The Word of Nerull: Niole Dra
This is the guiding doctrine for those who serve our Lord Nerull. He is the One, the Power of all Powers. He directs the most potent aspect of our lives. He never speaks. His gift is given and so much is said by that perfect gift. His gift is for everyone, believer and unbeliever alike. His gift changes the face of our world every day. He need not lie; He need not play tricks; He is undeniably dependable. All of these things cannot be said of any other god in the world. Unrelenting, unforgiving, unthinking …. He will always be here and so we will have an eternity of His mysteries to discover until the day comes when He blesses the whole world.
This is The Word of Nerull. In it are written the mysteries of Death and through them are gleaned the guiding doctrine for those who serve our Lord. The Word is the Truth. It is the compiled understandings of Death by its foremost masters in our temples around the world.
The very nature of our mortality speaks to us constantly, whispering in our minds the undeniable fate we each have before us. Sometimes it weeps and we tremble at its fear, the creeping fear of the ultimate unknown. It is these whispers that are studied, these secrets that are revealed by our fears and the fact of death.
The guiding principle that directs the faith in The Word is that Life is incomplete. Death is the full realization of completion in existence. Everything naturally progresses toward Death and so Death is the more permanent, more perfect, and natural state of reality. It is our duty to nobly serve Existence and help bring it to a perfect state.
As servants to the ultimate we can bring forth perfection through The Deed. Anything that directly or indirectly causes death participates in The Deed. There are many practitioners of The Deed, many who do not know The Word, yet unknowing serve The Word by implementing The Deed. Court intrigues, jealousies and power grabs, duels, bloody revolutions, and vast battle fields are all the domain of or bring about The Deed and we will place ourselves in each circumstance to make sure perfection is realized. And in many cases we will use our own practitioners of The Deed to ensure glory for the future.
The Word is our doctrine. The Deed is our methodology. They work together—each necessary to fulfill our mission, specialists of each to research and perform as needed to achieve the ultimate goal.
The Nature of Death
There are many perspectives on Death, some that support the Truth and others of abominable aspect. The ones that suggest correct belief have been researched at length. One fact that has been solidified about death is that it is an end. Even if existence continues in another reality it is in a form of energy and not matter. It is in a sense the separation of a positive energy from matter. Once that link is severed it is difficult to re-connect and even if the energy is restored it weakens the matter it is tied to. The link itself is debilitating to matter in general and we call that decay "aging." This further shows that life, in other words, that joining of positive energy to matter is an unnatural state.
One can see the powers of energies in relation to each other. Positive energy is the weakest and most poisonous to matter, neutral energy is simply the moving force of inanimate objects (even that is greater than positive energy), and negative energy is the most powerful of all. Positive energy is weakest as neutral and negative energies and even itself can break its link with matter. Neutral energy comes and goes and often positive energy creatures can do nothing about it, such as motion of the wind and waves, but it seems to also be the only way that positive energy beings can effect a change, as does a man swinging a sword or cutting down a tree with an axe. Positive energy beings often rely on neutral energy.
Negative energy is self-sufficient and sometimes when infused into tissue creates an indestructible eternal creature of undeniable power. Negative energy does not decay matter; it rebuilds it in a more perfect way as often it cannot be harmed by simple wood or metal, it may shrug off fire or lightning, it is totally immune to poison, and since it does not require a physical mind (its thought is of pure energy beyond matter) it cannot be victimized by enchantments. It is clear which type of energy is the best.
There is another thought put forth by those in distant realities that there is no such thing as life and that everything is already "dead." They postulate that energies are fictitious and that bodies move as do leaves on a windy day. And it is true that all of the indicators of life do not necessitate its existence. You say, "But a body has warmth as its blood runs warm in its veins." Well, is a snake then not a living thing? And the ashes of last evening's fire in the hearth are warm, do they live? The earth itself is hot blooded, is it alive? You say, "But these things do not have breath. Breath will show life." Like the entrance to a vast cave system has life I suppose as there is breath there. "But living things eat." And the earth and sea will swallow a man. And then the dullard will say, "But living things have a soul." And I would crush his skull and sift through the pieces. "Lo, and behold, my friend, I have discovered no soul anywhere in these shards, but you are warm like the ashes of last night's fire." There is no need to assume life; if there is no life then there must only be Death.
Untrue. Some believe, particularly the druids, that all things are alive if they are not negative energy beings. The mountains, the lakes and rivers, the wind—they all have a link to positive energy. They say that the positive energy is recycled and that you can come back to "life" as a gopher, a dragon, or a summer breeze. They do recognize the existence of negative energy beings, but see them as formed of aberrant matter that will not take a link to "life energy" so they are "wild matter" that seeks to destroy.
Either of these ideas is preposterous. To deny the existence of energies is pure foolishness as we can witness the interaction of them in matter. The Blessed are drawn to it to feed, or they would feed upon each other, and to suggest that The Blessed are merely other creatures no different from living ones is pure stupidity especially since they are creatures who share the same matter but in two different states. It's not like The Blessed had a mood shift and they went from weak to all-powerful. It is a potent alteration of energy that changes a being at its very core. But most important is that without the interplay of energy our Lord would not seek the perfection that he seeks. If all is dead or all is alive then how could things be otherwise? What would our Lord seek? The Truth is that he seeks to eradicate positive energy from all material realities.
Regardless of our endless toil and research the mandates of our Lord are clear: all "life" must perish. Based upon the above philosophy we could already claim a victory, but that would be incomplete. Negative energy must be infused into all matter. That is The Word of Nerull. How it comes to be is through The Deed of Nerull.
The Deed
This is The Word you see now. This is The Word of The Deed. How does our Lord teach us to achieve his ends? Through Death, of course. The death of others. But not just death. The Deed is best fulfilled through horrible, painful, terrifying death.
All death is good, but some methods to that end are better. Death is ranked from low to high. We seek the high.
The lowest death is that of a person who passes on as a result of age. There is no joy in this for us as they go peacefully, even those they leave behind nod with a sad relief. There is no energy here. The Deed is not done.
The next higher death is that caused by accident, famine, or disease. People are shocked and wrenched with sadness. They curse the gods of fortune and black energy drifts lazily through their lives. The Deed is half done. If a servant of Nerull caused this "accident" or summoned this plague then The Deed has been done.
The next higher death is that caused by war and combat. Armed conflict causes many dead beings with hate in their hearts and their deaths bring hate and sadness to others at home. We have found that in most cases the glory is fleeting, but the spite lasts forever and this feeds the black energy creatures who will find a home in the world of matter. Notice how battlefields are a notorious draw for negative energy beings. War always completes The Deed, but it is the pride of Nerull when we are the instigators and participants.
The next higher order of death is assassination. Murderer is a respected position and practice of that art will surely bless one in the eyes of Nerull. The act of murder is the heart of The Deed. It snuffs a life early and the killer is filled with an elation—the blessing of Nerull. When one feels that rush of energy, the jittery excited ecstasy when the hot blood splashes the hands, the savage tingling when the victim groans a dying breath, then one knows the purity and glory of The Deed. Nerull gives one power for good works and this is his glorious unity with his servants to tell them of his pleasure. Also, often the victim will seek vengeance, but to do so they will need to be reborn through negative energy. If that happens The Deed is totally achieved.
Finally, the highest form of death that achieves the most success is one where the victim knows what their fate will be and their executioner inspires them with utter terror and various punishments are exacted upon the body to inflict horrible pain and terrible mutilations so that they scream and scream and the screams reach into the inky night to tell the dark dwellers that soon they will have a new home in the world of matter. The torturer will feel the power of his or her invincibility as the dark entities draw near. The energy will rise in a steadily more orgasmic stream until it reaches its zenith when the final cut is made and Nerull passes through the practitioner to grant an eternal blessing upon one pure of spirit, one capable of the greatest Deeds in the name of our Lord Nerull.
Goodness and Evil
Many years ago the new temples in the growing western nations began to preach the possibility that Nerull was a powerful deity of good whose goals opposed those of an evil faulty material majority. Their position was simply that The Word and The Deed were good and right and therefore they were servants of the good. There are still some less successful splinter temples who cling to this philosophy as do many believers of Wee Jas, but the matter has been put to rest for the majority of the Faithful.
Two hundred years ago, when the schism occurred, the Great Ghost Tevialex of Greyhawk City denounced the western temples, saying they were faithless cowards—afraid to take untethered steps along the path of glory. The Ghosts and Vampires of the west claimed that through rational thought and historical observation it was obvious that Nerull was not so malign. They demanded a consultation of the Liches, but they did not answer. Tevialex then called a grand assembly of all Ghosts and Vampires of the world to convene beneath the City of Greyhawk. He said he would resolve the matter once and for all time after. He was prepared to contact the Lord himself and ask the question. The ceremony began, Tevialex established the link, and all heard him shout, "Do we serve evil?" across the chamber. There was a long pause and silence. A look of confusion passed over the face of Tevialex and an instant later, before he could utter a sound, he exploded into a fine mist that coated the room and congregation in a fine mist leaving only bone shards and shredded cloth in a large circle where he stood.
The western temple leaders immediately began to claim their victory, but wiser heads, even within their ranks, began to critically analyze the situation. The best source for the answer to their question had not directly answered it. As such, there could be no proof, whatsoever, and further speculation meant nothing. Still they continued to discuss the event. Knowing Tevialex's position on that question made them initially think that destroying him was a sign of false belief. But everyone knew that his faith was undeniable and if Nerull had told him he was in error he would have made immediate reparations. Clearly, the Lord did not care to correct the misguided, in other words, "stay the course," and as an added note, "don't ever contact Nerull again."
The fact that the Liches also refused an answer to the question suggests that possibly the scope of the question is inapplicable to faith. We are the servants of Nerull and we have our duties to perform. That is all. If you are inclined to ask that question then you feel uncertain of those duties and need a crutch to allow you to perform. If you are so lamed then you cannot truly believe in your heart in our mission. In the absence of heat there is cold, in the absence of good there is evil, and in everything there is Nerull. We believe in our goal. It is beyond all of our thoughts of it. If it suffers by lack of definition to you then you are weak and must be destroyed. What do we serve? Only Nerull.
Tertiary Practices
All things must intend one purpose: fulfillment of The Deed. All other things are unimportant to Nerull. Rape and torture are endorsed, because it unsettles the spirit of the victim through violation thereby attracting the dark energies, as long as it then proceeds to death. Theft is a frivolous activity for weak individuals. Servants of Nerull should not engage in this behavior—it wastes our time—unless it causes disruption which then brings about death.
Lying and deception are known to rankle the Liches, but even they understand that these are tools that are required for the faith to survive. Be it known, too, that servants of our Lord have a contract only with him—all others are invalid. Breaking contracts of obligation to non-believers is how we live.
The People of Nerull
Though our very presence in this world as living beings is an abomination to Nerull and his mission, he, nevertheless, knows that we are a temporary imperative to his ends. We must grow in our numbers and influence slowly and in the shadows until we can rise up and open the gates to the darker realities to flood this world with the horrors that dwell there to feed upon the positive energy and create a stabilized negative energy realm.
The common folk are the base of this process. Merchants and craftsmen and farmers make us self-sufficient communities. It is very difficult to bring the commoners to the cause but when the congregation is diverse enough then the temple will thrive.
It has been widely accepted that mercenary soldiers, assassins, vagabonds, and wizards are sometimes drawn to service in our temples. We often do not need to come to them; they find us. They are the ranks of Zombies, Ghouls, Ghasts, Wraiths, Wights, Mummies, Shadows, and Spectres. They come seeking power, glory, and purpose and our temples provide all of those things. When a small temple attracts enough of these agents then we move into the local population preaching The Word, paying the politicians, and performing The Deed on those who oppose us. In time, the congregation will grow and the temple will become a real power.
Warriors of the temple must always be present. Warriors protect the priests, preserve the secrets, and perform The Deed when required or desired. This sector of the temples professionals must grow larger than the rest, except for maybe the priesthood, to provide a standing army for protection and invasion.
The assassins of a temple are there for one purpose: perform The Deed when delicacy is required. Their role is imperative in urban areas, to control the governing bodies and eliminate important personalities. Being so blessed in the eyes of Nerull, it is unfortunate that most often these individuals are not faithful, but mostly psychopaths seeking to be paid for their lusts. When their demands and carelessness become greater than their abilities, they often find themselves on the pointy end of another servant's dagger.
Wizards, particularly necromancers, are the jewels of any temple congregation. They bring refinement and class to the workings of a temple, but too many times they oppose the priests. They seek to discover the world with logic and they become absorbed with what they think. It is not what a man thinks that brings blessings. It is only the power of Nerull. That must not be forgotten. The Word and The Deed is all: Otherwise, wizards, as Spectres, advise the Vampires and Ghosts and explore the realm of death to discover, as do the priests, aspects of The Word and expand it.
The priests are the backbone of any temple. Without the priests the temple would be called a fortress, guild, or school, but any such establishment without the guidance of a high priest would lose its connection to The Word or fail to perform The Deed. The priests maintain the vision and keep the people directed toward our ultimate goal. They are the keepers of The Word. Though anyone can read it, discuss it, analyze it only the high priests, usually Ghosts and Spectres, can accept doctrine as part of The Word. All things come from the priests and go back to the priests and they devote all to our Lord Nerull. All our works are given through them so Nerull can know the bounty we have performed for him.
The Blessed Ones
The mightiest servants of our Lord are the second incarnations of beings formerly activated by positive energy now touched and fulfilled through negative energy. These beings come in many forms and abilities—some keep a physical body and others are non-corporeal, becoming, as our researchers suspect, beings of pure energy and either a base instinct or a complete mind with cognitive abilities and memories of it's former life.
Mentally the Blessed range from being completely mindless automatons, to animalistic creatures with an insatiable urge to feed, to creatures of vast mental prowess. However, when a creature is touched by unlife the mind is absolutely changed. The power of negative energy, we have found, allows a creature to function beyond physical requirements. They have a heart and a liver, but if you pierce its heart it does not die. It has blood, but it can spill to the floor as a rancid effluvia for the creature does not need it. The ties of negative energy to physical matter are much tighter bonds that join at the spirit and encompass the body to make it active. The positive energy that moves the muscles in a living creature is replaced by negative energy that does not require muscles to move its life forms. It moves the body directly. This means that the only way to stop such a creature is to destroy its ability to move or attack. The only laws that still bind these creatures are those of the physical realm. For some of these Blessed the energy has taken such a hold to the flesh that normal steel cannot harm them. Still others will have the dead flesh reconstruct itself through a more powerful cohesive negative energy. But these physical manifestations tend not to have as much power as those of pure energy.
Creatures that no longer experience a physical vessel are not even bound by laws of the physical world. What does a dagger or club do to a creature that is made only of motion and evil? These beings are generally unstoppable. Doors and walls do not exist for them. The force that ties us to the ground does not hinder them, yet they do not need physical accoutrements, such as wings, to aid them. They can only be opposed by other forms of energy. Being so powerful we seek to create and control them to become part of our armies, but they are difficult to create as the soul that houses the negative energy must have been in such anguish or been so totally vile to start with, it is difficult to match the requirements, and once made they tend to stay tied to a location or seek to destroy all life they encounter. Ideally, we try to create them in places of high population such as cities and let them hunt.
The Word teaches us that The Blessed Ones come to us in three ways: as automations, as feeders, or as sentients.
Automations all have a physical form. They are the ones we have the most capacity to create and control. They are merely an infusion of negative energy into the formerly living tissue of a creature. We call these Blessed skeletons and zombies. The energy is controlled by a priest who directs its motion and so directs the behavior of the automations. They can be physically wrecked by anything which, of course, stops them and so though they are the easiest to make they are the least powerful.
The feeders are creatures of unlife who were mostly beings of despicable nature who when dead were ripe to be joined with negative energy. Those with bodies are the ghouls, ghasts, and wights and those of energy are the shadows, wraiths, and spectres. All they want to do is feed on the energy and body of living creatures. They are ravenous and fearlessly hunt their prey. This extreme would seem to fulfill a need, but these creatures don't need that which they eat in order to survive. It appears more symbolic than functional; as in life they are drawn to take from those around them, even beyond necessity. Some actually tear at the living flesh with teeth and claws trying to get at the life inside while others, particularly those formed of energy, truly pull life from living creatures. If these feeders actually succeed in ending the life of the being, many times that individual becomes a host for the negative spirit and then likewise becomes a feeder. Any of these creatures is ideal to make up an army as they have great power and as they attack the army grows stronger or replenishes its ranks. Unfortunately, a large number of these Blessed would only form an unruly horde that would feed on friend and foe alike. It is best to seed them in places where they can kill the unwary and their numbers can grow quietly in some hidden lair.
The sentient Blessed are by far the most powerful of any of them. The line between being sentient and feeder is often less exact. Sometimes powerful beings in life will be born into unlife with more skill or awareness than a usual wight, wraith, or spectre. Conversely, sometimes a ghost or vampire will be filled with such hatred that their rage is mistaken for their being just a mindless beast. The sentient Blessed tend to be vampires, mummies, ghosts, and liches. Mummies are different in that sometimes they are merely very powerful automations, but also sometimes they have memories from their former life. The interesting aspect about the sentient Blessed is that the organ of thought, not unlike the organs of blood and bile, is not operable, decaying, or is gone entirely. The link to the spirit world must be a direct one not requiring physical ties to exist. Our researchers know how to establish such a link, such as in becoming a lich, but don't quite understand why it works. We assume it is merely the power of negative reality, and it can't really be known. It opposes all explanation. But it is definitely not the same as the earthly mind the creature had before death. Upon death and unbirth the link is made, one end attached to the material being here in our reality and the other end attached firmly to the spirit realm. Note: This is not an otherly possession, it is a direct link to the seat of life in its place fed now from the well of negative energy instead of from positive energy. They are speaking from the realm of the Gods and all powers that be. As a material being this is the closest we can expect to be to the Gods; this is Nerull's greatest blessing. This great gift is reflected in the power the Blessed sentients have. Their immunities are numerous, their strength is unmatched, their knowledge is otherworldly. They are rare because so much goes into their creation. A lifetime of the darkest evil deeds, a lifetime of horrible torment, a terrible loss or mission, or the wish to become Blessed with the power in life to achieve it. They can be our generals, but more often, because of limited mobility, they serve Nerull best as stewards of his most sacred sites. And we serve them in any way we can.
It is our highest goal to serve our Lord in life, through life, and beyond life. We each hope to receive his Blessing and continue The Deed for all eternity and witness the beauty and glory of his pre-ordained victory over life.
Our Ultimate Victory
Servant of our Lord who now reads The Word before you, you must know that our eventual victory is sealed. It is an undeniable fact that in time we will succeed. We will be the blessed for all eternity. It is the nature of negative energy and the nature of our mission that makes this true.
Negative energy, even in this world, does not wane. It does not age and die. It is eternal. When negative energy blesses a vessel then that spectral or corporeal creature will dwell here until it is forced out of this world. This is not true of positive energy beings. Every time we totally succeed in The Deed we produce a powerful being who will be here forever. Thus our armies can grow without limit. They don't need food or sleep or shelter. The Blessed Ones will one day rule this world.
Finally, whatever those who oppose us do, we always win. If they do nothing, then we entrench ourselves, inspire the people to join us, and murder all who stand in our way. If they choose to fight us, the bloody battles will continue for ages, them killing us, us killing them—each time The Deed is fulfilled and a long dark trail of unlife will follow the wake of the conflict. Even if all of Nerull's faithful are destroyed, he will go on, for death goes on, and so our fight will never end until the day when the darken life takes over every reality and every world known to Death. We will be victorious. Our success is undeniable.
This is The Word of Nerull. It tells us what is true. It tells us what must be done. It tells us of The Deed of Nerull.
Go forth and receive the blessing of our Lord. Seek the glory only he can give. Find the purpose to your life you have been searching for since your first breath of air; that original question and primordial fear that escapes everyone's' lips at one time in life: Why must I die? Nerull's answer is simple: Embrace that fear and you will understand that what you truly fear is absence of existence. Bring Nerull into your life and he will show you that death is not necessarily an end to existence. It is an end to weakness and failure. He has the key for you to the door to eternity. Just look deep into the empty eyes of the skull and smile.
And may the Lord even bless your very bones.
~*~