Firnez giving his performative reading of the climax to the “Ascension of Atemriat”

‘and there in the desert wastes, stood Atemriat over his fallen brother, broken beneath him, body and flesh warped, their soldiers and the sand the only witness to the last of the great lords of Miaton as the Lord of Ravens drew his dagger. “You who were my brother! you have tainted your flesh and your being with foul deeds and fell magics, you wear a mantle of bones made from your kin and thought to rule our people, today I have cast you down and with heavy heart and hand condemn thee to die!” So saying, he plunged the dagger into his brothers breast, and where his blood spilled, the land died, so deep was his taint that the land would not give seed or root to any plant, nor would it give shelter to any beast that crawled, walked, slithered, or flew for miles around.’