Grimoire Destrudo
The Book of Ruination
◀ Chapter 1 · Chapter 2 · Chapter 3 ▶

¹And Dolomir spake, saying: Woe unto the Empire, for I have seen its ruin.
²Then was he caught up in vision once more, and SATANAS stood beside him upon a high tower overlooking the heart of the Empire.
³And SATANAS said: Behold now the workings of pride, how it doth gnaw the bones of power.
⁴And lo, Dolomir beheld the senate in council, and the elders spake with bitter tongues and hearts of stone.
⁵They contended each with the other for glory and gain, and their eyes were darkened with the dust of ambition.
⁶One cried: Let us raise the tax upon the poor; and another said: Let the army be sent to gather tribute with fire and spear.
⁷And none spake for the widow nor the stranger, nor did they remember the orphan’s cry.
⁸Dolomir turned and beheld the merchants of the land, and they weighed silver with crooked scales and called it just.
⁹They made the shekel smaller and the measure shorter, and the strong devoured the weak.
¹⁰And there arose new lords who cared not for the old laws, but made decrees from their own bellies.
¹¹These clothed themselves in robes of pomp and went not forth to war, yet they commanded armies with parchment and plume.
¹²And the generals grew wroth, for the lords meddled in matters they knew not, and the soldiers murmured.
¹³Then did SATANAS show Dolomir the temples of the gods, which once stood in splendour.
¹⁴Now they were given unto sport and dalliance, and the priests taught not wisdom but fables.
¹⁵They sold the sacred fire for pleasure, and the offerings were spent on banquets and dancers.
¹⁶And the prophets of the Empire were cast out, and the dreamers were mocked in the streets.
¹⁷The people lifted up their hearts unto their bellies, and gave thanks not unto HÆVAN but unto themselves.
¹⁸They made images of their own strength and bowed before them, saying: This is our god, for it hath conquered.
¹⁹And the wise were silenced with gold, and the scribes turned their pens to flattery.
²⁰Then did SATANAS lift up His voice and cry: This is the end of all proud flesh: that it forgetteth its bounds and speaketh as gods.
²¹For the throne that sitteth upon a mountain must beware the earthquake.
²²The tree that groweth over the river shall fall by its own weight.
²³And the Empire, that hath lifted up its heart above the stars, shall stumble upon the dust of its own feet.
²⁴Dolomir wept, for he saw a house divided, and a people devouring one another with smiles and swords.
²⁵And SATANAS said: This is but the beginning of sorrow, for what is rotted within must break without.
²⁶Mark these things well, O Herald, for they shall be spoken again when the ruin cometh in full.


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