A game Introduction

by its author Gary Lee Stuber

ome of the greatest stories of hope and courage, of strength and power, of faith and adversity, lie buried forever; never to be remembered. They lie not in secret chambers of buried civilizations covered in sand and stone and earth, nor in the lost chamber or caverns deep into the sea cliff mountains, but rather they lie quietly mapped and charted, wrapped and sealed, and packed and placed into the dusty alcoves of the impervious library catacombs below Vatican Hill.

These stories, some of them only myth and legend, some the designs of devious and controlling minds, and still others, biographies, written in the blood of those who chronicled their own experiences, lie as if dead, quiet and still. But whether myth, legend, truth or history — none of them residing in these libraries were ever meant to see the light of day, or to be read nor contemplated of men again. The darkness owns them. Why? Because some men, pious men decided a long time ago that they conflicted with the best interests of the church. Because they challenged church dogma, doctrine, tradition or just history as they meant for it to continue. And, because the darkness owned some of them too.

For the history of the church was one of blemishes, bruises and blackeyes. For Rome, was at one time, an enemy of Christ. Then suddenly in 312 A.D. with the almost instantaneous conversion of Emperor Constantine to Christianity the two at enmity were at once thrust together like bride and bridegroom, forming the Holy Roman Church of Jesus Christ, a curious mix of Christianity and the sovereign rule of the Roman Emperor Constantine — as if it were his right to pick and choose the traditions and sanctions of the church, Christian leaders once persecuted and punished for their beliefs were now promoted by the Emperor but at a high price — the Emperor called all the shots.

This new Holy Roman Church declared that it was the ONLY legitimate Christian faith and that anyone outside the sanctions of their own heirarchy were heritics, blasphemers, and driven by demons or by Satan himself, and therefore self-declared enemies of the church. Thus, other Christian sects, even some whose origins went all the way back to the ministry of Jesus Himself or of HIs Apostles were hunted down and forced to accept Rome’s version of doctrine or perish. Many of these “true” Christians, like the Anna-Baptists, the forerunners of the Baptist religion in the world, scattered throughout Europe and Asia, hiding themselves in the mountain ranges. Other sects were not so lucky. They were cut in two by the sword or hung, or burned alive, or tortured to betray others or forced into confessing that they were heretics and the servants of Satan. Their scriptures, some just pieces of scrolls, were confiscated. Their histories and other written records taken and returned to the Vatican or burned upon the bodies of the victims who carried them. This then, was the real definition of the “Dark Ages”as the so-called “Holy Church” became the enemy of Jesus once again trying to burn or kill or crush Christians out of the earth. The Church itself became obese and bloated and power mad and hungry; it was saved a second time by the graciousness of Jesus Christ.

This was accomplished over many centuries through many of its own priests, including and especially the priest Martin Luthor, whose lifetime war within the church finally began the change both within and without the church. As the church split into Protestant factors the number of enemies became so great that the original church could not fight them all. It eventually came to make within the church the same return to practices and doctrine written in Holy scriptures that were established by God before, during, and immediately following the life of Christ that these other Protestant and Baptist factions had been following.The new Holy Roman Church, with the Pope as it’s head, still largely follow this doctrine today.The Pope and other church leaders still sit, some unknowingly, like ignorant guardians, over the secret histories of its former enemies.

For reasons, politic — or – for reasons, other: these documents remain now and forever in darkness. They are kept by the darkness and owned by the darkness. That is, until, some curious one, some powerful one, within the Vatican — out of curiosity or by some other, perhaps divine motivation — finds one and begins to peruse the old languages. And, being moved of the spirit, trying to move the document out of the darkness and into the light meets with adversity. Over the course of fifteen hundred years many a priest have been martyred, murdered within the subterranian walls because they stumbled upon and wanted to free such a story from the darkness.The jealous darkness consumed them. Thus it has been rare when such a story could make it out — and always at such a cost. Even when this happens there is no possible way to verify its authority, whether true or false. Nor whether, even if it were truly from the recesses of the darkness below the Vatican, if it were a true account of the faithful, or merely myth or legend.

Thus it is with such intrepidation that I now offer this account. A story of faith, courage, power, and mystery — a story which reads like myth, but rings true as if history, a story that lifts the heart and soul and yet cannot be verified by any other fact or history or evidence existing. A story told to someone close to the one whose story it tells, who left this record of faith, hope and courage during a time of miracles. The story takes place during the Dark Ages sometime after 900 A.D. when Rome is exercising a stranglehold over the world through its church while battling the new enemy of Islam to it’s east. A time when true Christianity exists side by side with paganism to Rome’s north and west hiding in plain sight, waiting for a true Christian hero to emerge and bring light once more into the darkness of the world.

“And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be manifest, that they are wrought in God.”

The tale begins here.

To the adventurous gamer:

(The preceding was your intro to the setting of the game, it’s parameters, as it were. What follows is a narrative Christian fictional story introducing your character. Let’s call it ‘Chapter One’ of our joint fictional adventure. Because of its length I am posting it in two posts: Chapter One. Part 1 and Chapter One, Part 2. They are all one chapter that for ease of posting has been broken. At the end of chapter one you will have been introduced to your player character, know his skills, and powers and possessions and be thrust into a great hazard that you must resolve with your own imagination, principals backed up by scripture and your own sense of great story telling. There are things that cannot be understood till you read the chapter so a note with more clarity will follow at the end of chapter one.)

To the non-gamer, curious Christian fiction reader:

(Don’t go anywhere. Proceed directly to the next post. You will be thoroughly entertained by the Christian fiction that follows. You will be inspired and maybe challenged and maybe even see a little bit of miraculous magic, if not similar, at least as inspired as that created by C.S.Lewis. You have nothing to lose, and only inspiration to gain.)

This game was referenced in a previous post here at Gary’s Incites,  it was a posting of the original letter that accompanied this introduction and Chapter One that I sent to my son, Christian. You can find it on this site under the Gaming category titled, “The Need for a Good Christian RPG”