The Spine of Night Edit

A bounty of tomes to be indexed,

A fate you'll wish you...

A foolish plan.

A glorious conquest for Pyr!

A lifetime of seasons passed,

A traitor to the order of the Ashur,

A vision come to torment me.

A world waiting to be rediscovered.

Aaah!

Aaah!

Aah!

Aah!

Aah!

Achievements.

Across the very spine of night's great body.

After a very long reign.

Ah!

All hail, Ghal Sur!

All that I'd hoped, more.

All that night makes the darkness here

All those who oppose us.

An ignorant peasant boy

And begged him to dream her once again.

And did these travelers lose their homes, too?

And he had glimpsed into the eye of the un...

And he vowed that he would spare the race of man this truth.

And hear the fate of the world.

And I knew then what every Guardian before me had known...

And I will make the slate clean

And I will not let you do this!

And I, Tzod,

And if they do not flee the Pantheon,

And in a season's time,

And in the Great Swamp swallowed me.

And it led me here.

And its queen.

And let them live again beyond the mountains?

And mankind learned of loss.

And many of the vaults were flooded,

And most imprisoned!

And my dreams traveled with it.

And now you come offering me knowledge.

And once again, I will kill you for it.

And pluck the eyes from your skull.

And ride it back to our Pyr.

And she will stare back!

And so came their first breathe.

And so it went for ages

And the cycle began anew.

And the fall of the Ashur.

And the foolish delight

And the scope of its revelation.

And the world will begin to forget that it ever existed.

And the...

And then he showed them how to take it.

And there, he saw the true dark beyond the light.

And they named the man Seer,

And they survived.

And they, too, sons of gods,

And using them, he amassed great power,

And yet, you stand before me.

And yet...

And you are all too blind to see it.

And you let her do it.

And you...

And you're killing each other for a mouth full of frog meat.

Announce me.

Announce yourself.

Another dread revelation,

Another guardian to stand watch over The Bloom.

Anything they dreamed became manifest.

Apologies, Lord.

Are edible and which are poison.

Are mere embers drifting free from tiny fires.

Are they as powerless against their nature as we are to ours?

Argh, Phae

Argh!

Argh! Don't leave me here!

As a child, they told me if you listened carefully,

As I have drunk the life blood from the fallen below us!

As if with a desire all its own.

As the armies of Ghal Sur cross the land.

As The Bloom withers, I fade from this place.

As they lay bleeding

As wretched as the All Sorrow.

As you commanded,

Asleep in the snowy foothills,

At last,

At the death of the world's old masters,

Attack!

Aye, maybe not.

Be careful.

Be sure of it.

Be thankful you're in here and not out there.

Before opening here on this mountain.

Before you take your pleasure...

Beggars, kings, and gods alike

Being trapped proved false.

Better to die in glory.

Between men and gods.

Beyond light and smoke,

Beyond time.

Bind her.

Blood.

Bloom in hand,

Bring her in!

Bring her with us.

Bring me more wine!

Burn the Pantheon!

Burn the Pantheon!

Burned your swamp.

But how could they?

But I can tell you what was.

But I dreamed The Bloom's dream,

But I have a proposition.

But I know nothing of its mother's journey

But it is how it is.

But not too late to change what will be.

But our scouts to the West

But our triumph tonight...

But the people starve at our gates.

But there are things, so many things,

But we will fill our bellies tonight!

But what is the script?

But you do not answer my question, Old Man.

But your arrival on the same dawn

Can it do more?

Can't you see that?

Careful, you fools.

Careful! Careful!

Carried on the winds down from this mountain,

Cease your necromancy!

Charge!

Coins?

Come! We must flee!

Could it ever have been otherwise?

Councilors, please.

Cutting each other down in the streets.

Dark times have befallen us.

Daughter of man, let The Bloom die.

Despite your...

Destroy the wretches!

Did you find anything for us to eat?

Did you reach the temples beneath Ka Mul?

Die, Scholar!

Distant travelers stopped briefly

Do not mistake ritual for truth.

Do not mistake the desire for power

Do not worry. I called him here.

Do you not feel warmth?

Don't be a fool.

Don't be afraid, Gull.

Don't resist.

Don't wish for their deaths, Sparrowcrow.

Doom comes to Pyr!

Doom comes to the Pantheon.

Doom!

Doom!

Doom!

Drag him to the cells.

Echoing on the wind.

Enemy attack!

Enjoy the view.

Enough, San Al!

Especially now that Phae Agura

Even now, having seen so much,

Eventually, man came.

Every god, a god of death.

Everyone's just gone.

Everything mankind fights and dies for,

Evil.

Father will hear of this.

Fealty unto me.

Feel the might of the emperor god!

Feigned!

Filled the sky with blue flames.

Filling it with both light and dark.

Food? Anything?

For ages untold and uncounted,

For an age,

For Jae, we strike.

For merely a sliver of the knowledge I will command.

For so long, we're shielded the world from that

For Uxon.

For we have finally brought an end

For we know there is no other.

Forget what my father has done.

Free us.

From the Pantheon Ashurban

From the temples beneath Ka Mul.

Fulfill your vows.

Ghal Sur is immortal. Ghal Sur must die.

Ghal Sur pried secrets from The Bloom,

Ghal Sur?

Ghal Sur...

Give us food!

Glory be to Seer, the first king,

Go before I cut you down.

Go forth.

Go now! An army approaches!

Go on, then.

Go the scholars, you wench!

Go! Protect the books!

God King, your brave fallen soldiers

God of their nameless mound.

Grand Inquisitor, we do not have the soldiers

Great God King Ghal Sur,

Great Mongrel the Eunuch King has died

Gull, should we run?

Ha!

Had enjoyed.

Halt, outsider.

Has brought the weak willed to his cause.

Has finally returned

Has requested the presence of a scholar

Have named you queen of a bog

Have returned from the Uxon front.

Have you brought me another one?

He chose to grant mankind a gift...

He had overcome death,

He has left no sons.

He is sequestered behind massive iron walls

He knew that they would.

He learned another lesson that day.

He promised his followers the world,

He spared them nothing.

He struck again and again.

He swore revenge.

He vowed to keep from them The Bloom

He will kill us, you know?

He will revenge me.

He's half a world away from here.

Heaped upon that wagon.

His airships will return to the city walls.

His gods were not merely indifferent...

His rage, insatiable.

His sons.

Hmm.

How close is my city to your hallowed border?

How could we have been so blind to this vast, ruin

How long until they're inside the city walls?

How?

How?

How?! His fortress lies beyond the Great Swamp.

Huh?

I

I am a god!

I am doomed to forever wrestle

I am eager to spill their blood.

I am enlightened.

I am in pain!

I am Phae Agura,

I am so tired now.

I am that scholar.

I am...

I ask you...

I bring you what you need to perform the ritual,

I can only apologize so much.

I can smell the rotting pages of your books, Scholar.

I cannot read a page of it.

I cannot say what could have been.

I cannot tell where truth gave way to myth.

I did find this.

I do.

I don't know.

I don't think it's concerned with such things.

I don't want to die!

I had hoped to spare the world the horror of revelation.

I have been chained here,

I have come from that place to find you

I have come to request knowledge

I have encountered in my studies.

I have seen a single spore of your Bloom

I heard they slaughtered them all.

I hope it's true.

I hope you didn't leave the best books

I hope you'll remember that

I I can stop them. It... It's not too late.

I I... It's not too late.

I know you have, but you are not the only one

I learned it.

I passed through ruins of unknown design and origin,

I regret only...

I remember now so vividly my first sight of it,

I shall be oracle to the world.

I shall become the truth behind truths.

I shall drink them in

I shall shape a new Pantheon,

I should have you know,

I thank you for it.

I took you from Mother Swamp to die in this place.

I wanted to know the truth behind the myths of my youth.

I was nobody.

I went beyond the stars,

I will be the gates of knowledge,

I will no longer need the books.

I will not free you,

I will not let you harm her.

I wonder what our fire light looks like to them.

I wonder, do gods also suffer?

I would have a tale from you, Guardian.

I would have.

I would hear of your travels with my own ears.

I, too, came here seeking hope.

I... I...

I'll hear no more of this!

I'll need more blood.

I'll no more release you

I'll refer you to the sacred vows

I'll wish for revenge.

I'm afraid there's no room in my new order for heroes.

I'm afraid.

I'm called Ghal Sur.

I'm going to spread her open and take what I want from her.

I'm gonna clear the rest of the ship.

I'm making a new oath!

I'm so grateful that I've gotten to share

I've been gone from Pyr for many seasons, Old Man.

I've not come in violence, Guardian.

I've returned with a great number of them for the library.

I've served a long, solitary penance already.

If I had known

If the ship lands, we won't make it over the iron wall.

If we do nothing, then the Pantheon will fall.

If we opened our gates...

Ignorance.

In a tower made of death itself.

In another of man's hidden places.

In delusions of power.

In dreams and in flames,

In Ghal Sur's hands, The Bloom is

In the dark, he saw that man's newfound world

In the face of the endless light,

In the tomes of times past, I could be lost.

In time, one son dreamt of mankind.

In your fetid muck.

Inquisitor Uruq.

Inquisitor, what have you done?

Inquisitor!

Inquisitor... what happened?

Into the lake of ice and diamonds.

Into this savage land,

Invaders!

Is for the greatest minds in the world of men.

Is it as you imagined?

It can at least consecrate our hearth.

It has taken a full season

It healed me.

It is all for naught.

It is flowing.

It is meaningless,

It is not in any script

It is power, yes?

It is the eye of the swamp.

It is the mouth of the swamp.

It is time.

It is unspeakable power.

It stretched from horizon to horizon,

It tells us that there's still a world left to conquer.

It was intoxicating...

It'll only make it worse.

It's comforting, in a way.

It's too late to change what has happened.

It's too late.

It's worse.

Jae taught us that King Uxon established this order,

Just as Jae used to whisper of it.

Just as we did during the Withered Spring,

Just as your damnable savages did

Just as your research showed they would be.

Just before the harvest season,

Just like the counselors.

Kept as a pathetic oracle for the Ashurban for too long.

Kill her.

Kill the scholars!

Kill them all! Skin them alive!

Know peace at last, Guardian.

Knowing his dreams had come to kill him,

Lay her out.

Leave.

Legends and myths were no barrier

Let me fade.

Let me not hear the pain of the world.

Let me now tell you of moments of great dignity

Let survival be your revenge.

Let the rebirthing process begin.

Let these words of my failure be my last.

Let us fly to his black heart and cut it from its cage.

Like so much dust on a long forgotten tome.

Like those before, you came here seeking.

Like... Like sparrows falling

Listen, that you might know how I came to find you.

Lives and hopes for,

Look to the horizon.

Look to the stars, Ghal Sur.

Look, his black Pantheon,

Lord

Lord Pyrantin, Mongrel. Lord.

Lord Pyrantin. Ghal Sur at your service.

Make it stop!

Make it stop!

Man came to the sun

Many times, I've wished it had gone the other way.

May we three meet again in this life,

Maybe we'll get lucky.

Men and women lived in the shadow of the sons.

Mighty city.

Mighty God King Ghal Sur's promise of eternal life

Mm, rumors of the statue

Morale of the troops, supply trains,

Must knowledge only come at a terrible cost?

Must not see, our dreams are.

My father always taught me

My fault.

My first breath of it.

My home was the Great Swamp of Bastal.

My story simply is.

No matter the cause, he fell,

No one has braved the mountain for an eon,

No, there's nowhere to run to.

No, they have all the secrets of the ages locked in that tower,

No!

No!

No!

No!

No! She is my mother.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

Nonsense, Lord.

Not impulses, Uruq.

Not that it would idle and wait for its destruction.

Not yours, swamp witch.

Nothing will end this war, short of an impossibility.

Now I deal with these wretches.

Now I wonder if you are not simply my own madness,

Now the city starves.

Now, it has been long since I have left the Pantheon.

Of a key to unlock the true potential

Of Og Nesh say about contentment?

Of our conquest tomorrow.

Of our oldest and wisest scholar.

Of stored knowledge we hold here.

Of the flowers you wear around your neck.

Oh, daughter of man.

Oh, make it stop!

Oh, no.

Oh, please stop!

Oh, you cretins.

Oh, you...

Oh!

Oh!

Oh...

Oldest, wisest...

On and on.

Once again, you have The Bloom,

Once freed, Ghal Sur destroyed the Ashurban Pantheon.

Once I was inside, their knowledge came to me

One bearing secrets.

One man waited atop the mountain.

One with no place for those whose resolve is so...

Only a sign.

Or we burn it all down.

Or yours... Lord.

Our crops burned. My children starved.

Our food stores stay sealed.

Our gates,

Our little lives...

Our order has no responsibility to the men themselves.

Our people have suffered long enough.

Our vows call also for mercy!

Our words shall fill

Over the centuries.

Painful.

Perhaps he felt sorrow

Perhaps I'll ease your suffering.

Perhaps not,

Perhaps simple curiosity held him there.

Perhaps the archer was simply too skilled.

Perhaps the burden had grown too great.

Perhaps this is that key.

Perhaps.

Please stop.

Please!

Pray that they respond.

Precisely!

Protect the books!

Protector of knowledge,

Pyr will stretch from the Inevitable Sea

Raising an army of disciples.

Release me!

Remember all embers fade.

Report a new breed of war machine.

Rest now.

Ride them down!

Ruin and doom!

Same as all who have followed him.

Say something.

Scent on the wind is human shit.

Scholar of the library of Ashurban,

Scholars have called it The Night of a Thousand Suns.

Scholars of the Pantheon Ashurban.

Seem so much smaller.

Seer found the son who had first dreamed man,

Seer led the hunt for the remaining sons.

Seer proclaimed his victory to herald a new era of peace.

Share it?

Share its power with me.

She brings no sorrow to those who love her.

She put on quite a show,

She will know sorrow...

She'll tear his heart out for her swamp magic.

Show them to me.

Show us your swamp trickery, Witch.

Since we broke ground.

Sit, Scholar!

Sit.

Sloth...

So floods came.

So much lost.

So much of mine with you.

So short, so sad.

So tell me, Witch...

So that mankind may see the stars with their own eyes.

Someone approaches.

Spare the witch.

Spilled blood into the sky,

Stare into our mother!

Stare!

Starving people care nothing for the centuries

Stifle your apologies.

Stop this madness!

Stop!

Studies.

Take a look.

Take it!

Take note of how a true ruler manages an empire.

Take this.

Tch!

Tell me, Ghal Sur,

Tell me...

Than I'll let the council control the library.

That depends on an array of factors, Your Grace.

That horde will have dried up and blown away

That humanity must be protected from that truth.

That is our oath. That is our purpose!

That it has taken me so very long to find you.

That it might always watch over the city,

That man cannot know,

That might be a problem with a eunuch king.

That The Bloom withered cannot be mere coincidence.

That's how I knew you were still here, Guardian.

The Ashur are noble scholars, Old Man.

The Barbarian returned to Pyr

The blood you require,

The blood, the violence, it bound them to him.

The Bloom does not forget who they were.

The Bloom has shown me many things,

The Bloom has spread?

The Bloom is the last light of the gods.

The Bloom weakens, Guardian. You must see that.

The Bloom yet lives.

The Bloom.

The books are more important than any man.

The books burned.

The elders taught of the Great Dead Swamp

The final breath of The Bloom's power upon this world.

The final dream of the dead god...

The first king of men.

The flying machine approaches.

The food's in there!

The gods raged in blindness,

The great dark... It's back is to us.

The head of one, severed from its body,

The journey was long...

The last wagon is lost.

The library must be preserved.

The living ears of gods long dead.

The Lord Pyrantin, son of Uxon,

The name of the Great Swamp is Bastal!

The night you came here has fallen into myth.

The Order will hear of this!

The Pantheon is immortal.

The Pantheon will protect us.

The Pantheon's winter reserves could never feed you all.

The promise of The Bloom is meant as a dream, unfulfilled...

The Red Tempest, and The Night of a Thousand Suns.

The sacred Bloom traveled with a scholar called Ghal Sur,

The sacred texts were hidden deep

The same son who had refused him.

The scholar rode to the Pantheon,

The scholars care little for our troubles.

The scholars were slaughtered.

The son fled up to the mountain's peak.

The sons dreamed of rain...

The sons of gods were the sons of gods themselves,

The sons were uncaring gods of their world.

The spores of your Bloom...

The stars!

The story continues.

The very Bloom manifest!

The walls are holding against the ground troops,

The wisdom of the library

The world was theirs.

Their conflicts came through our fields.

Their hands without purpose, but to wield tools of war.

Their knowledge is ours.

Then let us begin in earnest.

Then our home will burn,

Then think on that before you die.

Then tomorrow,

Then we'll die.

There are so many secrets still to pry from it.

There is no mercy in the stars, no hope for man.

There must be a million faces I've forgotten

There, I saw the truth.

There's a pest in my forge engine!

There's another way besides

These are the old names in the old script.

These have run dry,

They can't even read the words!

They feel so warm to me.

They fight for the chance to escape death.

They sang songs of it when I was a boy.

They say it lasted but a year.

They taught themselves...

They were cruel.

They were desperate for hope.

They will be slaughtered as animals.

They will do little good when the crows come

They will rally against us!

They would not be the last.

They're animals!

They're gone.

They've amassed all the knowledge of the world...

Think of all that is gathered here.

This city will be the very tip of the Empire's spear

This fame is the Bastal among us.

This has been a comfort, my friend.

This is indeed the ritual I've so long dreamt of.

This is not how it's supposed to be, friend.

This is not what your aides have been telling us, General.

This is the very last it will grow.

This is truly a wonder.

This night is not yet done.

This one in particular caught my eye.

This ritual will reveal what these corpses never could.

This woman is protected by the High Order of Ashur,

Those flames forever rekindled and extinguished.

Those that have stared into the great dark.

Though the men who came called it the All Sorrow.

Through the tall trees

Throw down your arms and return to your city!

Till the Ashur opened their books to me.

Time has had little meaning on this mountain,

To at last take root

To cause you torment is not my intent.

To claim what he thought his.

To gather and protect the knowledge of man.

To huddle around campfires on their journey

To it, our births and deaths

To man,

To mark my historic

To protect the library.

To put an end to your long vigil.

To repay kindness in the like.

To send even a single scholar

To the Deserts of Ul Imir.

To the immortal grandeur

To the wretched mud folk who have plagued our progress

To what end do you seek?

To witness and record the rise of your path...

Tomorrow, we board one of those ships

Tonight is the last night of books of Uxon.

Too complex for the uninitiated to comprehend.

Translated, and archived.

Tremble before the immensity of the night!

Try to keep us level.

Turn from this place. Take flight.

Two sunsets.

Two tyrant kings had been at war since my birth.

Until it was at our gates?

Until once again, another came,

Until the end of your days.

Until...

Use it.

Wait till it gets close enough for the catapults to launch.

Wait!

Wait.

Walk out of here unharmed.

Was both its servant

Was I wrong to keep The Bloom from them for so long?

Was nothing but dust,

We all have masters to serve.

We ask not for an answer.

We brought you the swamp witch to kneel before you, Pyrantin.

We can teach you to survive! We can teach you to...

We fight to survive.

We fought, and he fell.

We have books that tell which of the All Sorrow's plants

We humble ourselves before your mercy.

We launch.

We merely stand at the threshold

We serve in the hope of your favor.

We shall make them in our image.

We shall shatter

We take back the air.

We will endure...

We will teach them nothing.

We're under attack! To arms!

We've got to do something.

Weak.

Welcome to civilization,

Well...

Went off behind the mountains, he did.

What brings you to the mighty city of Pyr?

What does it mean, Witch?

What does the great text

What has changed in the world below?

What has happened?

What he did find...

What he expected to find, I cannot say.

What if we taught them?

What is it that you need?

What is the nature of the power you would unleash.

What must I do?

What they do not share is surely too vast,

What they learned of it,

What was happening below

Whatever you dream, you will have.

When The Bloom's power was unleashed.

When the snows come, your larders empty,

Where the fearful and ignorant toil.

Which it could not fathom.

While my body lay in the embrace of the swamp,

While we were lying in wait,

Who dares?

Who has faced the void without succumbing to it.

Who knows when the next will come.

Who were you before you joined this Ashur?

Why did the Ashur take up arms at their gates?

Why do so many fight for Ghal Sur?

Why do you think?

Why not destroy The Bloom if it was so powerful?

Why, it's no more than a day's ride.

Why?

Why?