/A/N/: A quick forward, as this chapter/gaiden is a bit different. Firstly, I will admit that it's a bit drier than the other chapters in the story, and that it's not crucial to the primary storyline, so if you feel the urge to skip it, you can. However, if you are interested in the world of the story and are trying to solve the overall "mystery" of Mario's Crowbar, it's important. I can promise this will be the only chapter of its kind, and the third gaiden will be a short story like the first. Thank you.
Lifelines
An excerpt from the pamphlet The Arrow of Heaven...
...Our people are weak. We were bred like livestock our entire lives, losing the will to our strength because of the Mario brothers, the devils known as Mario Mario and Luigi Mario. It was when they came to our land—though we did not know it— that we became slaves. Slaves to the will of the Mushroom Royal Family and to the devil brothers.
They sought to suppress knowledge of the truth of our heritage, though due to certain influences within Mushroom Castle they did not entirely destroy it. The original records may be lost now with the Cataclysm, but the large historical text Annals of the Mushroom Kingdom detailed many of the rises and falls of the Mushroom Royal Family over the last fifteen-hundred years, and I had the fortune to study it while it still existed. Though our people at first dared not speak of it, and then eventually forgot it due to the influence of the royalty, rebellions have happened again and again in cycles throughout our history, ever since the original battle against the demon king Smithos. Rebellions had been a prideful tradition of our land, as a way of cleansing our peoples of wrongful rule. Though the Mushroom Royal Family was never destroyed, they were displaced again and again, and eventually allowed by the will of the people to rule again when the time was deemed appropriate. The Princess Peach, with the help of her thugs Mario and Luigi, removed this possibility, and made sure her rule was kept in place.
Now, some may cry out here: "O, but Mario and Luigi saved us again and again from the Koopa Kingdom! O, it was because of them that Sarasaland never dared invade before! O! O!" ...And onwards. Again, I ask you to look at our history, our pride: three times in our history the Koopa Kingdom possessed our land, and three times we fought back, and succeeded at reclaiming it. You may say I am wrong, that it is a known fact that Mushroom Castle was never taken by another nation except in the 1490 Battle of Mushroom Castle, but that is only true in the case of the former koopa king Bowser Koopa. His ancestors took our land three times before, and yet it is never mentioned, and known by hardly anyone! We were fed consistently false statements by our former ruler again and again so that we never knew what the truth was, and were made docile into serving the princess. This was a strategy she took from her father, and from the ancestors before him, creating a chain of trickery that mentally weakened our people through the years.
"And what about Sarasaland…?" And what about Sarasaland? Isn't it apparent that they never took over our kingdom before Mario and Luigi were here? What stopped the fearsome desert nation before? The answer is simple: They never cared! Sarasaland never cared about taking over the Mushroom Kingdom before! It is only now that we face the peril of their invasion, not because Mario and Luigi are gone, but because of the Cataclysm caused by Mario and Luigi! With the shaking of the earth and the destruction of the poles, every nation on the face of the world is being devastated by one natural disaster or another. No different for Sarasaland, which faces terrible tsunamis and earthquakes never before beheld on this earth. They were a people that lived comfortable lives, and were unused to that terrible awakening… unlike we, who simply migrated south when our land was torched, Sarasaland's citizens have nowhere to so easily move, and wish to conquer us now.
We have had enough of laying down, of being the pathetic weaklings of the world, haven't we? Of being famous for our weakness, a mockery of a stereotype gained only within the last few generations… are we not ready to reclaim the former glory of our ancestors, the people of the Mushroom Kingdom? It is not a silly proposition in the slightest— that ringing in your ears is a lie. We are indeed a noble people, and we have finally been freed of our shackles. The brothers, the princess, and even the former enemy kingdom, the Koopa Kingdom, has collapsed. Never before have we been so free to choose our destiny, to unite into a single land…
Yes! Let it be understood that I call for a mass unification! I do not propose the direct return of the Mushroom Kingdom, but of a new nation, an example on the earth, of what sentients can accomplish when they join hand-in-hand. Let us reclaim our home from that floating king of death, that devil in the cloak. He is like Smithos before him, destined to fall… Let us raise our bows together and let loose that arrow of justice—
All we need is to accomplish the dream, the dream the world has been waiting to have: the dream of our new nation. A nation encompassing the former Mushroom and Koopa Kingdoms. A nation accepting of the people of the former Mushroom City, of refugees from the Southern Kingdom and the Oho Ternion. Let us create a new nation, a nation of the peace-driven, the Zero and the One, Eldstar's progenitor…
You of all species, take up the load on your backs. This is the climax of history, the moment our souls and our ancestors' souls have waited for the past one thousand generations. We are on the verge of true, ultimate freedom...the ideal of Heaven, made manifest on Earth. All it takes is the will to fight. This is our destiny, our manifest destiny, as foretold. Hurry, hurry north…
—The Arrow of Heaven, Author Unknown. Published/Distributed 1503.
An excerpt from the Southern Mushroom Kingdom magazine The Fount…
The rise of science over the last two hundred years, generally thought to have begun with the creation of the question block, has been perhaps the strongest movement in our world. Within the last fifty years, this movement began to accelerate even faster with the development of the Airship, resulting in the international community's trade and communication improving immeasurably. Many leading minds believed that this was an unstoppable revolution, and that within the next one hundred years religion would be on the wayside, on the verge of fading as science became the dominant persuasion of the mind in the world.
However, as the world has begun to suffer more than perhaps ever before following the unpredictable Cataclysm, people everywhere are turning to religion and faith for answers. Old, common ideologies like Starism and Rosettan have resurged in popularity and outward participation, but so have less common, previously forgotten faiths. One such is a religion from long before the time of Smithos, a faith that had been thought to only have survived through scattered fairy tales, disconnected from their original symbolic heritage. This faith is known as Binaric, based on the understanding of the Two-Faceted God, Binary.
The name "Binary" may sound familiar to you, from the old child's tale "Binary's Children", the story of the two-faced giant that created the stars in the sky. This deforming fairy tale was indeed one of the only surviving records of Binaric for a very long time. Let us first go back in time for a moment to explain the history of Binaric.
The absolute origins of the faith are lost to time. It is certain that the creed existed before Smithos, as several temples dedicated to the god have been found scattered throughout Nimbus Land dating back more than two thousand years. Some records from nearby villages, the sole possessors of the Binaric faith up until the last ten years or so, claimed that the faith had existed for at least six thousand years, but these records could not be considered legitimate.
Regardless, only challenged by the Trinity faith of the Tribal Lands, Binaric is easily the most ancient of religious faiths in our world.
It was one of the world's most popular faiths as well, until Smithos came into existence and changed everything. His appearance was apparently predicted by a small, new faith that had only come into being a few hundred years before the time of Smithos...a faith that seemed to provide the right motivations and values to rise up, and to overthrow the demon king: the religion known as Starism.
Taking even a cursory glance at the doctrines of Binaric will show why the religion would have died out so quickly with the coming of Smithos. Binaric is ultimately a faith of peace, of acceptance. No matter what your troubles, if they are outside of your power, there is no reason to worry about them. If it would be too much trouble to liberate your kingdom, then simply do not worry and try to grow as used to your new life as possible. In the end, everything is the unconscious will of the Binary, which is utterly outside of your control.
On the other hand, Starism urged a fight against "evil", a concept that did not exist in Binaric. Whereas Binaric knew of no supernatural entities beside the so-named Binary, Starism provided for a number of gods and demons, including one that was predicted to come "within 100 rotations" (100 years)*.
*(At bottom of page) Smithos in fact arrived at least a century after this prediction, but it still helped pave the way for Starism to become the primary faith of the central Continent.
After Smithos' fall Binaric withered rapidly, and its last proponents spread to different corners of the continent and beyond, attempting to find a safe place to nurture the faith back to health again. It is unknown what happened to most of the branches— it can be assumed that the doctrine of detachment and meditation found little peace among the agitated and bloodthirsty.
Over the centuries all but one branch of Binaric died out. The last branch, the last seed, had planted itself into the only land peaceful and gentle enough to accept it without destroying it: the eastern Nimbus Land.
Binaric flourished there, combining itself with a similar mantra that pictured a universe of two substances, and reinvented Binaric into what we know it as today. In fact, the "Old Binaric" that I have been explaining the course of so far is left unknown to us… we only know for sure what Binaric is in the form that the Nimbi altered it.
Several attempts were made to re-introduce Binaric to the west, but time and again the people of the Koopa and Mushroom Kingdoms denied the need for the esoteric faith. (...)
With the Cataclysm, however, the faith has found ground again. Many, giving up hope, have placed themselves in the serene acceptance of Binaric and pray only that the Binary can achieve peace within itself and thereby bring salvation to the world.
Those who embrace it do seem to find peace. Many stay away from it, however, arguing that Binaric is damaging to life, that it is a faith of sitting idle and letting the world die away. It would be argued that Binaric is a nihilistic, destructive thought process that leads to nothingness.
And perhaps they would be right. But the Binarics would argue right back that there is nothing that can be done, so it's irrelevant anyway. (...)
It's a troubling, yet captivating argument.
— "Binaric and the Two Substances", The Fount, Eclair Wavel, Published 1504.
An excerpt from a letter from Roy Koopa to Lemmy Koopa…
First I wanna say that if this letter manages to reach you, I'm happy to let you know I'm alive, and that you're still out there too. (...)
As I understand it, we're the only two that made it out of that massacre six years ago, and it's a miracle we made it out at all. That bastard Canopus achieved quite the massacre, even if he didn't mean it. Little common idiot… I can only hope he was torn apart when the rule fell from his hands too.
Brother, as I have come to understand, you managed to reunite our land, didn't you? The Koopa Kingdom is on the edgeof existing again, thanks to all the battles you've won over there. I'm really proud of you… I remember when we were all little, playing together… well, you were always little, always the smallest. And now you're taking command of a grand army, taking back our land piece-by-piece. You've come a long way— once we've settled down, I think you'll make a great commander of our armies.
Let me tell you what I've been through… I managed to make it out of the Mushroom Kingdom before the Cataclysm, though back when that was all happening I didn't care so much whether I lived or died. I had lost the will to live, and was just walking until I fell for good… I assumed that I'd fall in the tundra, most likely in that creepy place right next to the Beanbean Kingdom, the Golgothic Range near the center of the Continent. The magic is bad up there… you remember the old stories Kamek used to tell us about those mountains near there being the center of the world, the source of the world's magic, where "pairalox" (Is that it?) energies tore apart the world and portals opened to other places, letting out big monsters. I could've sworn something there was following me in the mist…
But I made it, not eaten by a "Rancor" or swallowed by a portal. I made it over the border and was immediately captured by one of those hard-ass Beanbean agents. They knew exactly who I was… so they locked me up in a small cell and wouldn't tell me anything about what was happening in the outside world. I wouldn't have known at all about the Cataclysm if I hadn't seen the sky light up while I was on my journey… I knew something seriously bad had happened, just not what.
And there I stayed in that cell, for a couple of years. At first I was too mopey to notice the time going by, but when I began to get restless they simply gave me books. Books, Lem! You know I hated books, but reading was all I was allowed to do in that little room, so I read and read. They gave me whatever I wanted to read, and nothing else to do.
I don't know what exactly they had planned for me, but I never got a chance to find out. After about two years the Sarasan Revolution came knocking at my door— it was a full-on invasion of the Beanbean Kingdom, and political prisoners were being let loose.
The Sarasans recognized me too, but instead of throwing me in another jail cell they straight up recruited me into their army. I had nothing else to live for (or so I thought at the time), so I decided I might as well. They gave me a good position in their forces and good money, and I helped them clean up some last skirmishes on the edges of the Beanbean Kingdom and Subcon. Apparently, my arrival had been predicted by the Prophet, an advisor to Queen Daisy who had appeared in the country around the same time that I had.
I'm on my way home, brother. I'm leading my own army across the land, as a colonel now. The plan's to go through the Tribal Lands and then conquer the former Mushroom Kingdom. Once we're done with that, I'll be coming back to the Koopa Kingdom and take my place as king. I am eldest left in the family after all… I suggest you let the people know early on so that the transfer isn't too jarring when I take my rule. (...)
Stay alive, lil' brother. I'm coming home.
Colonel Roy Koopa, Sarasan Royal Army 2nd Division
—Roy Rosea Koopa, 1506
An excerpt from the notes of Kylie Koopa…
That so-called nimbi sage Jotaara stopped by again today for the first time in a year on his way back from Nimbus Land, begging for scraps like he used to in exchange for holy prayers and songs. That apprentice he had brought along with him last time was gone— Jotaara explained that the good apprentice had had a "profound awakening" at the temple in Nimbus Land, and that he would be studying for a few years.
I made sure to stop and tell the old man that what he said sounded like baloney, as usual. He just smiled at me and said he was happy to see me! What a kook. I laughed at him and he laughed along with me. I thought at first that he seemed sadder than before at the loss of his apprentice, but he's laughing more than ever! What's with that? (...)
On top of all this nonsense, prince Lemmy announced a banquet in honor of the guy! The sage's face lit up like a candelabrum at the sight of all that food! Instead of crumbs he got full cakes… See, I thought he woulda held back being a sacred, withholding sage and all that jazz, but he tore into everything! Well, alright, he wasn't eating that fast, but he ate a lot more than I expected…
The prince gave Jotaara the place of honor at the banquet right next to him, and the two talked the entire time. I wanted to sit near them and investigate what they were discussing, but I had already arranged to sit near the Sanctuary representative Meridia. She ended up being quite interesting anyway— it seems that the force that has traveled north for this "new nation" was much larger than I predicted (…)
Jotaara left after only two days, saying he was on another journey. I think more people are interested in what he says now, which is pretty strange. I still think the guy's a loony, what with all his weird songs and Binary and all that…
But I hafta say, it's pretty much impossible to not have a fondness for the guy.
—Kylie Koopa, 3/3/1505
An excerpt from a letter from Lukas Koden to an unknown receiver…
(…) The headaches are getting worse. They usually come two-to-three times a day now, sometimes more, very rarely less. I can expect during the most stressful moments of my work to be hit by a sudden wave of vertigo and be forced to sit down. The colonels and soldiers who meet with me take it as a sign of annoyance with them, despite my insistances that it is not. They do not listen, and continue to talk behind my back. I know many are still disgusted by a shie being general of the Sarasan army. Despite the success of our revolution, we injected ourselves into the very center of the systems we were so messily integrating between our revolution and the nation we were forced to accept, and have become the focus of an ire that heroes do not deserve (...)
I continually wonder if Colonel Koopa, the former prince Roy Koopa, is as mentally lacking as he appears, or if he is just playing some ingenious rube. His brother the prince Lemmy Koopa has naturally rebutted the idea of losing his place on the Koopa throne, and Colonel Koopa has responded by immediately sending another letter back explaining that he will take the throne by force if he must, using the superior might of the Sarasan Empire's forces…
Does Colonel Koopa really not realize that all of his letters are intercepted and read before being sent off? Perhaps he does know and he is refraining from speaking certain treasons so that he is not arrested…? (...)
Whatever the case, it seems he really does plan on invading the Koopa Kingdom with our forces. He has already made a request asking that a portion of the troops are borrowed, in return for a tighter economical alliance between Sarasaland and the Koopa Kingdom in a couple of years. Colonel Koopa does not seem to suspect for a moment that the injection of Sarasan forces into the Koopa Kingdom would only bring the land under our control even faster than it would have otherwise. Perhaps Colonel Koopa recognizes this and is planning far ahead so that he can be a figurehead of the Koopa Kingdom, rather than the south-charging colonel we had further planned him to be? (…)
My dreams have been getting worse lately as well. I keep having dreams of you… I can't write of them, they're wretched, and I don't know what they mean. I shudder (yes, even my husk of a form can still shudder) to even mention these horrible incidences to you, but ever since that night after Ophidia, you always insisted I tell you about these things… I will always do as you wish, until my death.
L.K.
P.S.: Let S know he's free to try what he will; I certainly can't stop him from here. He knows what he's doing is nothing but a suicide mission, and if he's made his peace with death then there's nothing more to it...All we can hope for in the end is to find something to die for.
— Lukas Koden, 1507
An excerpt from a letter from "Smilax" to an unknown receiver…
(…) About a year ago, met a sage on my travels. Know that people no longer believe in sages, but after the encounter feel certain in my heart that he is one of those that have found that enlightenment have been searching for.
Was heading along the north-eastern Southern Kingdom border, up against the Koopa Kingdom, to a city on the eastern shore which was said to be the most civilized place east of the Loop River. Had miscalculated the distance of the journey, however, and running fast out of water found rapidly dehydrating.
Friend: the Southern Mushroom Kingdom is so much more massive than its northern counterpart! There are also many more mountains, and the winding paths take the air out of a person.
When found had only a day left. Crawling as was, wouldn't have made it to what would have been the next watering hole in path: an oasis three days away. The sage, who could hardly see from weakness, picked up and took to a secret cave.
He saved life. Had drink some hot liquid and chanted something as regained strength. After a day of this, he prepared to leave, but begged him to stay and teach his ways. Felt like had found that purpose had been searching for, that meaning in life had never found in Ram! The sage was surprised at yearning, but agreed as the goal of his journey to his land was to teach his own lands faith…
It is called Binaric. It is a religion of peace, withdrawal, detachment, and meditation. It is a faith with age and complexity that Starism could not possibly hold a candle to. (...)
Its roots in fact lie in the Binary, the "god" that created our world, and the progenitor of Eldstar. Binary is an entity composed of two aspects, known generally as 0 and 1, otherwise known as the Nought and the One. The Nought represents destruction, while the One represents creation. Together, their essence creates existence and balances it.
Organisms and everything that we see merely "make up" the Binary. All live in sort-of a grand flow… think of the world not of being made of "things" or "subjects", but rather all "events". This letter you hold in your hands friend is not really a "letter"… it is "lettering", it is what you perceive as a piece of paper in the flow of an event...the event that will someday be the "paper's" rotting away. Just the same, you and those you know are just events as well, all parts of the greatest event known as the Binary.
Do you get it? The rules and restrictions of Starism do not really apply to us, they never have… You know those feelings of discontent we always had, like chains were wrapped all around us… well, they
never really existed, friend! We were tricked by others and subsequently tricked ourselves into believing that we were slaves to a master who never had any real authority! Eldstar and the other Star Spirits, as little creations of the Binary, mean ultimately nothing! The idea of their rule was a ruse created by priests greedy for authority!
The Binary itself demands no respect, for it already is what it is. It recognizes the difficulties of the system it has put us within, and asks no further tax than to exist. The Binary is a true benevolence.
Remember what you thought about Hell? What a horrible idea it was? Under Binary there is no Heaven, no Hell, only this world and the Grand Peace. Death only means resurrection! In Starism we were taught that only demons resurrected, and only into weaker, less harmful forms with every cycle. But in Binaric, every living being never really dies...we are brought back to this world again and again, in better, happier lives.
There is not a single aspect of Binaric that does not fill with a greater sense of hope than Starism ever provided. Am embarking now on a spiritual journey to Nimbus Land in order to see the original Binaric texts. The sage who saved, a man named Jotaara Svarggupt, is laying aside his mission in order to teach. Am honored beyond belief…
Not sure when be returning to Ram now, but it'll be at least a year. When come back, have good news.
Protect the village, and make sure no one leaves until return. Once reveal the holy teachings, we won't need to hide anymore.
Smilax
P.S.: Please excuse the hasty removals of the references to the illusion of my own existence— the temptation overcame me, but (I) must not believe in self.
—"Smilax", 1502
From the Royal Sarasaland Archives, Crime Vault…
Look, I was a part of this machine for a long time. I thought I knew it, understood it pretty well, I think I deserved to have that feeling. I felt like an arm, a strong arm, one that the nation could rely on and that was trusted with special tasks. I never could have known how horribly everything could go…
It started with the revolution enacted by that little bastard Koden! That little fucker!This is all his fault! All of it, really, when you get right down to the bottom of it all… We should've concentrated everything on him right from the beginning, then none of this… it wouldn't have happened.
But I have to steady myself. It did happen… all of it, like some nightmare that wouldn't end. The revolution started, and good people began to die. When the little minorities wanted rights… that was the end. They invaded our land and then they took it over and they put US in chains…
But, but before that. Before that we were all meeting, in the council, trying to figure out what to do about these rebels. There were five of us, and we were the government, the law. It was us, we were the government, and one of us, the executive head, he said he had ties to "Queen Daisy". He acted as her representative in the council, and as had been the tradition for the last sixty or so years I think, the political presence of "Daisy" was a constant.
Now… I don't know if I really believed in her or not. I don't think it mattered to me, really. I just did my duty, I served my nation the way I saw fit, even as my position was being taken from me… and it didn't matter if there really was some crazy crone named Daisy who stayed in a black room somewhere and only showed her existence by the wounds that Teodoro always brought back all over himself. I think most of us thought he had done it to himself, really.
And, and Daisy didn't usually want anything. She'd give out the occasional mad order which we'd enact because whatever...we were just having fun with this. If "she" wanted a village burned down, so what? We all felt some camaraderie for Teodoro, so it was also a bit of a way to thank him for guiding us all, for being here longer than us. He was crazy, to really believe in this "Daisy" that he was serving, so we knew we'd have to take him out of commission sooner or later…
But then, next thing we knew, Koden stormed the capital! It was like lightning— one moment that little nothing was stirring up trouble in Birabuto, and the next, he was overthrowing us, taking our power. I was tossed into a prison...the others died in one way or another, or were thrown in other cells. Teodoro was forced to show the rebels "Daisy"…
I was let out eventually to work as something little more than a slave. A slave!
And then, and then, that "Prophet" came! He came with lies, and he claimed to know things about Daisy! And, by this point, Koden had met Daisy as well, and they all believed in her! They all believed in this Daisy! So the Prophet passed some test, and he was taken to meet Daisy as well! And that's how she got that funny idea in her head about taking that field of flames that was the Mushroom Kingdom...
So now, there was this whole little group, this whole little cult, built up around by this woman who couldn't possibly have existed! I had never met her! How could she be real? How could she be real?
But then— BUT THEN— I had nothing to do with it anymore, and I shouldn't have, but I wanted to see her! I wanted to see this "Daisy". I didn't believe it, I didn't believe this conspiracy. Everyone was trying to trick me! I knew it! But…
But I didn't find her… I found the Prophet instead! He is...a human. And he is a lie too! The people of Sarasaland are being tricked...by this Prophet. I don't think he believes in anything… certainly not the teachings he espouses. He is a lie, and he is an enemy! I tried to tell, but no one would listen! I think they already love him! He only just came here, but his influence…
They threw me in a cell again, but I think they forogt about me.
It's all lies! Everyone is being tricked, even me, even now. I tried my hardest, but I never could get anywhere…
I tried as hard as I could. Doesn't that count for anything?
—From the scrawlings of Pand Wingetstein, 1501
/A/N/: I am pleased to announce that the rough draft of Part 2 of the story is finally complete! It will go through a quick editing process and I will begin to lay out the schedule for the release of the final chapters. In summation, I can virtually guarantee that the story will be completely uploaded by the end of this year. Thank you all for your magnanimous patience.
