Ghost Eater Jerret of the Desert was born 3,005 years ago today, in a faraway land called Italius…

Italius was the center of the (foreseeable) universe, producing some of the most highly sought out spices, and featuring some of the greatest architecture and art the universe has ever seen.

Jerret’s family lived in the biggest city in Italius, called Remius. They were no ordinary family, as they were responsible for the construction of the Colisius, a grand amphitheater that represented the center of the ancient land.

However Italius was not perfect. There were major issues with its class system in particular, as the gap between the rich and poor was ever-growing. As a result, crime was at an all-time high…

One day, when Jerret was only five years old, he was confronted by a messenger on his walk home from school. The messenger informed him that his family had been abducted, and he needed to pay a ransom of 15,000 denarius (their currency) if he wanted them to live.

Jerret knew the only way to come up with the denarius was to sell all of his family’s land. So he did that immediately, and coordinated a meet up with the messenger to make the exchange.

He arrived at the meeting point in the forest, about 15 miles out of town. The messenger was waiting there with his family, whose faces were covered. He said “hand me the denarius, and I will leave you with your family.” And he stuck to his word, and disappeared into the foggy dusk, as Jerret let out a sigh of relief and embraced his family.

On their way back to town, Jerret’s father paused to catch his breath. And then his mother. And then each of his 6 siblings, one-by-one. It became clear that something was wrong. The abductors hadn’t kept true to their word–a spell had been casted upon his entire family. Within seconds they were gone.

Jerret, struck with sadness, found a tree to lay rest. In the middle of his rest, he was awoken by a lone wolf, who approached him. He said to the heavens “let this wolf take me as supper, for I will be reunited with my family, and that is all I desire.” As the wolf got closer, Jerret didn’t move. His heartbeat almost non-existent. His palms dry. He meant what he said.

The wolf was now face-to-face with Jerret, but what happened next was shocking. The wolf laid and rested next to Jerret. And a few hours later, the wolf brought food to Jerret. And this continued for 30 days and 30 nights, as Jerret didn’t move from the tree. He sat, pondering his purpose and the meaning of life.

And then, on the 31st day, Jerret arose from the tree and said to the wolf:

“My life is no longer here in Italius. I want to fix Italius, but as a society we are unfixable. We do not have the means to change. I will leave Italius tomorrow, and set out to learn everything the universe has to offer, so that I can someday return and share my learnings with all of my people, to someday fix Italius.”

The next day Jerret and the wolf left for the port town, Napolius, and joined a sea crew heading westward. A crew member confirmed with him that this was “a one-way ticket into the unknown, with no return.” Jerret nodded, as he and the wolf entered the ship.

And over the next 3,000 years Jerret and the wolf continued westward, traveling the vast lands and oceans. Jerret would stay on a piece of land for 10 years at a time, learning everything he possibly could before setting sail to the next. It was difficult repeatedly leaving the people he built relationships with in such a short amount of time, but he was used to it.

At every stop, on the day he would leave, the people would ask him all kinds of questions, and Jerret would share everything he knows about love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death.

And on the final day of their most recent stop, on the 3,000th year away from Italius to the day, he answered the people’s questions. But for the first time in his journey, he had nothing new to add from the previous stop. And he said his goodbyes, and as he walked to his ship, he said to the wolf:

“We’ve traveled to the end of the universe. While this universe may have no shortage of land and ocean, we’ve reaped all it has to offer. There is nothing more to learn. We will travel with our crew for one final stop, where we will celebrate together and arrange to head back eastward with another crew, to Italius, so that I can fulfill my life’s purpose of teaching my people the ways of the universe.”

And so Jerret and the wolf joined their sea crew for one final journey westward, which ended up being 101 years at sea–their longest sea journey of their entire voyage.

Finally, they laid anchor in Asmodeus’s Surf, and arrived at a desert city called Atlanta’s Pool, where they quickly realized their journey back eastward may be on hold…

/tbc...

Entered by: 0x0a5C…0527 and preserved on chain (see transaction)