Property:Memora text
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Holds the text of Memora objects. :Text
A
Beasts, brigands, and walking bones are far from the Underworld's only dangers. The forces of geology--eruptions, landslides, flash floods, erosion—have claimed as many lives. These are the foes of The Expedition, that society of Dwarven engineers who dare lift the literal weight of the world. Such things pose little danger to The Hivemind, timeless and patient, but for a short-lived species they are fatal. And yet the Dwarves persevere. +
Our foundation crumbles! Word has reached my ears that seven of our workers have been charged with chewing drift leaf. Drift leaf! Have we become no better than those filthy Elven refugees?! What next? Will my workforce of fools despoil a byway for bricks to build a shrine to Pir Tama?! My only source of solace is that those feckless Elves might never learn of our shame! +
Pir-Tama's texts have always spoke of the heat in the core of the Abyss. But not as something to fear… it was something that had given the elves light and sustained us through the years after our arrival. “Either we exist in perpetual conflict,” Pir-Tama said, “or we learn to live alongside our neighbors, and the elements as well – everything has its place, and in nature, the life of one is worth no more than another.” +
I suppose I should rage. I suppose I should call Baldred, Expedition executioner, to sharpen his axe. And yet I cannot. If one of our lovestruck blacksmiths can inspire fellowship between us and The Deep Elves when it is needed most, then I will not stand in their way. Personally, I do not know what he sees in that Elven lass, all skin and bones. To each his own. +
B
Your journey...<br><br>this katabasis...<br><br>mirrors that of Gilgamesh, Odin, Izanagi-no-Mikoto...<br><br>Ishtass –<br><br>His example inspired settlers at Marcaul:<br><br>Their ideology, their society.<br><br>I once whispered in Ishtass and Pir Tama's ears as I do yours now.<br><br>They were... capable, but insufficient.<br><br>Will you match that great exploits?<br><br>Or surpass them? +
After Zeus slew his forebears, the devouring Titans,<br><br>the earth begat its greatest monster,<br><br>nightmare of the primordial universe: <br><br>TYPHON.<br><br>Zeus fought this horror for hundreds of years,<br><br>before imprisoning it below a volcano.<br><br>Here, on the borders of the underworld,<br><br>beneath which you stand. <br><br>Do you hear? Can you feel that?<br><br>Typhon stirs…<br><br>Such is the depth of your challenge.<br><br>To face down the adversary of mighty Zeus…<br><br>Save life from death… Through cleverness, rise.<br><br>Join the ranks of heroes of legend.<br><br>Will you ascend? +
Again, our borders clash with the dwarves… the matter did not come to swords, but their arrival… the arrival of this “Expedition” of theirs has shifted the borders of the Abyss and it is difficult to know what boundaries belong to The Saurians, The Shamblers… and us. The elves retreated to the Abyss long ago, but we will not retreat again, not from the people above, and not these creatures below, whether lizard, fungus, or dwarf. +
An unfortunate turn of events, this is, but one that requires discretion above all else. I wish I could say our miners were ignorant of the magnitude of their discovery when they uncovered that shrine. They knew they dared not disclose it, lest the Disenthralled stake their rightful claim, and so my men buried the evidence. I cannot fault them. I will not punish them. We need those ores now; we will disclose our discovery to the Elves later. I hope only that one day those leaf-licking freeloaders will understand. +
C
Cabirus's folly knows no limits. First, he insults us with demands, then threatens us with that which he has no sway over… the elves will not aid us, he says, nor will The Saurians, unless he makes it so. Enduring enough of this specter's demands, I told him that if he spoke to them as he did to us, then he has no allies at all… and the threat he speaks of is closer than it appears, for his own perspective and ignorance will damn him. +
Another bookkeeping matter. Let it be noted that I, Executor Rubric, authorize the disposal of four-hundred barrels of industrial slurry into subterranean watersheds, per each chief engineer's choosing, with all due speed and heedfulness of Shambler sensitivities. This matter must be kept off the books. +
The Disenthralled fled the sunlit realms. The Shamblers dwelt eternally in darkness. And yet are we such disparate societies? In the Abyss we find dark reflections of the surface's beasts and verdure, which we subdue for our survival. The Hivemind cull and curate life for similar ends. The Lower Dark is their laboratory. It is our cathedral. To us both it is sacred. +
Pir-Tama's had places of reverence in the Abyss, often near lava flows and vents that carried waves of heat from below. It is the Abyss breathing, carrying life with its heat and light… if the Abyss ceased its breathing, if whatever sustained that fire in its heart was extinguished, then we would be extinguished as well. “Do not fear the flame,” Pir-Tama said. “Take heed of what its light reveals.” +
D
How those feckless Disenthralled reprobates spit in my soup! We Dwarves toil and toil to temper these depths and for what result? So those leaf-licking refugees might befoul our byways and divert our aqueducts? Animals! They leap from the kettle into the lap of luxury and call it divine providence, then treat our Great Work like a cesspool! If I ran into Pir Tama herself I'd chain that braying sow to my bellows and put all her hot air to good use! +
The first of the Abyss, The Hivemind, are the ones who taught our people to speak… and to listen. To meditate, to hear the thoughts of The Hivemind as they flickered through the stone and heat of the underworld. The first of The Saurian mediators served as envoys speaking the thoughts of The Hivemind, and with their help, peace between Saurian and The Shamblers was made. +
The Leaf enlightens. Confrontation with Typhon comes tomorrow, and yet I have faced him today, in a thousand battles with as many outcomes. Most end in fire. Some end in darkness, a void. One ends in balance. Typhon's power is not limitless. His Lich minions take their toll. Yet only if we stand united, as Pir-Tama taught. The Leaf enlightens. +
Light! Heat! Lakes of fire! The Abyss is a crucible for civilization if you embrace its rawness, and yet those shambling mushrooms would rather rot in the dark and damp until the mountains crumble. Sometimes I ponder whether The Hivemind has a brain at all. So it falls to The Expedition to plug the trickles, divert the streams, unleash the lava. The Great Work demands it! If The Hivemind balks, so be it. It always serves to beg forgiveness later than ask permission now, although I plan neither task. +
F
In the past, The Stygian Abyss has faced terrible threats.<br><br>Monsters, madmen,<br><br>The Slasher of Veils.<br><br>All are dwarfed by Typhon.<br><br>His rise will snuff out all life.<br><br>First, here.<br><br>Then, everywhere. +
The gardens of The Hivemind die. As they fall, the mediators burn as well, their flesh engulfed in flames as Typhon's fires consume all. We cannot hold it back, and countless fields of memories… great caverns of lush vegetation, of life… now have become fuel for beast that has awakened in the depths. +
Cabirus thinks our People lived unaware of the beast in the depths. The slumbering one, Typhon. But The Hivemind always knew. Typhon had given life to The Hivemind with his fall, the fire and heat of his eternal slumber providing much needed light and heat to the gardens of The Hivemind… without Typhon's pulse, the heart of the Abyss would die… spores would lie dormant, cold, and the Abyss would be a tomb. +
The Expedition's toil is admirable—as long as those Dwarves hold a respectable distance from the spores. Yet they have grown ambitious near the garden of The Hivemind. Culling of allies is no option at this crucial hour. Rather, a chemically potent crop of mushrooms, harmless but irresistible to the Dwarven palate, might dampen their bottomless enthusiasm to tame these depths. +