冥主传奇#Tales of the Netherlord

来源：http://mmh7.ubi.com/en/blog/post/view/tales-of-the-netherlord，以下由HeavenK翻译。

Well met, shadow councillors.

很高兴再见面，影子议会成员们。

When I asked you what should be the topic of my next tales, I didn’t expect that so many of you would be familiar with the Netherlord, Sandro, and would like to hear more about him.

当我问起你们接下来想要听那一段传奇故事时，我没能预期到会有那么多人知道冥府领主桑德罗（山德鲁），并且想要得知更多关于他的故事。

The way Sandro and his Order remain shrouded in mystery would make us Faceless proud, if their tool was not the power of the Void, the negation of magic and existence itself. Indeed, while some refer to the nethermancers’ powers as “Void magic”, it is a misconception. Nethermancers call upon the emptiness that predates all of creation, including what we call magic.

桑德罗和其教派始终笼罩在神秘之中，如果不是因为他们采取的方法是使用虚空这种否定存在本身的力量的话，其成就本是足以让我们这些无面者们感到羡慕。事实上，虽然一些虚空法师讲这种力量称为“虚空魔法”，但实际上这是个误解。虚空法师们所唤来的这种空虚甚至早于一切存在本身，包括我们称之为魔法的存在。

Those who have met the Netherlord (and retained their memories of that meeting), describe him as calm, cunning and well-mannered, a charming personality that contrasts starkly with his ghoulish and skeletal appearance. Alternatively, those who fought against him (and lived to tell the tale) describe him as ruthless, unforgiving, paranoid and, of course, extremely manipulative.

那些见识过冥府领主的人，如果他们还保有那段记忆的话，总是将他描述为冷静、狡黠，同时彬彬有礼，富有魅力，和其骷髅般的外表完全相反。但是，对于那些和他战斗过，并且还能活着讲述这一故事的人来说则正相反，他们将其描述为残忍、无情、偏执，当然还有极端老谋深算。

How Sandro himself has managed to not be consumed by the Void and returned to nothingness is only one of many enigmas that surround the self-proclaimed “Great Lich”. This story of his life is full of guesses, holes and contradictions, and should be considered unreliable at best.

桑德罗是如何避免被虚空所吞噬并回归虚无只是围绕在这位自称“大巫妖”身上的诸多秘密之一。他的故事本身就充满了各种猜测、漏洞与矛盾，最好都被当做是需要质疑的。

To the best of my knowledge, before there was a Netherlord named Sandro, there was a man of flesh and blood named Alejandro dela Segadora.

据我所知，在冥府领主桑德罗之前，曾经有一位活人，名为亚力桑德罗·德拉·塞拉多拉。

Alejandro was born in the year 444 YSD, and was the only son of Vidal dela Segadora, a count of the Bull duchy, and his fourth wife. Despite having had numerous daughters, the count was still longing for a son. But right from the start, the shadow of death hanged over the boy. The countess died giving birth, and at first it seemed the baby was stillborn. However, the infant miraculously came back to life after a few moments, leading his grieving father to believe Elrath had heard and answered his prayers.

亚力桑德罗出生于七龙纪444年，是公牛公国的维达尔·德拉·塞拉多拉伯爵和其第四任妻子的唯一一个男孩。尽管伯爵有许多女孩，但是他长久以来还是期望着一个男孩。但是从一开始起，死亡的阴影就笼罩着这个孩子。伯爵夫人死于难产，而开始婴儿本身也看似已经夭折。但是之后不久，婴儿奇迹般的起死回生，让其悲痛的父亲相信是艾尔拉思相应了自己的祈祷。

Growing up, Alejandro was a strange and precocious child. At an early age, he already knew how to read and write, displaying great intelligence – sometimes frighteningly so. He didn’t get along with his older sisters very well, except one, Alma, who shared his love for books. According to some sources, he also had a deep, reciprocated dislike of his father’s new wife.

亚力桑德罗之后成长为一个奇特早熟的孩子。在很早时，他就已经会读写，并展现出极高的智力，甚至令人感到胆寒。他和他的姐姐们关系都不好，只有一个例外，就是和自己一样喜欢读书的姐姐阿尔玛。据某些信息来源指出，他和继母之间互相抱有深深地厌恶之情。

As time went by, his father started to worry about Alejandro. Not only his son seemed uninterested in hunting, fighting, and warring, but the way he was telling stories of strange places and times “like he had been there” unsettled Vidal. At first the count thought it only had to do with the books his son was always seen reading and considered it to the sign of an overactive imagination. But it was obvious the boy was much more mature than he should have been for his age.

随着时间的流逝，亚力桑德罗的父亲开始对自己的儿子产生担忧。不仅仅因为他的儿子对狩猎、战斗与战争不感兴趣，还因为他总是在讲一些“好像亲身经历过”的发生在奇特的空间与时间中的事情。起初，伯爵以为这只是自己的儿子看多了书而带来的过度想象力的征兆而已。但是毋庸置疑的是，这个男孩表现出远超出自身年龄的成熟。

Eventually Vidal asked a priest of Elrath to come and see the boy. The priest explained Alejandro had a rare power: due to his near-death experience at birth, he had retained a strong connection with the Spirit World and possessed the “natural” ability to journey in this alternate plane during his sleep. The cleric advised to send Alejandro to the seminary where they would make him a great priest of the Light.

最终，维达尔找了一个艾尔拉思的牧师来看看这个孩子。牧师解释说亚力桑德罗具有一项稀有的能力，由于其出生时经历过濒死，他始终保持着与灵界的强烈联系，并天生具有在梦中穿越灵界的能力。牧师建议将亚力桑德罗送到修道院，并培养成一位伟大的光之牧师。

That didn’t work out well. Alejandro was always debating with his teachers, always putting their faith and beliefs into question with common sense and simple logic. The priests began to fear his insolence would spread to other students. They tried to isolate him, to punish him, to break him physically and mentally, in order to have him admit the greatness of Elrath. Alejandro only laughed, claiming they were just a bunch of ignorant old fools blindly following the laws dictated by the Angels. One night they found his cell empty: Alejandro had escaped.

但是这并没成功。亚力桑德罗常常质疑自己的老师们，用常识和一般逻辑来挑战他们的信仰。牧师们开始害怕他的不虔诚会影响到其他学员。他们试图将亚力桑德罗关禁闭，体罚他，试图从身体上和精神上折磨他，让他承认艾尔拉思的伟大。亚力桑德罗只是大笑，讽刺他们不过是无知的老傻瓜，盲目地听信着天使们制定的律法。直到一个晚上，牧师们发现亚力桑德罗从禁闭室逃脱了。

That is where Alejandro dela Segadora disappears from history. A few years later, one can find the first vague mentions of a disfigured Necromancer named “Sandro” among Belketh’s closest disciples. It is my belief that Alejandro and Sandro are one and the same, although I couldn’t find much information regarding his arrival in the Seven Cities and how he joined House Eterna. But even the Void cannot erase everything, especially from a Faceless. Finding secrets is, after all, one of Malassa’s commandments.

这就是亚力桑德罗·德拉·塞拉多拉最后一次出现在历史上的记录。其后数年，一些模糊的记录提到一位丑陋的名为桑德罗的亡灵法师出现在贝尔克斯的亲密学徒之中。我相信亚力桑德罗和桑德罗本是同一人，但是我手中并没有资料证明他是怎样到达七城联盟并加入永恒学派的。但是即便是虚空也不能抹除一切记录，特别是从无面者手中。毕竟，发掘秘密是马拉萨的戒律之一。

It seems that during his time in the Seven Cities Sandro became increasingly rebellious towards the Dragon Gods, and resented the transformation of House Eterna into a Spider Cult. Having had visions of other worlds and never doubting their reality, he started to believe the whole of Ashan was actually a prison, built to retain souls for eternity, much like Sheogh was for the Demons. Sandro saw the Dragon Gods as little more than parasites, sustaining themselves with mortal souls and faiths. Sandro believed Undeath was the first step to escape this cycle, but he refused to drink the venom of the Namtarus, the sacred spiders, since he feared it would turn him into Asha’s puppet.

看起来桑德罗在七城联盟的时光让其更加反抗龙神们，并厌恶将永恒学派转化为蜘蛛教派。桑德罗总是能看到一些关于其他世界的幻视，并且他毫不怀疑这些世界的存在，这使得他开始怀疑亚山世界本身其实就是一个巨大的监牢，为了将灵魂永远的困在其中，就像是恶魔的监牢谢尔戈一样。桑德罗将龙神看作是寄生虫，只知道汲取凡人的灵魂与信仰为生。桑德罗相信不死只是逃离这一轮回的第一步，但是他拒绝喝下圣蜘蛛娜姆塔茹的毒液，怀疑这会将自己转化为亚莎的傀儡。

As a result, Sandro turned to the Void, older than the Dragons, which he considered a much better source of power… if much more dangerous. It is believed it is his meddling with the Void that caused his current appearance, and that Sandro only “survived” by binding his soul to his own bones. How much of that is the truth and how much is a tall tale… I leave the decision to you.

结果，桑德罗投向了虚空，比龙神更为古老的存在，同时也是他认为更好的力量来源，当然也是更危险的。据称是其对虚空的干预导致了他现在的样子，桑德罗最终靠着将自己的灵魂束缚在自己的骨头上才幸存下来。至于这一说法有多少是真实，这只能交给你们来判断了。

Faking obedience to Asha, Sandro started working behind the scenes to take control of the Spider Cult. But his coup was foiled by Vein, who had once been his best friend, and had become suspicious of Sandro’s behavior, especially in the light of one of the Mother Namtaru’s prophecies. Arrested, Sandro was put on trial, while his disciples and accomplices were executed. Out of respect for the one who had been at his side from the beginning, Belketh requested clemency for Sandro. Condemned to exile, Sandro disappeared from the Seven Cities. He only reappeared four decades later.

桑德罗假装遵从与亚莎，但是却在幕后开始控制蜘蛛教派。但是他的政变被自己曾经的好友凡恩所阻止，凡恩开始怀疑桑德罗的行为，特别是在娜姆塔茹主母的预言指引之下。桑德罗被逮捕并投入大牢，他的学徒都被处决。出于对桑德罗从一开始就陪伴在自己身边的考虑，贝尔克斯要求仁慈对待桑德罗。桑德罗最终被判处流放，并从此消失于七城联盟，直到四十年后。

It is not known with certainty what he did during that time, but he was far from inactive. Some claim he travelled the world, studying ancient Shantiri ruins and travelling to distant lands and lost continents. More importantly, he found a way to acquire the Mask of the False Face, an ancient artefact that allowed him to change his appearance at will, like we Faceless do. Some tie him or his followers to the theft of the Throne of Renewal, the incident of the Five Towers and even what occurred in Shanriya around 570 YSD. The fact several accounts of these events exist, with nobody able to tell with clarity what really transpired, give us a clue that the power of the Void must have played a significant part, even if Sandro wasn’t involved in person.

没有人知道这段时间内他干了什么，但是他绝非碌碌无闻。有人说他周游世界，探索杉提瑞遗迹，旅行到遥远的土地与失落的大陆之上。更重要的，他设法获得了虚伪面容之假面，一件能够让他和无面者一样自由改变外貌的神器。还有人质疑他或是他的追随者窃取了苏生王座，并和七龙纪570年左右发生在五塔的意外和山瑞亚的一切相关。事实是其中一些事情是真实的，但是没人能够说清那些是真正发生的，这让我们相信即使不是桑德罗亲自所做，也一定有虚空的力量涉及其中。

All these years of wandering had in any case strengthened Sandro’s purpose: with the power of the Void, he would “liberate” the people of Ashan from the so-called Dragon Gods once and for all, allowing their souls to ascend to a higher, purer state, essentially becoming gods themselves. Of course, that’s assuming that anything would continue to exist if Ashan was returned to the Void, which, in itself, is either a leap of faith or dangerous insanity.

这么多年的游历强化了桑德罗的目标，有了虚空的力量，他可以从所谓龙神手中一劳永逸地解放所有亚山居民，让他们的灵魂能够晋升到更高、更纯净的状态，甚至成为神明。自然，这一切都基于一个假设，即一切都会在亚山世界回归虚空之后还能继续存在，这一假设不是信仰的飞跃，就是危险的疯狂。

With his newfound Order of the Void, Sandro has already tried several times to put his plan into motion, although fortunately these attempts were thwarted every time. Unsurprisingly, his targets of choice have been the Mother Namtaru and Elrath. There are some who claim he was somehow involved in the attacks against the Dragon Knights and their Hidden Houses during the Third Eclipse.

在其新建立的虚空教派的帮助下，桑德罗已经数次将自己的计划付诸实现，尽管幸运的是这些努力都被英雄们所阻止。毫不意外的，他的目标选择了娜姆塔茹蛛母与艾尔拉思。还有些人称桑德罗与第三次月蚀期间龙骑士与他们的秘密据点遭到的进攻有关。

The same people even say Sandro was actually slain in battle, but I wouldn’t count on it. It may take him a year, a decade or a century, but eventually, Sandro will be back… And when he does, the very existence of Ashan and its people will once again be in dire danger.

这些人还称桑德罗实际上战死于这场战斗中，但是我不相信。无论他需要花上一年，十年还是一个世纪，但是最终，桑德罗仍然会归来的。并且当他归来的时候，亚山世界与所有居民们的存在本身都将再次面临无比的危险之中。