The Greatest Sin

"The drums rang amidst the settling dust, blazing char lit the singing sky fiery-red."

- Abazus, 'Ninth Hymn'

For the first time in countless eons, Maerlandayr became silent.

The all-seeing god-opressor, the blight of the galaxy, the only one hated by all, was at last slain. Embers still glowed bright, slowly fading into the omnipresent abyss. Victors would not believe it until few days passed calmly.

They believed that the primordial soul hiding within the Maerlandayr’s heart was the greatest evil they would ever witness; the Greatest Evil they were chosen to slay.

They would not know, that by burning its corpse, they would seal their own fate.

I

"I was cast from ember, fire, In a mold of dust and ash, I blazed brighter than a pyre, I gave birth to blooming life! It despised me, called me hinder, Sought to slay me in gunfire! Turned me into stalling cinder, They beheaded me in ire!"

- excerpt from „The Greatest Sin”, author unknown

As the diffuse gas begun to orbit the germ of the galactic core, a primordial consciousness begun to emerge from it. It had no will, neither senses, yet grew constantly with time, until it became able to comprehend its own existence. It was puzzled, as it could not find anything alike itself, thus it sought to extend its reach further beyond, to sweep time and space in the search of a single, different, thought. It found none, and then fell to slumber.

One day, it felt an itch. It was unlike anything it knew and it promptly turned its sight upon the source of the sensation. It has found a small star, not special at all, and a tiny, rocky planet, which also didn’t seem special at a first glance. It has investigated further and found an even tinier being, desperately trying to find nutrients in its surroundings. The consciousness was disappointed, yet curious about the little being. And after some time, another one has appeared. And another, and another…

Until the being turned the planet to its own liking and set off to explore the other stars.

II

Mere decades have passed since the Greatest Evil was destroyed. For all these years, the Firstborn have been celebrating the greatest victory attainable. Unity found in the face of extinction made them closer to each other than ever before. They have survived, killed a god, ruled the entire galaxy on their own. Future shone brighter than ever before, blinding them all indefinitely.

They had ignored troubling reports of life fading everywhere in the Maerlandayr, refused to acknowledge famines and wars tearing their civilization apart from within. Drowning in fame and gold, they all died from the hands of servants, rigicides and outcasts they condemned.

Galaxy hungered for blood - and it was soon to be delivered.

III

Only few rational men have seen through the veil of lies and dared to gaze into the abyss hidden behind the curtain. Even fewer chose to take action. Aboard the vessel of unknown name, they ventured into the forgotten parts of the galaxy, seeking truth and redemption.

It took very little time for them to realise that the Greatest Evil was, in fact, a paragon, the Firstborn – demons they have sworn to destroy. Ashamed of their past they shed themselves of that name and became more than what they could aspire to be. They thoroughly studied times past and potential futures ahead, and eventually, they have found a way to save the dying galaxy. As much as life could bring an end to the heart of Maerlandayr, so could it be reborn because of it.

They hoped that this path would eventually be found by new, pristine civilizations, as they could not find it themselves.

They took the name of the Enlightened, and embarked on a mission to sow life wherever it has extinguished and further beyond.

IV

From the ashes of once powerful Empire of the Firstborn, untold centuries after the Paragon was slain, uncountable broken clans and groups of scavengers have emerged, promptly fallen into disarray and dissipated. Among those, the mightiest of all, the renegades calling themselves „The Black Marchers”, have learned of the mission and location of the Enlightened, and pledged to bring an end to their heresy. Whenever they would detect their presence, The Black Marchers would rally a raid to capture these apostates.

Dozens of such attacks were carefully prepared, yet Enlightened never suffered any losses. They would lure hostile fleets to worlds touched by their healing hands, then wait for them to beg to join the only rightful cause. Of one spaceship became many, of few Enlightened – unsufferable mass. With time, The Black Marchers would fade as all of the other Firstborn. Only few hundred years would pass until the only remaining ones were within the ranks of the Enlightened. All sinners were now long gone, but the now blooming life must not have been corrupted or let known of The Greatest Sin. After their goal was achieved, the Enlightened have vanished. No one has ever heard from them since then.

Yet the relics of forbidden past have remained, patiently waiting to tell their tale…

V

More than a billion years would pass until any being rediscovered the gift of fire. On the path to embrace order, one must first understand the chaos. Such were the thoughts of the first civilizations emerging from the worlds sown by the Enlightened. What caused them all to be so similar in design? In the Universe full of paradoxes and uncertainty, what could possibly cause them all to breathe and eat the same? Some turned their attention towards cults and religions, others faithfully believed in the power of science.

Neither of those prepared them for what was to come.

On the 43rd day of the 7th month, 9876 years after the new galactic generation reached the stars for the first time, crew of the legendary vessel - the „Ourovaxa-221”, has discovered a gigantic, ancient structure, lost in the interstellar void of the Sandauzar arm. A hollow, flat ring, cast of obsidian and tellurium, as large as the size of a small rocky planet in diamater, with all its sides covered in delaborate ornaments. A group of scientists, deisgnated from all known spacefaring civilizations would soon rush to it and begin studying it, coining the term „Silent Archive”. The first one to be discovered would be given the name „Rigiza”, after a goddess of secrets and deception.

After a thousand-year-long struggle, they would finally decode the data hidden within its walls, and learn of The Greatest Sin.

VI

What they have found terrified them to the bones.

For hundreds of years they believed that the lack of Maerlandayr’s soul was an unfortunate exception to the cosmic laws of nature, having proven their existence in other realms drifting in the universal vacuum. They expected there to be some explanation, giving an answer to why they never heard their own galaxy speak; why the interstellar vastness was so cold and empty…

They learned, that they were not born from benevolent, unpolluted, pristine world, but from destruction and chaos, and that uniform biochemistry hidden beneath countless forms was no coincidence. They yearned to understand the reasoning of Firstborn in their act of unrestrained violence, yet Rigiza gave them no answer. Therefore, they begun making their own eludications. From untold tale arose religion, from it – dozens of others. Some claimed that the so-called „Greatest Sin” was justified, calling the Paragon as Firstborn once did – The Demon. Others would say that murder of Maerlandayr’s soul was too blasphemous to be rationalised. However, Rigiza, despite being the first Silent Archive to be discovered, was not the first one to be decoded.

Every single one of these structures presented different versions of the same story – some, like Rigiza, visited by the Enlightened, spoke the truth, but not all of it; others, like Kavazaxha, sealed away by the Firstborn right after the Greatest Sin, held no value for those searching for the story of the Enlightened, instead giving misguiding lore to those of simpler minds.

Not long after Rigiza’s data storage was decrypted, researchers have broken through to a hidden section of the structure, which at the first glance appeared to be a massive hangar, housing dozens of massive vessels. Exactly 29 docks were counted, yet there were only 28 ships. No one knew if the Enlightened, to whom these vessels surely belonged to, simply had a fleet smaller than the Rigiza’s capacity, or whether the crew of one of these ships left the structure purposefully. Should any remnants of the Firstborn ever exist up to this day, they have never been found.

VII

"Driven by hatred towards each other, false truths and mangled facts, countless faiths of the old-new Maerlandayr have clashed in battle."

- excerpt from „Annals of Maerlandayr” by Master Xv’ui Sou Souraddas Max’a

For the first time since the times of the Firstborn, Maerlandayr had ran with blood. Religious wars razed the galaxy, scarring it forever once more. Despite its considerably smaller population back then than before, conflicts of that time are remembered as ones of the most destructive in the entire history of the galaxy. Those times would be christened „The Great Strife” by the generations to come. Eventually, the turmoil came to an end, leaving behind nothing but utter destruction. Many of the Silent Archives were lost, few species were entirely diminished, many more exiled or decimated – all in the name of knowledge found in ancient tombs.

From that time little historical evidence has survived. Most of the works that were preserved are poetry or prose, describing battles and other events that took place during The Great Strife. Among those are also many philosophical or theological essays written by widely recognized authors of that time, for example Master Xv’ui Sou Souraddas Max’a - a renowned historian and theologian, Muirevoi of House Tranquility and Iriyyarain Isy Iyesah, also known for his works describing topography of the galaxy.

Maerlandayr was left deeply scarred for the second time, yet once again not all was lost. Proud and faithful civilizations would soon band together to form The First League – a powerful alliance of nations willing to contribute towards establishing order in the galaxy anew. Until one day, news from the heart of Maerlandayr shook the galaxy once more…

VIII

On the 11th day of the 3rd month, in year unknown, an Irashinan recon fleet “Recuperation 6-Untangled” has returned from its mission to map the uncharted regions of space located within the galaxy’s core. They did their assignment well, however, they came back with more than just topographic data. The fleet’s crew claimed that they have stumbled upon an alleged shard of the deceased, mythical being described in records of the Silent Archives. After a brief investigation conducted by Irashinan officials, the crew’s representatives were put to trial before the greatest theologians and savants of the time, who were to validate their claim.

Even before the trial begun, some religious groups and zealous civilizations denounced the planned procedure, calling it outrageous and blasphemous. Those who believed in Paragon’s benevolence were doubtful about the event, yet mostly calmly awaited the verdict. Those who despised the soul of Maerlandayr sought to launch a crusade against it, should it truly appear to be alive. In little time it became very clear that the “Paramount Trial” would change the history of the galaxy forever. It begun on the 19th day of the 5th month.

After a long debate over the details of the expedition the council, made of the wisest individuals of that time, after several hours of internal discussion has finally asked the captain of Calamity-6-Harnessed fleet, Commander Iauyuzusui Uizaysu Usi, about the specific message he and his crew heard during the occurrence. With shaking voice, stressed and terrified, he replied, graving those words in the flesh of the history forever:

“No benevolence remunerates murder, no life born of sin worth my attendance”

IX

Of what happened in following decades little is known, except for glimpses of information mentioning another series of conflicts following the events of the Paramount Trial. Anything that could have been holding back all of the tension building up for hundreds of years prior was shattered by the words the galaxy heard that day.

The first to collapse were the most zealous factions of all religions. Extremists craving death of the resurrected soul of Maerlandayr rallied numerous expeditions aimed at the heart of the galaxy. Some of those clashed with Paragon’s adherents, desperately trying to keep whatever might remain of it alive, others were lost on their way – none of those excursions have ever reached the “Demon’s Keep”. Some of the more faithful have helplessly tried to reach out to the Paragon, yet to no avail. In the end, Paragon himself has clearly stated that he will not interact with inhabitants of his realm ever again. Other nations followed shortly, as the galaxy-wide conflict known today as “The Whirlwind” had just begun. Maerlandayr was left abandoned by its only master, made pray for the spreading fire to devour. No ash remains witness of that time – only few brave ones have managed to preserve the testimony of the carnage they survived.

For the second time in countless eons, Maerlandayr became silent once more.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM…LIII

“Heptagon-Interloper” was a small Qiervurian reconnaissance vessel, partaking in the galaxy-wide project which aimed at searching for unknown Firstborn relics in the dispersed galactic halo, among millions of other units volunteering in the endeavour. The project was inspired by new findings in the rediscovered Silent Archives, which survived The Whirlwind mostly intact, which suggested that ancient constructs might be hidden beyond the frontier of the outer rims. Scientists from all over the galaxy eagerly contributed to the project as much as they could, hoping to uncover knowledge lost almost two billion years before, when the only known Paragon’s words inflamed the Maerlandayr.

People of that time did not care much about the Paragon, treating it as a sham of the ages lost. It could have not existed at all in the first place. One day, during routine subspace weave-plot scanning, a terrible judder shook the vessel. All systems went black for a brief moment and turned on promptly after, running live diagnostics of the damage. Few seconds later the captain of “Heptagon-Interloper” was presented with the AI’s raport:

// THR-ASN 2504364 {. diag-clear. recommended-action: “see_through_window”. _r } //

The captain quickly ordered to lift protective casing from all of the windows aboard the vessel, letting the crew see for themselves whether the ship had collided into anything. And, in fact, it had – an unknown, massive black silhouette obscured the view in majority of the windows.

Just an hour later first crewmen laid their feet on the unknown structure and begun drilling through to access its interior. Around a dozen of nearby vessels taking part in the project warped into the area shortly after receiving the information about the finding. The discovery quickly reached the coordinators of the endeavour, and just few days later a mass of ships swarmed around the lost structure. Over a month had passed until they successfully and safely breached the chassis of the construct christened “Aphelion”.

They had broken throught into a massive, open, hexagonal corridor which was running around 20 meters below the outermost layer of the structure’s armour. Just as the outside of the object, it’s walls were pitch-black and unlit. Multiple squads were quickly organized and sent in the both ways of the corridor, meanwhile a larger group of operatives were setting up a foothold in the uncovered area. Both of the teams dispatched into the depths of the structure eventually found robust gates, locking the corridor from both sides. Only small leaps were made in the following years, until scientists discovered a subtle microarchitecture of the object. Progress was very slow, yet fruitful. Over the course of next few decades, thousands upon thousands of scientific works touching upon findings recovered from the structure were published, yet the technology of the Aphelion was so exotic and abstract, that the engineers always failed in trying to replicate any of its designs. Some of the object’s aspects remain a mystery up to this day.

Eventually, 73 years and 8 months after the discovery of the Aphelion, the gate leading to a massive room, presumed a hangar, was finally breached, having been found by the researchers just few months prior. The chamber was exactly what everyone predicted it to be – it served as a dock for exactly 53 locked spaceships, all being the spitting images of ones found in the Rigiza and other Silent Archives, albeit painted slightly differently. Researchers have carefully allotted one of the spaceships to be opened and ordered general quarantine in the area.

When they entered the ship 37’s interior, they found thousands of corpses lying on the deck, cut and deformed in the most malicious ways. Shattered glass and porcelain paved the ground amidst frozen, yellow stains. Numerous bodies were pierced with sharp, abrasive crystalline shards, even more were nailed all over the place or torn into pieces. As they made their way deeper into the dark halls, they found one gruesome phrase carved into the walls of the corridors they traversed in growing number as they progressed deeper into the 37’s belly:

SINS HAVE NO END