A brief excerpt from the book "The Infernus Occulum" by Averroes, the
Prophet:

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...The Infernus Occulum, translated variously as the Gate of Hell or the
Eye of Hell, is the true source of the red mists, and of Sartan's
disfigurement. Only a vastly complicated ritual opens the Gate, and its
details are known only by a few. As a scholar, I will put forth all that
I know....

... Many writers allude to three symbols: a mirror, a sword, and a
woman. The stalagmite is implicated, but we know nothing else. A mirror
is often mentioned in several of the more obscure texts, including those
that date back to the years before the Fall of the Seleucarian Empire,
but whether the mirror is a metaphor or a true reference is still in
doubt. A sword, too, is sometimes mentioned. This sword is thought to
refer to the stalagmite....

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In the year of 396 A.F., following the foul divination of Aznahz the
Haruspex late the year previous, more enigmatic prophecies surfaced
throughout Sapience. These were attended to by a watchful few.

Apollonia, the Oracle of the Mannaseh, sang of an "other, closer to me
now than brother." The Swamp Witch Haag cackled of a "hell on earth",
and A'leess, Oracle of the Yriluawe in the far nothern reaches spoke
mysteriously of "the one with plaited tress." Averroes the Prophet fell
into a trance, crooning of "when one is two and both, corrupt, belong."

Other mystics and augurs across the realm spoke of this, and more.
Perhaps most significantly, in Sarapin of that year a daemonic altar in
Mhaldor spake thus: "...Strong the realm that broken, joins
anew./Dominate the one by being two." The red fog around Mhaldor was
noted to intensify ominously following this.

In mid-Daedalan arrived a still more ominous portent. The statue of
Sartan that had stood atop the Great Rock in the Savannah for decades
became animated, stepping down from its pedestal and slaying many in its
path to Shallam, where it was itself slain by a huge group of Shallamese
and their allies. The dragon Carmell landed the killing blow.

As the statue shattered, it broke into two pieces and shouted,
disturbingly, "What destroys Me only strengthens Me!" Red fog spewed
forth from within the broken statue; several crimson-skinned daemons
leapt out, attacking those gathered, but were quickly slain as well. A
man named Latus amongst those attacked later claimed to have been
possessed by one of these daemons, who spurred him on to wicked deeds.

An uneasy calm prevailed for some time after this... until the month of
Scarlatan arrived.

Aznahz the Haruspex appeared at the Stygian Crossroads in Mhaldor,
proclaiming that the time had come. At his instruction, certain
preparations were made, and all Mhaldor gathered deep underground at an
arcane location to bear witness at their Master's command. Sartan, the
Malevolent, materialised there.

The people of Sapience then heard the shout of the Master of Evil, as He
called upon the Goddess of Vengeance to honour Their pact. From Her
temple, the goddess Keresis challenged Him in response. She claimed to
possess no knowledge of such a pact, but She went to Him regardless in
curiousity.

A part of Her memory that She had, until then, not known existed was
restored to Her then by magical means. She knew this then: that once,
She had been one of the greatest of the Elder God Shaitan's feared
Dreadlords. And in that form, She had fought by His side in the ancient
and terrible Chaos Wars.

She had fallen in battle then, gravely wounded. With Shaitan's divine
powers, He had sensed that the Dreadlord's destiny had yet to fully
unravel. He bargained with Thoth for the Dreadlord's soul and encased it
within a stone vase deep within the earth for protection, setting a
python as its guard and binding it with great enchantments. For years
beyond mortal reckoning, the soul of the Dreadlord slumbered, and
healed.

While the soul slumbered, time marched on. Shaitan attacked and absorbed
the essence of the then-weaker god Apollyon and became Sartan, as is
chronicled elsewhere. The newly formed Malevolent One took followers
from the mortals of Sapience. He grew immeasurably in strength from the
devotion of His followers, until such time came that He willed to once
again reclaim His former selves to better oversee the spread of Evil.

However, while the merging of the essence of two Gods into One was a
thing known to pass, as with Proteus and Ayar, and Maya and Makali,
splitting the essence of One God who had been Two had never been
undertaken. (When Ayar split Himself into Ayar and Proteus, Proteus had
not existed previously but was created at the time.) Sartan puzzled over
this and came to realise that He would require an outside force, a
catalyst of great potency. He remembered His slumbering Dreadlord then,
and spurred His followers to find a fragment of an ancient and powerful
artifact known as the Infernus Occulum. With the Occulum, they found and
released the soul of the Dreadlord from the stone vase.

Unexpectedly, the soul had grown drastically in power, feeding from the
vengeful energies of the twisted Blackrock dwarves who had settled
nearby. This, and the power from the Occulum fragment combined with the
already-potent and ancient soul of the Dreadlord to birth the Goddess
known now as Keresis.

As a Divine One, Keresis was bound to Sartan no longer. However, for the
aide He had once given Her soul, She owed Him a single service. It was
this Sartan referred to when He called for Her to fulfill the pact.

As this knowledge dawned in the Goddess of Vengeance, so did also the
knowledge of the task before Her. Ripping the fabled giant stalagmite in
the caverns beneath Mhaldor from its base, She cleaved Sartan in two at
His will, and the red fog swirled around His halves...

...and the halves reformed into two distinct Gods: Shaitan and Apollyon,
reborn.

And thus the recent prophecies have come to fruition, and Mhaldor, City
of Evil, finds itself ruled by not one Master but two: Two who in joint
and equal power rule, aligned in perfect accord in Their embodiment of
the Seven Truths of Evil.



Penned by my hand on the 17th of Ero, in the year 396 AF.