The Gated Place

“How the Gated Place used to be? Well, it was… tough, I think. I dunno, I didn't come here that long ago, to be honest. But I heard that a lot of the prophets just… straight-up lied about what the Guardian was telling us to do.

“Well, maybe that’s not… I mean, some of them really actually thought they were doing the right thing. That the Guardian actually wanted us to follow those rules, you know, the tenets. Even though we now know the songs were just the White Raccoon asking for help, you know. But some did just make stuff up for power. That’s what Rust told me, anyway.

“Rust, zie tried to change things for the better. Zie introduced the Equality Tenet, made it so nobody had any like… spiritual superiority over anyone else. I mean… there was never really like a rigid power structure or anything here, as far as I know… nobody ever got, like punished for disobeying the tenets or leaving or anything like that. But most people just tended to do whatever the prophet said. Rust didn’t really like that, so zie tried to like… change the system from the inside, I think. Zie had zir heart in the right place.

“But yeah, anyway, where was I… right. So we’re done with the tenets and stuff now. A lot of us still follow them for like… sentimental reasons. Like, most of us still wear the bangles. I… I’m not really the best person to explain, like, the evolution of our beliefs, and all that stuff, but… it’s basically like this: we thought we were worshipping the Guardian through interpreting the songs as tenets, right? But then it came out that the songs were the White Raccoon, and the tenets were all misinterpretations. But we decided, like… we still worship the Guardian.

“No, no, not the White Raccoon. The Guardian. Yeah, the hunk of metal. We still have them, the pieces that remain, and we’ve dotted them all around the Gated Place, so that she can still watch over us, you know? Because no matter the tenets and the prophets… she protected us. Brought us comfort, and kept us safe and warm, for like, hundreds of years. You know that even during Winter, the Gated Place never froze over? That was her, I think. Protecting us.

“I think… the only thing we got wrong — and it was our fault, not the Guardian’s – was to, like, keep ourselves so locked away. That’s why I was really happy to read Ida’s article, and I’m really glad you’ve come to ask us about all this stuff! Of course, we’re working with the Scholars now, teaching them how to read our records, and some really cool stuff is coming from that; but I still think the average animal doesn’t really understand much about us, and our history. So with this, I guess I hope to, like… spread the knowledge. We’ll stay here, because it’s a place that has always protected us and brought us peace. But… we want to see and be seen by others. We want to participate in the world. I- well, actually… that’s kind of spoilers for the next Carnival, hehe. But, well… keep an eye out for us, ‘kay?”

Excerpt from an interview given by Friqui the axolotl.