Note: with the second apocalypse we lose the compendium of the first holy war, which was by far the dominant source of the chapter headers of PON. We also have transitioned out of two chapter headers, to pretty much always only one chapter header:
The Judging Eye
Frontispiece:
But who are you, man, to answer God thus? Will what is made say to him who made it—Why have you made me this way? Does the potter not have power over his clay, to make, from the same mass, one vessel for honour, and another for dishonour?
—ROMANS 9:20-21
Prologue:
When a man possesses the innocence of a child, we call him a fool. When a child possesses the cunning of a man, we call him an abomination. As with love, knowledge has its season.
Chapter One: Sakarpus
upon the high wall the husbands slept,
while ’round the hearth their women wept,
and fugitives murmured tales of woe,
of greater cities lost to Mog-Pharau …
—“THE REFUGEE’S SONG,” THE SAGAS
Chapter Two: Hûnoreal
We burn like over-fat candles, our centres gouged, our edges curling in, our wick forever outrunning our wax. We resemble what we are: Men who never sleep.
—ANONYMOUS MANDATE SCHOOLMAN, THE HEIROMANTIC PRIMER
Chapter Three: Momemn
On my knees, I offer you that which flies in me. My face to earth, I shout your glory to the heavens. In so surrendering do I conquer. In so yielding do I seize.
—NEL-SARIPAL, DEDICATION TO MONIUS
Chapter Four: Hûnoreal
For He sees gold in the wretched and excrement in the exalted. Nay, the world is not equal in the eyes of the God.
—SCHOLARS, 7:16, THE TRACTATE
Chapter Five: Momemn
Where luck is the twist of events relative to mortal hope, White-Luck is the twist of events relative to divine desire. To worship it is to simply will what happens as it happens.
—ARS SIBBUL, SIX ONTONOMIES
Chapter Six: Marrow
Ask the dead and they will tell you. All roads are not equal. Verily, even maps can sin.
—EKYANNUS, 44 EPISTLES
What the world merely kills, Men murder.
—SCYLVENDI PROVERB
Chapter Seven: Sakarpus
… conquered peoples live and die with the knowledge that survival does not suffer honour. They have chosen shame over the pyre, the slow flame for the quick.
—TRIAMIS I, JOURNALS AND DIALOGUES
Chapter Eight: The River Rohil
The will to conceal and the will to deceive are one and the same. Verily, a secret is naught but a deception that goes unspoken. A lie that only the Gods can hear.
—MEREMPOMPAS, EPISTEMATA
Chapter Nine: Momemn
A beggar’s mistake harms no one but the beggar. A king’s mistake, however, harms everyone but the king. Too often, the measure of power lies not in the number who obey your will, but in the number who suffer your stupidity.
—TRIAMIS I, JOURNALS AND DIALOGUES
Chapter Ten: Condia
Look unto other and ponder the sin and folly you find there. For their sin is your sin, and their folly is your folly. Seek ye the true reflecting pool? Look to the stranger you despites, not the friend you love.
—TRIBES 6:42, THE CHRONICLE OF THE TUSK
Chapter Eleven: The Osthwai Mountains
Since all men count themselves righteous, and since no righteous man raises his hand against the innocent, a man need only strike another to make him evil.
—NULLA VOGNEAS, THE CYNICATA
Where two reasons may deliver truth, a thousand lead to certain delusion. The more steps you take, the more likely you will wander astray.
—AJENCIS, THEOPHYSICS
Chapter Twelve: The Andiamine Heights
Little snake, what poison in your bite!
Little snake, what fear you should strike!
But they don’t know, little snake—oh no!
They can’t see the tiny places you go…
—ZEÜMI NURSERY SONG
Chapter Thirteen: Condia
Damnation follows not from the bare utterance of sorcery, for nothing is bare in this world. No act is so wicked, no abomination is so obscene, as to lie beyond the salvation of my Name.
—ANASÛRIMBOR KELLHUS, NOVUM ARCANUM
Chapter Fourteen: Cil-Aujus
The world is only as deep as we can see. This is why fools think themselves profound. This is why terror is the passion of revelation.
—AJENCIS, THE THIRD ANALYTIC OF MEN
Chapter Fifteen: Condia
If the immutable appears recast, then you yourself have been transformed.
—MEMGOWA, CELESTIAL APHORISMS
Chapter Sixteen: Cil-Aujus
A soul too far wandered from the sun,
walking deeper ways,
into regions beneath map and nation,
breathing air drawn for the dead,
talking of lamentation.
—PROTATHIS, THE GOAT’S HEART