A lexicon entry I loved writing

[mik3cap]

I am not a man of magic, nor am I a man of mechanics. But I am a man of war, and being in that position has taught me many things that a scholar of other arts cannot know. One piece of esoteric knowledge I have gained is that of the purpose and operation of the devices known as Xanta lights. Or at least, I know more than some, but surely not as much as the Unhallowed Dead who wield such terrible things.

For the living, you see, they cannot properly be called lights. While living things are drawn to brightness and beauty, and dead things contain within them both darkness and decay... the undead are drawn to something else entirely.

Know this - there are secret necromancies known only to the undead. There are scrolls that only undead can read, and rites performed only on grounds truly cursed by the gods.

My crew and I had cause to battle many, many undead creatures; and on one occasion, after defeating a very powerful Lich, we explored the rotting ship he called home and came across a strange, black lantern. Something told my lieutenant that this light was special, and he brought it aboard for further study. He spent many, many days carefully examining it, and was able to determine that its main components were comprised of Orichalcum.

I truly wish that I could have spared him what happened next - but the poor man accidentally activated that light, and the bloodcurdling scream of utter horror that came next still chills me as I recall it even now. We burst into his chamber, and saw him squirming on the floor, in obvious agony before the open lantern that faced him... but no light shone from it! Yet we could see the lieutenant aging and withering before our very eyes.

I grabbed the unholy thing, ran from the room, and cast it out into the black sea - and I swear I could almost discern a beam projecting from it into the murky depths. Clearly the device shared some relationship with Vitae Incantatum, due to its obvious effects on my crewman. He was never the same, I am sad to say.

Years later I came across a passing reference to the things known as Xanta lights. Who or what Xanta is I cannot know, but I discerned this: Xanta lights shine a color that can only be seen by the undead. The living cannot even bear a moment bathed in that cursed invisible light.

Comments

[baron-saturday.livejournal.com]

Very nice! What's it from and what's it for?

[mikecap.livejournal.com]

It came from the Encyclopedia Elymria lexicon:

http://www.gweep.net/~tick/GG/index.php?n=EE.EEHome

Although on that site, it is written somewhat differently because I ran it through Babelfish translators (English to French, French to German, German to English) and re-edited it to look as if it were written by someone who only spoke an ancient version of the modern common language.