Inside K'elinga

[The Old Ye Bard]

Inside K'elinga

I have counted the years since my arrival in Argonia to number 234, I have no idea if we are still in the same era, or who the current is Emperor, or if I am the only sentient being left in the world; but either way I am alone, swallowed whole, and living in one of the many stomachs of the K'elinga, a tree-like being which slowly moves around the inner marshes, where only the darkest of creatures can survive.

I came to Argonia on a scientific journey to study the flora and fauna, funded largely by the Imperial University, but I was also being funded and monitored by the Elder Council. The representees on the Council for Argonia were all Imperials, governors for the cities on the edge of Black Marsh, and had not the time, nor the will to explore the Marshes, but showed interest due to possible revenues of profit if I was to find good natural resources. Looking back to those days, at the time I probably would of let them tear up the marshes to gain their measly profit giving into false ideals that it would be for 'the good of the Empire', but through my years living here, in the depths of this Tree-Beast, I have learned of the Symbiotic relationship all beings of the marshes have with each other. I have felt the wilds of Kynareth within these depths, one of the few places left in the world were she still is all-powerful.

In my first few weeks of being in Argonia, I reacted as any Imperial scholar would have, I looked upon everything with judgement, even though I studied it, I did not experience it as I ought to, I was resilient to the true beauty of the Marshes that my eyes refused to see. It was probably when I first tasted a fresh Ualanua fruit that I began to treat the marsh with more respect; the outside of this fruit was a sickly brown, with unnatural hairs growing from it, but my Argonian guide Arms-for-Legs (who preferred me calling him this, instead of “Ar’me-forlgks” because I couldn't pronounce it correctly) showed me how to remove the skin, and inside was a beautiful reddish flesh that tasted like a perfect sunrise over Topal bay; from that moment on I started to look upon things with wonder and excitement, looking for the strange and amazing things that lurked within the undergrowth, and what secrets they may hold.

I continued you my expedition with new invigoration; swimming through the marshes, diving into the murky waters, eating what the land gave freely. Arms-for-Legs thought me the reincarnation of an Argonian, for I had done what no Imperial had done before me.

Weeks after that, my skin began to change; it began to ooze slim, like that of some of amphibious creature of the swamps. At the time, I thought nothing of it, perhaps due to some minor infection, or prolonged exposure to the swamp water? But soon my eyes began to change as well, growing large, Arms-for-Legs told me that they changed to a colour he could not even describe, aside from it making him think of his home. Then my hair became rigid and twig like, similar to that of a spriggans. My beard became that of roots.

And then all was dark for a long time.

Then I awoke again. I felt freer than I had ever been; I flew through the treetops, and swam through the waters. I was home. I took any shape I pleased, and the Black Marshes called me child.

And then all was dark again.

When I awoke for the second time, I lay inside the belly of a giant tree, naked and alone. I yelled, and I screamed, but none came. I was the imperial scholar from long ago. I pleaded for the freedom that Marshes once gave me, but it did not return. I howled to the tree to just let me die. But it didn’t, and never has.

I can still hear the wilds outside. They never stop. I hear the voice of Kynareth flowing through. But she does not take mercy upon me.

The tree is all that I know now.

Fear the Black Marsh.

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Fact or fiction, the rantings from a Mad-Man inside an Asylum? It's up to the player to decide.