Microstory 722: Commencement

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Whew, that was a lot, wasn’t it? In the introduction for the Taikon series, I lamented my inability to remember where exactly I came up with that word. I told you then that we would fix it in my post, and I was totally right. Here we are at the post-show installment—designed to bridge us to my current microfiction series, which will go until the end of the year—and I can tell you the answer. Taikon is a portmanteau of token and icon. When I transferred the notes for the television series that these stories are based on into a spreadsheet, rather than a document, it made most things a lot easier to read, but some of the longer paragraphed text gets lost in the scrolling. Anyway, I hope the taikon stories were entertaining to you. They were fantastically difficult for me to write. Like I said, these belong to a television series (my favorite one, actually, at least in the recursiverse). I need to be extra careful about how I tell the story, because of the nature of television writing. My biggest draw to the industry is the amount of collaboration that kind of art requires, especially when compared with novels and short fiction. I wasn’t concerned with giving secrets away so much as I was worried about including plot points that could one day conflict with some hypothetical brilliant idea someone on my writing team might have. I’m still worried about that. I’m pretty happy with how they turned out, but I will be so relieved next year when I’m not constrained by a canon I’ve not yet figured out. As I’ve told you before, I plan my website far in advance, ya know, except for this one, which I came up with all the way back on Friday. Please consult this post here, which first outlines what I’m going to detail in this series here. I came up with four of those conventions on the fly, then upon realizing that they all shared the same first two letters, I consulted my trusted source in RhymeZone.com for related terms that fit the parameters. I found eleven more, and was satisfied with that being as far as it went, because I was merely trying to illustrate the outrageousness of your stupid religions, and all your stupid ideas that can be applied to practically anything else. A set of fourteen arbitrary conventions that don’t so much as begin to codify the complexities of moral improvement is exactly the kind of thing religions love to leverage against the rest of us. As the writer responsible for a particular quote spoken by the titular character, Donnie Darko once said, “okay. But you’re not listening to me. There are other things that need to be taken into account. Like the whole spectrum of human emotion. You can’t just lump everything into these two categories, and then just deny everything else.”

Meanwhile, I’m sitting over here with a set of 24 extra weekdays in 2017, trying to come up with an actual story behind the concept of 24 consecutive hours, and I got nothin’. I generally collect these stories into groups of 100 (this last one being a major exception) which makes the beginnings and ends of the calendar year uneven. I went to Wikipedia, and tried to look up what things in the world can be broken down into 24 parts, and nothing really fits, except for the fact that this is how we organize our solar days. Blech, whatever. Fortunately, the Consociation Credo fell out of my butt just in time to finish last Friday’s story, and I decided to use it again. It was a little awkward fitting 14 tenets into 24 installments, but I figured it out. Most, but not all, tenets will be given two installments because I’m hoping there’s enough content to fill that space until I get to Wild Cards in January. I plan to do my level best writing them in the same cadence that your precious “proof” texts use, with somehow both flowery and prosaic language, and vague generalizations that don’t really mean anything. And thus begins a series of excerpts from the new divine tome, The Book of Darkness.

Microstory 721: The Outcome

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After years of suffering pain, darkness, and death, the only thing that kept us going through most of it was our hope for a better future. Though we appreciated the taikon themselves, I think most of us can agree that we were most excited for a paradigm-shifting outcome. The original final set of taikon in the Book of Light promised this to us, but the Book of Anseluka was shockingly noncommittal to what could happen if we achieved the predictions correctly. The Book of Darkness, which is now our new primary divine book of teachings, has now had time to be read thoroughly by many. What we have learned is that there is no climax, no solution, no grand finale. It teaches us that no single event can effectively sum up everything we’ve endured up to this point. That’s what this has been all about; that suffering and darkness are a part of life, and they can never fully be destroyed. No heaven, in mithgarther or elsewhere, could satisfy our lofty beliefs in some intangible and impossibly perfect paradise. This is it. This is all we have, and we must learn to not only accept this, but to revel in it. Nature has given us everything we need to be happy, and it’s our job to use these tools responsibly, and morally. Everything we’ve been through since infamous atheist, Dedebe Seirsen began his own personal odyssey towards devotion to the Light has contributed to the kinds of people we are now. This is a true example of the idea that life is about the journey, not the destination. The original final taikon said we would know whether we were worthy of the Light by the appearance of one of two divine manifests; The Liar, or The Loyalist. But this is not true, for we all have the capacity to lie, and we all have the capacity for honesty. It is up to each and every one of us to make that decision, every single second of every single day. Lots have people have questioned what’s to come of our great galaxy now that the taikon are finished...what is on the horizon for Fostea, and the rest of the universe? Well, that’s the beauty of it...we do not know. Is that exciting?

Microstory 720: Celebrate the Book of Darkness

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Fosteans, especially Lightseers, have been filled with such anger for having been betrayed by our founders. We are grateful for the Force of Love, and the other two Forces of Virtue, which affect us with subtler intensity than before, but which have never gone away. But this alone would not be enough. Fortunately, even in all this depression, and despite the uncertainty of the Book of Anseluka’s new taikon, there is still some hope. The penultimate taikon foresees the emergence of a new divine book; one that would change our entire perspective on the universe. The new era is to be marked by the 14 conventions in the Consociation Credo: coordination, collaboration, cooperation, cordiality, congruence, communication, constructiveness, cohesion, commitment, congeniality, collegiality, consensus, compromise, courtesy. A married couple, who met at a study group for hyperobservant people, and who now work together at a small research startup, noticed a complex pattern in the passage text that others seemed to not see. They analyzed these words, and it eventually led them to uncovering an unindexed network file that would never have been found just by searching keywords. This file contained the manuscript for the Book of Darkness. Through an only cursory glance, experts see that this is the divine book that we have been looking for. It does not diminish the teachings in the Book of Light. Nor does it condemn Sotiren and Ivanka for their treachery. It will, however, prove an invaluable resource in braving this new universe, centered upon this idea of the 14 Consociation Credo conventions. The Book of Darkness teaches us that the Light is nothing without the Darkness. Without the latter, it’s just this blinding force that doesn’t allow you to actually see what you’re doing, or where you’re going. Darkness gives life meaning, and we must acknowledge that truth, and appreciate this balance. We still have much to learn from our new proof text, but it is already being distributed to all who wish to read it, completely free of charge. And now it is time to prepare for the outcome of all our work. We still believe in the taikon, even if they were first conceived by the Grand Deceivers, and we know that we have not been through all of this for nothing. The end is near...and so is the beginning.

Microstory 719: Force of Love

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The votes are in. For having misled an entire galaxy of loyal denizens, and a host of faithful followers, Former Sacred Savior, Sotiren Zahir, and his cohort, Eido Ivanka, were overwhelmingly voted to be put to death. It took about a week of votes, revotes, and control votes, but the results have all come to the same conclusion: Fosteans are ubiquitously outraged by the deceit that has run for the last several centuries. Zahir’s crimes are apparent, now that analysts have had time to review the data found of the Ring of Culture, but they are nothing compared to what Ivanka has done. After an in-depth investigation, we have learned that she has been alive this entire time. She has been traveling the planets, covertly maintaining loyalty to Lightseed through various psychologically manipulative means. She is particularly adept at gleaning people’s weaknesses, and exploiting them to use against her targets, ensuring no significant threat to the reign of Zahir got off the ground. Ivanka bolstered the reputations of candidates on many worlds, sometimes fabricating their histories, and lording her leverage over them to preserve her own power. She even colluded with our enemies, striking deals that only acted to support the sham regime. She is truly the face of evil, and deserves no less than a painful plex radiation death. Fortunately for the both of them, this is not going to happen. After the last vote was counted, the third and final Force of Virtue spontaneously appeared all over the galaxy, reaching every breathing human simultaneously. Immediately, people requested recalls for their votes, hoping to prevent the deaths of their newly discovered insidious aggressors. We call it the Force of Love, and since it affected everyone all at once, there was no one around to argue this decision. And so Profane Antagonist, Sotiren Zahir, and High Perversion, Ivanka will live out their lives, however short they may be without the luxury of life extension technologies. They have not been forgiven, but we have been reminded of the power of love, and its capacity to abstain from violence, even in the face of such terrible malice at the hands of those we once trusted.

Microstory 718: Burn the Book of Ivanka

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A rather recent taikon called for the retirement of the Book of Light. This involved three stages of ceremony meant to establish a deep reverence for its words, allowing us to move forward, while remembering the past for what it is. Upon discovering the Ring of Culture, and beginning to learn its secrets, we now understand the lies Sotiren Zahir and Eido Ivanka told us. We have placed both the latter, and the resurrection of the former in exile on a private jarl world that was long ago abandoned. We still don’t know what we’re going to do with them, though Highlightseers and galaxy leaders are weighing our options. Their exact location remains unknown to most, for their safety, and for everyone else’s. Unlike the retirement of a divine book, the taikon calls simply for the Book of Ivanka to be burned. Now that we know how terrible of a person Ivanka is, and always was, we realize we cannot do what we did with the Book of Light. A retirement still allows those words to be read and taught. This we cannot allow when it comes to the Book of Ivanka, which was written out of hate, and a thirst for power. We need something permanent...irreversible. One suggestion was to round up every hard copy of the book, and destroy it, while ordering all who own the book to delete it from their virtual readers. This would be impractical, of course, and we could never really know whether every copy was gone. Others suggested we disseminate a virus to destroy the virtual copies, but that still doesn’t account for the hard copies, nor would it work for any device removed from the data network. No, the only way to do this would be to use powerful technology we’ve never been able to control before. For the last eight years, scientists have been studying quantum phenomena, like the quantum darkness, and the Forces of Virtue, of which there is still one left. An elite team of researchers believe that they have come up with a satisfying solution. We will spread a virus across the galaxy to destroy Ivanka’s words. But unlike a computer virus, it will be able to reach every single copy—in any form—whether connected to the network or not. Hard copies will even dissolve until the pages are illegible. Hard copies will even dissolve until the pages are illegible. Virtual formats will be corrupted, and completely unsalvageable. The time of the eidos is done. We are moving on to greater, and more rewarding, things, in a universe of equality and community.

Microstory 717: Find the Ring of Culture

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Like the other four Primary Rings, the Ring of Culture has always been a mystery. It was worn by Eido Ivanka when she was first in power during the founding of this galaxy. It is said that she hid it deliberately in order to either protect it from people, or people from it. The original final taikon in the Book of Light did not list its rediscovery as part of the prophecy. Instead, the one hundred and seventeenth was meant to establish Ivanka—or her replacement, had one been appointed—as ultimate successor to Sotiren Zahir, should the Sacred Savior die a second time. Ivanka was the principal actor against the introduction of the Book of Anseluka. Even today, she rejects its teachings, and is adamant about retaining our tradition through the original divine books. She has gone to great lengths pushing her own divine book, despite the new taikon’s prediction that it must soon be destroyed. Presumably fearing that we would find the Ring of Culture, Ivanka was caught trying to retrieve it from its original hiding place (which we would have never uncovered, by the way), and trying to destroy it. As it turned out, The Ring was full of damning evidence that the history of our galaxy is not what we believed. Analysts are still looking over the data, but we’ve learned the truth about a few things already. Sotiren did not ride the Light of Prospect to the “land of light”. He gained access to a repository of knowledge which had already completed extensive study of the Fostean galaxy, long before our ancestors had so much as thought of breaking away from the communists. Some evidence even suggests these surveys were done far deeper in the past, possibly before Lactea was seeded with life in the first place. We currently do not know how comprehensive this conspiracy goes, or whether any of the other eidos had any clue about it; though Andrea certainly knew something. Certain remarks by Peter Fireblood, and other detractors, now make more sense. Perhaps we all knew a little bit of the truth behind our faith, which we now realize to be little more than a bastardization of an old religion on Earth called Christianity. Maybe we are lucky this information did not come to light until now, though. We are already in the middle of reimagining our faith into something healthier, and more productive. We would never have been able to reach this point had we been so profoundly made foolish by Sotiren and Ivanka’s lies. Now we understand why the new taikon demand we burn the Book of Ivanka. While we doubted the point of this before, we now understand, and we cannot wait.

Microstory 716: Life at Full Glory

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In the original list of final taikon, we were taught that the predictions would start ramping up to a climax of some kind. It was a little vague about how things would end, mostly because part of the idea is that it’s meant to be our choice. One thing we knew was that life would start getting more and more intense until events reached critical mass, and an inevitable conclusion came bursting into the galaxy. These new taikon from the Book of Anseluka have taken the opposite route, especially when matched with the actual turnout of events. Life in the galaxy is more stable than it ever has been, even before the Light Wars. We have opened negotiations with other civilizations for trade and general communication. Our relationship with Lactea as a whole is stronger than we ever thought possible, especially considering just a few years ago, we were completely hidden from them. At home, our population is thriving. Immortality is available to all now, and we are on our way towards near ubiquitous defeat of death. There are still subcultures who choose to remain standard human, and they are allowed to do so, of course. Planets have been rebuilt to former glory following years of quantum darkness where only hardened life could survive. Some worlds, however, have been abandoned entirely. Many have chosen to consolidate, not just out of necessity, but also because of a deeper sense of community and culture than we could appreciate before. Overall, Fostea is much different than it has been for the last several centuries; different than our founders had planned on us being. Whereas before we considered ours to be the greatest galaxy in the universe, we are quickly proving this to outsiders by accepting new ideas, and reevaluating our methods in good faith. There are only five taikon left, but whatever comes, we know we’ll be okay, because we are a strong and proud people. Bring it on, as the Earthans say.

Microstory 715: Closing Earthquake

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When the seven Heroes were finished with their jobs, they left the universe, one by one, utilizing the magical doors that would appear out of nowhere.  By now, it has been almost exactly eight years since The Light Wars began. Though we have yet to declare their end, we are now in a period of peace. As if to mark this occasion, on December 21, 2012 Earth Common Era, an earthquake erupted off the coast of an Earthquake island nation called Vanuatu. This was significantly smaller than the inciting quake in 2004 ECE, but the epicenters were not too far from each other. The later one has largely been considered the final breath of a dying world, the destruction of which began following the first quake. Out of this event came an interesting development. The Lactean irritants who once plagued Fostea—and disappeared after their unique contribution to the first Light War battle–resurfaced. They return to a changed universe, marked by the embers of reconciliation between the cluster’s greatest two cultures. In fact, an intergalactic council has formed of present informality. While we are working on solidifying this joint effort, the ad hoc members currently seated at the table are planning the observation of a holiday that can be enjoyed by us all. The working title is Ember Day. At the same time, Lightseers are continuing to evolve the faith, taking into consideration a sense of community never felt before. We look forward to the oncoming remaining taikon as well, now with fresh perspective on the endeavor. Though the Light of Truth was always meant to shine on all things, we now recognize that this happens across a broader spectrum. What we once perceived as darkness may, in fact, be nothing worse than a different shade of the Light. We have always appreciated diversity, but now we know what that truly means. Furthermore, we see the value in darkness, for it is what gives light meaning. This is what the taikon have been trying to show us the whole time, and we are grateful for this lesson. And what luck it is that our budding relationships with our neighbors have begun now, for we are in the midst of recovery from the quantum darkness, and the Light Wars. The galaxy is nearing comparable levels of habitability to where they were before this all started...better, even.

Microstory 714: Seven Signals Sound

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The Book of Anseluka outlines seven final battles, each one led by one of the seven Heroes that appeared from their respective seven universes, to be signaled seven unique sounds. As soon as they arrived in Universe Prime, we believed our troubles to be near over. We assumed the Heroes would want to get to work right away so that they would be able to return home. Out of all of them, The Warrior was really the only one with any slight level of interest in helping us. This may have been because he spends his days suddenly fighting against new enemies, so this didn’t seem abnormal to him. The rest expressed their reservations, for they did not know who we were, or why they should help us fight the Thuriamen. This is understandable, and we knew we wouldn’t be able to convince them with our words alone. They would need to understand the severity of our situation, as told from multiple perspectives. Highlightseers, galaxy leaders, and other respected Fostean citizens held a new summit; the first of its kind. We met with leaders from The Core, Exile, other Lactean systems, and even Earth, on a neutral planet in a random uninhabited galaxy. There we were able to help the Heroes understand just how important it is that we snuff out the Thuriamen threat once and for all. But we also made great strides in our relationship with the Lacteans. Our ties to the communists in the Core are still flimsy, at best, but we have made new friends in the Exiles, who were able to convey to us a desire for traditional capitalistic trade in the open market. We have ignited a new Light of Comradery. In the end, all of the Heroes agreed to help us, for the sake of the greater community. Theirs is a story for a different book, but thanks to them the war was finally ended, complete with a groundbreaking peace deal made between Thuriama, and the rest of us.

Microstory 713: Seven Heroes Appear

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While Luvras Seldasic, Loctener to Sacred Savior, Sotiren Zahir, was in the middle of his third song in the Haplen Magnus Building, a door appeared out of nowhere. At first, nothing happened, but then it opened, and out came a group of people. They were all dressed differently, and regarded their new surroundings with varying levels of surprise and intrigue. By now, a sizeable audience had formed to listen to Seldasic’s recital, and most probably believed this to be part of it. A few, however, made the connection between there being exactly seven of them, and there being seven Heroes foretold in the Book of Anseluka. Seldasic had the urge to continue his performance, so his assistant escorted the visitors to the nearest Nexus, where they were transported to Hiereus so that they could be verified by Seamus’ Ring of Law. They easily passed the test, supported by the independent studies experts, who had no doubt that these are the seven predicted Heroes that would appear to help win the war against the Thuriamen. Though the door from which they came mysteriously disappeared before anyone could investigate, those who know their history will recognize that as a special portal to other universes, like the one where Eido Mateo originated. We do not yet know how the Heroes will help us in our efforts, but we do know a little bit about who they are, and what they’ve been through, and that they’re all from some version of Earth.

The first to walk through the door provided us with no proper name, requesting we refer to him simply as The Warrior. He was born in the past, in a land with little technology, during a time of war. He was badly injured on the battlefield when a sword randomly appeared to him, allowing him to defeat his foe, and survive. As it turns out, though we more often associate the weapon with Eido Mateo, the Sword of Assimilation actually belongs to the Warrior. He’s been using it to travel through time for years. The second Hero is named Honor Beringer. She was born to a world at war as well, but in a more general sense, with civilization having slowly crumbled and died. She was forced upon a generation ship when she was little, by a group of people hoping to save the human race from extinction by sending a fraction of them to another world. Matilda Förstner’s life was filled with less danger. She chose to enter military service when she was an adult, and is now a heavily dedicated war hero. Before arriving in our universe, she was living comfortably with a safe office job, in a position of great leadership. Joshua Bacon was unable to serve in the military due to having been born blind. He has studied his world’s military history, and is already proving to be a brilliant tactician. Though he may not be able to fight physically, he will prove to be an invaluable resource for our strategy in ending the Light Wars. Shiloh Kingsley is not a fighter, per se, but was known for his bravery in the face of danger on his world. In fact, he belongs to a class of humans who do not usually go by their given names, instead being addressed by unique titles. His callsign is Courage. Amaranti Houston is experienced in martial arts, using her skills and custom technology domestically to protect people, and fight against evil. And finally we have Ariel Grant. She has spoken very little since arriving. We know her to have her own experiences in battle, but she has not gotten into detail about it. We believe her to have worked in law enforcement more recently. We are fortunate to have seven valiant champions. The Light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak, is now shining brightly upon our faces.

Microstory 712: A Jaded Man Made Curious

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The discovery the Book of Anseluka was not the happiest time in our galaxy’s history. We had gathered so many more followers of the Light than we had ever had before, that it was a particularly nasty blow when we learned our faith would have to change. Had the revelation that we would one day have to retire the Book of Light come sooner, it might not have been so bad for our interstellar economy. But with nearly everyone now on board, it was just too much. Fortunately for these people—new followers, and old loyalists, alike—their luck would soon change. A quantum field known as the Force of Hope began affecting everyone, on every planet, nearly simultaneously. We grew more optimistic, possibly even more so than we were before the war against Thuriama started. This caused a reaffirmation of our obligation and dedication to spreading the Light of Truth across the universe. We were more determined to win the Light Wars, and we were more capable of it. There was one, however, who somehow never experienced this reinvigoration. Luvras Seldasic has maintained his faith in the Light throughout his tenure as the Loctener, just as he has his entire life. The Force of Hope, however, never managed to shine the soul within him. His closest officials have described him as numb, or on a sort of automatic pilot mode. He would do as he was asked by the resurrected Sotiren, and he always acted upon the needs of Fosteans and Lightseers, but he had no passion. One might even say that he had become jaded. Luckily for him, this would not last forever. As predicted by Anseluka, the Force of Hope suddenly awakened inside of him, like a light switch being flipped. One moment, he was his usual hardened and immovable self, and then the next, his heart was filled with wonder and curiosity. With no provocation, he started singing in the Great Hall of the Magnus Building on Haplen. He looked at everything around him with renewed interest, as if he hadn’t ever seen an object before. Doctors would call this phenomenon jamais vu, but we know it as something else: the fulfillment of a taikon. Now we have a true Loctener, and nothing will stop us from salvation.

Microstory 711: New Faction Martyred

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We are nearing the end of these one hundred and twenty-one taikon, and the Fostean galaxy is in a monumentally different place now than it was when these first started. We thought we had it all figured out. We had hundreds of years to perfect our economy and sociopolitical culture, so surely nothing could be better than what we had come up with. But this was foolish, for our predecessors in the Lactean galaxy had several times that many years to perfect their own way of life, and they still managed to get it wrong. But maybe they were onto something here. Maybe there are some things they can teach us, just like there is much we can teach them. Far from the leaders that once ruled our civilizations, there are those who feel this to be the truth. They are already in discussions with the Core, hoping to form some sort of amicable relationship. Lacteans have expressed a willingness to trade resources, while at the same time providing military strength against our common enemy in the Thuriamen. Throughout these changes, a faction of Lightseers have begun adopting new rituals and practices. It is still a form of Lightseed, to be sure, but they are more passionately in favor of the new taikon discovered in the Book of Anseluka. They value predominantly a community-oriented economy, believing that everyone has their own contribution to make, and that no man is more important than any other. They help each other hone their natural skills, and find their place in the universe, rather than simply encouraging each member to find their own way. The majority of those on the outside of this new faction are accepting of them, and willing to let them carry on in peace. Others, however, feel differently. They are staunch traditionalists, believing the Sacred Savior’s original words in the Book of Light to be flawless. This despite the fact that Sotiren Zahir admits within the text of the Book of Light that if change is necessary, it should not be resisted. These conservatives felt their ideals were being threatened by the presence of a rival faction, even though sects are no longer considered in competition. They misinterpreted the text of the new taikon, thinking they were the foretold martyrs of their faith. They struck first, massacring the majority of the community-based faction, which actually acted to martyr them instead. The attackers’ faction was immediately disbanded, with all violent members being sent to jail to await judgment, and likely incarceration. A memorial to the progressive martyrs is planned for construction on Lakre, not too far from the memorial already being erected in remembrance of those lost in the Hydra Support Network.

Microstory 710: Fruit of Restraint

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The resurrected Sacred Savior, Sotiren Zahir demanded he be transported to the nearest nexus so he could reach Ileana Ulaire, who had just been killed in a freak accident involving the Belt of Andrea. The device had malfunctioned while she was trying to use it to pass through a wall, causing her to be trapped inside of it. Of course, her death occurred instantly, but Sotiren was too distraught to listen to reason. He stole two weapons from his personal guardsmen so he could start blasting the walls away. He wasn’t just trying to get her out of it, but also needed some sort of outlet for his rage. As an accident, there was really no one to blame. The inventor likely died thousands of years ago, and even if they hadn’t, no one knew exactly who it was. This was ancient technology, and in all honesty, it shouldn’t have held up even this long. Perhaps one could blame the Lactean irritants for having gifted Ileana with it years ago, but since they were missing, there was no one Zahir could hurt. Had he been offered some focus of his anger, he might have been able to take care of it quickly, and move on. Without one, however, his anger continued, completely unabated by anyone of his followers’ attempts at calming him down. A man like that could destroy a whole world in a matter of days, and no one would be able to stop him, because they all believe in him. In all of enigmatic Anseluka’s wisdom, however, hope was not lost. The next new taikon foretold the achievement of the final Fruit of the Divine Light, which was one of only a few taikon with recognizable analogs in the original list of the last taikon.

A group of scientists was recently commissioned by the Serving Loctener, Luvras Seldasic to create a new breed of angiosperm that would bear the Fruit of Restraint. Technically, they completed their work before the two previous taikon were realized, but both the Book of Light, and the Book of Anseluka allow some latitude when it comes to order. The fruit, which has not gained an official name yet—though those involved are leaning towards either urjaen or hypojs, after its primary creators—acts like a drug, affecting the body and mind in a variety of ways. Unlike the Fruit of Gentleness, the Fruit of Restraint simply physically prevents the consumer from acting on their impulses, rather than causing tranquility. It targets specific areas of the brain, and almost as if it can reads minds, prevents you from carrying out your current most primal desires. It’s capable of becoming an incredibly dangerous weapon. While certain factions in the galaxy are protesting the fruit of restraint’s creation, and call for its destruction, others cry for it to be used as a response to the Thuriamen war bananas. It is as yet unclear what part it will play in the future, if any. For now, only Sotiren Zahir was given a dose of the fruit, and only due to dire circumstances. There is no telling how many lives this act saved. We are just grateful the divine books were written by such wise men who somehow knew this all would happen. Otherwise, no one would have thought to make something like this.

Microstory 709: Death of the Firstborn

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For the few years, ever since the revelation that we will now be working through a new taikon path, parents have been worried over this one. The Death of the Firstborn seemed like a pretty clear warning. Though, the passage on it in the Book of Anseluka speaks about family as a more general concept, rather than literal genetic links. We should have, therefore predicted what would happen. As far as we know, no parents have recently lost their firstborn children, at least not beyond casualties of our war with Thuriama. Those deaths have been happening since the Light Wars began, and no recent losses could be characterized as being different, or more exceptional, than the others. No, this was not what the taikon was referring to. Ileana Ulaire, the replacement for Eido Andrea was the only notable death since what we consider to be the accomplishment of the taikon before. She was the first eido replacement since the taikon began, and was actually appointed before Sotiren Zahir was even resurrected, as was Seamus. After millennia of progress, we have developed safeguards, and technology capable of curing nearly all diseases, and of treating just about ever injury imaginable. Still, there are some freak accidents that even we cannot fix. Even if we could, those who discovered Ileana’s body quickly realized this to be the fulfillment of a taikon, and would have been forbidden from saving her. As explained, a group of Irritants, which mysteriously disappeared from the galaxy years ago, came upon Fostea before the taikon started, looking to cause trouble. They ended up gifting the Belt of Andrea to Ileana, however, evidently seeing their constant meddling to be inappropriate. Ironically, we have now adopted some of those people’s principles, as some of them originated on Earth. We do not believe their gift to be a tool for deadly subterfuge, but that does not make Ileana Ulaire any less dead. She was one day using it to pass through walls, as her predecessor would do casually, when it experienced a literal catastrophic failure. Something in the device became corrupted, and disengaged while Ileana was in the middle of a cement wall. Only the front part of her body managed to exit the other side before this error, or loss of power. We know there to have been preventative redundancies in the design, so we don’t know how this could have happened,  but experts do not suspect foul play. Many have attributed this event to the New Light itself, but the resurrected Sacred Savior sees it differently. It has caused him to fly into a rage.

Microstory 708: Satisfaction With Little

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This was probably our greatest challenge, even against the trickier ones. We’ve spent our entire history, and then some, valuing the accumulation of wealth. To us, this has always been each and everyone of our respective goals. We believe every civilization needs some kind of metric, if not more than one, to determine who has been successful, and who hasn’t. Otherwise, how will we know who to trust in positions of leadership? How can anyone live a fulfilling life if they can have everything they need just from having been born in the first place? These are questions we’ve not had any experience asking, and in fact, haven’t so much as considered. Wealth as a metric is so ingrained in our culture that our brains never though to ask such things. Honestly, we’ve all needed time to think over our notions and behavior, and reexamine our choices. Fortunately, each taikon is not sprung upon us after the previous one is complete. We were able to read ahead, with these last ones being laid out for us in the Book of Anseluka. Ever since encountering these new taikon, we’ve been working on transitioning the galaxy towards more inclusive values. We have deepened our connection with the various of cultures of Earth, cementing our plans to become a more traditional capitalistic society. We see now that we were blinded by the Light of Ignorance, which prevented us from seeing beyond our own way, or the way of our ancient communist ancestors. We now understand that there are many ways to run an economy, rather than simply the two extremes. The dirty communists from whence we came value success just as much as we always did. Their problem is that they believe everyone should share in this success, rather than finding ways of improvement. We still think this way to be wrong, and strongly believe in the Earthan method. Life is all a balance, so why shouldn’t a civilization be the same? You still have to earn what you have, but we now recognize that there are those who are born under such poor circumstances that self-improvement is practically impossible. How foolish we had been claiming to ourselves that anyone in Fostea can have what they want if only they had a strong enough work ethic. That is not how it works now, nor was it ever. Not all men are created equal, but we’re all born with a capacity for charity and compassion. Likewise, we’re all capable of surviving on very little. The New Light teaches us that acceptance in one’s misfortunes does not preclude the perseverance against them.

Microstory 707: Replace Eido Tadija

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Ladriane Nuvin first came on the radar of the Highlightseers when she applied to sacrifice herself by maintaining a hold of the Scales of Tamsin the Judge, which were said to burn anyone who attempted to use them improperly. She lost out to Isaura Peak, but was later chosen to read the introductory passage of the Book of Anseluka when it was first opened. She then volunteered to read the entirety of the Book of Light during its retirement ceremony. Her dedication and will made her a perfect candidate to replace Tadija as new eido of the galaxy. In fact, the Highlightseers considered no one else for the position. The original eido, Tadija was the one who first wore the Ring of Expansion. Sacred Savior, Sotiren Zahir knew that she was the only one who could be entrusted with it. Her personality prevented her from using such a powerful weapon carelessly. She would only ever wield it under dire circumstances, when nothing else would solve the problem, and when all believe it to be nothing more than a lost cause. She lived and died having never used it once, with those closest to her claiming that she never so much as hinted at the temptation to use it. She was characterized as being humble, quiet, and observant. She spoke little, instead relying on others to come to their own conclusions through empathy and support. Tadija had a beautiful speaking voice, and a linguistic inventory charming enough to turn a bairaz vegetarian. Ladriane might as well be her clone, for her friends describe her the same way. Anyone who listened to her recite the Books of Anseluka and Light could attest to her soothing angelic voice. She was given the Ring of Expansion to carry with her as the new eido, but rejected it. She requested it to either be hidden once more, or destroyed for good. As the official new owner, she had the right to choose which fate the ring would have, and she ended up choosing the latter. It has since been jettisoned into the same star that took the Club of Death.

Microstory 706: Abduct the Three Dogs of Death

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Elsewhere in the Book of Anseluka, the writer recounts the parable of the Three Dogs of Death, which no one in the galaxy had yet heard of.

In a small den in the deepest valley of the farthest lands lived three dogs named Malice, Mercy, and Mistake. Malice was black, with one ear missing that was supposedly bitten off by his brother, Mistake when they were pups. Mercy was white, stood tall, and spoke little. Mistake was brown and clumsy. These three dogs were responsible for all of death in the whole world. Malice was in charge of murder, and all forms of it. Mercy ended the lives of those in pain. Mistake controlled deaths by accident. Thousands of years ago, upon reaching adulthood, each individual was sent to battle these three animals. The goal was to procure a tuft the fur of one of them, and only then would they stop attacking. Whichever dog’s fur one managed to tear off his body was one’s to keep forever. There was still no telling when one’s death would come, but the nature of this death was determined at the end of each person’s fight. Children who died before reaching the appropriate age would have their fatefur forced upon them, with no choice.

One day, a young man named Dominti reached his journey’s end at the Den of the Three Dogs of Death, only to find all three were themselves dead. In the midst of their bodies was a young woman from the next village named Delurtha. In her zeal, she had savagely killed the dogs, thereby ending the curse of death for all. But Dominti was not satisfied with this, for he believed death to be a necessary conclusion to life. He cut from the corpse of each dog a handful of fur, and placed them in a fire pit of mystical wood from the Tree of Time. He then burned the fur, and out of the ashes grew a fourth dog named simply Mortality. Mortality was black, and white, and brown. She was now solely responsible for all life and death in the world. Delurtha tried to kill this dog as well, but Mortality was fierce and unwavering. And so death remained an inevitability. But recently, we have found ways of traveling to other worlds, and have discovered that each one has, or had, its own family of Three Dogs of Death. Some have been defeated, while others remain alive, and others have been replaced by something new. But that is another story.

The taikon passage regarding the Three Dogs of Death called for the abduction of the versions that can be found in Thuriama. Of course, we know that this story is nothing more than that; a story. We did find, however, that three Thuriamen leaders have been masquerading as these fictional characters in order to maintain control over the populace. After weeks of reconnaissance and planning, three separate elite teams were sent to capture the “dogs”, and fulfill the taikon. Though these missions came with obstacles and misfortunes, they were ultimately successful. The three frauds are now being held at an undisclosed location as leverage against our enemies.

Microstory 705: Avail Immortality

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This is a surprising entry in the new list of taikon found in the Book of Anseluka, but we have no choice but to accept it. Immortality, in many forms, has been available for as long as many of us can remember, but not everyone is successful enough to obtain it. Many techniques are prohibitively expensive for the more impoverished in our civilization. Up until now, this has been okay with us. Our whole economy and culture is built on the idea of working hard for what you want. If you’ve not found a way to afford immortality, then you must not be good enough for it. Only recently are we doubting this sentiment, which is something we never thought we would. The Book of Anseluka includes more than just the directions for the new taikon. It also presents new ideas about how we should run Fostea, and some changes the unknown author believes we should implement. He does not suggest we return to the ways of the dirty communists of our past, but we should continue to follow the model of Earth. How an ancient writer could have any idea that we would begin modeling Earthans out of necessity, or what that model would end up being, we may never known. We still don’t know who Anseluka was, or whether he’s still alive today. He does not write about himself at all, and most haven’t had time to seriously question this. We have to trust the leadership of our true savior, Sotiren Zahir, who has made it clear that the Book of Anseluka is just as divine as our previous books. In the Core of Lactea, immortality is available to all who want it. Few of them reject immortality, because most of those have already left to strike new worlds on far away orbitals. Since immortality doesn’t exist on Earth, the Core Lacteans are the only ones we can look to when figuring out how to avail it to every denizen of our galaxy. As much as it pains us, this is what we have done. Now that it is open to all, we will have to adjust our plans for a future with unlimited population.

Microstory 704: Retire the Book of Light

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As per the directions in the new Book of Anseluka, the Book of Light must be retired. Retiring a divine book is something we have never done before, but know how to do. The Book of Light itself actually outlines the process in great deal. It does not say when such a thing will be used, but Sotiren Zahir wanted there to be a way of respecting old words should new words supersede it. In his wisdom, he was aware that a book written in one time period may not remain relevant or valuable enough generations later, and when something better comes along, we must be ready for it. For ye, the Sacred Savior was humble and modest. Phase I involves a single individual reading the entire book from start to finish, with zero breaks. The Highlightseers began to work up some kind of lottery, or selection process, but ended up scrapping it. Ladriane Nuvin, the one who first read the introduction to the Book of Anseluka requested to experience this honor as well, and we agreed. She turned the microphone on the Grandmother in the Moon frequency, and began. All Fosteans were provided with the opportunity to listen to any and all of the reading, but were not obligated to do so. It is presented as an option, rather than a requirement, something to be played at a low volume in the background while you’re busy with something else. Stage II was all about burning massive hard copies of the book. It does not say exactly how many qualifies as massive, but we figured we would just open the bonfire the public, and let as many come as wanted to come. It started out small, of course, but grew larger as time went on. The crowd had to keep stepping back and giving it a larger perimeter until the ceremony died down on its own. Upon throwing their copies onto the fire, people generally vocalized sadness for their loss. Many prayed to the Light of Prosperity, thanking the Sacred Savior for his words, and pleading for something just as powerful to find them soon. After the fire was Round III, which entailed burying the ashes of the books in the ground in a giant grave that must be dug manually, by as many people as can fit. Though not required by the terms of a book retirement, an impromptu performance formed at the gravesite. Singers and other musical artists began to show off their talents over the rest of the night, and most of the next day. People periodically came and went to convey their reverence. It’s important to understand this doesn’t mean we can’t read from the Book of Light anymore...or even that we shouldn’t. Its words are still meaningful, and useful, but we must look to the future, and continue on our new path. The retirement of a divine book is more about the starting fresh, and less about destroying the past.

Microstory 703: Force of Hope

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The entire galaxy listened intently as a young woman named Ladriane Nuvin read aloud from the Book of Anseluka. She was in contention to be the first to touch the Scales of Tamsin the Judge, losing to Isaura Peak by a small margin. After hearing what the book had to say, Fostea fell into a deep depression. We hastily signed a temporary ceasefire with our Thuriamen enemies. They gladly accepted our terms, leading us to believe that they were experiencing their own internal issues. For weeks, people went about their days without much interest. Everyone seemed to be feeling numb, living in a dreary haze world. We experienced no defectors from Lightseed, but little enthusiasm for the Light of Happiness either. It would appear that, though people continued to believe in the Light, they were disappointed by it, and no longer excited for the taikon to be fulfilled. Something had to change, and fortunately, the new taikon outlined in the Book of Anseluka predicted this would happen. Like the Force of Faith, a new quantum field began to distribute itself across the galaxy. Called the Force of Hope, it acted to reignite people’s optimism and fervor. Slowly, but still miraculously, Fosteans began to wake up, and start seeing this for what it is. We don’t need to treat this bitterly, or with such frustration. Here we have this new divine book, with a new set of instructions. And we haven’t been reading it over and over again for the last several hundred years. This can get us out of our funk, and remove the burden of predictability. We’ve spent so much time coming up with all the ways the taikon might manifest, now we have the chance to experience them with no preconceived notions. It was hard to see the Light of Truth when you thought you already knew everything about it. Now that we see there are still things to be learned and discovered, the Light of Life can be seen in its true glory. Be hopeful, my friends. It is a new day, and the end of the ceasefire is rapidly approaching. It is time we start thinking about how we want the galaxy to be run once the taikon are achieved—and they will be achieved. We must have hope.