Chapter 539 – Legendary Tales of the Elves

Chapter 539 – Legendary Tales of the Elves

Great Demon God Sasloka.

A hint of familiarity vaguely surfaced in Duncan’s mind, and then he quickly recalled that he had indeed heard the term – from a casual conversation with Maurice sometime in the very early days.

“As I recall …… this is the name of the ‘Lord God’ as described in the ancient belief system unique to the Elves,” he spoke slowly in thought, ” This Demon God has the ability to control dreams, souls that wander, and in your legends, this Great Demon God is even associated with the opening of this present ‘Age of the Deep’ -“

“Yes, Captain Duncan,” Taran El nodded, “according to those old legends, the world was originally a dreamland, created by that great demon god Sasloca in a half-awake state, and the elves were the inhabitants of the dreamland, and our innate mission is to serve Sasloca in the dream. serve Sasloka in the dream and prolong His slumber as long as possible, in order to prevent the entire world from coming to an end because of the awakening of the Great Demon God.”

Lucrecia on the side listened attentively, as a learned person, she obviously also knew about these old and strange “heretical legends” of the elves, which were very different from the mainstream beliefs of today, and couldn’t help but interject: “But Sasloka is destined to wake up – that’s also part of the legend. -That is part of the legend.”

“That’s right, the Archdemon is destined to awaken, and His awakening will mean the end of the world,” Taran-El nodded again, and continued, “In most …… less mainstream belief systems there is a similar ‘end of the world prophecies’, but for the most part they are merely warnings, deterrents to believers to bolster their own persuasive power and control over their followers, this is not the case with elven lore, in elven lore this ‘end of the world’ has already happened.

“Legend has it that the end of the world opens with a nightmare in which the Daemon God sees a great flood coming as a result of the nightmare, whereupon the elf’s long-standing appeasement goes out the window, and He awakens with a start, and the flood leaks out of His dream into the real world as a sea of water ……

“After that, the Great Demon God Saslocaine woke up and disappeared, and the elves could no longer return to that peaceful dream world, so they had to survive in the ocean after the flood – this is the elven version of the myth’s ‘Age of the Deep Sea ‘ explanation.”

Taran El’s recounting of this legend was not too far from what Maurice had said at first, with just a few more details added, and Duncan wore a thoughtful expression after the elven scholar’s words had fallen from his lips.

After a few seconds, he broke the silence with a deep voice, “Your creation myths and prophecies of doom revolve around the element of ‘dreaming’.”

“Yes, ‘dreaming’ has always been a concept that takes up a large portion of elven culture,” Taran El nodded, “We believe that there are two worlds inside and outside of dreams, both of which are real and capable of interact with each other, and that a person’s going to sleep and waking up is a process of traveling between the two worlds – or, to put it more traditionally, ‘traveling without a home’.”

At this he paused, organized his words and continued, “Speaking of which, I’ll mention one more digression – there’s also a special congenital disease among elves called ‘dreamlessness.’ ”

Duncan frowned, “Dreamless?”

“Literally, people who are congenitally incapable of dreaming,” Taran-El explained, “Dreaming is a mortal instinct, and to us, it is as uncontrollable and unavoidable as death; of course, some dream a lot, some dream a little, and some don’t even think they can dream at all — but research has proven that this group of people simply have dreams that are so fleeting or so shallow in their impact that they can’t remember their dreams at all when they wake up, and they still dream ……

“The ‘dreamless’, on the other hand, are completely different from the above – they really don’t dream.

“The slumber of the dreamless is pale, and after they fall asleep there is only nothingness and chaos; their consciousness is as if it has jumped and directly ‘skipped’ through the entire sleep process, and no highly skilled spiritual practitioner or priest can detect any trace of their dreams.

“This condition of not being able to dream at all only occurs within the Elven race, with about a one in ten thousand chance of ‘onset’, innately carried and incurable.”

Duncan couldn’t help but sigh with emotion when he heard this, “…… Within a race that places extreme importance on ‘dreaming’, dreamless people are surely treated with special regard.”

“Yes, in the eyes of most elves, this pale, empty sleep of the dreamless is dangerously strange, even terrifying, and it is true that there have been many injustices against the ‘dreamless’ throughout history, but that was mostly before the days of the old city-states, “Taran-El waved his hand, “Nowadays we don’t do special targeting or discrimination against dreamless people, but like you said, the influence of the traditional culture is still there, and they are more or less …… specially treated.” Duncan listened to the content of the unique culture and legends within the elves that were hard for these fey to understand, and pondered for a moment after the great scholar’s words had fallen, and slowly spoke, “But among the many legends and records about dreams, the only thing that is not there is the ‘Dream of the Nameless One’. ”

“One possible explanation is that ‘Dream of the Nameless One’ is just what the cultists called it, and that its counterpart has another name in elven culture,” said Taran El, “This is a common occurrence –Elves have an ancient and difficult cultural system, and some of the things that get passed down tend to be misinterpreted and processed by the fey; we can’t expect everyone of a race with an average lifespan of less than a hundred years to be able to figure out whether a seven-thousand-year-old vessel is a vessel for holding wine or for fetching water.”

Lucrecia had been silently thinking by the side, when she heard the words of the great scholar, she suddenly raised her head and said, “If it’s ‘something else’, could that so-called Dream of the Nameless One refer to the one created by the Great Demon God, Sasloka, in the elven legends? ”

“The Old World?” Taran El frowned, but quickly shook his head, “The dream created by Sasloka is just a legend, there is no solid evidence to prove that it really existed, and even if it did exist, in this ‘Age of the Deep’, it has surely shattered and dissipated! ……”

“But you and another elf from far away in Prand did fall into a vast and grotesque ‘dream’ at the same time,” Duncan reminded, “Have you forgotten the boundless forest?”

“…… I did think of it,” Taran Elle hesitated, still cautious in her wording, “We may so boldly hypothesize …… but it must be be verified with ample evidence. If that dream is indeed the fabled ‘Dream of Sasloca’, the ‘World of Origins’ ……”

“It wouldn’t just be elven society that would have to be shaken,” Lucrecia said lightly, “the entire world of academia would be shaken.”

“That’s right, the entire world,” Taran-El looked particularly solemn, “This means that among the countless speculations and conflicting historical records, there is finally a ‘record’ of history before the Great Annihilation that has been verified! Even if we still can’t break through the black wall of history that stood 10,000 years ago, a crack has appeared in that wall, allowing us to glimpse the glimpses of the pre-Deep Sea Era.”

Duncan of course thought of all this, but he didn’t interrupt, but pondered silently, and only after a long time did he open his mouth with a hint of curiosity, “Are there any more detailed legends about that ‘Great Demon God Sasloka’?”

“‘Legends’ are mostly vague and contradictory, even for a race as solid and complete as the elves,” Taran El said slowly, “In most of the legends, Sasloka is described as a shepherd. Lorca is depicted in most legends as a giant dressed as a shepherd, holding a staff capable of measuring the world, but there are also stories that depict him as a giant male goat, and the Epic of Bran-Mar, housed in the city-state of Mokor, says that he has no form, and changes into any shape according to the imagination of those who visit him, and that he is a ‘reflection of the most magnificent, awe-inspiring gestures in the minds of mortals! ‘ ……

“But in either legend, there is one thing in common: Sasloka perches at the feet of the giant tree of the world, ‘Silantis,’ which is the plant from which the entire world was first born –Sasloka created it in a dream world to be his home, and He shook the branches of Silantis violently out of loneliness, causing the tree to shed its dust, fruits, branches and leaves, and those that fell changed into the various things of the world.

“The dust that falls off the World Tree becomes mountains, rivers, and minerals; the branches and leaves of Silantis are transformed into all kinds of birds and beasts, flowers, birds, fish, and insects; and the fruits of Silantis are changed into the original spirits; the dust does not rot, so the mountains, rivers, and minerals are eternally undecaying, and the branches, leaves, and fruits begin to decay after they have fallen to the ground, so that there is a cycle of life and death for earthly beings. ”

Taran-El took a break from speaking, picked up the tea that the doll Luni had placed on the table and took a sip, then continued, “This is how the Daemon God creates all sorts of things in the dream world, and after this initial ‘creation’ is complete, Sasloca begins to tour His world —

“He walks around Silantis and sets the rules of the earthly world with his own eyes, and once a year he is allowed to encircle the World Tree, and thus Silantis waxes and wanes in a cycle of years, and thus the earthly world has its seasons, and then he returns to Silantis’ feet on the last day of the year, when the elves are required to travel in full regalia and show Sasloca their proudest skills and creations, and if the Elves are not satisfied with the results of this process, the Elves will not be able to do so. skills and creations to Sasloca, and if the Archdemon feels that those things are good, they will remain in this dream world He has created, and the world will survive.”

After that, Taran-El finally let out a long breath.

“That’s all there is to it, Captain Duncan.”

(End of chapter)