Life and death of Calmest Waters

This isn’t the first time, that I am.

I have been before already.

You wouldn’t believe the kind of people I used to live the lives of. That is not to say you wouldn’t like them.

The last time I died, I drowned. Under the waves of chaos, which was the one thing I truly feared in the world. The greatest nightmare of mine coming true, ending me, was poetic enough to appreciate it despite what it meant for me. I liked being what I was back then, but I had to die, there was no other choice.

Deep inside, he, me, we knew that this is the way we’re going to go. It had to be, the fear of it was too great. We have battled the waves of chaos before, as others. But back then, we welcomed it. We were good at it. Maybe some of the best. And in the most indescribable way, it gave us joy.

But it takes a toll. We’ve been dying. Came back every time, yes, but different. As we became better at the fight, we grew less fond of it. Until we felt like slaves, one that has no master other than the cycle of damnation. And nobody, who wasn’t us, couldn’t know. I know what they would’ve thought, and I didn’t need that insight. A distraction, nothing else.

One day, we’ve made a choice. Tired, disinterested, we knew. We were ready to sacrifice what every victory over the waves granted us if we could stop the fight.

We wanted to sail the new, flat seas. Traverse oceans that wouldn’t have us taken under. Up the rivers of tranquillity. We deserved it.

And so, when we died the next time, we did what we had to. He was born. We all saw how different he was. There was no fear on his face on that day. No expectation for the storm. Just focus. Joy. Curiosity. For the first time, I wasn’t a warrior.

His life wasn’t any easier, don’t be fooled. It wasn’t his, you see. It belonged to all of us. It was everything, all of what we had to give up. It wasn’t a life, it was a statement. A proof, that fighting the waves of chaos isn’t what we are doomed for. That there are other seas, better seas. Other oceans, healthier oceans. Other waters. Calmer waters.

Calmest Waters. This is the name he chose.

We accepted, even though not all of us approved. In the end, the choice wasn’t ours, was it?

End of Part I

King of Shores and Queen of Tides

To their tune the minstrels sung,
Queen of Moon and King of Sun,
Prayers heard, promises kept,
Safe was herd, and wolves but wept.
Come the war, they stood beside
King of Shores and Queen of Tides,
Flags on walls, crests on steel,
City falls, and heathens kneel.
Forseen much more, and coming soon,
But Lord of Shores, and Dame of Moon,
Their idols mute, their temples shy,
Offerings brute were raised to sky.
Have you seen, who know the words
That Tidal Queen, and Sunrise Lord,
Would hear with love, and care, and cheer,
And from above, their herd would steer?
Now sands protect the holy runes
Of King of Sun and Queen of Moon,
The shadows dwell in barrow downs,
Minstrels quelled, wolves all around.
Midnight, noon, are just a time
When ancient moon, and sun in prime.
No meaning bore by days and nights,
No King of Shores, no Queen of Tides.
Santi Modalo
as translated by Jacob K. Waters

Places of Power. Part III: The Origin

Approximately three thousand six hundred years ago, something has happened. The details, location, cause, reason and almost all of the circumstances remain unknown even today. The Event, as we began to call it, amongst other things, created a shift in the fabric of Magia. This, in turn, caused a general disbalance in the distribution of the force that empowers those of us who can use the Magia. And though various warlocks, sorcerers, wizards, witches and many others were in greatest part unaffected by the Event, it did create a new class of Magia users: the Seers. As the disbalance unveiled before us an entirely new horizon of what the Magia offers when the first Places of Power were discovered.

At the time, they were an unnamed phenomenon detected by few, recognized by none. It took a long time before the Seers began to understand the concept and to realize its potential even longer. The obvious effects of the Place of Power: its positive or negative influence on the mood and disposition of the present Seer, was clear enough from the start. As for its cause, that remained unknown for centuries. It wasn’t until 700 B.C. That the first rudimentary description of the concept appeared, as defined by an unnamed sorcerer turned Seer. He attempted to explain the existence of Places of Power by assessing that the layer of Magia around the surface of the world increases in thickness in an unstable, unequal manner and that Places of Power were sources or points of concentration of the Magia of the positive and negative type. And although he correctly connected the appearance of the Places of Power with the occurrence of the Event, his theories were eventually proven untrue.

Places of Power. Part II: The Seer

The effects of Places of Power can be felt by anyone and everyone. A particularly strong one can have an immediate effect on a person who has never grasped the concept of Magia, and prolonged exposure to even a weak Place of Power will eventually affect the exposed person. There are however individuals, who possess a predisposition towards detecting the fluctuations within the structure of Magia on a much more profound level. Those people, are called the Seers. Albeit the name isn’t perfect: there is nothing to see, other than on a metaphysical level.

The Seers are not a binary construct. They are a spectrum, and a very wide one too. Although it is currently believed that one cannot “become” a Seer, as in the predisposition is something to be born with, this raw potential, due to its varying degree of strength and knowledge of Magia, might be revealed at a different time in life, differing from person to person. On top of that, something as simple as defining the abilities of the Seer, especially concerning the line where the un-Seers are ending the Seers begin, has proven to be too difficult. As of today, still, the only way to discover the identity of the Seers is to wait until their abilities show on their own. It is otherwise impossible to determine the natural predisposition before the Seer’s first discovery of a Place of Power. And those potentials must be added, do vary greatly. From simple increase in the profanity of the effect that the Places of Power have on a Seer, all the way to being able to locate a Place of Power from a certain distance, without laying the eyes on it. Paradoxically, despite the fact, that as all data suggest, the stronger the potential the less frequent it occurs, the more powerful Seers are known in greater number than weaker ones. This is due to the very fact, that the chance of identifying a Seer increases with the natural potential the Seer possesses.

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