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Discernment in Viscera

by Assault Sorcery

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1.
Far off to the north, there is a storm that’s torn apart the sky. I went forth to meet the ones who stare into its eye. They call it a maw, say it swallows all it touches. We are merely what it spews and vomits. For years it has hung above the plains, raging. They’ve built towers that linger beneath its gaze. It wants no offering of goat or steer or child; the burning sun is hidden in its craw. And when you are gnawed by this eye, they say, it stares within you and it sees. All that you’ve thought and that you’ve done and ever wanted; this it knows and doesn’t care at all. Even our brothers have been ensnared with its strong and strange allure. And then the dark clouds above the tower opened up This horrid wound that festered long is now severed, scattered, sundered. Gone… The roaring winds they clashed and overturned the altars. I am absolved but abandoned to the night. *** ca. CE 1680 The protracted presence of a storm over the llano estacado throughout the middle years of the 17th century, and its attendant worship, are together an enduring part of local folklore. This is despite the disputed nature of many sources that shed light on the event. Some scholars have forwarded the idea of recurring dust storms, wrought by early agricultural experimentation, and by extension posit that the repeated references in the literature to la tormenta, or “the storm”, refer to different, discrete events. Others have suggested that volcanic activity to the west may have played a role, proposing that this event may be similar to the 1816 Year Without a Summer – storm thereby becoming a loose term referring to a period of poor visibility and erratic weather. Collective mass hysteria brought on by widespread hunger and deprivation during the famine of 1670 has also been proposed, though this is a stretch at best and dismissive of the evidence at worst. Meteorological phenomena are, by definition, ephemeral, and if one is willing to countenance the possibility of a prolonged storm, the physical traces remaining even from such an extreme event would themselves not last long. The archaeological records – most perduring of all testaments to the storm – are also disputed, with many scholars offering alternative explanations for the stone foundations that can be found throughout the area (milestones, granaries, and the like rather than towers erected to better observe and revere la tormenta). Many accounts reference these towers and their importance in physically and symbolically closing some of the distance between the initiate and the divine. Above is what remains of a fragmented account of the destruction of one such tower. Most likely written by a Franciscan missionary to his superior, it explains efforts to correct the so-called heresy of the storm and save the souls of its practitioners. The long absence of this letter from the historical record has variously been attributed to a loss of the document in transit and an effort of historical suppression.
2.
I reach inside and look beneath you, I’m no longer satisfied with Secrets from the beasts Their portents are vague, Their meaning hidden from my gaze But the worms within you glisten - listen! Unlike the tricks of the Haruspex, or the timid augur who fumble in the dark, lost and ignorant, I scry inner labyrinths. For it is only the viscera of man that can illumine the contours of what is to come. One unclouded corner of the hereafter is not enough — It’s not enough! All men will die Why then must I seek to understand the future? In the end, it is my own guts that spill and whisper *** ca. CE 550 Exact origin unknown. Probably recorded near Auvergne in the middle years of the 6th century, but describes events from earlier [ca. CE 200 - 420] involving a Celtic vate evidently familiar with the Roman haruspex, but who adapted that practice to human innards. If not for the ritualized context of the violence, this would stand as an early attestation of serial murder. In some recordings, the vate is executed by local tribunal using the same method with which he dispatched his victims. Most versions, including the one above, end in a kind of mystical suicide. In either case, the vate uncovers the long sought after truth in his own entrails.
3.
Breaker of the First Law He flattered, threatened lied. He found dark places in the world, he touched the other side. Fool! The fool forgot that what is borrowed has to be repaid. The powers granted him were terrible, but the debt within him stayed. The arrogance! The creatures there are made of lies. To conspire with them is to hand yourself over to death while alive. But, every fool knows All magic comes from below. *** The tale of Glustrod, spurned youngest son of Euz, as related in the eleventh chapter of the second book of the First Law. Ultimately, Glustrod’s pursuit of power ended in his own death, the complete and utter destruction of Aulcus (most ancient and magnificent of cities), and the collapse of the Old Empire. A cautionary tale on the importance of careful spellcraft. Further reading: Abercrombie, Joseph. Until They Are Hanged. 2007.
4.
“It is known to us that those who will perish here are no more evil in your sight than we are Their hands run with blood. Ours too… By thy will they may, in this hour, have purified their spirits as to gain thy favor. We who must confront them then, though we spill their blood today... You, the hero who will destroy the black worm that devours the sun, you for whom the sky parts as a curtain, whose breath shall wither vast Erebus, Abaia, Scylla Who wallow beneath the wave Have mercy on those who had none Have mercy on us, who shall have none now” And I have lost. Nothing and no one here to give comfort, or speed me on my way What shall I see when I shed the yoke placed on us in the womb? And then... *** Date unknown. Cadroe of the Seventeen Stones is an obscure figure. Beyond the fact that he was a monomachist of the Sanguinary Field, little is known of his life. Above is the only existing account of his death. The author here has juxtaposed fragments of the invocation typically read by a caloyer before the administration of capital punishment or associated excruciations with Cadroe’s purported last words. This, perhaps, is intended as a veiled critique of the Autarch’s approval of dueling traditions as a net good for the state. The study of the future is fraught with paradox. It is instructive for those wishing its attempt to keep in mind Dupuy’s observation that, “the … act of splitting apart and then reuniting the present with the future has the same logical form as conscience”. As such, we can consider the history of things to come in the remote eras of the future by using the same cognitive process we use to choose the best course of action at any given moment. None have achieved more from this exercise than Gene Wolfe (1931 – 2019), whose translation of the works of the last Autarch is a monumental classic in the field to which we owe the greatest debt. Further reading: Wolfe, Gene. Shadow of the Torturer. 1980.

about

Written March - May MMXX
Recorded August MMXX
Mixed/mastered by Strigoi || Sordid Curse Studios

Cassettes available:
Temple of Mystery (CA)
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Iron Bonehead (DE)
shop.ironbonehead.de/en/

credits

released November 27, 2020

Assault Sorcery is
Cauldron Pest (vocals, drums)
Êlgg (guitars, vocals)

Marignalia, errata, and apocyrpha
compiled by Êlgg || Edited by MVW

Cover art by EDS || Logo by JHT (Inside the Castle)

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