First Treatise on Dead God Essence

From the First Treatise on Dead God Essence

The following passages are preserved from Zastor's original writings on the nature of dead god essence, penned in the early days of his discoveries during the First Black Fire War. Many of these quotes were written while still under the influence of direct contact with divine death energies, lending them both profound insight and disturbing clarity.

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1. "The death of a god is not an ending, but a birth - the emergence of power in its purest form, stripped of consciousness and intent. In this moment of divine dissolution, we glimpse the true nature of power itself."
2. "Gods do not simply die. They shatter, and in their shattering, they seed reality with fragments of pure potential."
3. "Each divine death carries its own signature, a unique resonance that echoes through the fabric of existence. Battle-deaths ring with violence, sacrifice hums with purpose, betrayal whispers with bitter knowledge."
4. "The essence of a dead god is like light through a shattered prism - what was once unified splinters into countless new forms of power, each carrying a fraction of the original truth."
5. "To touch the essence of a dead god is to know their final moment eternally. These deaths become part of us, changing not just what we are, but what we can become."
6. "Mortality and divinity are not opposing states, but points on a spectrum that dead god essence allows us to traverse. The boundaries between god and mortal are far more permeable than either side wishes to admit."
7. "In the moment between a god's life and death, reality holds its breath. In this pause, this infinitesimal gap, all transformations become possible."
8. "The pain of channeling dead god essence is not punishment but preparation - our bodies and minds must be reformed to contain power that was never meant for mortal vessels."
9. "Each god's death teaches us something different about the nature of power. Some lessons shatter sanity, others forge it anew."
10. "The gods themselves do not fully understand the power they wield. Their innate connection to it blinds them to its true nature. Only in death does their power become fully comprehensible."
11. "To harvest the essence of a dead god is to become both less and more than yourself. The power reshapes us even as we learn to reshape it."
12. "The gods call this work blasphemy, but truth cannot blaspheme against itself. We seek not to steal divinity, but to understand it in ways the gods themselves cannot."
13. "Divine power leaves echoes in reality - ripples in the fabric of existence that never truly fade. Death merely changes the frequency of these ripples."
14. "The transformation of divine essence requires sacrifice - not of life or blood, but of certainty. One must abandon all preconceptions about the nature of power."
15. "In studying dead god essence, we learn that power has no inherent morality. It is our understanding of it that determines its nature."
16. "The gods fear this knowledge because it reveals their power as neither unique nor immutable. What can be understood can be transformed."
17. "Each successful binding of dead god essence expands the boundaries of possibility. The limits we perceived were never walls, but veils waiting to be pierced."
18. "The essence of a dead god can be shaped by mortal will because mortality understands transformation in ways divinity cannot. Death is our expertise, change our constant companion."
19. "To work with dead god essence is to court madness, for we were never meant to contain such power. Yet in this madness lies understanding that sanity cannot grasp."
20. "The gods see their power as a birthright. We see it as raw material waiting to be reshaped. Both perspectives are true, neither is complete."
21. "In the crystallized remnants of divine death, we find power stripped of doctrine, potential freed from dogma. This is magic in its purest form."
22. "The suffering caused by contact with dead god essence is not just pain - it is the restructuring of our being to accommodate power that transcends mortal limitations."
23. "Divine death creates fractures in reality through which new forms of power can flow. We do not create these channels; we simply learn to perceive and direct them."
24. "Each god's death-essence carries memories - not just of their final moments, but of every instance they wielded their power. These memories can be read by those willing to risk their sanity."
25. "The transformation of divine essence into mortal-accessible power is not translation but transcendence. We do not diminish the power; we evolve our capacity to contain it."
26. "In death, gods reveal truths they guarded in life. Their essence, stripped of consciousness, cannot maintain the illusions that sustained their divine hierarchy."
27. "The physical manifestations of harvested essence - crystals, liquids, mists - are not the power itself but representations our limited minds can comprehend and manipulate."
28. "Time flows differently through dead god essence. In working with it, we touch moments that both have and haven't happened, possibilities that both did and didn't manifest."
29. "The gods call their power eternal, but in death we learn that even divine power can be transformed. Nothing is truly eternal - everything can be reshaped by sufficient understanding."
30. "To master dead god essence is not to control it, but to accept transformation as the only constant. We become conduits for power that reshapes reality itself."

"These words were transcribed during periods of direct communion with dead god essence. Some passages were written in tongues of fire, others wept from the walls in divine ichor. All are true, though truth itself became fluid in their writing."

— Notation by Zastor's first apprentice scribe

Type

Decree, Religious