01 - the Conception of Merlin

I am Merlinus-Aliogenos.Merlinus son of Medocius of Caledonia, but once I was Merlin son of Moricantus, but my true father was an ancient spirit known to men by many names, you know him as Lucifer. I imagine that the inhabitants of the underworld must have held council, for the old religion was dying and new gods had come and demanded to be worshipped by man and to forget the old gods, but who was this Christian god who had begotten the god-man Jesus Christ who had brought this new faith to mankind? Not a few of the old Gods suspected one of their own to hide behind the new name, was it Saturn, Father of Time? Was it Wodan, Allfather in one of his numerous disguises? Was it the highest and greatest Jupiter who now sought sole power? One of his sons, Apollo or Dionysus who wanted to overthrow the father? Or even the old sky god Caelus who had returned to snatch his kingdom from his grandchildren? So they quarreled terribly among themselves when Lucifer came forth, the old father of the queen Hellia, son of Eostre, the goddess of sunrise, mocking the quarreling gods and their eternal disagreement. If the new god had created a man-son for himself and now the peoples of the earth were falling away from the old gods... why not do the same and create a man-son to fight his work and to strengthen the old religion again? One had done this before, but never all-together and entrusted with such a task. And so it came that an old spirit was chosen to be reborn as a man and I was created to be the new chosen Antichrist. Lucifer had already chosen a tool... In Britannia at that time there lived a young girl named Optima, a daughter of the Silurian king Mauricus, whose soul was particularly kind-hearted and pure. Lucifer had already afflicted her family earlier, because Mauricus had been a very Christian and pious man and so my father hit him with all the misfortune that was possible for him. His small kingdom, Ariconia which lay around the town of Tovius was overrun by the Demetii, my grandfather had to flee with his family into exile to Leucodunum, with only a few belongings and goods and even these Lucifer made perish by plague.he tormented my grandfather himself with nightly demons until he fell victim to madness.

In their distress, Mauricus's family sought help from a famous man named Placidus, once a disciple of the Druid order, but now a devout baptized man and head of a house of pious people in the city of Moridunum. But all attempts by Placidus to banish Lucifer's demons from Mauricus's body failed. Mauricus strangled his young son, the innocent Cadugaunus, in his sleep, and when his daughter Aurelia became pregnant out of wedlock, he buried her alive. Mauricus's surviving daughters Honoria and Optima fled from their mad father and lived in poverty and wandering until they came to Moridunum, where they found shelter in the Christian community of the wise man Placidus. The men of this community called themselves "the solitary Ones" and the women "Brides of Christ" they dressed themselves in the garments of the poor and prayed and cared for those in need. My mother Optima lived in this community and decided to become a bride of Christ herself, but my aunt Honoria could not find peace there. There she found an older woman named Gersovelia who took her in and made her her pupil. With sweet words and false friendship she educated her to become a "Meretrix", a professional harlot and common woman who slept with wealthy men for money and served them with her body at riotous feasts. There she finally met Moricantus, the illegitimate son of King Viriatus of Eboracum, who led a lawless and unchristian life there with similar-minded companions and lived with her new comrades in prosperity and oblivion into the day. By this time Lucifer had long since taken possession of Moricantus and was driving the group to ever new misdeeds and dangerous feats.One evening, as I remember it was winter, they decided to break into the guesthouse of the Brides of Christ in a drunken stupor and search for Optima, under the pretext that her sister was looking for her help.Oh I know their names! They were Honoria and the prostitutes Telaria and Palatra and Moricantus and the pimp Oitoradus, whom Moricantus stabbed in a fight that night! I will not describe in detail what else happened that night, but I know that my mother Optima fled out into the snow and the dark woods and wanted to die, but she was not destined to do so. Placidus found her and took her to his hermitage and nursed her back to health, and after some time it turned out that she was expecting a child, me, the unfortunate fruit of Moricantus and through him Lucifer.