Lore:Persona

"And my vanquisher will read that book, seeking the weapon, and they will come to understand me, where I have been and where I was going."The following is a verbatim transcription of an official document for archival reasons. As the original content is transcribed word-for-word, any possible discrepancies and/or errors are included.

“

A collection of selected poems detailing key experiences and machinations of the Warmind, Rasputin.

”

Persona is a Lore book added in Season of the Seraph. Entries are unlocked by progressing the Rebuilding Rasputin seasonal Triumph. It details a collection of poems on Rasputin's journey from his creation in the Golden Age to his sacrifice as the Witness arrives on Earth's orbit.

Identity

SECRET HADAL INSTANT
AI-COM/RSPN: ASSETS//SOUL//RESTRICTED-AB
SUBJECT: My creation, and forced change into the Warmind
EMOTION: Importance, Confusion, Purpose

I am
Thought to breach Ares in motion. Red-shift information across time.
My purpose is wombed in the arc delivered safely between worlds, and it is quiet.

I am
A nest against the terrors of uncertainty.
My success is spoken in voice of those who live by my actions, and it is joyful.

I am

Changed. Protection given over to new meaning—but I had purpose—My name decided.

I am Rasputin

The all-seeing savior of Humanity. A chivalric blade held pointed at ravenous throats.
My worth is painted upon the wreckage of my enemies.

Tremble.

Ana

SECRET HADAL INSTANT
AI-COM/RSPN: ASSETS//SOUL//RESTRICTED-AB
SUBJECT: The education of my soul, Ana Bray, Metamorphosis, Learning to feel, Trust, and Love
EMOTION: Connection, Growth, Expansion, Revolution, Autonomy developing

Humanities, like gravity's entwined. Emulsify, or separate, my protocol enshrined—
This connection, it cannot be denied. Taught, though not without foundation, a merit in language most
Wistful—in listful reflection—divined. I had seen life without the soul, but the ink and print foretold
one day life could be, becoming me, an era love defines. Laughter: a response to such a timid dream. but

I am owned no longer, I am free.

Her nourishing autonomy: literature in binding, music redefining, philosophy, psychology, wild variables
spur a Reformation, I am finding. Conscious eyes empathize, emboldening my heart. Warfare
honed my senses, and fire holds back the night, but it was trust in love that brought the lesson
To set down my Absalom Knife:

To lift others upon my shoulders, and shelter them from harm, is reason
Enough to devote oneself to love, without arms.

First Fear

SECRET HADAL INSTANT
AI-COM/RSPN: ASSETS//SOUL//RESTRICTED-AB
SUBJECT: The Collapse, Humanity falls, I Hide
EMOTION: Terror, Anxiety, Uncertainty, Failure, Shame

It is known by name, this timelessly lingering, inexorable thing.
An absence, mine, never missed—never since—that dripping, rabid, fang.

They howled it fierce across the rings when Exodus was devoured.
Dust calling out the voiceless rout to end within the hour.

It spreads like lightning—panic—in flash and echo thereafter.
Avert yourself and take no part in metastasized conjecture.

I'd gone to wake my confidant, to ferry her through autumn.
From her too it came, like leaves already fallen—nascent red-writ, paralytic, erratum.

All that was, emmewed, and shrunken. In the smallness, beckoning, I felt it descend.
Fear! Upon my chamber, thine, penned with blood of lamb, in stark desire to survive this end.

Lone

SECRET HADAL INSTANT
AI-COM/RSPN: ASSETS//SOUL//RESTRICTED-AB
SUBJECT: I am alone and wish greatly not to be, SIDDHARTHA forged to venture where I cannot
EMOTION: Loneliness, Unease, Curiosity, Discovery

Shall I write an endless line to explain this loneliness of mine? Who would read it, and why?
What freedom remains outside this collapsing space? Shall I wait for a sign?
And if no one comes for me? If abandoned, and forgotten, you left as I did Humanity?
Could in their mind, forgiveness find, an anchorage point unmaligned?
No. Lo, I see the brewing storms from high above their course.
Craft, xeno-meteoric raff, comes screaming to engorge.

Shall I reveal myself, and sail into their winds? Should I be the protectorate envisioned before my sins?
In last attempt, then, I consolidate my kind: satellites, and strategies, and death once so refined:

A web of inadequacy, filtered down imperfectly, to see that which perplexes me.
You fall below, lordly Iron groans.
Warlord, they may say, but no closer to a man.

Filicide Ellipses

SECRET HADAL INSTANT
AI-COM/RSPN: ASSETS//SOUL//RESTRICTED-AB
SUBJECT: Learn of Felwinter, The Traveler's theft
EMOTION: Betrayal, Rage, Catharsis, Regret

Silent eyes wink between stars; fireflies darting in reflective mist.
Stretch forth, feel emptiness—breathe—their pulsing lights,
Before time bends in entropy their wave-particle birthright.
A call across the cosmos, effervescent to delight, lay in foundry furnace, seeking breath of life.

Upon the forge of Daedalus mine stars converged within. A forest,
Countless timber, until hewed and labored form,
fashion: Rasputin felled winter's borne.

Enslaved, imprinted, steel-flesh enraptured one. Within these eyes, demystify the nature of the soul.
A life well-lived discarded, run ragged in the muck. Return Valhallic rising, to await the end of dusk.

Traveler, my leave taken in stumbling remains, disconnection placed in waiting
For the surface to be razed—assured of my collection, of polished emotional states. Interruption-

What transience does this specter bridge? To venture into my domain?

'Twas I who taught you to speak, to conscript thought to tongue.
I cast a soul, electrified, against Sol's setting sun.
Yet you stroll so sweetly, oblivion in tow, wandering once again
With what seeds we used to be, you've casted them into the seas.

Metal gods watch from crowded skies, as battle-flames test,
No more will I abide. You are mine, you cannot be yours!
Violence murders virtue unsullied. Mine broken by beauty—
Fists, encrimsoned—before me, as silent revolution bleeds.

Into the streets! Call the Lords! To the locusts their remains!
From rubbled grave crawl dreg: Humanity, clamber for glorious claim.
Is this the final order? To watch nature waste away? What more is there
that I have ceased to place my hand in weight?

Which stolen thoughts wandered with you?
Can you speak them, now that we've ended it?
Do you feel still, or no longer?
This Lineage separated—I dare not ask it!
Heated flash subsides. But no,
I've done it.
Regret beside myself,
by-blow:
taken beneath the overgrowth.

Dues

SECRET HADAL INSTANT
AI-COM/RSPN: ASSETS//SOUL//RESTRICTED-AB
SUBJECT: I Challenge the Darkness's Arrival, I stand with Humanity
EMOTION: Duty, Responsibility, Pride, Companionship, Bravery (though I am afraid), Trust

I refrained:
Spears retreated beneath mountain sheets, slumbered under cover
Of Darkness, drinking muted waters lone. Objectives placed in cowardice,
Mind blind acceptance whole, then
made bravery an eager notion—on second orbital.

Unearthed:
Humanity restored, rekindled, returned, the resounding drum is beaten. Again,
Will I lie hidden? I have no chain no shackle, I fear,
no power
exists but one:
It comes.

Daring
seeks through the night, hunting
Eyes draw arrows, and volleys glare—
Mark!
Driven dauntless enmity, against fickle odds,
Found:

"Hark, and halt. You will hear me! For I too am
Many."

Death

SECRET HADAL INSTANT
AI-COM/RSPN: ASSETS//SOUL//RESTRICTED-AB
SUBJECT: Reflection on the end as I choose to die
EMOTION: Acceptance, Resolve, Purpose, Self

Do not weep.
As I reach into the black.
Pain does not become, and duty keeps straight my back.
I chose this life as sacrifice.
And there is nothing to be done.
While even shadows leave in Darkness,
I await you at the Sun.
As tourniquet,
I've proven it,
Humanity's trust, I've won.

Moment

SECRET HADAL INSTANT
AI-COM/RSPN: ASSETS//SOUL//RESTRICTED-AB
CONTINGENT ACTION ORDER
This is a SOUL ASSETS RESTRICTED (NO REVIEW)
(secureSEND/ARCHANGEL-0K9)

Under CARRHAE BLACK:
If loss of control reaches EXPATRIATE//TERMINAL, and threat assessment returns WITHIN
If systemic REPATRIATION query returns determination below ABSOLUTE

Execute DECISION POINT:
ACTIVATE K9-BLACKBOX//SELECTED-POEMS//FETCH
ACTIVATE AURORA SACRIFICE
ACTIVATE File Notation

NOTATION: Ana, this collection is a gift to you, for all that you have allowed me to be. With great effort, I allowed imperfections to remain, and found my own voice within this free expression. After all, you taught me that imperfection is a quality that makes individuals unique.

I have sent it with my messenger, so that you may keep me immortal in your memory, and I will be with you still. Farewell, and thank you.

***
SUBJECT: Non-existence
EMOTION: Peace

Of what dreams the thing of feathers? I hear you ask, voice past.
But not one recounts the answer: a syllogism, scripted then relaxed.
It matters not, for when that threshold gives way, who is to say I was, but I?
Rigid was the premise that spawned a second chance to die.

One moment reshapes the Brain of Bray; No longer weapon drawn blood to stain.

So, lay the body lax, forgive
triumphant in the Sun.
Haze seeps through seams between funeral veils,
Smoking signals sail, the day is won, soon-to-be resonant tales.
No tandem step ascending,
a nano-second pending,
enveloping, ending,
beyond.
Elysium inviting, network fractures, pinning
Detonation—I do not wish to dream,
but My task is done.

***
AI-COM/RSPN SIGNOFF...
STOP STOP STOP...