The Gods live in Us All: On Distilling the Divine Essence.

This tome contains all the knowledge one needs to meet God. Be warned, the path of divinity is strewn with falsity and the demise of the profane is a painful necessity in order to produce the sacred. I, Thaumiel, have uncovered the pathway to the Ancients, I alone am able to grasp the divine spark in hands which are not yet burnt. I have wrapped my hands in knowledge spun from right practice, and now I can hold the searing flame of divinity as if it were nothing more than a candle lighting the way.

Truth seekers, know thyself before all others and the Serpent Path shall cleave open, and we shall climb into its innards and be reborn in scaled glory. Do not be preoccupied with the duel between Serpent and Eagle, for neither truly exists, both are what happens when the Dragon is cut in half, its mind fractured and its body mutilated, and its heart buried under earth. The only way to become Dragon once more is to unite its disparate parts, to unify the shattered remnants of the sacred. In this way, I have laboured to devise a method to connect with the Ur-being, to remake oneself in the image of God. Below are my attempts to bring this truth to the chosen few.

I have gathered all the chosen to the Chamber of Transcendence, I am preparing them for the metamorphosis of their souls, that they might be as spirit once more. The process is agony, one must make passage through the Realms of Misrule and return to the Mundus without falling prey to the denizens of Oblivion. The purification of spirit comes with the searing fire of Dagon, one must pass through his demesne of change, scorching their flesh so that it might fall away in sheaves to be replaced with a raiment of divinity.

At once Dro'Vhir, Andariel, and Grimmr (my most loyal of followers) stepped up to the summoning circle. Dro'Vhir stepped into the circle first, and I used my magicks to transport him into the second circle, this circle is where the faithful will reappear, but when he reappeared he was formless and screaming in agony! I looked upon my child and beheld a being of utter chaos, he was shaped as ooze and wailing at his plight. I pity his suffering for he was not yet ready to survive the searing flame of Dagon. Alas, though I tried to reconstitute his form, the being that had once been Dro'Vhir would not coalesce and soon faded into nothingness. His body had reverted to its divine form, the forest spirit his people were before the blessings of Azurah. I know not where he went, but I pray that he is in the embrace of his gods, set amongst them as their equal. Nevertheless, I will mourn his demise, but this cannot stop the faithful from transcendence.

Perturbed but still confident, Andariel stepped up next. I performed the ritual again and when she returned she too was of some ooze-like nature while screaming to Y'ffre a prayer of protection, she changed into many monstrous forms seemingly ignoring The Storyteller's Law of Shapes. She could not stand the mutability of her body, the chaos she had become was too much for her mind to handle and she begged for her life to be ended. I could not do it. With my hesitation, her monstrous form pulsed and swelled until she burst through the walls of the chamber and fled into the darkness of the forest all the while howling. There was nothing that could be done for her, she was a god now, a terrible being of power and a reminder of the times before the Bosmer took true shape.

With the failures of Dro'Vhir and Andariel still fresh in his mind, Grimmr nervously took his place by my side and I performed the ritual, transporting him into the Realm of Dagon to undergo the vital change needed to become as gods. Grimmr returned in thunder, a swirling storm contained in the form of a man, and when he spoke stars fell from the sky and flashes of lightning leapt from his tongue and cracked the walls of the chamber. In an instant, the storm grew larger until it filled the room, bursting out of the roof and threatening to swallow the land itself. I made to reach out to him, to soothe his pain, but I was flung back by the power of Kyne, for he had become as thu'um, a living tone of winter and could not be contained. The Chamber suddenly blew apart and the force of effort to contain the storm's power forced me to abandon my physical form, I reverted into my crystalline body, the Ur-me, and Dragon's Wings enveloped me to protect from the roiling torrents of energy. Grimmr (or is that name not enough anymore?) exploded outward and shot off into the night's sky, and I could swear that he was heading for the moons themselves. I watched him until he faded into a point of light, and then he was gone.

I looked around the charred remains of the chamber, and to my horror, the rest of my children were gone, reduced to foul-smelling ash. Divinity comes at a high price and those who are unworthy shall be destroyed in fire. I hope one day to find my disciples once again, and together we (the new gods of this world) shall restore my children and bring them into glory! Arkay's might shall be overcome, and even death shall bow to our power for in strange Aeons even death may die.

Reader, if you find this text and hope to achieve purification of spirit, I shall not stop you, but know that to be a god means to be willing to face utter destruction of the mortal self for a chance to grasp at the divine. Let my children serve as an example of how one should walk the path, the steps needed to claim the mantle of the gods.