#writing
The Descent of Pirithous I
It is the year one thousand thirty one of the second age of the Holy Runstein Empire. I’m not sure if that title has any meaning anymore, or if the Runstein Empire even still exists. I have been separated from all civilization, joined by only a few fated colleagues, for some time now. Most of them however have made their leave, and it is likely that their position is known only to the Divine, blessed is he. Even when I departed, the empire was in turmoil and the Church, the Holy Celestine Church which speaks the universal truth, was on the verge of collapse. It is hard to say what state the world is in now. Does it still stand? Either the dissidents of Jonasburg or the Sacred devotionalists? Have they coalesced once again and brought order to the land? Or has one triumphed over the other and brought an end to endless warfare? Do the towns and villages that dot the land, once fertile and full of happy denizens still bear life? Or have they collapsed into ruin, its inhabitants perished and spread out into the unkind wastes to starve or be brought into ruin by roving bandits. I do not know for I am separated from the common realm by a great void; Out here in the darkness where no sound emanates ‘cept from oneself, nor light or movement of any kind. My fate it would appear is grim, though I go into it openly and with hope of a final release. The air here grows thin and hardly works through the body. The heat, which we initially took for granted is now scarce, and a great cold conducts through everything, leeching the life from my bones. Our food and water is close to running out, though without the others what remains that is not rotten—and even what is—will last a little longer than it would have.
While I descend ever deeper into this realm without man, a place where God hath placed no light and no light is destined to shine, I will write to no one the events which have brought me here.
Seventeen years previously was the reign of the monarch Emperor Richard IV of the house of Jonas. He succeeded his father, Richard the third, who before succeeded his father and his father before that, all of whom had operated rather closely and diligently with the Holy Celestine Church and its disciples. The ruling king, who took the name of Emperor and the crown, had been decided among the great houses for hundreds of years by merit of strength and efficiency, and so long as they upheld their duties of order within the common realms and defense from the wild men from the North and protection of the sacred rivers to the East from the Eastern men who so heretically threatened the passage of goods between the veins of the Empire to the port cities, they were considered a just and accepted ruler.
There was of course the unspoken requirement of the ruler, for it was intrinsic to the abilities of the ruler, to be anointed by the church so that their ruling would be considered just in the eyes of the divine and divine messengers—for the church was the intermediate between the common realm and Heaven—and not only the vulgar populace. An Emperor’s legitimacy, being an extension of the authority of God, was unfaltering and absolute. He could do no wrong, that whose hand was guided by the holy spirit, and his reign would last forever through him and his kin so long as he upheld thy holy mission. One need only to look to the barbarous huts and their brutish occupants, cloaked in snow, shadow, and ice to the far East where all semblance of production, culture, and most of all faith is nowhere to be seen. It is just, therefore that such people could only find refuge far away from the splendors of God’s warmth, and are forced to live in suffering and punishment as they will whence they descend to the Tartarian realms.
One might also look to the far shores where few boats ever cross, to the other continents that carry strange plants, beast, and most of all settlements of man. From what little connection there is, we know for sure that they exhibit civilization. They build jewelry of magnificent gems that exist nowhere here in any quantity, and weave tapestries of the finest silks and with excellent designs. Trade and communication due to those terrible seas is scarce, though there was a time where it was more common due in part to the calming of the currents and tides by the Lord’s gentle grace. From there we know that in those other lands are not a singular race of people but a spectrum, who are often as divided in belief and custom as it is here. The great poet Lucis, from centuries prior, has argued that despite their talents and merit, those people of the far shores exist in a land fundamentally displaced from our true God. He proclaimed that it is our duty to save them from damnation, as is mirrored now through our conquests in the South among the men of the Jungle, but it is likely that they will succumb to schism and war until an eventual decay occurs as is common among lower peoples. Only by the solid foundation of the true God, whose strength is that of a stone pillar or the mightiest oak, might a civilization truly last against the forces of evil.
The Emperor Richard IV was unlike his father or fathers before him. He took the claim to the throne as a son of the house of Jonas, and indeed he was trained from birth to take on the responsibilities of his father when he would eventually be unable to do. The other houses saw no reason to oppose the continued rule of the Jonas dynasty, which had brought them prolonged stability and wealth, and remained insouciant as he was eventually crowned at seventeen years old in the year one thousand and four of the second age of the Holy Runstein Empire, ensuring the two century rule of the House of Jonas would continue for some time more.
Yet unlike his forebearers, he declined anointment by the Church. The Pope at the time, Saint Velles, was him and his retinue denied entry to the ceremony. Additionally his coronation did not take place in the holy cathedral of Runeshold as had been done for half a millennia since the dawn of the second age, but in the sovereign state of Jonasburg that Richard called his home.
Pope Saint Velles was at once angered, and demanded to speak to young Richard who clearly had lapsed in his judgement of the due process of the houses, as well as the hierarchical authority which he must respect as a servant of the Church; No man, not even the Emperor of the Realm, was above the Holy Spirit, and it was Velles who was his vicar.
The Pope who had travelled thus far to Jonasburg now stood in front of the very gates of its grand walls. The banners, which once flowed in the evening wind bearing white and gold emblems of the church were cast down and replaced with a purple emblem bearing the sign of the Jonas Dynasty. Pope Saint Velles sat for seven days and nights all the while unsupported by the inhabitants inside—many of which were members of the other Houses who had come for the ceremony. He prayed that they come to their senses, that divine justice set them straight and punish them for their wrongdoing. He pleaded to Richard why he had forsaken him, urging with enchanting prose to come forth and explain himself. The congregation suffered the effects of hunger, fatigue, and the elements which claimed no less than three lives. All the while they sat solemnly and prayed for the mercy of the Lord. Eventually, due to a matter of guilt or an urging of the other Houses which did not wish to be caught in the bad graces of the Church, the large doors were opened and the bridge lowered, and the Pope was allowed an audience with Richard.
He entered Richards palace, followed by his procession of bishops and guards and subjects who now were thin and meek, their clothes ragged and damp. They walked along a crimson red carpet ordained in gold embroidery telling the stories of heroes and feats ages past. Statues of similar meaning, of stone and marble ascended upwards into the arched ceilings of the building and echoed the procession’s saggared steps. And yet the Pope himself seemed to glow, his bright white garment radiant and unstained as if ordained by Gods light itself. The members of the other Houses sat alongside both parties, silent and in wait of what would come next. Many were anxious to take sides, fearing a great schism that would threaten their way of life, but all were prepared to defend what they believed was right, whether that be on the side of Richard the IV or The Church. All lied in wait to hear the reasonings of Richard which had initially brought them to such an impasse.
Velles stood on the marble steps before the Emperor, his gaze solemn and weary though stoic. “You there, my child and steward of his grace. Step down from your seat and meet me on proper ground. Then kneel before me”.
Richard sat elevated up the stairs, sitting defiantly in his golden throne. He sat back with his posture low, the imperial crown crooked upon his brow. He laughed, “You expect me to conform? Old man? What authority do you hold over me? I am the Emperor of the Realm. From the Mountains to the North to the Southern Seas beyond the chaparral growth. By my hand I rise the crop from the ground and feed the populace. By my hand do I send the gold flowing along the arteries of the East into the pockets of the numbered houses. By my hand do I line your coiffeurs, protect your Bishops, and build your temples.” His speech, which had begun in a low voice had grown to a standing shout, which had garnered the polar responses of silent disapproval and encouraging shouts; The true colors of the houses was being brought out by the emotional rhetoric of the young ruler.
Velles stood still, forever eyeing the young man. “You dare to assume credit for the work of men past, who never questioned their divine right but used it to raise the very throne you now sit upon. The crown upon your head, printed with the symbols of the Lord you now deride, and the throne you sit upon are but ornaments, hollow as the wind through an empty chapel. You forsake not only the church but your heritage: the work of your father and fathers before them. Your reign, untethered from the heavens, will bring about ruin”. There was then murmurs throughout the crowd. They grew silent, influenced greatly by the oration of Velles who many of them highly respected and revered.
“Blasphemy!” Richard shouted. “You speak of divine wrath, a smiting to balance the scales of man’s ambition, and yet here I stand! The walls of my Empire remain strong, the ports open, and the soil fertile! What covenant have I broken to my people? Besides that which shackles me to the shadows of the past?”
Velles stepped closer. “Caution. It is not the almighty who you have to fear, but your own disillusionment. You are no Empire without an anointment by God. Even still, you are but a man. Without faith your empire will crumble. With the erosion of your soil, disengaged, will come the erosion of your realm. Even now there is discontent. To the far reaches of the South a plague encroaches upon the hamlets. The Northern Tribes grow unified and confident. What you speak of is heresy. It is only through faith and atonement and the will of the divine can there be power and stability”.
“Let them whisper of me.” Said Richard “We are all doomed anyway if we remain as we have been. I will not be the puppet of gilded sermons. It is through the Church that men are bound to what is known. It is by decree that we remain in the muck forever at the mercy of what we do not know, that which we label divine. If we really seek the divine, then we must attain it.”
Velles appeared shocked. All who knew of what he spoke at once gasped as well. “You speak not of your father’s mistakes I hope? The land beyond the rivers and seas, beyond even the other lands over the edge?”
Richard smirked. “That I do”.
Velles lost his composure. He stepped towards Richards, whose guards did not for a second entice the idea of opposing the Pope and promptly knelt before him. “You are misguided my child! Blinded by a fools errand that was your father’s downfall and is to be yours as well if you do not heed my words! All that is before you is the common realm, endowed by the heavens to be ruled over by man. Man is imperfect, at the mercy of God and it is by his decision that we do not venture where we are not wanted. The place beyond the edge, a place of shadow and volume is no place for a servant of God. It is a place where God has put no light, so that man not venture there!”
Richard stood, eye to eye with the Pope. “If it is nothing, then let us prove it. And if it is something, then it is our duty to claim it, learn from it, and use it as it was given to us. Your fear will not cage me, Velles. I will be not your Penitent. The Church clutches to a past that has already gone, and I will not go with it. If you will not stand with me as I step over the edge then so be it. If it is the will of the church, the divine, and the Houses to come before me, then let them come.”
It is at this moment that the members of the Houses, which had slowly increased in energy, had broken out into shouting and fighting. Guards on all sides struggled to maintain order and to usher out the Nobles who flailed about pathetically. The banners fell and some burned, lit by the candles and braziers which were thrown about in the chaos. The Pope, guarded by his Templars, quickly exited the building in the ensuing chaos. Richard simply sat back down on his throne and laughed.