Archive of Sorrow

The **Archive of Sorrow** are a compendium of the Daughter's history, written by the Pale Maiden, stretching back before the dawn of the Ekuei when she lived as a mortal on a distant world, before she rose up and became a being of god-like intent.

## I: Dangers

*Verse 1:1 — Dangers*

Dangers and Menaces —

Carved by Nin Xel —

Second surviving sister of father's last generation —

The Beastwave. A beastwave is a flood of beasts, all that crawls, creeps and slithers, different and their forms moving from one to another. They are born from the earth, given life and then pour out to feast and eat.

The Den-Mothers. Giant sessile things that live deep below. They live very long lives and spawn many broods of ugly things. My sister says that they were like us once, but made anew by something powerful and that that their offspring are those of the Beastwaves.

The Obsidian Court. Their are other lands. The Obsidian Court is near us. They are of our kind, but they are our enemies. They raid us almost every day. They have two legs, two arms, and two eyes, just like us. But they are evil. I want to be a warrior and fight them!

The Obsidian Court ambassador took some of my siblings as tribute. This is normal. However, I still hate it and miss them greatly.

Earthshakes. The ground is sometimes unstable, holes and fissures rip open easily. People and even entire villages can be swallowed up, never to be seen again.

Mysteries. The world is very large. We are the smallest things in it. If you don’t understand something, it will kill you.

## II: The Hateful Oath

*Verse 1:2 — The Hateful Oath*

Written in grief,

This sealed oath,

I am Ildusse, eldest daughter of my family's last generation.

We have been betrayed. Our king lies dead, the Obsidian Court has invaded and taken the kingdom.

They came in the nighttime, father and mother died quickly. We ran! We ran as fast as we could as they burnt our home.

Over the Twilfell Mountains, we crossed over. We lost many, so many. Rase Acal bled from his wounds, Lylgro fell and did not survive, Cosu and Faire vanished.

I and Nin Xel are all that remains.

Through blood and pain is the pact made, speak it.

“I am Nin Xel, youngest daughter of our line. I will take back our land and kill the traitors. On my life I swear vengeance.”

In blood it is made.

Now...

“I will help make your oath, sister.”

I am Ildusse, eldest daughter. I will chase after the knowledge. I will know what powers be at work and know why.

“In blood it is made."

“In blood and pain.”

Thank you, sister. We have only to cross these jagged peaks of mountains.

## III: The Refuge and Calling

*Verse 1:3 — The Refuge and Calling*

We have found shelter from the bitter wind. A deep crevice, hollowed by the elements. As darkness falls, I look out and ponder.

We may never see our homeland again. My sister seethes with hate and fury for the fate of our kin.

But this is not my deepest fear —

We are not alone...

When I’m paralyzed by fear, she sits close to me and comforts me with soft, brave words. But this time, it was strange.

There is a calling from the depths; a rumble drone that sings to me at night. I've started keeping a knife near. The call is loudest against the walls. How can I make Nin hear what I have heard? We need too be ready for whatever is coming...

## IV: The Den

*Verse 1:4 — The Den*

They came. The beasts, so many. Pale skinny things, slithering serpents with gelatinous skin, terrible creatures of gnashing teeth and bone, crawling terrors that never stop twitching and all other horrid monsters.

The sound of the crashing wall woke us first, then their filthy forms wiggled out from the hole in the darkness.

Nin was quick. She drew her knife and cut three of them down as they rushed for her.

I was slow, but I stayed my place. As more squirming forms slowly moving out from the dark depths of the hole. There were just too many!

My dear sister fought bravely. I turned my back and what followed was a cry. I turned as the creatures were dragging her towards where they have come from. They will not have her!

I picked her knife from the rock and slashed through a torrent of flesh and black blood. To reach my last kin.

I...I was too late. I climbed through the hole and followed after through a long path bored through rock and stone. Past the decaying carcasses of past victims of these foul creatures. I nearly tripped on old bones but I did not matter...only Nin...only Nin...

I dove deeper and deeper. Meeting more dreadful monsters, long-toothed mouths flying on leathery wings, slimy worms made out of a series of crackling knobby tumors and towering creatures with snapping beaks. I cut them when ever they came close.

Stumbling over broke rocks and into a chamber. And there was Nin on the floor looming over us, is a Den-Mother, its brow beyond that we imaged. The twisted behemoth's tendrils weaved back and forth, it's toothed maw crackled as it it launched a tendril and plucked Nin from me.

My legs and arms wouldn't move, my entire body froze and I closed my eyes. To the sound of tearing flesh and cracking bones, my sister was devoured by the cancerous mass of filth. I thought of nothing but despair and loss. I failed...we had failed.

As the den-mother closed in after feasting on on her sister, booming in the chamber like the crackle of thunder and as the earth shook was a microwave voice.

++YOU MUST FIGHT—

—SAVE YOURSELF++

++AVENGE YOURSELF—

—FIGHT AND SURVIVE++

## V: Mother

*Verse 1:5— Mother*

The Mother's Warning

++We live on the edge of a great conflict—

—a war between us and them++

++between the Old and the New—

++MY EYES ARE WIDE, MY GAZE IS LONG AND EVER WATCHFUL++

—Across the world, as far as I see++

++the Old seeks to charge its works—

—and the New seeks to subvert the work++

—Old builds gentle places, safe for life++

++Beloved world, refuge of trillions—

—The divine treasures this rich place++

—BUT THE NEW REJECTS US—

++Dark logic tests our walls—

—The New claims its dominion++

++A ruthless, final age of slavery—

My Protest

Old One, creature of myth, this world is no refuge. We live short, hard lives. We die in the dark. Above us there is only death, monsters, and betrayal. Lend me, some power to avenge ourselves upon our betrayers, some hope of justice.

The Mother's Cry

—The power calls you++

++Power of us?—

++Your instinct draws you—

—Away from false hope?++

—Quick-dying child, I tell you++

++For eons I have watched your struggle—

—Clinging to the sharp edge of survival++

++Balanced between the Old and the New.—

++You were my treasure—

—My proof against despair++

—FOR THIS IS THE NEW CLAIM—

++Existence is the struggle to exist—

—When this struggle seems lost++

++when the safe place crumbles away—

—everything turns to the New to survive++

++REJECT THE NEW CLAIM++

—You will embrace me, sweet daughter of hope.±±

++You will choose the Old instead.—

Another Protest

You are powerful and ancient! My peoples are short and desperate. If that’s the way the world’s supposed to be, I won’t have it! Lend me power, so I will change my fate and all others!

The Mothers Dirge

++This fatal logic++

—Hear my wise scream!—

++It is unwise++

—Before you lies—

++The worship of life and death++

—The path of the earth—

++I build new life++

—Against the onset of ruin—

++Towards a vibrant world++

—The New embraces chaos—

++Saying: this is inevitable and right++

—I exist as hungry mother, as my daughters—

++TURN BACK FROM OR SUBMIT++

++The Old is the harder way. But it is kinder.++

—My charge is balanced: my voice exhausted.—

—Submit to the hunger: Take a bite of true freedom—

## VI: The Gift

*Verse 1:6 — The Gift*

Silence...Doubt...and then I nodded...At that time. My body burned, I felt like I would be consumed by it, my flesh blazing with the heat of a furnace. The otherworldly glow of shimmering pink and purple touched around my body, The den-mother swung a mighty tendril and split my body asunder.

IIdusse's body exploded under the impact of such blunt force, and the cry of release was a shrieking birth scream. An explosion of pure force ripped from her destroyed flesh, filling the den chamber with a blinding light that was too bright to look upon. Through stilted fingers and shimmering reflections, the perplexed den-mother bore witness to something magnificent and terrible, an agonizing death and violent birth combined. A figure floated in the midst of the light, It was IIdusse, naked and pristine. The den-mother leaned back in fear as the newly empowered IIdusse raised lifted her hands up and came down with the den-mother's upper half sliding down and crashing to the ground into a mash of flesh, blood and viscera.

The feeling...was oddly satisfying.

## VII: Immortal

*Verse 1:7 — Immortal*

Out of the dark. Out of the deep did I rise from the earth. Stone-teeth bite my feet yet I do not bleed, as light breaks from the sky. My eyes burn, my body stings. Bone and flesh, skin and blood.

My world has changed. I am now more, I am more then I once was. I feel GREAT! I feel IMMORTAL!

Yes. I feel it...I feel immortality, a gift of my rebirth. Yet I feel something else...I feel the wind...calling to me...calling for me to follow...I must follow the wind.