Lore book/es: Difference between revisions

''They don't know. They don't understand. I don't even understand it.

What have we created? What greater doom have we wrought upon ourselves?''

''I've begun to see things, even when I'm not gazing through the Lens. Walking down the halls, looking at the prints, suddenly my vision shifts and I'm in a world I cannot comprehend. I am in the other world, and it is leaking into this one.

I've begun to notice its effect. My creations: cherished by the people and without which this project could never succeed. They are strange to me now. There is something wrong with them. It is the otherworldliness I have given to them. An eidolon was found two shifts ago with blood and mutilation splattered across its plates. The workmen, they wrote it off as an accident, but I know better.''

''One day she dreamt of great storms, trembling earth, turning wheels, and she woke to a new world. One of vibrance. Of light! Beautiful light! And beautiful green! Here now were the birds and beasts. The fruit and grains. The winding rivers and the great horn mountains. Where before there was nothing now there was wonder all around. She was the first to walk our world. Our home.

Thus she came to know joy. But when the sun left the sky and the night fell over the new land, she heard the whispers, the groans, the crunching footsteps of those abominable shades that haunt us still. She then came to know fear, and a dreadful fear it was! She fled into the dirt and the quiet places. Deeper down she went, hounded by the foul voices, until she came upon something hidden and strange. There in the dark she found herself in the presence of a god.''

''And so the First Trade was conducted. The god granted her a madness. The madness to keep struggling in the face of fear. In exchange, she swore fealty to it. She swore to never forget what the god taught her.  

Then she climbed. She returned to the surface, and in her madness she fought the monsters that harrowed her.  

For twelve years she fought! Every day she would rest and enjoy the bountiful wonders of this world, and every night she would rise and battle the creatures that came to hunt her.

She felled hundreds of them, yet they always returned. As time passed by, she grew wise.

Climbing to the high mountaintops, she called out- Called out! In a clear voice that rang through the dales, she called,  

''Now comes the Second Trade. She offered them wisdom in exchange for strength. The people, desperate for guidance, agreed to the deal.

Working together, Bearfirth and her companions built the first home. These walls were made from only mud and stone, but the ghosts had not the power to overcome them when the sun left the sky. The people rejoiced when they saw this, but Bearfirth, upon realizing she would not have to battle anything that night, felt the years and years of exhaustion, once held back through willpower, now fall upon her as a flood. Collapsing to the ground, she knew that her life was at its end.  

The people gathered around her, fearful and lost again at the thought of her leave-taking. They think they will have to return to the dirt and roots if she is gone. They think she pulls the morning into the sky.''

''Seeing this, she makes the Third Trade, the Final Trade!

She asks of them,  

'Survive this night. Stay watchful, do not give up yet. Do this for me and my strength will be yours.'

Her people are hesitant, but they bind themselves to the trade. They keep watch. The shades scream and roar at them -  Can you hear them? They're still out there, screaming at us now!

But her people do not run. They have an oath to fulfill. They build the walls stronger and trust that Bearfirth will hold up her end of the bargain. When the sun finally returns, it finds them proud and cheering. At last they know the madness that Bearfirth knew: They learned that by fighting in the face of hopelessness they could accomplish anything.

With their newfound strength, they worked together and made a grand village. They spread to distant lands, making villages and helping those in hiding there. And always, they remembered that long night and the sunrise that came afterwards.''

''I made a purchase yesterday. A rather peculiar one. Having just returned from my cousin the King’s residence, and seeing one of these… Bells, as they are called, though I myself have no idea why, nothing bell-like about them at all. Akin to a snake, more like.

I am a God-fearing man and find this form unnerving. Curious that our Church, so eager to lambast every drunkard and enjoyer of the carnal pleasures, remains largely mum on these. Truly.''

''My cousin the King swears by this contraption, and it cost me a pretty penny, but soon, I hear it said, no noble house shall be without one. I wonder what other such inventive tools there are, and what their use might be.

On the way back to my estate, I heard word of a traveling alchemist from the Orient, and decided to invite him here with his cart of curiosities. Provided he shows, I might host him for a while, though frankly, he’d do well to entertain me. We shall see how he fares.''

''Group I joined is chapter of a bigger organization. Intentions unclear, but much talk of self-sufficiency.

Made up of both men and women. Peasantry foremost, some craftsmen: a cobbler, two carpenters, a servant. Just under two dozen souls. None can write or read I think, but I shall keep vigilant.''