The Epistle of Joras the Buried – From the Trenches of the 7th Woe

Epistle I – Of the Womb of Earth and the Death of Heaven
In the year of the Putrified Christ, seven thousand and nine and one hundred, beneath the cracked firmament and the gory clay, I did take up quill and blood to write this confession, ere I be swallowed whole by the mouth of the earth.

1:1 Yea, I was born not of woman, but of steel and scripture, in the Tabernacle of Salt.
1:2 My name was once Joras, called the Wormtongue of the Ninth Choir, but now I am nameless, for the Lord hath erased me with mud and memory.
1:3 For what is a name in the trench, where all men are brethren in rot?

1:4 Verily, the soil doth hunger for the faithful; and the worms doth whisper secrets holier than sermons.
1:5 For beneath the crust of the earth, even angels hath bones.

Epistle II – Of the Vows and the Silent Prophets

2:1 At the age of fourteen, I was sealed with the Bullet of Benediction. It entereth the brow and leaveth not death, but obedience.
2:2 And the bishop said unto me: "Go ye down unto the Gut Trenches, for thy disbelief shall be thy blade."
2:3 And I descended sevenfold into the silt and soot, where the breath of the Divine was but the cough of the damned.

2:4 There lie the Vessels of Forgotten Speech, the corpses of prophets with mouths sewn by iron thread.
2:5 For he who speaketh in sleep speaketh in sin; and he who preacheth in death preacheth in madness.

"Curse not the dying sun, lest ye warm thy hands in the fire of heresy." — Proverb of the Rusted Creed

Epistle III – Of the Gods Below and the Creed of None

3:1 I believest no longer. And for this, the Priests of the Spade hath anointed me with duty:
3:2 "Dig thou the Trench of the Godless, wherein no hymn is heard, and no idol is carved.
3:3 There shalt thou lie, alone with thine Unbelief, as Abraham lay with faith."

3:4 For in the lower hollows, God hath many names: He That Moldeth in Maggotflesh, The Hollow Voice, The Rotted Nazarene, The Infant Who Screams in Clay.
3:5 And lo, I forsook them all.

“He that diggeth a grave for the divine may find the divine digging back.” — Saying of the Bone-Rabbis of the Western Mire

Epistle IV – The Lamentation and Hope of the Faithless Knight

4:1 I know not salvation, only repetition. I rise not with dawn, for there is no dawn — only the crimson fog and the stammering trumpet.
4:2 The sun is but a burnt offering in the furnace of the sky.
4:3 My sword is rust, my shield is bone, and my prayer is silence.

4:4 But I wait. I, the Worm-Knight, the Gravedigger of Saints, the Apostle of No Creed.
4:5 For if ever God walketh the trench, then shall I bury Him.
4:6 Deep and wordless, beneath the silt of forgotten sermons,
4:7 That He may rot beside us, and be made man.

“The dead preach with the stench of truth; the living lie with perfumed tongue.” — Aphorism of the Sump-Priests of Woe Cathedral

Thus is writ the confession of Joras the Buried.
Let it be not read, but inhaled, as smoke from the incense of a charred chapel.
And let those who dwell in trenches know:

"Lo, beneath thee be not Hell... but Heaven forgotten."

"There Are No Gods Beneath the Ground"

A Soldier's Journal from the Trench Crusade Universe (Autobiographical Fragment)

The year is 7913. According to the Crusader Calendar.

The world's chest has been pierced, its ribs have become a shield.

My name used to be Joras Ankariel. Now I am forbidden from mentioning my rank. My uniform is nothing but rags — but the fact that it has been stained by holy torture makes me a holder of the "Order of the Holy Clay." They call us "Buried Knights." Because we do not fight. We swear in the ground. We do not fight against the enemy, but against the Putrefying Christ.

My first mission began on the 19th level of the Trenches of Perdition. The sky had descended upon us like a curtain of black flesh. The depth of the trenches was 200 meters in some places. A different sect waited on each level. Some would pray, some would scream, and some would lie down in the grave without saying anything. Because here, death is not a duty. It is a ritual.

Why Did My Crusade Begin?

Because when I was little, my mother told me that a metal angel had fallen from the sky. It had no wings, but its vocal cords were made of gold. When it came to me in my dream, it said:

“God is rotten, my son. And we are his germs.”

From that day on, the Church took me. I grew up in a bare coffin. My blood was sealed as a battle badge. At the age of 14, I took the first bullet, blessed with the Spiritual Charge, in my forehead — but I did not die. It was not to separate me, but to awaken me. For we are not “dead soldiers.” We are “martyrs who could not be resurrected.”

If You Ask What Is in the Trenches...

The earth breathes. I swear, it moves at night. On the trench walls, forgotten verses move as if they were alive. Every new day, we serve a different faith, a different order. Yesterday's enemy can be today's lord. Here, ideologies are poured like lead, mixed like mud.

Deep in the trench lie the "Carcasses of Revelation". These are the remains of prophetic soldiers who once claimed to have spoken to God. When we bury them, we seal their mouths. Because when the dead start talking, the war begins again.

My Own Holy Sin: NOT BELIEVING

I no longer believe in God. But that doesn't make me a "heretic". Because here, not believing is also considered a belief. Faith in Trench Crusade is not monotheistic. There are thousands of minor gods, such as Under the Mud, Born in the Void, Triple Nightmare, and Grave Sun.

I turned my back on them all. And that's why I was given a new task:

"You will dig the Trench of the Godless, Joras."

"There, only you. And your absence."

My Final Word:

This is my confession. My Crusade is not carved in the sky, but in the earth. Jesus is not here. Nor is Mohammed, Moses, Buddha. We only have... corrupt intentions. I do not pray every time I pull the trigger — I only wait:

Maybe one day, God will pass through the trench.

And we... bury him.

"Sūrat al-Ṣamt" (سورة الصمت) — Sessizliğin Suresi

Ravî: Qadīr ibn Ṣalīb, Çoraklar'daki Kör İmam

Dil: Arapça (Kur’ânî ritme yakın)

بِسْمِ الْوَحْدَةِ الَّتِي فِي الْغُبَارِ
قَسَمًا بِاللَّيْلِ الَّذِي لَا نُجُومَ فِيهِ،
وَبِالسِّتْرِ الَّذِي طَرَحَ الرُّسُلَ فِي الطِّينِ،
إِنَّ اللَّهَ قَدْ كَتَبَ عَلَى نَفْسِهِ الْخُرُوجَ،
وَلَكِنَّهُ لَمْ يَجِدْ أَيْدِيَ تَحْمِلُهُ.

1:1 Ve sessizliği bir sure kıldık ki konuşanın dili kurusun.
1:2 Ve dedik ki: “Toprakta ayet yoksa, toprağın kendisi ayettir.”
1:3 Kör olan biz değiliz, gözle görene inananlardı.

وَمَا أُوحِيَ إِلَيَّ إِلَّا هَمْسُ الْقُبُورِ،
وَهِيَ أَصْدَقُ مِنْ أَلْسِنَةِ الْأَحْيَاءِ.

2. "Megillat Tehom" (מְגִלַּת תְּהוֹם) — Derinliğin Parşömeni

Rav: Eleazar ben Dagon, “Kafatası Havrası”ndan hayatta kalan son sofer

Dil: Kutsal İbranice stili

אֵין אֱלֹהִים בַּשָּׁמַיִם, אֲחִי, רַק בַּבּוֹרוֹת.
כִּי הַאֲדָמָה בָּלְעָה אֶת הַמַּשִּׁיחַ.
וּמִן הַחֲרִיטָה עָלְתָה תוֹרָה שֶׁל בָּשָׂר.

2:3 Blessed be the trench that forgetteth the names of kings,
2:4 For the crown shall rot, but the worm shall inherit wisdom.

וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כְּמוֹךָ בַּמָּוֶת.
וְאַל תִּתֵּן קוֹלְךָ בַּחֲשָׁכָה, פֶּן יַעֲנוּךָ הַשְּׁאִים.

3. "Liber Putredinis" — Çürümenin Kitabı

Müellif: Sanctus Marius, İkinci Tarikat’tan Sözde Aziz

Dil: Kilise Latince’si, Vulgata tarzı

In nomine Vermis et Terrae et Umbrae Silentii.
Credidimus in Filium non-natum, qui in limo dormit et os habet sine verbo.
Scriptum est: “Qui orat in caeno, Deum non exspectat, sed sepulcrum.”

3:6 Beatus est qui tacet in dolore,
3:7 quia vox ejus non tollitur, sed absorbētur.

Maledictus sit qui loquitur nomine Dei,
et cordem suum non in luto posuit.

4. "فاتحة‌الخاک" (Fātiḥat al-Khāk) — Toprağın Fâtihası

نقّاش: رستم کل‌خاکی، سرباز گم‌نام از جبهه‌ی شوشتر

Dil: Eski-yazım Farsça, Kur’an ve Şehname arası üslup

به نام آنکه نبود، لیک ما او را کندیم.
نه در آسمان، نه بر عرش، بل در سنگر و خونابه‌.

1:1 خاک آیت است و گلوله شهادت.
1:2 مؤمن آن است که دهانش دوخته باشد.
1:3 و کافر آن‌که از خدا پرسید، "کجایی؟"

ای برادرم! چون کلمه به لجن افتاد،
دیگر آیه‌ای جز استخوان نمی‌مانَد.

5. “Epistle of the Hollow Witness” — Mezarsız Aziz’in Vahyi

Yazan: The Grin Without Teeth (Dişsiz Tebessüm), Toprağın Seçilmiş Elçisi

Dil: Ağır Eski İngilizce – King James + apokaliptik şiirsellik

Verily I say unto thee, the Heavens hath fled,
And the trenches becometh the temples of silence.
For no angel singeth here, save the thunder of shells.

5:4 Blessed is he who sleepeth beneath fire,
5:5 For he shall not wake to scream again.

Yea, though I walk through the trench of shattered souls,
I shall fear no God.
For the God that was, is buried in me.