The Library

## The Book in the Hall

“A boy in search of knowledge, as clueless as can be.

He searched the East, the South, the North, but nowhere he could see.

At last he searched the West, and there it was in glee.

A prize below the jungle, the hidden library.”

## Ode to Elysium

O, great Elysium. Wherein no devils could lie, wherein angels could soar untainted.

O, great Elysium. Lost in thy clouds, a magnificent heavenly kingdom for gods to walk among us.

O, great Elysium. Praise be thy gods, whomst protected us from harm and spread thy purity to other realms.

Whomst fought back the darkness that encroached unbidden, with certain Malice.

Whomst created a Nexus, O so grand, to purify the realm by which the Malice came.

Whomst with the words, “Begone, To Light.” sacrificed themselves fourfold to save the world.

Whomst sacrificed thy great Elysium in whole.

Whomst sacrificed Us.

O, great Elysium. T’was an honor to be blinded by thy.

## The Calamity

The meteors were the first sign that something was amiss. They were rare, appearing out of the sky without warning, but deadly. Fiery balls of light would descend at frightening speed, creating massive craters that left scars on the land. Many were molten, made of blackened rock from their violent descent, but some were different. Some of them exploded into patches of flora. Others killed the life around it, like a blight upon the land. Rarer still were there some that left evidence of lifeforms, as if someone... or something had fallen from the sky. The natives were understandably terrified.

The meteors were the first sign, but not the last. Not soon after, the very air began to warp with foreign energies. Magic leaked into the overworld slowly, but it was not unnoticed. It could not go unnoticed as spiders grew to the size of ponies and bones began to reanimate themselves in the darkness. Some took it with grace, furthering science with potions and enchantments, while others cowered, foreseeing devastation with every new discovery.

And devastation it was, before long. The meteor showers only worsened as the very sky turned red with rage and the ground began to shake like a live thing. Unexplainable phenomena passed through the land with an unforgiving hand: hurricanes, acid rain, forest fires. Entire civilizations were decimated, millennia of knowledge lost to the whipping winds. The scarce few natives that did survive could do no more than weep as their lives went up in smoke. They could do no more than go underground, and pray that their world would be more hospitable when they came back up for air.

When they did, so many years later, they would find that their world had become much different without them in it. That without its natives, other beings had begun to flourish atop the scarred earth.

## The Clash of Gods

It was said that gods looked upon this land. Once, we believed that their watchful gazes protected us, kept us safe from harm. I believed it once, but I know that not to be true now. The gods have forsaken us, left us to suffer our cruel fates. The Calamity was no accident, no. The Calamity was a Clash of Gods. Of entities much greater than us, locked in a war where the casualties are entire worlds. Our worlds. And now that the war is done? We are Godless. The final casualties were the gods themselves, their memories scarcely remembered by their worshippers, who they left for dead in the grand war.

And who will I be remembered as? Just a disbeliever, lost to time.

## The Watcher

The Watcher began as just that, a watcher. It was no god, but no mortal. Just a watcher of our solitary dimension. It lived in our soil, our air, our hearts. We welcomed it, for it held no malice for us. It Watched, and it kept us safe. We were happy, we were Eternal in our peace, isolated from otherworldly concerns. A realm without an End.

Until we became it, until the Tear. We don’t know when or where the Tear came to be, just that it did. Our Gods created the Watcher to protect, to engulf our world in its safe cocoon. But unbeknownst to us or them, they created the Watcher to be Hungry. And when the Watcher slipped through the Tear and tasted another world for the first time, it could not help but become insatiable. It was created to protect and to grow, but the Watcher did not know the difference. To protect, it had to grow, so it engulfed this new world without hesitation. But when its inhabitants screamed and protested, the Watcher did not understand. They were safe now, the Watcher would never let them hurt. So it engulfed their minds too, made them learn its purpose.

When the realm of Light caught wind of the Watcher’s conquest, they wasted little time declaring war, attacking back. They did not understand the Watcher like we did. They did not understand that the Watcher only wanted to protect, and knew no other way. The Watcher was not evil, we knew, but as the pantheon of Light attacked it like it was, the Watcher learned. It learned that it was the enemy, that it was unloved for its efforts.

And when our home – the first world the Watcher vowed to protect – was destroyed, blighted by the Light, the Watcher became the Corruption. And the Corruption learned rage.

## Another Book from the High Priest

[A dusty notebook written in the familiar scrawled hand of the High Priest, unrefined unlike the precise print of the rest of the library’s books.]

### Entry 1

I have been here for days, reading until my eyes bleed. But it is worth it. I believe I understand now. The Dark Taint – The Corruption – The Watcher. They are all one and the same. I understand its origins, and I know I am close to understanding the way to defeat it.

### Entry 2

Katharos is of Elysium, of that I am sure. Based on my studies, the realm seems to be long gone… something about a sacrifice. It explains why He is so weak now. How He survived at all is a miracle. I can only be grateful He is still here to guide me.

### Entry 3

A Nexus… surely the recurrent use of that word is not a random one. Perhaps a ritual component of sorts. I must research more.

### Entry 4

A vision from my Lord! My research surely has paid off. Since that day, I have only been trying to regain His attention, to prove my worth. At last, I bask in His glory again. He shows me visions of a grand floating contraption… the Nexus. I was right to assume it was a ritual component… Or perhaps, *the* ritual component. At His behest, I will begin trials at once, in secret. And I know just where to do them.

### Entry 5

I found the cavern when I was but a boy, traversing places he shouldn’t be as all children do. It was an oasis of beauty, hidden within a mountain that for all other purposes was as plain as the next. If it is still standing, it should be nearly 6200 units east of the colony that my journey began at. Katharos, I will not fail you now.