'The Fourth Canticle' - by Daniel Orrett

In cloistered shadows, Hastus Arvannis reads from the writings of Sarparadin the Second.

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Fair winds!

Full Transcript:

ARVANNIS:

Long before memory, we knew only the Great Nothing, and we were not yet Advari.

In the darkness we had life, but not meaning, and from all sides the Endless Midnight fixed its gaze of terrible apathy upon our faithless eyes.

Beneath its black countenance we showed our folly, and for a time we heard truth in its lies, and thought ourselves immaterial amidst the immaterial.

Then upon our hearts came the blessed Godweaver, the Silver Maze, arms outstretched and wreathed in pale flame, and there beyond and within did rest the Divine Illuminator, his light pouring forth across the whispering shadow and enshrouding us in the Forever-Dawn of his divinity.

Those most sacred few, whom were called Lightsingers, did pass through the shining silver to look upon the face of Holy Advar, to hear his song, and to bring his immutable word to the reverent faithful.

“Look not upon the testament of your grandsires, keep not their hearth and speak not their words, for only in the memory of the faithful does my light persist.” so sayeth the Divine Illuminator.

And so as one did we burn from our minds and from our homes the records of our forebears, and swear by the Song of the Illuminator never to scribe records of our own, save those blessed by the Faith, lest we steal from the daughters of our daughters, the light of truth kept only in memory, only in the Faith Eternal.

Factotum’s Amendment:

All remaining transcriptions of the Fourth Canticle of Sarparadin the Second are marked for immediate burning by Inquisitors of the Ventris Ardenti.

This by order of her Imperial Majesty Valendra the First, in keeping with Sarparadin’s final wishes.

"Forget. And find strength in the forgetting." so sayeth the Divine Illuminator.

Praise be to Advar, truth without exception.