Third Eon: 04: The Incarnate Lord
In Heaven, at last, all was prepared to the Lord’s satisfaction, that They might be Incarnate within the Material Universe. But They would be Incarnate bereft of God’s Will and Wisdom, and this would change the world forever.
Conception of the Incarnate Lord
Gabriel was sent, as Herald of the Lord, to a newlywed couple on their wedding night, and spoke to them:
“So! It is time for even the groom’s bosom companions and the bride’s hovering parents to be banished to their own rooms!” His voice was a thousand trumpets in blissful harmony that filled the hearts of the young mortal couple with joy overflowing.
“And well you should feel joy!” He laughed, causing man and woman both such ecstatic release as never before felt by either. As they clung to one another, for the moment spent, Gabriel said, “You have been chosen for the holiest of honors.” And they had. They were deemed most fit for what the Lord had in mind, in spirit, body, and thought. For the short term, and the long.
“Attend!” Gabriel cried out, his voice a thunder of brass. “You experience what no other of your kind has or will! Behold the Lord! Know the Prime Aspect, as They divide within you for this night so They may know Themself and in so Knowing and being Known, bring forth the Incarnate Aspect of the Lord!” The earth shook at Gabriel’s words and the skies darkened.
Then the Lord walked within the Material Universe, and They approached the bride and groom, becoming She and He, remaining the Lord, but also becoming woman and man, bride and groom, mother and father.
And when the Lord had known Themselves in this way, They left the bride and groom.
Birth of the Incarnate Lord
Many long months later a child is born, with a radiant halo around his head and proclaiming himself the Incarnate Lord.
“You have Known me in your blessed womb, mother, where I grew from your seed, father, so I am your son, and will bear what name you give me. But know that the Lord is Mother and Father both to me also and I am therefore the Son, with Names known only to God’s Wisdom herself and so denied me. Human I might be in Flesh, but in Spirit I am close unto Unknowable God. I am the Incarnate Lord!”
And after that he slept. When he awoke he bore no halo and behaved as babes newly born tend to do. He never spoke again, until such time as one expects children to start speaking, but even then only on such topics important to children. He is never again so aware of his nature, even when it finally comes upon him.
Life of the Incarnate Lord
As a child, his life is unremarkable, save one incident in the Holy City.
While traveling on his first Pilgrimage with his family to the Great Shrine of the Archangels, he is abducted by members of the cult of Samael. They keep him in a ruined shrine to the Fallen Archangel for a full day and night, intending to corrupt him to Darkness. Eventually, his father finds them, smashing through the wall, possessed of a divine strength and a father’s wrath, only to discover the young Incarnate Lord, his abductors seated around him, attentive to his teachings on the good and righteous path. With a final benediction, he blesses them, and so doing sanctifies the ruined temple, delivering it from evil purpose. It is his first miracle, known only to him and his father.
As a man grown, he marries and fathers children. His family fall on hard times and, following a vision, he sells himself into slavery to clear their debts. It is this decision, made without God’s Wisdom, outside the scope of God’s Will, that dooms the world.
He will never see his wife and children again. His daughter will grow to become an oracular healer, only to be burned as a witch by zealots twisting her father’s teachings. His son will trade on his lineage in a fool’s bargain with a rapacious empire, much to the detriment of his legacy.
The Incarnate Lord passes through a series of unkind masters, suffering greatly at their hands, bearing the grim price for their pleasures and luxuries. The color of his skin makes him a target of scorn from the foreign invaders that are draining his country of blood and treasure.
Always he shelters and protects those weaker: taking the lash for an old woman’s error, or splitting his rations among the children, going without so they could have more. He strives to be good and righteous in all things.
Others follow his example, and as they serve alongside him he would preach to them. The Essence of the Lord grows in him during this time, and his words ring with radiant Truth. He teaches the Archangels’ Creed, preaching the doctrine of the good and righteous path.
As he grows into the fullness of the Incarnate Lord, he begins to work miracles: acts of healing and provision that make a hovel a paradise.
When he is lashed for another slave’s thievery, the blood of his wounds heals all who lay hands on him. He does not eat, suffering an endless gnawing hunger yet incapable of starving, and by this suffering his rations are made everlasting. None go hungry, with abundant food readily available to all slaves, unseen by the masters and their thugs.
He quells a violent uprising with only the strength of his voice and the authority of his words, but is blamed for it by the masters and their masters.
He makes the occupiers nervous. Word of his miracles spreads among the slaves, and from the slaves to the poor and lower classes. Already, offerings are being left for him at various shrines of the Archangels, and it is past time for the occupiers to remind everyone who holds the ultimate authority.
He is imprisoned and sentenced to die. During his imprisonment, Samael visits his cell.
“Why sit here, dearest?” Samael asks, a darker shade among the shadowy corners, his voice a warm purr and a cool hiss. The effect is hypnotic, but also off-putting.
“Are you not the Incarnate Lord? Do you not possess the fullness of that power? Are you not essentially the Living God?”
A shadow slides across the wall to coil around him with a sly excess of familiarity. “You could tear these walls, this city, the entire world down around them,” Samael whispers in his ear. “Why sit here?”
“I’ll waste no words explaining what you cannot hope to understand.”
The shadows tighten, Samael’s voice drips with menace. “Try.”
A glow radiates out from the Incarnate Lord, and the shadows draw back in pain. “It is good you were banished, fell creature! Better still had your bonds held fast! No matter.” He shakes his head. “I deny you.”
“You’ve not heard my offer.”
“I’ve heard it before. It didn’t work then.” He grins. “Rather the opposite, as I remember.”
“So long ago, when we were both so young and prone to error. Perhaps my offer has changed.”
“You’re not that creative.”
The shadows roil, and a thick pressure fills the air then, but Samael could not strike him directly. “You deny me, my offer unheard,” the fury of Samael thrums through the dense atmosphere of the cell. “But you accept their offer of death readily enough!”
A contented silence is Samael’s only answer.
Death of the Incarnate Lord
In the end, he was sentenced to stand in a tight metal cage that hung in the town square until he died and rotted away.
But he did not die. Though starved of food and drink, he did not wither. Left naked and exposed to the elements, he suffered only pain and discomfort. Though the sharp metal of his tight cage cut him deeply, his wounds took no corruption. The wounds bled freely, yet his Flesh did not weaken from the loss, though the pain was nearly more than he could bear.
As he endured his sentence, his followers gathered. They collected the blood of his wounds in jars, cups, and dishes, bearing them away. The Blood of the Incarnate Lord will go on to work miracles, but only from its own sacred vessel in the hands of the good and righteous.
He preached as he hung there, and all who heard his words were transformed. Peasants, slaves, soldiers, merchants, even those of the upper class — all heard the sermon of the Incarnate Lord. He spoke of goodness and righteousness, of resisting greed, denying hate, and serving others. He told them of the coming Fulfillment, when all evil will be defeated and they would Know the Unknowable God at last.
Among those transfixed by his preaching, was an assassin of the Cult of Samael, sent to kill him, since he would not succumb to the cage. She stabbed the spear up into his heart, finally ending his life. She would escape in the aftermath, only to drink herself to death weeks later.
And so he dies, his radiant Spirit burning his Flesh to ash on a straight path to Heaven, where the Lord reunites with Their Incarnate Aspect, finally Knowing humanity at last.
Legacy of the Incarnate Lord
Humanity would pay a price for the Lord’s intimate Knowledge of them, as agents of Samael come to work mischief amongst the followers of the Incarnate Lord. They establish sects and factions, turning the Faithful against one another while also uniting the Shrinekeepers of the Sacred Hierarchy and the occupying imperial authority against them, resulting in centuries of persecution.
In the end, the imperial authority become followers of the Incarnate Lord, but it is a false faith, an engine for conquest, merely the old Samaelite cult under the banner of the Incarnate Lord.
The Lord grows disheartened, turning away from humanity, from the Material Universe, from Matter itself, leaving it all to the depredation of the Outer Dark.
But the Incarnate Lord still abides in the world, in the hearts of the true Faithful, who uphold the Archangels’ Creed, walking the good and righteous path. Miracles of healing and provision are performed in the name of the Archangels, under the banner of the Incarnate Lord.
The Lord is moved once more by humanity, humbled by their courage and devotion. They repent Their defiance, becoming again the extant manifestation of God’s Will.
Sophia returns, healing all strife in Heaven.
The Shadow retreats, but does not lift, and the Outer Dark continues to devour.
