Saturday, December 8, 2012

The Awakened


"We're nothing new.  We've always been here.  
YOU're the newcomers.  You're the animal that forgot that it was a man.  Stop crying, you animal, you sleepwalker!  If you opened your eyes for only an instant you would see that.  You're a race of amnesiacs, of dreaming children.  I said STOP CRYING!  You disgust me.  That's why I'm not going to explain anything else.  That's why you will die--screaming--without ever having truly woken up.  I will paint every inch of this floor with your blood."
-An Awakened, formerly Ms. Albright, speaking to Albert Frond, immediately before his murder

There are terrible truths in this world.  The unknown things that--perhaps--we are simply better off knowing.  This is especially true if the things that call themselves Awakened are speaking the truth.




Creation

It seems that any sentient creature can become an Awakened, simply by staying awake for an extended period of time.

Sleep is poorly understood, but nearly all creatures have some form of it. The druids tell us that even ants sleep.  However, the best theories that purport to explain the necessity of sleep sound like disingenuous bromides.  "Sleep is a way to reset the brain." or "Sleep is how memories are sorted and filed." Or "Just as the body needs rest, so does the brain."  These answers are shallow responses to a much deeper question, all of them ultimately unsatisfying.  What lies behind the veil of sleep?

There are certainly some reasons to believe that it may be something inimical, or even sinister.  The barbarians of the Fangolian wastes believe that sleep is brought by Gemmon, who sleeps on a bed of black feathers and who is the twin brother of Thaskalya, or Death.

The amount of sleep deprivation necessary for "onset" is 3-4 weeks in humans.  This has been confirmed in experiments carried out with certain forbidden drugs and magics--I will not print their names here lest someone think of imitating this most dangerous experiment.  Thesophar the Gilded--rest his soul--did the most research on the subject, and in both of his experiments the elf and the dwarf were murdered before they evinced anything beyond the normal characteristics of sleep deprivations. Demihumans may be immune, but it is more likely that they simply require longer periods of sleep deprivation before becoming Awakened.

Psychology

Thesophar's interviews with Awakened showed a startling similarity in their personalities and speech patterns.  The Awakened--while they have the physiology of the person they once were--are completely alien things.

They retain all of the memories they had when they were alive, as well as considerably more.  They seem to know a great deal about anyone they speak to.  Thesophar recounts how they knew details of his childhood, education, and even things that no other soul should know.  However, they never use this knowledge for any great purpose, only to antagonize, insult, embarrass, and taunt.  Attempting to get one to reveal anything useful (such as a forgotten spell or the location of a lost child) were met with the most vulgar jeering and invectives. Their speech is filled with vilest blasphemies and explicit sexual narratives: their own, their victim's, and all manner of obscene postulations.  Thesophar described them as "vile and unrepentant. . . the naked gutter of the human psyche."

Surprisingly, they are completely immune to all forms of coercion, including torture.  After a few unfortunate incidents, Thesophar finally constructed a restraint device strong enough to hold one and brought in a professional torturer.  Although the man had years of experience pulling confessions from heretics and traitors, he resigned after one night, and even turned down an offer for three times the payment.  The mind reader that was brought in had a much more painful experience; she fell unconscious for three hours, during which her eyes bled constantly.  When she awoke, she had no memory of the prior week and had developed permanent (but mild) insomnia.

The Awakened do not seem to feel any emotions except for two: contempt and rage.  When they are not mocking someone, they are attempting to kill them.

They speak of bizarre, almost nonsensical things.  However, several phrases and ideas are common enough to warrant a mention here: "the world behind the sun", "dreamers/sleepers/sleepwalkers" (referring to humans), "the coldness that birthed us all", and "the place between".  The best narrative that Thesophar was able to piece together was that all sentience--NOT "sentient creatures" but sentience itself--was once a thing very similar to an Awakened, or at least from a similar origin.  Sentience is them. . . or they are sentience.  They are our own consciousnesses--the thing that says, "I think, therefor I am"--but from a horrific, external source that we have all forgotten.  It is only by sleep deprivation that the "mind of the flesh" falls away and our naked consciousness is allowed to see the bare truths of the universe, the cosmic underpinnings of all things. . . and to remember what we were, each of us, before we were conceived.

Thesophar once compared them to souls:  ". . . but if these things are our souls, then they are souls that have forgotten what they once were, and what place they came from.  Perhaps it is no great Nirvana that imbues our bodies with the divine spark, and there is no Great Wheel that washes the memories of our past lives, but things such as these.  Perhaps this is the dark mystery of the human heart."

Of course, these notions are false for reasons that are so apparent that I will not reprint them here.  Thesophar himself said as much, prior to his crucifixion for the crime of blasphemy.  The Church acted rightly--Thesophar's experiments were taking on the dangerous edge of obsession.

Behavior

Violence, mayhem, and desecration are their only imperatives.  Pain is a joke.  Death holds no fear.  The afterlife is no mystery.  They seek to cause as much tragedy as possible before their violent deaths, which they revel in.  Those that escaped, or those that occured "in the wild", wade through carnage, reveling in bloodshed, pain, and terror.  When they are struck down--usually by cadres of armored knights or battlemages, their last words--crackling out through the howls of laughter and broken lips--are always the darkest secrets of their destroyers, often to the shock and shame of those around them.

If you are ever called to kill one of these beasts in the streets of one of our fair cities, I pray that you are sinless, and that you harbor no secret shames in the corners of your heart.  Rest assured that the Awakened will laugh out any secrets as you cut them down.

Biology

They are strong.  About ten times stronger than they should be, by all accounts.  Thesophar recounts an event where one escaped its bonds and punched an armored guard to death through his helmet, even though the Awakened's hands were shattered, pulpy masses of bloody bones by the end of it.  They can--and have--broken down heavy prison doors simply by throwing their bodies against it hundreds of times, even though they break their arms, shatter their ribs, and even fracture their necks.  Thesophar quickly learned that he could never get any writing done in the same building as them, simply because of the constant noise of them hurling themselves against the door, constantly screaming.

They never sleep, of course.

They are difficult to kill.  For years, Thesophar was convinced that they were some form of undead, only becoming convinced to the contrary after several vivisections.  They laugh at injuries.  Thesophar tells of how they started removing the hands of the Awakened, simply as a safety measure, but ceased the practice when the subjects started gnawing off the flesh of their arms below the elbow in order to use the bones of their forearms as stabbing weapons.  Those who would fight them are advised to break their legs first, in order to limit their mobility.  In once instance, an Awakened that jumped from a great height intentionally fell on its chest and face in order to prevent breaking its legs.  The brain must be completely destroyed (down to the brainstem) in order to halt them.  Disemboweling or exsanguination will not kill them--they seem be to able to hold themselves together by sheer willpower for several hours.  But then, several hours are all they need.  They seek death, and they are quick to find it.

While they know everyone intimately, but they cannot read minds.  This is an important distinction to make.  Whatever otherworldly sight they possess does not allow them to peer into our thoughts.  (Or if they can, they are adept at hiding it.)

Lastly, their gaze causes insomnia.  Blindfolds are no barrier--it is transmitted by their glance, not yours.  Sleep is usually impossible for at least one night, and as many as four.  Thesophar learned to work with them for two days out of the week, then spend three days writing, and then spend two days sleeping.
Sleep deprivation carries the same risks for everyone.  In order of severity, the symptoms are: irritability, forgetfulness, inattention, paranoia, and hallucinations.  Sleep deprivation seems to have no long-term risks, and all symptoms completely disappear after enough sleep.

Impact

Up until 1193 TFM, there was a known drug addict in Clansbrad by the name of Simon Westermar.  Although the circumstances are not fully understood, Simon became an Awakened (although Thesophar would say that he died and was replaced by an Awakened).  Rather than seeking the usually murderous path to a gory death, Simon kidnapped members of his family and fellow students at his Artist's Retreat (to which he belonged), and held them captive for several weeks.  During this time he physically abused them while keeping them awake by staring at them for several minutes every day.  By the time they were rescued, some of them had been awake for over two weeks.

Westermar was eventually caught by the authorities and hacked to pieces at the end of a bloody, two-hour battle.  The delirious captives were found and allowed to sleep.  They made full recoveries (save for the trauma that would be expected from such a event).

Still, the event is chilling because it suggests that we do not know all there is to know about Awakened motivations.  If one of them has the patience to create more of his number, what else are they capable of doing and towards what end?  And given what mayhem a single Awakened may cause, what could a dozen of them do?

Additionally, there are the many reports that the drug cult known as the Wind on the Marilanth Petal includes several Awakened in their ranks.  While I would like to dismiss these rumors as exactly that, the crime scenes that the Wind leaves behind do share a certain resemblance to the acts of an Awakened (or so I'm told).  I would, of course, pay a handsome fee to anyone who could confirm or disprove this pernicious rumor.  I'm afraid I cannot shake the notion that there might be some truth to these rumors, simply because of how sinister the proposition is.

But I'm not losing any sleep over it.

8 comments:

  1. Disturbing. Can an Awakened be forced to sleep by magical or chemical means?

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  2. Totally definitely. And they would return to normal after a good night's sleep, with just a bad case of amnesia (and maybe some shattered wrists/broken teeth/etc).

    It's just tricky to do. It takes a few more tranquilizers/spells than usual to put down an Awakened, but it can be done.

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    1. Finally, the town guard located the base of the resistance fighters in the basement of one of the lesser temples. Carefully as mice, they threaded a path through back allies, doing their best to avoid the mobs and rioters in the streets. When they arrived at the temple, there was a strange pressure in the air, one that popped their ears and caused nosebleeds in two of the three paladins present.

      They entered the structure expecting a battle around every corner, their swords drawn and torches pushed ahead of them. But there was nothing on the upper floors of the lesser temple save for an empty alter and the smell of stale incense. They were almost relaxed when they began their descent into the lower levels.

      This calm broke instantly when they reached the bottom floor. Every surface stank of iron, but no blood or viscera could be found. In the final corridor, a narrow passageway at the bottom of the temple, they found him, the leaders of the resistance.

      Heads and limbs lay shorn across the stones of the corridor, those made from flesh interlaced with ones of stone, clearly smuggled from the abominable island in the harbor. Still, no blood ran from the severed parts, and that which lay within them was clotted and curdled, the limbs clearly had their blood flow stopped before being severed.

      Before the men and women of the guard could react, two pale limbs stretched from the corner of the corridor, crushing the skull of a guard and retreating into the darkness where sucking sounds could be heard.

      As the Paladins of the group moved forward, providing a shield wall, a figure emerged from darkness, completely nude, with his hair laden from gore.

      "The revolution never meant anything," it said, eyes sunken into its skull. "They were all just atoms, sailing towards the world behind the sun, believing they could create a world better than this one. But now, now that I have been blessed the truth of the universe, you need not struggle, for I have the answers you sleepers could never understand."

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  3. This is one of my favorite things that you've written. Thank you!

    One of your inspirations for this idea wouldn't happen to be Event Horizon, would it? I really like that movie, but I kind of wish they had explored the underlying concept of the story a bit more. You've certainly fleshed it out here!

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  4. So, this is late, but you forgot the "not" in the second sentence of the first paragraph.

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  5. Seems very similar to "russian sleep experiment" creepypasta, I'd love to read more on the same topic.

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  6. Seems very similar to "russian sleep experiment" creepypasta, I'd love to read more on the same topic.

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  7. The behaviour of the Awakened is very similar to that of the infected people in Garth Ennis' Crossed comic books. Terrifying.

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