GOSPEL OF THE HIDDEN MAW
The Parable of the Mountain
Empress Teta, One Week Before Tython
The Heathen Priests of the Maw walked among the teeming horde of warriors, and they anointed them.
The priests were a diverse bunch - skeletal Sorcerers of Rhand, tattooed shamans from backwater planets, hulking pirates who'd found religion,
Ebruchized monstrosities. All they had in common was their faith and the sacred oil that stained their fingertips, a mixture of blood and engine fuel and fouler things still. They dabbed the thick, viscous liquid onto the foreheads of each of the marauders, three long strokes for the Three Avatars who would end the galaxy and begin it anew. Scar Hounds, Bloodsworn, Crimson Hands, it did not matter what tribal allegiances might separate them. They were all one in service to the Great Three and their prophet, the Dark Voice.
At the head of the gathering, upon a raised dais of dark stone, the great High Priest Ananeos raised his hands in a gesture of praise to the gods above. The chanting of the warriors crescendoed as his hands ascended, building and building, growing until it rattled the stained glass windows of the cathedral and made the torch flames sputter. Then his hands fell, and instantly there was
silence. No one spoke a word in that packed hall; the assembled faithful hardly took a breath. For Ananeos was about to speak, and when he spoke, he carried with him the authority of the Prophet himself. They hung on his every word, their guidance as they faced their greatest battle.
"Brethren in Spilled Blood, Bringers of the Great Change, hear my voice!" In the otherwise-complete silence, his voice seemed even louder than the chanting of the warriors had been.
"We go to battle at the very heart of our greatest enemy, and all the galaxy rises to oppose us." His blazing eyes swept across the room, glittering like rubies, somehow visible even from the very back of the cathedral.
"There may be doubt in your hearts, facing so great a foe as this. But hear me now: the gods will not abandon us! We are their righteous instrument. Only through them can we triumph in the face of so many, but we CAN TRIUMPH! The Avatars have made it so!"
"I will teach you how. Listen well to these three parables, drawn from the Scripture of the Hidden Maw."
In the ancient days when this galactic cycle began, two god-siblings were born. They were called Ashla and Bogan, and they
loathed each other from the moment of birth. Ashla was bright, rigid, arrogant, and self-righteous, believing she knew best for the universe. Bogan was dark, chaotic, and equally arrogant, reveling in petty cruelties and doomed power plays. Their endless squabbling spread out across the galaxy, and soon each of them began to grant power to mortal beings, deputizing them as
little gods to inflict their will upon the universe. Bogan's chaos waxed and waned, sometimes strong enough to beat back Ashla's disciples for a while, but ultimately self-defeating.
So it was that Ashla's little gods, the Jedi, came to dominate this galactic cycle. Convinced of their own perfection and made proud by their Ashla-given divine power, the Jedi inflicted their will upon known space. They stole away children to induct into their cult. They meddled in the disputes of every culture they came into conflict with. They forced
their morality on all the worlds their light could touch, and made it clear that following
their way was the only way, unless you wished to face
their justice at the end of a laser-sword. So it went for
thirty thousand years. Bogan might rise, but in the end, the little godlings of Ashla always cast them down, remaking their own dominion.
And the older, truer gods watched, and waited. For all cycles come to an end.
When even 400 years of darkness could not change the galaxy, could not end the Jedi and begin something new, the gods saw that they must intervene. And so the Three Avatars appeared to their chosen Prophet. He was a man who had tasted the power of both Ashla and Bogan, and yet for all that might he still found reality
lacking. He had begun to see
beyond, and the gods rewarded his vision.
"YOU WILL BE OUR DARK VOICE," they said unto him.
"AT YOUR COMMAND WILL THE GALAXY BEGIN AGAIN." But the Prophet did not yet understand. "Though I wish to cary out your will," he told them, "I cannot change the entire galaxy. I do not have enough power."
"YOU CAN, AS YOU CAN MOVE THAT MOUNTAIN," the gods told him. The Prophet tried to obey. He reached out with all the power of Ashla and Bogan, and a great storm of magic arose, tearing down buildings and ripping out mighty trees by the root... but the mountain did not move. "Forgive me," the Prophet begged, "I cannot."
"NOT ALONE," the gods replied.
"SPREAD OUR GOSPEL." And so the Dark Voice traveled from that world, and he spread the word of the Maw. Many heard it. The downtrodden, those who suffered under the rigid order of Ashla and her Jedi, set aside their meager lives and followed him. And when he had gathered a great horde of faith, the Prophet returned.
At his command, the faithful began to dig. They dug with excavating machines, or with jackhammers, or with shovels, or with their bare hands. They dug until their arms broke and their backs cracked and their fingernails were stripped to bloody ribbons. They dug until they dropped dead of exhaustion. They never stopped, for they knew that the Dark Voice led the way to the Galaxy To Come, to a better reality where their suffering and oppression would end. And the mountain crumbled before the horde of the faithful, and the Dark Voice moved it, just as the gods had promised. And with the words of the Avatars proven true, the Prophet gathered his holy Brotherhood and
began.
This is the first lesson:
faith is stronger than magic. Embrace the true gods, and we shall have
victory.
No matter the odds that Ashla's godlings set against us.
Caltin Vanagor
, Open
Coren Starchaser
could be sensed somewhere in the vicinity. Both were notable figures Justice had only heard stories about. He had never personally met the two Jedi Masters, but his uncle had plenty to say about them both.
