Book I · filed
Filed under what the eye refuses.
I · THE UNSEEN
Before the archetypes branched, there was only the trunk.
He is not a character inside the story. He is the reason a story was possible at all — the first shadow, cast the moment a species that used to kill only to eat found a reason to kill without one. Everything that follows him is a translation of him, never a copy.
"You don't see me. You see what curves away from me."
BMVT I.1
"When you glimpse him directly, what you buried comes back. His nearness makes forgetting impossible."
BMVT I.2
"Cain and Buddha are the same shadow, walking in two directions."
BMVT I.6
"He is the trunk. Everyone else needed a body to grow into."
BMVT I.9
The rest of Book I is missing. Nobody has confirmed that this is an accident of transmission.
See also: Sigil 0 · UMBRA PRIMA, cited BMVT I.1.