The Night at the Shrine

""*Τούτη ἡ περιοχή, ἐνὼ εἰς ἡμέρας πρὸ πολλοῦ χαμένας εἰς τὰς ἀέναας μελῳδίας τοῦ ἀπατηλοῦ Χρόνου ἐπίγειος παράδεισος κρυστάλλινοις, πεντακάθαροις τοῖς ὕδασι ἦτο, πλέον βουεῖ παρουσίᾳ τῶν ἀμέτρητων ἐγκαταστάσεων πετρελαίου, ναυπηγικῶν κατασκευῶν, μὰ καὶ βάσεως διυλιστηρίων. ῾Ο αἰθὴρ ἐστὶ σκωρίᾳ γεμάτος, σωματιδίοις δηλητηριώδοις καὶ οὐσιοῖς, οἷες ἰκανὲς εἰσὶ νὰ προκαλέσωσι παραζάλη, μὰ καὶ παραισθήσεις σὲ πάντες ἀνθρώπους οἳ δίχως προφύλαξην θὰ ἔλθωσιν εἰς τὰς πλαγιάς της.*""

The Night at the Shrine was a 5- part story outside The Vuori Chronicles canon and the Eli Tales, set at the plains of the southern-western Vuori parts near Aspropyrgos and Skaramagas. The story heavily relied on the Other Side areas and the hidden district of Afaia Skaramagas.

The story marked a shift in the language of the Vuori stories, being written entirely in the Katharevousa dialect of the Greek Language.

*Word Count*: 6832

## Release

The Night at the Shrine was released on November 19, 2019, after a rather intensive study and revision of the ancient, refined forms of the dead Katharevousa dialect.

## Plot

The story begins with an excursion of two friends, Konstantinos and Agisilaos, at the plains of Skaramagas and Aspropyrgos towards Lake Reiton or Koumoundourou, where they are shocked to discover, amidst the fumes and toxic ethers from the Refinery industries, dumped body parts floating at the heavily polluted waters of the lake. They bypass the church of the Holy Savior shortly before, and finally stumble upon the fences of Ksirogianni Army Field, as they hear the distant baying of hounds. Not knowing whence or why they are coming, they assume they are being pursued, as to matters related to the human bodies at the lake, and therefore seek refuge at an abandoned tunnel towards Kaskantami.

In the darkness of the abandoned tunnel, the two discover a bunch of crushed church icon remains, satanic drawings and cabalistic artwork, followed by another room filled with pagan, dodecatheistic symbols and idols. Amongst others, they notice Athena's owl and an eidolon of Venus, much to their horror and disturbance.

Once they are out of the tunnel, evenfall has arrived and they take up cover at the groves of trees above a small shrine dedicated to the goddess Venus at a district called Afaia. The inhabitants are rude and distant, and an old lady refuses to grant them help, while shadows of a half-naked Old man swirl around them in the dark trees. Spooked, they observe a bunch of people dressed in cloaks and ancient Greek garments, vilifying the space and engaging in inappropriate acts as they are chanting ancient rhythms. They eventually hear the baying of the dogs once more, realizing they have been used as a bait for the Old Man to fall right into the trap of their shrine, and be led to a catafalque where he is to be sacrificed to the goddess. Panicked out of proportion, Konstantinos tosses a boulder onto the executor , effectively granting the Old Man time to escape. However, the old lady from earlier rats out the location of the two friends, who are consequently driven to the altar instead.

Later on, and embittered about the Old Man's lack of help and disappearance, the two friends prepare to die at the hands of the idolatry clan. However, in the nick of time, a huge tractor-like van crushes into the gates of the shrine, runs over most of the cult's members and reveals the Old Man inside. Granting the friends muskets, rifles and knives, the trio takes out most of the cult, but Diogenes, the Old Man, goes on to chase the panicked masses trying to escape the shrine all the way to the tunnels, to which he sets fire, along with all the amulets and statuettes of the cult. Maddened now, he claims he was always society's outcast and considered a mad man for seeing the murderous acts behind their paganist façade, and therefore is convinced he needs to end the hypocrisy characterizing the entire district by slaughtering all stray souls he finds.

Konstantinos and Agisilaos try to get him to enter the vehicle and leave Afaia and the massacre behind them, but Diogenes, while realizing he can't and shouldn't kill all the inhabitants, chooses to stay behind and die by the hordes of the oncoming dogs who come sprinting down the Lofos Ixous and the Aspropyrgos plains, instead of returning to a society that will always marginalize or institutionalize him.

Bitterly, the two friends step on it and escape the shrine, leaving Diogenes to be devoured by the wild dogs. Months after, Konstantinos is on a hike to the Narrow Road, The Monastery and Liopyri close to the Army Field, pondering whether his actions were loyal to the words of God and representative of his avidly pious nature.

Upon his return at his house, he is shocked to find the remnants of one statuette of Venus buried in his garden, despite having set ablaze everything that had to do with the shrine. Disbelieving of any sign of the cult's return, the story ends in an ambiguous manner, leaving open hints and loose threads on the potential survival of it somewhere in the depths of Vuori, some way.

## Style

Written in Katharevousa, the story follows the personal narrative of human Konstantinos, and is markedly shifted away from any animal POVs that characterized most of Vuori stories. There is a heavy element of nature and flora descriptions, as is common with The Vuori Chronicles, however the majority of the story revolves around active story arcs and lively, vivid portrayals of the cult or their actions.

## The Indian Shaman

The elusive figure of the Indian Shaman has long since been a subject of debate across Vuori tales. Firstly appearing in The Vuori Chronicles #8, Vuori: The Warehouses, he is described as a half-naked, frenzied old man covered in a grimy, beige-colored suit. Later on he is referred as the man who granted the partridges with a mysterious feather amulet that allowed trans-species communication, such as the one taking place between the human and the fox of the story and in The Vuori Chronicles finale, Vuori: Woods of Albaedinan.

In The Night at the Shrine, mysterious allusions towards the ghostly presence of a hapless old man roaming the Army Field expanses at nights in a beige suit are hinted at, and it is heavily speculated that he identifies as Diogenes, the Old Man from the story, who is described to have stolen a beige suit from his executors. However, it is rather unlikely for him to have survived the attacks of the dog hordes by the end of the story, and his presence around the Army Field, which is quite the distance from Afaia, contradicts Diogenes' claims to be residing in the expanses of the district.

Regardless, rumors are still unconfirmed and the mysterious shaman-like figure's relation to Diogenes remains the subject of pure speculation, estimated to have been a purposeful trope by writer James Kingston, as a nod to the Vuori mythos, part of which, was The Night at the Shrine.