Skip to main content

The Broo's Lament

A broo crawled from its Chaos-pit and called out to the distant Black Sun:

When I was born, I tore my way from my mother's belly. When I was a child, I murdered my father. I have never known the comfort of home.

When I fought for Akorgat, I fell from a very high place. When I fought for Tien, I lost my head. I have never known the comfort of victory.

O, Black Sun! They call you the joy and comfort of all the beings between sky and hell! Gbaji has not yet come to free us, and I cannot endure to wait! What comfort is there for a creature like me?

The Black Sun heard this, and struck open the ground. The waters beneath the earth poured in like blood, and black flowers bloomed like scabs.

"Eat the black lotus, and you shall receive your desire. Eat the black lotus, but only eat two."

I don't know why the broo ate three. Perhaps it was to prove he could? Regardless, he fell into a deep sleep, and slept so long Gbaji came and left while he was asleep! Somewhere, next to a pool where the water seeps in like blood, where the flowers of the black lotus bloom like a scab, he sleeps, and will wake up finally when Gbaji returns for the second, and final time.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Festival of Fools

We were traveling now through the Blood Drenched Hills, and coming to the market town of Spleen. Naturally, I wanted to get moving as quickly as possible, but my entourage had already decided we would spend a day or two here, peddling and enjoying their Mid Spring Festival. It did not feel like mid spring, the wind was still bitingly cold, the roads wet and muddy from snow melt, but the early planting had concluded so it was time for a party. The town was nestled between a few hills, so the first sign of it was two plumes of smoke from the signal fires outside. As we rounded a curve in the road, the palisades of the town became visible. A token force of guards were posted outside, clearly Kralorelan, and clearly disappointed with their post. Merchants coming to the festival were being charged an entry fee, or were required to prove customary right of entrance to a small, tired looking administrator. He was sitting at one of the collapsible desks that mantrins deployed to the countrysi...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Survey of What We Have to Work With: Chen Durel edition (Part 1)

Right now I’m only going to dig into the Guide. There’s more stuff, both back from antiquity and from other fanworks, but the Guide is now the place to start. First and foremost: the name has flopped between Chern Durel and Chen Durel for a while, but the Guide uses Chen, so that’s official. Chen Durel is treated as a province of Kralorela, and given 6 pages of its own. A third of the Notable People of Kralorela are Chen Dureli, and all of them are members of Can Shu’s clique. The gods of Chen Durel occasionally get mentioned elsewhere - the Gang of Four are part of Kralorela’s history, the Black Sun is described when talking about troll gods, and they all get play in the Hero Wars section. As a consequence of its placement, we should expect the writing to have a quietly pro-Kralori bias. The history of Kralorela is well rehearsed. Prior to any human life, there are ancient pyramids covered in hieroglyphs. There is in the Godtime the worship of a Sun God, who appe...
Post a Comment
Read more

Marginalia 2 - An Episode from the Life of Sheng Seleris

AgartuSay was deluded by the Dragon, and lured into the Maw of the Dragon. He was plied with sweet words, the promise of an end to torture. His food was dragon poison, the dragon poison clouded his sight, and he thought this was clarity. He had denied the hundred gods, and cursed his ancestors. He balanced the elements of his body in the Dragon way - that is to say, he cut off everything he feared and denied it was him. There in the Maw of the Dragon, AgartuSay only had his mind left, and he would soon be free of that and become wholly a dragon himself. But then it happened he met a fish seller. The fish seller was old, and humbled. He had baskets of fish before him, and watercress-lined baskets of prawns too. His left leg was bent wrong, and his iron harpoon was rusted next to him. His tunic was made from fish skin, and his sandals were made from shark skin. The gorakiki-men and gorakiki-women crawled on him, they bit into his skin, they ate of him, and he did not once strike at t...
Post a Comment
Read more