The Osage
02-09-2005, 03:31
Continued from http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=9564110&postcount=7
This describes Mon'hin's original revelation and confrontation with the Messenger. You don't have to read this post to be in this thread, but it would help.[/endOOC]
Asat was bewildered. The man in front of him WAS Mon'hin Da'pa, a general of the Osage Empire, wasn't it? But there was infinitely more there. Asat was the leader of the assasination/intelligence organization known as the Shadow Wolves, recently brought under the 10th fleet-general's control, and nothing had ever surprised him. Except this.
It was undoubtedly a man. But it was more than that. He wasn't glowing, per se, but every color was amplified, clearer somehow, richer, more well-defined. He was so...There. Enchanting, almost. And yet he looked...wrong, somehow. No, not wrong, for different was not wrong. His outline was...strange, and you got the feeling as if you were looking at something or somewhere else that was not really this man. And, far off in the distance, or maybe in the mists of Asat's mind, he thought he heard a single melody. This, added to the blindingly white robes Mon'hin always wore (the white now amplified to a whole nother color), made him seem like a Messiah. A feeling of awe overwhelmed him. It could be stronger, said a voice in his head. Was that his conscience, or someone elses?
How apt the comparison to a Messiah.
And then what had been the former fleet-general spoke. How musical his voice! How much...meaning could be gained from each word. But it was still only one voice.
"Asat." He said, and the voice was different and yet the same as his former voice, so much more and yet still just one. Just one, Asat kept thinking, for some reason. Just one.
"Asat, I need your aid. The outpost on the Terran station around Saturn known as Machiavelli. We need a message sent." How urgent, Asat found himself thinking. Every word must be obeyed. How could it not be obeyed? It was so pleasant, yet forceful.
"Of what, Lord?" Lord. Asat had never called anyone lord. What had happened to this man?
"I have found Shauma, Asat."
"The food of the Gods, Lord?"
"Yes. But it is...unavailable, now." What Mon'hin meant was that it was toxic, and none but himself could bear the original sentient fungi's poison. He needed something non-poisonous, and weaker, so that they would be notes in HIS song, and not the other way around.
Asat's ambition meter was off the charts. "Can we get more?"
"We can. Kasaros had identified sources of it before he was killed."
"And you need me to ask for it?"
"Yes, Asat. Send our best alchemists to craft the message, they will know how to phrase it."
"Your will be done, Lord." What was wrong with him? 'Your will be done?' That was humiliating! But true. How could one disobey?
Hours later, a transmission sprang out across the depths of the Sol System, loud and clear, from the Osage embasasy on Machiavelli Station.
Friends in Mi, known to you as Sol,
We come with an offer, of business. It has recently come to our attention that substances in Sol known variously as entheogens, hallucinogens, psychedelics, or drugs are widely known and used. We believe this correlates well with the descriptions in Osage religion of Shauma, the food of, for lack of a better translation, God.
So, what we are asking, in effect, is to buy these. In large quantities. In fact, in massive quantities. Enough to supply our whole nation. To specify the type, we wish them to have a history of entheogenic use. The most common ones we have identified from searches through encyclopedias of Sol are known as Acid, Mushrooms, and Peyote. We realize, however, that other entheogenic drugs may exist that we may use. Following your agreement to a transfer, an Osage ship or ships will arrive to transport it and exchange the necessary precious metals.
With hopes for mutual profit, us spiritually and you financially,
Mon'hin Da'pa,
10th Fleet-General of the Empire
This describes Mon'hin's original revelation and confrontation with the Messenger. You don't have to read this post to be in this thread, but it would help.[/endOOC]
Asat was bewildered. The man in front of him WAS Mon'hin Da'pa, a general of the Osage Empire, wasn't it? But there was infinitely more there. Asat was the leader of the assasination/intelligence organization known as the Shadow Wolves, recently brought under the 10th fleet-general's control, and nothing had ever surprised him. Except this.
It was undoubtedly a man. But it was more than that. He wasn't glowing, per se, but every color was amplified, clearer somehow, richer, more well-defined. He was so...There. Enchanting, almost. And yet he looked...wrong, somehow. No, not wrong, for different was not wrong. His outline was...strange, and you got the feeling as if you were looking at something or somewhere else that was not really this man. And, far off in the distance, or maybe in the mists of Asat's mind, he thought he heard a single melody. This, added to the blindingly white robes Mon'hin always wore (the white now amplified to a whole nother color), made him seem like a Messiah. A feeling of awe overwhelmed him. It could be stronger, said a voice in his head. Was that his conscience, or someone elses?
How apt the comparison to a Messiah.
And then what had been the former fleet-general spoke. How musical his voice! How much...meaning could be gained from each word. But it was still only one voice.
"Asat." He said, and the voice was different and yet the same as his former voice, so much more and yet still just one. Just one, Asat kept thinking, for some reason. Just one.
"Asat, I need your aid. The outpost on the Terran station around Saturn known as Machiavelli. We need a message sent." How urgent, Asat found himself thinking. Every word must be obeyed. How could it not be obeyed? It was so pleasant, yet forceful.
"Of what, Lord?" Lord. Asat had never called anyone lord. What had happened to this man?
"I have found Shauma, Asat."
"The food of the Gods, Lord?"
"Yes. But it is...unavailable, now." What Mon'hin meant was that it was toxic, and none but himself could bear the original sentient fungi's poison. He needed something non-poisonous, and weaker, so that they would be notes in HIS song, and not the other way around.
Asat's ambition meter was off the charts. "Can we get more?"
"We can. Kasaros had identified sources of it before he was killed."
"And you need me to ask for it?"
"Yes, Asat. Send our best alchemists to craft the message, they will know how to phrase it."
"Your will be done, Lord." What was wrong with him? 'Your will be done?' That was humiliating! But true. How could one disobey?
Hours later, a transmission sprang out across the depths of the Sol System, loud and clear, from the Osage embasasy on Machiavelli Station.
Friends in Mi, known to you as Sol,
We come with an offer, of business. It has recently come to our attention that substances in Sol known variously as entheogens, hallucinogens, psychedelics, or drugs are widely known and used. We believe this correlates well with the descriptions in Osage religion of Shauma, the food of, for lack of a better translation, God.
So, what we are asking, in effect, is to buy these. In large quantities. In fact, in massive quantities. Enough to supply our whole nation. To specify the type, we wish them to have a history of entheogenic use. The most common ones we have identified from searches through encyclopedias of Sol are known as Acid, Mushrooms, and Peyote. We realize, however, that other entheogenic drugs may exist that we may use. Following your agreement to a transfer, an Osage ship or ships will arrive to transport it and exchange the necessary precious metals.
With hopes for mutual profit, us spiritually and you financially,
Mon'hin Da'pa,
10th Fleet-General of the Empire