Children of the Dunes

It was during the Exodus that the witch-queens of the Lemsarp ward disseminated out onto the sandveldt, and began their self-imposed exile in the tomb-cities they call cærs.

You would be right to assume that life in these austere, subpellucid conditions, away from the metropolitan verve, is one of supreme tedium. As an expedient, and with some cunning which remains opaque to our best scientific insight, these "Allmothers" have constructed a race of golem-servants; their children.

Subsequently the witch-queens have reinvented the lost art of dreaming, employing these un-children like in a puppet play. They dance (intricately), they act (convincingly), they sing (mellifluously), all to deliver a complex form of kinetic allegory. The guard-consorts of the Allmothers, their Husbands, are depended on for oneiromancy.

During my stay in Cær Brachan I witnessed and painstakingly transcribed one-hundred and thirty-eight of these dream-performances, along with their given interpretations as supplied by the Husband. Thus, I began to recognize some common elements that made for a sort of syntax throughout the plays. Imagine my chagrin when, inquiring to the Husband as to the nature of this metalinguistic code, I learned that the dreams are not only highly structured - they are in fact rote!

There are (I was informed) 1587 specific dreams, this number being sacred to the Allmothers. The immediate question is clear: How many of these are intended for military functions?

... Heretics of Elesarp, Farhen Brektr