Codex Maleficarum Volume 7
From Atlantic Roleplay Wiki
Codex Maleficarum Volume 7
by Annatar
THE PATH OF SCREAMS STAGE IV COMMUNION WITH THE ABSOLUTE
No game lasts forever. The Infernalist might live 1000 years, but he must eventually die. Even the most generous Patronus will not grant true immortality, and so the Path of Screams someday ends.
Damnation
Even the most optimistic Infernalist admits he could be damned to eternal torture for his sins. He expected as much going in, and the possibility haunts him during his weaker moments. Some diabolist grow up without any concept of hell or an Afterlife, but most cultures have unpleasant fates reserved to those who rebel against the gods.
To counter this fear, our Fallen One convinces himself that he'll be rewarded for good service and that hell is a lie - either it doesn't exist, or its meant for other people. He also belives that it'll be better than life on Earth, and that he can survive long enough to bring on the Reckoning and reap the rewards of Oblivion. As any magus who's gone to hells and returned can attest, these are the vain hopes. Still, the Fallen One stakes his future comfort on them. Someday, he'll learn the truth.
Few diabolists survive long enough to wonder. Many of them go screaming into damnation long before they reach even the shred of their potential. The Patronus arrives in a cloud of brimstone and thunder, and the Infernalist spends his last few moments wondering if everything he got was worth the price he's going to pay... if he has time to wonder at all. Although a lucky Infernalist might be adopted into the demonic legions, he's more likely to become a howling fixture in some Fallen angel's realm. The true scope of eternity is impossible for a mortal to comprehend, but diabolists who ponder it sometimes try to atone for their sins before they experience eternety firsthand. Many never do, and go to Hell with a defiant snarl on their lips. Such folk continue to curse the gods even when they've been consigned to Otherwordly tortures, refusing to see the role their own choices played in their damnation.
Diabolists who admit that torture is forthcoming try to have as good time as possible in this life, and to extend it for as long possible. Some go out of their way to refine cruelty and indulgence to the extreme, while others make a point of taking as many people with them as they can. Both methods can backfire if the Fallen One meets a Patronus with a bent sense of humor; many an Infernalist has found a host of tormenters waiting for him when he reaches Hell - tormentors who used to be his victims.
Redemption and Salvation
Is it possible for a devil to escape damnation? According to the doctrines of Gods, it is. Sincere repentance might allow even the most blackened soul to flee the gods' anger and rest in peace, if not blissfulness.
The Patronus will take pains to assure its "partner" that salvation is a lie, of course. The pact between them often contains a soul bound, but, as the demon will probably point out, a person who pisses in the faces of men and gods alike has earned a place in Hell, pact or no pact. Even so, some Infernalists seek absolution or penance before death. If a pact exists, the warlock might try any means to break the bargain; if that mean crawling on his knees back to God, so be it!
The Assumption
Other magi hope to attain the Zenith, to Ascend to some higher state where human chains slip away and the Absolute takes the magus upward. Dark wizards dream of the Absolute as well, but their vision of that Communion is very diferent indeed.
Early on, the Infernalist forges a link between the Void within and the Void without. As death approches, many a warlock hopes to re-enter the Primordial Abyss. Hopefully, he can bring the rest of the world down with him as he goes; if not, he can at least find ressurance that Creation's heart is cold and black and empty- much like his own. Assumption, in this case, could be extinction or it could be Descencion to the Deep Lords of Misrule, the fable Ghost-Oracles of metaphysical Oblivion. No one who reaches this level of Assumption returns to talk about it, although many liars claim to have joined the Deep Lords in their infinite domains.
Occasionally, the Assumption transforms the magus into a lesser demon. Having proven his worth to Hell, he's rewarded by a permanent position there. Many evil spirits claim to have been mortals, once, and most Fallen magi aspire to become Fallen angels someday.
Several sects claim that vampirism is a form of Assumption. Burned by fears of life and terrors of Hell, our Infernalist might try to join the Undead. Supposedly the vampiric Embrace opens up a new vista of experiences and evils.
The ultimate Assumption an Infernalist craves, however, is to become one with the primal emanations. To rejoin the Darkness at the beginning and end of time, yet retain some sense of the man he once was, and enrich the Absolute thereby. This is the secret goal that few outside magi can grasp, the infinite godhead said to wait at the end of the Path. Through Assumption, he becomes Oblivion, entropy, sadness - and completeness. His vision becomes infinite, his touch, eternal. He transcends all boundaries of man and god, and streches across the Void in immortal ecstasy.
For without Darkness, Light is lost. Without pain, pleasure is worthless. What other magi see as the Fall becomes, to those who undestand it, completeness and ultimate bliss. Thus, the Screams go on forever.