Book V – The Book of Baal
Chapter 1: You Shall Call Me Baal
The night was thick with an oppressive silence as the cursed man Kane ventured alone into the woods outside the valley of Adam’s people. An inexplicable force was in the air, pulling at Kane. Even the trees, ancient and twisted, seemed to whisper secrets of old. In the heart of the forest, an eerie clearing awaited, illuminated by a pale, ghostly light. It was there that I introduced my pawn to a new god.
“You shall call me Baal.” My new alter ego deity instructed the forsaken man Kane.
[And yes the name I chose (Baal) was intentional – you’ll learn why in a bit].
“Unlike Yahway, I will fulfill your dreams, Kane — starting with finally giving you a family of your own. You need only to kneel before me, child.”
I would see that Kane was awestruck at the monstrosity that stood before him — my made up deity a giant whose form was a grotesque amalgamation of human and beast. With a body covered in matted black fur thick and coarse like the pelt of a wild beast, Baal’s muscular frame, twisted and deformed, exuded a raw primal power with bulging veins that pulsed with a dark energy. Massive horns, twisted and gnarled like ancient tree roots, jutted out from my god’s skull, their tips sharp and menacing. [What, you think the horns were a bit much?].
Barely able to mumble a word, the cursed man with the mark of infamy on his forehead fell at Baal’s feet.
“You have done well.” My Baal grumbled at Kane. “And I will do well by you.”
Kane’s, haunted by isolation, cried out. “Save me from my curse, take away my Mark.”
My Baal’s eyes glinted with a malicious gleam as I extended a clawed hand, opening it to reveal a piece of cloth that shimmered with an otherworldly aura. “Although I have the power to remove your Mark, I shall not do so – yet. If you prove yourself to me, I will take it away. But for now, this shroud will conceal your scar. It is woven from the fabric of the night and imbued with my power.”
Kane hesitated, his hand trembling as he reached for the shroud. “What is the cost, Lord?”
I laughed with a chorus of deep sinister chuckles. “There is always a price, man. But for now, it is a means to an end. Wear the shroud and the Mark’s influence will be hidden, allowing you to walk among your people without draining their life force.”
“My people?” Kane was confused.
“You shall father a people whose descendants will be as countless as the stars in the sky above – if you worship me.”
Kane looked at the shroud – a sense of foreboding washed over him, but the desire to be be the father of a new people, to have descendants, was too strong to resist. As expected, he draped the shroud over his head – and the mark’s sinister glow dimmed, hidden beneath the mystical fabric.
“Remember,” I warned, “the shroud conceals, but it does not erase. The curse remains, and so does your allegiance to me.” Then laughing ominously I looked hungrily at the man, “I’m ready to collect my first payment.”
Before Kane could resist, I cast a deep sleep over him and got to work creating more humans.
With my ability to clone mortals having advanced to new heights, I no longer needed to rely on humans to breed for themselves. Nor did I want to risk the gamble that was ‘birth’ – for I’d learned my lesson with Seth, Norea, and their ilk – all of whom were bone with pure souls and not my tortured stellareones.
This time I made humans in the mold of Kane; male and female I made them – and into each mortal vessel, I forced a hand-picked soul from my cadre of stellarones, all of them warped from the tortures I had lavished on them over the years, waiting for just this occasion. And unlike the souls of the children of Adam, these ‘descendants of Kane’ had souls whose memory of Illyria had long since been washed away long before insertion into their mortal bodies, thus cursing them to a tormented existence here on Earth, away from the divine realm where they belonged – and providing yet more fodder for my own designs.
I cloned Kane’s people for days on until – creating untold scores of men and women, and I placed all of them under Kane’s leadership – so long as he wore his shroud, it covered his mark and protected his people. Granted, anyone around him was still ‘uncomfortable’ but Kane made the best of it.
For his part Kane relished his new role and he quickly fathered three sons of his own — Enoch, Drok and Derk — the only children he would ever sire. Kane’s clans in turn procreated on their own – yet they did so in such a way that I was always able to control which soul entered Kane’s children’s children at the moment of their conception [whew!].
In a brief time, the numbers of Kane’s people swelled and they spread throughout the lands that bordered Adam’s valley. The numbers were still small so I was able to keep everybody sheltered from The Amorosi and Hyperboreans [neither of whom had discovered them yet], from the few Mylars in the vicinity [who didn’t seem to care], and from the various ‘evil’ beasts that I had created myself. I did all this because I wanted Kane’s people to focus on making war with Seth’s clans so that life would be miserable for all of them.
To accomplish this, I continued to develop the Baal persona for Kane and his people. When they looked at the face of their god I made sure they saw their nightmares brought to life. For my Baal’s eyes glowed with an unholy red light, burning with the fires of Illusia. The god’s mouth was filled with sharp, jagged teeth, that dripped with venomous saliva and when I spoke in his persona, my voice was a deep, guttural growl that resonated with the very essence of fear.
Kane and his people trembled before me and I used their fear to mold them. Given their lineage, they were amenable to my temptations.
“I control this world completely.” My Baal growled in front of Kane’s people. “I am the god of everything that is powerful – the sun, the moon, the land, the lightning, the wind, the heavens, and more. I am All. Worship me and I will reward you by letting you live. I command you to kill all those who do not acknowledge me.”
And when it became clear that Kane’s offspring had no trouble accepting these requirements, I took things a step further. “I demand more. I demand the best of your crops and livestock. Sacrifice your first fruits and the fattest of your herds to me and in return I will fill your coffers with riches.”
Kane’s people again complied — all too happy to set fire to their foodstuffs and foolishly slaughter their best animals to appease Baal. However my made-up deity rarely fulfilled his end of the bargain — this was on purpose, because just like with Yahway, I wanted Baal’s worshipers to eventually hate him as well — since I planned to tie the name of this false god to a very real one in due time.
Meanwhile, in spite of the little I had Baal give back to Kane’s clans, they continued to offer sacrifices to the fearsome god – yet whether this was out of fear or duty, who can say?
Wanting to see how far they would go, I then had Baal demand they sacrifice their young men, then their virgins, and finally their children too. “Sacrifice your most beloved ones to me and show me that you truly fear my name.”
Amazingly Kane’s people submitted even to this – much to my delight!
[Although I pretended to look the other way when Kane himself conveniently avoided killing any of his own sons. Although this was very ‘elitist’ of Kane, it was fine by me, because I had more important plans for his family than to be wasted as sacrificial fodder].
I began to really enjoy play acting as Baal and continued to improve his appearance, giving him giant claws that he could more easily tear through flesh and bone with, as well as donning a necklace of human skulls around his next – the trophies of countless sacrifices. Kane and his people before my Baal – the god’s presence radiating an aura of dread, causing even the bravest of souls in the clan to tremble.
I even equipped Baal with his own mighty weapon – a massive, blood-stained axe that he could bring to those sacrificial parties – the blade etched with dark runes that pulsed with malevolent energy, and I told them that any who were struck by it would be cursed for eternity.
In short, everything was going well for me – until I was unexpectedly summoned to Illusia “to answer for my crimes.”
The Apocrypha of Azazel 