Lunar Vampire Chronicles: Ancient Wars

By H.S. Darke

There was a time when the universe was young and cosmic laws written. Our progenitors were born in a broken world. Why was it broken? The answer is simple: when Cosmic Laws are broken, we all pay the price. Cheating death is the ultimate taboo, and karma is a dish best served long after the fact. But when dealing with immortal beings, they have more than enough time to live in the ugly world they've created; karma becomes the very air they breathe.

Love. Lust. Hate. Jealousy. Travel throughout the world 300,000 years ago. Learn the origins of the major players: Ascended Humans, Vampires, Rogues, Shamans, the Great Pyramids, and much more. Learn the ancient names, the precursors to their modern iterations. Follow Arson, Ramanlese, Illgress, Goser, Tomakis, Hemily, and Jezzeria from Eden to hell. Follow Zento, Ekka, Edril, Bestick, Ry-ala, Ephisiostecles, Roch, Mephiantone, Rubidicus, Karianus, Styre, Vane, and Marschelle through their many stories. Their world was a world of sadness, crisis, loss, but some happiness. Right or wrong, their stories are told. There were no true winners nor losers, and aspects of each will endure till the end of time. The gray just got a whole lot grayer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 10, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524575038

H.S. Darke

N/A

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Copyright © 2017 by H.S. Darke.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 08/16/2022

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Artwork contributed by Jarry Manilow & I. C. Yadik

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Contents

Chapter 1 Entombed

Chapter 2 The First Cedun

circa 51,000 BCE

Chapter 3 1st Ascended War: Know Your Enemy

circa 51,000 BCE

Chapter 4 Illgress’ Campaign

circa 51,000 BCE

Chapter 5 2nd Ascended War: Draco/Debrecen

circa 45,000 BCE

Chapter 6 Nighttime Attack of the Assassins

circa 44,997 BCE

Chapter 7 The Rohena/Rogue War

circa 38,000 BCE

Chapter 8 Ephisiostecles

circa 38,000 BCE

Chapter 9 Disposition of the Collective

circa 30,000—13,600 BCE

Chapter 10 Roch

23,000 BCE

Chapter 11 Return to Afra-ia/Africa: Jeku and His Ministry

21,500 BCE

Chapter 12 Meeting of the Three Foes

circa 21,000 BCE

Chapter 13 Where are the Humans and What to Do?

20,000 BCE to 13,500 BCE

Chapter 14 Vampire Estuator

circa 13,500 BCE

Chapter 15 3rd Ascended War: To Hit or Not to Hit

circa 13,490 BCE

Chapter 16 The Little Girl and the Wizard’s Cave

circa 13,490 BCE

Chapter 17 The Last Battle of Flame

circa 13,000 BCE

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

Appendix D

Appendix E

Appendix F

Appendix G

Appendix H

Dictionary of The Dark Tongue*

Vampires

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Chapter 1

Entombed

It was a great irony being imprisoned in that cave; released, they claimed. The narrow, nearly inaccessible entrance sat high on the cliff face of a tall mountain. It was sealed long ago, around 2,400 BCE, so from the outside of the mountain, it was not obvious that therein lay a cave. There he sat in darkness, chained to a stone. That stone had a name. In the Dark Tongue it was Osa’Dar, but in English it meant permanency; it translated quite literally into unbreakable weight. Though his hands were free, he was quite unable to defeat the chains that bound him, but his arms were kept free so that he would be able to read the Dark Codex that lay before him, a reminder of his real mission in life.

Mostly, however, he sat slumped against the stone, utterly forlorn, his head bowed down. Rain sometimes poured into the cave from a hole high above his head that was delved for the purpose of allowing moonlight, of allowing her, to imbue him, and many nights, it drenched his beautiful hair. No one would ever really know if it was working.

In this dark and damp prison, he could only wonder when they would come back for him. What had become of his friends? What did she think of him? Despite all this, his eyes still shone.

Arson

The Cosmic Gods watched all from a plane of existence unattainable to mere humans. The laws written by the Cosmic Gods that govern the universe are fixed; they abhor that which is outside the natural state. What occurred long ago on Earth was outside the natural state, and it gave rise to a problem without a solution. This is, in truth, the story of that problem.

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Around 70,000 BCE, Arson lived in a village called Mala-Din, meaning grim foothold, located far to the southwest of modern-day Syria and just to the east of Mt. Denay-Ra. That mountain, which bore a name meaning aimed at the sun and which would much later be called Mt. Hermon, was located between the modern-day border of Syria and Lebanon. During that era, the area was much more fertile than it came to be in modern times. Arson was something of an eccentric man. He always saw the world differently than those around him and studied what esoteric subjects he could. He was never satisfied with doing things the way others did them.

When he was thirty-five years old, he decided to make a self-imposed pilgrimage of sorts into the wilderness, carrying with him only a waterskin and some salted meats. His goal was to walk toward the horizon until he could walk no more, seeking for that which he sought, then begin the journey back home. He did indeed walk for days toward his destination until utterly spent, but then found himself lost and bewildered, unable to make his way back home. In his misery and despair, he couldn’t even find comfort using what woodcraft he knew, and the cold defeated him at night. He quickly ran out of food and became too exhausted to acquire more, but he still had an ample supply of water from a nearby spring he there named Ula-May-Uda, meaning the earth’s tears, or more literally the earth crying, these fell. It was the purest spring in the world but has long since disappeared. Despite this, water offered only one kind of sustenance; Arson was starving to death.

After a certain point, he resigned to the fact that he was going to die, reconciling with himself that he traveled too far into the wilderness to ever be able to return. By nighttime, he found a cave. Removing his sandals, he lay down by the entrance and slept, awaiting the inevitable.

In the morning, he awoke and watched the sunrise from the mouth of the cave. He did so for perhaps fifteen minutes until he could stare at the Sun no more.

He said, That was the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen. How I wish I could stare at it longer, but its brightness blinds me. Oh how it hurts my eyes. Perhaps later I’ll be able to study it some more.

In the evening, he watched the Sun again as it disappeared below the horizon.

He said, That was the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen, and I am glad that I could witness such a sight upon my death.

Then he quickly took inventory of himself. And yet, I don’t feel as if that will happen any time soon, for I grow less hungry. Well . . . it must be the calm before the storm. I suppose it’s my body shutting down.

With that thought, he once again fell asleep, expecting never to wake up again.

When he awoke the next morning, however, he felt as if life were beginning anew within him, a far cry from dying. After just a few days of repeating this sun-watching ritual, his hunger began to fade completely, and he wondered greatly at that. This doesn’t make any sense. Where have my hunger pangs gone? For surely, I could eat a rabbit this moment were it dead before me, and yet I question now why that should be. Does not the rabbit have as much right to exist as I do?

He thought even more deeply. If I am to coexist with the rabbit, the cow, the bird, and all life, how could I possibly also wish to kill them and consume such living beings for my own sustenance?

It was a paradox that he began to deeply ponder. He found himself arriving at a conclusion that seemed to fit with the facts he observed.

He thought out loud. All must eat, for they feel the need to do so in their bodies. If they don’t eat, then they’ll die, and their bodies will drive them to commit horrible acts in order to eat something . . . anything. I’ve even heard rumors of men that have killed other men in order to consume their flesh. And yet, I neither eat nor feel the need to eat, and my hunger pangs have utterly vanished. How can this be?!

After several more days of staring at the Sun, he began to make a connection. Does the very Sun do this? he pondered out loud. Does it provide for me that which I would surely kill on my own to acquire? And yet, feeding of the Sun makes me more like a plant, I deem, than a wolf. If I already hold the Sun reverent, and yet it has the ability to change me thus, is it not a more holy entity than even I have begun to realize in this very cave? Have I found what I sought, without knowing what it was nor even that I was to seek for it?!

After a few days, he decided to experiment by walking out and about. He wished to see if his newfound lack of hunger was somehow tied to the cave, so he walked out into the wilderness barefoot, but only got so far before his feet began feeling the pains of the Earth too greatly. Despite the pain of rocks and sharp undergrowth tearing at his feet, he was able to note that he was still not hungry enough to wish to kill any living thing in order to consume it and satiate himself. He even saw a rabbit grazing nearby, but found he desired only to watch it. After only a short while, however, he had to return to the cave to retrieve his sandals.

He slipped them on quickly and walked out into the wilderness once again, expecting to feel just as he had earlier that day. He saw another rabbit almost immediately, and for some reason, it approached him much more closely this time. Perhaps it was able to sense that he did not wish to kill it for food, that he was not a threat, and that he was instead . . . sanctified. After a few moments, he noticed how much better his feet felt, and at that very moment, he wished for the rabbit to be dead, stewing in a pot. In the blink of an eye, the rabbit made eye contact with him and quickly darted off into the wilderness.

He thought out loud, How can that be?! Earlier, barefoot, I craved not the rabbit’s flesh. Now with sandals to protect my feet, I desire the meat off its bone . . . its death, and my sustenance. Does the Sun really care about whether I am shod?

He paused. Perhaps it’s not the Sun who cares, but something else. But who?

He knelt down to take off his sandals and placed them on the ground next to him, considering leaving them there forever. As soon as he did so, he noticed various creatures of the wilderness immediately have a turn at scurrying over or through them. He saw a spider first, scuttling over the heel of one shoe before fleeing; then he saw a beetle, fleeing quickly too; then he saw a millipede walk right over the straps; then a small rodent he had no name for scurried over both shoes, followed by a snake in seemingly hot pursuit. He was awed by the rapid succession of life that suddenly smothered his sandals, while seemingly absconding their utility at the same time. As if that weren’t enough, a whole train of army ants, ignoring him, suddenly took a route right over his sandals toward whatever destination they sought! The Earth? he thought to himself.

He mused aloud, Does she wish it that there be no barrier between my flesh and her sweet skin?

He nodded his head in agreement with the answer that took shape in his own mind. Yes. Yes, I think she does.

Thus, it was that, after a month in this very cave, the very first Pre-Ascended Human was born.

Arson stayed in the wilderness for some time afterward, thinking and meditating on this very odd occurrence and continued his sun-staring rituals. He noticed that, in addition to his abated desire for food, he also began to think differently . . . more deeply and more profoundly. He thought now about how beautiful the Earth was. He thought, especially, how beautiful and perfect the Sun was and all the mystery surrounding it. He also began to think about the human race, how imperfect it had become, how perfect it could be made. He also renounced conventional religion, believing it to hinder the mind rather than open it.

After six months in the wilderness, he was ready to return to his people and spread what he had learned, for he held that it should be no secret, but instead something that should be shared by all. But now he had to gain believers, not mere followers, but believers.

As he walked back to his village, he began to ponder exactly how he was going to teach what he had learned. He knew he would be tested, of course, to see if he really didn’t need to eat and only had to drink water and stare at the Sun instead. He knew that proving this would certainly earn a few believers; indeed, the hardest part would be keeping them from perceiving him as a prophet, which he did not wish to be seen as. But asking others to give up eating the food their bodies naturally craved would be a difficult task.

On entering his village, he was indeed greeted as one who returned as if guided by providence, for he should have rightly died in the wilderness. In his village, many interested folk gathered to hear his story. In general, those who were curious all started their questions in a similar way, all, of course, speaking in a language now long dead, though a dialect of it became the language of the Ascended Humans.

For example, one female villager named Hastus.Tar said, You’ve been gone for a long time, Arson. You should be dead. And yet, do I not perceive that you look even younger and healthier than when you departed on your journey . . . a journey that we all assumed was to your death? That you went because you’re strange to us and perhaps saw that death was already upon you, that you wished to encounter it in a more private place; though of course, our view of death is as an open celebration of the Earth feed.

Arson responded, Let me say that much of what you mark as new and different about me is not through any magic you may believe. I have found a new source of life, and it invigorates my very soul. Would you wish to know more?

Some, of course, said yes. Many, owing to their own religious beliefs, scoffed at the idea of any new brand of spirituality, in spite of the potential to reclaim some of the vigor and appearance of their youth. Arson, recognizing this, focused on those who seemed willing to at least hear something of his thinking, his thoughts later evolving into an ideology.

He said to them, This you must do: you must walk barefoot and drink only water, never putting the flesh of any animal or plant into your body; you must also stare at the Sun at certain times for certain lengths of time. If you think you can do this, at least, then I believe that you’ll have what I have. For now, I am the only one, and I was not made to believe that I was to start a ministry, but I am compelled to share what I have learned and achieved.

Upon hearing these words, nearly all who gathered to listen dispersed in disbelief, everyone, that is, except for two. Their names were Illgress and Ramanlese, and they were aged twenty-three and twenty-six respectively. Like Arson, they were rather unique as well in temperament, and though they were naturally apprehensive, they were curious. Illgress was the more vocal of the two.

He turned to Arson and boasted somewhat. I am yet young, I deem, and am ready for a new path. Let me travel this life together with you and see where it may lead, for I have grown tired of living each day . . . the same as the one just finished.

Ramanlese followed, much more briefly and pointedly. What’s there left in this life? I wish for something new and beautiful.

With that, the three began their religion, and it grew only very slowly over the years. For a time, they were tolerated in their village, but mostly shunned. After a certain point, however, when they had surpassed the age of the eldest in their village by some margin, other villagers began to fear them and their ways, holding that their lives were unnaturally long. For their part, these three Sun Worshipers, as they were called, remained among the villagers, though they kept their distance. The Sun Worshipers talked mostly about philosophy, and the two younger men acquired Arson’s penchant for meditation. They talked about all that they saw that was wrong and unhealthy in the world around them; for even in their day, there was war among humans. They saw the hurts of man, and they wondered how such hurts could be repaired, or even mitigated somewhat. Also, it seemed that, by not eating meat especially, their desire to fight became diminished. Even more than this, they found that their desire for carnal pleasures had diminished as well, and that was a curious thing.

They continued like this throughout Arson’s life, acquiring no more than ten others from the surrounding area. Naturally, with his old age, many non-cult villagers came to see Arson as being magical, but also someone to be feared. As a result, in time, the little Sun Cult had to move farther west, ever closer to Mt. Denay-Ra that loomed in the distance. They formed a village called Mala-Din-U, or grim foothold west. Arson lived to be one hundred and twenty-two years old, and that was a good span of time to live in that era. Others outside the cult generally died in their forties. Despite being without their leader, the cult endured.

Around this time in the village of Mala-Din, nothing particularly noteworthy had occurred since the Sun Worshipers left, and every day passed as it always had.

About six years after Arson’s death, however, a boy in Mala-Din named Menjay spoke to his mother. Mother, I already know this place. Only now have I realized it—or rather, have realized that it was not a dream. My name is not Menjay. It’s Arson.

His mother was truly shocked and frightened by what she was hearing, but she indeed knew the name Arson.

Menjay was adamant. Please take me to my friends to the west. They’ll raise me further.

His mother, too scared to deny his request, did just that.

When the child Menjay arrived at Mala-Din-U, he walked among his friends of old, as if he had never left them. There were still a few of the original cult members left, though a few had already died of natural causes. Already very old themselves, Illgress at one hundred sixteen years and Ramanlese at one hundred and nineteen, they were among those who remained, and as they had known Arson the longest, they thought to test the child and his claim.

Even though he was a small boy, they made no attempt to speak to him as if he were a child, and Menjay made no attempt to be cowed as a child or to talk like one.

Illgress spoke first. They tell me that you are Arson reborn, our founding father and my friend of old. How can you claim this? Show me what proofs you offer.

Menjay replied, Illgress, you’re staunch indeed, as you were in my previous life. I will give you your proofs. In our village of old, Mala-Din, you once had a girlfriend named Ollani, and she was dear to you, but she left you for another man. You were heartbroken.

Illgress paused, lost in thought.

Ramanlese, however, was still skeptical and was quick to refute his proof, despite wanting to believe.

He said to the boy, That’s a bit of information you could’ve learned prior to arriving here, knowing that the two of us would be the most likely to test this claim you’re making. They schooled you well. I almost believed.

Though Arson was generally a calm man, in seeking to remove all skepticism, he, this Menjay, replied with some intensity. Ramanlese, do those in Mala-Din also know that, when you arrived here at Mala-Din-U, you began to write poetry?! Do they know too that you loved to write about the flowers that bloomed just beyond in the field? Do they know that Arson’s . . . my favorite poem written by you was called ‘For the Petal I Would Cry’?

Holding his gaze steady on Ramanlese, Menjay recited it:

There I see her, for in the early morn

I sought her hue.

Yesterday, so beautiful she seemed,

The sunlight doth rain upon her.

But if rained upon, does her soul

Feel itself cleansed again,

Or does she think that a sadness dwelleth above,

All wreathed in blue?

She knows that one day she must die.

And there is nothing she could do.

For the petal, I would cry.

All were moved to tears, but none more so than Ramanlese, who shed all doubts and greeted Menjay as Arson, his long-lost brother. You are come back home!

Arson discovered during his second life that he not only retained all the knowledge and memories of his past life but that he also had access to one of the great wonders of the human mind. That is to say, his mind, as a child, was like a sponge. Whereas a normal child would waste such a gift while groping through life, honing this and honing that, and ignoring this and ignoring that, Arson was able to concentrate on all that he previously knew, meditating deeply on any given idea, taking it to new depths. No children ever had the urge or the knowledge to do that before, so they were never able to tap into their full potential during their short time on Earth. What Arson found was that when the mind was like a sponge meditation actually became so potent that it was almost frightening. So in his second lifetime, Arson grew many times more intelligent than he was in his previous life.

If this continued in perpetuity, who was to say how far his mind could grow? In pursuit of this, constant meditation became the focus of his second lifetime.

Though he was a boy to look upon, he was as a fully mature man to converse with. During his second life with the cult, he spoke to them just as he had prior to his death. He told them that his reincarnation was somehow a side effect of their way of life. He was still unsure about the details concerning the mechanism of his return, but he reasoned that something occurred prior to his death that facilitated the fashion of his rebirth, and as a result, such an event would need to be identified if, in fact, it could happen again. Therefore, the Sun Worshipers reasoned that those details, the answers that they sought, would need to be explored in all their minds.

Arson believed that, even from within the womb as a fetus, infants thought, recorded memories, and dreamt. He saw that thoughts were most closely related to the human body, the physical world. He felt that memories bridged the gap between the human body and the spirit world, where souls dwelt. He reasoned, however, that dreams were purely of the spirit world.

Arson also discovered a curious change that eventually occurred in all humans, what he referred to as the soul door closing. The way he explained it, from the moment a fetus was alive through its early childhood, it began its life in two worlds at the same time, seamlessly alternating back and forth between the two, the spirit world and the physical world. Sometime after the age of around six, the child subconsciously (and probably unintentionally) submitted to the physical world eventually and utterly. In doing so, this soul door was closed, so they could never go back to that place they once knew, that place where magic was real, and all things were possible. In essence, it was what innocence lost meant.

The progressive idea Arson developed was that the Sun Cult members should prime their souls such that their souls would seek out a soul door upon their death, bypassing whatever Cosmic Law governed amnesiac, random rebirths. Since he found that dreams were the hardest to recapture but memories were not, they were to intensely meditate once a day to seek out and recover those early memories before their own soul door had closed, before they had lost their own innocence as toddlers. The thinking was that in the same way that many would love to have their innocence back so too would the soul. Therefore, it would naturally seek out a nearby fetus whose dreaming was already in progress.

But the Sun Cult was rather desperate as they went about this mission, for they realized that many had only about a hundred and twenty-two years or so to live before they would die their first death. They held no fear of death, but were acutely aware that, if they were unsuccessful in sufficiently training their minds upon their deaths, they might be lost forever. At the forefront of their minds, they also knew that not all of them would be successful.

As one could imagine, it was not long before another in the cult fell to old age. Ramanlese died at the age of one hundred and twenty-two years, the same age at which Arson’s first life had ended. Soon afterward, Illgress also died at one hundred and nineteen. Both were greatly loved and greatly missed. Now, however, the cult knew to pay attention to the births in the villages nearby. They knew that Arson realized his reincarnation at the age of six, so they could only assume that Ramanlese would realize his at around the same age.

During Arson’s second lifetime, in which he continued with the cult as a child, he noticed himself developing a new ability at around the age of thirteen. He was able to read the minds of others to a certain extent, realizing that he could hear the words and thoughts of others nearby. At first, this ability was confusing, as he recognized that when a person spoke with his mouth his mind would often convey the same thing, but with a strange mixture of words, sounds, emotions, and symbols. It was confusing to hear both forms of a thought . . . or could be confusing.¹ In time, he understood that he was slowly acquiring the ability to communicate telepathically. He also quickly discovered that he could project an image into another’s mind for a very short amount of time.

The cult eventually concluded that this ability was only possible to achieve in a first lifetime if one were recovered as a very young child, but that one could not attain these abilities during their first lifetime in the cult if they were recruited as an adult. All of this, Arson theorized, was due to the fact that they wore no shoes. He reasoned that a person’s thoughts actually went straight into the Earth and then floated just above them, and that was how traumatic memories could be embedded into the surrounding area after a traumatic death, even hundreds of years after the victim had died. All that being said, however, while Arson’s newfound ability could be utilized from a distance, it was most potent when the reader was touching the person being read. This had the effect of trebling the ability. Arson reasoned that, as they reincarnated, this ability would grow even more intense and powerful for those in the cult.

About a year after this discovery, when Arson was fourteen, the cult saw a woman bring a child of about the age of five to their village. The child claimed to be Ramanlese.

The woman said, This is a strange boy who does not act like any other child, doesn’t even play with them. He was writing poetry when he was only two, but he kept asking to be brought here to his real home, so his mother has surrendered him to me to bring here, though she loves him terribly. Do with him as he wishes.

Arson responded gently, Dear lady, you bring us a mighty gift, and we would reward you with whatever we have in our village that you think his mother would accept. But know this: this boy will always love his mother too, though a great distance separates them. If she should ever wish to learn more about this village or her son, she is welcome to visit.

The woman nodded her thanks, though she said, There is nothing that his mother desires, save her son’s health and happiness.

And that he shall have, Arson reassured her. With that, the woman left.

The cult eagerly welcomed Ramanlese back and loved him even more than they did in his first life. Their way of life proceeded as before, all still intent on finding out just how the machinations of reincarnation worked. They did the math, concluding that there were fetuses around the age of four or five months that were somehow receiving their souls. They could not yet be sure if that meant that their souls were somehow supplanting the existing souls of such fetuses or if, in fact, fetuses were not granted a soul until that point. They reasoned the latter.

Illgress died at the age of one hundred and nineteen years old, not long after Ramanlese’s own death. Predicting that he would be reincarnated as well, a fourteen-year-old Arson and a young Ramanlese traveled to Mala-Din about four months after Ramanlese’s return to the cult, seeking to interview children whom the villagers believed to be unique. As the people of Mala-Din had grown somewhat apprehensive and fearful of this cult and its members, they willingly permitted the two children to go about their business unhindered. The two found a four-year-old child who had named himself Ess, despite his parents’ given name for him: Mayhasip. Arson and Ramanlese believed that this was indeed their departed friend reborn, so they purchased the child outright. Purchasing a child was not typical in that village, but at this point, the villagers had seen enough to suspect that they would lose the child to this cult in time, regardless. Meanwhile, the village of Mala-Din continued to see several of its adult members leave to join the cult themselves.

When Arson and Ramanlese brought the child named Mayhasip back to Mala-Din-U, all watched him intently. The small child seemed happiest when they called him Ess, so they complied. After only a few days of talking with Arson and Ramanlese, the child began to speak exactly like Illgress of old.

He said to Arson, I know you. You’re my master. Then turning to Ramanlese, he inquired, Do you still write poetry?

Ramanlese nodded and smiled. Illgress, my brother, yes, when I have occasion to between meditations.

Young Illgress replied, Yes . . . Illgress. That’s the rest of my name. I knew a part of it was missing. Then jokingly, he asked, Was I not the leader of this cult when last I left it?

All three smiled and laughed.

In the time between Arson’s second life and subsequent one (before the cult built their altar), there were naturally members who died whose souls were lost forever. Alternatively, from time to time, it was also not uncommon to see a family from far away bring a child to the cult’s village who they claimed wished to visit them. These families came from hundreds of miles around; that was how far and wide knowledge of the Sun Cult had spread. The children that would arrive were of various ages, and sometimes were not always children, but young adults. A few times, it was an unusually long-lived elderly person who arrived seeking to return home. In nearly all cases, these individuals were recognized as the reincarnations of deceased members of the cult and welcomed back with open arms.

During Arson’s second life as well, the cult left Mala-Din-U, and the locals who had, for whatever reason, moved from Mala-Din in order to reside at Mala-Din-U were now once again living in fear of the Sun Worshipers. The cult was reluctant to leave at first, as they were aware that they didn’t yet fully understand the mechanism of reincarnation. And they were unsure whether leaving the area would hamper their efforts to comprehend and control the process of rebirth. To buy themselves time in the area, however, as the attitude of the locals grew increasingly paranoid, the cult did ultimately move to the foot of the mountain, naming their new village Mala-Din-DenRa, or grim foothold at the base of Mt. Denay-Ra. Little did they know, at the time, that the move would bring them one step closer to understanding the process of rebirth.

Now, it must be said that staring at the Sun was, of course, a way of life among the Sun Worshipers, but improving one’s ability to stare at it for increased periods of time was each member’s ultimate goal. There were many among them who could stare at the Sun for extremely long stretches. Some could do so for two or more hours. But doing so was not without risks.

Even in their first lives as members of the Sun Cult, all members put nearly all their efforts into meditation. However, that was not all they did. During Arson’s second life when he was one hundred and eighty-nine, some members of the cult made pilgrimages to the summit of Mt. Denay-Ra, and a ten-year-old orphan named Jezzeria who wandered into Mala-Din-DenRa to join their Sun Cult was one such person. She had excavated into the mountain at its base, where their village was located. At first, she did so only to create something like a cave-sanctuary, since the Sun Cult collectively determined that they had some kind of connection to the mountain. However, in doing so, she discovered a large crystal within the body of the mountain she called jeriminia. For whatever reason, the crystal spoke to her, and she got it into her heart that it should somehow be part of the process of controlled rebirths.

Thus, Jezzeria formulated a rather progressive idea. She decided to take a huge chunk of the jeriminia crystal that she chiseled out of the interior of the mountain and hold it in her hands while—in a deep state of meditation—constantly staring at the Sun. She theorized that by holding it while staring at the Sun and engaging in intense meditation she might be able to infuse the Sun’s energy into the crystal.

She practiced this experiment on several occasions, but one day, something went terribly wrong. At the age of twenty-four, while staring at the Sun as she meditated, she drifted too deeply into her own meditations and became unable to quickly reemerge. Staring at the Sun for too long, she became blind. This, however, did not quell her spirit. Indeed, it only fueled her efforts to infuse and empower the crystal the most that she could in this first life of hers, which she could now do endlessly, since she was already blind. Her eyes, though damaged, could still receive the sunlight as she constantly gazed at the Sun, and her body processed it, transferring it to the crystal.

Eventually, she had everyone hold the crystal during their Sun feedings as well.² This ritual of communally holding the jeriminia crystal with as many hands as could fit over it was given a name: Edda-ut-lun-sepu-uem.³

Jezzeria was able to accomplish much in her first life, and she would become mighty among the Sun Cult.

She also had a partner for mutual affection named Merrid-Him. Recognizing their relationship, Arson thought to pose a test. When he felt that he was within mere months away from dying his second death, he would ask them to conceive a child.

After a time, he believed that his death was only a few months away. He was now two hundred and four.

Inviting Jezzeria to watch a beautiful sunset with him, Arson broached the subject with a serious tone in his voice.

He stared straight into her eyes, which still reflected the sunlight, quite alive and alert, as he spoke. Jezzeria, you’ve become mighty among us. You’re also one of only a few females in our village. Know that death is upon me, perhaps less than four or five months away.

Knowing this to be true and with sadness in her voice, she replied, Say not so, Arson, for you are loved dearly, and we know not whether you’ll return.

Arson tried to reassure her. Worry not. It’s a risk we must all assume. But I wish it that you obey me in my request.

It was an odd thing to say, she thought. Her curiosity spread across her face. As you wish, Arson, for I shall not deny you, she said calmly.

He switched his gaze from her face to the horizon before them. I wish for you to mate with Merrid-Him and try as best as you can to conceive a child. Though you’re now blind, you’re a young woman, only twenty-five, and I wish for you to be my mother.

Jezzeria felt only momentary shock, but despite her longstanding desire not to have children, she acquiesced easily. It shall be done.

Soon after, Jezzeria and Merrid-Him conceived a child. Jezzeria carried the jeriminia crystal with her everywhere, even sleeping with it by her side. It, in turn, infused her mind with a knowledge that could only be transferred during the dream-state. Some months after the child was conceived, Arson died. Jezzeria’s child was born five months after his death. By the age of two, he was calling himself Arson. All in the cult noted that his soul did not fly far from the camp, but that it sought to stay close to the mountain, so they reasoned that this was surely a powerful and holy mountain to the Sun, as Jezzeria had long claimed and others suspected, but Jezzeria also suspected that the jeriminia crystal played a part in this as well.

The cult was beginning to understand the process of rebirth. Now all expectant mothers held the jeriminia crystal after a member of the Sun Cult expired. They noticed immediately that the percentage of souls that could be re-captured increased significantly once this practice became common, with well over half their deceased members returning to them for another life. They continued to work on the crystal, altering its shape and continually infusing it with sunlight.

Jezzeria said, Arson, I have made the pilgrimage many times. That summit speaks only to the Sun, and this crystal I have found is part of that voice too. We shall live there one day, atop the mountain. For I have foreseen it.

None questioned her, for without sight, she became, in some ways, even more attuned to the Earth and its surroundings than ever before.

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Arson’s Third Life – The Temple

In time, the Sun Cult went atop the mountain and built a temple, fulfilling Jezzeria’s prophecy. The temple they built was called Nal-Sinia-Ra, meaning this place dedicated to the Sun. In their beginnings, the temple atop of Mt. Denay-Ra was modest, but it would not be so for long.

Even after the move to the mountaintop, babies of the Sun Cult continued to be born in the villages of Mala-Din-U and Mala-Din-DenRa, as well as other nearby villages. Of the one hundred and fifty or so members of the cult, many were reborn. Many, however, were lost and never found again. Arson wondered at that, and it worried him. He wanted to find a way to get all the members to be reborn in a controlled fashion, and he meditated on that mostly. And it was in a dream that he finally realized what was happening and how to make the process more reliable.

In his mind, the solution was actually quite simple. Walking barefoot bound them to the Earth; gazing upon the Sun for so long made it so that their souls would bypass the Sun’s normal process of randomly redistributing their souls throughout the world, allowing them to remain on Earth and to retain their past lives’ memories.⁴

By worshiping the Sun, Sun Cult members, Arson reasoned, were granted a more controlled release, often favoring a location near their deaths. They had a more accurate description of what they believed to actually be happening to them, and it was much more paradoxical: the Sun was actually setting their souls free. For them, this meant they were free to ascend, having been passively given permission to do so by the Sun itself.⁵

Over time, they eventually discovered that many of the souls of the deceased members of their cult became bound to their holy mountain, Mt. Denay-Ra, even if their deaths occurred some distance away; though, the maximum possible distance was never discovered. Therefore, they reasoned, a more powerful connection to the Sun would make the process even more controlled and potent. The process would eventually come to require the blood of the expectant mother, two altars, and Jezzeria’s jeriminia crystal. The timing of the birth, however, was still one of the most important factors, but at this point in their development, the Sun Cult’s most pressing task was to build an altar.

As the Sun Cult began to grow more powerful, its members (into their 2nd life) found that they could stare at the Sun later into the morning and earlier than the onset of dusk. It was during these extended opportunities to view the Sun, becoming more potent as it rose higher into the sky, while communally holding the jeriminia crystal during Sub-Edda-Minia (another term for the process of transference, which loosely translated into lowering [or bringing] destiny into our hands), that they could transfer the greatest power to the crystal. Continual practice of this had the effect of imbuing much of the Sun’s power into it.

After decades of Sub-Edda-Minia, the Sun Cult deemed that the lone piece of Jezzeria’s jeriminia crystal was filled to its fullest potential, because it glowed brightly, just like sunlight but without the heat, on its own. At this point, they proceeded to create their sacred altar. The crystal was cut, shaped as one would hone a diamond in the rough, and tuned. It was given the name of Din-Ra, which meant anchored Sun. And an oath upon penalty of death that no more jeriminia would be mined from their sacred mountain was sworn by all and was made binding for any future members.

The altar they built was actually two altars positioned side by side. One altar was meant for the expectant mother, and the other was for the person just about to die. In many cases, this person was on the brink of death and would be euthanized in order to control the timing of the event. The crystal was placed under the altar of the expectant mother. A steel-like tube snaked its way down from the altar’s surface onto the crystal itself. It was in this steel-like tube that the mother-to-be’s blood made its way to the crystal where it coated it. This resulted in a temporary binding of the mother’s DNA and the crystal.

When the soul of the deceased on the adjacent altar floated momentarily, it sought the crystal, believing that it was the Sun. Though the crystal could not permanently hold a human soul, it could propel the soul into the baby only inches away. In the process, the blood on the crystal was consumed completely. This ritual was called Beth-Ro-Nin, which literally meant propelling into the host.

The first to use the brand-new altar for their own reincarnation was Jezzeria, when she died at the age of one hundred and twenty-eight. It was a success. She was transferred into a nearby male fetus who was around the age of four or five months. Eventually, the baby was born and, within just a couple of years, was exactly like Jezzeria. Arson, one hundred and five years into his third life, was beside himself with joy, and this became their standard procedure for controlled rebirths, and its rate of success was nearly one hundred percent.

After Arson’s third life, the Sun Collective, as they began to call themselves, started to consider a broader ministry, proselytizing among the masses. However, they had little to offer, except an unusually hard lifestyle and the chance to achieve a kind of immortality via controlled reincarnation. The village of Mala-Din had diminished by this point as its people’s fear of the Sun Cult, and their rumored powers, grew. These villagers began moving far away. But elsewhere nearby, other governments began to form.

The Sun Cult determined that they needed to send ambassadors to neighboring towns and, eventually, to other countries to proselytize. But they could not hope to gain an audience empty-handed. Therefore, they gave gifts, mostly of a medical nature.⁶ By this time, they developed medicines and medical tools, like syringes. In time, it came to be that none of the Collective (what they also referred to themselves as) ever suffered from illness, but they continued to develop medicines solely for use as currency.

One such village they visited was called Edia (modern-day Marsa Matruh). The village had recently suffered from a plague, and it was one of many villages to which they made an ambassadorial visit. The Collective made it a habit to hand out a satchel full of medical supplies and other nifty gadgets, like solar-powered lights and a type of solar-powered calculator, wherever they traveled. In many cases, the satchels would eventually be held as ancient, sacred relics among the later progeny of the original recipients, and the contents were revered, even if they were used syringes or empty vials that once held medicine. However, none of the people who received these devices knew how to replicate nor duplicate their technology.

In addition to their proselytizing efforts, the Sun Collective also began to take inventory of themselves. There were those among them who were scientists of a sort, but there were also philosophers among them. The group of philosophers was called the Inner Sacra.

Arson noticed that many of the Collective felt that their bodies were a hindrance to their ascension. They felt that the human race had, by the time Arson started the Sun Collective, corrupted their bodies and the human genome (or, as they called it, Det-Em-Jees, meaning the Master Blueprint) and had created an environment potentially hostile to purer spirits, like those of the Collective. By the time they had existed for three thousand years, its members had already decoded the human genome, and they concluded that the human genome was filled with a lot of junk DNA, which only confirmed their much earlier theories.

They reasoned that nature was perfect, because in nature, genetic aberrations did not succeed. The general human tendency, however, was to work to incorporate aberrations into their populations, if it served them to do so. The Collective decided that it had to rectify that, beginning with themselves. Arson began to think that if the Sun Cult members were able to ascend to their fullest potential they would all shift into a higher dimension; they would, in essence, become a higher form of life, eventually bypassing the need to occupy human bodies, or so claimed the Inner Sacra. As a result of this thinking, they favored and practiced eugenics among its members. They decided to allow only the most perfect among them to procreate. Initially, the measure of perfection was based on one’s health and lack of congenital defects . . . initially.

Eventually, the most perfect or viable came to also mean the most physically beautiful and tallest too. To the Collective, the beauty of symmetry and strength of height also came to be indicators of how much more perfect their DNA was, compared to that of non-Collective humans, and their research essentially confirmed this. Therefore, as they as a whole grew older, they also grew taller and much more attractive, and this had the ancillary effect of gaining them adherents, who were initially seduced by the physical beauty of the proselytizers. As each successive life came to pass, several things began to occur. Among these changes was that the age potential of each host-body gradually increased, at this point, by hundreds of years.

As they continued into their successive lives, they grew exceedingly intelligent, and their capacity to build newer and better architectures soon rivaled only their own previous attempts. They favored materials such as crystal, glass, a type of metal now unknown, and a kind of hard material similar to kevlar. One must understand how quickly they developed into super-minds. In the current era, new ideas are often stifled due to politics and other agendas. This was not so in the Sun Order, where everyone was on the same page. With creativity unhindered, these Sun Worshipers created some of the most beautiful art and architecture that the world would ever know.

As the Sun Cult grew older, something very odd also began to happen, and at first, it was somewhat troubling: the worldly pleasures that each of its members felt began to fade over successive lives. In their first several lives, Collective members would have been awed by, and rejoiced, the beauty of the base of a mountain where it met the Earth, the bee that flew in the air, or even a berry that hung on a bush. Unfortunately, over thousands of years, the gratification gained by simply observing these things became lost. What replaced it, however, was an intense desire to protect such things, as if they had become the guardians of Nature. They also began to feel a unique relationship with the Earth. This culminated in their ability to have lucid dreams if they chose to. Or they could allow the randomness of their minds and the world around them to drive what they dreamt about. But they so loved the Earth that many wished to continue experiencing her in their dreams. So if, for example, they were walking through a beautiful prairie, they could choose to relive it in their dreams exactly as it happened, as if they were really there; or, they could choose to relive it, while allowing anything to happen. For example, that anything may have included a sudden rainstorm in place of a memory in which none had actually occurred.

While they could build sophisticated flying vehicles, they grew to shun such devices. Even when eventually traveling abroad to South and North America, they preferred to travel by conventional wooden boat. Their reasons for this were peculiar, to say the least. By this time, they began to see the Earth as a type of mother, the Sun as a father, and they reasoned that if the Earth allowed them safe passage through the sea, that meant that they were still in the favor of the Earth.⁷ Therefore, they made many trips to South America and, from there, made their way north to North America. While in these regions, they built many structures, many of which still exist to this day. The purpose of those structures was actually to create some of the amenities they had established in their own monastery at Nal-Sinia-Ra, but they also built some altars to the Earth and Sun, though most were to the Earth. They were determined, however, that they would not stay stuck on Earth for long.

By the time the Collective had existed for seven thousand years, it had already developed the ability to travel into space. It may have seemed like a slow technological advancement compared to modern times, but they felt no urgency, so they simply progressed at their own pace.

Their motivation wasn’t personal glory, but technical and artistic perfection; they would sometimes use a thing and sometimes destroy it if they conceived of one better. They would, at times, hold a small component in their hands and think to themselves, As I look upon this, I know if I meditate on it that I will devise an even better version. Let others look upon this piece in admiration for our achievement, but in the next life, or the one after that, I shall create its better, and this one will seem like an ugly trinket to me. And so it was that they progressed only slowly but perfectly.

Neither did they have any interest in building many of anything. They might have built a spaceship, then another, and then another, each different in many ways, but all were great works of art. Once finished, however, their craft did not fail, and they were able to fly into space. But mostly, they wished to visit the Earth’s Moon, who was a mystery to them. It was, however, a dangerous affair.

The Collective merely wished to land on the Moon and learn something of its purpose and origins. When they got there, they took samples. The sentient Moon allowed this, for those could be replaced over time, and she too was curious about them. The Collective, however, soon found fissures that went deep into the Moon itself, and they ventured into her interior, where they discovered what appeared to be a bioluminescent garden. There were little metal balls, or globes, strewn about, and they were fascinated by these globes and grabbed a few. Then they rushed to the surface and made ready to embark, but when the Moon became aware of what had been taken, she smote several of them, and their dead bodies lay upon her surface until she was ready to study them. A few survivors, however, escaped with the globes. These globes were the Moon’s accumulated memories, covering perhaps hundreds of billions of years when she did not always look as she currently does.

Later, the Moon took the dead bodies and drained them of their blood. As for the globes, they were never able to decode them.

Their fascination with space travel, however, was rather short-lived, because the farther from the Earth they traveled the more they missed it. But it was not clear why they missed her until they had reached the age of around ten thousand years old.

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New Powers Over Time

60,000 BCE

At around ten thousand years, Arson noticed something very strange happening to him, something that the Collective would learn they would all attain after ten thousand years as well. The Collective mainly meditated or went out to convert humans, and they traveled far to do so. But as Arson walked the Earth, he noticed for the first time that it spoke to him. Or rather, he noticed that he could now understand her strange speech and, in time, learned to speak it too. Jezzeria said that it had to do with reincarnating as a baby over and over again, a development that occurred between the ages of one and ten. Around that age, their bodies, and subsequently their minds, tuned themselves to the Earth, but it could not happen to normal children in a single lifetime. Collective children got to have many childhoods, however, and these developments accrued over time.

What Arson heard in her strange speech was an innocence like the sweetest music he had ever known. If a man walking out into the forest to be with his mistress held some intrigue for the Earth, so too was she equally intrigued by the berry that waited to be eaten by a bear. And if a man quarreling with his wife was of interest to the Earth, no less interesting to her was the tiny pebble that lay in the shadows behind a boulder. Therefore, the Earth’s interest in this world was an intense and perpetual innocence that the Collective had themselves previously forgotten, as they had become complacent in their numbness to the subtle beauties of the world. With this new development, they began to see the Earth not only as their mother but also as a kind of child. In fact, the Earth, once her words were decoded in the mind, from low-frequency rumbles and creaks, sounded exactly like a little girl in all her innocence. It was the greatest joy they had ever known, and no member of the Sun Collective could resist talking to her once they achieved that level.

The language of the Earth could not be taught, but it could be conveyed to others, and none of them could wait to reach their ten-thousand-year milestone to even hope to be able to understand her. Some even hoped to reach that stage sooner. This ten-thousand-year mark, therefore, became a milestone that all Collective members wished to reach, and if not, then otherwise that fate would somehow reduce that amount of time to a lesser amount, perhaps to just five thousand years.

The reason why this was so important to them was that it allowed them a glimpse into the Earth’s thoughts and what she was like. They got some idea of why she did what she did or didn’t do what she didn’t do, but they simultaneously got a glimpse into themselves. It became a way of recalling the awe that they first felt when they first saw the world as children in their first lives. In fact, she was mostly like a curious child. Listening and talking to the Earth became a revival of sorts for them, who were beginning to think that there was nothing left for them to learn or experience. What they saw in the Earth made them think that she contained enough interest to last them the next million years! And they were desperate for such a connection, for as has been said before, the Sun took a passive approach toward the Collective. The Earth, however, was the polar opposite. But none took offense that, in the beginning, the Earth considered a human in the Collective no more important than a dead leaf on the forest floor. In exchange for this seeming disparity, she loved all equally and immensely.

They also discovered that, though far more ascended than themselves, she was still much less ascended than the Sun or Moon. While they venerated the Sun, it could be argued that they loved the Earth even more. And then another change began to occur.

Sometime after ten thousand years, Arson had a dream. He dreamt intensely about the Sun. In the dream, he seemed to be holding the Sun in his hands. He awoke to find his sheets slightly singed, as if by a flame. He wondered at this. And he meditated on it. In time, the power that he uncovered that night became more potent, and he learned that he could summon the power of the Sun to cause a flame to project just ahead