Thlayli
Le Pétit Prince
The Crusade
"Your enemies are myriad! Your enemies are legion! We march to death, the eternal gate, as a bulwark against chaos and the corruption of Man!"
-Stratikrator Cendrian
Part One:
The Stratikrator stood, silent, in his stone chamber. Nothing but food had come in for three days. It was a strange, cryptlike place, hidden during the occupation. Within the black marble chamber carved out of the mountain Telerion, the Host-Lords of ancient Veritas had planned the conquests of Emor and Kalmar from this very spot.
It was rumored at in the records saved from Veritas and Redemption, the Great Archives now relocated to Pax. "The Stratikrator went to Telerion," it said. Xenophon discovered it, hinted at in rumor and legend in a dozen texts. When the Forge-Masters returned to Lux at last, and demanded their mountain, the Stratikrator gave them the laborers they needed to restore the tunnels. In return for one thing.
Their maps of the mountain. The maps that led him to the Chamber of Ilianos.
It was a cold, strange place. Columns of a dark stone, somewhat like lapis lazuli, supported the roof thirty feet above. The Stratikrator's eyes widened with wonder when he first set eyes on it. Up and down the columns, a flowing script was etched into the stone with minute detail, which formed a swirling epic that only an archivist with a ladder could ever hope to read.
The Stratikrator knew several languages, including Qual'ae and Khail. But what was written here...it was like Valin, but the words were strange.
Something about this chamber was horrifying. The absolute precision of the geometry, the faultless lines, the utter absence of light and joy at the heart of the world. Things had happened here once. Below it all was a sense of evil, Xenophon knew. But something in it led him closer to the truth that was lost.
At the center of the chamber was a great table, carved out of a solid block of black marble. Even as the Stratikrator marveled at the impossibility of it, he saw that the table was attached to the floor...they were one piece of stone. On the cold, terrifying square was etched a map of Tellus, north and west of Veritas. The rivers and mountains had a dull blue and reddish sheen, but the startling clarity and detail of the map left him in awe. This huge map, carved into a table that seemed part of the mountain itself...it was more accurate than anything Veritasan cartographers had ever created.
What was this place?
There was a throne, he saw. No building of Veritas had ever held a throne, but there it lay. The two, minutely carved handles of the obsidian chair were formed into a man's arms, detailed down to the subtle curves of muscle on bone. In the left hand was clutched a tree, black roots hanging down like a child's matted hair flipped over. In the right hand, a spear.
The Stratikrator's wonder was mixed with a sense of dread. There was something so familiar about this chamber, so right...and yet, something completely foreign, alien...wrong! His heart raced. Pools of darkness grew in the corners, and it seemed as if a whisper echoed back from the forgotten past.
For several days, the Stratikrator abandoned all planning of the war effort to sit in the chamber. His days were numbered, and the ones that came after him would have to know what he discovered.
After many hours in the Highest Hall, the eyrie-like library perched in the hills above the city, he found something. A brief reference in the most ancient scroll he could find, a decaying, barely-legible court record from 389 P.D. that described the Zibonese War...the first war, that captured Lux.
"The city was captured," it read, "and many were killed."
"The men that fought, with spear and arrow, were put to the axe. Many laid down their arms, and of these, one half were enslaved. The others scattered throughout the land."
"The men of Veritas took the city, and discarding its pagan name, christened it Lux, in the holy Light of the One. Many came from the south and dwelt in the city."
"After a time, it was found that the mountains held gold, and copper. Darker metals were found, but none among the Forge-Masters could give shape to these."
"In their delvings, the one called Ilianos discovered a chamber of dark stone. The Host-Lords came to the city, and forbade the Chamber to all but themselves. For many days they stood in the chamber, and naught knew their hearts."
The Stratikrator wished that the scroll had mentioned who Ilianos was, or what the Host-Lords had done in their new chamber. But that was lost, perhaps forever.
But now he knew what he had only suspected: This was not a place of Veritas.
Who had built it, then? The Zibonese were incapable of creating such amazing architecture, and they had never penetrated deep into the mountains. But the Zibonese, most scholars believed, migrated south, fleeing some great cataclysm, in -200 P.D. That was before the founding of Veritas!
If this chamber predated Veritas and Zibon alike, why the Spear and Tree? Was this some relic of the First Exile? No, that Paradise was lost forever, destroyed by the One in his anger at Mankind's sins!
Running his hands distractedly over the ancient runes, the Stratikrator stopped, over one word, carved into the marble like all the others. He translated, and retranslated, eyes widening in horror. A silent scream almost tore free from his lungs. A link in the chain had been made...and it was a horrible link.
In Valin runes, the name of God was written. But the runes did not spell "Eta," the ancient Valin name for the One.
The name written on the pillar was Eldos.
"Your enemies are myriad! Your enemies are legion! We march to death, the eternal gate, as a bulwark against chaos and the corruption of Man!"
-Stratikrator Cendrian
Part One:
The Stratikrator stood, silent, in his stone chamber. Nothing but food had come in for three days. It was a strange, cryptlike place, hidden during the occupation. Within the black marble chamber carved out of the mountain Telerion, the Host-Lords of ancient Veritas had planned the conquests of Emor and Kalmar from this very spot.
It was rumored at in the records saved from Veritas and Redemption, the Great Archives now relocated to Pax. "The Stratikrator went to Telerion," it said. Xenophon discovered it, hinted at in rumor and legend in a dozen texts. When the Forge-Masters returned to Lux at last, and demanded their mountain, the Stratikrator gave them the laborers they needed to restore the tunnels. In return for one thing.
Their maps of the mountain. The maps that led him to the Chamber of Ilianos.
It was a cold, strange place. Columns of a dark stone, somewhat like lapis lazuli, supported the roof thirty feet above. The Stratikrator's eyes widened with wonder when he first set eyes on it. Up and down the columns, a flowing script was etched into the stone with minute detail, which formed a swirling epic that only an archivist with a ladder could ever hope to read.
The Stratikrator knew several languages, including Qual'ae and Khail. But what was written here...it was like Valin, but the words were strange.
Something about this chamber was horrifying. The absolute precision of the geometry, the faultless lines, the utter absence of light and joy at the heart of the world. Things had happened here once. Below it all was a sense of evil, Xenophon knew. But something in it led him closer to the truth that was lost.
At the center of the chamber was a great table, carved out of a solid block of black marble. Even as the Stratikrator marveled at the impossibility of it, he saw that the table was attached to the floor...they were one piece of stone. On the cold, terrifying square was etched a map of Tellus, north and west of Veritas. The rivers and mountains had a dull blue and reddish sheen, but the startling clarity and detail of the map left him in awe. This huge map, carved into a table that seemed part of the mountain itself...it was more accurate than anything Veritasan cartographers had ever created.
What was this place?
There was a throne, he saw. No building of Veritas had ever held a throne, but there it lay. The two, minutely carved handles of the obsidian chair were formed into a man's arms, detailed down to the subtle curves of muscle on bone. In the left hand was clutched a tree, black roots hanging down like a child's matted hair flipped over. In the right hand, a spear.
The Stratikrator's wonder was mixed with a sense of dread. There was something so familiar about this chamber, so right...and yet, something completely foreign, alien...wrong! His heart raced. Pools of darkness grew in the corners, and it seemed as if a whisper echoed back from the forgotten past.
For several days, the Stratikrator abandoned all planning of the war effort to sit in the chamber. His days were numbered, and the ones that came after him would have to know what he discovered.
After many hours in the Highest Hall, the eyrie-like library perched in the hills above the city, he found something. A brief reference in the most ancient scroll he could find, a decaying, barely-legible court record from 389 P.D. that described the Zibonese War...the first war, that captured Lux.
"The city was captured," it read, "and many were killed."
"The men that fought, with spear and arrow, were put to the axe. Many laid down their arms, and of these, one half were enslaved. The others scattered throughout the land."
"The men of Veritas took the city, and discarding its pagan name, christened it Lux, in the holy Light of the One. Many came from the south and dwelt in the city."
"After a time, it was found that the mountains held gold, and copper. Darker metals were found, but none among the Forge-Masters could give shape to these."
"In their delvings, the one called Ilianos discovered a chamber of dark stone. The Host-Lords came to the city, and forbade the Chamber to all but themselves. For many days they stood in the chamber, and naught knew their hearts."
The Stratikrator wished that the scroll had mentioned who Ilianos was, or what the Host-Lords had done in their new chamber. But that was lost, perhaps forever.
But now he knew what he had only suspected: This was not a place of Veritas.
Who had built it, then? The Zibonese were incapable of creating such amazing architecture, and they had never penetrated deep into the mountains. But the Zibonese, most scholars believed, migrated south, fleeing some great cataclysm, in -200 P.D. That was before the founding of Veritas!
If this chamber predated Veritas and Zibon alike, why the Spear and Tree? Was this some relic of the First Exile? No, that Paradise was lost forever, destroyed by the One in his anger at Mankind's sins!
Running his hands distractedly over the ancient runes, the Stratikrator stopped, over one word, carved into the marble like all the others. He translated, and retranslated, eyes widening in horror. A silent scream almost tore free from his lungs. A link in the chain had been made...and it was a horrible link.
In Valin runes, the name of God was written. But the runes did not spell "Eta," the ancient Valin name for the One.
The name written on the pillar was Eldos.
Does anyone even care about my stories?!?!?!?!
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