Welcome to a piece of the shard. This is no single tale, but a thousand pieces of one. Each page is a shard, set beside others, until a world begins to take shape.
To piece together the Codex, see here.
Here follows the account of Ibn Al-Ishad and the Finding of the Chronicle of Raamesh II and the Hunt for the Divine Beasts
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I, Ibn Al-Ishad, commissioned by the Undying Caliphate of the Rock of the West, undertaking a journey by sea to the Southern Shades, set forth to chart for the Caliph the lands to the south and east which were, as yet, unknown to His Excellency.
Two days and two nights did our ship sail south, whereupon we identified an island which was known to fishermen, yet uncharted in the House of Wisdom. The island is known to the fishermen as “Toban” or Serpent, for the way it’s hills seem to emerge from the sea as we approached.
We found on Toban a most curious people, with practices and customs unknown to us. They celebrated our arrival, and by use of gestures and a few words by which we could make ourselves understood, we came to understand. They believed us to be envoys of Raamesh II, which the House of Wisdom chronicles as a great King in the Eastern Desert who lived a millennia ago. They had with them a collection of scrolls, which by crude gestures and half-understood words, they explained was a Chronicle written by Raamesh himself.
I beseeched the people of Toban to allow me to examine the scrolls, which they did. The language was known to me from the House of Wisdom and the accounts of Raamesh and his dynasty. The people of Toban would not let me return the scrolls to the House of Wisdom, as they have taken on some sacred meaning to them. I resolved, then, to record what I could from the scrolls, a true and faithful account of that which I found on the Island of Toban and the Chronicle of Raamesh II.
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The Glorious Raamesh Pursues the Divine Beasts to tame and put at his service, or else fell for the Glory of Raamesh.
Behemoth and Leviathan roam the land and sea [these words in Raamesh’s tongue have no direct translation; I, Ibn Al-Ishad, believe these words which I have set down to be close and faithful to the intended meaning] laying low the earth and churning the seas. By the gods will I put them into my service, and by the gods will Behemoth trod my enemies underfoot, by the gods will Leviathan swallow up the sails of my enemies.
We set out at the rising of the eye of the red desert in pursuit of Behemoth. Three days and three nights did we search for signs—rumors and wind only did we find. On the fifth day, a great footprint in the sand, two lachems wide and four harbits deep [these measures are lost to us, but I, Ibn Al-Ishad, am given to believe from the scroll and the people of Toban that it is a measure very large indeed] , and another footprint was visible beyond it.
We followed these impressions for another four days, risking thirst and hunger and sun and moon.
[Here, a scroll is missing. The account of the hunt for Behemoth continues]
Many of our company perished in those sands. We fled, seeing that we could not get our ropes around it nor our spears through it. It’s eye was red as the eye of the desert, and it watched us as we ran, it’s eye glowing even as the veil of the moon was pulled over us. We returned then to The Great City [I, Ibn Al-Ishad, have heard the city of Dar-Satwa referred to by this name, and believe it to be the city of Raamesh II], and made preparations for the journey into the sea in pursuit of Leviathan.
Knowing our number was too few for Behemoth, and knowing Leviathan lurks in the deeps even of the gods, we set out with a great many ships. Our ships numbered as the stars, and we sailed to the Rock and beyond the Rock [that is, to the West of Dar-Satwa, perhaps even to the island of Toban] in search of this Divine Beast.
Clouds gathered around us, we were beset on all sides by wind and wave and sundering storm. Great flashes showed us the wrath of the Divine Beast. Many of our ships were pulled beneath the waves by it’s jaws, our ships were as thackerel [that is, minnows] in it’s jaws. It swam darkly underneath our ships, and we threw our spears. The spears failed to pierce the beast, and in the wind and the waves we realized our peril. Glorious Raamesh, knowing the danger, guided the many ships of his navy away from Leviathan, it’s great green eye watching darkly beneath the waves—we feared we could not
[Here the scroll becomes illegible; water, black ink, and red color mingle to stain the rest of this page]
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After two days and two nights of translating and transcribing, I returned the scrolls with thanks to the people of the island of Toban, who cheered and celebrated. They wished to present me a fragment which I recognized as a human skull which appeared to have been crushed in a great jaw. What few teeth remained on the fragment were set with gold. They called me Raamesh, their fervor and frenzy increasing.
We returned to our ships in some haste, and continued our journey south and east to chart these lands for the glory of the Undying Caliphate.
Sounds like Raamesh II bit off a bit more than he could chew.
Oh, this was excellent. A narrative within a narrative! Behemoth! Leviathan! Truly a wonderful addition to the Codex!