Wednesday, July 16, 2014

The Trilogy of Gog and Magog

First to be told is the legend of the beings named Gog and Magog.  Brothers of thought and kin to the gods, these two held great power over the Fifth after the Sundering.  They first resided in the shadowed corners of the Celestial Realms taking council from the other powers of the Dark.  At their bidding they hunted Merrith, the sister of Vivoria, and slew her with sword and hammer.  Gog took the goddess' face as a trophy and symbol of their defiance.  The lords of Light were deeply angered and cast them out and barred the Gates to the Celestial Realms to them.

Gog and Magog fled to the Fifth, and there they began to form legions who carry the taint of their violence which infects like a disease.  Their legions of fell creatures ruled over the land, tainting everything under their dominion.  Only the greatest cities survived the legion's advances and many were destroyed.  Atlantis, Ur and the elven city of Celebair became islands of light in a darkening night.

Vet- Auun, angered by such a light punishment for godslaying, sired a christos to a human woman of Ur.  This man grew to become an honoured warrior, for it was obvious to all to saw him that he was possessed by the strength of the gods.  Ikslander they named him, and armies grew under his lead.  Such was his strength of arms and skill with the tactics of war that he slew the Legions and chased them until they were cornered into a deep valley.  Ikslander fought the brothers and took the hammer and sword and broke them.  He then rent Magog's armour from his form and Mirrith's face, which had been fashioned into a three eyed mask, from Gog.  Using the last of his power he shut the mountains, locking Gog and Magog with their Legion until the end of the Earth.

Ikslandir went on to create an Empire and he ruled long.  The spoils of the battle he locked into chests of dwarven metal, and when he passed from the mortal world they were brought with him to burial.  The Altantians brought him to the Sacred Valley, where those touched by the lords of Light are put to rest, and entombed with the chalice spoken of old, his half-elven queen and the Everliving Rose.

At the end of the Earth a human will awaken him, and his treasure will be stolen.  When the Mask and Armour are worn will Gog and Magog awaken and begin to delve a way through the mountains.  Only with these tokens, and the waking of the brothers, can the Four be overthrown and the remnants of the world spared.  If the Four should be banished, for another aeon, the Everliving Rose may be planted and Eden grow anew.

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Codex Psychosia - Travelling Through the Endless Night

+++translated from Derekest dialect (Shan, loc. Nightlands)+++

Long has it been, months of night.  An age in the hour past sunset, I walk through the soft places near Ten O'clock.  There is sand here, waves of shifting dunes that flow and ebb into infinity.

It is not cold, not is it warm, for there is no temperature here.  The wind barely touches ones face, smelling of nutmeg, and pulls the coat upon my back.  The pilgrim beside me swears the wind smells of chocolate.

It had been a month before I came to the Kradena, from isles populated by the peoples of Quiddity in all their chaotic splendour.  It has been almost a Earthly year since I returned to the islands.  I had forgotten I had been here, the memory obscured from my mind, until Uriel arrived.

The pilgrim joined my company early on, sensing my need to return to the waking world.  He would lead me along the path and teach me the secrets of passing through.  I would bring him with me, along my memory of Earth, and stand under a sun again.  This was our deal, for good or ill.

I caught a qwtyllc entering the Kradena and wove a cage of Thornalis root.  These I gave to the pilgrim, who would in turn give them to my friends.  By this connection I might forge a path through the barrier of the Dreaming.

The qwtyllc would be bled  upon a stone thirty paces beyond the Gate of the Gods.  I must try to be at the edge of Kradena by then, at a temple made of ivory.  By the direction of the pilgrim I crafted a dowsing rod from the last shrub in the sands which points ever further into the sands.

There are few stars here, and they change positions when the eye isn't focused on them.  Violet clouds drift across the sky, never with the wind.  Once during my travel I saw a herd of massive animals which reminded me of buffalo, but they sensed us on the horizon and fled.

I've aged a year, perhaps more, my hair has grown long, and my hands are callused.  Surprisingly, my staff has changed, it has absorbed some of the essence of Quiddity and there is a whole new scope of power I can channel.

I look forward to returning, and with the pilgrim's scrying stone I can view them from afar, but only briefly, time passes faster in the Dying Dominion.  I look forward to returning with the task set out before us.