Tag: the Wicked One

#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.