It is said that when the Dark Mother returns to Hearth, she will awaken Hiss his Long Sleep and lie with the Snake, and He will devour the sky, and she will give birth to the Kingdom of Empires, called Vacadre Silentiis. Anyone killed in the name of Helena or Hiss is judged upon death, and if innocent, sent directly to Vacadre Silentiis. If guilty, their souls are eaten by the Dragon Rh’amt. Any killing is therefore sanctioned if the Dark Mother or the Great Serpent’s name was in the soldier's heart.
In the Book of Limbs, it is said:
…Hiss will return to end what Helena hath begun, imbibing the sky in one slip of His mighty tongues, and restore Ur to a new Black Age, the Kingdom Composed of All Empires. Penetrated by the Unholy Shadow, the Black Queen shall engorge with the Third Kingdom, and in feeding it Her acid milk, digest His enemies. The newborn subjects, all His loyal believers in the Script reborn from their glorious ashes, shall slay the Sun and his servant the Light, making way for Hiss to finally conquer the Dayside as well, swallowing all Hearth into His Bleak Belly. This, once the Third Uryan Ziggurat is built and destroyed and the Three Minotaurs of the Storm have slaughtered a third of the planet.
—The Black Ratios of the Cannibal Queen, Act III, Ratios 775-780
Within the borders of the Nightlands, thousands of Helenic sects worship the Serpent under different monikers or nicknames, and fight annually to decide their ruler. Though it is unclear from the outside how these sects differ, not knowing the difference in the Nightside could prove deadly.
Jerome will not let me see his work. He says it is for creative reasons, but there is a mad look in his eye when he refuses my demands. He may become a problem later.
The others who he initiates into the Golden Knights, as he calls them, continue to listen to my directions, but I feel their hesitation. They only do so at his direction. THe prop master! No less. I am their director, this cannot stand.
What happens if they start to look to him after I yell “Action!”, as if to see if they should follow me? The others will see, and they will begin to question. Leadership is a spell—a hex, and doubt be its unbreaking. If the Dragon is not a dragon, then what is he? I ask you, what? He is nothing. No, this cannot stand. Patty agrees. She sees the look. I think she may have pointed it out to me, in the first place. No, no, I saw it long before, she says. I told her weeks ago. My memory is not what it was. Yes. I must see his progress. I am the shepherd here, I must maintain control of my flock, or there will be chaos