Preface

(the narrator’s preface-give him more personality)

 

 

The Starry Night Chronicles compiled by scribe Walden Esta’Gnos during the 8th century DS PP PH (real name of the novel is The Linx King obviously)

 

 

Third person alternative version:

 

Innumerable stories have been told of the great uprising of the Limeraneseru more commonly known as Libranastre and his ordeals.  Most are tall and fairylike  stories by great and minor wordsmiths in such variety and nuanced tones that one and the other are almost polarities with no absolute truth.  The bards sing  songs in wonderful arrangement of syllables and rhymes about such deeds as this or that with very little veracity.  I do not wish to discredit them, the art of poetry in an epic form is much needed in this world and oral dissemination has its own melody and beauty that the Shiny Ones themselves are charmed by them.

 

No, I do not wish to be compared to that mighty undertaking for I have my own to undertake. My task is to bring some truth out of the myth.  For I am a scribe and historian foremost and a writer second.  Do not ask me to sing a rhyme for you will be disappointed greatly.  Do not expect great writing for I am no great writer either. And do not expect a morality aesop in bits and pieces tuned to the lyre to be sung at high time in the tavern or over a campfire.  This is a different sort of storytelling altogether; a written compilation of many sources in the form of a complete story.  It is a novel idea altogether so I shall call it a novel. 

 

I place myself as the voice of observance as if I was an invisible and objective spectator in the events.  Sure there may be some asides and exposition in case the reader is completely ignorant of the story and as I hope this tome will be read many years in the future and in different worlds entirely where perhaps the Libranastre is unknown to the peoples.   Although the events are some decades in the past, I have the utmost evidence based sources that I swear on Transient Stryx of the winding road at the peril of my own soul.  The contract will be made and if I fail in transmitting the events in the most truthful manner let my soul be taken to the darkened rooms of the abyss.

 

I shall present to you the most complete history and  at times even use references to the greatest and most well-known scrolls and books along with actual journals and even written souls of the deceased through that most black art of Necromancy for the fullness of understanding.  My task is to frame and expose the ignorant to the light of truth for I make the assumption that the reader is but a child who knows words but not yet the stories of Domarlan.  It is not by offense I may state the obvious about the religions, cultures, Ahuras and Damke’s.  I only wish to make a complete tale of wholeness.

 

Where necessary I will note at the end what my sources are for the preceding passages and at other times I will just quote directly from those sources in independent passages.

 

Let the Clarity of the Stars guide me in the darkness as I grasp at things ungraspable and write things yet unwritten.  For this is the tale, untitled so far, though I think I like “The Starry Night Chronicles.”

 

old versionFirst person narrative version:

 

The narrative that follows is a collection created from writings, journals, and various historical scrolls.  It’s the most complete tale of its kind found in all the land regarding Librenaster  And unlike the fairytale bards and their songs, it is a compilation of actual records.  I did not write any part other than this preface and only altered things according to the demands of its readers such as translating parts into modern Vulgaris and creating, as best I could, the most fluid understanding of the tale from one point to the last with intermittent historical records for framing from the most renowned tomes such as “a complete history” or “some other such book I don’t yet have a title to.”

 

The tale is known across Domarlan by all peoples.  My purpose here is to try my best to refit the story in the most non-fantastical way possible using the testimony of all peoples involved.  I gathered a total of 58 different sources but the major part coming from the most intimate peoples involved. 

 

I do not make any claims or judgments.  I do not wish to skewer beliefs.  I do not try to offend.  I merely wish to correct the fanciful and reproduce the best annuls of the events. No matter how farcical the accounts seem to be, as they will seem undoubtedly from the eyes of most, I hereby pledge its authenticity on Stryx and make the oath at my soul’s peril; I bind my pen to Stryx for I have told the truth to the best of my abilities and give up all life-force if I am a false scribe.

 

Beware and read on if you wish and have mercy on my endeavor.”

 

(This works.  The books chapters are in narration by the scribe and set as chapters.

The book has to be divided into different sections.  The first form is Gnos’s narration which comprises the largest portion.

Book excerpts from actual books that exist in the world of Domerlan.  These are marked and italicized.  The purpose is to give the reader exposition on the cosmology, history, and events without having a omniscient and omnipotent narrator.  It has to be clear that these are excerpts the main story is told by Gnos as a partially omnisciet narrator with a personality that shines through but only occasionally.  How do I make these divisions without going out of control?  Not every chapter can have an excerpt, they either have to be sporadic and relevant tot he story or occur as a preamble to each chapter (no that won’t work)….okay the book is divided into chapters, parts, books and perhaps even a fourth division (perhaps make it so blatent and over the top that it can even be a source of humor.  Perhaps have Gnos actually have a comentary after each excerpt...okay that is too much.

 

This is a difficult problem especially when you had journal excerpts on top of the normal ecerpts. 

 

Okay, the books are the story arcs with an introductory one about Kiota.  The parts are are at your own discretion and follows no apparent pattern.  The chapters are all Gnos.  Only n between the parts have the excerpts with major labels and a way of discerning the Great Book quotes and character journal entries (great book excerpts are italicized and bolded and journal entries are bold and in quotes.  It may be confusing, perhaps included the preface have Gnos explain this better.

 

 

 

PRELUDE

This could work, just needs to be rewritten and rethought out a bit.  Good introduction to the Lynx king (that must be the focus) and maybe a bit of foreshadowing for revealing this coward character, now working for the Lynx King himself (that part in particular needs to be adjusted a bit, maybe make it seem he died or have it so the reader knows he intended to do so before chickening out, but it all has to be one cohesive chapter)

 

 

Anonymous,  A suicide note written by a coward after the massacre at Viri Tower (thought to be the former priest Yud Flambasta who lived out the of his days in the employee of the Lynx King himself, the most traitorous of people)

 

“The Filidi quelled the uprising at the Tower of Vri with brutal efficiency.  The leaders were summarily beaten, tortured, and yet left alive with some special skill of The Paw (acronym summing up a gestapo-like inquisitors), for days and days hanging by their legs around the circumference of the tower which in irony they wished to preserve as a beacon of hope, now dripping with the blood twelve holy men.

 

The Claw (the army), the Maw(the politicians, The Paw (the gentle inquisitors gestapo),  the Purr (harems), the Tailend (slaves)\\\

 

Police of

 

Calamity of Law and  Wasters Court of Liars and Wasters,

 

The Shiny Ones truly have left us.  They have left us to the guile of the Demke Kings, horrible beasts, beast they are, but somehow also men. The invasion was bought about by the bitter bolt of the last departing Shimeru, who, after being given the most shameful job of the Six Shiny Ones, the gatekeeper of the abyss, watched humans tarnish their immortal higher spirit, the breathe of the Holies.  We humans, the gift given of the median flame, a spirit unlike both the Shimeru and the Demke, by those bright stars somehow influenced them unbidden by merely existing in our state and made them act so unlike the eternal ethereal light of their true nature.  Shame on us all for existing, let Dormalan disappear so the stars can shine again bright and singular.

 

So in an act of surpreme anger (for howso one so pure can even become angry?) struck the seal with one of the most Holy of weapons, the Arc of Storms, an almighty thunderlight blasted the Seal Gate creating a fissure whereby the Demke, so weighed down by their mass, still stuck fast by the chains each to each but for a small host with such devious art somehow managed to escape.  The seal Gate was created with the magik of all six Shimeru’s binding the reverse pyramid of the underworld and the entrance to that black hole called the Abyss (and still does to a larger extent to this day) was damaged and pealed back a little whereby minor and major Demke’s escaped infesting the bodies of some such natures of man creating the Demon Kings before the Seal was frozen over by ICE and, Shimerulalama, forgive me, the one Demke known as Lichte who took the place of (SO) and is one who is not evil by nature, for all Demke are not so, but most are.

 

Heed my word for I have seen him, the Lynx King is the worst abomination, a demon ranked Archon in the form of a man, the most vicious and evil entity who breathes yet in Domarlan before the sun is cracked like an egg, Halo’s help us, and Quabuzz is finally let out, the name itself so foul I choke as I write.  Yet, for now, Basamet is the king most feared and most clever, using both deceit and insurmountable strength to lead the wicked hordes to topple the last vestiges of the order of Star Gazers.

 

And so, after the masacre of  Vire Tower another bastion is gone and I somehow, Shimerulalalama, forgive me, escaped with my head by skirting my title of priest and naming my brothers and sisters and even young sons to the maw of that vile Filidi so I could live for another day. I shall go to the deepest room of darkness in the Underworld for my dark deed for I feared death and torture so much I became the same evil that eradiceted the Tower.

 

And so I write my last words before hanging myself anyway in the end, more tortured than my brothers who died that day.  I still shall die.  I shall die.  And yet I do not want to as I write my note.

…..

I have changed my mind.  No name shall be given to this bitter note as I originally planned.  Instead I shall put it in a book noone has ever read for it is a piece of garbage, THE COLLECTED TALES OF NIMROD NIMROD, and so leaving behind my sin.  I shall change my name and live out the rest of my days as a heathen, sinning upon sin for the sin I committed already is the worst and I cannot sin any harsher. 

 

So here is the last note of a former priest of the Order of Star Gazers, anonymously written.  If so found, do not lead by example, it is better by far to die as a martyr so you can rest in the Holy City than to live another day on this horrible place.

 

I curse all things and myself become a curse.”