Tag: the Transgressor

#Lore24 – Entry #217 – Helica Month #5 – Bound to the Will of Saghirah

Excerpt from the Journals of Azita Gaji, Explorer of Helica

As I carefully rerolled the scroll, I sensed a change in the chamber.  The air grew heavier with Saghirah’s presence, and I felt the dry heat of the desert suddenly consume the chamber.  As I looked up, I saw that the visages of the Amaranth that surrounded me were glowing with faint golden light.  In the next moment, I was suddenly far beyond the cavern below the temple in Grad Artanais, standing atop a massive, pyramidal temple in the center of a great oasis in a desert.

Sensing the Amaranth behind me, I quickly turned, going to my knees before the massive form of Saghirah herself, looming over me in all her majestic glory.  I was too stunned to speak, for I never had the capacity to become a summoner, and why I was suddenly in this vision before Saghirah, I could not fathom in those moments.

“By reading the sacred scroll of Saghirah, thou hast become bound to Her will,” she said to me, her voice rumbling as thunder over the expanse of the oasis.  “Thus, thou must continue the task She has set before thee.  Seek the other scrolls, traveler of Helica, that the truth of the Transgressor be revealed, but use the greatest of subtleties in this matter; reveal not thy forbidden knowledge of Saghirah to those incapable of understanding it, to those who will destroy thee for it.  Seek those of likeminded intent, those who can see beyond the doctrine of Phyresis.  In this quest, Saghirah grants you her blessing, that time may not ravage thee, Seeker of Knowledge, for thy task will take many lifetimes to complete.  Thou will knowest thy task approaches its end when the Angel of Grad Artanais reveals herself upon the grand stage of the arena in San Granalle as a beacon of hope unto Helica, and thou will knowest she is the true Angel, a true vessel of the will of Saghirah, for She will appear alongside the Angel.  Go now, Seeker, for thy long journey has begun.”

I awoke from my vision with a start, disoriented and freezing, my eyes focusing upon the night sky and the stars far above me.  As I regained my senses and got to my feet, I realized that I was no longer within the shrine, no longer in Grad Artanais at all in fact, for the ancient ruin lay far below me.  I had somehow come back to the small campsite I had occupied on the lower slopes of the sacred mountain Temismere before my journey into the holy city.  Only now I had the faintest sense of Saghirah’s presence within my mind, a sense that her ever-watchful eye was upon me, perhaps a sign of the blessing she spoke of.  Thoroughly exhausted, I started a fire and settled in for the night, my thoughts filled with a vision of where I must travel next, the island of Ukejama, far to the south.

#Lore24 – Entry #216 – Helica Month #4 – The First Scroll

Excerpt from the Journals of Azita Gaji, Explorer of Helica

I approached the scroll case reverently, for Saghirah’s gaze still weighed heavy above me, and I could not help but wonder if the reasons the Church had disavowed the existence of the Amaranth were in fact true, for their doctrine is absolute, and all are raised following it.  Still, I willed myself forward and gently opened the case, finding the rolled parchment inside to still be intact, and for a wonder, not as brittle as I feared; something of the Amaranth’s influence had preserved it well over the centuries. 

Always eager to absorb new knowledge, I suppressed my eagerness and carefully unrolled the scroll upon the altar, translating the ancient text easily enough through my many years of study of the world before the Wicked One’s arrival.  I committed the words of the Amaranth to memory, reading and rereading the scroll several times until I was certain not a word was out of place in my mind.  Normally I would have transcribed the words of Saghirah to my journals, but I knew instinctively that was not her wish, and with good reason.  The full contents of her scrolls will be revealed when the time is right.

What I will say of the first of the scrolls of forbidden knowledge is that the contents shook me to my very core.  Any remaining faith I’d once had in Phyresis, the One True God, fled me as I read and reread the ancient words.  At the time the scroll was created, faith in beings beyond our mere mortal existence was at an all-time low amongst all the peoples of Helica, with the Amaranths, the ancient guardian spirits of our world, becoming relegated to myth and legend by most. 

Faith, more specifically, the lack of faith by the people of Helica, would lead to the Downfall.  This was how the Transgressor had prepared our world for its arrival, by patiently seeding distractions and false beliefs amongst the people.  And when the Wicked One did come, that fateful night so many centuries ago when Grad Artanais fell, the world was simply not prepared to mount a defense, so scattered and divided was its people. 

The true nature of the Transgressor is positively vile, but no more can I say here.

#Lore24 – Entry #214 – Helica Month #2 – The Angel of Grad Artanais

Excerpt from the Journals of Azita Gaji, Explorer of Helica

The tales of an angel, seen and heard across the broken expanse of the once great city of Grad Artanais are true!  I have witnessed her with my own eyes, heard her voice singing the Eversong with my own ears! 

As I dared venture down from the overlook in which I camped last night, a thick fog rolled in from the poisonous sea that borders the ruined city.  On the one hand, it would be useful in concealing my presence from the roaming demons that fill this place, but on the other, so too would they be concealed from me.  It didn’t take long for me to hear them, their claws scraping over the broken skyscrapers that lay about in piles, rending the ancient metal remains of machines that were somehow frozen in time, still there and not rusted away by time and seasons.  I tread carefully, using every sense I had to navigate in the direction I had chosen, careful to avoid notice. 

It was perhaps two hours into my dangerous trek that I began to hear the Eversong, the reverent and soothing tones echoing eerily through the dead city’s remains.  Then I heard her voice, the voice of the angel herself, clear and distinct, chilling me to my very core.  Her voice sounded otherworldly, a starkly beautiful, yet hauntingly melodic sound amongst the fog-shrouded decay and littered remnants of demon-infested civilization past.  I saw her guiding light then, piercing through the fog, and in the direction I had intended to go, a ball of light in the dim fog, like a beacon.  And so, I followed the light and the song, sensing not the demons as I went to her light.  As I neared, the light faded out, only to be replaced by another further along, her voice moving with it, leading me, guiding me.

I followed the angel for perhaps an hour, my tension eased by her voice and her holy light, finally coming to understand what it was that those summoners and their protectors who had survived this place to tell the tale had experienced, for truly she is a being of the divine.  And she led me exactly where I had deigned to go!  It was nearing midday, the fog finally starting to thin, when I finally came upon the ancient shrine complex, broken and decayed, but still recognizable to me as the place I had discovered in the lost records where many of the Amaranths were once worshipped. 

There the angel left me, and I ventured forth into the ruin, seeking the shrine of Saghirah, and hopefully, one of her ancient, forbidden scrolls.

#Lore24 – Entry #213 – Helica Month #1 – The Forbidden Scrolls of Saghirah

Excerpt from the Journals of Azita Gaji, Explorer of Helica

Long have I journeyed across Helica’s blasted and broken landscapes, the ruins of a world long dead that lays infested with monstrous demons thirsty for mortal flesh and malkikai, ancient machines that no longer recognize their masters and seek to slay them just the same.  Seldom in these days do I see the civilized parts of the world, those cities and towns that remain in the wake of the Transgressor’s destruction, for what I seek, should any remain, lays far beyond the reach of man and the Church of Phyresis and their closed-minded, dogmatic faith in their god.

What is it that drives me to brave these blasted lands and ruins of ancient cities, you may ask?  Nothing less than forbidden knowledge, of course!  The knowledge denied to the people of this world by the Church of Phyresis, the knowledge once bequeathed to the people of Helica by the Amaranths themselves!  But not just any Amaranth, no, the lost Amaranth Saghirah! 

There are reasons the Church of Phyresis has tried to hide knowledge of Saghirah, and these scrolls are those reasons!  She can see the very essence of time and space themselves, has seen beyond the very creation and destruction of Helica to the great beyond, has seen the stars that lay in the far beyond!  She sees the past, the present, and the future, and in her knowledge lies the key to the true destruction of the Transgressor! 

Why would the Church of Phyresis not seek this knowledge, you ask?  Quite simply, they fear it.  They fear the loss of control over the people of Helica, their place of power.  It is the same story told many times, of the desire of those who wield great power to maintain their control over that power.  But…but I have a theory that there is more to this tale than what I know now.  If I am able to locate one of these lost scrolls, then perhaps I can corroborate this theory with the words of the great Amaranth. 

On the morrow I venture into the ruins of Grad Artanais.  Though it is a sacred site to the Church of Phyresis, they have not scoured the entire ruin; even they do not have the power to survive there long enough to do that.  I am convinced I have located the ancient temple complex that once housed the Shrine to Saghirah, and perhaps one of the lost scrolls I seek.  Given what I had to dig through to find this information, and comparing it with the records of the archives, they have not found what remains there yet. 

May the Angel of Grad Artanais watch over me during this excursion; I will need all the help I can get.