The Seventh Discourse of Raiden

Scholars Notes as to the translation of this document by Lucas Albright. This piece was discovered in 2009 after a grueling pilgrimage to the remote county of Mouto China by two adventures turned tomb raiders. Though the finer details are sketchy to say the least, the two men came upon a Tibetan temple harboring several scrolls that where kept in a strict reverence. After looting the temple and fighting against the locals they made it out with one scroll intact with the others being deystroyed in the process. Mouto is a rugged country and is considered the holiest land in China with no official roads or paths leading to it. That these men where even to make it out of this terrain alive is a story in itself but I must not distract from the task at hand. My translation given here is the only one to date but I feel that any further work couldn't possibly be determined to be more accurate. Dating this piece has become a task of paradoxical proportions. A dear friend attempted to carbon date the scroll on three different ocassions but to no avail. No real descriptions are given of the two chracters depicted in the discourse and it seems to imply some allegorical teaching that may be lost to us now. Part of the text is missing and where needed I add emphasis to what might have been written. The second discourse of Raiden is also featured in this book on page 257 for further reference.

"If you look and yet do not see the meaning to which is given then all is (lost)."

"(For) that which you have accomplished my dear pupil has not been in vain,nor has (been an) accomplishment either. It simply is."

"You speak in riddles great one. Have I not done what you've told me to do? And (now) when the hour is dire,when the sky is dark and the forces of outworld move into my world you show indifference?"

" Liu, you speak of things of which you have yet to see in meaning of how they truly are,and yet what they truly are can never be known. They are shifting shadows who's essence cannot be possesed,only glimpesed at."

"Then what is this all about great Raiden? What have I (We) been fighting for if we cannot even grasp the true meaning of it?"

" My dear pupil open your heart and feel that which flows through the spirit. Your world (and) Outworld are as much in you as they are apart of time and space. Time and space is indifferent to the events but your reasoning clouds the true nature of the events before us. Outworld is but the shadow of what Earthrealm has hidden,has obscured from it's own spirit with the reasoning life has put behind it. Have you seen the crude weaponry of the Tarkata? How is it that they slay those with much more sophistication in their kombat? Then I ask you how is it that the primitive beast of the woods comes upon a man and eats upon his flesh. How well does humanities rationality help him in light of (the) primitive dynamic of life?

"But Raiden I have killed in brutality much to my regret in order to save the world. Does this not make me as much a beast as the Tarkata?"

" You are pale in your affirmation of life. You have the passion of the fist but not of the blood in which they spill. You must embrace that which life is."

"By killing? By What madness can a god speak!"

"The blood is the embrace of life and all its sorrow. By partaking in the karnage you are accepting life on its terms. Even if the great emperor is defeated won't the blood continue to spill? Won't the bitter hatred still brew in the dark recesses of the heart my dear friend?"

"But then what am I fighting for? If what the Emperor wants is the hate of man to prosper then why resist if my achievments will lead to the same path he has designed?"

"You fight for it on your terms. You resist life upon the model on which he has in mind. This is why the great tournement is not about death but life. Which system will it rest upon? Mankind has attempted to correct this nature and this is what outworld has taken cause against. The great tournement is a reflection of life sustaining itself against the will of life. Why does Kahn adorn the great skull of humanity upon his features? This is the embrace,the affirmation of life. It's a celebration and a dark reminder of (the) preconditions of exsistance. You have to first accept this before you can integrate the model you have set upon life with that which outworld celebrates. Only when the two are reconciliated can a balance be found.

" If all this was set up as some game to create balance then why has Kahn broken the rules of the tournement? Has that in itself not disrupted the balance which the elder gods wished to be set upon mankind?"

" The rules are broken because a balance has still yet to be reached. By winning the tournement and defeating Shang Tsung it was believed the stream of life would find peace in the valley death. This is was a sore mistake,and until the balance needed is realized the battle continues."

" But how can balance be realized if life itself is the shifting of thought,the change of systems? Does the battle against Kahn not mirror life in itself? The struggle of life against the other side?"

" And with that your own system has descended into the abyss and been deystroyed,only to be reintigrated with the other. With this you learn the morality you live by is no greater of less than the morality the emperor lives by. The clashing of ideas,competing for the domain of consciouness. Now you must show compassion to the darkness that outworld represents. You are against it but you can come to terms with it and show compassion even with affirming that life will struggle against life."

" Your words are confusing Raiden but they seem to strike some accord within me."

(This is where the scroll has been obscured. Apparently burned and torn and thus ends the translation which has been named the Seventh Discourse of Raiden.)