Ravana

Sink with me into a still sea that is bitter with salt and resentment.

Feel freezing water made sharp by ice floes that bounce sunlight like a mirror. Catch your breath just below the surface where stray rays break through cracks in the ice pack. See in those bent, narrow bands glimpses of rusticle-caked skyscrapers whose water-warped husks rise from the ebon abyss with dead dreams of reaching the surface. Hear a canticle of groaning steel that is at times distant, and at other times deafening. Sense, rather than see, the skyline that surrounds you in the murk. Look down into an inky void and guess at how deep street level must be. Notice odd lights twinkling in those dark fathoms. Here lies the sunken region of Exodus.

The name would escape from him in his dour moments. It seemed to contain all the things he hated: intransigence, mortality, mediocrity. He spoke it like a slur and cursed those who abandoned Illuminati as “Exodites,” though no one after 2020 knew what he meant by it. Much escaped from him to Exodus. Who knows what artifacts a grasping hand might find while groping blind across the seabed?

When I visited the region, all I had for senses were a weak and yellowed searchlight and a pair of broken headphones through which to study sonar pings. I was guided by groaning metal, whose relative volume betrayed how close I was to colliding with my surroundings. There was a spot in the center of the city where light found no reflection and sound found no surface. I studied that shadow for anxious hours.

Two notions compelled me to dive it. First, that the old forum was down there. Second, that something was stalking me. It timed its movements to hide within the echo of the moaning towers. I stirred up a dense murk of silt and soaked posts in my rush through the flooded galleries and nearly drowned, then I found the vault. The door had buckled under the weight of water, but beams of white light still shone through the cracks in the frame. Against all odds, preserved in salt, the Immaculata had survived!

The Historia Obscura is written on the shoulders of older histories that lit the way back from our dark past. The oldest and darkest of those histories is the one Rhyphix wrote himself. “The Historia Immaculata” (Immaculate History) was the standard for regional history and all Illuminatus read it as a right-of-passage. It translated the mystery and audacity of Illuminati and drew the reader into its sense of deep legacy. It made true believers. I was one of them. Rhyphix burned every known copy of the Immaculata in the purges to deny his enemies access to his memory, but much escaped to Exodus including a rare copy of the first edition.

I cradled the rescued text all through my ascent and cried when I read it. It is a gilded testament full of lies, an autobiography written in third person whose sources are conceit-clouded memories. I should hate it, but then I learned how to read it. I have withheld quoting from it so as not to confuse the narrative, but its presence must now be felt because it is the only source for what follows. The events it describes must be fiction. They must be.

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In the Immaculata it is written that a secret elite met within the shadows of Stonehenge to form a new world order. Rhyphix encountered a vast and subtle intelligentsia through his work with GRAND. They weren’t just spymasters and puppeteers; they were visionaries with imaginations as extensive as his own. They called themselves “The Byzantine Inquisition Council.”

The BIC held three meetings. The first meeting may have been a debate whose conclusion was that the NationStates world was unbalanced and chaotic. It needed a master hand to manage the interplay between competing polities. Rhyphix reached into the harsh dichotomy between Invader and Defender ideology and plucked out a “third way.” He called it “Imperialism.”

Much like its real-world counterpart, Imperialism was built on the conquest and subjugation of foreign regions. Whereas Invader theory was purely concerned with the act of conquest, Imperialism sought to transform the conquered regions into new faces for an ever-expanding hydra whose true head would always remain hidden. By the end of the second meeting, the BIC had adopted Imperialism as their guiding light and determined that “the best way to support the weaker of the two sides, to insure balance, would be to establish massive empires throughout NationStates.” (Rhyphix, Historia Immaculata)

These empires needed a capital. The cabal needed a throne. They needed Illuminati.

Who knows who the first founder was? No one is older than Him, and It is older than He. When the BIC named Illuminati their aspirational capital in 2005, it was controlled by a minor Invader warlord named “Tentacular Horror” who made the mistake of publicly announcing that he would depart for a weekend getaway. The BIC made productive use of his vacation and stole the region out from under him. The Immaculata claims that the invasion was led by BIC member “The Midnight Blue” who assumed the foundership. Success bred treachery.

The third and final meeting of the council was intended to tie up loose ends. With the capital in hand, Stonehenge had to be disposed of. Two members voiced their dissent. From the Immaculata,

“Only Aeazer voted not to move to Illuminati. A second vote was also conducted on what to do with Stonehenge. 7 out of 9 members voted to abolish Stonehenge in ‘a grand way’. Only Aeazer and Forgery voted against the abolishment of Stonehenge.

“It would be over Stonehenge that would usher in the end of the Byzantine Inquisition Council, and the rise of both Illuminati, and the newly created Aeazen Combine, with Aeazer as its founder. It would be over five years before any mention of the truth of how Illuminati and the Aeazen Combine came into existence from those fateful Byzantine Inquisition Council meetings. This fact also confirms to NationStates why the original Illuminati Empire and the Aeazen Combine were so similar, and yet, always at odds with one another.” (Rhyphix, Historia Immaculata)

None of the great Raider Orgs have achieved the boogeyman status which is enjoyed by the ghosts of the Aeazen Combine. Their spirits roll with laughter every few years when a spasm of anxiety grips the youthful regions of the website and someone proclaims that “the Combine has returned!”

The Combine’s true nature is subject to debate to this day. They were part secret society, part terrorist organization with goals as inscrutable as the faces of the spies that they seemed to have planted everywhere. They were ruthless to match their competence. A burned forum was a mercy compared to some of the ways that they could communicate their displeasure.

The Aeazen Combine was also notorious for inflating its own achievements. Most of their “agents” were stochastic griefers who appropriated the aesthetics of the Combine like a black flag so that their crimes would be attributed to the nebulous goals of the organization rather than their own uncouth gameplay. The Combine encouraged such activity because it made them seem more widespread and more dangerous than they ever really were.

Aeazer was, like Rhyphix, a kind of philosopher. Whereas Rhyphix was trying to tie the world to his whims through constitutional mechanisms and chains of allegiance, Aeazer subscribed to a more fluid kind of politics. His organization would thrive on personal connections rather than legal ones. It wouldn’t even have a home region.

After Aeazer and Forgery left the BIC to found The Combine, the Immaculata claims,

“…the bulldozing of Stonehenge was next on the agenda. As many members of the Byzantine Inquisition Council were keen members at spreading dis-information. Roma Qochasiva made the announcement to a major newspaper of NationStates at that time, NewsWire, that it had infiltrated The DEN (a major invader region at the time). A scandal broke out across NationStates until Roma Qochasiva later admitted it was propaganda and a lie. The credibility of Stonehenge was lost forever, and the region quickly disbanded, changed nations and moved into Illuminati. The deed had been done, and all had appeared to have gone as planned… or so they thought.”

The Midnight Blue had not been loyal to Rhyphix’s plan. In the Immaculata, he accuses his former lieutenant of giving into “role play” that reduced Illuminati to mere theater and eventually collapsed it into inactivity. Rhyphix languished while Aeazer built up his competitor society. Months passed while Rhyphix waited for The Midnight Blue to CTE.

“Roma Qochasiva launched a solo invasion with only three other nations, and win the Delegacy in Illuminati and ejected the few remaining people there. On December 12, 2005 Illuminati was officially Founded in the name of Globalism. Roma Qochasiva, declared, himself the First Grand Chancellor.”

This is the founding myth of Illuminati: it was formed to facilitate a new world order, sundered at the start by competing philosopher kings. The Immaculata has carried this story to each new iteration of the region for nearly fifteen years. But can it be trusted?

The Immaculata is a lying book, so we should not read it as a history. Instead, think of it like a liar’s confession. The liar cannot admit to lying – even in his own mind – so he warps the story to justify his tortured perspective. “I stole a cookie” becomes: “I had to eat the cookie because it was already in my hand.”

Every chapter of the Immaculata is punctuated by minor mistakes which render the account unreliable. The Immaculata describes the founding of Stonehenge as thus, under the chapter heading “The Laying of the Stones,”

“On March 27, 2005, Stonehenge was first founded by Roma Qochasiva. He began recruiting immediately and Stonehenge reached a modest population count of around 45 nations at its height. It was ran by Roma Qochasiva himself, who called himself, at that time, the Chancellor of Stonehenge.”

Not only does the Immaculata misstate the date of Stonehenge’s founding (March, rather than May), but it invents a new “Chancellor” role which conflicts with facts of the posting record. Copies of Stonehenge’s constitution from early June show that the region is helmed by a Prime Minister, not a Chancellor, and Rhyphix was calling himself “Stonehenge Lord” at that time. Though these errors invalidate the accuracy of the Immaculata, they do no worse damage to its reputation than some of the more interesting revisions of major events. Consider the way Rhyphix describes the “destruction” of Stonehenge:

“…Roma Qochasiva made the announcement to a major newspaper of NationStates at that time, NewsWire, that it had infiltrated The DEN (a major invader region at the time). A scandal broke out across NationStates until Roma Qochasiva later admitted it was propaganda and a lie. The credibility of Stonehenge was lost forever, and the region quickly disbanded…”

Contrast that with how the same event is described in sworn testimony from Rhyphix’s trial in the GRA:

“…When Roma was in charge of STONEHENGE as Quosavia, he was a normal enough and a good guy. He then bugged out, quit NS and came up with this whole spying thing. He admitted to being a spy on different regions. He was going around to different RMB's spamming them with a long long story of what he did.”

The accounts agree that there was an espionage scandal, but the Immaculata frames the affair as a ploy to delegitimize Stonehenge. The reader might wonder why Stonehenge needed to be destroyed at all, but the point is moot. As the trial testimony proves, it was an open secret that “Roma Qochasiva” was the culprit and all blame fell on him, not Stonehenge.

The Immaculata’s coverage of the Holy Land “War” is even more intriguing.

“As there was a war in Area 69 and Holy Land was starting to begin (two former Stonehenge Allies), Roma Qochasiva infiltrated both regions and 'fueled the flames' which lead to an all out war between the three regions. Area 69 was riddled with retirements and quitters and quickly collapsed, and Holy Land was declared the victor in the war. However, Holy Land did declare war on Roma Qochasiva after they discovered his intervention.

“Roma Qochasiva quickly launched a campaign to bring down Holy Land and dethrone its king, ‘William,’ at all costs. Roma Qochasiva quickly worked his way into the government, and created distrust between the King, and the people, encouraging the people to rebel, and adopt democracy and dethrone the King. An all out espionage war broke out, which eventually lead to the destruction of both regions' forums, bitter speeches towards one another, and the Moderators, for the second time in the history of the game, taking over the region completely, and replacing the founder with a Moderator due to numerous complaints by citizens from both regions. Roma Qochasiva won the war against Holy Land by dethroning its king and allowing the region to establish democracy, which has existed for over five years after the war.”

A voluntary merger has become a secret infiltration. A stark betrayal has become the coup of a tyrant. The death of a region is celebrated as a return to “democracy.” This last epitaph is his most disgusting revision, and he will recycle it throughout the Immaculata to whitewash his most brutal purges. Democracy did not reign in Holy Land. From a forum thread in the GRA (Multiple authors, illegal occupation of Holy Land), one could still see the chaos writhing in the ruins as late as February, 2006.

If the Immaculata is a vehicle for rehabilitation, then what do we make of his claims about the Byzantine Inquisition Council? How should we interpret the bold (almost laughable) claim that Illuminati is responsible for the creation of The Aeazen Combine? To date, I have found no posts that can confirm even the hint of a connection between Illuminati and Aeazer, and I have heard testimony from multiple long-lived veterans of the game who all assure me that Rhyphix – going by whatever name they knew him as – was never associated with the Combine.

The absence of evidence cannot, by itself, be taken as proof of a conclusion. I cannot rule out that Rhyphix had some sort of interaction with the early Combine. He and Aeazer were contemporaries and may have even spoken on the same RMB, though the nature and scope of those conversations – if they ever happened – can only be fantasized about. Aeazer and Rhyphix shared certain traits including an indulgent sense of their own intellect and a penchant for spycraft. They both utilized the tactical deployment of fibs, insinuations, half-truths, and outright lies all in pursuit of infamy for it’s own sake. Rhyphix may have admired Aeazer because he achieved the notoriety which Rhyphix tried so hard to garner for himself. Perhaps there was even a point in time when Rhyphix hoisted the flag of the AC and went rabble-rousing as one of their amateur adherents. The truth is likely less interesting than the mystery.

Through the magic of the Wayback Machine, we know for certain that Stonehenge and Illuminati were functionally one region. Snapshots captured of the Stonehenge forum show that, between May 29th and May 31st, the Stonehenge forum was altered to read,

“* WELCOME TO THE STONEHENGE - ILLUMINATI REGION FORUM * This is a joint forum for the region of Stonehenge and Illuminati. Stonehenge was founded on May 2, 2005 and Illuminati was liberated on May 25, 2005. These two regions, under the guidence of the nation of Qochasiva will forever work side by side as one region.”

This means that the Illuminati project was alive before Stonehenge’s first constitution was even published. We can’t know for certain who held the founder account in Illuminati, but in posts lodged in the Stonehenge embassy dated July 6, Rhyphix said,

“I considered Illuminati as a Sister Region for a while, but discovered that managing two regions was just to much (as again I devote at least 4-5 hours minimum just to STONEHENGE. Illuminati was given away to a well respected nation who has good intentions for the region.” (Rhyphix, [i]Stonehenge/[i])

This proves that there was, at least, a second conspirator. The rest of the council is difficult to define. The Immaculata claims the BIC was 9 members strong. Snapshots of the Stonehenge forum show 10 members by the start of June. The Immaculata names six of the nine: Rhyphix (Roma Qochasiva), Aeazer, Forgery, The Midnight Blue, but also two characters named Formidable Opponent and Maxistein. These final two are listed as “Grand Chancellors” in later chapters of Illuminati history, though they leave a faint imprint.

The reconciled timeline is thus:

Illuminati and Stonehenge co-existed through the summer of 2005. If we assume that the Immaculata speaks with words stolen from true events as opposed to outright fictions, then Stonehenge was either destroyed or abandoned near the start of July, the result of Rhyphix’s espionage scandal. He spent July in Brotherhood establishing their intel network but left suddenly. According to the Immaculata, Darkesia detected him in a way that left him unnerved and paranoid.

Between August and September he forms the WORLD EYE project. WORLD EYE is either a successor region to Stonehenge that builds upon the ideas he developed with the BIC, or else it is a new kind of infiltration stratagem which finds its mature expression in the ruination of Holy Land.

By the end of the year, Illuminati is once again under Rhyphix’s control and a new proxy region – given the confusing name “Government” – appears in both the Immaculata and the posting record. Government lived a brief life and may have been another iteration of the WORLD EYE stratagem, but neither record contains enough information to discern its story.

The world turned. Earth found its footsteps and retread its eternal ellipse. A new Invader Org appeared and marked its passage through vulnerable regions by way of pyramid monuments. The Empire was born. The Cycle had begun.

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I wrapped the Immaculata in foil and silk to keep it hidden, but nothing can keep it safe. It rests in my collection until the day when a studious looter stumbles upon it. Maybe all my work will drown and his secrets will drown with me? I cannot resurrect the past, but I’ll drag its corpses as far as I’m able.

Entombed within these closing paragraphs are two new artifacts, the first of which I have spent this entire chapter describing. The Historia Immaculata (first edition, circa winter 2010-2011) is a large scroll, unrolled horizontally, whose axles are petrified wood originally carved from the Tree of Knowledge. The manuscript itself is golden ink on vellum. The letters glisten with unnatural light and are most visible in the dark. The vellum is a single piece taken from a species I shudder to identify. The margins are heavily illuminated, though some of the illustrations may have been tattoos. It smells faintly of tobacco. I’ve found no signs of water damage except for stray grains of salt.

My next curiosity is a souvenir I found wedged between the vault door and its frame: a fountain pen. The barrel is corroded steel with flecks of black paint scattered like dark stars down its length. The nib is made of a silver alloy whose components have made it resilient to both time and pressure. Complicated cutouts along the frame of the nib suggest the shape of a key. The clip is broken. Engraved text just before the fracture reads, “With love-.” I tested it on some scratch paper and discovered that the ink within was still useable. In fact, I’m afraid it might be potent. Even the nonsense lines I traced to get the fluid flowing have taken on unfathomable meaning when I read them.

Memory is magical, and the ways we remember are a kind of spell craft. If Illuminati wasn’t founded as the focus of a grand conspiracy, then it was reclaimed to create the myth of one. What purpose did that story serve? Who stood to gain from the schemes of the BIC? What happened to the Illuminati that Rhyphix lost?

In 2006, Rhyphix authored a series of conquests that may not have been as expansive as those of Alexander or Halcones, but they formed a fable as grand as that of Rome. The first Illuminati Empire blinds the memories in his mind. I cannot see the full map of his victories, but I can see its shape in the Immaculata and in snide posts lodged for decades after the fact that recollect - with little respect - how a minor Invader Org once polluted the website with silly, little triangles.