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- The Path of Transcendence
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Entry 1: My initial findings may have been inconclusive, but they set me on the path I will pursue until I achieve my goal or lie rotting in this cave. Either outcome will be a welcome respite from the days and nights I've spent toiling without food, water, or any kind of companionship. A lesser mage would have fallen prey to madness by now, I'm sure of it. But I am not a lesser mage! Though they try in earnest, though their hearts and minds are true to the teachings of our great Sovereign, my fellow Necromancers lack the complete dedication required to achieve that ultimate of goals -- the state of lichdom. Not even Falcar himself can match my sheer tenacity, my unwillingness to accept failure on any level. That is why I, Celedaen, will soon join the ranks of the Worm Eremites, those servants favored by our sovereign above all others. I will sit with honor and obedience at his right hand while those fools in the Mages Guild grovel at my maggot-ridden feet!
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Entry 2: Even the most pedestrian peasant fairy tale has long held that a lich must somehow remain bound to his soul, and that connection most commonly manifests itself as a transference of the spirit into an actual physical object. An urn, a sarcophagus, a crystal phial.... One Khajiit fairy tale even tells of a lich who preserved his spirit in the severed head of a Wood Elf infant! And these same peasants long comforted themselves with the belief that if they ever had the grave misfortune of facing a lich, they would need only find the vessel containing his spirit form and then destroy it, thus destroying the lich himself. Fools and their folklore! True liches possess no such weakness! Can one of the Sovereign's Worm Eremites be bested by shattering a glass vase? The very notion is so absurd as to be comical. Yes, a Necromancer must transfer his soul into a physical vessel, but once that transference is complete, once the Necromancer has fully metamorphosed into his lich form, the vessel is inconsequential. But it's the process of this transference itself that has eluded me for so long. My soul remains bound to my earthly body, and nothing I have attempted has allowed me to free myself of this mortal coil and transcend to the state of lichdom I so dearly desire.
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Entry 3: Every tome I've acquired, the volumes upon volumes of Necromantic discourse, all useless! I have grown disgusted by the years of wasted life that have been poured into these so-called "essential" writings. Who in their right mind would ever wish to animate a month-dead Cyrodilic butterfly, or bring life to the rotting husk of a rare albino mud crab? How many months have I wasted away in this cave? And for what reason? Ah, yes, I know! I will resurrect an army of deformed goblin younglings and march on the White-Gold Tower itself! That at least is in my reach! My mind has become a cesspool of Necromantic waste, where reject spells and rituals compete for the honor of finally driving me completely insane. And still I am no closer to achieving my goal than I was when I first began this process. Am I losing faith in myself, in my discipline? Perhaps I have been studying too hard. Many a night I have sacrificed my prayers to our Sovereign for one more experiment, one more incantation. What I need now is rest. Rest, and a state of tranquility, so that I may commune with our Sovereign and re-pledge my loyalty and devotion. For what answer will I find in some crumbling codex that could not be supplied by our great Sovereign himself?
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Entry 4: The secret is mine! So long I searched, so hard I toiled, but I was a fool! I was right to forgo my studies for a more ardent devotion to prayer. Last night, as I sit in the throes of meditation, our great Sovereign did come to me! He passed to me the knowledge I have sought for so long! The secrets of transcendence were even more complex and arcane than even I could have imagined, and I will never transcribe them into any written work. Indeed, they have never been recorded! All my months of solitude were for naught, as the secret I so desperately sought could only be obtained through direct communication with out great Sovereign himself. Soon I will walk the earth as a Worm Eremite, serving the Sovereign in a state of endless undeath!
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Entry 5: Through the sacrifice of many innocents, the resurrection of many servants to aid me in my tasks, and the tireless performance of a nearly week-long ritual, I have completed construction of the Sands Of Resolve. The transcendence to full lichdom will not be immediate, however. The vessel has been crafted, but my energy force, my soul, must be fully transferred into it. Not even our Sovereign was quite certain how long this process would take, at it varies from one Necromancer to the next, based on many factors both physical and spiritual. One thing, however, is certain. This hourglass must never leave my possession until the transference is complete! I grow more powerful every day, but in truth am more vulnerable than I've ever been. If something were to happen to the Sands of Resolve, if the hourglass should somehow leave my person, the connection between soul and vessel would be severed. To think that my work, my life, could be eradicated so easily after I've come so close to success is almost more than I can bear.
訳文 †
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記述1:初期の発見は大したものではなかったが、私に研究の目標を達成するか、この洞窟に骸を晒すことになるまでの道を、くれた。どちらにせよ昼も夜も食事も水も口にせず、誰とも会わずに苦難の作業を続けてきた私にとっては有難い休息になるだろう。劣等な魔術師なら今頃狂気の餌食になっていたに違いない、しかし私は劣等な魔術師ではない！仲間のネクロマンサーたちは偉大なるSovereignの教えに身も心も忠実に従うことに関しては熱心に行うが、彼らには究極の目的（Lich化するということ）を達成する為の完全なる献身というものが欠けている。Falcar自身さえ、私の不屈の精神、いかなる点でも失敗を嫌う心には敵うまい。だから私(Celedaen)は、すぐにでもWorm_Eremitesの階梯に加わるであろう、彼らは他の誰よりSovereignに愛されている従者だからだ。彼の右手に名誉と臣従とともに座し、Mages_Guildの馬鹿どもを我のウジ虫だらけの足下に這わせるのだ！
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記述2:農民たちのありふれたおとぎ話にも、Lichは何かしら魂を結びつけておくものが必要であり、現世の物体にその魂を移し変えていると長年伝えられてきた。壷、石棺、水晶ガラスの小ビン…Khajiitのおとぎ話には、あるLichがWood_Elfの幼児の生首に彼の精神を保存したとさえ言い伝えている！そして農民たちは、もし不幸にもLichと出会ってしまったら、魂を収めた容器を見つけて破壊すれば、Lichを破壊できると信じ、安堵してきたのだ。愚者め、迷信だ！真のLichに、そんな弱点はない！ガラスの花瓶を砕いて、SovereignのWorm_Eremitesを１人でも負かすことができるとでも？そんな考えはとんでもなさすぎて滑稽なほどだ。そう確かにネクロマンサーは精神を物理的な容器に移さなければならないが、その転移がいったん完成し、ネクロマンサーがLichに完全に変身すると、容器は意味をなくす。しかし、長いこと私はこの転移の過程ですら行えずにいる。我が魂は地上の肉体に縛られており、この世の煩わしさから解放され、心から望んでいるLich化も試みることができないでいる。
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記述3:手に入れたあらゆる死霊術の書物はすべて役立たたずであった！これらのいわゆる「不可欠」な文書の為に無駄に費やした人生の年月にうんざりしている。一ヶ月前に死んだCyrodilic蝶を生き返らせる？稀少なアルビノの泥ガニの腐った甲羅に生命を与える？そんな奴は正気とは思えない。いったい何カ月、私はこの洞窟の中で時間を無駄にしたろう？一体どんな訳で？ああ、そうとも！若い変異ゴブリンの軍隊を復活させ、白金の塔にでも行軍するつもりだったのさ！少なくともそれ位はできるのだ！死霊術のゴミ貯めになった心地がして、最終的な名誉のための呪文も儀式も拒絶し、イライラしていた。当初の目的を果たすまでの道のりは、いまだ遠い。私は信仰を失い始めている？試練の途中で？恐らく、あまりに真剣に研究しすぎたのだ。いくつもの夜を、更なる実験、更なる呪文のために、Sovereignへの祈りを犠牲にしてきた。今、必要なのは休息だ。休んで、冷静になり、我らのSovereignと交感し、忠誠と献身を再度、誓おう。いかなる答えが偉大なるSovereignがくだされた古ぼけた写本から見つかるだろうか？
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記述4:秘密を手に入れた！とても長い間、根気強く探求していた私が馬鹿だった！研究を止め、より情熱的に祈ったのが正解だったのだ。最後の夜、思索の苦しみで座ったとき、我らの偉大なるSovereignが降臨された！長い間捜し求めていた知識をくだされたのだ！超越の秘密は、想像したよりも複雑かつ秘奥の術であり、私はそれを決して翻訳し書き写すことはないだろう。実際、今まで一度も記述されたことはないのだ！偉大なるSovereign自身との直接対話を通して秘密を得たことに比べれば、長年の孤独は無意味だった。すぐにでも終わりなき不死を得てSovereignに従い、Worm_Eremiteとして地上を彷徨することになるだろう！
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記述5:多くの無辜の民を犠牲にしたが、我が使命のための従者として蘇らせ、休みなく1週間近く儀式を行い、Sands_Of_Resolveを完成した。しかしながら、完全なLich化は即座に達成できそうもない。容器は作ったが、私のエネルギー(精神)をそれに完全に移さなければならない。ネクロマンサーから次なる姿へと変わるのに、物理的および霊的な様々な要因により、我らがSovereignさえこの作業にどれくらい時間がかかるかを確答できない。しかしながら、1つ確かな事がある。変身が完全になるまで、この砂時計を我がものにしておかねばならない！我が力は日々増してはいるが、今までより実に脆くなっている。何かがSands_Of_Resolveに起これば、砂時計に私の人格は残され、精神と器との接続は断ち切られてしまう。成功が目前となった後で、これほど容易に、私の仕事(私の人生)を根絶することができると思うと、我慢できない。
