hasem's war-barque Revesk. With great fervor and strength, whither and back they blundered, with shouts for great-cannon and pennons for holy Prophet's Fire upon the false hags.
Magister Albret came from his wall-vaults to the broad-deck when all had quieted and the feast-tables emptied. He spoke the Prophet's word by high torchlight of the great-vault above the broad-deck, as was his place. I thought it well told, and worthy of the faithful of Witan in the years of my Lord's grandsire.
[ Posted by Reason on July 12, 2006 | Permanent Link ]
| Pestilen Upon the Great-shrine of Statues |
| Garden of the Prophet > Libraria Chroniclis |
In the tenth year of the High Ordained Dalseban, a terrible pestilen fell upon the Faithful who had labored long upon the broken crete, char and tall-grasses of the Lune realm. Holy Technists had raised statues a league in height in the Prophet's name, but the whispers of Contagion had come from the Void to be within their hearts.
A great Chapel Technis, of spires to rival the Great-shrine, was set upon war-broken forgen in the years of the High Ordained Ferele. From the alchema-vaults spread a pestilen in service of the Prophet's will; a terrible ague, pocks of the flesh and mortificen came upon all those touched by Contagion. Medicists of the Prophet's Orders prayed most fervently for pestilen to strike the fallen from the Faithful, for none but the Prophet and his most holy Hands may see into the heart where Contagion festers.
Unto the twelfth year of the High Ordained Dalseban, ever more brown-wing vraal roosted within the Chapel Technis and upon the mighty statues. The Faithful lit banefires of the dead in Prophet's Fire of the heart-vault, bringing new char to old. Thence, upon Awe of that year, the Anointed Serref came across the Void to divide by long-cannon and sword of holy armor: those who had given to Contagion; those who might return to the Faith; those yet Faithful. Purgen of the Prophet's Fire came upon a third of the Lune realm, long into the thirteenth year of the High Ordained Dalseban, and strong seals of pennoned forgen were put upon the portals of the spired Chapel Technis.
With devoted praise to the Prophet, the Faithful burned the whispers of Contagion from their number, so as to complete their holy toil upon the Great-shrine of Statues.
[ Posted by Reason on July 8, 2006 | Permanent Link ]
| To Raise the Great Cathedral-spire |
| Garden of the Prophet > Source of All Seeds |
You faithful artisans! Our Lord Kemel sends word and commands your most earnest toil in his name. Magisters of the tall fortress Constantapel, risen athwart the great-channels, have pledged to our Lord of the Turaken realm. Fulsome is their wisdom upon seeing the procession of our Lord's guard about the wheels of the great-cannon Urlak!
This I give to you, from the factoria of Constantapel: forgen-sheet, cut to show the swallowing pit and mighty ruins of a holy great-shrine, Hallowed in the Prophet's name by the first Lord of the Turaken realm. Yet that Lord came to be maddened by the red heart-flux, for all his coffers he emptied upon the wise physicen of the realm and made pilgrimage upon the holy words of the Chapel Medicis. In the throes of red flux, he poured anger upon the Least-lords and magisters, scorn upon the holy Order of the Cathedral City.
The Prophet sees all that passes the souls of men, and gave the realms to shake and split. So the great-shrine beyond Constantapel fell into the Unhallowed pit of ancient vault-ways, its mighty, lone spire felled just as any tall-tree of the garden-decks.
So our Lord commands: you will raise the spire of the holy great-shrine from that Unhallowed pit, and set it true and tall in the Prophet's name! By this shall He know the true amongst the faithful, and so shall we prosper in His service.
[ Posted by Reason on July 6, 2006 | Permanent Link ]
| Far Pilgrimage of the Rageless Order |
| Garden of the Prophet > Libraria Chroniclis |
Upon his commencement, the High Ordained Besephen proclaimed the Garden of the Prophet to encompass all the stars themselves. The Rageless Order - of the thousand-league Mereken realm betwixt the Prophet's Arms of Sunrise and Sunset - stood forth in rightful faith to claim the brightest star Sekti for a Cathedral to honor the Prophet. Ordained Brother Debeham was carried across the oceans upon the Prophet's Fire to call for pilgrimage before the assembled Faithful of the Prophet's Cathedral City.
Voidmasters warned of a great and unknown journey across the Void and into Contagion, farther than the Crusades of the Lesser Suns, farther even than those few explorations of the darkest Void recorded in the Libraria Chroniclis. Preachers of the Order journeyed to exhort all from Lords of the Prophet's realms to peasants of the lowest Cathedral levels, but the Rageless Ordained heeded the Voidmasters - and planned long and well.
The Void hides much, even that near-Void touched by the great Arms of the Prophet, that divides the Lune realm from the Prophet's realms. Voidmen talk low of least-realms of darkened crete; of ancient Unhallowed Void-towers that yet shine like stars to entice the Faithful from the Prophet's words. The greatest of Void-towers was long called the Anathemen-realm; peasants of field and garden deck averted their eyes and prayed for their souls should they see it's procession in the dark sky.
In the twelfth year of the High Ordained Besephen, the Rageless Order stood ready to hallow the Anathemen-star in the name of the Prophet. With great prayer and zeal, Technists of the Order had toiled upon the vent-works and charred vault-ways of the Void-cathedral Yeuve those long years. That holy of the Faith had faltered in service to the Prophet's war-procession, pierced and sundered, and lain thereafter in the great glass char-desert of the Mereken realm. Upon the twelfth year of toil, High Technist Fareph exhorted mightily the Hopeless heart-vault, whereupon the Prophet reached down His hand to return life to Yeuve.
The Rageless Ordained rejoiced in the miracle of Yeuve's heart-vault and the Prophet's blessing upon their crusade; word was carried forth to war-shrines and journeying Preachers - there was great prayer across the Mereken realm. The most zealous of Voidmasters exhorted Oculists to the chantry of treasured litanies; faithful Technists the souls of the Brethren with war-prayer and burnished forgen of the Chapel factora; Rageless Brethren gathered in their holy armors to call blessings of the Prophet upon the Order.
To the near-Void upon mighty columns of Prophet's Fire rose Yeuve, Rageless Brethren led in procession by the bright-pennoned war-barques Irkoi and Temphese. To the Anathemen-realm they went, guided true by chantry of the Ocular shrine. Thence from great seal-gates of many-spired Yeuve, twice a hundred Brothers leapt across Void-touched forgen to lay the Prophet's banners upon the Unhallowed tower. So was the Anathemen-realm Hallowed by the Rageless Faithful; Ordained Brother Debeham blessed the Void-tower with the name Shekagen, after the ancient fortress-vaults of the inland seas of the Mereken realm.
Great was the toil of the Faithful upon the vault-work leagues of Shekegen, within which even the garden-vault came to stand broader than any fortress of the Garden of the Prophet. The Cathedral of the Rageless Order was made again within circle-vaults of great expanse, and the Chapel Technis within the mighty heart-vaults. Even peasants and artisans of the Mereken realm were carried away from the tug of the Prophet's realms to tend the vault-ways in service to the Prophet.
Upon the fourty-fifth year of the High Ordained Besephen, great Shekagen lit all the sky of the realms with Prophet's Fire of vent-work and heart-vault. Mighty spires trailed great forgen-link pennons of twenty leagues, cut with Void-litanies and the Prophet's word: so did the Rageless Order and their faithful of the Mereken realm begin the great pilgrimage to the brightest star Sekti.
Praise be to the Prophet that His chosen, who bear His seed in their flesh and the defense of the Faith in their souls, yet carry His word to the farthest Void.
[ Posted by Reason on July 2, 2006 | Permanent Link ]
