The Three Immortals

The Three Immortals is a book about the myth of the Three Immortals, written by Lenticule Spume. Although its publication date is unknown, it is a very old book, probably written around the Age of the Goblins. The book is a folklorist examination of the various tellings of the Three Immortals that pieces together fragments of the story from different sources into a coherant narrative.

Document Structure

References

A Depiction of the Three Immortals, chosen for its clear use of iconography, is included in the book.

There is a citation that the name of the Father of all Genies being given as Suliman the Marvellous can be traced back to Wild Elf times (before the Year of our Amira 400), although no exact origin point for this element is known.
The book does not mention the "Narrative of the Broken", the name given by Bastet of Palimpsest to her sung Legend Lore of the myth, in any of its citations. Bastet's version of the myth, which is a newer amalgamation of the folklore, tells of the Three Immortals actually reaching the Gates of the Garden Beyond Salsabil. She attributes the reason for the betrayal to the Traitor seeing what the fountain in the garden could do, while the book states that the reason for the betrayal unknown.

Legal status

While the book is not illegal to own or access, being seen in posession of the book by someone who was familiar with the myth of the Three Immortals might raise alarm bells. It would be expected, although not required, to obtain permission from House Stargazer before owning or viewing the text. Failure to do so could attract suspicion from the authorities and incur a fine if ownership was deemed to be unlawful.

Historical Details

History

Scrapday, Tailormoon, 1312

The Lord Captain Emissary borrowed eight texts (including this one) from the Stargazer Library. This was one of two texts that had been specifically requested by Governing Director Beckett Kitchener the other six being texts around a similar subject.

Scrapday, Sailormoon, 1313

Vulpix found a copy of this text in the Understacks when he had Alleyported himself, Lindie Asklepa and Chime there to escape the sabotaged Mason Foundry.

Read the Document

The Three Immortals

The story of three rulers or leaders or heroes from different races and different species. Exactly which species they were, no one agrees on, although they are never very humanoid species. They came together on a Quest for Immortality.
First they sought the Father of all Genies, who it was said could grant any wish, and who it was said would grant three if he were found. After many years of questing together, they found the Father of all Genies. They made their Three Wishes. Each of them wishing one at a time for immortality. The genie, whose name in at least one version is given as Suliman the Marvellous, granted their wishes, but as genies are often wont to do when granting wishes to the unprepared, he granted them more to the letter than the spirit.
The three became immortal. They were undying, but they were not impervious, nor were they unaging. They could still be harmed, they still grew older and weaker with time. But now when they grew too old or too sick or too injured to continue, they would not even be able to escape to the Garden Beyond the Stars.
And so, in order to overcome this curse they had wished upon themselves by accident, the three formed an empire and built a Tower that they pulled all of their resources and all of the combined resources of their three-species empire into to build the tower ever higher, until – as was inevitable with such resources behind it and three very determined leaders who could not be killed mandating that everything went to the tower - eventually the Tower reached the Sky.
The Three Immortals stormed the Gates of the Garden Beyond Salsabil itself. The story seems unclear on why the next plot twist happens where it does but, for some reason, as they are in the very midst of storming the Garden Beyond the Stars, the goal of true undying, unaging immortality as can be offered to only the souls of the dead finally within their grasp, for some reason the Three Immortals turned upon each other.
One, which the tales and the murals and the carvings would always identify as the Traitor struck down a second, which would always be identified as the Broken. Not dead, for an immortal cannot die, but broken and cast aside.
What came of the other two is unclear in the fragments of this story that have been pieced together. Whether the Traitor defeated the one that remained faithful or whether the Faithful defeated the Traitor is not clearly recorded. Perhaps the Traitor and the Faithful remain locked in combat at the very gates of the garden.
Perhaps even today the Broken that was cast down seeks a way of returning to take one side over the other and end that conflict.
Various cultures have had one theory or another about that, but how the tale originally ended in its oldest version, archaeology has not yet uncovered. What happened to the Three Immortals is unknown. What if anything came of Suliman the Marvellous, maybe.
What became of the tower that they built is not known for certain but many have suggested that without the Three Immortals and their power keeping it in place, over the years it sank into the sands under its own weight, gradually building upwards in a desperate attempt to keep itself at least partially above the ground.
Which is as good an origin story for the city of Palimpsest as any other.

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Type

Text, Philosophical

Medium

Vellum / Skin

Authoring Date

Unknown

Myth

Three Immortals

Authors

• Lenticule Spume

Legality

Restricted but not illegal to access.
Punishement: Fine for unlawful access. Would be expected to obtain Stargazer permission to own or view it.