The Book of Fire and Ash

This place was made by the Deathand, and the Deathand keeps it. Here you may find all manner of stories and ideas he wishes the world to see. Enter traveler, behold its wonders.
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Kaome Sky Deathand
Assessor of the Black Tontine
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Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2008 12:14 am
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The Book of Fire and Ash

Post by Kaome Sky Deathand » Mon Dec 01, 2008 1:34 am

A collection of Lore, because it was asked of me.
Feel free to inquire about other things in the Discussion section.
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Cruor Vult

Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion,
simultaneously the source of our greatest strength, and our greatest weakness.

Soon we shall be One...joined in the Word.

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Kaome Sky Deathand
Assessor of the Black Tontine
Posts: 1175
Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2008 12:14 am
Location: Lingering at Life

-Hollow-

Post by Kaome Sky Deathand » Mon Dec 01, 2008 2:43 am

Hollow Elemental of the Anthem, The Last Breath Before Dying, The Anthem, Assessor of the Black Tontine

Elemental
Male
Unbound/Ageless
Undivided
He does not require air, sleep, or even food nor drink. He does not age or whither like most other things do.
He does however relish the 'taste' raw emotions can give in the realms beyond his own.

Hollow's Ark
The world's were torn asunder.
His existence was born into a place beyond the beyond. A pocket of the universe, unique, much like himself, seen only by one other. This was his domain, made by his unchained thoughts, his rage, his honor, his courage, his fear. All these twisted and noble children giving rise to a tetrascape that only the brilliant could grasp and the insane lament. Direction and time held no meaning. Up could be down, right could be skewed, and movement could take one a thousand miles or a thousand feet in the same action. Volcanoes became the sky, belching smoke into the floor of mirrored glass that held no reflection. The walls became tropical storms and windswept islands, the steppes of the northlands, the deserts of the exiled. Houses for the stars and grains of sand held windows into the abyss and doors to nowhere. Lava poured from above ones head and twisted, writhing like a living snake into a vast eye rimmed with teeth. It could be like this for a moment or for generations. It was the same.
Yet in any combination....there is always the Book and the Tree.

The Black Tontine
"By their deeds they shall be remembered, by their name you shall know them." ~ Opening Inscription, The Ashen Tome
The tome is bound in material most similar to leather in the color of the sky absent of the moon. It is laid upon an ever changing stand. One moment it could be an alabaster pedestal, the next a thing of brass and iron, the following a sculpture of glass and gold. Each page is weathered and very much old, but never crumbling or torn. Whenever the tome is opened, there always seems to be one or two more page than the last. Names are inscribed with an inner fire, the flame scorching the name into the parchment, burning there until Hollow has them in his grasp. At that point the flames die out and a streak of ash strikes across the letters in an almost haphazard fashion.

The Twisted Oak
What purpose the tree serves can only be found in a non-direct question.
What, you thought I was going to GIVE you all the answers?

Those Marked
How exactly one gains a private concerto of the Anthem is best guessed by ones own judgement.
The bold and brave have gone before him. The wicked and unrepentant, the fallen and the saints, the peasant and the gods. None are excluded by The Anthem. Yet all can agree, those taken, or left marked, by the Anthem have always stood out among their peers. Be they the best fighter, the brightest scholar, or the darkest denizen in the depths of the earth.

The Forsaken
"Let their names be remembered then struck from the book, never to feel deaths embrace until the Anthem sings the world to sleep." ~Inscribed Mantra, The Ashen Tome
There are a scant few who have seen, and may by one means or another speak with the Anthem and lived to tell the tale.
The World Tree cannot truly fall lest the world go with it.
The Timestreamer has access to all realms, but not power over them.
The Limbotions can claim to see him on the edge of their vision, one foot already in a grave they will never truly lay in.
The Void Dragon can speak across the gulf of eternity, his voice heard even in a place where lullabies are lost.

The Last Breath Before Dying
In the Void, or the AntiVoid, Hollow cannot truly exist as a man does.
He is given moments, each one in different measure than the last. In these moments, only offered when a dying Marked has started their last breath, is Hollow allowed to travel from his realm. His power is directly influenced, not only by the raging crash of emotions that assail him, but by the boon he may grant a passing condemned. Life and death are not beyond his grasp, he may end the suffering of one, or prolong anothers pain for years, enjoying the slow anguish over and over again until the body and mind of the marked are shredded by the passing of time and the constant grip of dying. Some breaths may take a very long time to exhale.
It is rumored that those passing, but not truly entering the Gray Realm may speak with him as long as they like.
These are rare moments for him, outside the ties that bind him to his place. It is only on these occasions that he can learn at leisure from the passing and impart boons that are freely given, instead of exchanged for.
To one this is the greatest of curses.
As he can control the flow of time, The Dahaka can ALWAYS be visited by Hollow.
For he who controls moments, every breath could be the last.
Cruor Vult

Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion,
simultaneously the source of our greatest strength, and our greatest weakness.

Soon we shall be One...joined in the Word.

User avatar
Kaome Sky Deathand
Assessor of the Black Tontine
Posts: 1175
Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2008 12:14 am
Location: Lingering at Life

The Book of Fire and Ash

Post by Kaome Sky Deathand » Sat Apr 25, 2009 10:11 pm

I am the Anthem, Hollow be my name.
My song be sung, your will undone,
on this world, or any other.
Give me this day your body dead,
and deliver unto me your soul,
as your soul is delivered unto the Void.
I lead you not into damnation,
but to the salvation you so rightly deserve.
For our gods walk among us,
while yours, chooses to remain silent.

~Hallowed Prayer

And now, all in my own dimension,
I stood on the shattered land.
The Dahaka stepped forth from his portal,
And scarcely he could stand.

I took my place before him.
The Dahaka crossed his brow.
"Say quick," quoth he, "I bid thee say;
What manner of man art thou?"

Forth within this frame of mine was wrenched,
A woeful agony.
It forced me to begin my song,
And then his soul slung free.

Since then, at an uncertain hour,
That agony returns.
Until my ghastly song is sung,
This heart within me burns.

I pass, like night, from land to land.
I have strange powers each.
The moment their last breath they breathe,
I know the man that must hear me:
To him my tune, I teach.

~Rhyme of the Ancient Ravenor

I am the Anthem, the ballad of the Balance.
For only I may chant the corruption of Chaos...
...and yet offer up the opus of all-consuming Order.
I am the finale that forgives the Fallen,
and the dirge that damns the Divine.
I am the song silence sings.
The verse that gives voice to the Void.
I am a lullaby to the Lost.
The Herald to that which is certain.

I urge you to embrace this coil.
This carousel you call life...
...and in the end, fear not death.
For I shall grant you one last wish,
when you breathe your one last breath.

I am the Anthem,
Hollow be my name.


~A Promise
Cruor Vult

Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion,
simultaneously the source of our greatest strength, and our greatest weakness.

Soon we shall be One...joined in the Word.

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