Preamble - "Canto VIII: The Book of Awakenings"
If you find yourself, such as I,
Staring into the darkness of the night,
You will find yourself staring into the past.
Looking out into that darkness of ages;
Above to the stars,
Seeing in them the illusions of celestial realms,
Of worlds now forgotten, or long-ago destroyed.
There, if you look hard enough,
Long enough,
With eyes beyond the limited ken of mortals,
You will find what I will now speak of.
You will find the horrible truth,
Echoed out among the myriad worlds.
As I have.
And as this knowledge enlightens your mind,
It will carve away your very soul,
Driving you to fits of hopeless despair.
The world that we now call home,
The God-Mother Myrris,
Was not our first,
But she will be our last.
We are not her children,
As those that follow the gods would have you believe.
We are not her guardians,
As those who follow the elementals would command.
We are all souls trapped within her womb,
As she dies.
Long ago, eons upon eons hence,
We came to this world.
We sought refuge from a world that was dying,
Stripped away of warmth, of life, and of grace,
We fled to this world screaming.
The world our ancestors abandoned,
Was once called Hoelv.
A place of abundant magics,
Where great philosopher kings and queens,
Pierced the veils of life and death,
But something followed them through that shroud,
And laid waste to the entire world.
Cold, clawing arms of death,
Reached out from beyond,
Strangling the very life from those who dwelt there.
Those of our ancestors that were the best,
The brightest,
The strongest,
Pooled their magics together to reach out,
Further than magic had ever reached before,
To pierce the void between worlds,
To create a great bridge of light,
And our ancestors followed it here.
If you seek evidence of my claims,
Look ye to the distant north;
Look to the scintillating lights,
That crown the world.
These are the echoes of that eldritch magic,
That rent the limitations of the celestial spheres,
And deposited our ancestors here,
To this world that will be our tomb.
Look ye always to the past,
To the darkness above and beyond.
Do not look into the light;
To the future,
For as haunting and saddening as the past is,
The future contains far worse.
Do not go to those places where the world is weak;
Do not go to those places of magic and sorcery;
Do not look into the light.
Looking to the future can only glimpse one thing,
Destruction.
As it comes for us all.
Gaze not into that abyss of light,
As seductive as its call may be.
Looking to the past may drive you to despair,
As I have been driven.
Looking to the future will give you clarity,
And turn the world around you,
Against you.
As madness spreads throughout the world around you,
Revealing the horrible truths,
You will be bereft and alone.
The only sane one,
In a dying world,
Filled with horrors and woe.
With no hope left,
And a seething, creeping insanity,
That turns friend into foe.
Canto VIII; Awakenings
The Chronicles of Vhaltenesh, the Seer
Written 168 years Post-Cataclysm
The Sixth and Final Age of Humanity
Translated from High Hoelatha into the Common Vulgate
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