The Epic of Shantaran
A short story that was written for an NFT collection that I really liked. It’s a project called Coral Tribe. Really interesting project, with an Impact fund component that is used to invest in tech and art to revive the wild.
The Coral Tribe was a warrior class of humanoids who lived on land, in tents. They worshipped the crescent moon as the giver of life, and a strange bleached rock that came from the great ocean that encircles their land. They called the strange rock Coral, and it gives the tribe of shamans the ability to commune with the natural environment through the strange compound known as Sea-MT that comes off from it. It was said to be a way to ascend to the heavens, which were way up in the skies and no one will ever reach that stage of spiritual greatness.
As observed by their ancestors for many centuries, whenever the moon turns full, the tides grew strong and vibrates, bringing forth a festival of life in the ocean, where all the mysterious living things that reside within comes to live. The tribe always prayed during the period of the crescent moon, in hopes that the moon turns full to bring on a harvest of fish for their sustenance.
Shamans will smoke the Sea-MT during this period and commune with the environment and every time, there will be spirits with a strange sound calling for them to go into the ocean. It goes “Ohmmmmmmmm………”, and can only be heard when they close their eyes and cover their ears.
The ocean had always been a dangerous place for the tribe. They have lost many of their brethren to it since time immemorial. The strange calling beckons their shamans who smoked the Sea-MT to enter the ocean and into the depths of it, to their death. It was said that you might even go mad if they refused the call. The shaman apprentices were always told to resist the sound, and death awaits if they gave in.
Then one night, it happened. The venerable chief shaman — Shaman Shantaran, gave in. He volunteered to inhale the highest dose ever prescribed for Sea-MT, due to the frustrations of not attaining enlightenment due to fears of overdose and death. After inhaling the insane amount, he went crazy that fateful day and dived into the ocean in the middle of an ascension attempt. But this time it was different. After what seemed like an eternity, unlike many others before him, he came back up from the waters with a strange glow around him. What he told the tribe next was written in the stones.
During his dive of madness, He saw a great temple at the bottom of the ocean and at its entrance, a big half-bleached rock that had a corner chipped off, with a glowing eye in the middle. This was later known in the epics as the All-Seeing-Eye. It was vibrating at the ocean floor and resonating with the full moon. Sea creatures swam delightfully around the rock. The Eye looked suspiciously and even a little angrily at him. It was as if the Eye had stared right through his soul, judging whether he was worthy enough to continue the journey.
He floated past the Eye safely. All the time throughout his trip to the majestic ocean floor temple, he was greeted by familiar voices and humanoids covered in light that looked much like his tribesmen. He was then guided towards the final altar which looked like two hands, forming a hand seal, or a Mudra as the shaman called it in his tribe.
A voice from nowhere called him to recreate the same seal with his own hands, and to start praying earnestly with the voice within him, keeping his mouth closed. What came out was a long “Ohmmmmmmmmm……..” and that was all it took. The chief shaman’s body started to glow and began to ascend back to the surface. On his way up, the figures covered in light shouted to him “Tell the others!”
So ends the epic legend of the Return of the Ascended. The Mudra and the way to pray during an ascension were learned and passed on to many generations thereafter. They finally understood that the only way up was to go down, deep into the depths of the abyss where the Great Ocean Temple lies.
And who were the humanoid figures that were covered in the light you may ask? They were the Ascended masters that did not return to land. They were all the brethren that were lost through the ages. They ascended but were not chosen to return with the good news.
Why was the chief shaman chosen to return? The All-Seeing-Eye of the ocean was hurt. It was bleached and in pain. It needed to send an Ascended back to the surface, because the only way to save the ocean, was to work together with the Land tribes. It was a pact between the Land, the Sea, and the Sky tribes made since the creation of the Universe. And when one is in trouble, they would send one of their Ascended to warn the others.
Remember the piece of rock called the Coral that the Coral tribe was worshipping? It was the chipped-off piece that was missing on the All-Seeing-Eye at the Ocean Temple entrance.
Everything is connected, and we are in this together. If one of us goes missing, everything else in this world will shatter.
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