The Tale Of Modrin's Tower - SCP Foundation

The Tale Of Modrin's Tower

Byㅤ Dr Leonerd

Published on 12 Mar 2024 10:49

The Tale of Modrin's Tower

The works of man may perish, but those of the gods persist.

Before the blanket of interminable night was thrust upon creation and all her wretched brood unchained, there lived a renowned craftsman by the name of Modrin. Now, Modrin was regarded as the finest architect in the Principalities and Kingdoms of Yore, designing all things from palaces to prisons with unrivalled expertise.

Beyond brick and mortar, Modrin was deeply devoted to his wife, the seraphic and soft-spoken Kabasti, who died from cruel and silent fever just three years into their marriage, bearing him no children. Overcome with grief from the loss of his beloved, Modrin razed the fabulous manor he had designed for them to the ground. As he mournfully watched those great plumes of smoke rise and settle into the upper echelons of aether, the architect was struck with an idea.

So it was that Modrin retired from public life, departing the civilized lands for a distant nameless plateau that no men called home. It was here that Modrin took upon a new task, one that would prove the most daring and ambitious of his eminent career: to build a stair tower of such height that it pierced the heavens themselves. This would, the craftsman supposed, allow him to rescue his darling Kabasti from the clutches of death, and return triumphant with her in his arms to the safety of the mortal realm.

Modrin worked alone on this endeavor, for he knew that that if others caught wind of his plans, they too might seek access to the spire with aspirations of retrieving their own dear departed. For many years the architect toiled in isolation all day every day, the loneliness he felt only strengthening his resolve. By the time the great stair tower had usurped the nethermost clouds, Modrin's masterpiece was nearing its completion, and it was then that the gods did take notice of his handiwork.

Infuriated that Modrin would dare encroach the sanctity of the celestial kingdom, the storm lord Hiboran sent six thunderbolts to crumble the Tower, reducing it to mere ash and embers. The spire's smoldering remnants were then cast unceremoniously across the night sky, forming a lambent scar upon the welkin's face that endures to this day, and serves as a perpetual reminder to meddlesome mortals of the price of blasphemy.

As for the architect himself, Modrin was condemned never to die, but like so many heathens before him was instead cursed to wander the earth until the earth is no more. What is perhaps most tragic about Modrin's fate is that had he never conceived of the Tower, he would in little time have found himself reunited with Kabasti in the bright and starry pastures of the Hereafter; yet because of his own hubris and defiance this is never to be.

Thus ends the tale of Modrin's Tower.

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