The Echo Chamber

by Cord Siemers

The Echo Chamber is thought to be a large, rectangular box of metallic substance which encases a crystalline oblong spheroid. Like those distant times that have since passed away into oblivion, the invention itself exists now only in word and memory. Urostes, over seven aeons past, writes in The Histories that the Echo Chamber was a gift to the Khutahama by the Dormidions as a reminder of their powers. As the Gods parted from the Khutahama in the last days, an unknown Dormidion mystic whispered a word onto the surface of the crystalline spheroid. When it was placed into the metal box and sealed, the word began to echo until a loud hum emanated from the device. After the Dormidions had parted, the echo chamber was placed in the central tower, from where the sound, ever expanding in dimension, could be heard constantly.

Many of the Khutahama, Urostes writes, discussed the meaning and prophecy of the Echo Chamber. One theory for instance claimed that the Echo Chamber protected and sustained the Khutahama, and that their powers were increased as the device echoed through the extent of vibrational frequencies. Another group proposed that the Echo Chamber was essentially a curiosity and a toy, a playful artifact left behind from another time and not to be regarded seriously. Still others believed it to be a test of some sort by which the Dormidions might alter the fate of the Khutahama. And some of the Khutahama wanted to re-open the Echo Chamber and examine the device more carefully, as the exact nature of its properties were unknown to them. There were even those who thought the Echo Chamber as an instrument of some sort by which the distinct state of the Universe could be monitored. However, most of the Khutahama regarded the Echo Chamber as unknowable, and therefore gave the device due reverence, while refraining from proclaiming any unique significance to its existence and action.

Urostes writes that, as the time in which the Echo Chamber came to the Khutahama receded further into the past, the Echo itself grew louder in intensity, until its sound could be heard throughout the city. While some Khutahama acted disinterested or feigned ignorance to its ever-increasing presence, others grouped together to discuss what might be done. These meetings were held in secret, as the role and value of the Echo Chamber was contentious.

There came a day however when a renown Khutahama from a distant shrine approached the city, but refused to enter due to the shriek of the Echo Chamber. It then became clear to the Khutahama that the problem of the Echo Chamber must be addressed. While the Khutahama debated the significance and powers of the Echo Chamber in the rooms of the central city, its steady roar filled the halls of their shelter. Though the barrage was of slow and steady advance, aged Khutahama testified to the increasing intensity of the Echo Chamber, while fervent youths expounded the importance of the device to the continued powers of the Khutahama. Though most agreed that the device would soon be unbearably loud, making life in the city, and especially near the tower, uninhabitable, none could agree as to how to address the situation.

A strange, ominous intensity haunted the central city in those days, as the Echo Chamber screamed constantly, and the Khutahama crept through the halls of their city, haunted by this gift from aeons past. And the debate continued. If the Khutahama should move the Echo Chamber to another locale, and thus preserve harmony in the city, would their power wane? Of course, the group that considered the Echo Chamber to be the source, as well as the culmination of the Khutahama's powers, argued fervently that the Echo Chamber should not be moved, as its importance was primary and fundamental. This group proposed enclosing the Echo Chamber and the central tower in structures that could protect the Khutahama and the city from the onslaught of the Echo. Still others spoke that, even if the Echo Chamber were structurally insulated or transported to another locale, what would keep it from increasing in intensity until someday it would threaten the Khutahama again? This group argued for the dismantling of the Echo Chamber, perhaps by casting it into molten rock, or even re-opening the device. Many however were frightened by the consequences of opening the Echo Chamber. What would happen to the device as it was re-opened? Would the vibrations within the device simply dissipate, or would the energy locked within the Echo Chamber destroy the city and the Khutahama? This option was further complicated, because by now, for any of the Khutahama to even approach the device required the greatest protection and care, and for anyone to be near enough to the Echo Chamber to dismantle it, or carry it to a distant, rugged terrain to be destroyed, was perhaps an impossibility. With these seemingly hopeless scenarios, the Khutahama cowered through the streets and halls of their city, oppressed by the ever-increasing eminence of the Echo Chamber.

In these days strange incidents began to occur in the city. A group of Khutahama approached the Echo Chamber without the devised protection, and though some did not survive, others somehow endured its onslaught. While they had lost all hearing and did not speak when they stumbled down from the central tower, they seemed possessed by some strange power and no longer slept. Though no other Khutahama attempted this approach to the Echo Chamber, some of those who proclaimed the powers of the device spoke of union with the Echo and a new era upon the Khutahama. They banded together, huddled around one another and made sounds mimicking the roar of the Echo. Others too grouped together and demanded swift action to destroy the device. Plans were made to attempt the removal of the Echo Chamber, and a group of Khutahama volunteered to take it to the molten rock of Veeras Pits where it might be annihilated. However, the disciples of the Echo heard of the plan, and a battle ensued with many Khutahama dying. While the disciples of the Echo were beaten, and were forced to retreat to the far reaches of the city, when the remaining Khutahama approached the Echo Chamber to remove and destroy the device, the vanguard did not survive the sound of the Echo. It was soon clear to the Khutahama that, even with the maximum protection available, it was now impossible to approach the Echo Chamber without suffering death, or at least a similar fate as the deaf and muted group of Disciples. The disheartened Khutahama retreated in terror to a safe section of the outer city, and the Disciples of the Echo crept back towards the central tower, closer to the deafening scream of the Echo Chamber.

With this, Urostes writes, the Reign of the Echo began. The remaining Khutahama, exhausted and hopeless, made plans to abandon the city to the Echo Chamber and to the Disciples of the Echo. While the Khutahama organized their retreat to the outer lands, the Disciples of the Echo cared for their deaf and muted brethren and sang tonal hymns to the Echo Chamber. There rose amongst them priests of the Echo who devised elaborate rituals and songs inaugurating the coming reign of the Echo. All the while the Echo Chamber continued to shriek ever more loudly, cascading through new, terrible frequencies of sound.

Here Urostes's narrative seems altered or incomplete. He writes that, after the remaining Khutahama had escaped to the outer lands, the Disciples of the Echo remained in the city and served the Echo for an unknown period of time. Then, for reasons not made clear, the Reign of the Echo ended, and the Echo Chamber disappeared into oblivion. How this exactly occurred Urostes does not say, but only writes that the Echo and the cult of the Echo gradually diminished until there were no longer priests to serve the Echo, and the Echo no longer ruled. In these days Urostes wrote his Histories, when the current order had begun, and the Echo Chamber itself was already lost to oblivion.

Of course, why the reign of the Echo gave way is still debated amongst our scholars and historians. There is a legend that the Echo Chamber was slowly obscured by a field of intense light, which one day flashed into nothingness, taking the device with it. Others, who believe the old stories, claim that the Dormidions secretly returned and reclaimed their gift, and the shrieking wail of the echo from the central tower one day disappeared. Still others regard those days of the Echo as dark and superstitious, and believe Urostes may have been duped by the lasts gasps of an ancient myth when he recounted the story of the Echo Chamber in his Histories. These scholars note that no other written document mentions the device, or refers to the Reign of the Echo, but merely attributes the upheavals of those days to a revolution within the castes. And of course there are those who claim Urostes himself invented the Echo Chamber, merely for his own diversion, or as an analogy for reasons unknown.

Yet, amongst all the speculation, rumors abound that the cult of the Echo still exists, and even today some have mentioned strange gatherings in dark enclosures within the central city. There are stories of secret ceremonies in which masked and cloaked adherents, moaning in various frequencies, encircle a writhing and shrieking devotee. It is said that, as the group of disciples moan louder and louder, the encircled member's expression and movements become more and more distorted, until the devotee of the Echo thrashes uncontrollably about, enraptured. The circle of Disciples then closes violently upon the the devotee, whose visage is now contorted unrecognizably by the ecstasy and pain of exertion, and whose mouth is open, screaming, but making no sound.

Perhaps these ceremonies are merely atavistic expressions of a time long since passed, or perhaps the Echo is still with us, screaming out the limits of tonal range, and we no longer hear it.