The Words From The Dark

The text known as "The Words From The Dark" is the holy book of the Church of Hidden Radiance at the Cavern City of Carafon. It tells the stories of the gods from the Pantheon of the Hidden Radiance and expounds on the tenets of faith which the Church preaches concerning the moral duties of the citizens.

Purpose

"The Words from the Dark" elucidates the central mystery at the heart of the faith of the Church of Hidden Radiance. By providing a spiritual justification for the work of mining in the Cavern City of Carafon it unites the miners and the citizens in a common cause, offering solace for the many hardships faced in the deeps, explaining the suffering caused by the Dark Flora of Carafon and promising a form of distant salvation in which Carafon itself will heal the injustices caused by the rift between gods and make all well under the sun and under the earth.
A cynic might suggest (and some have) that the narrative is very convenient for the wealthy who profit from the mining in the city, offering more than secular rewards for the hard labour underground. But it is undeniable that the words from the dark have provided comfort for the dying and the living over several centuries, encouraging the belief that their work is part of a great secret service to the gods.

Document Structure

Publication Status

The original copy of the Words from the Dark, is kept in a shrine in the Cathedral of Hidden Radiance, but many copies circulate freely in Carafon and more widely.

Historical Details

History

According to tradition, Heruld the Bald was a miner who lived about six hundred years ago. Falling asleep in a strange new cave system which had opened up beneath his feet, he was visited in a dream by the godesses Mellonorexis and Leta, who shared with him the true hidden history of the deep ways below the Cavern City of Carafon and charged him with the task of spreading the word. He wrote down the secrets of the Hidden Radiance at their behest and established the faith the church teaches to this day.
It's clear from a critical examination of the text that there has been more than one author with a hand in the editing and writing of different sections of the central story but the names of any others are now lost.

Legacy

Whilst at first, the "Words from The Dark" were received by most as the mere ravings of a mad man, a small group of followers did grow rapidly around Heruld the Bald as the compelling ideas at the core of the new mythology took hold. Within a hundred years, the Church of Hidden Radiance was formally recognised by the Tyrant of Carafon and its festivals and exegesis of the Words from the Dark became the officially sanctioned state religion. It is now impossible to think of the Cavern City of Carafon without considering the profound importance of the church on the way of life of all its citizens, who routinely define themselves by their orthodox, occasionally heretical or athiest positions with respect to the church's teachings.

Read the Document

The Words From The Dark

Here follow some extracts from the holy book, "The Words From The Dark"...

Origins

In the Hall of Stars, those we cannot name, set the times for the life of all the stars; the time for them to burn and the time for them to gutter and die. And when it was the time for our sun to be lit amidst the other lamps of heaven, caretakers were assigned and sent forth from the Hall of Stars to rule this new domain. We call the caretakers, the Elder Gods.
Of these there are seven. Mellonorexis, the eldest was sent to be a councillor and guide for all the gods, but not to rule over them. She has the gift of prophecy, revealing truth from the chaos of dreams and visions. Helios, next in age, strong of will and stern of face, is the leader, sent to command the sun. Gaia, calm and beautiful but implacable and righteous, has been given authority over the Earth and to aid her she has Pyrotas, the god of inner fire and his spouse, Thalassa, the goddess of the sea. Her sister Selene, was given charge of the moon. Finally, the goddess Leta was sent to bring her qualities of joy, healing and redemption into the world, attributes which Mellonorexis prophesied would be sorely needed.

Of Helios, Gaia and Selene

Helios - Stern by DMFW with Stable Diffusion

Gaia - Rock Crown by DMFW with Stable Diffusion

Helios was wed to Gaia, his first love and of that union came forth the first of the Younger Gods, born in this realm. Thymum and his younger sister Solanum, cherished the growing things that now sprouted and flourished on the earth.

Thymum - Portrait by DMFW with Stable Diffusion

Solanum - Portrait by DMFW with Stable Diffusion

So, also Pyrotas and Thalassa were blessed with a daugher they called Nerissa. She inherited her mother's power over water but rather than the great seas and oceans, she loved best the rain and the fresh water streams and lakes. This was also what the new plants needed and a friendship grew up between Nerissa and the son and daughter of Gaia. Helios and Gaia were happy when they saw that their children made common cause with Thalassa's daughter and the earth had become fruitful as a result.

Pyrotas - Portrait by DMFW with Stable Diffusion

Thalassa - Portrait by DMFW with Stable Diffusion

Nerissa - Portrait by DMFW with Stable Diffusion

Yet even as Gaia rejoiced in the greening of the earth, Helios deceived her, for a hidden passion had ignited within him and the object of his passion was the cool beauty of Gaia's younger sister, Selene. Courting her in secret, Helios seduced the goddess of the moon and she bore him two sons, Aurum and Argyros.
Aware that Gaia would be filled with righteous anger if she found out, Selene hid the children and of her pregnancies, she said that they were only the natural waxing and waning of the moon, that is in her nature. And so it was that Gaia did not at first realise how Helios had betrayed her.

Selene - Starlight by DMFW with Stable Diffusion

Aurum - Portrait by DMFW with Stable Diffusion

Argyros - In Love by DMFW with Stable Diffusion

In the fifth year after the birth of Argyros, Gaia was pregnant when she found out the truth about her lover and her sister. One fateful summer day, the sun passed behind the moon. In the darkness of the eclipse, Gaia saw a ring of fire around the lunar mountains. Then she knew that Helios was visiting Selene, even though the light of his sun no longer warmed the earth. And at the same moment, she heard a tiny cry from one of the infant boys and everything became clear to her in an instant of intuition.
So it was that Gaia and Helios became estranged. In her pain and anger, Gaia turned to Leta, the only one of the gods who could comfort her. It was Leta who helped Gaia, through the very difficult birth of her third and last child, the boy Sanguis. When she saw his face, weeping with blood, Gaia felt her son was cursed and might even have abandoned him in her anger against his father, had not Leta encouraged sense and compasssion with her gentle words and her healing touch. It was Leta who first said that Sanguis must be destined for great things, although she could not forsee what they would be. Mellonorexis, who could see, said nothing.

Gaia - Sad by DMFW

Leta - Contemplation by DMFW with Stable Diffusion

Sanguis - Portrait by DMFW with Stable Diffusion

Of Sanguis

Note that the story told here to explain the origins of the dark flora of Carafon is a mythic invention with symbolic significance which expresses a poetic truth at variance with the more mundane secular account usually accepted outside the faith of the church of hidden radiance.
The curse of Sanguis was a curse of blood, which weeps from the body of the god in fresh red streams that never dry. That is why he is the god of blood, because his birth brought true mortal blood into the world. With blood, animals and humans could be born too, for they need blood in the way that plants do not.
Sanguis was a fierce boy with fierce loves and fierce hatreds. From an early age, he learned his mother's contempt for Helios and vowed that he would have vengence on his father for the pain he had caused his mother. Although Thymum and Solanum, reached out to him, he did not bond as easily with them as brothers and sisters should. Maybe he felt that there was something suspicious about them because their father was Helios too. This was not rational for they were no different from him in that respect, so perhaps it betrayed a kind of self loathing which arose from the very visible curse that marked him as different. In any case, he was a difficult child and even Gaia who was very protective of him, did not always understand the boy. Only Leta seemed to appreciate how Sanguis truly felt and to her he was devoted.
Growing ever more resentful of his absent father, Sanguis came to dislike the play of sunlight over the land, coming as it did from the domain of Helios. "Why should the god of the sun watch everything I do?", he complained to his mother, as a rebellious adolescent. "I wish there was a private place where he could not see me, and where I can make new things that do not need or concern him."
Indulging her son's desires, Gaia opened up the rocks under the Carafon Hill. "Here you may walk in darkness, free from the eye of Helios", she told him, and she further explained how he could create magical wards that would prevent entry into these spaces from outside and even from the Hall of Stars itself.
Meeting with Thymum, Sanguis, sought his aid to bring into being plants that could live out of the sun in the caverns below the earth. Thymum, was uneasy when he sensed how deeply Sanguis resented Helios, and he did not entirely like the idea of the dark Flora of Carafon which he helped his brother to create with the magic of earth and green life, but he was happy for them to work together, and their interest in the joint project did forge a friendship between them, which has never entirely been broken since.
Whilst Sanguis was a serious minded and troubled young god, he was capable of surprising acts of kindness, and cherished the lives of the animals that were the spiritual children of his blood and now spread over all the earth. Seeing this, Gaia also felt an affinity and joy in the new life forms which she also nurtured.
As for Leta, something deepened in their relationship and as the boy grew into the god we now know her feelings changed from compassion into passion. They became lovers and of their union was born something greater than all other animals - the first human souls.
So it is that we are all descendants of Sanguis and Leta and as the father and mother of all mankind we owe them honour and praise. This we must never forget, even as we remember the later sins of the god of blood.

Of the imprisonment of Aurum and Argyros

This section of the "The Words From The Dark", appears to be authored by a different hand and is thought to be older than the sections dealing with the earlier chrononogy of the gods.
When all the world was young and all the hills were empty and all the streams were pure, two gods came to the lands of the Spine Mountains. The names of the gods were Aurum and Argyros and they were brothers, sons of Helios and Selene, the god of the sun and the goddess of the moon. Born on the moon and raised in the Hall of Stars, they had been shown all the wonders of the skies by their father and mother, yet always they had been warned of one thing.
"We do not go down to the earth. That is the domain of your aunt, Gaia, and she is a jealous goddess who resents your very existence. We wish only for peace with her but that seems sadly far away and your presence in her lands will only provoke her to anger."
As boys, the brothers had obeyed their father and mother, but now they were men and they had determined that they would visit the earth to see for themselves, for they had heard it was the home of many wonderous things, of plants and animals and even perhaps something stranger which was like unto the gods themselves, but mortal.
Wandering on the shores of the seas (stirred into sympathy by the tidal pull of their mother's world) and through green fields and thick forests, they found much to enjoy and to marvel at, though they never encountered another soul until their travels brought them to Carafon Hill and here they met with Sanguis.
The god of blood understood very quickly who he was talking too, but the visitors did not at first identify him. Since the estrangement of Gaia and Helios, news from Earth came slowly or not at all to the celestial realm. Gaia no longer travelled to the Hall of Stars. Pyrotos, Thalassa, Thymum, Solanum and Leta, out of loyalty to the goddess of Earth, did not indulge in gossip and speculation, whenever they met Helios or Selene, so that Sanguis and his curse was only a rumour to the divinities of the sun and moon.
"Hail fellow, well met!", Aurum declared heartily as was his way, but he could not prevent a hint of poorly disguised disgust from crossing his face at the sight of the open bleeding of Sanguis, though he was too polite to mention it. For his own part Sanguis, noticed the instinctive reaction and it provoked a secret fury which he was too clever to reveal.
"We have come from the moon", Argyros said, with a complete lack of guile, for he did not really believe that anyone on earth could wish ill of them.
"By way of the Hall of Stars, I shouldn't wonder", Sanguis replied. Then with a laugh he introduced himself and offered his guests mead made with the honey of the bees that flew over the green thyme on the open hillsides of Carafon Hill, just as they do to this day.
The mead was strong and a drink the sons of the sun and moon had not tasted before. Soon, they thought themselves in fine company, for Sanguis disguised his true intent with cheer and good fellowship, listening politely to their stories and responding with ready wit when he told his own.
"My true home lies beneath the hill", he told them. "There I have made plants that live without sunlight such as you will not see anywhere else in this world or any other. Come! I would show you the secrets of the caves and the dark fauna for you may never pass this way again."
The brothers were persuaded and went heedlessly underground, listening attentively as Sanguis explained the plants that lived without sunlight and the special ones that fed from blood as he led them ever deeper below the earth. They passed without thinking into the warded realms where the ways to the Hall of Stars were blocked. Here even a god can be trapped. And that is exactly what Sanguis did.
"Now you are my captives", the god of blood suddenly announced, when he had coolly tricked the brothers into entering a makeshift cell, originally build for meditation but now serving as a very effective prison.
Surprised and shocked, Aurum and Argyros found they were unable to leave even this simple sealed room, for the wards designed to keep Helios out, worked just as well to keep his sons in. In this place they could not gain access to the Hall of Stars.
"What have we done?", Argyros asked.
"Nothing. It is not what you have done, it is who you are that is the crime", Sanguis answered. "It is a crime that only my mother can judge, and you must wait here until she decides what is to be done with you!"

Nerissa and her sisters

In the years when Sanguis was reaching maturity, Pyrotas and Thalassa were blessed with two new daughters, younger sisters for Nerissa, whom they named Saphira and Rubina. The girls were both quite unlike their elder sister in many ways, yet they all loved each other dearly, perhaps the more so for their differences. Where Nerissa took after her mother in understanding the ways of water, Saphira and Rubina inherited their father's feeling for the beauty of fire and stones and metal. They were the apple of his eye and he taught them everything they wished to know about his craft. Saphira was headstrong and brave. She spoke her mind without fear, but she respected her father and mother and although she could be stubborn on occasion she was not arrogant or boastful and her parents were very proud of her. Rubina was more tractable and sweet natured, yet she knew how to use her charm to get her way and despite the occasional exasperation she caused her parents and sisters, they were all to some extent under her spell.

Saphira - Portrait by DMFW with Stable Diffusion

Rubina - Portrait by DMFW with Stable Diffusion

Nerissa - Wielding the Spear of Hydros by DMFW with Stable Diffusion

Nerissa understands the many voices of water. She listens to the injunctions of raindrops, the chattering of streams, the soundings of rivers and the secrets lakes sometimes whisper in the dark. Wherever water goes it tells Nerissa stories, and water goes to some deep and hidden places, far out of sight and returns from them, sometimes changed and sometimes silent but sometimes with strange tales to tell. That was how Nerissa first learned of secret chambers under Carafon Hill, far below the upper caves, and the water told her that the chambers were not empty.
Simple curiosity was her first motivation. She went to explore, armed with the Spear of Hydros, which can wear away rock and open channels for travellers in the deep earth. Making her way unseen through underground streams and gaps between the rocks, she first heard the voices of the prisoners before she saw them and realising they were in distress without understanding how or why, she found a way to break into their cell.
Aurum and Argyris were overjoyed and both speaking at once they hastily explained their predicament. Since Sanguis had captured them, they had been visited by Gaia herself.
"We asked for her mercy but she told us that she must think. She has little love left for our mother and for our father, seemingly none. She has locked these fetters on our feet. Can you free us?"

Now Nerissa was in a quandry. If Gaia had put these chains on the two gods, should she be releasing them? Gaia was her leige lady and that of her parents. She might disagree with imprisoning these unfortunate travellers who appeared to have done nothing wrong but it was not her place to free them and to do so would certainly incur the wrath of Gaia. She hid her indecision as she looked at the metal bindings, reinforced with magical ones. The Spear of Hydros would not be enough to break these bonds.
"I cannot", she said simply. "But I will return."
Offering no better promise than that, she slipped away by the route she had entered, concealing the secret entrance into the cell with a few simple wards of her own and returned, much troubled, to the lands of sunlight.
Now it so happened that as Nerissa was returning to consult with her father and mother, she met first with her sisters and shared her story with them. Saphira was at once indignant and Rubina was filled with a burning curiosity. They both begged their sister to take them to see the prisoners, until Nerissa wished she had never spoken.
Refusing their request with a heavy heart, she continued her journey but at the end of it she found no lasting solace. Pyrotas and Thalassa were even more wary of offending Gaia and they told her to do nothing, making her swear not to try and free the young gods from the moon.
When she talked with her sisters, afterwards, she reflected bitterly on the oath she had sworn, for the truth was that the more she thought about it, the more unjust the imprisonment seemed and the more she wished she could have set Aurum and Argyros free. She thought hard about the oath she had sworn. She had not promised never to return to see the brothers. And neither had she made any promises on behalf of Saphira or Rubina. Furthermore, they had skills that she did not. Perhaps they could break Gaia's bonds?
"Come", she said to her eager sisters. "If we are to right this wrong we had best begin at once!"

The wrath of Gaia

Gaia had spent many years now, brooding on the wrong that Helios and Selene had done to her and she had not forgotten or forgiven it. Conscious of the power of Helios, on which she depended for light and warmth for all those who dwelt under the sun, she wanted to be free from him to rule the Earth alone. The experiments of Sanguis had shown her that life could live underground. That was good but it was not enough. Now, though, her troubled youngest son, had delivered into her hands two tokens to bargain with, in the life of Aurum and Argyros and she planned to make the most of the opportunity.
Poor Selene was frantic with worry when her sons disappeared. The life she had nurtured on the moon, withered and perished as her face turned white and scarred but Gaia said nothing. It was only when Helios, who saw much and suspected more, came with Selene to confront Gaia that she coolly admitted to keeping Aurum and Argyros prisoners.
"And so they shall remain", she said, "until I have received redress for the wrong of their existence."
"What might that be?", Helios asked.
"I need the light and beauty of the sun", Gaia said. "You must grant me the means to make some of the radiance that is yours for myself. Only then, will I release your sons."
But Helios was proud and full of wrath himself. He did not see any justice in the way Gaia was treating his sons and he refused outright to grant her demands. "And furthermore", he said, "I shall withdraw some of my favours from your world, until you learn to respect me."

Gaia - Wrathful by DMFW

Helios - Angry by DMFW with Stable Diffusion

Selene - Despair by DMFW with Stable Diffusion

So began a great age of ice, when all the world was frozen and snow covered every land. The race of men shivered and sheltered underground where they could. Had it not been for the kindness of Pyrotas in granting them the secret of fire, and the guidance of Sanguis, who taught them to hunt and value blood other than their own, they might all have died. Leta, too, did what she could to aid her children, teaching them the virtues of compassion and healing.

Of Secret Meetings Underground

As the Elder Gods engaged in their cold war, their children were not idle. Nerissa had brought Saphira and Rubina into the prison which Sanguis and Gaia, thought hidden from everyone except themselves.
When she saw how Aurum and Argyros had been chained, Saphira declared indignantly that it was an outrage and together with Rubina, the two sisters pooled their combined knowledge of earth and fire magic (which Nerissa did not possess) to attempt to free them. Had they arrived when Sanguis first imprisoned the brothers they would almost certainly have succeeded immediately, but now that Gaia had reinforced the bindings with her own powerful magic it was not such a simple task.
Eventually the sisters had to admit defeat. "The magic is too strong", Saphira said, "but we will not give up. We will see what we can learn from our father and we shall come back!"
The young gods from the moon were smitten by the daughters of Pyrotas and Thalassa, and after they had departed the brothers spoke deep into the night, praising their bravery, skills and beauty. In truth, the sisters too, felt an attraction of their own to the handsome trapped gods, and talked of little else, until Nerissa grew tired of hearing of it.
There would be many opportunities for all four of them to grow closer in the coming days and weeks, for despite the best efforts of the sisters, the sons of Selene could not be freed from their aunt's prison. Perhaps if they had been able to speak openly to their father, it would have been easier, but Nerissa had already explained that he had forbidden her from getting further involved and if they wanted to retain their own freedom to act it would be better for the other two to say nothing of what they were attempting. So, instead Rubina tried to coax information and skills she thought she needed from Pyrotas, whilst Saphira muttered darkly about "borrowing" instruments from his forge.
Even when it became clear that their early hopes of success were now slim, the goddesses continued to visit the gods, since their meetings had become occasions they all cherished.
Saphira, the elder of the two, had conceived a passion for Argyros the youngest brother. She found in his easy temperament and calm manner, a complement for her own strong willed personality and grew to love his subtle sense of self deprecating humour and modesty. For his own part, he was quite captivated by her flashing eyes and sparkling wit and longed to be able to take her in his arms.
Meanwhile, Rubina was infatuated with Aurum, and he with her. She admired his strength and resolution and he adored her charming smile and musical laughter.
Under other circumstances it is certain there would have been a double wedding but the two couples refrained from consumating their desires, having promised one another that any further deepening of their relationships must wait until the young gods were free.

Saphira - In Love by DMFW with Stable Diffusion

Argyros - In Love by DMFW with Stable Diffusion

Aurum - In Love by DMFW with Stable Diffusion

Rubina - In Love by DMFW with Stable Diffusion

And so matters continued without a resolution, until one fateful day when Gaia, visiting her prisoners as she considered how to change the mind of Helios, discovered the sisters in their cell.
The Elder Goddess was furious. Refusing to listen to anything, any of them said, she ordered that they all be imprisoned far more deeply and more securely.
"You shall ALL be kept far, far, down under Carafon Hill", she said. "And not together. You must be separated so that you do not talk and plot together. You must be put beyond the reach of Nerissa into places where water does not flow" (for she understood at once how the girls must have breached the security of the prison).
And so began the long imprisonment of Saphira, Rubina, Aurum and Argyros in the deep earth, alone and with no voice. The girls' father and mother were devastated but Pyrotas and Thalassa had to bow to the judgement of Gaia and the frantic Nerissa has never been able to find her sisters, though she still searches long and hard for them. And so they languish there today, all four, unless the prophecy is fulfilled that shall free them all. And of that prophecy we will learn more in due course.

Solanum's two appeals

For many long years, the earth suffered from Helios' displeasure, frozen and with all the children of Gaia, suffering, be they men, animals or plants. Thymum and Solanum, grew anxious and despondent, as they saw the plants they cared for withering and dying. At last Solanum could stand it no longer and she went to see her mother to plead for a resolution to the strife of the Elder Gods. At first Gaia did seem sympathetic. She had started to wonder herself, if the struggle for survival that all life on earth was now forced to undergo could be justified by the righteous anger she felt towards Helios. Her wrath towards the two sons of her sister had cooled somewhat too and she recognised that Sanguis had perhaps been wrong to capture them and she had perhaps been wrong to go along with it.
So when Gaia went to see Aurum and Argyros, it was with a view to discussing an amicable solution. Unfortunately, that was when she caught Saphira and Rubina and the thought that they had been plotting to free the brothers in secret made her fly into a rage again, with the results that have been explained earlier.
Solanum could see that she would get nowhere with her mother and in despair she went to see her father in the Hall of Stars, and this is when she made a second appeal.

Solanum - Appeal to Gaia by DMFW with Stable Diffusion

Solanum - Appeal to Helios by DMFW with Stable Diffusion

Now, Helios, too was concerned about the state of his argument with Gaia and listening to his daughter's pleas on behalf of herself and her brothers, he remembered that they were his children too, just as much as Aurum and Argyros and that they had done nothing to deserve his anger. But the sun god was too proud to yield just yet. Instead, he promised to allow a concession.
"I grant you this boone", he said. "I shall let warmth and light from the sun come back to the earth, so that plants may grow tall and strong and animals may rejoice and be glad as the snow melts. But, for so long as Gaia resists me I will take it all away again for a season as a reminder that I am not to be thought of as a fool. Then, since I am merciful, I will warm the earth again. Let us hope that your mother sees fit to end this feud between us soon, so that the cold and ice need never trouble you again."
Solanum, thanked her father and the world was grateful to her. For though we must endure winter every year, suffering from the wrath of Helios, at least there is always spring and summer when his compassion shines again, and that is only thanks to the intervention of the goddess.

The prophecy of Mellonorexis

When many years had passed with each summer and winter bringing no change, Selene began to diminish and the moon became a lifeless husk. Nerissa had quite given up on being able to reach the imprisoned gods and thought she might never see her sisters again.
"Mother and father will not go against Gaia", she complained. "They sorrow for Saphira and Rubina as much as me but they tell me Gaia must come around of her own accord if the rift between the gods is to be properly healed. How will that ever happen?", and her soft tears fell like spring rain.
Then Thymum, who was a little bit in love with Nerissa, just as thyme needs a little fresh water (but not too much), saw how heart sore she was and wondered if there was a way to bring hope to her.
"We must go to Mellonorexis in the Hall of Stars", he said at last. "That is the only way we can learn if there is anything that can be done."
Mellonorexis is the goddess of dreams that show the future. She is older, even than Helios, and perhaps in her own way even more powerful. She can visit the dreams of mortals and gods alike and she can fortell their fate from the nature of their dreams. Of the strife between the gods she had so far said nothing, because no one had asked her. She does not give out prophecy unless it is requested, since prophecy without the desire for it, is a burden to those who give it as well as those who receive it.
She did not look surprised to see Thymum and Nerissa together though, and listened to them with sympathy.

Mellonorexis - Prophesy by DMFW with Stable Diffusion

Nerissa - Tears by DMFW with Stable Diffusion

Thymum - Green Sun by DMFW with Stable Diffusion

"Your sisters are beyond your reach", Mellonorexis said kindly to Nerissa, "but they are not beyond mine, for I see everywhere that there are dreams, even into the depths of the deepest prison under Carafon Hill. I see Aurum, Argyros, Saphira and Rubina and I know what is in their hearts and dreams. I can tell you that even in their isolation they have together brought forth new magics which arise from their intense desire to be together.
So Saphira, uses all her skills to make a kind of gem stone which is the purest blue and contains the essence of her love wherever she makes it grow inside the rocks of the earth. One day these stones will be called sapphires. And seeking that love Argyros sends his seed into the earth in thick seams and great veins of a soft white metal, like moonlight itself but reflective, cool and precious. One day this metal will be called silver. Just so with Rubina, who from the passion in her heart, makes a shining red gemstone men will call rubies, and with Aurum, who ejects a bright hot stream of seed to seek them, which carries the magic of sunlight deep into the rocks. Men will call this metal gold."
"Silver and sapphires, gold and rubies, these will be the sacred tokens of the imprisoned gods and goddesses forever more."
"This is the Hidden Radiance of Carafon", Mellonorexis declared to Nerissa and Thymum. "So it will be known by those who come after. But I have not given you much of a prophecy, yet, and that is why you came to this Hall, so let me make a foretelling."
"There will come a day when the wrath of Gaia will be spent and the anger of Helios will abate and they will be reconciled. On that day, the younger gods under Carafon Hill will finally be freed. That day can only come about when Gaia sees the Hidden Radiance for herself. It is only the children of men, those born from Sanguis and Leta, who can go into the dark where Gaia and her son keep their prisoners. It is for them alone to do this holy task. The must retrieve all the Hidden Radiance from the deep earth and bring it to light where it can shine and speak for the prisoners.
Seeing the sheen and the brilliance of their souls, exposed in this new magic, Gaia will forgive them, measure by measure and all the evils that beset this world will be set to rights at last, when they walk free."

The promise of Leta

Men and women have taken shelter under the Hill of Carafon, for many an age and Sanguis, who made these caves, has been happy for them to do so, even though his dark flora sometimes demand their price in blood. There came a day when a man called Heruld the Bald, found a way below the airy upper caverns into the caverns where waters churn and gurgle, the darkness deepens and the prospects of greater depths open up below. He was filled with wonder as he understood just how vast the underground world really was. That night, as he slept, far from the stars in the bosom of the earth, he was visited in a dream by two goddesses.

Mellonorexis - Future Dream by DMFW with Stable Diffusion

Leta - Smiling by DMFW with Stable Diffusion

The first goddess was Mellonorexis.
"I have come to make a path", she said, "by the power I possess to enter the dreams of men. I bring with me a guest, the goddess Leta who is the mother of all your kind. Listen now, for she has a long story to tell you."
Thus it was that Heruld the Bald became the first man to hear the story of the Hidden Radiance in full. These were the Words from the Dark that are set out before you in this very book, just as Leta instructed him to write. And she gave him also this command.
"You must walk amongst men and tell them the things I have told you, for a great work remains to be done. Only men, mining in the darkness can release the Hidden Radiance which longs for the light just as the gods and goddesses that made it, long for their freedom. It will be the task of you and your friends, their children and their children's children, even unto the final generation to uncover all the Hidden Radiance under Carafon Hill."
"And what of Sanguis", Heruld asked. "Will he not be angry we are opening his prison?"
"Sanguis is your father and he loves you", Leta answered simply. "He will permit men to do what no god dare try. Sometimes he will be angry with you. Sometimes he will set thorns to catch your blood or make tunnels fall as you delve deeper. He will not make the life of the miners easy, but neither is he your enemy. He will come around to the rightness of your cause in time as he sees how you struggle and only your struggles and suffering can convince him."
"It seems hopeless", Heruld answered her. "How can we achieve this great work with our father set against us?"
"You will not be without help", Leta replied. "Pyrotas is on your side. He will lend you the skills of fire to aid your mining work. Nerissa is on your side. She will let the flow of her waters cool you in the depths and she will help you to find ways through the rocks.
And finally, I will always be there to help you. I will plead for you with Sanguis and bring him to the ways of mercy just as your quest, when it succeeds will redeem Gaia and bring harmony to the Elder Gods."
So, I Heruld the Bald, set out these words, the Words from the Dark, that all who read them may understand the meaning of the Hidden Radiance of Carafon and the sacred duty we all share to bring it into the light. May the gods bless you in your task for so long as there are prisoners under Carafon Hill and may the day draw ever closer that they can walk once again under the light of Helios with the blessing of Gaia!

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Type

Text, Religious

Medium

Vellum / Skin

Location

Cathedral of Hidden Radiance

Authors

• Heruld the Bald