Part 1. The Joker Chapter 18: Origin and Causes
Hearing Klein’s question, Dunn looked out the window at the corridor leading to the “Charnis Gate”, took out his pipe, stuffed it with tobacco and mint leaves, then put it up to his nose and took a deep sniff, and lamented with a slightly wavering voice:
”It’s only at home that I can enjoy the wonderful flavor of the mixture of tobacco and mint leaves with impunity …… Klein, you know the creation myth, right?”
”Of course, when I was initiated in my church Sunday school, I relied on the Book of Revelation by Night to recognize words, and both chapters of ‘The Book of Wisdom’ and ‘The Epistles of the Holy Ones’ refer to the Creation Myths. ” Klein said as he recalled the memories of the original owner who became a fragment and slowed down his speech, “The Creator awoke from the chaos, broke the darkness and made the first light, and himself completely merged into the universe, incarnating into everything, k’s body became the earth and the stars, k’s eyes turned one into the sun and one into the red moon, and part of k’s blood rushed into the sea and rivers, nourishing and nurturing up life ……”
Speaking here, Klein unconsciously pauses, half because of the fuzzy memories associated with the latter, and half because this creation myth is a bit similar to the great eating nation’s Pangu’s opening of the heavens ……
The imagination of people from different worlds in terms of myths and legends have something in common!
Seeing Klein encountered a “difficult problem”, Dunn smiled and added for him:
”k’s lungs were derived into elves; k’s heart was derived into giants; k’s liver was derived into tree men; k’s head was derived into dragons; k’s kidneys were derived into feathered serpents; k’s hair was derived into immortal birds; k’s ears were derived into demonic wolves; k’s mouth and teeth were derived into the fae; k’s remaining bodily fluids were derived into sea monsters, of which the essence was the naga; k’s stomach, k’s small intestines, the large intestines, The evil parts of k’s body were diffused into demons, evil spirits and all kinds of unknown evil beings; k’s spirit was diffused into the Eternal Blazing Sun, the Lord of Storms, the God of Knowledge and Wisdom ……”
”Out of the wisdom of k was born mankind, and this was the First Age, the Age of Chaos.” Klein spoke the last sentence, amused and absurd in his mind.
As a keyboard folklorist, it was the first time he’d come across a creation myth with such a detailed “arrangement”, down to the specifics of what part of the Creator each of the named races had evolved from.
It’s like eating fruit in a row. ……
And it’s not just the canonical scriptures of the Goddess of Night that say this, the churches of the Lords of Storms and the Gods of Steam and Mechanics have similar descriptions, not singling out to elevate themselves and demean the rest of the gods ……
This either indicates that the creation myths are true facts, or vaguely reveals that the several major churches finally came to an agreement after a long struggle and compromise in prehistory, before the Fifth Age ……
Thinking of all this, Klein violently had another question and frowned slightly:
”I think there’s something wrong with this, why are the Eternal Sun, the Lord of Storms, and the God of Knowledge and Wisdom born directly out of the Creator’s spirit, but the Goddess is not?”
In the prehistoric records of the Revelation of Night, the Goddess of Darkness did not awaken until the end of the Second Age, and together with the Lord of Storms, the Eternal Sun, and other deities, they blessed and helped mankind through the Great Cataclysm, commonly known as the Third Age, the “Age of Cataclysm.”
The Goddess of Earth and the God of War also appeared in the same period, and the God of Steam and Mechanics, formerly known as the God of Craftsmen, was not born until the Fourth Age.
In this way, the status of the gods seems to be self-evident.
It was clear who was more ancient and who was more orthodox!
This also caused some distress among the followers of the Goddess of Night.
Dunn Smith rested his pipe in his other hand and asked without answering:
”You recount the goddess’s honorable name in full.”
Klein immediately had the feeling that he had stabbed himself in the back, and was busy racking his brain, trying his best to recall it:
”k is the Goddess of the Night, more sublime than the stars and older than eternity, and the Lord of Crimson, the Mother of Secrecy, the Empress of Doom and Fear, the Lord of Sleep and Silence.”
Fortunately, fortunately, Klein’s mother was a devout follower of the Goddess of Night, and she came up every evening and meal while she was alive, so that even if the original owner’s memories became fragmented, not all of them were lost.
”What does the Crimson Lord symbolize?” Dunn asked in a leading tone.
”The Crimson Moon.” Klein seemed to understand just as soon as he finished speaking.
”And what part of the Creator is the Crimson Moon derived from?” Dunn asked again with a smile.
”A separate eye!” Klein shared a smile with his opponent.
This wasn’t any less forced than the Creator’s spirit splitting into three to form the Storm Lord and so on!
As for Mother Goddess of the Earth and God of War’s Church, there should be a similar argument, only the God of Steam and Machinery was “born” too late to find a reason – their Church was always weak for the previous thousand years, until the invention of the steam engine, grabbed the lead, and then truly stood alongside the others. It was not until the invention of the steam engine, which had taken the lead, that they were truly on a par with the others.
Dunn rubbed his pipe and said:
”Man was born from the wisdom of the Creator, and so has a clever and extraordinary head, lacking any other magical abilities, but from the creation myths we can draw the shallow but clear conclusion that all things are born of the same origin.”
”Born of the same origin ……,” Klein repeated the last few words.
”According to this conclusion, human beings who fought against giants, demons, fae, etc. under the blessing of the gods gradually figured out the way to obtain transcendent power, that is, to use evil spirits, to use giants, to use monsters, to use the corresponding parts of magical trees, flowers or crystals with the rest of the materials, to concoct magical potions, and then take them and absorb them to master the different abilities, this is the common common sense.”
Dunn didn’t do too much description, only briefly introduced, “In this process, our ancestors relied on bitter lessons to discover that if they directly take high-grade, unconventional magic potions, they would easily get a tragic end, and there are only three possibilities for the outcome.”
”Which three?” Klein curiously pursued.
”First, spiritual death, physical collapse, every piece of flesh and blood becomes a horrible monster, second, by the power contained in the magic potion instantly change personality, become cold, sensitive, irritable, cruel, indifferent to everything, the third well ……” Dunn put down his pipe, picked up the next to the porcelain cup, sip said, “Pas Valley’s Fellmer’s Coffee, very bitter but also very fragrant, the aftertaste is great, want to have a cup?”
”I prefer the Highland Coffee from Fernport, of course, I’ve only had it a couple times at Welch’s.” Klein politely declined, “What’s the third?”
”Insanity, freaking out on the spot, being more demonic than the devil, that’s out of control.” Dunn accented the word “out of control.”
Without waiting for Klein to speak, he set his coffee cup down and continued:
”After a long period of experimentation and groping, coupled with the emergence of the ‘Profane Tablet’, mankind has finally perfected the magic potion system, forming a number of sequential chains that ascend order by order, growing steadily, the lower the number of sequences, the higher the order of the magic potion, and to this day, each of the seven major churches has mastered at least one complete sequence, and there are still hundreds, thousands of years to go before the magic potion system is perfected. There are also less complete ‘paths’ that have been collected over hundreds, thousands of years.”
”Desecrated tablets?” Klein caught the term acutely.
In the midst of the Gathering, the Hanged Man had also mentioned it!
According to the “Inverted Man”, the Blasphemous Tablet was the most crucial factor in the formation and integrity of the magic potion system!
This was not quite the same as what Dunn had just said.
”This is something made by some evil gods, exactly in which era it appeared, what was recorded, and what is so special, I’m not too sure, if you find any clues, you must report it to me immediately, it possesses the highest response level.” Dunn explained vaguely, “I just mentioned one of the out-of-control, now I’ll talk about the remaining four.”
”Hmm.” Klein put the question of the Profane Tablet behind him and focused on listening.
”Although humans only have smart heads and no other extraordinary abilities, but this is not absolute, there are always some lucky, or unlucky, people who are born with a higher level of inspiration, well, that is to say, the ability to sense spirits, they can hear voices that other people can not hear, see things that other people can not see, and possess some of the extraordinary characteristics.”
Dunn looked around at the emptiness as he spoke, looking at Klein with a creepy look, “In other words they are equal to half a Sequence 9 Extraordinary, possessing fixed traits, uh, Sequence 9 is the lowest rank in the ‘Chain’… …In short, they can only choose the corresponding, fixed sequence pathway, if they take into other magic potions, minor mental anomalies, serious loss of control, more serious, direct death.”
”Understood.” Klein nodded slowly.
”The third type of loss of control is similar to the second type, once you have selected the sequence chain, you can only go along this ‘path’, and can no longer reverse it, if you take another ‘path’, the sequence appropriate magic potion, although the high probability will obtain blended, strange, twisted abilities, but almost certainly in a state of half-madness, or sensitive and irritable, or cruel and bloodthirsty, or silent and melancholic.”
”And there’s only one chance to do that, and beyond that, whether you take the original ‘path’ potion or the current sequence, there’s only one outcome of being out of control, depending on whether it’s mental death, physical collapse into a monster, or derivation into a malevolent spirit.” Dunn said and took another sip from his coffee cup.
Klein who listened with some trepidation was silent for a few seconds and said again:
”What about the fourth kind of loss of control?”
”The fourth kind, huh, this is one of the most common problems, we take magic pills and obtain abilities that originally belonged to transcendent species, belonging to unnatural derivation, more or less will be affected by the residual spiritual influence, maybe there are no symptoms to show, outsiders can’t notice, but there is definitely latent within, before fully grasping the extraordinary power that comes from the magic pills, and eliminating the subtle traces that Rashly taking a higher sequence of the corresponding magic potion, it will accumulate madness, accumulate out of control ……” Dunn suddenly fell silent.
After a moment’s pause, he sighed: “Our night watchman’s internal regulations, even if the team members have made great achievements, they must be promoted only after three years of serving the last magic potion and after the corresponding examination, but even so, every year, there are quite a number of people who lose control because of this.”
It’s really scary ah …… Klein inhaled a breath and said:
”What about the last kind?”
The corner of Dunn’s mouth curled up but no smile was visible:
”The fifth is also a common cause of loss of control, for extraordinary people, the inspiration is more or less improved, the smaller the sequence number, the more improvement, so it can hear sounds that others can not hear, see things that others can not see, encounter things that others will not encounter, all the time by the mysterious lure and illusory compulsion, once there is any other stimulation, or greedy desires appear, then it will be a step towards losing control.”
As he spoke, Dunn turned to look squarely at Krynn, his gray eyes reflecting the figure of Krynn.
His tone became sullen as he said:
”The founder of the modern Night Watchman system, Archbishop Charnis, once said.”
”We are the Guardians, but also a group of wretches who are always fighting against danger and madness.”