(Editor's note: The defector Matic Ridley was the only lettered hobgoblin to survive the War of the Deeps; his inside knowledge has proven invaluable in telling the true story of the Tsol'teth and their slave races. This text was written shortly before his death, and is presented here for the first time, in its original form. Definitions of hobgoblin terms are offered parenthetically.)

It is truth that the Dar-tezlari-kanit (Great War for the Light) did begin long before the first of the tezlari-jio (Holes of Light) were opened and we did fight on the surface. The blinding light was the ending of the beginning for the Masters. It was the beginning of the ending for the Servants. But the beginning of the beginning happened many many years before the ending of the ending.

I was dulkurio-ma (Servant Who Thinks) to the Master Blue Dark, who called himself Agith'maal to humans. Master Blue Dark was leader of all the Masters, and god of all the servants. We did pray to him at the middle of every day. A day was sixteen aafla long, and each aafla was sixteen caril long. But Master Blue Dark did be the first Master to see Tezlari-tarin (The World of Light). My brother was the one who did hold for him the magic stone that he did cause to show the images from Tezlari-tarin. When Master Blue Dark was blinded by the horrible light of Tezlari-yumap (Piercing Spear of Light), my brother was amazed. Master Blue Dark did kill him because my brother did see Master Blue Dark frightened. But I did hide my eyes and did pretend that I had seen nothing, and so Master Blue Dark did spare my life. Tezlari-yumap is what you do call the sun. For us it is like a terrible spear of pain. To the Masters it is the calling of Thoth. To see it in the magic stone did nearly cost Master Blue Dark his sight, and so forever then he did command his servants to look into the stone instead of him.

When my brother died, I was named Sa-dulkurio-ma, greatest thinking servant to Master Blue Dark. And I did assist him in all his thinkings and plannings about Tezlari-tarin. He did study much of that world, and he did command that our world, Anzari-tarin (World of Darkness) should become like Tezlari-tarin. He did wish that we be hardened to light, and that we learn to live in the world of "day" and "night". Every day we did learn "hours" and "minutes", and our lights did change from being painful in brightness to being fearful in blackness.

Master Blue Dark had two other Masters almost as great as him. They were Master Blood Drinker, who called himself Terrin'ukia to humans, and Master Secret Hate, who called himself Gattan'lier to humans. The three Masters did study long about Tezlari-tarin, and did make plans to go there to kill everyone there. I never did know why they wished to do this. My duties were to write down what they said, and to think about small problems that they did not care much about. Once they did ask me what I thought, and I did say, "Almighty Masters, you are greater than the darkness and harder than the stones. It is impossible that you are wrong. But I do ask, since I do not understand, why we do go only to kill? Why do we not also go to take the riches of Tezlari-tarin, to take over the homes of the people there, and steal their secrets?" But the Masters did laugh at me and did tell me that I was too stupid to understand anything.

The Masters did work to marshal their slaves into armies, and did train them to fight in groups. In Anzari-tarin we did fight much against the kal-tai-vakha (Mighty Fang Racers), who the Masters did not choose to enslave. I think now that the kal-tai-vakha were too strong to be enslaved. They were quick and powerful, and they did have a great kingdom even further under the earth than the Masters. They were made of armor and fur and claws and teeth, and they did change their shapes quickly when they fought, and they did worship no god, not even the Masters. But even though we Hobgoblins and Goblins and Ogres and the cold Bug-Men did fight many times, Anzari-tarin is all tunnels and caves. The Masters did make us learn to fight on open ground. They did create huge caves that we did train in.

The Masters did learn much about Tezlari-tarin. They did summon up horrible creatures that knew the future, and they did make plans using what the creatures knew. Once they did drain the blood of two thousand Goblin babies into a great pot made of bones and skin. I did help to make the pot. The Masters did use the blood to call a great terrifying creature that they did call as "Pazuzu". The great Pazuzu was awful to look at, and I did hide my eyes. He was in the world for only a very short time. But he did say one word: "Seleucar." And then he did go away, and the Masters were angry at him for his not saying anything more.

But then the Masters did study for a long time, and did learn that the future did have a great army that would fight them. And that this army was from the place that was Seleucar. And that Seleucar did not exist, but would soon. And the Masters did learn that the man who would make Seleucar come to be was called Nikolas. And the Masters decided that they would hurl great curses at him and plague him, and try to kill him before he could do anything to hurt them. They could not send armies to Tezlari-tarin to kill him, because they did not want Tezlari-tarin to know they did exist.

Long did I watch the human man Nikolas in the magic stone. He did lead a huge army, but less than a fourth part of the army was made of warriors. He did lead an army of people who carried food and other things. I did learn much of Tezlari-tarin in watching him. I did learn of "trees" and "wood" and other things. Master Blood Drinker did take me at times to speak to large groups of Hobgoblins and Goblins and Ogres to teach them what "trees" and "wood" and "clouds" and other things of Tezlari-tarin were. The Bug Men did speak a language only they did understand, and so other Masters did teach them through magic.

I did watch the human man Nikolas lead his people traveling sometimes this way, sometimes that way. More people did come with him when he did speak to them in cities. Cities did seem very strange to me, like clusters of artificial caves. I did explain "cities" to the Masters' armies, also. And Nikolas did finally go into a great place of rock dust called "sand", and did find a city of people the Masters did call "mhun".

The Masters did know that Nikolas could only go in one way from where he was. Mountains and jungles did bar his way. The Masters did use their magics to call up all the fierce beasts and monsters into the mountains to bar the path of Nikolas and his people. And when Nikolas did take his people into the mountains, the Masters did magically direct the monsters to attack wherever the people were weakest. The monsters and beasts did cause them to go more slowly, and the time of snow and cold came to the mountains, and many people did freeze and die. Before Nikolas could leave the mountains, one third of his people were killed.

Then Nikolas and his people did go into a place of jungles. And the Masters did work greater magic, and caused there to be deadly diseases in the air. And the lungs and hearts of Nikolas' people were afflicted, and they did suffer greatly and die. And before Nikolas could leave the jungle, half of the people who escaped the mountains were dead in the jungle. His "army" was only a third as big as it was before, and the Masters did rejoice.

But our own plans to make a great army did suffer, also. No matter what the Masters did do, the Goblins and Hobgoblins and Ogres could not withstand the horrible light of Tezlari-yumap. The Masters did work great magics upon me, to make me so that I could look upon Tezlari-yumap safely, but the Masters did find that those magics required precious materials that did not exist in great quantity. So the Masters did kill all their armies, who would otherwise have lived for two hundred years (for the creatures of Anzari-tarin suffer less from the "great rays of outer heaven", as the Masters do call it, and so we do live longer than those condemned to the burning hell that is Tezlari-tarin). The Masters did kill them all, and did take from them the "spiral ribbons of future creation" with which the Masters can create new life as they wish. And the Masters did create new Goblins and Hobgoblins and Ogres just like the ones before, but these new creatures were changed in their "spiral ribbons of future creation" so that they were not blinded by Tezlari-yumap, and so that they would be even greater warriors. But this great project did require all of the Masters' effort and knowledge for a full hundred years, and so only Master Blue Dark alone did spare himself from this effort to continue harrying Nikolas.

And I alone, being Sa-dulkario-ma, was let to live. And I did receive the task of leading all the Goblin and Hobgoblin and Ogre people into the funeral caves where they would all be killed by the magic of the Masters. And within my heart did grow a huge hatred and rebellion against the Masters. And I did resolve to destroy them in the end, if ever I could.