Misery of He Who is Outside the Realm of Man

He who is outside the realm of man suffers a deep, unrelenting misery. Left, for reasons known only to the gods, to ponder his existence within the cosmic fog outside space and time. To know only his purpose, his destiny, a task performed mindlessly and without pause.

As a consequence, many questions relative to his plight arise but are never answered. He bears no recollection of birth, no sense of an earlier time or even of time itself, save for hints gleaned from the collective awareness of mankind as it fumbles through its existence.

He is unable to interact with humans. Yet now and again come flashes of once having been human: a spear thrust into a mammoth, the eyes of a woman and child, his hand painting horses on a cave wall . . . and then, the sudden visitation of the gods.

Adding to his misery is the probability that these flashes are nothing more than residual energies from the endless stream of souls passing through his bony fingers. Fingers that once painted, or so it seems.

Was I truly once a man? he wonders. And if so, how long must I endure this lonely, miserable state? How long before I may again know the excitement of the hunt, the touch of a woman, the thrill of creating? Certainly there is another to replace me.

He cannot help but be convinced of a return to life, for all souls make their way back to Earth in one form or another—to this cycle he is witness.

But he who is outside the realm of man, and whose core is a diamond of misery, must endure his current destiny without fail, for always there is war and disease, starvation, murder, agedness . . . .

For who knew, that he who had first painted the wonders of life had angered the gods. That with a cave wall and crude ochres had brought forth an appreciation of art and beauty, thus giving man a proper soul.

And so, for his role in revealing those deeper layers, for defining humanity beyond the gods’ intentions, the first painter of life was made a lonely gatekeeper of death. Forever to guide the very souls he helped create.

(From the book The Hunchback's Captive and Others). Original title: "Misery of He Who is Older than All Men" (as published in Tales of the Talisman)