A Possible Origin -Revisted 8/23/02

[Saga Librarian]

Serion Au Bauch
Arch Battlemagus of Tunare
This is a story I wrote long ago. Its the Possible Origin to what one High End guild is, or could be. They haven't all adopted it yet, but I guess I should talk to Coinfist a bit more about this.
I share this with you because I thought as storytellers, you may actually like a new yarm to add to so many others. I hope that you enjoy what I've written.

Be well all, take care.
****************************
RESOLUTION

"A Heavyhand Will rise against the unseen foe, and his people shall save us."

It is what prophecy told me! I knew of this day, and I sought him out, with a heavy heart.

The Precursor, or "They Who are the Sloth Night" were here long before all of you. The claws of the Crystalline carved into the skin of the planet, and cut them deep. The dragon goddess never knew what she truly struck into. How can a planet exist, a ball of earth in the cosmos spin on axis, with no one inhabiting it?

No, something...better yet someone lived here, and it wants this planet back.

It once walked the surface as anything it wished its mind its only limitation, as it was both a shape-shifter, and possessor. The dragon came and clawed this lone ball, floating with one moon. Had she known that it struck into the very form of this being and cursed its own forever, she would have recanted. This wound drove anger and insanity, into a sleeping race of amorphous beings. With shrieks of pain they went deep into the planet, and those that did die, howled their last as the fire of the dragon goddess changed the surface.

I can hear them. I can hear them scream out at that very moment, "Revenge to you and all that would follow you! Revenge on all that come after us for we shall strike those that come, as you did us!" They are not pleased...

I clutch to my soiled scripture from Brell Serilis. I am small, a young cleric. My name is Utlin Gohza and I know the prophecy as it comes to pass. Brell himself is relieved to know of the infestation, but unhappy by the huge undertaking to save the planets inhabitants.

Every civilization on this planet, including and most importantly the dragons, is effected. The race I will call "Precursor" can possess anything and anyone it wishes, even the manifestation of a god. They have been here since the start, and have studied the prey well. They know all that the host does, and they speak and act in the same manner. The "enslaved" then have no idea of what they are, and slowly corrupt those that follow it, or seek knowledge from it. At the end it would spell genocide for races on this planet, and take this world we have worked together to make shining and great, and make it a simple black ball of dead rock.

I was there when the Matriarch let me read the secret book because she saw the mark on my hand, as it was on his hand. She knew that I was in connection with Brell, and even though I was not a cleric of the faith that moment, she showed me the books that would have me change my mind. One sentence that I saw so many times in both dreams and nightmares that had me take up mace in hand, for Brell.
Letters appeared in the recessed earth, right at the feet of the temple. It was the way Brell spoke dire messages to us.

"A Heavyhand Will rise against the unseen foe, and his people shall save us."

I close my eyes and hid tears, as I knew that all I saw of the coming apocalypse was not just the imaginations of a boy. The slaughter of hundreds, the rising of the Ocean of Tears to swallow the islands, and the flames of Solusek Ro spilling out of control again. I shook there, I went to my knees there, and swore fealty to my god there and then.

Could he come? Could he be among us now as Brell digs the veins of the earth, and saw the Precursor himself. Would he enough, and could he see them? I don't believe in messiahs, but we truly had no hope. The day would come and the world would not know what befell us until it was too late.

So, I had to put away with my questions, and read those books she had there. I had to see I had to understand.

It seems that he's already started, thank the gods. The books speak of a young dwarf, taken to "The Chamber of Soils," a hidden alcove which is sealed now for what took place in there could not be seen by mortal eyes.

A being of the Precursor race spoke to the dwarf! The being betrayed his own, for he unlike them saw the movement of mortality, and the strides they made. He even helped, with showing an elf a new magic, or showing a gnome a new invention. He felt that he did much to make this world great, and would not see it degenerate back into a gray mass of earth. The dwarf found it hard to trust the being, as he still truly didn't know his own fate. The being spoke to him.

"You must save your people, from my people. They are not the darkness; they are not the light. They just feel and know pain, and that will cause them to ruin, this planet. We were once thinkers, philosophers. However the mistake that a dragon made, an incident that we could have rose to overcome, made many of us bitter. I am among a few that do not see it this way. We have helped mortality to make the vast strides; we've even seen you tear yourselves apart.

Never again, will this total division between us exist, and you must trust me. Trust me, because at this very moment, I am going to give you a gift. A gift that will make you unique among all others, and a gift that you will give to your clan. They will know and see the truth alongside you, and never will this world be without defenders."

The being pointed into the fire that alone Illuminated the room.

"That flame. If used right, it can cook, forge weapons, and warm us at night. Abused, it will destroy all in its path, its destructive power gathering greater fold. We who your clerics and Matriarch call Precursor have become the latter."

The room grew silent and the dwarf speechless, simply stared into the torch with a grizzled look on his face.

"Now, you must choose, what you and your kin shall be, for they will come, you are not alone. Will you be the force that helps your own, and saves this world, or will you be the destroyer, and rape this planet? If you will just kill whomever stands up in front of you, then I shall leave."

The being stood there, and looked at the dwarf. The dwarf looked back into his eyes, and he knew there and then, what choice was made.

The being placed his finger into the fire, and still ablaze, touched the forehead of the dwarf. The pain of the fire caused him to yell out in anguish, but it was soon over for he had eyes that saw the truth. He saw the being in front of him as a beneficial force, and knew it could be trusted.

"Now that you see me, know that there will be a few you have trusted for a long time but they will be infected by the Precursors. They will come to you, and try to stand in the way of your mission. The mission is simple; rid this world of the Precursors that will cause the end. You can see them now, whatever forms they may take. You may also give this power to whomever you choose to help you, as your clan will be a great one. I know this for I know who I speak to."

The dwarf looked at him and for the first time uttered a few words.

"Then tell me being, who am I?"

The being turned away from the dwarf, hiding a smile. "You are Coinfist Heavyhand, and this has made you resolute."

The book says that he walks the planet now, with a fold of men and women of different races, and beliefs, all in stride to save the world. I do not know if they will win, but I do place my hope in them. Precursor cannot destroy us. Please Brell, strengthen your son and his kin...they must save us all.