“Let the ruling king always keep a clown about him and on his council, and let the fool babble on what he like, and relentless mock the king and all his grand and royal plans and designs at the idiot’s discretion. For there is no greater councilor than one who will clearly speak truth to folly.”
– “Fifteen ways of ruling”, DE 1559, attributed to Au, the Pankrator of the Yellow City of Vesh.
“Do you understand the true power of a sovereign? A raw man must kill with his bare hands. The battered warrior, a weapon. The commander, his bellowing voice, the conspirator, a whispered word. But all these pale compared to kingship. A true sovereign need not flex a single muscle in his body, and a hundred men die. A true sovereign may murder without a single impulse, or even intent, sight, breath, or even though of his murder. He is an idiot indifferent to his own violence. He has sublimed the act of obliteration.
That is the meaning of kingship.”
AU VAM, Pankrator of the Yellow City
Meti’s Sword Manual
Argument
1. Glory to the Divine Corpse, o breaker of infinities
2. I am Meti, of no house but myself. In my 108th year I am surrounded by fools. My compatriots cling obsessively to their destiny, and my only apprentice is an idiot speck of a girl with more talent for eating than skill with the blade. Therefore I have decided to die drowning in the boiling gore of my enemies, of which there are many.
3. My master was the greatest lord general to the king Au Vam, Ryo-ten-Ryam, who first coaxed me into learning the ways of turning men into ghosts. As his interest quickly turned to the wholly uninteresting and most useless parts of my body, I returned the favor and relieved him of his.
4. It is my personal opinion the straight sword is best if you can obtain one, but I also favor the sabre. The spear, stave, or club are peasant’s weapons of which I am wholly unfamiliar and so will not speak on them.
5. Upon meeting me, you might find that my appearance is quite dreadful and unkempt. I have been spat upon by priest, king, and merchant alike. I have no retainers, and possess nothing except a straight sword six hand spans (5 and a half kret) long (this is the proper length). This is because I am Royalty and the undisputed master of the principal art of Cutting. I will fight naked with ten-thousand men.
6. From the age of thirteen I practiced every day with the straight sword. I followed a strict vegetarian regimen, and harsh training of barefoot sprints (five) between cities, squats and breathing exercises (two bells), and sword drills and resistance training (three bells).
7. By the age of sixteen, my body was a steel edifice. I was so often mistaken for a man I began to wear my hair long with no pins and unbind my breasts. I could break stone with my hands with no effort, I could sprint between the Yellow City and the Lunar dominions in a day or less and barely strain my breath. My mastery of the sword complete, I enlisted in the Middle Army’s third legion, where I was widely respected as a swordswoman of incredible power.
8. When it came time to face my first real opponent, the Colossus of Pardos, in my youthful pride and immense skill, I brought all my training and mastery to bear. Scarcely half a day passed before my sword was shattered into thirty pieces, my right leg was almost torn from its socket, and my honed body was broken pathetically in a hundred and forty places. I defeated him by gouging his brains out through his breathing valves. My thumbs, in this case, proved far more useful.
9. At that moment, with my thumbs in his brains, I had a revelation. I had trained far too broadly. Existence and the act of combat are absolutely no different, and the essence of both, the purity of both, is a singular action, which is Cutting Down Your Opponent. You must resolve to train this action. You must become this action. Truly, there is very little else that will serve you as well in this entire cursed world.
10. I hope that by reading this manual, you will be thoroughly encouraged to become a farmer.
“Dread those with the terrible star on their brow, for they are my kin. They trade in flesh, smoke, and star-knowledge. Their reins of power are made of coursing flame, and their chariot wheels trample the world in any direction they wish. When you see them you will know there are many ways to fill a man with death, and the walls of the world will feel thin to you indeed.”
-Au Vam, Pankrator of Vesh, ruler of the Yellow City
“A Devil can be the most horrifying warrior, untiring manservant, or cunning secretary that one could wish. But unlike humankind’s weak Black Flame, the flame of the Devils glows hot and raw. It must be fettered. Otherwise, they will surely tear Throne apart, angels be damned.”
– Par Vam, Undersecretary of the Yellow City
“My apprentice asked me why I prefer the company of dogs to men. I told her that a man is an kind of intolerable monkey who clings obsessively to his own fate. To subvert his mortality, he inflicts death and unfathomable torture upon the world. My apprentice told me that I was being a little severe, and asked me about dogs.
I told her that dogs keep my feet warm, and they care very little how badly I insult them. In this respect, they are also better than apprentices.”
– Meti, of the Yellow City
‘On the topic of dogs, a passing priest once pressed me quite fervently on the subject of my own mortality. He was very concerned about preserving the nature of my immortal essence. “Grandson,” said I, “I am old and my bones are sopping with death already. Why should I care?” He went on to describe in great detail the rituals that could be undertaken to guard one’s soul against degradation and ensure smooth passage to the next realm.
“Do you perform these rites every day?” I asked him, trying to humor him. “Of course, auntie,” said the priest, “Every morning before I wake fully I perform my rites, then four more times a day before rest. It keeps me in good health and spirits, knowing that my death will be a golden door to paradise.”
“Four times a day?” I said, incredulous. “Of course,” said the priest, “Don’t you think about dying, auntie? You should be worried, at your age.”
“Do you think about dying?” I asked him. “How about before sleep?”
“Yes,” he said, seeing that I was clearly straining his good nature. “How about when you bathe?” I asked him. He thought a moment. “Well, sometimes,” he replied. “How about when you shit?” I said. “Never,” he said brusquely.
“Not even once?”
“Well maybe once, but I don’t see the point! Who knows?” he said, clearly seeking to draw away from me and peddle his wares onto more the more gullible trash that populated the gutter. “A dog has more sense than you,” I said to him, and thumbed at a lazy mutt that was picking through the market. “He doesn’t think of death at all. Not when he sleeps, not when he bathes, and certainly not when he shits.”
“And I supposed there’s a point,” said the priest.
“You and he will both die,” I pointed out to him. “The four great elements of your bodies will collapse one into the other and you will both become no more substantial than a fart.” I should mention at this time in my life I had very little patience for rhetoric.
The priest spat on me later. I didn’t mind.’
-Meti, of the Yellow City
“Retain not the beast of burden as your pack animal – being made from the effervescent heat of the Flame Immortal, the animal possesses such a weak Atum that he will disperse upon entrance into the Void.
Troublesome as it may be, the only reliable way to carry your heavy cargo is by use of a sorcerer or devil binder who will surely gouge a great chunk of Profit for his services. The Shades of the recently dead are too numerous to count, pliable, and lack awareness – for this they are perfect mounts. The Thrull, the Follower, the Necked – these are fine and cheap forms of Shade and easy to warp.
The only other way is by use of automatons, which will decay rapidly if left unattended, and the poor man’s way, which is by foot. But the stride of the poor man is not lined with gold.”
-Void Trader’s manual, early circulation (Copy purchases from Yellow City underwarrens circa 600 S.C.).
“Here’s what I know of the masters of this universe: there’s a law in old Uros that if one lays a finger on them, he shall lose his arm up to the elbow. But in the throne world if one lays his gaze an inch too high, he shall have his head removed at the neck.”
-Magister Periases of the Yellow City
“[…] then there is the one [called] Ghost Maker, a man of great repute and peculiar habit. It is said he is so skilled with an edge, he killed the great iron-skinned Champion of Urash with a scissor blade. None who are present at the duel dispute this account other than to say the scissors also did not survive the conflict.”
– Histories of the Yellow City, volume 4
“The king Au Vam was known for keeping a peculiar member of his council – a low-born scullion, who would serve tea for his grand war parties. This country maid kept the company of ten of the most powerful generals in the Yellow City, and was privy to their most tenebrous plans, yet was scarcely sixteen summers of age and educated not a whit.
Her purpose was thus: if the grand designs and monolithic schemes of any of these mighty and august men could not pass the base judgement of a girl of sixteen summers, they were immediately discarded.
Thus did Au Vam win nearly all of his battles.”
-Histories of the Yellow City, Vol. 32, paragraph 3 (A.S.C. 189)
“Many great men ask me why I keep such numerous, rare, and expensive flowers in my palace. This is to warn me of the habits of weak kings. A king should always be attentive to his flowers, and keep a great number of them. If he does not pay his servants enough to take care of them, they will pluck some in secret, and sell them in the market. If his servants do not care enough for their master or their service, they will willfully neglect his flowers, and they will die. If he forces his servants to water the flowers out of fear, the delicate flowers will be overwatered and they will die. If he keeps lavish flowers, he must educate his servants sufficiently to take care of them, or they will die. A king with wilted flowers, or no flowers at all is not worth trusting. This is the first measure I take of my rival lords.”
– Au Vam, Pankrator of Vesh, the Yellow City
“Everyone could feel war coming. The famine washed over the land first. The dogs disappeared. The sky grew dark as the sun turned away, as if it knew what was going to happen.”
– Account from the Yellow City, circa second conquest
“The temples were burst open and all that could not be concealed was defiled, until flesh became more valuable than gold. Men swarmed over the city like locusts, eating shoes, grass, carrion, dung. Strength became the only currency.”
– Account from the Yellow City, circa the Universal War
“Au Vam chose his royal guard thus: he would whip the men fiercely for two hours. Any man that could endure such a hellish flogging was strong enough to protect the God-King and receive his blessing.
The men that endured this ordeal in complete silence were not appointed to the guard – they were instead banished from his realm. Au Vam did not trust any man who had become so intimate with pain. A man like that must be fed with blood.”
– Chronicles of the Yellow City
“The king that holds the chains of the world must make his peace with them, link by link. They are heavier than any man, and they will not hesitate to break his bones.”
-Au Vam, Pankrator of the Yellow City
“The Gods are like pillars. When one falls, the world collapses like a flower in winter and all is turned to dust.”
-Inscription, circe 253 SC, Yellow City
“It is said that the Diktate Au Vam had a pillar four hundred handspans high set in the main marketplace of the Yellow City, and guarded by a man day and night. Upon the top of the pillar was a great stele upon which was engraved his name. Below were engraved the names of some four thousand lords, each of them of great standing, with large households and many servants. Upon Au Vam’s death, it was said the stele would be shattered, and the first name on the pillar crowned as the new king, and so on and so forth. But when the pillar was ground into the dirt, or the bearers of its names no longer alive, then there were no more men worthy in the city, and it would die a true and final death.”
– Ogdo, Tellar Historian
“The Blue Faced Sage has one thesis that consistently earns him ire in the Lunar Courts. His argument is the following: that immortals, while said to possess the qualities and parts of mortal beings, such as thought, speech, and personality, must by necessity discard these parts or perish in mind and spirit both. These parts, he argues, are useful only to a being of a more limited existence, who must by nature participate in the world, while an immortal has no motivating impetus to do so, and no motivating impetus to interact with beings that have no more significant to a true immortal than a mote of sand. Therefore, the exercise of these parts is merely a curiosity, or worse, a manifestation of insanity.”
-Annals of the Yellow City
“The master of masters – the king’s essence is in inaction. He must be perfectly still. Otherwise he ceases to become a man and becomes a force above human will, and none shall see a better day for it.”
-Annals of the Yellow City
“It is said, in those days, to the great armies of the Yellow City was made a peculiar decree. All men, regardless of rank, were ordered to eat in common, in common reed and rush mat halls, and with no utensils other than their hands, and nothing other than a wooden bowl to hold their mess. Protestations were made against this policy, as a matter of course, for mingling with the coarse and ignoble was seen as unsightly in those days, but the master of that army, Ryo-ten-Ryam, had a voice like a southern wind, and scattered them to the corners of the world.
It is said that by sharing the meal, the men intermixed, and by intermixing, their common destiny became entwined, and eventually their blood. What force could stand up to that?”
– Yua Yua Lo, Lunar Monk (notes in the Blue Record, circa 45 SC)