The Journey of the Guiding Crow
Once upon a time, a vampire lived in America. This wasn’t any united collection of states or provinces…there were no colonies of Europe. This was a time when the white man was still unknown in this part of the world, decades earlier than even the Vikings would take their first steps on this land.
This vampire had lived for many summers, far more than any human could know, and eventually began to feel the weight of the extra seasons. It was not right to stand outside the balance of the world in this way. So the vampire traveled away from home and people, and out into the far wilds, hoping to hear the spirits speak. For weeks, the vampire was alone; not even animals came near.
Nearly an entire season had passed before, weak, starved, and burned by the sun, the vampire spied a crow standing on a rock as if waiting. As the vampire approached, the crow regarded the stumbling form silently, only turning to take wing when less than a few strides separated them. The vampire knew the crow meant to lead; this crow was the answer the vampire sought from the spirits of the wild. The vampire followed the crow, and was led down hidden pathways, to a dark world beyond this one, a place where the vampire could find balance.
That’s how the story goes, anyway. No one ever seems terribly clear on the details. Supposedly, this vampire was never seen nor heard from again…but then, no one knows how anyone could know the story if that’s truly the case. The details vary from telling to telling. Sometimes the vampire is male, sometimes female. Sometimes the vampire is a member of one tribe or nation, sometimes a different one…sometimes no specific origin is given at all. The guide has always been a crow, though.
Some people think this journey was just a metaphor for death, that the dark world beyond is simply the afterlife, and the vampire found balance by being allowed to die. Others think the vampire still lives in this other realm, and may even occasionally influence this world in subtle ways. In the end, what one believes seems to be a matter of individual faith…but the Final Migration of 1813 is often cited as a strong argument that there is at least some truth to the tale.
In 1813, the vampire race was in dire straits. After millennia under the vampires’ heels, humanity finally decided to push back, and the eldritch creatures found themselves being exterminated by their prey at a record pace. Death, that final end, was even more terrifying to vampires than it was to humans. Vampires considered themselves immortal, and often also banned from any heaven that might wait beyond. The idea of death coming for them anyway and thrusting them to whatever came next was a thought that only made their blood run colder.
Near the end, though, rumors began to spread. There was a place, supposedly, where a vampire could go. It might not save them, but something about this place meant that a dead vampire might possibly return. Death, here, need not be the end. Most of the more “rational”, “scientifically” minded vampires assume that this was discovered by some vampiric elder, who then spread that knowledge to those they hoped to save. Others of a more spiritual bent cite stories of vampires who dreamt of walking through the forest, being led to this promised city…by a crow.
((Edit: Originally posted April 27, 2011.))
Legends & Lore
-
Dex
- Registered User
- Posts: 52
- Joined: 25 Mar 2011, 00:22
- CrowNet Handle: Anonymous
Re: Legends & Lore
The Last Vision of Blind Hamish
These are the words of the man called Blind Hamish, as recorded by his grandson on this Third Day of September in the Year of our Lord Eighteen Hundred and Five.
I see a time not long in coming, when the soulless children of Judas shall fall like wheat to a farmer’s scythe. I see a stirring in the deep woods, and the ground will drink deep of dead curdled blood. Death shall claim the dark blood of the Damned in every land, and they shall have no place to hide, save one.
I see a place in the far North, long claimed haunted by the Savages who dwell there, and a blood speckled Raven perched high in a tree. The Cannibal Brood flee to this place where they are slaughtered by Men of God and less holy Things. Their bodies rot on the ground, even as the Raven pecks the eyes from their skulls. I hear the laughter of a Dead Man.
I see a Raven in an abandoned field, pecking corn from the ground. With every kernel he eats, I see him plant something rotten in its place. I see the long March of Years, and the slow retreat of the ancient wood. I see the rise of men and a godless heaven. I see a blood speckled Raven swimming beneath the waves of a Lodestone Ocean. I see the coming of the Dead.
Men will die. Blood will flow. And we shall weep for that Knowledge our Fathers once had.
Such was the final vision of Blind Hamish, called the Prophet of Roanoke. May his aged soul know Peace.
These are the words of the man called Blind Hamish, as recorded by his grandson on this Third Day of September in the Year of our Lord Eighteen Hundred and Five.
I see a time not long in coming, when the soulless children of Judas shall fall like wheat to a farmer’s scythe. I see a stirring in the deep woods, and the ground will drink deep of dead curdled blood. Death shall claim the dark blood of the Damned in every land, and they shall have no place to hide, save one.
I see a place in the far North, long claimed haunted by the Savages who dwell there, and a blood speckled Raven perched high in a tree. The Cannibal Brood flee to this place where they are slaughtered by Men of God and less holy Things. Their bodies rot on the ground, even as the Raven pecks the eyes from their skulls. I hear the laughter of a Dead Man.
I see a Raven in an abandoned field, pecking corn from the ground. With every kernel he eats, I see him plant something rotten in its place. I see the long March of Years, and the slow retreat of the ancient wood. I see the rise of men and a godless heaven. I see a blood speckled Raven swimming beneath the waves of a Lodestone Ocean. I see the coming of the Dead.
Men will die. Blood will flow. And we shall weep for that Knowledge our Fathers once had.
Such was the final vision of Blind Hamish, called the Prophet of Roanoke. May his aged soul know Peace.
-
Dex
- Registered User
- Posts: 52
- Joined: 25 Mar 2011, 00:22
- CrowNet Handle: Anonymous
Re: Legends & Lore
The Birth of the Amarna Heresy
((The following letter was dated September 5, 1940, and sent from London, England to Harper Rock, Ontario. The promised research materials never followed, and to date have not been located. Mr. Penn is believed to have died two days later during the Blitz.))
Dear Sirs,
As requested, these past eight years I have been researching the Amarna find brought back by our Acquisitions Department. I must apologize for the shameful irregularity of my reports, but you know as well as I how difficult it can be to move anything into or out of Europe these days. The bulk of my research will be shipped to you by the end of the week, and the results have been fascinating, to say the least. This artifact may be more powerful than we first imagined, though sadly it remains difficult to say how precisely it might be used.
To summarize, the tablet appears to have been laying out in the desert for at least 3,300 years, which dates it to the time a Pharaoh known to the Greeks as Amenophis IV. Amenophis presents a great mystery to most students of Egypt, as he is known to have enacted great sweeping changes to the country during his reign, in areas cultural, political, and religious. Most of these changes seem to have been reversed by his son and successor, the famed Tutankhamen found at Luxor, and most believe the reasons for Amenophis’s great changes to be lost to history. Our Amarna Tablet, I believe, holds the answer.
In translating the Tablet, and comparing it with various other sources (including the Amarna Letters and the records of Hay & Laver, the latter recovered at great personal cost from the British Library), I have discovered a peculiar tale. It suggests that we may have colleagues dating back thousands of years earlier than we once believed.
In brief, these records suggest an encounter between the Pharaoh Amenophis IV and another Pharaoh from some far distant place. Most sources fail to name this second Pharaoh, many even having a name defaced beyond recognition. Only one source, a Coptic manuscript dating from approximately 1530 and claiming to be a copy of a source older still, calls this second Pharaoh “Meni” and refers to him as the “Son of the Scorpion”, whatever that may mean.
Supposedly, this Meni visited Amenophis several times, always in the evening, and the two spoke at great length on numerous topics, Meni proving to be educated beyond what would be reasonable for any proper human to retain. (Here again, only the mysterious Coptic source provides any further detail on the source of Meni’s knowledge, referring to it once as “Qumari”, but whether this Qumari is a place, a person or something else entirely I cannot say.)
The Coptic source differs somewhat from the others on the final outcome of these meetings, seeming to hold a bias friendly to Pharaoh Meni, where all other sources are biased in favor of Amenophis IV. Most sources claim that Meni was unholy, a charlatan who came to tempt the Pharaoh into darkness and evil, where the Coptic source claims Meni was benevolent, and offered the Pharaoh a great (but unnamed) gift that was cruelly and foolishly rejected. Both sides agree, however, on the final outcome of this rejection: Violence.
Though details are few, my research indicates that Amenophis and Meni came to blows. Their fight lasted perhaps as long as an hour, and it is recorded that, though Amenophis was aided by his personal guard and Meni was alone and unarmed, Meni apparently killed numerous guards and very nearly the Pharaoh himself as well. Amenophis and his surviving guards were saved only by the rising of the sun, which is said to have revealed Meni as a monster and seared his flesh, forcing him to flee the Pharaoh’s home. It appears this Meni never returned.
Amenophis was incensed at the deceit of this foreign Pharaoh (who, interestingly, is never referred to as “false”), and seems to have blamed the gods for allowing such a monster to come so close to ending the Pharaoh’s life. Thereafter he began his campaign to eliminate the worship of these fickle gods, holding instead only to the Aten, the solar disk that came forth to save his life. His surviving guards seem to have held similar opinions to Amenophis (who now called himself “Ankhenaten”), and started a militant cult of sorts, worshiping the solar disk and defending the people of Egypt from unholy monsters in the night.
Sadly, much of the purpose of this group, and even the name, becomes obscured in rhetoric and ritual. They have mostly disappeared from history after the death of their sponsoring pharaoh, though hints of similar groups dedicated to various solar deities appear to be hidden in the corners of various texts. I highly recommend searching our own libraries for similar references.
The Amarna Tablet itself was crafted by these warriors of the Aten, and though it is maddeningly imprecise on the subject of its purpose and design, it seems clear that it is an artifact of great arcane might, and it refers obliquely to “holding the power of the desert sun”. What this may mean is open to interpretation. I look forward to returning home to continue my research in peace; things are becoming far too tense around here.
Yours,
Wm. Alexander Penn
((The following letter was dated September 5, 1940, and sent from London, England to Harper Rock, Ontario. The promised research materials never followed, and to date have not been located. Mr. Penn is believed to have died two days later during the Blitz.))
Dear Sirs,
As requested, these past eight years I have been researching the Amarna find brought back by our Acquisitions Department. I must apologize for the shameful irregularity of my reports, but you know as well as I how difficult it can be to move anything into or out of Europe these days. The bulk of my research will be shipped to you by the end of the week, and the results have been fascinating, to say the least. This artifact may be more powerful than we first imagined, though sadly it remains difficult to say how precisely it might be used.
To summarize, the tablet appears to have been laying out in the desert for at least 3,300 years, which dates it to the time a Pharaoh known to the Greeks as Amenophis IV. Amenophis presents a great mystery to most students of Egypt, as he is known to have enacted great sweeping changes to the country during his reign, in areas cultural, political, and religious. Most of these changes seem to have been reversed by his son and successor, the famed Tutankhamen found at Luxor, and most believe the reasons for Amenophis’s great changes to be lost to history. Our Amarna Tablet, I believe, holds the answer.
In translating the Tablet, and comparing it with various other sources (including the Amarna Letters and the records of Hay & Laver, the latter recovered at great personal cost from the British Library), I have discovered a peculiar tale. It suggests that we may have colleagues dating back thousands of years earlier than we once believed.
In brief, these records suggest an encounter between the Pharaoh Amenophis IV and another Pharaoh from some far distant place. Most sources fail to name this second Pharaoh, many even having a name defaced beyond recognition. Only one source, a Coptic manuscript dating from approximately 1530 and claiming to be a copy of a source older still, calls this second Pharaoh “Meni” and refers to him as the “Son of the Scorpion”, whatever that may mean.
Supposedly, this Meni visited Amenophis several times, always in the evening, and the two spoke at great length on numerous topics, Meni proving to be educated beyond what would be reasonable for any proper human to retain. (Here again, only the mysterious Coptic source provides any further detail on the source of Meni’s knowledge, referring to it once as “Qumari”, but whether this Qumari is a place, a person or something else entirely I cannot say.)
The Coptic source differs somewhat from the others on the final outcome of these meetings, seeming to hold a bias friendly to Pharaoh Meni, where all other sources are biased in favor of Amenophis IV. Most sources claim that Meni was unholy, a charlatan who came to tempt the Pharaoh into darkness and evil, where the Coptic source claims Meni was benevolent, and offered the Pharaoh a great (but unnamed) gift that was cruelly and foolishly rejected. Both sides agree, however, on the final outcome of this rejection: Violence.
Though details are few, my research indicates that Amenophis and Meni came to blows. Their fight lasted perhaps as long as an hour, and it is recorded that, though Amenophis was aided by his personal guard and Meni was alone and unarmed, Meni apparently killed numerous guards and very nearly the Pharaoh himself as well. Amenophis and his surviving guards were saved only by the rising of the sun, which is said to have revealed Meni as a monster and seared his flesh, forcing him to flee the Pharaoh’s home. It appears this Meni never returned.
Amenophis was incensed at the deceit of this foreign Pharaoh (who, interestingly, is never referred to as “false”), and seems to have blamed the gods for allowing such a monster to come so close to ending the Pharaoh’s life. Thereafter he began his campaign to eliminate the worship of these fickle gods, holding instead only to the Aten, the solar disk that came forth to save his life. His surviving guards seem to have held similar opinions to Amenophis (who now called himself “Ankhenaten”), and started a militant cult of sorts, worshiping the solar disk and defending the people of Egypt from unholy monsters in the night.
Sadly, much of the purpose of this group, and even the name, becomes obscured in rhetoric and ritual. They have mostly disappeared from history after the death of their sponsoring pharaoh, though hints of similar groups dedicated to various solar deities appear to be hidden in the corners of various texts. I highly recommend searching our own libraries for similar references.
The Amarna Tablet itself was crafted by these warriors of the Aten, and though it is maddeningly imprecise on the subject of its purpose and design, it seems clear that it is an artifact of great arcane might, and it refers obliquely to “holding the power of the desert sun”. What this may mean is open to interpretation. I look forward to returning home to continue my research in peace; things are becoming far too tense around here.
Yours,
Wm. Alexander Penn
-
Dex
- Registered User
- Posts: 52
- Joined: 25 Mar 2011, 00:22
- CrowNet Handle: Anonymous
Re: Legends & Lore
The Truth of Harper Rock
((User:GreyhawkDown posted the following to the Sanguivores forum of a cryptid-hunting website called A View in the Dark, timestamped 09:03:58 12-Dec-2015 UTC-0000. The post was deleted about an hour later, after which that account never posted again. The promised upload of evidence never came.))
---
Subject: The Truth of Harper Rock
Harper Rock, Ontario. I know, I know, worst-kept secret in the world. More pics on the net than Bigfoot, more govt leaks than Area 51. Like anyone who pays any attention doesnt know there are vampires. Zombies too, but thats another forum. "Viral outbreak" my ***. Vampires Exist isnt news. Vampires Were Extinct is tho.
Got your attention there, didnt I? See, thats where it gets interesting: vampires went extinct like 200 years ago. We wiped them out. They shouldnt be swarming some Canadian backwater because they should all be dead. Like DEAD dead. but 4 or 5 years ago they came back. How does that work? Conspiracy of course. One of them survived.
For the last 200 years theres been one whole vampire in the world. Just the one. Well call him Bob. Bob has been hiding in Canada this hole time, planning out how to bring vampires back. Getting us ready for a blood harvest, were there food remember. Bob has been tilling the soil, getting his hooks into every bit of society, first Harper Rock then further out. For 200 years hes been steering science, common sence and pop culture, making sure we "know" vampires arent real and changing the vampire image from evil monster in the night to brooding hottie who just needs a preteen girl to change him. Romanticising them. Getting us ready to happily offer our necks to the alpha predator, because last time we fought back we killed the lot of em.
Tell me Im wrong. Tell me they wont finally reveal themselves claiming they are just misunderstood people like the rest of us, riding that Twilight Underworld wave of popularity and feasting on all the willing idiots who think bloodsucking corpses are cool. We all know thats how it will go down, probably soon. 5 years tops. Dont believe me? Ive got proof guys, lots of it. Ive been keeping it under wraps while I check things out, but as soon as I finish getting a secure site to upload everything, youll see I know what Im talking about. Expect the goods to start showing up in the next 24-28 hours.
Bob did his work well, and he brought the rest of the vampires back already. Harper Rock is just the beginning. Keep your eyes on Canada and dont believe the hype
---
((While the resulting thread was deleted, a screenshot of the original post resurfaces on the internet every so often. The only visible reply in the JPG is from User:H.Grigori, offering User:GreyhawkDown a PM with partial supporting evidence and requesting to meet up to safely discuss things in person. The reply is cut off at the bottom of the image; whether they met up is unknown.))
((User:GreyhawkDown posted the following to the Sanguivores forum of a cryptid-hunting website called A View in the Dark, timestamped 09:03:58 12-Dec-2015 UTC-0000. The post was deleted about an hour later, after which that account never posted again. The promised upload of evidence never came.))
---
Subject: The Truth of Harper Rock
Harper Rock, Ontario. I know, I know, worst-kept secret in the world. More pics on the net than Bigfoot, more govt leaks than Area 51. Like anyone who pays any attention doesnt know there are vampires. Zombies too, but thats another forum. "Viral outbreak" my ***. Vampires Exist isnt news. Vampires Were Extinct is tho.
Got your attention there, didnt I? See, thats where it gets interesting: vampires went extinct like 200 years ago. We wiped them out. They shouldnt be swarming some Canadian backwater because they should all be dead. Like DEAD dead. but 4 or 5 years ago they came back. How does that work? Conspiracy of course. One of them survived.
For the last 200 years theres been one whole vampire in the world. Just the one. Well call him Bob. Bob has been hiding in Canada this hole time, planning out how to bring vampires back. Getting us ready for a blood harvest, were there food remember. Bob has been tilling the soil, getting his hooks into every bit of society, first Harper Rock then further out. For 200 years hes been steering science, common sence and pop culture, making sure we "know" vampires arent real and changing the vampire image from evil monster in the night to brooding hottie who just needs a preteen girl to change him. Romanticising them. Getting us ready to happily offer our necks to the alpha predator, because last time we fought back we killed the lot of em.
Tell me Im wrong. Tell me they wont finally reveal themselves claiming they are just misunderstood people like the rest of us, riding that Twilight Underworld wave of popularity and feasting on all the willing idiots who think bloodsucking corpses are cool. We all know thats how it will go down, probably soon. 5 years tops. Dont believe me? Ive got proof guys, lots of it. Ive been keeping it under wraps while I check things out, but as soon as I finish getting a secure site to upload everything, youll see I know what Im talking about. Expect the goods to start showing up in the next 24-28 hours.
Bob did his work well, and he brought the rest of the vampires back already. Harper Rock is just the beginning. Keep your eyes on Canada and dont believe the hype
---
((While the resulting thread was deleted, a screenshot of the original post resurfaces on the internet every so often. The only visible reply in the JPG is from User:H.Grigori, offering User:GreyhawkDown a PM with partial supporting evidence and requesting to meet up to safely discuss things in person. The reply is cut off at the bottom of the image; whether they met up is unknown.))