The Great Collide

This is the journal of 73. I have endeavoured to document my experiences for posterity’s sake and reveal the true ‘natures’ of the world in which we now live.

I am 73. My origins are only important insofar as to explain my role and intention in the narration of my experiences.

I have managed to piece together a little of how the Earth came to be as it is now. From my calculations, it began maybe a century ago. But time works differently now than to how it did before. As far as I can determine, the epicentre was at a place known as the Alps. Beneath the mountains in a facility called Hadron. It was there that the Great Collide began.

On my travels I have found remnants of texts written by theoreticians and physicists. They hypothesised that beyond the three dimensions that mankind once lived within, were several other dimensions, layered over their own. In this they were correct. In their attempt to prove their theories something cataclysmic occurred. How or why I do not know but I can tell you precisely what resulted.

The Great Collide happened. Where once dimensions that existed in mere theory, suddenly became reality. These dimensions spilled into the three that man knew and existed within. Like a growing pool of water, it spilled forth and spread from its epicentre to engulf the entirety of the planet. But like water it was not consistent in its dispersion. It pooled in places and lay thin in others. Its effects distorted the very laws of nature and physics as man knew it to be. Instantaneously places plunged into eternal night. Others continuous day. Beaches and seashore appeared in the middle of forests and forests where there was once city. But that was just the beginning.

Creatures appeared. ‘Abominations’ they are called. Things outside of God’s creation. From what I know, throughout the history of man, stories were told. Stories that were born of experience of the times when man had glimpsed beyond the ‘veil’. Folklores and myths. Legends and scriptures. Whilst these stories were shaped by the fears and imaginations of those who heard them and told them in turn, it appears there was substance to all.

Myriad fantastical creatures have dwelt beyond man’s realm for all of time, up until the Great Collide. As all dimensions were forced together and the veil dissolved, these creatures walked out upon the earth. Society as it was once known, collapsed. Science could not explain nor even fathom man’s new reality, so humanity had no choice but to turn to religion and God for solace. ‘Hell had opened upon the world' was the rhetoric preached as the populations dwindled rapidly amongst the horrors and the chaos. All technologies ceased to work. No vehicles, no computers functioned as the laws of physics that governed their mechanics ceased to apply. All information from the digital era was lost. The hubris that the wisdoms of man could be stored on a drive became apparent. There were only two places the collide seemed to have left unaffected. Upon these locations two great cities were built. The last two cities of Man: ‘New Mecca’ and ‘The Lord’s Holy Vatican’. What is left of humanity reside solely in these cities. Great walls erected made of iron and copper, salt and silver, glass and gold; all things that man could find that had some arcane power to deter the beasts that have stolen dominion.

I am 73. I was ‘created’ by the Inquisitors of the Lords Holy Vatican. There have been 72 of my brothers and sisters before me, none survived creation but me. We were not deemed fit for Christian names as my kin and I are perceived bereft of soul. I am 73. My intended purpose was to be a repository of arcane knowledge. I have read every sacred and blasphemous text in the Holy Vatican’s library. Millenia worth of horded texts, bestiaries, forbidden tomes, occult volumes, and magical manuals. To what purpose you may ask? I am 73. Created to be scout and pathfinder for the Inquisitors’ Holy warriors. Paladin knights sent beyond the walls to crusade and purge to world of all evil wherever it may dwell. I am 73, keeper of forbidden Lore, tactician against evil, strategist to guide the crusade and ensure victory in the quest to vanquish all enemy of man. I am 73.

My first foray beyond the wall of the Lord’s Holy Vatican, I was accompanied by one hundred of the Inquisitors’ finest Paladin. I picked up the trail of some beasts and led the company to the outskirts of a forest. I bid them wait and entered alone. I had never seen such a sight. Trees sighed and groaned. Entire mycelial networks stretched across the forest floor like pulsating interlaced, multicoloured veins. It seemed to communicate with all living plants as I trod further. Ferns rippled and vines twisted as I passed. I could smell something I had never smelt before. Something not human.

Deep within the forest, I crawled to the lip of what was once maybe a quarry. Within the space was a clearing and a sight I was not prepared to see. There were dozens of creatures therein. Seemingly lost in an orgy of ecstasy and the flesh. Beautiful females that appeared as the finest women I had laid eyes upon, revelled in a carnal feast of pleasure with beasts; human torsos but the head and hind legs of goats, there faces near to that of man but with horns upon their heads and fur upon their faces. Their loans engorged as they took the females, however they wished. All were lost in ecstatic trance.

Transfixed I did not notice the company had followed me. They were not bred for caution these warriors. Before I could react, they charged down towards the orgy of beasts. I knew them to be what legend called Satyr. They were so lost in their orgiastic ritual no beast saw the marauding crusaders bearing down upon them. It was a massacre. Each creature fell beneath the cuts and blows of the Inquisitors holy men. The Nymph were first to break trance and they turned upon the defilers of their sacred rite with ferocity and merciless vigour. But their teeth and claws and naked flesh were not enough. At their cries, the Satyr began to turn. They fought valiantly as I watched. Horns and talons gorged, and teeth and hooves tore and crushed, but it was not enough against the onslaught of God’s soldiers. The forest shook, and I beheld the most magnificent and awe-inspiring sight. Hidden on the edge of the clearing was seated a creature of obsidian black. As the last of the Satyr fell a roar boomed and froze the soldiers in their spot.

The seated figure rose as if a mountain of night had risen from the forest floor itself. It stood before the remaining company near fourteen foot high, dwarfing them all. Its skin and fur so black it almost negated all light. Great curling horns twisted and ribbed sat about its head. Its body was pure hulking muscle and sinew. Hands spanning as wide as a man’s torso, tipped with gnarled black talons. Its face regal, almost noble and eyes yellow gold with rectangular pupils staring at the infidels that had defiled the sacred ceremony of his subjects. The Knights must have thought this thing the very devil himself!

It strode forth with such purpose and intent. A nobility of the like never seen amongst the rulers of men. Its hooves were giant with tufted black fur, legs larger than a shire horse’s. But I sensed no anger or fury. Just will and intent. As it neared the first of the soldiers it reached out taloned hands and simply crushed them like eggs. The Paladin swarmed together as one against this god of beasts. As was their training. Their spears and swords bit into the black giants flesh but did not hinder the creature's focus. Horn deflected blade as hoof bore down. They popped and fell limp one by one as I watched in both awe and horror. I am 73. I was not created for battle. It was in this moment, witnessing this marvellous mayhem that I 73, realised that all the tomes of forbidden knowledge had taught me nothing nor prepared me for the realities of this world.

I looked down from my vantage point and laying slain upon a bed of glowing moss lay a beauty so ephemeral and fair. Her hair was a cascade of fuchsias, lavender, dog rose and cherry blossom. But as I looked the flowers fell from her scalp and her skin drained and sunk upon her bones like a plant deprived of water. A locket sat below her clavicle upon broken chain, and it shone like a heart of moonlight. I clambered down oblivious to the violence. I looked upon her fading beauty and the gravity of my role in this genocide overwhelmed me. I am 73. I am nothing of worth.

I looked up and before me towered the king of beasts. No threat of violence did I feel. I prostrated myself and held out the locket in open palm with bowed head. Submission was my only instinct. Not from fear but from unrelenting remorse.

The giant raven black beast gently plucked the locket from my hand. The ground shuddered as it collapsed to its knees and the forest seemed to depress as the beast sobbed before me. It was a gentle sob, full of lament and woe. The beast placed open hands upon the body of his fallen queen, and we cried together in empathetic unity.

We have been companions ever since. Wandering the earth side by side. I am 73. My only friend, Silenus, king of the Satyr and last of his kind. He is a curious fellow, Silenus. A true hedonist. He lives only for pleasure. We discovered a large cache of opium a few weeks back whilst salvaging the remains of a skeletal town. Silenus consumed it all with little discernible effect upon his person.

We have pledged loyalty to one another. My new purpose is to explore and document the realities of this new world. We evade the forces of man and seek out the diverse new beings and phenomena that now dominate the land. We need to understand not destroy. But there are still malevolent creatures all around. I cannot deny, my companion and friend has been indispensable when overcoming foe.

Today we stand on a half sunken city once known as Venezia. We have followed rumours that a great spectacle is about to take place here. A God of Death has summoned the deadliest of creatures to amass for a carnival of destruction. Her name is Kali, and she commands all to fight until only the victor remains. Silenus wishes to join the festivities, but I have managed to persuade him (for now!) that we shall only observe. I have already spied Djinn here and hear talk of Kraken. Although I can hear a cacophony of hundreds of creatures amassing in Piazza San Marco as we approach.

In the centre of a crowd of creatures of all shapes and terrible sizes stands Kali. Her eyes rolling in her head as a long tongue lolls from fanged mouth. She stands upon a mound of skulls and blood oozes from her several breasts and down the inside of her thighs. Six arms flail in the air wildly as she drools at the sights of the monsters around her.

I look at Silenus with a doubtful glance. But he is unnerved. His golden goat eyes sweeping the crowds and a 'moonlight', heart locket tied about the base of one horn.

This is going to be quite the day!

Excerpt from ‘The Trials & Tribulations of 73’ by Ross Pelham Austin Lockhart