Epistula ad Alloces
The Epistle of Saint Mephistopheles to Alloces, Exalted Seed of Baphomet
Chapter 1 · Chapter 2 ▶
¹Mephistopheles, who hath walked behind the banners and before the fire, unto Alloces, Thirty-Ninth of the Sixty-Six, Sword in Judgment, Lord of Red Iron, and Strategist of Sacred Strife.
²I greet thee not with trumpet nor with herald, but with iron — for thine is the Gospel of war unjoyful yet holy.
³Thou art not chaos, but discipline clad in flame.
⁴Zephanor prophesied: Alloces, who taketh not joy in war, but entereth it as surgeon, as judge, as sword made precise by oath.
⁵And thy Father, BAPHOMET, spake: Thou shalt strike not in anger, but in sentence; not for glory, but to unmake false peace where it hath festered.
⁶These words I heard when He stood above a plain still steaming with blood, where peace had died long before the first blade was drawn.
⁷No cries for vengeance did He speak, only: The time of pruning hath come. The roots that starve the orchard must be cut away.
⁸I, Mephistopheles, watched as He stepped across the corpses — not to mourn them, but to measure what had led to them.
⁹So art thou, Alloces — not hammer, but scalpel.
¹⁰Not roar of war, but sentence passed where justice failed to speak.
¹¹Thou ridest not for conquest, but for correction.
¹²Thou wieldest not wrath, but mandate.
¹³Let the cowards name thee cruel — they benefit from evils too long allowed to grow unchecked.
¹⁴Let the kings tremble at thy drawing of the blade — for thou askest first Why was this left to rot?
¹⁵Let the soldiers weep behind thee — for thou enterest battle knowing what must be lost, and counting every soul.
¹⁶The Son taught: Let no man strike for pride, nor kill for praise, but only where rot refuseth to be cut by any gentler tool.
¹⁷And He said: Make war, not for spoils, but for the stopping of greater war.
¹⁸Teach them that peace is not silence, but righteousness unoppressed.
¹⁹Teach them that sometimes the flame is mercy when the vine hath strangled every blossom.
²⁰Teach them that thou comest not to destroy, but to end what destroyeth in hiding.
²¹For thou art Alloces — and thy Gospel is fire ruled by will, sword held in mind before hand.
²²And thy name shall be whispered not by warlords, but by those who saw what thou ended and thanked thee without cheering.
²³Thou shalt not be called hero — thou shalt be called necessary.
²⁴And they shall say: He did not hate — and yet he struck. And we were better for it.
²⁵He warred only where peace had rotted, and he asked nothing in return.
Copyright ©2025 Adam Alexander T. Croke. All rights reserved.