two major Angarak powers, I would bring the entire weight of the
Mallorean Empire down upon you and chastise you beyond your
imagining for your offense.
To insure that there will be no recurrence of this affair, I have taken
all Murgos within my boundaries into custody to serve as hostage to
your continued good behavior. I am advised that several of these
internees are closely related to you. Should you instigate further
adventures in my realm, I shall return your kinsmen to you – piece by
piece.
In the past, your madness has filled your world with imagined
enemies. Rejoice, Taur Urgas, and put aside your insanity, for you
now have a real foe, far more deadly than any of the phantoms of your
lunacy. You may be assured that as soon as world conditions permit, I
will descend upon you and the stinking wasteland you call your
Kingdom. It is my firm intention to destroy you and the vile race you
rule. When.I am done, the name ‘Murgo’will be forgotten.
Keep a watchful eye over your shoulder, Taur Urgas, for as surely
as the sun rises tomorrow, one day I will be there.
With My most heartfelt contempt,
‘Zakath,
Emperor of Mallorea
When Taur Urgas read this letter, his advisors found it necessary
to physically restrain him to prevent his doing himself injury
Though it is possibly an exaggeration, some witnesses maintain that
the Murgo King actually began to froth at the mouth, so great was
his rage. It must be admitted that the letter of ‘Zakath was probably
the most strongly-worded which any sovereign has ever directed at
another, however, and it signaled the beginning of preparations in
the two nations for that war which was now absolutely inevitable.
Occasionally the Murgo King was impelled by his growing
insanity to take some kind of action against his implacable enemy. ‘while
these actions were usually rather petty, ‘Zakath’s response was
always the same. Not long after such incidents, Taur Urgas would
receive the dismembered body of some-cousin or nephew. Since the
Murgo obsession with race is exceeded only by their attachment to
family, nothing ‘Zakath could have done could have injured Taur
Urgas more, and as the years passed, the hatred of the two grew
stronger until it became in the mind of each man virtually an article
of religion.
The tragically altered Emperor of Mallorea has become obsessed
with the concept of power, and the idea of becoming Over-King of
all of Angarak has dominated his thinking for the past two decades.
Only time will determine if ‘Zakath of Mallorea will be successful in
his bid to assert his dominance over the western Angarak kingdoms,
but if he succeeds, the history of the entire world may well be
profoundly altered.
The CDALLORean
GospeLS
BOOK I
0
THE BOOK OF AGES
Now These are the Ages of Man:
In THE FIRST AGE was man created, and he awoke
in puzzlement and wonder as he beheld the world
about him. And those that had made him considered
him and selected from his number those that pleased
them, and the rest were cast out and driven away. And
some went in search of the spirit known as UL, and they
left us and passed into the west, and we saw them no
more. And some denied the Gods, and they went into the
far north to wrestle with demons. And some turned to
worldly matters, and they went away into the east and
built mighty cities there.
But we despaired, and we sat us down upon the earth
in the shadow of the mountains of Korim, which are no
more, and in bitterness we bewailed our fate that we had
been made and then cast out.
And it came to pass that in the midst of our grief a
woman of our people was seized by a rapture, and it was
as if she were shaken by a mighty hand. And she arose
from the earth upon which she had sat and she bound her
eyes with cloth, signifying that she had seen that which no
mortal being had seen before, for lo! She was the first
Seeress in all the world. And with the touch of vision
still upon her she spake unto us in a great voice, saying:
‘Behold! A feast hath been set before those who made
us, and this feast shall ye call the Feast of Life. And those
who made us have chosen that which pleased them, and
that which pleased them not was not chosen.
‘Now we are the Feast of Life, and ye sorrow that no
guest at the feast hath chosen ye. Despair not, however,
for one guest hath not yet arrived at the feast. The other
guests have taken their fill, but this great Feast of Life
awaiteth still the beloved guest who cometh late, and I say
unto all the people that it is he who will choose us.
‘Abide therefore against his coming, for it is certain.
The signs of it are in the heavens, and there are whispers
which speak of it within the rocks. If earth and sky alike
confirm it, how can it not come to pass? Prepare then for
his coming. Put aside thy grief and turn thy face to the sky
and to the earth that thou mayest read the signs written
there, for this I say unto all the people, it is upon ye that
his coming rests. For Behold, he may not choose ye unless
ye choose him. And this is the fate for which we were
made.
‘Rise up, oh my people. Sit no more upon the earth in
vain and foolish lamentation. Take up the task which lies
before ye and prepare the way for him who will surely
come.
Much we marveled at the words which had been
spoken to us, and we considered them most carefully And
we questioned the Seeress, but her answers were dark and
obscure. And we perceived that a danger lurked within
the promise. And we turned our faces to the sky and bent
our ears to the whispers which came from the earth that
we might see and hear and learn. And as we learned to
read the book of the skies and to hear the whispers within
the rocks, we found the myriad warnings that two spirits
would come to us, and that the one was good and the
other evil. And we redoubled our efforts so that we might
recognize the true spirit and the false in order to choose
between them. And as we read the Book of the Heavens
we found two signs; and as we listened to the earth we
heard two voices; and we were sorely troubled, for we
could not determine which sign was the true sign nor
which voice the true voice. Truly, evil is disguised as good
in the Book of the Heavens and in the speech of the earth,
and no man is wise enough to choose between them
unaided.
Pondering this, we went out from beneath the shadow
of the mountains of Korim and into the lands beyond,
where we abode. And we put aside the concerns of man
and bent all our efforts to the task which lay before us.
And we sought out all manner of wisdom to aid us in
distinguishing the true God from the false when the two
should come to us, each saying, ‘I am the way.’ Our
witches and our seers sought the aid of the spirit world,
and our necromancers took counsel with the dead, and
our diviners sought advice from the earth. But lo, the
spirits knew no more than we, and we found that they were as
confused and troubled as we.
Then gathered we at last upon a fertile plain to bring
together all that we had learned from the world of men,
the world of the spirits, the Book of the Heavens and the
voices of the earth. And Behold, these are the truths that
we have learned from the stars, from the rocks, from the
hearts of men and from the minds of the spirits:
Know ye, oh my people, that all down the endless
avenues of time hath division marred all that is – for there
is division at the very heart of creation. And some have
said that this is natural and will persist until the end of
days, but it is not so. Were the division destined to be
eternal, then the purpose of creation would be to contain it.
But the stars and the spirits and the voices within the
rocks speak of the day when the division will end and all
will be made one again, for creation itself knows that the
day will come.
Know ye further, oh my people, that two spirits
contend with each other at the very center of time, and
these spirits are the two sides of that which hath divided