The king was a powerful ruler. He had managed to obtain practically everything he had desired.
Yet the more he gained, the more empty he felt.
Everything a man gains, he willl one day lose. King or no, every man is fated to die, and one cannot take his territory to the grave.
The king thought he was more than that. The sheer power he had claimed had begun to give him the notian that as a king, he was more than a mere mortal.
You might even say he thought of himself as closer to the gods.
A god-king could not simply die of old age like a mere human.
Even if gods were able to die, the world would suffer for it. Eventually, the king proclaimed his divinity and began the search for eternal life, so that he could become more than human.
How could a man claim eternal life? How could a man approach those gods? The king summoned wise men from all corners of the earth to find the answer to these riddles. Amongst them was one sorcerer.
Even amongst sorcerers, the man was seen as an outsider. He lived according to his whims, refusing to abide by the Code. He was obsessed with the pursuit of a certain Black Rite.
The question of whether or not this Black Rite even existed was in doubt. So dubious was it that most thought it to be a mere myth, a fairy tale. It was obvious that there were no sorceres amongst them who could perform the rite.
It was said that the rite could grant immortality and eternal youth. Its existence was glimpsed in ancient texts, and there were none who knew the truth of it. This was the mysterious rite that the sorcerer sought.
As to whether the sorcerer himself hungered for immortality and eternal youth - not quite. His motivation was only simple curiousity: the desire to witness an unknown sorcery.
The king, on the other hand, did not care what means were undertaken towards the end of gaining Immortality.
Their interests were aligned. The king took an interest in the sorcerer's tale, and pledged to assist him in his quest.
With the king's coffers at his disposal, the sorcerer summoned his fellow scholars, forming a society wise in the subjects of history and artifacts. He dispatched the society's members across the world, hoping to gather information that would lead to the discovery of the rite.
With time, they happened upon a lead - a reference in an ancient tome to a near-forgotten rite called Elixir.
It had been created by chance long, long ago. It was easy to understand why it had not been passed down - anyone who understands the rules of this world would know. Something had happened to the person who performed the rite.
Such are the laws of desire and their price.
One must pay a suitable price to see his desires granted. The logic of it is simple in the extreme. The greater the wish, the greater the sacrfice demanded. Such has the law of this world ever been.
The price of the rite was described in the tome.
The sacrifice to be paid for eternal life was one's self.
The entire explanation of the rite Elixir was hard to follow. Take the likely explanation that it was an accident. Surely the man who made eternal life possible must have considered the philosophical question of what human life is.
Perhaps that is why the description of the rite was so abstract.
The tome gave the following hint :
Man has always been granted eternal life, though he does not realize it.
Man is too fearful of the death of the individual. Though an individual may perish, the life of his race approaches immortality. By leaving descendants, the life of the human race is prolonged.
One might even suggest that if you consider a man's descendants on extension of his self, his life is indeed eternal. However, mankind cannot take this view.
Why is that?
It is because man has self-awareness. They see only gloom in the end of consciousness. The death of an individual and the grief taht comes with it is a trial peculiar to mankind.
If self-awareness is the obstacle that prevents mankind from enjoying the immortality that has always been afforded to his race, then one needs only to remove that obstacle. By discarding the shell of individuality, one can taste eternal life.
Offer yourself, then. That is the price of eternal life.
Thus did the tome lay out the laws of the rite Elixir.
It continued with an even more abstract and abstruse description.
Discard the self and become part of the greater whole of history. By tearing down the walls of individualiity, one can assimilate into others, without them even realizing,as if stilling one's breath. The moment the self is lost, the distinction between oneself and others is lost also, just as there are no borders between the seas.
As merely a transparent soul, having lost both body and consciousness, one must find a place within one's descendants living the future.
This may be called symbiosis, and it may also be called parasitism.
Should the vessel of one body grow old and whiter, one must simply travel to the next.
The soul shall travel ever on into the distant future, riding on the currents of memory, never drowning, never being consumed.
The description of Elixir ended there. Was there anyone who could comprehend it? Perhaps none did.
The fact that Elixir remained a lost rite was proof enought of that.
Not a single person who attempted to reproduce the rite was successful.
It is said the reason for this was because not a single one of them could completely cast off the self.
Perhaps the self is the bedrock of all human desire. If it could be cast off so easily, perhaps a man would not have continued down the path of bloodshed it treads to this day.
Although their attempts ended in failure, those who attempted the rite did not escape unharmed.
They were transformed into monsters, a result of the prices they had paid for only partially casting off the self. These monsters became known as Lizardmen.
No one knows what become of the tome which told the tale of Elixir.
Yet the fact that Lizardmen are born even now tell us that the tome has not been lost, and continues to be read to this day . . .
After defeating them they can be saved but won't complete the pact. They must be sacrificed to complete the quest
