Behold, dear Reader, this wretch who stands before you, and pity him. Observe to what state Cruel Fortune has reduced him; what ravages have been visited upon both his physical form and mental faculties. Hold your gaze, if you can, on him as he demonstrates the most craven, base behavior that would shock the most primitive Aborigine of the South Seas. And if you can, dear Reader, try to find sympathy in your heart for this man who once was numbered among the great and powerful, but who now feeds on waste and vermin and crouches in a beast-like form, unable to even stand.
No, I was not always as you see me - and thus is my fall all the greater, for I was young and proud and tall. I commanded the allegiance of armies and ambassadors. I was desired by women young and old, and envied by men.
But the Book tells us that Pride goeth before a fall; if I had had the wit to heed those wise words I would have cast it all aside and submitted myself to a life of humility and servitude. Alas for me that I did not.
For ever did I seek to amass new wealth and power. My quest for glory and fame was a flaming passion that blazed in my heart from darkest night to brightest midday. And in my folly I pursued avenues better left untrodden, secrets better left buried in the deep chasms where withered hands laid them eons before man first cast his feeble eyes to the stars and wondered what lay beyond our earthly realm. And in so doing I awakened minds older than galaxies, heavy and bloated with malevolence and cruel cunning, and a hungering rage against that race called Man, who had long ago imprisoned them in their slumbering gaol.
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