Monday, March 17, 2008


The False Extinction of the Rakshasa

In the outskirts of Trincomalee – between the mountain peaks and the sea – in the idyllic plains of a hundred-stairs, it stood the invincible stronghold of Lanka...
Birthplace of many heroes and kings, and ultimately, the site of the final battle between Rama (the seventh avatar of Vishnu) and Ravana (the evil, but all-knowing monarch of Lanka)...
Ruled with justice, the city flourished beyond poverty and disease, but after the death of the demonic Ravana, the city could not maintain its strength... and in the inexperienced hands of Vibheeshana (a just but meditative follower of Dharma) it became a place of chaos and illusion... The perfect locale for the last Rakshasa – the shape-shifting demons of death – to survive...
These followers of the evening and its perversions, almost obliterated themselves in the three great battles of lore, while fighting continuously as heroes or cannibals of either sides... until none was left...
As the years passed, magic decreased to remote locations, and the secret symbiosis between the mystical trees and the rivers became the only source of hope and divinity...
The perfect seeds of Kalpavriksha, formed small oasis of fantasy and white necromancy, to which people rushed in despair of miracles...
These magic trees would only grow near two rivers... now completely dry, and transformed into small wells for the blind...
For lovers heartbreak, the fruits would find a new lover... For the sick, the leaves would cure all evil... For the poor, the branches would deflect all misery...
But such miracles had a heavy cost...
The cautious approach of this mystical trees, could only be done in special days, for they were guarded by strange demons lurking in the mist...
Mad was the one who faced these creatures with fearless mind and courage...
These flesh-eaters of human appearance – capable of controlling the spirits of nightmares – would spare no one from their sick desires and venomous fingernails...
...Their skin was said to be cut off from the flesh... but the real fear lied in their deadly skull-worm parasite, and its empowering handshake...