[http/:milkywiki.gal.org/the-redemption-of-paragon]
The Redemption of Paragon
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'The Torment of Paragon' by
the acclaimed Renaissance artist, Gerroid Van Dyke.
'The Redemption of Paragon' is a folk poem and fairy-tale with roots in various intergalactic civilizations and cultures. Versions of the story have evolved from a myriad societies and races across in the Milky Way, often thousands of years before the development of interstellar transportation or space-faring technologies. Despite the fact that no one culture had any influence concerning the fairy-tale on another, the poem has remained generally the same between each society, often with only meager aberrations existing between accounts. Nations that have development on completely separate planets, lightyears apart, still have independently invented some form of the story at a time in their history. With no clear point of origin, the 'universal acclaim' of the fairy-tale remains an anomaly to many galactic researchers. To date, 'The Redemption of Paragon' is one of the most studied fables in history and remains a chief component in the Multiversial 'canon'.
Development and Discrepancies
Although specifics concerning the poem vary between cultures, the plot's foundation remains the same: a deity of daylight wages an ongoing war with a malevolent spirit of the night. A demon (or in some stories, a demi-god) of the darkness, disenchanted with the brutish, violent lifestyle of his peers, offers himself and his love to the deity of the day. Although unable to return his affections on account of his 'corruption', she appoints him as her champion, charging him with the task of rooting out darkness and evil at its source. The deity kisses her new paladin (or in some stories, weeps holy tears over him) and molds a mask of pure white over his face. The poem ends with the demon's redemption and his renaming as 'Paragon' or 'the Paragon'.
In Aschen culture, the poem took root during The Vorlix. First accounts of the story suggest it was invented by a Confederate mother trying to calm her children during one of the Molecay Military's frequent bombings over Confederate land. In the Aschen version, the 'deity of daylight' is the goddess Athena, "the spirit of the night" is merely called "the enemy" (likely a reference to the Molecay), and the demon-champion is a wandering demi-god, believed to be the bastard son of Hades and a witch.
In Scatteran culture, the first records of the poem are found in the Dark Ages. The story chronicles the tales of one of the "betrayers", the cosmic powers that forsook Scatter to join the Deep during the Great Rebellion. The poem follows one of Deep's soldiers (the demon-hero) and his sincere regret over forsaking Scatter and his brethren. Although he feels himself unworthy to face his former lord in his fallen state, the traitor vows to atone for his crimes, resolving to battle Deep's forces until "the blood of mine false comrades canvases the cancer of my sin." The soldier goes on to wage a bloody one-man campaign against the demon hordes. Unlike many retellings of the poem, the demon-hero is motivated not by love for a higher deity, but guilt over his past crimes. By the end of the story, the champion has not been redeemed. Rather, he spends the rest of his immortal life hopelessly seeking his own salvation.
In Terran culture, the poem is believed to have originated sometime in the 30th century BC in southern Gaul. The story survived by word-of-mouth for hundreds of years and was eventually adopted by the Romans in the 58th century BC during their conquest of Western Europe. It experienced a revitalization of interest during the Renaissance, prompting the creation of many famous pieces of art such as 'The Torment of Paragon' and 'Il Bacio Della Luna'. In the Terran version, the 'deity of daylight' is referred to as 'the goddess' or 'the maiden', whereas the 'spirit of the night' is referred only as 'the Dark'. In an extended version of the story, the goddess creates the moon with strands of her hair and puts it in the sky to guard Paragon in his time of need.
The myth has also taken root in several unexamined cultures, namely in the journals of the famed Milky Way archaeologist and explorer, doctor Baron Walscherz. In Entry IV: A Mysterious Unity, Walscherz anonymously examines several unnamed alien cultures from a distance, delineating their chief similarities and difference. Although they share several cultural and moral concurrences, their most shocking societal correlation was in their mythology, in which their legends and stories were practically identical. Their worship revolved around the belief that the moon was a goddess; the stars, her knights and warriors.
The crescent moon, a symbol commonly
associated with the Paragon
In this rendition of the myth, the moon sends one of her star champions to a nearly barren planet, giving him the task of slaying the demon Chustra, a beautiful serpent-like woman who lived in the dark caverns of the earth, surfacing every moonless night to feed on the scarce green of the earth and the innocent souls of men. The champion hunts Chustra into the bowels of the world where she leads him into an elaborate underground labyrinth. As the champion wears himself out searching for her, the demoness seduces the weakened warrior, feeding on his light after their coupling and leaving him for dead. Dying and defeated, Chustra promises to end the champion's suffering if he only cry out for mercy. The warrior instead uses the last of his strength in a prayer of repentance towards the moon, advocating his sincere shame over his failure. Moved by his piety in the face of certain demise, the moon redeems her champion, resurrecting his shadowy corpse with a kiss and charging him with a new task: to defeat the ravenous monsters raging across across the universe, birthed as a result of his mating with Chustra. The poem ends with Paragon swearing to spend the rest of his immortal life hunting and killing his illegitimate children and his malicious mistress.
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The 'White Mask' of Paragon
The following is the most basic version of the poem in Terran English.
Tween’ shadow, shade and silk
Beneath the moon-sky’s stitchless seams
And all her star-spun ilk…
There lived a maiden in the sun
With soft and sanguine eyes
And every dawn she’s born anew
And every dusk she dies
Her laughter blossoms fields and trees
Her kiss like grassborn rain
Her breath the gentle springtime breeze
Her touch the winter’s bane
And every man found happiness
Beneath her warm embrace
And with her light grew strong and right
The way of peace and grace
But just as gentle daylight bright
Must wane her glitt’ring spark
The maiden waged a hopeless fight
Against her foe: the Dark.
For the Dark was wretched, cold and cruel
And thrived in fear and pain
With murd’rous lust it sought its goal:
The dream of earth insane
And so a war waged tween’ the frays
Amidst the heavens bright
And the maiden’s ground was called the ‘day’
And the Dark’s was called the ‘night’'
So every morn she rose in rage
To stem the pressing tides
But come the dusk her valor fades
Her blood stains red the skies
This vicious cycle, night and day,
Went on for time unnamed
For light and Dark were matched in strength
Their power raw, untamed
And in the daylight, order reigned
Men laughed and sang their songs
But come the night they took their flight
From chaos and her spawns
For demons ruled the nighttime then
And scourged with pike and bone
With fear and shadow cloaked their filth
And Darkness was their home
And come the fall of blessed sun
They raved across the night
To torment, murder, steal, corrupt
And gainst’ all goodness fight
They had no fears come nightfall
Save the guardian stars in rack
For in those days there was no moon
The night was long and black
But among the vile demon hordes
There walked a lonely rogue
And though he clung to shadowy cloth
His gaze cross’ nightsky roamed
Their glit’ring tears enticed
And with heavy heart in humble hands
Made memory of his vice
“Maiden of the morning sun”
The weeping demon cried
“Though I be creature of the Dark
I wish thee as my bride”
“For since my wretched birth in black
Mid’ all my wicked peers
I’ve had no love for sin and death
No want of pain nor fear
“And though my kin beseech me
And make terror of your light
I dream and yearn beneath thee
Mid’ the pondr’ous stars abright
“And while the sunshine brands my flesh
I crave the glorious day
To live in peaceful virtue good
And love you as I may”
And then the maiden, soft and fair
Looked up from misty grave
She saw the prostrate demon weep
His spirit meek but brave
“Child of the hated Dark”
She cooed with words like rime
“Your cordial pentence’, true and fair
Redeems thee of thy crimes
"Vile be thy race and breed
Discordant be thy call
But in thy heart, an honest creed:
True love conquers all
“But though thy heart be set aflame
With righteous yearning dire
Your impious blood makes thee inane
To seek my light and fire
“So rather shall you here remain
Immersed in shadowy blight
And with my blessing on your blade
Bring justice to the night”
So said she, the goddess bright
And with lips like dew-licked lace
Softly brushed her radiance white
Into his hideous face
“A champion do I name thee
A bastion nightcloaked guard;
To hunt the children of Dark
Amid the twilight marred
“With fear and vengeance tend your dream:
To guard the glorious dawn
You perfect form of night redeemed,
I name thee, Paragon.”