ﻪ Tell me a story ﻫ
"This is a story of loyalty and betrayal. A story of power, and the price that was paid for that power. For power always comes at a price, and great power comes at a great price.
"Once, long ago in the ancient land of Egypt there was a Book. This Book held the secrets of a great power, but the power that it held was a power of darkness and not safe to use. So the pharaohs kept it hidden away, and sent those who held the knowledge of the Book into hiding. They were a secret order of priests, who lived to serve the pharaoh by guarding the secret knowledge, keeping it hidden from those who would use it for evil, but still there, its secrets plumbed for the Pharaoh's use in a future time when it would be needed.
"And so they were forgotten, as it was meant to be, and found that serving the pharaoh left them no time for anything else. So they turned to thievery to keep themselves fed, but still they studied the Book's secrets, hoping to find a way for them to be used without corrupting the user. This was the way things had been from time immemorial, and only the scholars in the hidden temple remembered what had happened, keeping the story alive by telling it to their children, as it was written on the walls of the temple.
"But one priest, one of the Pharaoh's chosen six, learned of them, as it was never meant to be. For when one knows something others learn of it. None other learned as much as this one, who actually found the Book where it was hidden in the Pharaoh's great palace but others did learn of it. And so the enemies of the Pharaoh descended upon him, demanding the Book. And the priest took advantage of this to go to the Pharaoh. He said then that he knew of one way to save Egypt from being overrun by its enemies. He would create seven items of power, one for each of the priests and another for the Pharaoh himself. All he asked was that he be given the authority to act upon that knowledge.
"The Pharaoh agreed of course. How could he do otherwise when the fate of the entire kingdom rested upon his shoulders? He would have done anything to protect his people. So the priest was given authority to do as he wished, and he, with the other six of the pharaoh's most trusted priests, left.
"The spell that he had uncovered would indeed do what he had said. Seven items would be created, each of which would hold unimaginable power. But that power had a price. To appease the gods a great sacrifice had to be offered, a sacrifice to the gods of both light and darkness. The sacrifice needed was a sacrifice of ninety-nine people.
"'Who better,' thought the corrupt priest, 'to sacrifice than the priests of the hidden temple? No other man knows what they are. They are seen as a menace to society, and if they are destroyed there will be none to reveal what it is I have done.'
"As he had decided so it was done. The sacrifice was made. It was a massacre, a bloodbath, led by the Pharaoh's own soldiers, who believed that what they were doing was right. According to the ritual the bodies were not given a proper burial, nor even left to lie where they had fallen, but were gathered and melted down to form the magical items. The magic of the ritual transformed the unholy mixture of flesh and bone into pure gold, outwardly untainted by the darkness of its origin.
"This gold was poured into the places waiting to receive it in the sacred place, the heart of the temple hidden below the earth. For it had been decided that one day, when their numbers had grown, ninety-nine priests would sacrifice themselves to forge items for their Pharaoh. These items, born out of the pure self-sacrifice of those priests would have created items that would work for good, and whose healing influence would have cleansed the land.
"The items that where formed out of this unholy ritual, this scene of carnage and terror, worked their magic, twisting the priest still further, and doing their best to do the same to the others. The five other priests, however, were horrified to see what they had made, and the items power was contained for a time, as they struggled against their evil influence.
"But the crisis that had caused the making of these items was still threatening the country, and the priests had to hurry back to the palace, where the corrupt one proclaimed the success of their mission. The last item was given to the Pharaoh, and together the items were used to push back their enemies. Power corrupts, and the power given to the priests corrupted them, winning all the more easily for the evil which they had accepted, despite their understanding. Their decision to ignore it was unwise, for evil ignored is evil given time to flourish and grow.
"This is the story of the Book, the Priest, and his creations. The Items. It is for those Items, that great power, that evil force, that countless wars have been fought. For such tainted things countless lives have been destroyed. And still the souls of the ninety-nine remain inside the gold, trapped in their transmuted flesh. Forever to live in darkness, a perpetual half-life in which sanity is eroded, and the remains of their humanity is stripped from them. And still they linger, unable to escape the horror of their fate. That is the true story of the glorious Items."
Ûµ Tell me a storyÛµ
"This is a story of loyalty and betrayal. A story of power, and the price that was paid for that power. For power always comes at a price, and great power comes at a great price.
"Once, long ago in the ancient land of Egypt there was a Book. This Book held the secrets of a great power, but the power that it held was a power of darkness and not safe to use. So the pharaohs kept it hidden away, and sent those who held the knowledge of the Book into hiding. They were a secret order of priests, who lived to serve the pharaoh by guarding the secret knowledge, keeping it hidden from those who would use it for evil, but still there, its secrets plumbed for the Pharaoh's use in a future time when it would be needed.
"And so they were forgotten, as it was meant to be, and found that serving the pharaoh left them no time for anything else. So they turned to thievery to keep themselves fed, but still they studied the Book's secrets, hoping to find a way for them to be used without corrupting the user. This was the way things had been from time immemorial, and only the scholars in the hidden temple remembered what had happened, keeping the story alive by telling it to their children, as it was written on the walls of the temple.
"But one priest, one of the Pharaoh's chosen six, learned of them, as it was never meant to be. For when one knows something others learn of it. None other learned as much as this one, who actually found the Book where it was hidden in the Pharaoh's great palace but others did learn of it. And so the enemies of the Pharaoh descended upon him, demanding the Book. And the priest took advantage of this to go to the Pharaoh. He said then that he knew of one way to save Egypt from being overrun by its enemies. He would create seven items of power, one for each of the priests and another for the Pharaoh himself. All he asked was that he be given the authority to act upon that knowledge.
"The Pharaoh agreed of course. How could he do otherwise when the fate of the entire kingdom rested upon his shoulders? He would have done anything to protect his people. So the priest was given authority to do as he wished, and he, with the other six of the pharaoh's most trusted priests, left.
"The spell that he had uncovered would indeed do what he had said. Seven items would be created, each of which would hold unimaginable power. But that power had a price. To appease the gods a great sacrifice had to be offered, a sacrifice to the gods of both light and darkness. The sacrifice needed was a sacrifice of ninety-nine people.
"'Who better,' thought the corrupt priest, 'to sacrifice than the priests of the hidden temple? No other man knows what they are. They are seen as a menace to society, and if they are destroyed there will be none to reveal what it is I have done.'
"As he had decided so it was done. The sacrifice was made. It was a massacre, a bloodbath, led by the Pharaoh's own soldiers, who believed that what they were doing was right. According to the ritual the bodies were not given a proper burial, nor even left to lie where they had fallen, but were gathered and melted down to form the magical items. The magic of the ritual transformed the unholy mixture of flesh and bone into pure gold, outwardly untainted by the darkness of its origin.
"This gold was poured into the places waiting to receive it in the sacred place, the heart of the temple hidden below the earth. For it had been decided that one day, when their numbers had grown, ninety-nine priests would sacrifice themselves to forge items for their Pharaoh. These items, born out of the pure self-sacrifice of those priests would have created items that would work for good, and whose healing influence would have cleansed the land.
"The items that where formed out of this unholy ritual, this scene of carnage and terror, worked their magic, twisting the priest still further, and doing their best to do the same to the others. The five other priests, however, were horrified to see what they had made, and the items power was contained for a time, as they struggled against their evil influence.
"But the crisis that had caused the making of these items was still threatening the country, and the priests had to hurry back to the palace, where the corrupt one proclaimed the success of their mission. The last item was given to the Pharaoh, and together the items were used to push back their enemies. Power corrupts, and the power given to the priests corrupted them, winning all the more easily for the evil which they had accepted, despite their understanding. Their decision to ignore it was unwise, for evil ignored is evil given time to flourish and grow.
"This is the story of the Book, the Priest, and his creations. The Items. It is for those Items, that great power, that evil force, that countless wars have been fought. For such tainted things countless lives have been destroyed. And still the souls of the ninety-nine remain inside the gold, trapped in their transmuted flesh. Forever to live in darkness, a perpetual half-life in which sanity is eroded, and the remains of their humanity is stripped from them. And still they linger, unable to escape the horror of their fate. That is the true story of the glorious Items."
Ûµ Tell me a storyÛµ