Namaja

...it's all in the mind!

Then it came to him. The place was in his mind. So he simply opened his mind to Chaos, they stepped in, and they were there. It was somewhere they could live, but was indescribable, as it was Chaos, and kept changing. It had no name: it was simply "There", or "Here" if the speaker were There.

I roam the banks of Chaos in my mind. I'm looking for some troublesome KOROS Demons. I could really do without them. But the trouble with opening your mind to everything is that anyone can walk right in.

Namaja never joined the Cult of the Ones, despite its popularity at the time amongst his associates. For he valued his individuality, and he perceived it would be lost if he were to become One with the Ones. What did interest him were those hints he heard of the art of ChaosMastery. Perhaps it subconsciously appealed to him as a substitute for the Paladinhood he had foregone? So it was that he embarked on a personal quest to find a ChaosMaster.

The trees here grow down from the clouds, and it rains up from the ground. It must get unpleasant in a thunderstorm.

He walked away into the Lake, until he was submerged and gone to his would-be followers, to whose fate he paid no further attention. He needed time to think, in order to work out where he had gone wrong.

It's all here: ideas, possibilities, impossibilities, and a few memories I picked up along the way. It's interesting to consider what each is, and whether it is, or was, or may become, true or false. Just what colour should the windows in dogs really be? But, ultimately, it's all irrelevant.

Namaja was born Narsus of Aven, identical and elder twin brother of Decus of Aven, and son and heir apparent of the Valdrean Emperor Narsus VI of Aven, on the first day of Aval in the Year 1975.

What are memories anyway? Is there, or was there ever, a past? You come across stories in your head. Did each really happen, or did you just dream it up? If you were to go back to it, would it change it, or just the memory?

When Namaja was confident in his new abilities he simply walked off one day, and kept going all the way back to Valdran. The return journey was easier, now that he was able to use Chaos to take shortcuts. He was 21 years old when he came home. He now began building up Chaotic resistance at the heart of the Valdrean Empire. His activities acted as a focus for Chaos and dissension, culminating in the Great Riot of 1997.

Someone else remembers something too. Maybe you have told him that one before. Maybe you told him. What does it matter? Let me tell you another story.

Namaja was waiting for them all at the agreed rallying point on the South Eastern shore of Lake Zarak. His supporters pleaded with him to use his powers of ChaosMastery to lead them back to victory. But he steadfastly refused to take any positive action or to assume any form of leadership; on the basis that for him to do so would be to compromise all their ideals, and would simply turn them into another Lawful faction. He tried instead to explain to them that the true route to victory lay in abandoning themselves completely to the Chaos they had generated within their movement. But such a concept was beyond these Valdreans. Finally Namaja was compelled, by the oblique dictates of his Art, to abandon them at the very moment that the Imperial Guard drew close; in one final desperate attempt to turn them all into ChaosMasters, by forcing them to rely on their own initiative rather than looking to him.

At the age of 12½ (exactly) both twins were to be initiated as Paladins of SARAN, having completed their Fighter and Clerical training at an early age. Decus prayed diligently throughout the preceding Caeriad, but inside Narsus something snapped. He had had enough of the strict regimentation of their lives, and he wandered off into the Sacred City of Valdran, never to be seen again by his family.

So Namaja gathered his followers and began to seek his realm of Chaos.

First Narsus called at Tandrys' house, near the Imperial Library. The Sage and Philosopher Tandrys was the greatest thinker Valdrea, and possibly the World, has ever produced. At one stage, he had been one of the twins' tutors. Tandrys sympathised with the young lad's attitude, admitting that he had long disapproved of the Lawful excesses of the present Imperial Family, and reassuring Narsus that rebellion against one's parents is a perfectly normal youthful phenomenon.

Fyz proved willing to pass on his knowledge to an intelligent and able pupil, and Namaja learnt ChaosMastery from him as they interfered with the Orcish Empire's attempts to subdue Hulmo. In return for such assistance the rulers of Hulmo welcome and respect ChaosMasters as do no other states. But Namaja needed no inducements to combat imperialism, and he gained quite a reputation for his dedication.

The current Emperor was his uncle, Decus XIX of Aven (who had been Director of the I.D.S. in the reign of Narsus VI): a man who made even a strict disciplinarian like Narsus VI look soft. Decus XIX withdrew the City Guard at first, letting the Riot build to a peak. Encouraged by their initial success, the Chaotic and rebel agitators came out into the open. The Emperor then sent in his Imperial Guard, directed by agents and informers of the I.D.S. Decisively ruthless attacks shattered the essentially unorganised and spontaneous rioters, driving the survivors into a panicked mass, who came together to fight their way out of the City. Agitators who attempted to melt away into the streets with the bystanders found their homes raided, and they too were forced to flee with their erstwhile comrades.

The community grew and diversified. New members joined, and some departed. At first only Namaja could ChaosWalk Thither from outside, and Thence to outside. But on the first day of the Year 2000 others discovered the knack of doing so, and from then on Here really started to grow. Namaja could feel the Chaos expanding in his mind, as he opened it to more possibilities.

From hints given by Tandrys, Narsus was able to contact the Secret Temple of DALA in Valdran, and there he met the Chaotic rebels of the New City. Dirty, in common clothes, and with his long hair cropped short, he was able to pose as a disaffected and cast out younger son of a gentleman. He gave his name as "Namaja". Turning his Clerical training to the worship of DALA, and learning the art of Thievery on the streets, he soon rose to prominence amongst the Chaotics.

His eventual conclusion was that any attempt to build up Chaos in the centre of the Empire of Law was doomed to failure, as the Law must inevitably be stronger there. The way to oppose Valdrea with the power of Chaos was to build up his own realm of Chaos. This would counterbalance their excesses of Lawfulness, and give him a power base from which to move more directly against them. He would start from where he would be beyond Valdrean notice, and where there were plenty of potential recruits. He would need to tread carefully, however, as he remained convinced that any attempt to control or direct Chaos was fundamentally flawed. The most he could do was to seek out that possibility which corresponded most nearly with his desired end, and to go with the flow of it. He realised, from his experience of ChaosWalking, that it was not necessary to go outside Anarea to find Chaos. It was part of the very fabric of the World, and it was exactly this Chaos he needed to work with if he were to redress the balance.

Clues gathered from Communes with DALA and Demon Summoning sessions led him to the Underworld. He reached it through the secret tunnel from Lake Zarak to Lake Karaz, using Water Breathing temporarily obtained from the Demon of Survival. From the Orcish Empire, where he emerged, he journeyed through the War Zone into the Land of Hulmo, where he succeeded in contacting Fyz; then reputedly the greatest living ChaosMaster.

Many lands can be reached through Chaos, having various correspondences with the World as Lawfully mapped, and Namaja was a powerful ChaosMaster. His party visited many of them, but he knew none was that which he sought. They moved further out, visiting the weirdnesses where reality breaks down on the edge of Chaos, but still he could not relate to anywhere in the way he sought. He could visualise his goal, but he could not find it, and it was wrong to attempt to create it.

Do we learn from such things? Only by thinking through all the possibilities can you know what may happen in any given situation. But there are many possibilities.

Have you been here before? It can never be exactly the same. Sometimes it is easier to rely on intuition. Herein lies ChaosMastery. Relax, and let it happen. Enjoy yourself a little.

Didn't you say something like that once before? Once upon a dream.

The Chaos flowed into the mind of the ArchChaosMaster, and his power, his potential, increased. Namaja laughed, and unreality changed.

Maybe he would soon be ready to take on the Emperor again, but somehow it now seemed less important. If Here filled his mind, and was everything, then there was nothing else.

Back to Scenario 15: At the Heart of the Chaos

Back to DM's Characters index