Ghyll:Events of Solitude

The Events of Solitude are perhaps the greatest Media Stunt in the History of Ghyll, certainly in recent history. They have thousand of devout believers, proclaiming that Ghyll ended on the day prophesized, and everything after them is in fact just a mass hallucination. Personally, this scholar believes that everything before them was just an illusion, so he doesn’t really see the diffrence.

Origin

The tale of the Events of Solitude begins, as with many stories, with the Poems of Arariax. Or if you rather, they begin with the thoughts of an idiot, another way a lot of stories about Ghyll begin. Either way, the tale is the same, starting around –171 EC. A scholar by the name Rattallan, a man known far and wide for his complete and total lack of sense, declared that he had combined all of the works of the great poet into one great manuscript, which foretold the end of the World on the Day of Champions of –100 EC. Everything would go silent for three days, after which, the world would stop, the Orthogonalities would separate, the dead gods would wake up, and generally be annoyed at the Ghyllians who had been living on them, and just some general mayhem would occur. Now crackpots come out every once in a while, declaring the end of the world, so the Populace of Ghyll at large ignored him. His prediction was quickly forgotten, and the world moved on. Rattallan himself also moved on, declaring in two months that he had definite proof that Aelfants were going to take over the world in +10 EC. His earlier prediction was forgotten, and the World moved on.

How they re-emerged into public conscience

The prophecy of the foolish scholar lay forgotten until –101 EC. A poor graduate student at Bute University was being forced to catalog all the manuscripts his professor had collected in his travels, and came across the Prediction of the Rattallan, combined with the work that he had done to prove it. The poor student burst out laughing at the proof. Rattallan’s work consisted of picking out a word at random from every poem of Arariax he could find, and several from Artiax, the much less gifted poet who is often confused with Arariax much to his joy. He had assembled these into a complete mish mash of words, out of which he had somehow divined his prophecy. Given that there were several copies of the works (Including one that appeared to have been used as insulation) the student procured a copy for himself, wanting to share it with his friends. He took it to the University Pub with him that, and showed his friends, who proceeded to share a good laugh at the expense of the long dead scholar. They left the copy there as payment for their drinks when they sneaked out, realizing they had no money to pay. It changed hands several times that night, eventually ending up in the pouch of noble of Iganefta, who was riding through. He read it once he got home, wondering how it had gotten there, and immediately panicked. Given that the methods of Rattallan were as inscrutable of those of any other Scholar, he proceeded to give it the respect that he gave to all works of scholars, as the immutable truth (This Particular Nobles name has been forgotten, at his families request, but it doesn’t appear he was to bright, does it?) Panicking, he ran to the Lord, proclaiming his find. Now the lord was rather grumpy at being woken up (It was the middle of the night) and refused to listen. The Noble, not phased one bit, immediately ran to the street corner, where in the general populous of Ghyll, he found a more receptive audience. Word spread quickly, and if not many believed, almost all at least heard. Now Ghyllians had been through this kind of thing before, and many of them were not about to worry until they had some proof. Unfortunately, they got it.

The Events themselves

Three days before the Day of Champions of –101 EC, Ghyll suddenly went silent. Nobody it seemed could hear anything. The only places unaffected were those that rarely, if ever saw visitors, and thus were isolated from Ghyll at large. Of course, these places could not inform Ghyll generally of their auditory status. A few Ghyllians were immune to the effect, but due to the fact that the ones effected couldn’t hear them, it really didn’t matter. Riots Proceeded, mayhem happened, and religious orders found themselves full of applicants. This generally destructive state of affairs continued until about 3 hours before the first celebration of Day of Champions had been scheduled to begin, just as Perky began to set. Suddenly, all of Ghyll could hear again (Well not all. Those that couldn’t hear before still couldn’t hear, but they never really had understood what all the fuss was about anyways. A few others never regained their hearing, but that’s life.) The Populous unanimously shrugged, and went off to enjoy the celebrations. It was perhaps the most attended Day of Champions on record, with plenty of money for all involved with the fesitivities.

What Really Happened

Everything related in the article above is true. However, there are a couple facts missing. First of all, how did word of the eminent destruction of Ghyll permeate the world so quickly and thoroughly? The answer is… Bindlet balls teams. It has been showed that the Bindlet Ball teams, who wished to create a populous more attached to Bindlet Ball, carefully orchestrated all of the happenings then they currently were. By using their fame, and the travel needed for their tasks, they quickly caused all of Ghyll to at least hear about the predictions.

Second, why did everyone lose their hearing? The answer to this question is hotly debated, and no conclusive conclusion has been reached. The only thing everyone seems to sure of is that it is the Bindlet Ball team fault.

Result

Complete and total success. Bindlet Ball became even more popular then it was, and thusly, no one was willing to do anything to the teams, who were needed to play the games. Several other smaller stunts, modeled after the events have been pulled by various organizations, and this whole series of events is the subject of one of my favorite Lectures.

Why Graduate Students shouldn’t steal from their Professors. An excellent moral to be had, don’t you agree?

Citations: Rattallan, Arariax, Perky