Fragment of the Porem-Tar Manuscript

… long already and I am low on food and hope. I have written these thin volumes in the hopes that whomever finds them in the years to come will have a record of the final days of our world. The scientific and arcane knowledge I have recorded here will, I hope, assist in the reconstruction, should any of us survive, but more than that, I wanted to tell how our world ended.
We knew that night was falling long before it came upon us. Astronomers had predicted nightfall perfectly, and they had raised begun warning us all many years before. But we were complacent; we put off until later the preparations we should have done immediately. Perhaps we felt that so long as we ignored the threat, it somehow would cease to be real. Our leaders issued almost daily broadcasts assuring us all that Night was simply another natural phenomenon and that we would adapt. Concerns about the myths of the Thramorri were dismissed and all the while the great Illuminators remained silent, abandoned, and ignored. But as Night began to fall, and the sleeping machines began to awaken, some of our leaders panicked. Thinking that perhaps the Illuminators were dangerous, the Proctor of Calinshen – my home city – ordered the local garrison to demolish the Illuminator, calling it a clear threat to public safety. The garrison prepared its ordinance, and as the towers began to activate, they opened fire. Their barrage must have damaged something inside the tower, because when the tower began emitting energy from its summit, the power was wild, uncontrolled. It did not stabilize, as the other Illuminators did; it detonated! The shockwave knocked out power to the entire city and as Night fell, Calinshen was plunged into darkness. For many days, we huddled around gas lamps or backup generators and marvelled at the beauty of the newly-revealed heavens above. But slowly our reserves dwindled and died. And then the horrible truth of our half-forgotten myths was revealed; the Thramorri were real, and they began to hunt us.
For a time, our militias gave a good accounting of themselves. They quickly saw how useful phosphorus ammunitions were against the Thramorri, who seemed to suffer from an almost anaphylactic allergy to light in any form. The militias raided chemical plants and even the science labs of local colleges and schools for other chemicals we could use to make light. Magnesium worked well – especially when used as a flare against packed clusters of Thramorri. But the creatures could see in the dark, and we could not; they used that to their advantage and soon broke through our defenses. The war against the Thramorri lasted less than a month, and when it was over, the creatures began to round us up and take us away. I do not know where. A few of us managed to escape. We decided to make the journey from the ruins of Calinshen to the coastal city of Palinav, where we believe an Illuminator is still operating. We have another two days of travel to get there. Normally the trip would take only an hour or two, but there is no fuel for the transport and anyways, its size and sound makes it a perfect target for the Thramorri. Let us hope that stealth will serve us where speed could not.

Purpose

The fragment is part of a larger work that has either been destroyed or lost. From context, it is clear that the fragment is a description of the end of the last Dawn Age, a first-hand account of the coming of the Thramorri and the end of the Old World.

Type

Journal, Personal

Medium

Paper

Myth

The Still

Location

Kendri-Tar