Abd-al Aziz Mamoon

Affiliation: Al-Araf

Position: Holy Leader

Background

Where did it all begin, this long life of yours? Was it in religion? Was it in books? Was it with her? The past recedes into darkness while the future burns brighter, clearer for you. Prophecy will--must--be fulfilled. You have some small part in it. Yes, a small part. Like a seed from which great things grow. Great and terrible, terrible and great.

Perhaps it was religion where it all began. You were a devout Shi'ite as a child and a youth. You were so devout that you wanted nothing save to be an imam. You wanted to lead the call to prayer, understand the greatest works of Allah, and guide your community in righteousness. There was a hunger in your belly for Allah, for his words and his commands. There was a thirst in you to drink deeply of Truth and share it with others. You did not know that any person can only understand so much of the vastness of Time and Space and Truth. You were ever ambitious though and not like other boys. Others dreamed small, while you dreamed large. Your hunger was not in vain though. You have been filled to overflowing with Truth. You will not rest until you consume it all. If that takes your life it will be because the body has held as much as it can hold and you must transcend it to continue your consumption. Death is no true barrier for one as learned as you.

Books. Perhaps it was books. It was from books that you fed yourself, gorged yourself. At first it was of worldly matters, as a scholar. You read the texts and understood them literally. A goat was a goat. A cow was a cow. All things were of the world. It was the simple fare for the minds of the many. You consumed it in great quantities, but it did not satisfy you. It was an entrance into a new world apart from the field and the raw earth. It brought you out of what you could have been and gave you a place of respect. It gave you the time to learn more as others provided for you, a young man of learning. Oh, how young you were, like a child.

With books came greater hunger and you learned more of the languages of old, hoping to find the words that had fed the scholars of antiquity. You were their child, in spirit and mind, and surely they had found better fare. You found that this was so. Now a goat was more than a goat... and less. Strange shapes, images, and colors lurked behind every line of text. You became an ālim, a religious scholar. The word and law of Allah gave shape to the world and so you began to understand the shape and form of things. All things. Yet like before, those words and forms only awoke greater hunger.

In your ravenous calls for more, you came across deeper truths. At last you began to find things that could truly sate you for a time. Forbidden works found you, feeling your hunger and recognizing it. In dead languages you found your true kin, scattered across Time and Space. Those few, great, hungry men who hungered as you hungered. You found their bread crumbs and slowly followed them, piecing together their journeys and the strange things they had witnessed. You at last peered behind such words as Allah and mind and man. These words were simple goats, raised by generations to offer food. They were herded, kept together, kept safe. Yet an entire world awaited beyond them. For if all that man knows and recognizes can be summed up in a goat, there are such greater things to be experienced.

For one, there are wolves.

Perhaps it did truly begin with her. She was a wolf to humanity's small pack of goats. She was other and foreign and... hungry. You did not know that she would give you so much... and take even more. She was your mother into this new world, opening your eyes and teaching you to see. She was your lover and wife as well, for you were bound to her, loved her, needed her. She ravaged you, mind and body. It was the only form of nurturing she understood. Yet she did not take your life. Instead, you were as a goat-herder, offering up some of your own for her, keeping her sated. Her hunger was as deep as yours, yet as different as this new world from the old. You hungered for Truth, she made blood a truth and feasted mercilessly upon it.

You carry with you two things of hers still. Two pieces of her flesh she left you before she went. One could be called a tentacle. It is one of the ways she still clings to the world though she has gone. She gave it to you, taking it from her human/not-human form. It was a tool for you to use at her behest. You still whisper to it at night as you used to do with her.

The second thing she left with you is your daughter. A daughter she crafted, taken from your blood and bone and from her flesh as well. She was made, a tool. She was perhaps made too well, for she consumed her mother upon birth. That so little a child could eat so great a thing as her mother only shows how little is understood of Time and Space by goats. Your daughter is a greater tool and a greater opportunity, yet a dangerous one. While she can be used to open new worlds to you, there must be caution lest you be consumed as well. She must remain pure and unaware until she can be used in the right ritual at the right time.

You are not such as she was though, not yet at least. Still, you are bound to the world of goats, though you see beyond it. And goats you must work with if you are to continue to be fed. It is a goat named Tariq Ibn Faruq that is your safest tool. He hungered for his Iraqi goats to be free of Western goats. You promised him this because such a thing would be easily accomplished once you were free. He has worked for you since, building Al-Araf and following the trails of breadcrumbs for you. Oh, the feasts you have found through this Al-Araf.

Al-Araf is a fitting name. In the Qu'ran, Al-Araf is a place that separates the Garden of Paradise from the Fires of Hell, the land of the goats from the land of the wolves. From this fortress, you see much and will at last be set free.

Already you make progress. Your goats understand that you have freed a 'Jinn' mentioned in the Qu'ran. That is an acceptable word in the language of goats. It points to the truth in many ways. What you have let in is a powerful creature of fire and air from beyond. It was very disappointing to learn that it would not serve you as readily as you desired. Two of your pupils died when it arrived. It took several weeks to learn the fashion in which your ritual had been insufficient. Two nexus points rather than one would be required to fully bind it.

The nexus points! They are three in number. Already Al-Araf holds one. The other two must belong to you in order to at last be free. Free to feast, free to consume, free to know Truth. When you learned of the other two, you sent Tariq to acquire the sites from the other people-goats. He must do this thing for you. When the second site is gained you can bind your first 'Jinn'. First you will bind this which you have brought into this world and interrogate it. It will give you the secrets you need. You have set this meeting at the nexus point of Babel. The place where the goats saw things beyond them, things beyond wolves. These things shattered the goats. From those goats came many different goats, all bleating at each other in new and strange ways. There is still much power here.

Since you summoned your first 'Jinn', Tariq has been biting at his chain. He must not flee! He wishes the return of his mate from death. There are things here at the site of the babbling goats. They could help you.

You know something of those who will be here. While you struggle to recognize their base bodies of flesh and blood, their spirits shone bright in your dreams last night. This meeting was written in the stars. It was prophesied. It will bring your release.

Contacts

The Black Knight: Tariq Ibn Faruq, the man you recruited to lead Al-Araf. He is driven by rage for those who have wronged him and his people.

The Bully: Some respect only force. This one lives for the ability to wield terror.

The Child of Abraham: One of the Jewish people walks among the crowd in secret. This one carries great danger.

The Lost One: Quicksand pulls all things in and down. What can escape from a quicksand of the soul?

The Machinist: This one would sup on the blood of dead gods in order to fuel his machinations. This one knows of nothing holy and refutes all evidence to the contrary.

The Magician: A neophyte dabbler in the esoteric arts walks among the crowd. This one does not understand that they have only touched the surface of a bottomless well of power.

The Patriot: Some choose to live and die for lines on a map. This one recognizes no morality or truth greater than their own nation.

The Pet: Your wife has a new pet and he serves her faithfully. You look at him with jealousy and pity. You will never go back to that again, however tempting.

The Politician: Once placed in a position of power and comfort, some find the thought of ever having anything else untenable. Such a person would do nearly anything to assure their place.

The Prince of Light: This man walks in glory and dazzling light. He will betray his own people and see the world engulfed in darkness so that he can shine all the brighter in comparison.

The Shadow Walker: In the shadows of the most glorious light, this one follows. Can the shadow exist without the light, or is it the light that can not exist without the shadow?

The Starwatcher: There is one here who has an unchanneled hunger for knowledge. You were something like this one in your youth.

The Theorist: This one sees connections between all things, great and small. Seeing the connections and truly understanding them are not the same. This one has a hunger to learn though.

The Uncrowned King: This man seeks a crown though he already carries the rod of power. He would rule his lands with a firm hand and pure heart if given the chance.

The Virgin: Your daughter, Qamar Abd-al. She must remain pure until the time comes for her sacrifice.

The Visitor: Your beloved wife! You would recognize her anywhere, though she now wears a different skin and uses the name Emel Faiz. She has come again... likely for your daughter. She can't have her!

The Worm: There are some who crawl on their bellies in the dirt seeking scraps. One amongst the crowd fills this role. So lowly is the worm that few think to ask to what ends he would use the scraps. Fewer still would imagine that from many small scraps a great thing can be constructed.

The Yellow Acolyte: A servant of the Emperor in Yellow is here! In the ancient books, The Unspeakable One works to unravel all things. The presence of one of his acolytes introduces great uncertainty into all things.

Abilities & Artifacts

Stats

• Combat: 1
• HP: 4
• Sanity: N/A

Speak Any Dead Language

You can speak any dead language known to man (and possibly some other ones as well).

Binding Ritual

Note: Rituals are special orders that may be given to cultist units in as many provinces as the ritual requires. You may still only give one ritual order (and no other orders) in one turn.

You can bind the creature with two sites. This is an overt order, and will reveal your cultists.

• • Requirements: Have cultists at two sites. You can count as one of the sites. At your site, you must have at least 3 participants in the ritual, including yourself.
  • Type: Personal and military order.
  • Procedure: Draw a pentagram on the floor in your own blood (taking 1 hitpoint of damage). Chant with those around you "Ia Camglassa agrrayl. Thsah mrreykol oolsa caftrach afshass ctchom. Camglassa grell thremel brolda!"

Tentacle

The individual touched by this withered piece of flesh is filled with excruciating mental agony. The wielder may ask one question. The victim must give an honest answer.

• Side Effect: The victim suffers 2 sanity damage.
• Uses: 5

Goals

• Meet all of those here and match them to those present in your vision.
• Keep your daughter safe until the time comes for her sacrifice.
• Make sure that Tariq Ibn Faruq acquires control over Kirkuk or Babil for you so that you can bind ___ and learn its secrets.
• Seek freedom from the world of the goats, no matter the cost.
• Keep control over Tariq as long as you need it, possibly by helping him regain his mate.
• Seek more power in the tower of babbling goats.