Microstory 634: Sores Upon the Disloyal

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One thing I’ve not mentioned before is the unfortunate presence of The Blind Ones. Once a sect of Lightseed, these people broke away from our religion to form their own. At first they only believed themselves to be unworthy of The Sacred Light. But then their terrible thoughts formed a tumor, and became cancerous. We needed to remove them from our ranks, and so they were exiled. We thought they would eventually destroy themselves, but they have managed to survive in the sludge of their own twisted beliefs. The Blind Ones do not call themselves that for pure metaphorical reasons. Their system is based on a series of levels. Rising up requires becoming more devoted to their lies. They literally hide themselves away from light. In fact, they’re based out of a tidally locked planet—not unlike Oirpelne—called Derkaz, living primarily on the darker side of the terminator line. These areas are dark enough to shroud the environment, but also warm enough to survive. The concept is to rid oneself of light sources little by little, until reaching the ultimate darkness: actual blindness. They undergo a surgery that removes their eyes from their bodies, so that they will never be able to see again. It is then that they can travel beyond Derkaz to recruit others. Of course, this technique is amazingly inefficient, causing their numbers to have plateaued about a century after their beginnings. They are angry and bitter about our great truth being discovered by more and more people each day. They consider themselves to be of the one true religion, even though we know that honor to be ours. It is for this reason, however, that they are convinced that many artifacts from our past also belong to them, including the Bow and Crown of Bertok. In retaliation for what they think to be the theft of these items, a group of Blind Ones attacked one of our transport ships, ultimately killing everyone inside. What they didn’t realize was that this ship was also carrying a particularly nasty virus that they accidentally released upon themselves. The disease didn’t manifest itself until the attackers had returned to Derkaz, spreading it across nearly their entire population. Most Blind Ones broke out in festering sores within two days. They didn’t die, but their spirits have faded, and they are no longer a threat to the Light.