To my colleagues in the Citadel of Knowledge... greetings, Classmates in Reality. I apologize for my abrupt disappearance after days of what you has no doubt seemed to be irrational behavior on my part. I also apologize in advance for any deficiencies or errors while explaining what I've seen and been made aware of. Some of the events, places, and beings I mention here will be quite abstract and far from the human experience, while others are seen by many as nothing more than mythology and superstition. Much of what I relate here will, no doubt, be utterly unbelievable to many, even among an assembly of Auronis' mightiest mages. I assert here and now, on my word as a high magos of our Order, that everything I will relate here is absolutely true, although I am unable to substantiate any of it at this time. Finally, let it be known that my descriptions of the passage of time in this account are by necessity subjective, relative to my perceptions. I can only describe things to the best of my ability, as I experienced them. I will leave it to those among you who heed my parting words and read this account to decide how reliable my words are.
Sages and apostles of the World of Old have told us to test the spirits, to see if they be true. I ask only that you all read and evaluate my words in the light of your own judgment. With that instruction, I begin.
I recently entered one of the darkest periods of my six hundred and forty-two years of life. Shortly before the events described in this letter took place, perhaps half a year ago at the time of this writing, word reached me that my last living descendant had died a horrible death in the midst of recent events in Austra. The reward and punishment for my studious deviation to magic has been living long enough to witness the end of my mortal bloodline. As I spent the centuries helping this world in whatever ways I could, my own descendants dwindled in number... and not for any lack of trying to prevent that on my part. Of course, I passed beyond the point of being able to produce new children of my own centuries ago. However, that's not what I've taken this time to write down before being on my way.
Suffice to say, the ending of my geneological legacy led me into deep contemplation and meditation on the meaning of my existence, why death should be necessary, whether our universe is the result of a deliberate act of creation... and if so, whether that matters. As strange as it would have sounded to me ebefore I first entered this Citadel, before I first came to work in this old office... I still ponder the same old questions, even now. Deaths of family members have come and gone for centuries, of course, but this was the death of my family as a whole. Grief, the likes of which I had not known since the last of my own siblings passed beyond the world, weighed me down. The fact that recent rumors from Austra have been so vague certainly didn’t improve my state. My own existence had outlasted that of my lineage, a most unnatural state of affairs. I am truly a relic of another age... but as I would soon learn, my work here on Auronis isn't quite done.
To say that these personal matters affected me more strongly than expected would be an understatement. I felt disconnected from the world, and therefore without any legitimate purpose in it. I climbed the Eighth Tower in which I reside, here where the Seaward Spires connect the Citadel to the Seawall of New Atlantis, and entered a deep trance. At the moment my journey began, I had not left the covered roof or eaten a solid meal in two days. Many religions of human and and other origins name fasting as an important practice to master as a stepping stone on the path to enlightenment. I have been undertaking fasts for hundreds of years now, but I had not previously done it as frequently nor as long as I have been prone to doing in recent months.
As you are well aware, brothers and sisters, we in the Citadel have recieved dark tidings from across the western sea: disturbing reports of monstrous fungus-based organisms that not only devour people, but are empowered to somehow infect and transform them into creatures like themselves. Now, when Atravos Larmec first brought word of this menace some two years ago, those who were sent to investigate found the entirety of Roshamba abandoned, but no clues to the whereabouts of its citizens but a chalky substance found in abundance all over the city. The rural folk of the isle of Rygaul were the first to tell us, but while it left our agents fearful and apprehensive, many among the High Council (myself included) failed time and time again to auger any sort of information about what really happened there. Rygaul is some four thousand leagues from the Atlan Isles, and some among us believed nothing in that tundra, no fallen star out of legend, could offer any wider threat. We should have known this world of ours better than that. I am confident that not all is lost, but I fear that a lot more will be lost as a result of our complacency. We have been diverted from our original purpose here at the Citadel, brothers and sisters... but more on that later.
