Darklings & Others h To flee from memory Had we the Wings Many would fly Inured to slower things Birds with surprise Would scan the cowering Van Of men escaping From the mind of man —Emily Dickinson, “To flee from memory” As a people, the darklings are now confronted by a terrible and mysterious legacy As individuals, every darkling must manage from day to day with their fear and uncertainty: always wondering if today is the day that the curse takes them No darkling is immune to the curse, and handfuls are lost every year DARKLINGS The times directly following the defeat of the Adversary—as the full impact of the Darkling Curse was becoming apparent—took its toll on darkling society Terror and anarchy were rampant and only fueled the curse, unleashing more and more of the horrible darkling beasts Pulling herself out of the deep depression triggered by the loss of her daughter, the grand matriarch had difficult decisions to make if her people were ever to overcome this horror To save her people, this once warm and compassionate darkling hardened herself for war and placed the city-state of Zussael under martial law In order to eradicate the curse, Zussael locked its gates tight and entered a period of isolation that is still in effect No longer can anyone—darkling or outsider—come and go as they wish without special dispensation from the grand matriarch The Hidden — 132 — Blades ruthlessly slay or banish any darkling showing the slightest sign of the Darkling Curse Treaties were made with the grue elders—longtime enemies of the darklings—that provided the grue free reign outside the gates of Zussael, for packs of grue are better equipped to handle a rampaging darkling beast The newly named Plains of Desolation that surround Zussael have become death for all who wander them However, these measures only addressed the symptoms More drastic measures were required to affect the cause, and it was the grand matriarch’s plan to sever all ties to the spirits Communion with these ancient spirits is one of the clearest paths to succumbing to the curse and the Hidden Blades relentlessly hunt down any darkling attempting the rituals; offenders are immediately slain or imprisoned Additionally, strong emotion is capable of opening a channel to the spirits and triggering the fated transformation To combat this, the grand matriarch has taken pains to quell such emotion From birth, darklings learn to be careful and calculating and to avoid strong emotions, such as love and hate This philosophy has been successfully institutionalized, and the darkling society of today bears little resemblance to that of old Much, perhaps, might be forgiven under the circumstances The grand matriarch did what she felt necessary to save her people It should not be ignored that there even is a darkling society remaining However, a final measure was taken to ensure that the secrets of the past stay locked in the past Darklings are forbidden from speaking of their true history The children learn a sterile and fabricated lie that hides all that the darklings are The grand matriarch’s only daughter has been stricken from all records even while Moaro stills roams the shadows However, either by forced or self-inflicted banishment, there are quite a few darklings that secretly fight against these outrages They feel that solutions are not to be found in ignoring what has happened and denying emotion but in embracing both their past and their emotional identities They actively communicate with the forbidden spirits—with the shadows This has taken its toll on them, but they feel that this is the only way to truly free themselves from the curse