Blazing Sacrificial Heart’s Terror
According to ancient tribal tradition, all that a person takes comes from this world — so naturally, all that they gain shall also be given back to it.
Jillian
Reminds me of two things: alchemy (everything has to be made from something), and the gods gaining something when someone who was granted a Vision ascends.
Blazing Sacrificial Heart’s Hesitance
After the original civilizations crumbled like shattered jade — and those envoys from the skies above, under whose guidance the earthly civilizations had thrived, were devoured by the awakened dragons — humanity plunged into savagery, losing the ability to perceive the world anew.
Thus did they revert to their most primal beliefs, convinced of the inherent mystery of the earth that nurtured all things. This marked the dawn of the era where hunted prey began to be offered as sacrifices.
Jillian
Okay so um. The dragons ate the envoys. That’s fine.
Blazing Sacrificial Heart’s Resolve
It is said that the Sage of the Stolen Flame, after imparting the secret knowledge of the mastery of flames in all their many forms to the tribespeople, hoped that they would climb the ladder of civilization and abandon the wrongful practices of their forebears.
Yet dogma deeply entrenched is difficult indeed to shake, and the now empowered youngsters instead ignited conflicts within their own tribes merely for the sake of more offerings. This may explain the sage’s eventual disillusionment and withdrawal from history.
Notably, it was precisely during the reign of the Sacred Lord of the ineffable city that the practice of offering live sacrifices was banned outright. Though the Sacred Lord’s true motivation for abolishing many of their customs was the consolidation of authority, this particular act might also be seen as the start of a new kind of civilization.
Blazing Sacrificial Heart’s Splendor
”If you wish to possess all that the world has to offer, you must first offer all you have to the world.”
After the Sacred Lord of the ineffable city forbade the people from praying to the Night Kingdom, the spiritual bonds that had once been established fell into ruin.
The scarlet-eyed youth, guided through numerous trials, now faced his final test: to emulate the first human to ascend and confront his own demise by offering up his heart with a golden dagger.
Self-sacrifice was seen as an honor reserved for the victor — and thus, without even a moment’s hesitation, he sliced open his chest with the gleaming blade.
In the end, his sacrifice received the response it deserved, and he was able to return from the kingdom where water flows as rays of light to set out upon a grand new endeavor.
Jillian
I was operating under the assumption that the “scarlet-eyed youth” was Xbalanque, called back to help out a group of heroes with an important mission. If that’s the case, then the “first human to ascend” that he’s emulating would probably be Chaac.
This doesn’t totally make sense to me, though. If he was already the Pyro Archon once upon a time, why would he have to face his “final test” after he’s been called back to deal with the Sacred Lord?
But if he’s not Xbalanque, then why did he come from “the kingdom where water flows as rays of light” in the first place? (In Unfinished Reverie)