The Heart is a Void: Ashes to Ashes

"What's the [Script of Earthly Knowledge]?" DicingDevil asked, looking up from the party menu. "Quite a name. It mentions that it was one of the rewards for completing the last task."

"Ah, I know the name," Sharak said. "It's a well-known series of poems originating from the Mausolas tribe of the Northern Aimsa region. I'm sure we have some copies here. But Fahiz will have to look for them, he keeps them in his drawer buried under works about the Flying Dutchman."

"I'll do that, but don't you have the apocalyptics?" Fahiz said, as he walked into a small room to the left of the building's doorway.

"Ah, yes, they're right here." Sharak reached into his drawer and pulled out a small, black booklet. "While the [Script of Earthly Knowledge] was compiled from the ancient poems and songs of the tribe, it's said that the compiler was exiled from the tribe after a new leader took charge.

"He became a wanderer in the deserts far to the West, and began to compile disillusioned poems about his haunting visions of Ragnarok. Parts of this are still preserved. These are known as his 'apocalyptics,' and are less celebrated than the Script, though they are said to be a favourite of the morbid Emperor of Arcorus. The Emperor's coat of arms contains the quote, 'The herald, the sunrise of the end!' and his motto - generally painted on a ribbon or banderole beneath the coat of arms - is the quote, 'Weep in blinding sunlight, / Though it's all as it should be.'

"I have a few pages of the apocalyptics here, translated in Arcorus. They presumably have their own automatons for this purpose."

PROLOGUE

You, who have heard my voice in scattered song,

And oft praise the songs of glory and legend, of

Creatures who are more like Aesir than nature

And vaunt above simple sparrows. You, who admire

The rasps I have loudly ferried to Olympus' peak,

Know this: Thanatos lives in the temple of the gods,

But none will recognise him until he removes his mask.

And know too that Hades is no legendary beast,

He is the sparrow's neighbour, the crow.

Do not look to the stars in awe.

SONG OF DISILLUSION

"For I have seen much of glory, and I have seen its end." - Apollo.

Alas, every soft leaf that trembles to the breeze,

Each insect, bird and beast that prowls or flies,

Each line and circle of the boundless sky;

And every sound that mocks the ear of man,

Each scent that steals along the perfumed air,

Each ray of light that gilds the fields of space;

All these, and more, are portents of Ragnarok,

I realise now, and weep in blinding sunlight,

Though it's all as it should be.

THE DEMON PRINCE'S MOUNT DESCENDS FROM VALHALLA

I.

Down through the darkness of the sky, a livid mane,

Black as the rock whereon the oracles are written,

Stood, like a smith's anvil, in the desert's solitude,

A mountain-summit to the stars that roll their fiery wheel.

From its red flank, through the sands, a torrent of seething light

Streamed, like a snake, in fiery wrath to heaven's remotest height,

And, passing through the gloom, there broke against the stars' cold bars

Like a volcano's smoke, a lurid cone of hazy flames.

VII

O'er leagues of darkness it burst, and, smiting the black mountains,

Was seen no more; and, through the desert's silence, its conflagration

Was as Apollo's arrow shot from heaven to the uttermost West.

But not upon the sunlit mountains the demon prince remained:

He plunged into Ragnarok, and sought the hermit-shades of night.

VIII

And now he comes! In his hand a torch of phosphorus,

That in the hollow of his hand like tapers lights a spray.

The demon comes! The herald, the sunrise of the end!

"This is quite interesting," Crucis said. "Do we know any more about this 'demon prince'?"

"Some say that it refers to Apollo, others to Loki - though Loki is not in Valhalla at this time," Sharak said. "It's an old prophecy that a 'demon prince' will descend from Valhalla at the time of Ragnarok, and form the final horseman of apocalypse."

"Rather eclectic, but it makes sense. Who are the horsemen of the apocalypse?"

"We don't know, except that they are said to mostly be powerful knights with supernatural powers. The demon horse's name is Agni, but we don't know of any gods who have a mount of that name. Since Apollo is not one of the Aesir, he is considered the most likely candidate."

"Do you reckon that Ragnarok could be a world event?" Danemy asked the other players.

"I'm fairly sure that it was mentioned in the game's promotion," DicingDevil said. "So it's difficult to tell, but I'd guess that there's probably something like that. I don't know what the trigger is, probably it requires a few things to happen first."

"True, we haven't even seen the heavens or Valhalla yet," Grisier said.

"The message saying to return to towns and cities tonight - could that be somehow related?" Danemy asked. "It couldn't just be some ordinary monster, maybe there's some sort of disturbance in the heavens here?"

"It's difficult to tell, but there might be something afoot," DicingDevil said. "Well, I suppose we'll see."

"Hopefully not, I need to get some sleep," Crucis quipped.

After a few minutes of searching, Fahiz joined the rest of the group, carrying a long piece of parchment labelled as the [Script of Earthly Knowledge]. "Alright, here's what you're looking for, I think."

Sharak had a look. "Yes, this looks like just the thing. It's based on transcription of old tribal songs and poems, however, so stylistically it's a bit different from the other poems. It's based on a tradition of venerative chants which centred around extended, poetic description and simile, which was well-suited to the tribe's language which was filled with specific nouns for all sorts of creatures and phenomena. Some of the nuance might be lost in English, but this translation by Arcorus should at least preserve the spirit of the verses.

"It lists several notable phenomena from the Western region or the seas, some of it not always well-known today. For instance, we have mentioned Elgia, and Eriho is the tribe's name for the creature known now as [The Horror]. Some of these figures, we're not sure about, such as Reliquia, and though we don't know Reliquia it's said to be somehow related to Odin's ravens."

SCRIPT OF KNOWLEDGE

THE SONG OF THE EARTH GOD

i. Icarus

Icarus, my son, flies high above the earth

With the snow-white eagle.

His eyes are bright and his wings are long,

And his feathers are the purest gold,

His breath is as cold as the winter air,

And his cry is as lonely as the cry of the night owl.

ii. Unukalha

Unukalha, my daughter, is the swiftest thing

That ever flew;

Her hair is as black as the darkest night

And her eyes are like a double star

In the constellation of her pale face.

Her voice is like the singing of a white loon,

In the dark of the deep woods.

iii. Elgia

Elgia, my daughter, has wings

Like the wild swan;

Her scales are the colour of the moon,

And she is very beautiful,

Her neck is slender and long,

Her eyes are like the blue of the sea,

Her voice is like a silver Pacific loon,

Her tail is like a dragon's tail.

iv. Eriho

Eriho, the goddess, is enthroned in heaven

With jewels and gold leaf;

Her hair is a hundred feet in length

And a hundred feet in width,

and she wears a dress of stars;

Her dress is like the night itself,

That night that is always falling down

From the hands of the Moon

On to the Earth.

v. Leviathan

Leviathan, my son, is the mightiest of all sea-gods,

With his tumbling waves,

He is as white as the foam that rolls along his face,

And his neck is as black as the darkest night,

And his eyes are like a yellow diamond,

His flanks are as broad as the lowland sea.

His tail is like a mountain,

And his roar is like thunder.

vi. Reliquia

Reliquia, my son, rides in a golden shell

On the bosom of the deep;

His shell is as round as the moon itself,

His crest is as sharp as a spindle.

In his lethargic eyes

The stars of the firmament

And the depths of the sea.

vii. Aquaria

Aquaria, my daughter, is the quiet sea-goddess

Whose form is as pale as the moon's.

Aquaria sleeps in the bosom of the deep

On the golden shore,

And her hair is like the flowing of a dark river,

And her body is like the soft white foam

That flies up from the depths

And like the silver arrow.

Her neck is long and her tail is thin.

As they read, DicingDevil noticed a few bright dots appear on the party's map. "Looks like this triggered something appearing on the map."

"It might have done," Sharak said. "That will display the location of some of these creatures, so long as they have already been discovered by inhabitants of this world. It should be triggered for all of you, and automatically appear for you on any map you use. Be careful whom you share this information with, it's quite valuable."

"So Elgia and Eriho are birds," Crucis said, looking up from the paper. "Does Icarus refer to another bird, or to the mythical dead man with wax wings?"

"The latter, in part," Sharak said. "The myth of Icarus was considered important to many old Western cultures, and you'll often find depictions of it on old temples or pillars. 'Icarus' has a duality in our beliefs which you might not recognise from the myth you've heard: it represents, on the one hand, the familiar wax-winged flight, and on the other hand it represents the principle of unrelenting power which was attributed to the sages that traditionally advised Kings - not being 'men of the world,' they were thought to expand empires without concern for boundaries or diplomatic custom. For instance, the Empire of Arcorus is labelled positively as the 'Icarian Empire' by some, because it began as a small territory before taking advantage of its collapsing neighbours to establish a large Eastern Empire.

"During the Agon war, Arcorus was used to produce wealth and munitions for the Republic, and they were denied the glorious monuments which were their right, instead being treated as second-class citizens by the oversized bureaucracy that was known as the Republic's 'janitorial class.' That they then went on to establish a large Empire, ruled by an elusive King who refuses to live in splendour, is seen as a demonstration of the Icarian heartlessness. So it's a slightly amorphous concept."

"Sure. And the last three are sea monsters?"

"Yes. Leviathan is probably the most fearsome. You'd typically need a ship of some sort to reach them."

"It's a pity that we don't go West much," DicingDevil said, "but we're probably not ready to face most of these creatures yet."

"A few of us can head on an expedition West once we're stronger," Akshel said. "But these creatures sound powerful, so yeah, no rush."

"It says that it's by the Earth God," Crucis said, "does that mean that these creatures are considered its sons and daughters?"

"That was a common phrase among the tribe, used to signify the divine majesty of these creatures," Sharak replied. "It's not entirely literal, but they did believe that these creatures were somehow related to the mighty, grandiose earth deity Marakus. By the time he wrote the apocalyptics, this author had mostly abandoned the worship of Marakus, and taken on the Apollo-worship of the far West's desert nomads. That might be part of why the apocalyptics are different in tone, and use a markedly different poetic."

"Since you mentioned Arcorus," Fahiz said, "Didn't their Emperor himself occasionally send us requests for speeches, or ask for information about the automatons?"

"Yes, actually. It has been a while since they've been in contact, but I assume that's because they've been busy putting down a series of revolts in the South, due to some conquered bureaucrats who refuse to lie down and die as they should. But that should resolve itself soon. The Emperor seems to use automatons prolifically, whenever he is called upon to give speeches, etc., and I suppose it complements the grave, morbid tone of his rule. He's an interesting man, but I'm sure you'll all run into his Empire in due course."