Excerpt: "The Cruxian"

CRUXIAN; (croo’shían/shyan) noun. member of the ancestral monotheistic religion known as Cruxis (croo’shís), from where the name stems. Successive etymological studies have determined the word to date from the Eitai Kaikoudouza (aytai kai‘kor‘dor‘zah) - “Age of Stellar Revolution” of 3.9 million years ago; (E.K. 140,315) wherein colonial wars between religious insurgents lead to mass migrations from world to world. The PROPHET CRUXIA, (croo’shía/shyah) most celebrated matriarch of antiquity, lead 900,000 acolytes to planet Endouma, where she died by self emulation, a sacrifice intended to rouse her followers to belligerency and demand passage to Primalarity on corporate spaceliners, an act that also saw her subsequent deification (cf. bibliography, [History and Future] of the Cruxian Church, the)
See also; “the Haikoan Cruxia”- the CRUXIAN CHURCH - oldest, largest single organised institution of the Cruxian religion. Dating from the arrival of the 900,000 “proto-Cruxians” to planet Primalarity (Prai’mah’lar’rit’ee) in the year E.K 140,320. The Cruxian Church is still alive and functioning to this day.
- from “The Hyinoan Encyclopaedia, 2909th Edition” - Ouinamikon Imperial Publishers

Kai’Droma Hirmalexion stood like a sentinel watching the metropolis below from a public balcony.
A young adult, of 45 years Andronean age, and no less than 1 year ago finally inaugurated into the Ar’Veixis Cruxia, and took his place among the Cruxian Hierarchs. It had taken 24 years of agony and purposeful, precise trauma, but he made it. It had formed him. Another unique creation of the Cruxian religion. He endured it all, and celebrated his ascendancy for many trance filled days, ecstatic and glad with all those who had succeeded alongside him, including his closest friend, Haixiaxes. Of all he had done, this was one thing he was acutely proud of. Even now, one year later, he was filled with sentiment about it all when he thought on it, and he knew the memory was now one source of giddiness that would never deplete.

The city of the Driacontion, Haikeifeng, was an astounding beauty of shining black edifices and monuments. Its brilliance magnified under the midday sun. The shining roads, which stretched out in high immaculate rows to the horizon were made of the hybrid, semi-metallic, Jaikonax, that the Cruxians had irresistibly found themselves hoarding wherever they went. It was the basis of all their cities, and gave all the roads and motorways an immaculate gleam. Even the grounded and magnet cars that sped up and down did not detract the image, after all, it had been thousands of years since fumeless transport was integrated once more on Primalarity. Kai’Droma had come to this spot for the last 3 days to see it the city in the midday sun, and bask in the heat and sight of it
.
Kai’Droma sighed, and began walking along the terrace, his attention fixed on the world below. He wore the flowing robes of black and red, and the heavy Jourdan armour of the Hierarchs. In the midday sun the air became hot and dry, and he found it considerably difficult to keep his temperature down.
Cruxian religion demanded training of the body, and it gave no concession about that, nor apologised for such an arbitrary imposition. The training itself was not just religious and mental, but strove to effect your entire being, fundamentally altering your body right down to the dimension of singular cells. The school of the Ujiatrix, the internal-temperature-control was one of the many integral aspects of this religious transformation, expected of all members of the Cruxian Church. Needless to say, mastery of this was demanded of the Hierarchs, who were looked to, and expected to be supreme in all they put their spirit to. They had to learn these things, and were tested on these things, in order to become a Hierarch. Their position, as Hierarch, was synonymous with their skill, their skill was their power, and their power came from the lineage of holy transformation within which they were taught. Kai’Droma, when he escaped to from planet Androme to Primalarity was accepted into Mao’Zaetzor’s lineage and system of training. And now, Kai’Droma stood poised to inherit the lineage, as master of it, when his master died. This humbled Kai’Droma, and he did not like to think about it.

Indeed, the Hierarchs of the Cruxians were expected to boast complete control of all aspects of their bodily function. The ability to perform a martial, religious kata was as respected, and tested as the ability to ingest poisons and render them inert, to control and harness the behaviour of sexual organs and demands, the gradual sculpting of one’s own muscle formation, and indeed, the ability with which one’s body adjusted itself to the uncontrollable variables of temperature, ad infitum.
But it was quite hot, and Kai’Droma found it difficult, but knew that other factors were at play. His mind was not focused. He was erratic and did not have any immediate purpose.

He had been summoned to this city with his master, but he hadn’t been told a thing. For three days he had resided with these Driacontion Counsellors, and all of them were strange. They spoke little, and the little they did speak, was cryptic and demanding. There were rumours, some of them were charitable enough to tease Kai’Droma, and drop hints, and Mao’Zaetzor had said some interesting things already, but nothing that Kai’Droma could make any judgement from. Even so, he was certain that he didn’t want to make any judgment, yet. He felt safe in the naivety zone in which he knew he still stood, knowing that when any knowledge was given to him, he immediately accepted some burden of responsibility for it. All he could do was wait, and he accepted that, and gave himself to the sun and the artificial beauty of the city, keeping a sensitive hand on the phone that lay inset in his ritual armour.
Aye’tium statues carven of solid onyx adorned every street, and every street too stretched into the distance. They were placed on every level of the enormous Civic Temples that dominated Haikeifeng, within which most people resided. Within the interiors they were adorned with trinkets and clothing from the faithful, and the outside, they were constantly cleaned and refurbished to withstand the elements. Kai’Droma’s favourite was the “Ar’Veixiahai,” the statue-depiction of the Cruxian Hierarch. Now that he was one among their number, they reminded him curiously of himself.

The Ar’Veixiahai were special, and Kai‘Droma found himself raptured by them, never ceased in his facinsation with them. Of the same material that most statues were made of, the black onyx from planet Eimior, each one uniquely and passionately carved, and presented with a golden copy of the Jourdan armor, placed and fixed onto the bodice of the thing. The beauty was ineffable, and soon became the most enduring icon of the Cruxian Church. Upon whatever planet you came to, or whatever colony or settlement where there were Cruxians, you would be sure to find an abundance of depictions of the Cruxians. A narcissistic tendency that among other things, they revelled in. The Cruxians, not separate from their Syciothor and Piraxian kin, were not separate as a race, but each group acted as such a divide was present between them.

Only the Cruxians saw themselves this way, and endeavoured to proceed and adorn wherever they lived with these depictions. The rest though were different. The Hyinoans had their own style of depiction, and sense of admission that was beholden purely to their Imperial hierarchy, which had, through all the vicissitudes, and hundreds fo thousands of years, had completely enveloped any independent Hyinoan culture, and the Syciothors, raised statues of their own people only temporarily, and with certain reluctance, too often seeing them as a waste of resources, and vain and arrogant things, quite inharmonious with their own form of cosmic humility. The Cruxian Aye’tium, and that which was revealed beyond it, stood before the universe and said in arrogance; “I am” and was indeed. For the universe was a test to them, passage to the paradise beyond.

Rising high from the ground level of those streets (though the ground level is not correct, as every Cruxian cities reached as far underground as it did upwards) great towers soared into the sky, housing hundreds of thousands of Cruxians on thousands of separate levels each. Embracing the cityscape, the green domes of temples, the black and grey spires and reflective cathedrals of impossible magnificence reached up in union to the piece the clouds. All of these buildings shone under Kousaizer, and the material that had served to create these things served another purpose, and acted as prisms to reflect the light across paths spread to all those places which had been cast into shadow in the city. Those within the buildings were not blinded, but protected from the light from Image-blinds, and saw through them just as normal.

The city was not just a single level, but a hundred thousand levels. Public walkways and plazas could reach high into what would be the sky, in union with the temples and monuments they were connected to. This was hundreds and thousands of meters from sea level. Each as adorned and decorated as the former. Cruxian Temples were built to be so large they could accommodate entire cities within their walls. The protective barriers, raised by the magnitude of the civil planning effectively created demarcations between the jungles of the Primaline wilderness, and the towering modernity of the cities. The genius of the Cruxian architecture could not be fully admired by simply looking at their cities, but by venturing into the metropolis, by going to the small-places, and immersing yourself in them, as with all things Cruxian, it was the experience of it from where the understanding came. Would anyone know for sure, upon first glace at the staggering population numbers they hid within the deceptively quiet and beautiful metropolises, then the cities would suddenly seem very small indeed.

Haikeifeng was not a Temple-City. It had a definitive purpose. As pinnacle of the Cruxian world, the city stood as a reminder of eras past, and a path to the future. Every individual in this city was either a member of the Driacontion of Hierarchs, or one of the many secretaries, deacons, advisors or entourages that came with them. Cruxian Hierarchs of both genders. There were so many of them. Kai’Droma had never seen so many in such a small space, even though the city was positively enormous compared to the picturesque, Primaline idyll of Kaixianza. All in ritual clothing.
The Jourdan armour, ritually required of all Hierarchs was considerably heavy and cumbersome. Though there were many models of it, many variations that conformed to the differing specialization of certain roles, and rites, and schools, and sects… the model that Kai’Droma wore, particular to Mao’Zaetzor’s craft, weighed a minimum of 90kg not including the Erkai helm, and ceremonial plumage. Kai’Droma therefore certainly thought that all Jourdan was this heavy, and did not care if he was wrong.

A simple thought point for him soon turned into a demanding mental problem that he was soon obsessing about; he wondered how many hierarchs, in full Cruxian dress, would be able to fit through the Driacontion hall doors, as the metallic winged shoulders were, proportionally, absurdly wide. He was heavily disappointed to notice on his first day, that all Driacontion hierarchs seemed to compose themselves in a form of implacable manners and self reservation when it came to doors. Hopefully, one day I’ll see it. He thought to himself about it.
Looking over the metropolis, in its shining magnificence, he wondered. There are sixty million people here. All of them doing something, but hidden, and among them, my master. I wait for him.