WHAT IS A MAN? (III)

[Swgrclaŋ 697]

III:

Stone tablets begin to appear before cities across the land, the first forged by their maker.

Leaving them there in the deep of night, few could notice the black-robed man who left these omens for the review of the people.

 

 

"I AM PSEVDOSAIMAN,

THE BEAST OUT FROM THE WILD,

THE MAN ONCE TEMPERED BY FIRE

 

BACK IN THE FARTHEST REACHES OF TIME,

I SAW THE BASE SHAPE FROM WHO WE AROSE

SO LET ME TELL YOU OF THE BEAST MAN ONCE WAS:

 

THEY SAY HE WAS A FIGMENT OR A LIFEFORM,

SOME SCREAMING THING IN DARKNESS AND BLOOD,

DRIVEN INTO LIFE BY WILL OF INSTINCT AND SURVIVAL,

RATHER THAN BY WILL TO POWER OR CREATION

 

IN HIS TIME THERE WAS NO SUN TO WARM HIM

NOR NO SIGHT TO BEHOLD BEAUTY

NOR NO LOVE FOR HIS KIN OR PROGENY,

NOR NO ASPIRATION TO PURSUE

ONLY THE HUNT THAT COMPELS HIM TO LIFE,

AND SPUN HIM AROUND FOREVER,

MINDLESS TO HIS EVOLUTION

 

BUT SOMEWHERE… FROM A PLACE WE CANNOT POSSIBLY KNOW,

OR FROM A SOURCE THAT IS NO LONGER AT OUR SIDE,

A SPARK WAS GIVEN TO OUR KIND, AND THE LIGHT OF ALL THINGS

NEVER DREAMT OF WERE THRUST TO THE FRONT OF OUR CONSCIOUSNESS,

TO BURN THERE! IN FIREY ANGER OF OUR CONDITION AND UGLINESS,

WHERE THE RAGE TO PART THE SKY OF PALEBEAST DARKNESS

WOULD BEGIN TO SMOLDER WITHIN HIM, THE FIRST MAN,

THE PROGENITOR TO THE PSEVDOSAIMAN, THE DESCENDANT

 

IN PLACE OF THE EVOLUTIONS FOUND IN DARKNESS,

FIRE WAS BORN AND MASTERED, AND STALLED OUR DESCENT

AND FROM THE GRACE OF THIS POWER CAME OUR BEAUTY,

AND OUR NOBLE NATURE AND WILL AND ASPIRATION,

AND OUR LOVE FOR EVERYTHING WE CREATE

FOR FIRE IS THE LIGHT OF OUR LIVES,

THE CAUSE OF OUR EMERGENCE FROM GNASHING BEASTS

 

THESE ARE THE ROOTS OF WHAT WE ARE, ONCE-WERE,

FROM A TIME LONG BEFORE US; RELEVANT ONLY NOW,

WHEN THE FORMS OF OUR BEASTHOOD EMERGE FROM US

IN A GREAT AND HORRIBLE VENGEANCE

AGAINST WHAT FIRE REMAINS

 

THIS IS THE “NEMURITORI”; PALEBEAST IN OLD TONGUE

AND THEY ARE THE ONES WHO ARISE FROM OUR FAILURES

ONLY BORN FROM THOSE SUCH AS OURSELVES,

WILLING TO FORSAKE THE LIGHT OF FIRE

AND STEP BACKWARDS INTO THE REGRESSION,

WHERE HIDEOUS METAMORPHOSIS AWAITS

 

THEY ARE THE ENTROPY OF OUR WILL,

OUR ETERNAL CURSE, A HUNGER FROM THE BEASTS

WHICH SHALL AND ALWAYS WILL REMAIN WITHIN US,

UNTIL THE WHEEL THAT SPINS OUR WAYS FALLS FROM TURNING HANDS

AND PULLS US INTO THE OBLIVION; 

THE TRUE DEATH FEARED BY THE PALEBEAST

 

WHAT IS A MAN?

HE IS STARVING"

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Jentos 9422]

"We are not one !" came the cry from the bowels of the earth "We are not one !" dread danced in his head - and he starved. 

[wowj 9760]

"AI AHM A MAN!"

[Comrade Lafayette 256]

Spoiler

A miserable pile of secrets

 

[Callistus 988]

A shoal of darkness enveloped an aging man in wavering shadow, upon which streaks of fire approached defiant, only to cower back and dissipate. In the absenceness of warmth and mind, this man revelled in a peace meted out only by the forsaken cold. Indeed, his state of being was a call to an age immemorial, whence Man was unruptured by his borrowed wisdom, and the fickle want to challenge instinct. They roamed a sunless earth knowing and true to their firstborn purpose, with mind only for the continuity of body and clarity in being.

[Slorbin 2932]

Aether smiles as the story of the ring unfolds beneath her very eyes. Soon, many more will know the true secret of Ash.