The Trailokya Trilogy, Book 1: The Shadow Soul by K. Williams

Booktrope Publishing

ISBN13: 9781620155837

Coming June 2015! Amazon Paperback  | Amazon Kindle  |  B&N Paperback  |  B&N Nook

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Trailokya, Book One: The Shadow Soul – Prologue (The Trailokya Lore) (C) 2003, 2005, 2013 K. Williams – Unedited.

Beyond the vales of perceived reality, exist the borders of space and time. At the dawn of existence, the universe was thought and one, named Nirvana. Nirvana was a world of technology beyond comprehension, where thought commanded reality, populated by beings unbound by flesh, atman of immense ascendancy called the Jñanasattva. Over the distance of years, thought became increasingly formed and the beings of Nirvana created two further planes, each infinitely vast and separate from the next, in which they could experience and play out their ideas. Time lengthened further and these new planes, the Astral and Avernus universes, which provided an unbounded existence in new resonances were found wanting.

Adonai, King of Zion, and a Jñanasattva of Nirvana, ordered the creation of what he called Trailokya, a trinity between three further territories: Jahannam, Samsara and Zion. Trailokya would serve as home for the curious children of Nirvana, each of who would be the life force that lived at the core of the new beings called sattva, the body kind. Jahannam was an echo of Zion, a dark mirror image, a grave and prison, while Samsara provided innumerable worlds floating in a sea of untapped potentials. Grateful to their ruler for the gift that brought them such freedom, the first children of Nirvana populated Zion, and called one another duta. The duta were an ascending race that never died but instead reformed themselves as their energies changed. Their favored form was that of a hairless primate, strong and tall, but graced with elegant wings and the speed and power of light. For them, Zion was made a boundless globe of land and sea beneath a blue sky, always stretching and growing into infinity, basked in the glow of a golden sun and awed by a silver moon and her stars. If ever they wished, they could return to the world that created them bound by no requirement or position.

Upon the center point of that sphere, the king made a mountain and on the mountain he made his citadel, the White City of Zion. A link between Zion and Nirvana was kept in the form of the Perpetual Light, a column of pure white light that blazed into the beyond and instilled the sattva, atman and their world with all that would ever be desired. Here, sattva lived in peace, slowly forgetting the home they left behind though forever reaching to it. Yet, though their atman grew, their ascendancy was  slow and took many incarnations and through this some stagnated, others decayed in their appetites and the remainder returned beyond the vale back home.

The peace lasted until the formation of sattva which the duta called souls. Souls were atman of lower resonance that never came to fruition in Nirvana, requiring the spaces of Trailokya in which to grow. Their growth was slowest of all. By the resonance of their atman, such atman were better suited to more physical teaching. Thus, they were given the spaces of Samsara, beyond the barrier realm of the Avernus and the mental plane of the Astral. From the port of Zion, they would interface with biological vessels on ether lines, the activity meant to heighten their resonance until they evolved into duta. The highest in resonance among these small sparks dominated their worlds, creating civilizations that echoed the home world. Among these souls were the humans, a race that resembled the duta, but small and wingless. There were the taller human like races, the pale Aghartians and dark Cetians. The twin races of Grails, Zeta’s being the taller and the Grey being the smaller. The bull headed Hyadeans and the horse bodied Orions. The half-snake Nagas, the half-goat Ikyls, and the half-fish Vetehinen. There were Oreiades almost identical to humans but for their dazzling large eyes and curiosities. The giant Els, with their black orbs and massive muscular forms. The arborous race of Boarwellum. The scaly Drago. The fiery, crimson skinned Jinn and their counter the water dwelling Naiades. Last, the avian race of Aurai. Each of these crossed the veil and filled their new worlds, followed closely by other souls, the flora and fauna, that would live among them and under their protection.

Alas, many of the first race were insulted by the presentation of such a grandiose gift to what they called unworthy clay. The desire or even need to take form, whether plant, animal or thing, was to be despised and ranked as lowly. To such minds, souls were simply well-shaped pets, brought to existence to amuse the higher forms. Adding insult to their argument, they declared them perpetual children, as they required guardians and teachers from among their betters. Because of this, they could not be granted self governance or the promise to become duta like those who naturally resonated thus. However, those who stood with the king’s decision regarded all atman equally valuable, the expression of Seraphim, either realized or in the process of becoming realized, the highest resonance any atman could attain before returning to Nirvana. It was because of this they deserved the respect and love of duta.

A balance was struggled for, but opposing factions spurned peace, using their differences to forge a great divergence. War raged between the citizens of Zion and much blood was shed throughout the three realms. The conflict was called The Conflict of Hosts, and it saw the people of Zion hammered apart, families broken and lines ended. Both duta and soul were held to account for this blood-letting. Thus the lands of Jahannam were filled with those convicted of crimes against the souls, murdering and raping the populations to insist upon their subordination and proof of their inadequacy. The worse among these were the duta who used souls under their charge, given the task of watching over them in Samsara during the beginning days. These offending duta were sealed off from the others beneath a thick mantle of stone. In the dark, broken echo of Zion, cut off from the Perpetual Light and forced to exist in a realm that resonated far below that of Zion, the atman starved, becoming twisted cruel monsters and shadows of their former sativa. These came to be known as the danava.

The Conflict carried with it a further price. The beings who fought on the side of the king had been too willing to shed the blood of their brothers despite the light of their atman, and were now deemed greatly flawed and incomplete. Duta and soul alike were required to undergo lengthy evolutions, each succession a rising, to ensure the purity of their atman before they could ever hope to return to Nirvana. The process was overseen by a court of councilors, judges who would weigh every action and determine the course of the atman they steered. Those bent toward the dark would fall into the abyss of Jahannam, some to eventually rise, others to destruct themselves beyond mend. For those whose atman found no restoration and proved too dangerous to other atman, the Jñanasattva created the final realm of eternal and utter destruction. This dark place was called Oblivion.

An increasingly complicated system built around the new practice, cloistering the king and his advisors away from those they loved, protected by endless levels of councils all tasked with the guidance of each and every atman in existence, which they now coldly termed assigns. There were the armies who protected the gates of each world, made of the duta and virtually closed off to any other beings. To inspire the places and cultures of Zion, the muses cared for new atman and watched over those choosing to incarnate into the other realms. With any system came the troubles of bureaucracy and the defense of their way.

Eons passed. Wars were waged. History became lore. Some believed that The Conflict never ended and that it rages to this day. Regardless of history becoming fable, the danava had broken free of their prison, finding a way to open the seal and activate doorways to continue their struggle for control of Samsara and its people, a path to conquer and return to Zion. With control of the souls as soldiers and bartering chips, danava believed they were guaranteed their goal. Their failure to realize that their defiance caused the decay of their atman blinded them to the ultimate price, complete death in Oblivion, utter destruction. Their pride brought them as far as the Avernus. . .