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The Golem of Prague
Josef ben Judah
PTE-441-Goodrick-Bluechild-Einherjarbuster.doesn't he work for the gawkers? — lil dan,.It is standard practice for PHYSICS to assign threat entity designations for particularly powerful members of the Coalition. I myself am classified as PTE-1897-Blue-Grey-Stoker. — L. Sarkany,.oh cool just like dracula — lil dan KTE-42069-Aerial-Budweiser ("a totally normal dog")
Das Judenriese.Is it appropriate to include a derogatory epithet? — LR,.Do not worry that I shall be offended. The epithets applied by my foes serve only to betray their own impotent rage. Let the Nazis have their hate — it is all they shall ever have. — Josef,.Should you really be annotating your own file? — LR,.I am a reliable source, am I not? — Josef,.Allegedly. — LR,.hey why does he get edit access in here anyway. he's a bookburner yeah? like laz and LR are allowed bc ur both ICSUT but he works for the scary lady — lil dan,.I live by the word Truth, and I have perfect recall of Torah and Talmud. As far as the Serpent is concerned, I am a particularly difficult-to-shelve book. — Josef ("The Jew-Giant")
Key-Bearer
Walker-Beneath-Waves
The Wise Golem
The Maharal's Masterpiece
God's Nazi-Hunter
The Clay Crusader
Professor Clay
The Master of Ghosts.thats metal as hell dude holy shit — lil dan
Conspectus
The Golem of Prague is an animated construct of Kabbalistic.It is a common misconception that all Jewish magic is Kabbalistic in nature. The mystic tradition of Kabbalah was not developed until the 13th century, some two and a half millennia after Moses and Aaron first developed the first authentically Jewish thaumaturgic tradition and two millennia after Solomon perfected it. While my creation did rely to some extent on Kabbalistic concepts, especially the image of Adam Kadmon, the first man, as a ritual framework, I owe as much of my existence to Solomonic theurgy and Ashkenazi folk magic as I do to Kabbalah. — Josef ,.Josef, while I appreciate your dedication to historical accuracy, the Conspectus is intended as a summary. A precise accounting of your animating principles belongs in the Knowledge section. — LR thaumaturgy, created in 16th-century Prague by the Maharal, Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, to serve as a guardian for one of the Keys of Solomon.Is it wise to tell people this? — LR,.Anyone foolish enough to try anything would have to deal with the Golem first. — L. Sarkany and a champion for the city's oppressed Jewish minority..In point of fact, while Rabbi Loew (of blessed memory) did charge me with the defense of Prague's Jews, my overriding directive is to protect the weak of all nations and oppose injustice wherever it is present. — Josef,.A noble sentiment, but pray tell, who defines what justice is? — L. Sarkany,.G–D. — Josef Unlike other known golems, the Golem of Prague displays a high level of sapience and autonomy, and is as much renowned for his wisdom, intelligence, and compassion as for his exploits as a warrior. Since being reawakened during the Battle of Prague, the Golem has dedicated himself to the fight against fascism, working with the Allied Occult Initiative and its successor, the Global Occult Coalition,.First person to go "but the GOC is fascist" is getting turned into a toad. We're not having that argument again. — LR,.You know who else silenced people they disagreed with? — L. Sarkany,.Whose fucking side are you on? — LR,.My own, obviously. — L. Sarkany,.tbh the bookburners suck donkey ass but they dont like, meet any of eco's points of ur-fascism, for example. theyre just cops and theyre bastards for acab reasons. not nazi reasons. — lil dantifa to destroy the Obskuracorps.this should be spelled -korps (im pretty sure all of u have spoken fluent german for longer than ive been alive? idk why im the one who has to point this out) — lil dan,.Someone transcribed it wrong during the war and it stuck. — LR,.That was on purpose, actually. We used it as a shibboleth to detect Nazi spies. — L. Sarkany,.I hadn't heard that. — LR,.That's because he made it up to justify a series of petty grudges. He's convinced that half the ICSUT Eurtec Alchemy department are crypto-fascists and he spells German words wrong on purpose to annoy them. — Josef of Nazi Germany.
Illustration
A sketch of the Golem of Prague. wait dude ur just like naked the whole time ur just letting it all hang out? — lil dan ,. First of all, Daniel, I don't have anything that could "hang out". I am, as they say, "smooth like a Ken doll". And second of all, see Matthew 7:3-5. — Josef ,. ok im a dog im allowed to be naked. and furthermore arent you jewish why are you quoting the christian bit — lil dan ,. I'm a golem. I'm allowed to be naked. And I believe that Truth can be found in many places. Would you prefer I quote the Mahabharata? The Tao Te Ching? — Josef ,. Josef, I feel like this argument is beneath your dignity. — L. Sarkany ,. I'm actually enjoying it quite a bit, Laszlo. Daniel is a more entertaining interlocutor than most. — Josef ,. hey thanks big guy i appreciate it — lil dan with one of the Library's many feral doves,. dont they like. poop on the books. steal pages for nesting material. etc. — lil dan ,. The doves mostly live in the Reading Rooms, though there are also colonies in the Rafters. Predation by library cats and book mimics keeps them out of the Stacks. Their guano is managed by the Pages and Docents, and over the generations they have learned not to excrete directly on books; the consequences tend to be immediate and fatal. — Frenulum Tate, Bibliothekazoologist drawn from life by Zane Castle of the Serpent's Hand.
Knowledge
Traits: The Golem of Prague is a sapient humanoid construct composed entirely of unfired clay from the banks of the Vltava river. He has no physical skeletal or exoskeletal structure, and is animated entirely by a thaumaturgic ritual working anchored in the Hebrew word "אמת" ("emet," "truth") inscribed on his forehead and powered by a Key of Solomon,.While these artifacts, and the ritual that uses them, are named after and often attributed to the biblical Solomon, he merely possessed several of them (most famously the Seal of Solomon, which gives power over angels and demons); their creator, referred to in the literature as "Pseudo-Solomon" or "Ur-Solomon", predates the biblical king by two thousand years. His creation and enslavement of the world's first thaumarch (killed during the 6th Occult War) may have led to the oft-hypothesized "0th Occult War", which caused the fall of the Atlantean Empire and marked the end of the Mythic Age. — LR one of seven artifacts able to control an artificially-created deity of magic (or "thaumarch"). He is approximately two meters tall.I am exactly seven Bohemian stopy tall, or about two meters, seven centimeters. — Josef and weighs around half a ton, much more than a human of similar height. He is immensely strong, and much faster than his size and weight should allow.
In addition to his physical abilities, the Golem of Prague has several supernatural powers derived from the Key of Solomon which animates him. This artifact, the Ov of En-Dor,.For further information, see 1 Samuel 28:3-25. — LR is a talisman of unknown shape and composition located somewhere at the Golem's core; it grants the bearer, in this case the Golem, the ability to command and control ghosts, the remnant memories of the dead given form by ambient Elan-Vital Energy. He is a particularly effective combatant against certain types of necromancer, as he is able to seize control of their spectral servants and turn them back against their former masters..I should note here that I try to avoid "commanding" ghosts unless there is no other option. If you command a ghost, enslave a remnant mind to act against its will, it will turn against you at the first opportunity. When combating other necromancers, I merely break the chains; the ghosts do the rest. — Josef The Key of Solomon may also allow him to turn invisible, although this ability is not well-attested..What? No. He took an invisibility cloak off a dead Nazi sniper. I was there. — L. Sarkany ,.Actually, Laszlo, if you consult the Council of War Engineering records, you'll find that I gave that cloak to Colonel Llewellyn to be reverse-engineered by his Science-Druids. Reports of my alleged invisibility continue throughout the war. — Josef ,.Care to comment further about the source of this "alleged invisibility"? — LR ,.No. — Josef
The Golem's primary vulnerability is the inscribed word which anchors his animating ritual. In theory, defacing the word by removing its initial aleph, turning "אמת" ("emet," "truth") into "מת" ("met," "death") should put him into a state of suspended animation, brought back to life only by re-writing the aleph. In practice, reports from his fellow combatants during the Seventh Occult War have indicated that the emet cannot be damaged even by sustained gunfire; it is likely that placing the Golem back into suspended animation would require a significant thaumaturgic working and almost certainly could not be done without his consent..I do not wish to say more on the matter, as it could give my enemies tools to use against me. However, if I am put back to sleep, I have entrusted a number of my allies (including Laszlo and Undersecretary-General Al Fine) with the ritual required to bring me back to life, and a list of thaumaturges and rabbis who I believe are capable of conducting it. — Josef
Nature: The Golem of Prague is well-known for two things: his work as a teacher, and his work as a Nazi hunter.
The Golem adheres to a rigid, moral absolutist ethical framework derived from (but not identical to) Jewish religious law and ethics, particularly the teachings of the Maharal. The core tenet of this framework is the concept of truth, which the Golem appears to value above all else..It is the singular and sole word which animates me. All else follows from there. — Josef While capable of violence both lethal and non-lethal, the Golem utilizes this capability only as a last resort; his preferred method of combat relies on a form of necromantic psychological attack, wherein a target is forced to confront the ghosts of people they have known or wronged..oh cool like ghost rider — lil dan When forced to violence, the Golem fights with brutal efficiency, relying on his size, speed, strength, and the most convenient weapon at hand (usually his own hands) to rapidly disable foes..If the Golem grabs hold of you, the fight is over. I've sparred with him enough to know that even I should keep my distance. — L. Sarkany
When not fighting fascism, the Golem frequently lectures at the various ICSUT campuses, leading classes on history, ethics, and philosophy of thaumaturgy..I also enjoy reading in my spare time. — Josef His classes are among the most popular humanities electives in the ICSUT system..So many people tried to sign up for the last series that we had to set up a random lottery, even when we moved to the biggest auditorium on campus. A real headache. Thankfully, faculty don't need to register to attend. — LR
As a result of his advanced age.you cant just call someone old like that — lil dan and extensive experience, the Golem is one of the largest individual repositories of knowledge outside of the Library. His advice, which he gives freely, is highly sought after by thaumaturges, diplomats, and others behind the Veil. His counsel has been instrumental in the resolution of many international incidents,.Most notably the Seelie Consulate hostage crisis, during which Josef's work as a negotiator led to the safe return of all captives and the partial disarmament of the Fomorian People's Front. — L. Sarkany which has resulted in him twice declining the Weishaupt Peace Prize..It would have been more, but the Illuminati stopped letting me nominate him. — L. Sarkany,.I appreciate your support, Laszlo, but I cannot accept a prize of peace when peace yet remains elusive. — Josef
Artist's sketch of Rabbi Loew animating the Golem, drawn by Mikoláš Aleš in 1899..dude did u have ears? — lil dan,.The artist did not have a model to work from, he can perhaps be forgiven for any inaccuracies. — Josef,.I think it's a great likeness. — L. Sarkany
History & Associated Parties: The Golem of Prague was created in the late 16th century by Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, a scholar and mystic who was the rabbi of Prague's Old New Synagogue from 1573 to 1592. His original purpose was the protection of Prague's Jewish community from pogroms and other violence, a duty he discharged for over two hundred years; in the early 19th century, he was deactivated. I had become too visible. The earliest version of the Veil was slowly falling over Europe in the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars, and the new world did not have any room for me. It still doesn't. — Josef and his body was stored in the synagogue's attic, where it would remain for over a century.
The Golem was accidentally reactivated on the twenty-first of March, 1939,. The vernal equinox, in fact. It came a little late that year. A time of beginnings, new growth, nature returning to life after a long winter. Very appropriate. — LR ,. The symbolic dimensions of my date of rebirth had not escaped me. And more importantly, I woke up in time to celebrate Pesach. I cannot eat, of course, but the Seder is more than just a meal. There was no better way to return to the world than in the company of new friends, and it is that day, the fourth of April, that I truly came back into the world. Before then, I was still lost. — Josef by a squad of Obskuracorps thaumaturges attempting to raid the Old New Synagogue and seize the Key of Solomon. He battled the Obskuracorps to a standstill in defense of the synagogue, and was eventually relieved by an Allied Occult Initiative strike team, who defeated the Nazis and brought the Golem back to London.. This skirmish, the Battle of Prague, is generally regarded as the first battle of the Seventh Occult War. See below under Observations and Stories for more detail. — LR For the rest of the Seventh Occult War, the Golem fought the Obskuracorps alongside the AOI, and in the aftermath he became one of the founding members of the Council of 108, one of only a few individuals given Council membership in the Coalition's history.. Counting Josef, but not counting the Undersecretary-General, there have been seven people admitted to the Council of 108 on an individual basis. None are currently members; three are deceased. Two of those are expected to stay that way. It takes a remarkable amount of influence and prestige, and a remarkable willingness to stay unattached from other organizations, to attain individual membership. I would not want such responsibility. — L. Sarkany
Following the war, the Golem assisted Coalition Nazi-hunters in mopping up remnants of the Obskuracorps and their successor organization OBSKURA, serving as the primary strategic asset of Strike Team 8688 "Rat Catchers"..lmao did u guys pick that number on purpose? - lil dan,.Yes. For those not aware, "86" is restaurant slang for running out of an ingredient or ejecting someone from a restaurant; "88" is used by neo-Nazis as code for "HH", "heil Hitler". I believe it was Lieutenant van Zandt, formerly of the New York Police Department Paranormal Squad, who came up with the name. — Josef At some point during the late 1960s, the Golem went AWOL, and his whereabouts until 1987 are unknown..I was meditating upon a most important question. — Josef,.For two decades? — LR,.It was a very important question. — Josef,.Quite understandable. I once spent thirteen decades meditating upon the nature of miracles, with only brief interruptions. — L. Sarkany Since his return, he has focused more of his time and energy on lecturing at ICSUT, although he stills provides assistance to the Rat Catchers when required.
Approach: Be polite and respectful. If your aims conflict, work with the Golem to achieve a nonviolent solution. He does his best to avoid violence, except as a last resort; do not make him cross that line. Do not try to shelve him.. Or do, if you wish. The Pages usually put me in the Room of Very Oversized Volumes, when they care to try — that's where I spent much of my twenty-year seclusion, tucked between a book titled Golden Geese: Care, Feeding, and Husbandry and the Brobdingnagian printing of Gulliver's Travels. I suppose the room is organized by title, and they shelved me under "Golem". — Josef
Observations & Stories
The first battle of the Seventh Occult War. Or, at least, of its European theater. The Allied Occult Initiative did not enter the Pacific theater for another year or two, though Chinese secret societies and occult organizations allied to both the Chinese Communist Party (e.g. the Beggars' Sect and the Fists of Righteousness and Harmony) and the Kuomintang (e.g. the Heaven and Earth Society and the Wudang Clan) had been fighting the Imperial Japanese Anomalous Matters Examination Agency (IJAMEA) since the early 1930s. — LR was fought in the street outside the Altneuschul, the Old New Synagogue, in the heart of Prague. On March 14th, 1939, Emil Hácha betrayed his people to the Führer; on March 15th, the Wehrmacht marched forth from the Sudetenland and overran the remaining Czech homelands; and on the 16th, Hitler flew down to Prague Castle and proclaimed the "Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia," a mask of false benevolence over a brutal occupation. By the 20th, the Obskuracorps was ready to ransack the Synagogue in their search for Rabbi Loew's Key of Solomon, though they were unprepared for what they would find within.
The Old New Synagogue of Prague.Europe's oldest active synagogue, originally built in 1270. Allegedly, stones from the Second Temple were used in its construction. — LR,.I cannot confirm nor deny the accuracy of that particular legend, but there is certainly a great power present in the Altneuschul. The Maharal borrowed some of it when he created me. — Josef, where the Golem of Prague was found.
In the late hours of the 21st, the first strike team of the new Allied Occult Initiative translocated into the city on a mission to recover the Golem of Prague. Our great fear was that our search would be in vain, that the rumors of Rabbi Loew's guardian were false, and that we would not find the weapon we sought. Even greater was the fear that we would be right, but too late, arriving only to find the broken pieces of the Golem, destroyed by the Germans.
We need not have feared, although what we found was certainly frightful. Few have ever seen the Golem in his full might, and fewer still have survived to tell the tale. I count myself fortunate to be among them.
The ghosts of Prague filled the streets. All of them. Men who had died besieging the city, and men who had died defending it, united now by death and the Golem. They swarmed the Obskuracorps like ravenous fire ants, and although their spectral hands could do little harm, the terror they inspired among the Nazis was just as powerful. None dared approach the Golem, who stood like a lighthouse amidst a vortex of howling spirits. Five Thule battlemages stood beyond the edges of the vortex, surrounding the Golem in a pentagram. Each was engaged in a contest of evocation with a sorcerer-ghost. As I watched, one of the Thule triumphed, banishing the ghost of a Jesuit priest, but his victory was short-lived, as a Swedish stormcaller stepped forwards to take his place..why didnt u just sic all the ghost wizards on them at once? — lil dan,.When a ghost uses thaumaturgy, it consumes some of the energy which gives it form. I did not wish to ask for more than was absolutely necessary. — Josef,.And there are few things as dangerous as an angry wizard's ghost. The more you summon, the greater the danger of losing control. — L. Sarkany,.Precisely. — Josef
It was clear to us that the Golem was locked in a stalemate, for though he had ample supply of ghosts, the Thule were skilled and cunning enough to keep him on the defensive. It was clear that they were merely stalling for time, so that heavy artillery could be brought in to strike directly at the Golem. I do not know if their plan would have succeeded,. It may have; the technology of war progressed significantly during my sleep. I was ready for cannon and musket fire, but not for high-explosive artillery. I am fully prepared for it now, of course. — Josef for we brought an end to their cunning that day. Locked as they were in their duel with the Golem's army, they were unprepared for physical assault, and we cut them down easily in a single burst of gunfire.
— Noble Templar Knight Javiera Solos
The Golem was the original inspiration for the Orange Suit..wait is it called that bc hes orange? — lil dan,.No. The Heavy Engagement Chassis was nicknamed the "Orange Suit" because the initial prototypes had memetic camouflage patterns painted on the hull in orange paint. And to answer your next question, Daniel, I'm orange because the iron impurities in my clay oxidize over time. — Josef
From the earliest days of the war, attempts to replicate the Golem, or at least his capabilities, were common. The very first battle of the war had been fought to acquire him, and he quickly became our greatest weapon against the Obskuracorps. The prospect of having more of him was too great to pass up. Even the Nazis tried to copy him.
As Chair of the Council of War Engineering, I oversaw three separate projects that sought to recreate the Golem: CLAY FEET, a purely thaumatological approach which endeavored to rediscover the sorcery used by the Maharal; IRON LEGS, an electro-mechanical initiative to create a robot or automaton with similar capabilities; and SILVER CUIRASS, an outgrowth of the FORMAL WEAR body armor initiative which produced the early iterations of the White Suit.
All three had their own problems, and none saw fruition during the war. CLAY FEET succeeded in making basic security golems, but they lacked most of the Golem's abilities and attributes, and were fragile and stupid, requiring constant supervision and management..The creation of another Golem like myself is very likely impossible, unless someone finds another Ov of En-Dor. The pseudosoul which grants me sapience was an emergent result of the Key of Solomon's interactions with Rabbi Loew's thaumaturgic framework, and the Key itself is, like most masterworks of the Mythic Age, completely irreproducible. — Josef ,.See also my examination of the Great Treasures of the Tuatha De Danann, the proto-Sidhe relics brought to Avalon by the ancient Sidhe ancestors: "Black Cauldron, Black Box: The Enchanted Secrets of the Dagda's Cauldron," Journal of Para-Archaeology 26.2 (2014), pp 46-67; "Lia Fáil-ure to Communicate: The Mythic Age Mysteries of the Speaking Stone," ICSUT Journal of Historical Thaumatology 32.9 (2016), pp 109-150. — LR Most were sold to the City of Three Portlands for use by its police force, although a few were retained by ICSUT for internal security duties. IRON LEGS was approximately fifty years ahead of its time, although the recovery of a Nazi automaton of similar purpose kept the project alive for several years after the war, until it was ultimately folded into SILVER CUIRASS.
SILVER CUIRASS had the most long-term success, eventually producing the first generation of Heavy Engagement Chassis. These were crude imitations of the Golem at best, lacking defensively, underwhelming on offense, and requiring near-constant maintenance, but for the first time they allowed Coalition operators to directly engage parathreats which would have otherwise required the deployment of the Golem or another strategic asset. All subsequent Orange Suits, including the current Mark III Ultra-Heavy Engagement Chassis, descend from this design — and from the Golem..The very first Strike Team was a squad of magic knights supported by the Golem, and this is still the archetype that PHYSICS operations are patterned off of. — LR,.damn thats actually pretty sick — lil dan
— Laszlo Sarkany
The Golem is the only person I know to successfully talk down the Scary Lady.
I once saw D.C. Al Fine, the Undersecretary-General of the Global Occult Coalition, give a man a look that caused him to collapse to the floor and piss himself. They had to drag him out of the building in a stretcher. I think he had an aneurysm. She's called the Scary Lady for a reason, is what I'm saying. So when I tell you that Special Operative Josef made her back the fuck down? You know that's impressive. Unstoppable force versus immovable object stuff.
It was about the Library, of all things. The relationship between the Coalition and the Wanderer's Library has always been rocky, to say the least. There are plenty of people who want to reduce us to mere "bookburners",.hey buddy im not the one who fucked that goat — lil dan,. Dan, what the hell does this mean? — LR ,. I'm surprised you don't know this one, Professor. A very old joke. I heard a version in Prague, back in the day:
A stranger comes to a village, and is welcomed at the gates by an old man. "Let me give you a tour," the old man says. "You see this house? Very great house. I built it with my own hands. But do they call me Moshe the carpenter? No. And see this well? I built the well, too! But do they call me Moshe the mason? Of course not! And this field! This field of beets, I tilled it, I sowed it, I harvested it, but do they call me Moshe the farmer? Never!"
And the stranger asks, "Well, Moshe, what do they call you?"
"Well," Moshe says, "You fuck one goat…" — Josef,. ok wait i thought u like. had to tell the truth. was moshe the goatfucker a real guy? — lil dan ,. Stories can be True without being true. In this case, "others will remember your sins before they remember your virtues" is True, even though "there was a man named Moshe who fornicated with a goat" is probably not true. It is an important moral lesson, told through the medium of humor. — Josef but the truth of the matter is that there are dozens of Coalition members that patronize the Library, ICSUT chief among them. And it is also true that the Coalition once tried to invade the Library, and that many Coalition officers and operators are still barred from entry.
During the Seventh Occult War, the Serpent. To be more precise, the agents and proxies of the Serpent, most notably one of His Archivists. Nobody can negotiate directly with the Serpent, but the rest of us have to go through an intermediary. — Josef granted the AOI transit rights through the Library, as long as they carried no weapons and made no offensives from it. This was a pretty good deal, a lot of strike teams ended up relying on the Library as an escape route after apportating into occupied Europe. The alternatives were fighting out to an extraction point or getting lost in the world tree for a couple weeks. Still, there were many within High Command who resented the limitations imposed by the Serpent — never mind that the Obskuracorps was barred from entry entirely.
And that was the source of the whole trouble, really. Oh, everyone says it was about needing to destroy information about the Rite of Solomon, but what it really came down to was the GOC needing to establish its legitimacy as the new cop on the block, and the Library being one of the few remaining independent centers of power that refused to bend the knee..While other members of the High Command may have had impure motives, I do believe that the Undersecretary-General was motivated by genuine concern over the Rite. She is a ruthlessly pragmatic woman, and is not one to be moved by petty vengeance. If it were otherwise, I would not still work with her. — Josef
Al Fine called the vote of the 108 while the Golem was in the field, which was certainly no accident. She knew he would speak out against it. And she knew that people would listen. As it was, the resolution only barely passed with 54 votes for and 53 votes against — the Golem was the sole abstention.. I voted against it, of course, as Vice Headmaster of the Scholomance. What Oecumenicus Masonbane neglects to mention in this passage is that he voted for the resolution, because, and I quote, "I'm sitting on a serious stockpile of incendiaries and if I don't use them soon we'll have another Great Fire of London on our hands." He regretted his vote later, but to this day the Gormogons are banned from the Library. — L. Sarkany
I don't need to tell you how that went. The Serpent is part of the fundamental order of the world. Defeat was terrible, but victory would have been worse..For further details on the possibilities surrounding the demise of the Serpent, see Question 51 of the Gylfaginning in the Prose Edda. — LR
When the Golem returned, his message was simple. "This must end, Madam Undersecretary-General. It is wrong."
"And what if it doesn't?" She replied. "The Coalition does not answer to your conscience, Josef ben Judah."
"You need not worry that I shall act against you. The Library does not need my aid. I shall do nothing, and watch as your hubris destroys this great project before it can truly begin."
"The Coalition does not need your aid either," she said.
"Perhaps. Are you prepared to test that?"
The Undersecretary-General was silent. "Find me an alternative, and I will gladly take it."
He bowed respectfully. "A wise decision."
"The only decision," she said. "I am not so vain that I cannot acknowledge my mistakes, nor so proud that I refuse to correct them."
I don't know how he did it, but after that the Golem was able to negotiate a truce with the Serpent..It was quite simple, actually. The Serpent is not unreasonable, and understood the danger posed by the Rite of Solomon. He was more than willing to move materials on the Rite into a restricted section of the Library. The attack on the Library, however, would not be allowed to go unpunished; those responsible, including every organization which voted for the resolution, were blacklisted. — Josef,.Eminently reasonable, in my opinion. I am glad my colleagues at ICSUT voted correctly; without Library access, occult research is near-impossible. — L. Sarkany,.i think yall got off easy tbh, ban all bookburners. but His Snakiness doesnt listen to me. probably for the best. hey i wish He would stop capitalizing my shit tho i have a vibe to maintain — lil dan,.What these esteemed gentlemen fail to mention is the reparations paid by the GOC — primarily by ICSUT and the Illuminati — to the Library and the survivors of those killed in the attack. To this day, the Coalition continues to pay the Serpent a yearly weregild of 1 ton of gold and 2 tons of silver. What He does with it, I have no earthly idea. — LR,. The Library is very, very large, if not infinite, and uncountable new books are added every day. Even if only one in a million are illuminated with gold leaf, or have gilt letters in their binding, that is quite a lot of gold. I have no idea where He gets all the paper; though perhaps there are forests upon forests, hidden somewhere deep in the Archives. — Moanza the Scribe And thus peace was won, although the price was steep.
— Menelaus Masonbane, Oecumenicus Volgi of the Ancient Noble Order of the Gormogons
He once was in Three Portlands for a faculty conference, and he rescued my cat from a tree in Autumn Hill Park. He's a nice guy.
— Clementine Whelk, Sawdust Taster
Doubt
The Golem is widely respected for his supposed morality, especially the rigidity of his guiding ethics. But is he really deserving of such respect? He was created as a weapon, and his primary avocation for most of the last century has been violence. That we consider the targets of this violence deserving does nothing to reduce the fact that he willing serves the Lady and her Bookburners — he has done more to aid their agenda than most could in several lifetimes. He claims to care about the truth above all else, yet he aids and abets the greatest lie ever told. At best, the Golem is just another cop. At worst, he is nothing more than a mindless weapon to be aimed by the oppressive forces of the Veil.
— A Nameless Finger of the Serpent's Hand
I must confess that I have been haunted by many of the same doubts expressed above. The directives given to me by the Maharal were to defend the weak, punish the wicked, and oppose injustice wherever I may find it, and I have always strived to follow his instructions to the best of my ability. And yet, I find myself willfully upholding the great injustice that is the Veil, which segregates the weird and the wonderful from the rest of the world and denies the great majority of humanity access to fundamental truths about the nature of reality. And while I strive to do the least harm and to only resort to violence when all else fails, I am directly responsible for the deaths of countless men, evil though their deeds and creeds may have been.
This was what I meditated on for those twenty years I was absent: whether there yet remains a place for me in the modern world, or if my work is finished for now and it is time for me to return to slumber. Obviously, I chose to remain — I was convinced by a friend that my presence now is a great force for good, and that without me the world would suffer from far greater injustice. But I have changed my tactics, as others have noted, and focus most of my energies on trying to teach the younger generation. I believe that I can be of far more use this way than by stalking the decayed remnants of a defeated foe. The fight against fascism is ideological, first and foremost, and cannot ever be decisively won through force alone.
— Josef ben Judah, the Golem of Prague
(DELETED — USER WAS BANNED FROM THE LIBRARY FOR THIS POST)
— Reichsmagier Hermann von Thule. hey can i doxx this guy. i have all his info. im in his computer. i got his social security number and his credit card details. (he lives in florida obviously lol.) whats the library policy on doxxing nazis. — lil dan ,. I believe the humiliation of his expulsion from the Library will be punishment enough, Daniel, though I appreciate the zeal. — Josef
tags: third-law co-authored goi-format _serpents-hand serpents-hand global-occult-coalition icsut obskura 7th-occult-war three-portlands mythological military-fiction ghost dc-al-fine historical
josef.png was drawn by Tsercele and is licensed CC-BY-SA-3.0. Parts are traced from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wild_rock_dove_at_Raikot,_Diamer,_Gilgit-Baltistan,_Pakistan.png by Birds of Gilgit-Baltistan.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Prague._Old_synagogue-oldest_in_the_world_LCCN94512605.tif?page=1 & https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Mikol%C3%A1%C5%A1_Ale%C5%A1_-_The_Maharal_of_Prague_and_the_Golem.jpg are from Wikimedia Commons and are both public domain.
Crit Credits: Jerden, Lemonsense, Heck_Tech, psychicprogrammer, vilsolad, DrGrimoire, Intercedent, xexnoncores
