The Fall, Prologue: Dr. Veles Kozim's daily log

Prologue: Dr. Veles Kozim's Daily Log

Extract from Dr. Veles A. Kozim's daily log:

1342 years after the End of the Royal Dinasty, 2nd day of the 1st lunar cycle:

Some peasants have brought me a strange man tonight. I can't really describe it without feeling foolish; it all seems so fantastic, as if it had been taken right away from one of those old mythology books. A man whose never-ending white beard reaches his own feet, a godlike being that floats instead of walking, with long hair that sometimes covers his whole face, as if mocking the laws of physics, defying gravity just like the man itself does. He wears an old linen robe, with a harness attached to it that holds a giant clock to his back.

I am unable to communicate with him; whatever he speaks, it's not from these days. I might be able to decipher his words, but first I need to dust off my old history books and take a look at the archive.

1342 years after the End of the Royal Dinasty, 4th day of the 1st lunar cycle:

After long nights of work and some short conversation tests with the subject, I have given up in trying to communicate with him. His language is unknown to me, I have only been able to recognize some city names; that suggests that his origin is here, in Runeterra. He mentioned Piltover, Shurima and, as funny as it may seem, Bandle city. Fairy tales talk about a city inhabited by the so-called yordles, some primitive living beings that are supposed to have developed both music and technology cooperating with humankind.

Note: A curious detail is that the subject is starting to recognize me. In short, he calls me Velkoz.

1342 years after the End of the Royal Dinasty, 8th day of the first lunar cycle:

Today is a big day: this man will be my discovery, history books will be rewritten when I publish my notes. Tired of hearing him call me Velkoz, I got to look for the name at my database. Some archives mention an enormous wandering eye known as Vel'Koz whose thirst for knowledge brought him to Runeterra. Sadly, I can't find more: all the books referring those days are unreadable, and strangely the hex-archives are corrupted.

At least now I know of what he might be talking about. I'll be studying the old languages, in a few days I'll be able to understand his never-ending speech.

1342 years after the End of the Royal Dinasty, 16th day of the first lunar cycle:

I developed a machine able to translate his words instantly; it was difficult for it to capture his voice and translate it on the fly, mainly because of that strange accent of his, but that was a small problem that was fastly solved. After the needed calibration, everything went as it should. A lot of information has been collected and compared with the archives, even though I haven't been able to maintain a proper conversation with him. Now, where should I start?

His name is Zilean. Having an unknown origin (at least for me), I can confirm he lived here, in Urtistan, during the war periods of the 113th and 114th century before the End of the Royal Dinasty. He was in charge of the clock tower, the only building that still remains from those days.

But there's more; this man is supposed to be an old magician. I must further my investigations, since making this information public would bring back the endless debate between historians regard the existence or not of magic in Runeterra. I can't shed light onto this mystery without more proof.

1342 years after the End of the Royal Dinasty, 24th day of the first lunar cycle:

Not sure if it's because of the full moon or not, but I've been able to talk with Zilean as a normal person would; he understands our language and is able of talking it fluently. After some short psychological tests he agreed to take, I have not been able to reach any conclusive results. I have asked him to stay here with me, offering him a bed, whatever he needed to eat and my huge library; instead of answering, he just laughed at me. It took me a long while to get him back into our conversation, but when he did he talked me about his disease, chrono-displasia.

To sum up, I was standing besides the only known immortal man on earth; no need to eat or sleep. But the problem is that chrono-displasia is not immortality, but eternal life instead. Let me explain the difference between those two concepts; for getting into it we'll have to first settle some basics; it's easy to compare life and a piece of rope; a linear entity, a begginning and an end, with some knots around and it can be cut somewhere in between so that it ends before.

An immortal man is quite similar; the main difference is the lack of end. The rope has a start, but no matter how much you pull you'll never get the end of it in your hands. As immortality hasn't been studied because of an obvious lack of test subjects, we can't confirm if there's a way of "cutting" the rope for giving it an earlier end.

Now we get to the icing on the cake; eternal life. Explaining something we can't conceive is not easy, but I will try my best; the eternal can't be conceived like a rope; it exists always. It has no start and it never ends, because time is for them something they can roam around. There's not a rope, but an infinite set of them, each with its own knots. Cutting one would make no sense, since the eternal being is also living the other infinite lives at the same time.

Chrono-displasia could be explained as an uncontrolable eternity; having the chance of living every single moment, they can't choose which to live; the being can phisically be at 2, 10 or a million lives (or instances of a same life) at the same time while only processing one. That means that, while he's talking to me, he's also talking in an infinite amount of parallel existences even if I'm not there.

There's so much to learn from him.

1342 years after the End of the Royal Dinasty, 3rd day of the second lunar cycle:

Zilean's screams woke me up. I haven't been able to sleep; he keps on talking, he won't stop no matter what I do. He talks about a lot of things. He's been cursing at someone called LeBlanc, yelling at her, bringing her to book; he talks about something that shouldn't have been done, that bringing the prince back to life was foolishness. He's talked about the Royal Dinasty, about how it all came to an end. "Immortality is a punishment, not a tool, my dear sister of condition." is all he says now. He repeats it endlessly.

Before falling into that state of ecstasy,he talked about Noxian politics, the Demacian decadency, Bandle City's sudden disappearance, the Ionian genocide and the Shadow Isles burning during the last time the Black Mist was seen. He said that the shard of the monolith was back home, that Shurima's rise and fall was already written. The Freljord shall burn on the icy hearts they were asking for.

I have to check all these data and more. I have it all recorded. The truth shall be unveiled.

1342 years after the End of the Royal Dinasty, 5th day of the fourth lunar cycle:

Zilean stopped talking. He just stares at me now, saying nothing. My questions receive no answer. I need him to explain what he was talking about cycles ago.

1342 years after the End of the Royal Dinasty, 6th day of the second lunar cycle:

No news from Zilean. He's still there, absently sitting in the bed I laid him upon when he started screaming. I definitely need help. I don't know how the Institute of Wisdom will take my words. Just in case I don't come back I have programmed the release of these notes; the world shall be given the truth, no matter they want it or not.

End of the extract.

Dr. Veles Aristmosis Kozim planned on making this, his archive and the recent records public.
Everything has already been solved and no information has been leaked.
Zilean has been confined to the deepest cell in Zaun's Mental Institute.
Dr. Veles A. Kozim has been 'accidentally' executed.
The truth won't reach the daylight while I live, no need to worry about that.


Yours faithfully,
LeBlanc