Ephemera — The Second Temple

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At the start of his seventh year of searching, Indrodar went into the wilds alone, and cut a seventh line on his arm, next to those he used to keep count. Seeing all seven he said to Humakt, “Lord, Death is mighty. Send it to me soon if you wish, but let me keep my oath.” At the end of the third night he was woken by a pain in his arm and on looking he saw not one rune, but three. The lines made Death, Truth, Death, the full Runes of Humakt.

He returned to his steading and called for his band, and showed them the scar. Some turned from it, for it was not their Rune, while others crowded around him and called him their leader, strong in the understanding of Separation. To those, he said he would go out into the Marsh, and they would come with him, and they would make this venture alone. For those who could not bear the Rune, he called them his friends and bade them farewell, saying he was dead to them, and they should mourn him, and if he should return it would be a man of his name, but not their cousin or their kin. Those of that fellowship held a wake for him, but he took his companions and went into the Marsh, and they called themselves dead, and enacted the Heroquest of the Descent into Darkness to retrieve Death from Styx, and Indrodar was Humakt.

Not all of those who died while they lived were followers of Humakt before that day, but each had visions and some were separated from their families, and some from their lovers, and each heard the voice of Death within them, and they formed the Second Temple, in place of the first, and Indrodar was their captain.