The Immoti and the Path of Immobility

[Kaiser Yarad I]

There have always been those that Transcend and those that Descend. These two Paths are widely known, and common, and spoken of in every sermon and ritual involving the nature of a human soul. Live many good lives, the High Priests tell us, and you will Transcend, take your place among the Transcendi. Tread the path of Transcendence and you will become one like the gods, they say.Of course, there’s the other side of the looking glass. Live lives of spite and vice, they say, and your reward will be just. Spend your lives filled with malice and hatred, slay others with no prior cause, steal from the innocent, commit sin after sin again and again through many lifetimes, and the Path of Descendence is your own special stomping ground. To the hell-realm of Balgurd that Path leads, they say. Take your allotted place among the Descendi, live in torment and to torment others for the rest of eternity, and know that it is your deserved destiny, you slime.Fewer Priests will speak of the Immoti, or the Path of Immobility which they do not so much tread as inhabit. A few Priests of the more ambiguous gods are Immoti themselves, and Immoti prefer not to speak of the blessing, or curse, they have been given at their last birth.An Immotus is one who can see the Web of Life, that far-spanning network of interconnecting life-threads which we all affect in our daily lives, even with the most minute of our actions. They can see how their own thoughts and deeds affect the Web, and what path (to differentiate from the three Paths) their destiny will take according to the life they lead. They can also see this humbling short-range forecast for those around them. For this reason, many Immoti of dubious morals choose to peddle their “skills” as fortune tellers, though in truth an Immotus can only see how actions affect the present, not the far future, unless their birthsight, as they call it, is accompanied by actual clairvoyance.But why, you ask, are Immoti born with this ability? How do they reach the Path of Immobility in the first place? That is a question that is most adequately answered with the tale of the First Immotus, now called Neharab the Spider God. His tale began many years ago…(More to follow)

[AngelGuardian93]

*watches with interest... eerily silent* There are no flowers, no not this time. There will be no angels gracing the lines, just these stark words I find.

[Kaiser Yarad I]

There was once a good and kind man, his name was Sirrus. He tended to those who were sick, and poor, though he was himself lame, and had nothing left for himself on many a day. He worked until he died, and took great joy from helping each and every one who came to him for aid, and those others who he found and aided himself.There was another man, Ciul. Ciul of the Red Nails. Ciul lived in one of the first real towns. Where people first gathered together, the old confidences of the tribal atmosphere still pervaded. People thought nothing of letting their children and animals roam free, intermingling with others and only coming home when it got too dark to see. Thanks to Ciul, they learned their lesson. Some things were too dark for the new villagefolk to understand. They drove him out many a time, but Ciul returned, and yet more of the children and even more animals were found dead, or hurt, or never found at all. They stoned Ciul one day, because they could not be sure he was dead otherwise, and their plight over.One man a living saint, the other a twisted demon. One step on the Path of Transcendence, the other on the Path of Descent. This happens every day, for a million different lives. A soul has many lives. The soul is eternal. Lives serve only as moral accumulations, a nudge towards the soul's eventual course. Both Sirrus and Ciul were part of the same soul, an odd soul, one that did not act normally.Sirrus was the first life of this soul, the Strange One. Ciul was the second. A life of practically overwhelming virtue followed by the hideousness of Ciul's depravity and murder. Next came Ulinn, the Harpy of Woodshire, who kidnapped villagers, drove them mad with wicked tortures, and then released them back to their family, all for the pleasure it gave her. After the Harpy there was Bromis the Hero, whose exploits need no recital here. It went on, through many hundreds of lives, wherein the goodness of one life was cancelled out and equalled by the sin of another. This soul which shook the Web of Life so frightfully soon drew the notice of the gods.Upon the birth of the 343rd incarnation of the Strange One, the gods made a decision. No more of this toing-and-froing between Transcendence and Descent, no more between Light and Dark. These mortals had troubled them long enough. And so they chose for the strange soul a new Path, the Path of Immobility. And they gave to this first Immotus strange gifts.Neharab, for that was this Immotus' name, was able to see the Web of Life. Not in the manner that the gods can, with the whole Web spread out like a tapestry, growing all the time, with the whole interconnecting majesty of every soul that has ever inhabited a body laid out for them to scrutinise, but in a way no less edifying. For every one of his actions, and of his inactions, and for those of the people immediately surrounding him, Neharab could see the ramifications upon the Web of Life, the strange spirit-strands trailing off into the far distance, all in a reality far different from our own.Thinking this gift was god-given, and fearing it was a daemon's curse, Neharab became a monk, cloistering himself away, and writing of the things he could see. Many a great chieftain, for this was long before Duke, Baron or Kaiser, came to Neharab to ask him for advice, hoping he could see the effects of their decisions in the Web. But the monk could only see the effects as related to the Paths, not on the real world, and so could not help them. He died with a pen in his hands, never really having helped anyone, nor having caused anyone undue pain.They say everytime an old woman shuts her eyes, a baby girl opens the same ones. For Neharab, there was no such new awakening. His soul was in limbo. He was faced with a choice. To re-incarnate, and to strive for the Path of Transcendence, or to choose to be ripped from the Web altogether, and join the daemons of Balgurd.Neharab considered this choice before him for a long while, and when he had finished thinking he said, "What has happened to me has happened to no other living being. The gods can play as they like, but the Web of Life must not be considered a toy. There should be a custodian, to ferry souls, and the guide those on the Paths, and to watch over the Path of Immobility, for that is what I have lived through. Such an experience must not be gone alone."The gods heard Neharab then, and taking pity upon him and the plight they put him through, brought him to their domain.[I will finish this later...]

[UEC]

So Immoti can hang out in the Celestial Temple with the Gods? Intermingling with them? E. Metzler (UEC)Duke of Brookshire"Never use a BOO/\/\ist as a diplomat" -- GSClicky Clicky..., Tiss for your own good ya know.

[Kaiser Yarad I]

No, not really. I should finish this...

[AngelGuardian93]

I will stay my tongue untill the story is complete. There are no flowers, no not this time. There will be no angels gracing the lines, just these stark words I find.

[Kaiser Yarad I]

It will be soon, I promise, as soon as I can donate time to cultural pursuits once more.

[AngelGuardian93]

Ok. There are no flowers, no not this time. There will be no angels gracing the lines, just these stark words I find.