Stories of H Merrill

But it was on his throne that Amontekh, the Heresiarch of Thafa, saw those horizons beyond the peaks of Mount Eyrea, and sought conquest over all lands. 

Knowing that the coasts of Rortha stretched far, Amontekh did take of the Weavers on high, who served him now in death, one who in life had a power of sight and could call upon the magics of the air to whisper unto him the far secrets of the lands. And he called this Weaver in death the Silent Oracle,¹ and the Heresiarch did cut his eyes so that no sight would come to them, and he cut his hands so that no sense of touch would be upon them, and he did cut his tongue such that no word could be spread to those who could not commune with the mind of the Silent Oracle that served in death.²

And having no desire to commune with the wretched thing, nor let it twist his mind, Amontekh gave charge of the Silent Oracle to Usret, a favourite among his commanders who had followed him into the battle over Thafa, and having little magics of his own, Usret took upon himself the learning of the ways of the Silent Oracle such that he could commune with it. 

And when he had learned the ways in which the thing could speak, Usret did question it, saying: It is the will of our Lord who serves in the will of Death to conquer these lands, but still in his heart there is fear of that which is death, and so I ask unto you, who hears the whispers of the winds that tell you all manner of things, how will my Lord find himself the ruler over these lands?

The Oracle, having no tongue to speak the spoken words, did reach into the mind of Usret and give him a warning, saying: I have heard the whispers of these lands and they have fear, they fear that which is dead but cannot die, that which carries soul but in his heart has none, for it is that which is both dead and not dead that will rule these lands. 

And hearing the words of the Oracle through Usret, Amontekh did cast unto himself a spell of worldly binding and did trap his soul in the Living Universe.³ And he did bind his soul within his staff such that he was not one who would find death but had unlife and form beyond those who were living.

And he did raise an army of the Nubem and did lead them, first, South to the land called Gar. 

Those of Gar were tall folk,⁴ with strength above the Nubem. But Amontekh, with his magecraft, did weave spells over the armies of Nubem, and they were branded by the mark of Death, and did fight as living men alongside those walking corpses. 

Those of Gar did fear those who walked even in death, and did flee from them, and so were defeated. But they would not bow before the heresy of Amontekh. And so it was that he did destroy their lands and eradicate them from Rortha and from Orthtir. And those that would seek refuge from the scourges of Amontekh were found and brought into the streets of Thafa to be shown as curiosities until they had died. 

And so, Amontekh did send his armies to the West, and they did such as they had done to those in Gar. 

But when Amontekh did send his armies North, he found the people of the land, which was called Hallanathun, to be of a receptive nature.⁵ And they did call him Tekinumin,⁶ which in their tongue is Beside Gods. Amontekh did receive this name and did teach those of Hallanathun of the Nubem and the ways of Death. And those of Hallanathun did serve the will of Amontekh without question. 

So it was that Amontekh did send his armies to the East where he found the people of the land that was called Temth, and the people there had heard whispers of the Heresiarch of Thafa. And did meet his armies with their own. 

The armies of Temth did stand against the Nubem and the armies of the Heresiarch. And knowing of the magics of Amontekh, those of Temth were cunning and did make a trick for his armies. 

They rendered the fat of hogs and did spread it upon the dry brush. And they did draw the armies of Amontekh to that dry land that stunk with fat and let loose arrows of fire upon them. 

And those who walked in death did burn in that flame. And those who were living and not among the walking corpses did fall to the burning earth with no breath in their lungs. The curse that was upon them did not bid rise to their charred bodies. 

Amontekh had wrath in his defeat and did send forth a command to those of the North in Hallanathun to fight in his name. And he did place upon them the same spell of undeath and he himself marched with them to Temth. 

But so too, did this army burn.

And Selfa, having continued to serve Amontekh, came to him in his war camp and said to him: Twice those that have walked with the mark of Death have been burned. We must leave Temth and not seek war with them further. You have those lands of the way the sun sets, and the way of the shadow and against it. Leave this land to its own and take your heed to Thafa and to those who followed you into the High Walls. They stand there now within those walls questioning your actions. 

But Amontekh was wrathful and shook Selfa with his words, saying: I have said to you that it is the whole of Rortha which I shall rule. I will scourge those of Temth. I will rend their flesh, and they shall find themselves without a love for their own reflection. They shall venerate me, but they shall abhor their own kind. In that hate for their people and of themselves, they shall be driven to madness, but in their reverence, they shall serve me and the will of Death.

Selfa was fearful of the Herisiarch, but stood firm, saying: Those that have served in life and in death have burned, so shall another, and another, and so shall all that you bring before the people of Temth. Not even you, with your great magics, have set your will upon this land. Leave this land to their own, and return not, until yet you have an army that can withstand the fires of Temth. Those of Thafa have now veneration for your name and for your magics. Take yourself to Thafa and rule over those who recognise you.

Amontekh did hear her words but pondered not on them, saying: I have no need for those of craven stock. I rebuke you and your words and cast you out from this place. No longer shall you stand by me and take the spoils of my wake. Return to Thafa and live in shame.

And so, Selfa did flee the lands of Temth and served Amontekh no more.⁷

The Heresiarch went from his warcamp and gathered the commanders of his army on the hills of Urderen that looked over the unconquered land of Temth. There, he stood in silence for sometime before speaking, saying: There will be a reckoning upon these lands, and Temth shall know the name Death. But it is those who lead my army that have yet failed to bring this reckoning to pass. And so, I say unto you, should you fail me once more, it will be my will that you come to death and serve me no more. But know that your bodies will not perish, nor will your soul roam free, for I will bind your form and soul to this plane. You will have eyes that see and ears that hear, but no longer will you be of sound mind, no longer will you speak, for I will cut your tongues from your mouths and throw them to the hogs. You will be naught but a walking husk cursed to roam in the pain of rot.⁸

Usret,⁹ as one of those among the commanders, dissented, saying: My Lord Heresiarch, he of whom Death has called to spread their will, and whose presence shakes the very earth, are we not doing that which we can do with what has been given unto us? The armies of Temth have a mastery over the fire that burns the living and the dead. They have set loose great volleys of flaming arrows, of whose light is brighter than the midday. They have laid before us many trickeries that have deceived even you, my Lord. We should take ourselves from this land and return in that time that we are able to bring Temth to defeat, for the Silent Oracle of which you have put in my charge has spoken once again. And it has told me to fear. Fear the flame and those who wield it. Fear those of the rising sun, for they will surely bring defeat.

Amontekh, as he had done with the words of Selfa, listened not, for he still had wrath within him and did chastise Urset, saying: Surely, I say unto you, my power is far greater than all men in Temth, it is the strength of a thousand times a thousand. And it shall be that I will rule over all lands. I fear not flame nor arrow, sword nor spear, for I am that which is dead but cannot die. You, Urset, who has oft won my favour, know not the multitude of my powers, you know not the meanings of these words spoken to you by the Oracle, for you are but a pitiful fool that I raised from the dust beyond the walls of Thafa. It has put in your heart fear, and it is in that fear that you lead my armies to their defeat.

And he did reach his hand forth, placing it upon the head of Urset, and there upon the hills of Urderen did he place the mark of Death upon his once favoured commander. And when the mark had burned through his flesh, Amontekh spoke once more, saying: Go forth and conquer. 

And so, the commanders led their armies once more against those of Temth. 

They met the armies of Temth with an army ranking in both dead and living in those plains that had burned, and they did fight them on a field of ash. And that host of dead were let loose upon the ranks of the Temth. 

As they had done, those of Temth now did loose arrows of flame upon the armies of Amontekh. And so too, did those dead burn. But the living among them did line their ranks and form a marching wall of spear and shield, and they came to the army of the Temth and did fight on those ashen fields.

The living were struck down but rose again to fight. And the armies of Temth did retreat from the battle. And so did the armies of Amontekh follow them. 

And his armies did take themselves to the bottom of a great ridge where they would meet the armies of Temth once more. But those of Temth had deceived them, and upon that ridge a great number of people stood with pots of oil and fat. Those upon the ridge did let these pots fall upon the armies of Amontekh and they were bathed in that oil. And so did those of Temth once more light them aflame.¹⁰

The commanders of the armies did withdraw from the field of battle and return in defeat to Amontekh, saying unto him: My Lord, we have no more armies to fight. We beg of you, return to Thafa and wait there, for your patience will yield an army of great strength, for it is now that we have none among the living willing to fight and none among the dead who are not burned. And so now, did Amontekh heed the words of Selfa and of Urset, for there was not one that could march with him into battle. And he did leave the lands of Temth to rule once again in Thafa and to seek in patience an army which he could set loose upon Temth.¹¹

1. The Silent Oracle was most likely the Weaver Udru (the Gar translation of his name) as recorded in the Book of Theem, a collection of scrolls from Gar. While the Sanctiform records no Weaver leaving the city of Thafa, Udru did at one time travel around Rortha, although we only know of his encounter with the Gar. The Book of Theem suggests that Udru had travelled to all coasts but only recounts his experiences among the Tall Folk. It is also believed from other records recovered from Thafa that Udru’s experiences are what led to Thafa closing its walls. ↩︎
2.  Other sources say much more was removed (sometimes down to just a head) but that is surely an embellishment over time as the original manuscripts, and even the original compilation manuscript, has only this much removed. ↩︎
3.  The World, this plane, existence, etc. Living Universe does not appear in any other translation aside from this one. I made a choice to translate it as such to emphasise the expanse of his power. ↩︎
4. Paleoanthropological evidence does not point to any direct lineage to the Tall Folk of Rortha and the Giants of Ishfadel, but they did share many of the same characteristics. ↩︎
5.  Both Gar and Hallanathun are exonyms as the only records of their existence come from the Nubem. ↩︎
6.  Tekinumin is Teki meaning “beside, near, next to, in the vicinity of” and Numin which means “Gods.” ↩︎
7. While the exile of Selfa is recorded in the Sanctiform, there are no other records of this incident. Many historians and archeologists agree that Selfa left of her own accord rather than due to exile. This is just another example of the continued fictionalization of conversations that happens throughout the Sanctiform. ↩︎
8.  We do not know how long after Selfa left that this conversation took place, but we have estimated it to be around two months. ↩︎
9. While not in this translation, Usret’s name is often written as Usret, Mouth of the Oracle.  ↩︎
10. Archaeological evidence at the site where this battle was supposed to have happened, suggests that the ground there was also dug and filled with pits of pitch and tar that stuck Amontekh’s armies in place. ↩︎
11. The entirety of the first Temth campaign lasted almost one year, but battles were infrequent and most of that time was spent rearranging the ranks of Amontekh’s armies that would consistently lose in battle. While the Sanctiform does not go into this much depth, other records show that many battles were not lost via flame but simply the superior might of the Temth. ↩︎