My name is Histrod Umrata.

Every day it is that the great river rises ands it falls and fresh silt is brought and the land is renewed. And it is that every day the winds come and sway the reeds and cool the air. And it is that every day the sun rises and the sun sets. And for every day, it is a certainty that the gods will give another day and for that, no matter how poor it is my fortune fairs that day, it is also true that tomorrow the water will still flow, and the breeze will still blow and the sun will still rise and set and the gods will renew the earth and it is for all of that, that I will always be content.

I do not know much of the land in which I was born, I know little of kings but I know what it is I have seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears. I lived in a village on the bank of the great river, we fished the river in its season and we farmed the land in its season, and at night we danced in joy to honor the gods, for we were truly blessed and very, very happy. Some have since said we were simple, or savages, and to them I would say that they have not known in their whole lives the joy we knew each and every night. And this has been the way of life in my village since the gods made the world and we have always known great joy and we have always had little misfortune or illness or hunger for the gods blessed us and renewed the earth. And we all loved each other greatly and war has never touched us so we have no need for weapons and no men in our village ever hurt each other or their wives or children or cousins in any way.

And it was in our village that when a child has seen the cycle of the river come in full 14 times, then the child is a man and he goes before the village at night and he says the trade he will do for his life. It is that most take the trades of their fathers, but not all, and even when they do not, the fathers are glad that their sons have found a thing to make their lives happy and even then, they take pride and joy in their sons.

And I truly loved the gods, for every day of my life they blessed myself and my village with a myriad of miracle upon miracles and blessings upon blessings and though I truly loved all the gods, even set and Sebek, I loved Ra best, for he gives the gift of the sun to mark our days, so we may know when to rest from our work and give our joy to the gods. And the night before I was to tell the village my choice I had a dream and in that dream I sat on a dune outside the village and watched the sun set and a man dressed with strange clothes caught the sun in his hand as it set. This man had hair on his face which is a thing I have never seen before and wore a shell which looked like a tortoise, but seemed made of iron and shined like the sun. This strange man handed the sun to me and smiled and embraced me and told me he loved me and approved of my choice. Then I woke. I took this for an omen, for surly it was sent by Ra to welcome me into his service.

When the time came I said to the village that we dance for the gods bless us greatly and we honor them, and the village wooped in joy. And I said let us cry out our joy to the heavens that Ra might hear us and the village wooped in joy. And I said I loved Ra greatly for his endless blessings, so I would travel far to the kings city and study to be a priest of Ra and then return. To this the people cheered wildly and then we all danced and ate and drank and the people were very happy for it is very rare any ever leave our village and we have not had a priest of Ra in our village since the time of our father’s father’s father’s and surly to have one again, we can honor the gods even more greatly and show our love of them even more.

It took a full cycle of the moon, I walked along the great river by night and walked by day because of the heat. I found food easily and surly the gods blessed my journey, even Sebek, for as I slept he sent no crocodiles to eat me, even though I slept on the banks of the great river. I came to the Kings city, it is built tall of many bricks with high walls and all the buildings reach high to the heavens. Many people in the city were dressed in gold and ornaments such as I have seen the traders sometimes bring to our village and all of them were dressed in very fine flax and I thought that for all of this, the people of the city must be filled with joy and blessed by the gods even more then my village. I was wrong.

I saw many evil things abhorrent to the gods in the city. Of the worst, I saw many men starving in alleys-so much that they looked almost to be made of bones. When I could stand it no more, I walked into a market and saw a stall on which bread was piled high, no one was at the stall. I took the bread and went into an alley and gave the bread to the starving men and they were happy for it. Not long after a man came and said he owned the bread and I was a thief and he beat me. He dragged me while I bled to the court of the city and said I was a thief.

The men of the court asked me what occurred and I told them. They said I was a thief and I would work for a year as a slave for what I had done. I yelled and said this could not be for I was to go to the temple of Ra and become a priest and they said this would never be for I was a thief and the gods loathe thieves. I stood and tried to break the shackles even though I could not and I screamed to the men of the court “I curse this evil city and the gods curse it, for Ra himself has declared I will be his priest!” The men of the court were very angry and had me beaten and then said I would serve as a slave for 10 years.

I was beaten again and taken to a camp where men worked long hours in the sun making bricks.

The men of the camp also hated the gods and did not dance at night but only slept. They would not rise early in the morning either but only slept. Even though I was also very tired, I rose early every morning to greet the sun and thank Ra for his many blessings. There was one other person in the camp who also rose at dawn to greet the son, though he spoke a language I could not understand and had hair on his face, though he was much older then me, almost of the age of my father. He did not wear a shell made of metal that gleamed but it was the man from my dream.

Every day we worked and every morning we rose early to greet the sun and give our joy to the gods and slowly we learned each others tongue. I came to know he was from a land far to the west, where the sun sets and came here with others like him, but they called him a heretic and made him a slave. I said this could not be, for the men of this city knew nothing of the gods and surely this man, whose name was John-a very strange name, surely John was not a heretic for every morning he rose to give his joy to the gods. He smiled and said nothing.

We worked very hard for two years, but still I never grew angry, for I knew the gods will redeemed the world each day and from that, I took joy. Then one night we escaped. It is not a thing I much like to think of, we had to kill an overseer to escape, it is not a thing I was very proud of, but he was an evil, evil man.

John said we could go to his kinsmen who camped outside the city but I said that would not be wise, for surely once they noticed we were gone they would come there to find us. We went there and I met his kinsmen who were all priests of a foreign god and I said to them that they could come to my village, for his kinsmen were like him and honored the gods and they were good men and I said they would be welcome with us.

We fled in the middle of the night and moved swiftly and reached my village in only half a cycle of the moon. The village was very happy to have these men visit us for they were very kind and godly men and they stayed in our village for a time. We shared our food with them and our drink and they helped us work the fields and they taught us many things. One thing they told us was a way to make a metal which was harder then iron and shone like the sun and for this, we were very happy for this, for it had many uses to make tools which never broke-they said it was a thing called steel. Sometimes we gave the steel tools to traders, they liked them very much. When we stopped at night to give our joy to the gods they gave their joy with us and when we rose at dawn to give our thanks to the sun, they also did so. They also told us of their god, Lathander.

I talked very much to them of Lathander and they told us that Lathander was the name they gave to Ra. Surley it is as they said that Lathander is their name for Ra, for all that they said were all the things we held in life to be true, to love and honor each other and be joyous in our lives and honor the gods. Surley Ra, whose powerful hand controls all, meant it for me to meet these men to train to be his priest.

I was very happy when I heard them speak of Lathander and I told them I wished to become a priest to Lathander. I studied many months while they were in our village and I was very happy and I became a priest. Some in the city included Lathander when we gave our joy to the gods. All of us in the village were very happy to have these priests with us, for we love all travelers and they were kind and good men and they taught us many things and shared in our joy.

Then the kings chariots came they destroyed our village, for they said we were heretics and we made a metal to make war on the king, but this was not true. Many of us were made slaves.

We were marched day and night in chains to the kings city to work. One night when we had a few hours to rest, I awoke to the sounds of screams and smoke. Black demons came from the dessert sands to eat our flesh, they killed our captors and many of my kinsfolk and they took us into a cave deep into the wastes and then deep into the under world.

I worked as a slave for the demons for a very long time in the under world but I escaped.

Surely at least some of my village survived the demons slavery, I will find them and set them free, then we will all find a way up to the world of the living rebuild our village.