====== Kalnassai ====== The **Kalnassai**, or the //Tale of Kalnath//, is an epic poem native to the culture of the Avishraan species in the [[amberworld:|Amberworld continuity]]. It describes the story of a young king with supernatural might. He rose to power by avenging his father’s death, and in doing so regained his rightful kingdom from the killer. But his confidence in his power turns into a horrible, overweening pride, and after committing several serious abuses of his natural power as a monarch, he is finally cast down when he dares to challenge the gods. Consulting an oracle, he discovers that Uvuun, god of the deep currents, may be able to redeem him in the eyes of the gods, if he can prove himself worthy. But Kalnath is not interested in this advice, and with a small band of companions, he goes off in search of a kingdom to conquer. His refusal to do what must be done, and the resultant wanderings cause the death of each of his companions in turn. Finally, he voyages to Uvuun’s home, where, before he can be excused by Uvuun, he must be judged worthy by Ba'uk, the Eater of Bones, who hears his story. The part of the epic shown is the beginning, in which Kalnath arrives in Uvuun’s realm. ===== Text ===== ==== Book One ==== Of pride and woe I sing, O Muse,\\ O Sembral, Lady of the Tongues;\\ Fill me with Your voice and words,\\ This humble mortal, speck of dust.\\ Speak to Anath, son of Koleth;\\ Speak to him, dread Telkael’s daughter,\\ Fill not his mind with cunning lies,\\ But let him drink from you own current,\\ The deep, sweet water of too-dark truth.\\ Thus help my song, O sweet dream-lady,\\ Of the mighty warrior Kalnath\\ Lord of dragons, king of Asdan,\\ Who rose to might and his father’s throne\\ Through deeds of strength and of virtue\\ But who, in ruling, came to be ruled\\ By the power of his birthright,\\ And was felled and forced to flight\\ By the gods’ most righteous anger;\\ Let fly the truthful tale, O Sembral,\\ Of Kalnath, unyielding as the rock,\\ Who traveled wide to do great deeds\\ And win release from his curse,\\ Though brave companions dear to him\\ Would die for his own haughty nature;\\ Who walked among the tiny Lyar\\ And saved them from the beast Jatai,\\ Who passed within the Misty Gate\\ And foiled the clever Riddle-Lord,\\ Who battled Thyru of many claws\\ And her fearsome demon-hordes,\\ Who faced the sorcerer Umna-Shaa\\ And wrestled with his deep dark spells,\\ All ere he stood, alone and naked,\\ Before the lord of deepest currents\\ To seek forgiveness from the gods\\ And take back lands and golden crown.\\ For so he went, in night-dark waters\\ His breath near spent, his brain on fire,\\ His limbs wearied from swimming the depths\\ To reach the cave of Salan-Thoru,\\ Where throng strange creatures of the deep\\ About their master, Uvuun Dark-Eyes,\\ Lord of the ancient Shadow Realm\\ On deepest floor of the boundless sea.\\ There went Kalnath, unyielding as rock,\\ Squeezed in the grip of the mighty sea,\\ Searching about by the light of his eyes\\ Seeing naught but mud and eerie fishes.\\ Feeling the air in his chest to be spent,\\ He called in thought a desperate prayer:\\ “O Mighty Gods, whose home is Kastun,\\ Shining sphere that lights the night,\\ I pray that my thoughts find wings\\ And reach a one of your great host\\ Who favors me and will guide me on.”\\ Hearing this, the gods upon Kastun\\ Turned from him, remembering well\\ The acts and abuses he had done,\\ The challenge issued to them by him.\\ But kindly Anel, Lady of Tides\\ And keeper and tender of Kastun’s light\\ Pitied Kalnath, proud and mighty,\\ Who served her well throughout the past,\\ And stirred the waters to move his body,\\ Cold and tired, to the Cave’s wide mouth.\\ In the entranceway he laid\\ For many hours, taking in air.\\ Sweet and nourishing it felt\\ After his trek across the deeps.\\ And presently he roused himself\\ And walked on into Salan-Thoru,\\ Dark-Eyes’ halls, to brave his fate.\\ He came into a rocky chamber,\\ Low and wide, with skin-smooth walls\\ Glowing with an inner light,\\ And a pit in the floor filled with bones\\ Of heroes who had come before.\\ For these were the chambers of cold Ba’uk,\\ Fell guardian of Uvuun’s lair\\ Who judges those who seek to enter,\\ And ends the lives of those unworthy.\\ He stood blocking the passage onward,\\ Head to toe enrobed in blue\\ So dark as to be near black,\\ Over a body cold and thin,\\ Formed from the bones of the unworthy\\ Which he uses to repair himself;\\ Three heads he had atop his form,\\ Two to judge and one to speak,\\ With eyes like smoldering firepits.\\ “Enter,” said the eater of bone\\ With center head, the others silent,\\ To brave Kalnath, unyielding as rock:\\ “For many an age has it now been\\ Since last I fed on living bone.\\ Speak your name, that I might honor\\ Your progenitors, when I am done.”\\ Replied Kalnath, both brave and mighty:\\ “O Ba’uk, ancient pile of bones,\\ Know then that Kalnath Asdan’s king\\ Has come to meet your dark-eyed master\\ And has no time for a threatening servant.”\\ The bone-eater came, shambling slowly,\\ With piercing eyes of Kastun-silver<\\ And voice and body cold as death:\\ “I know of you, bold Kailuth’s son.\\ Your father of old fought nobly here,\\ Set against the Nestu hosts\\ And with I beside him, turned them back\\ From Salan-Thoru’s coral gates.\\ As fighter and friend he was steadfast,\\ And for his virtue he was awarded\\ Elenith, lady of the river.\\ Her son has taken on her power,\\ And her comely face and form,\\ But, I fear, he has avoided\\ His noble sire’s shining soul.”\\ Though proud, Kalnath yet was chastened\\ And spoke again, with more respect:\\ “Of this my father did not speak\\ Ere he died at Zandarath’s claws;\\ Had I known you stood at his side,\\ I would not have spoken so harshly.\\ And ‘tis true that noble Kailuth\\ Though brave, was also kind and humble,\\ And these things I have not been,\\ Though this is not for lack of trying;\\ Though I won back Father’s land and crown,\\ Slaying Zandarath, foul betrayer,\\ With the might of my mother’s blood,\\ This same power inspired my heart\\ To do what I wished, without regard\\ To whether it was right or wrong.\\ And so the gods upon Kastun\\ Inspired my people to cast me down,\\ And it is this which brought me here,\\ To seek forgiveness from dark Uvuun.”\\ No change of face or stance of body\\ Could Ba’uk Bone-Eater betray,\\ Yet his voice became less cold,\\ As his skull-like center head did speak:\\ “Young Kalnath, both proud and mighty,\\ Perhaps there is yet in your heart\\ The soul of your most august father.\\ If you are worthy to see Uvuun,\\ He may help regain his siblings’ favor."\\ Replied then Kalnath, proud and mighty,\\ Eagerness in his gleaming eyes:\\ “O Ba’uk, guardian of the deeps,\\ What might I do to merit entrance\\ To the chambers of dread Uvuun,\\ Lord of all the kraken-hosts,\\ And seek his aid to soothe the wrath\\ I have incurred in Kastun’s halls?”\\ Said Ba’uk, with all three heads,\\ Six eyes smoldering like firepits,\\ “Open your mind to me, O Kalnath,\\ And give to me the fullest tale\\ Of how you came to Salan-Thoru,\\ And all the deeds that you have done\\ On your way to the coral gates.\\ Then shall we judge, and look you well;\\ If the head to your left does speak your fate,\\ Then your bones shall remain with me;\\ If the head to your right answers you,\\ You are worthy, and may pass on;\\ If the center head queries you again,\\ After it speaks your tale aloud,\\ Recounting your journeys and your deeds,\\ Then your tale is yet to finish.\\ Now close your eyes, and let me see.”\\ Then Kalnath proud, Asdan’s king\\ Strode forth before the Eater of Bone,\\ And lowered himself on bended knee,\\ Closing his glowing silver eyes,\\ As Kastun reigning in the heavens\\ Wanes to darkness over passing days.\\ Then Ba’uk of the cold and dark\\ Placed his hand, like that of one dead,\\ Upon the king’s most mighty brow.\\ His eyes, piercing, cold, and deadly\\ Opened again, burning with flame\\ As blue as deepest ocean depths.\\ His voice issued from three dry throats,\\ Rasping with the dust of ages,\\ As an aura of darkness enveloped them both\\ In an embrace of heartless time:\\ “What lies in your mind is lain bare;\\ Now let Kalnath’s tale be told\\ To its last and uttermost.”\\ Then here, Ba’uk’s middle head\\ Spoke alone, and began the tale.\\ ==== Book Two ==== “The tale took shape in bright Asdan,\\ Land of fens upon the shore\\ Where the mighty river Relki\\ Thunders into the ocean’s vastness.\\ Summer it was, and since then\\ Two summers and a winter have passed on.\\ That summer did Kailuth, bold and mighty,\\ Lead his armies to the Field of Kalah\\ To meet foul Zandarath in war.\\ Vast and mighty were the armies,\\ Claw-guards gleaming in morning’s light,\\ Flashing like the light of the sun\\ Sparkling off the backs of fish\\ Leaping above the countless waves.\\ The roar of battle loudly pealed,\\ Crashing against the tall high peaks\\ As waves upon an empty beach.\\ In the camp of the leaders, Kailuth spoke;\\ King and warrior(...)