POETRY NEWS #3588
Date: 9/6/2009 at 7:53
From: Drauka
To : Everyone
Subj: To Descendants of Jaru Cabal

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% Disclaimer: Since I am, at the present, a rogue Occultist, I do
% not have enough information to verify if the poem is
% actually historically accurate at all, but it's a work
% of fiction... so don't take it too seriously.
% Just pretend a horrible Jester wrote this.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%



Introduction
--------------------------------------------------------------------

I write this down in the shadow of night.
Words no one will hear,
I must retell this tale...
of horrid history, faces grown pale,
faces that follow me, eyes glowing bright.
It is getting hard to sleep,
it is a story almost too sad to share.

This is just a way I can clear my mind,
I must get it out.
I must retain sanity.
I know all hope is up for me.
I know these words may not be all too kind,
yet I've faced horrible things...
and you must know what it's all about.

So, please excuse any mistakes in this
I may not have time to review,
or even finish all I have to say.
I hope finish and stash this safely away
I am not one anyone would miss
but I would dearly desire
to learn from these mistakes, not make them anew.


When Joy Existed
--------------------------------------------------------------------

It all began several years ago, I think.
(time runs together these days)
I was busy with my studies outside of Jaru,
(I miss eating fresh food)
ignorant of the world I was, so naive..
So much can happen in the time to wink.
You have nothing really at all.
I've come to realize this in oh so many ways...

I remember hearing about it, how it would make
all our lives better, finally!
Through all our diligent research, rituals, and studies
we have an idea how to leave these bodies!
We have a plan, we finally have a sound plan!
True freedom was at hand!
Not everything goes to plan, I'm afraid.
It could not have ended more horribly.

You may never hear of her, yet she is quite famous,
at least in our little cabal.
She is of great intellect and Chaos understanding.
she works long hours; her rituals demanding.
She is a tireless model of what I'd like to be,
at least I did then, now you wouldn't believe.
She performed an unapproved high risk experiment.
Shakira led us all our grave eternal.


Nowhere To Hide, Nowhere To Run
--------------------------------------------------------------------

While I do not know the details of what happened,
I am quite aware of the result.
For some reason, she turned into a beast of destruction,
no longer her self, we had no protection.
Some of the elders thought they found a error,
thought they could complete the ritual and save her.
They failed just the same, killing us all,
killing their own families, we had lost our fold.

Our cabal was in ruins, maybe we never understood anything,
were we wrong about Chaos the whole time?!
Is everything I grew up to know all a lie?
Yet, now is not to think, I must now survive,
I run as quick as a can, half-regret now when I sleep.
If I stayed behind, I would be dead, I know, I've seen
our own killed by our own.
Toying with Chaos, punishment to fit the crime?

I am not sure where to go next. I am lost from my world.
I know no one. I have nothing.
I am hungry. I am tired. I am alone. I am afraid.
Everyone I know is now dead or chaotically insane.
I will try to head East, Shallam may offer shelter.
They have been helpful when we needed it before,
they should be able to take me in and help.
I am without hope, but I must keep breathing.




(I'll continue this again tomorrow, hopefully in a warm bed
for these dark times in the city of Light. I'm hiding this,
just in case... someone must know what happened here.)


Penned by my hand on the 25th of Sarapin, in the year 518 AF.

Posted the same thing, as the sticky in this forum says one can repost content to Bardic submission if previously posted elsewhere before.
I'd like to keep this first person point of view of key points in history, of someone of no real importance and forgotten. I'm a fan of that perspective...

I do wish you'd quit pretending you know everything about the Occultists and the Burning Times. Your character is so utterly pretentious that I seriously just want to punch him in the throat.

From a technical perspective, the piece is tolerable, and given that you're a first-timer and the calibre of the other crap that gets submitted, you'll probably win. But you still irritate the piss out of me.

I don't pretend to know anything and even put a disclaimer at the beginning of it. When people ask me, I also claim that I don't know anything and tell what I used for reference. In this case, it is the "The History of the Burning Times" book in the Ashtan library (specifically pages 3 and 4) and from reading Mythos scrolls available to everyone. I'm not sure where you get this impression of my character, yet it is not one have presented. Are you sure you're not bringing my real life persona here on forums in-game? Not sure where this negativity is coming from, it certainly isn't something I presented in-game, but I'd like it to stop and I'd like it not to affect my experience in-game either

I don't know much about the Occultists and Burning Times. I really honestly don't, yet that doesn't mean I can't write fictional works using my imagination using what little information I have. Which is what I did AND I included a disclaimer when posting it to POETRY boards, with respect to the Occultists House as my intent of including it and not wanting to pass my character off as something I'm not.

Me personally and my character are naturally curious and have imaginations. My character in-game also has archives in his library from being in the Revolutionaries of Chaos (previously, in the time before Babel's return), and other books that have been leaked from the Occultist House from being in other Houses and speaking with other rogue Occultists.

Edit: I know it might come as a surprise, but there is a ton of Occultist information available outside of the Occultist House, much of which is leaked/copied from the Occultist House.

If you ever want to find out what really happened, the Church would be perfectly happy to indoctrinate educate burninate you.