Seeker of Thrones 9-109
“Once, on the road, Prim met a meditating sage who had spent most of his life on top of a flat rock. They had black bread and shared some ajash, as was custom. The sage was thankful, as the road was not very frequently traveled in those days and he was very near the point of starvation. During his conversation, he was delighted to learn of Prim’s extensive mastery of Empty Palms and the fifty five earthly purities. Delighted, and as payment for his meal, he taught Prim the meaning of watchfulness.
This was the old breathing and cold-atum technique often used by warrior monks in those days. It ran through the following methodology:
Build a tower, and make it impregnable. Make every stone so tightly sealed that no insect can squeeze through, no grain of sand can make it inside. Your tower must have no windows or doors. It must not accept passage by friend or foe. No weapon, no act of violence, and not one mote of love may penetrate its stony interior.
“Why build the tower this way?” said Prim?
“It will make you invincible,” said the sage, “This is the way of Ya-at slave monks. Their skin is like iron, and so are their hearts. They are inured to death and fear. Grief shall never find them, and neither shall weakness.”
Prim thought a moment, and came upon a realization, for she was wise, obedient, and an excellent daughter. “If a man built a tower this way, he would quickly starve, no matter how strong he became.”
The sage was even more delighted. “Yes,” he said, “There is a better way, and I will teach it to you:
Once you have built your tower, you must deconstruct it, brick by brick, stone by stone. You must do it meticulously and carefully, so that while you leave no physical trace of it remaining, your tower is still built in your mind and your heart, ready to spring anew at a moment’s notice.
You can enjoy the fresh air, and eat fine meals, and enjoy a good drink with your friends, but all the while your tower remains standing. You are both prisoner and warden. This is the hardest way, but the strongest.”
Prim saw the wisdom in this, and quickly made to return to the road, but the sage stopped her before she left.
“As you to your earlier remark,” the sage said, “The man who builds his tower but cannot take it apart again – that man is at the pinnacle of his strength. But that man will surely perish.”
– Prim Masters the Road
Pity and Empathy are rare treasures to find whilst adventuring, but I cherish them all the more for it.
Today, a character in Dumbing of Age is singing Hurt (Thank you again, Trent Reznor for this Cash song).
I find it remarkably relevant to the current situation.
Be this a lesson to you all saying sorry can save you life!
I am the property of my property
I am possessed by that which I possess
I am the slave of that which I enslaved
And am devoured by that upon which I feed
Senility or OCD?
It occurs to me: are the priests who follow Mammon there because they want to be? Or did they, like Allison, get caught trespassing in Mammon’s hoard?
And, when he says, “Now you must wait,” were too afraid to disobey? Are they all prisoners here, waiting for the old dragon to finish his count and attend to them?
An intriguing thought. Although it doesn’t explain why so many of them were complete nutters with chainsaws, and willing to die for their beliefs. Some may have ended up there the way you suggest, but it appears that most are true believers.
Although you’d think someone would have noticed that old Mammon had lost the plot a bit.
I love this plot twist so much I want to marry it.
So, it seems to me the trick here is to just ask him what he wants *now*. I bet everyone else is too afraid to do it. And it could turn everything around.
“Let me help you count, Mammon! Zero, one, aleph null. There, wasn’t that easy?”
That’s quite the hoard there Mammon, but it would be even larger with this sword.
I’d trade it to you for something. Say, a hostage, or that key in your brow.
I’ve heard such things can be bought and sold, you know.
Watch now, for Alison has interrupted the count, and Mammon has forgot his place and must start anew. Counting the infinite takes quite some time you know.
Still terrified. Probably Wisely so. A senile Dragon is still a Dragon.
And his mood may shift from moment to moment…
Half-measures are never good enough.
What use is it to seek and obtain power if you cannot hold onto it?
What use is it to be effectively immortal if you cannot stop the ravages of aging?
I… Well then. I would like to be able to have some kind of response that’s both poetic and thought provoking. But I can’t think of anything up. I got nothing.
Except that this is FAR more polite than I thought. One would think that someone ruled by greed like our dragon friend here would be a little more… Angry? Frustrated? Some from of negative emotion that’s more impacting than annoyance.
And yet here we are. I have no clue what to make of this.
I tried to imagine Mammon speaking with Scrooge’s voice, and instead I wound up with Donald Duck speaking his lines.
It’s horrible. It’s beautiful. I can’t stop it now.
“Eos had an unquenchable desire for handsome young men, some say as the result of a curse laid upon her by the goddess Aphrodite. Her lovers included Orion, Phaethon, Kephalos (Cephalus) and Tithonos (Tithonus), three of which she ravished away to distant lands. The Trojan prince Tithonos became her official consort. When the goddess petitioned Zeus for his immortality, she neglected also to request eternal youth. In time he was shriveled up by old age and transformed into a grasshopper.”
What a delightful twist!
This serves as a point towards just how dangerous Jagganoth is. Unlike all the others revealed so far, he has found himself a new and unflinching purpose to solidify his will into a point of white hot fire. With a need like that driving him he has grown sharper rather than pitted. No wonder Mammon fears him.
Kept it so long he forgot its value. Only when he loses it all will he remenber what it meant to him
The key bearers are all slaves to their passions. Let go, Let Go, LET GO! One must be free of all burdens grand opulence and vile detrimental to be a true king, other wise a slave.
You mean “Let it go … the old never bothered me anyway?”
Has he already counted the key?
He has already accepted a apology what about a polite request? Could she not just ask for the key of kings? Even if he wants to keep the count precise a trinket could take its place.
Could it be that easy? to take the strength of a god with not but “I’m sorry and “Please”?
What a nice guy
Instead of chatting up a senile dragon shouldn’t Allison be busy rescuing Cio??
So Mammon and my late Grandmother sound very similar. A strict adherence to the standards of decency and late in life a dedication to going through the motions even though much of the meaning drained away.
But Mammon also has a power move. “Wait” The would be raider asked to wait by such a deity would die of old age before the count was finished.
I wonder how the dragon keeps his worlds. Are this his treasures or source of plunder?
It occurred to me that in a way Mammon has merely reverted to the nature of his people, having forgotten the greed for wealth and power that consumed him earlier in his life. So, what has rotted away? Mammon’s mind, or that which had consumed Mammon’s mind?
I hear Keith David’s voice in my head while reading Mammon’s dialogue.