The Tales of Abel and Mitra Quotes

“Life revolves around cycles. Whether you live for a thousand Cycles like a human or a single Cycle like the silver phoenixes, no being can go on living forever. Not in this world, at least. The only thing that will remain is the stories passed down to future generations.”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I

“Sometimes, there is as much truth in a mythical retelling of events as there is in actual history.”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I

“I don’t know what the future will bring. What I do know is if we give up hope, there won’t be one. Every generation must make sacrifices for the next. We must press on in the hope that our descendants will be able to build a better future.”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I

“Dotawo is the last remnant of Christian civilization in Nubia. Our ancestors fought off the Arabs for a thousand years. What would they think, knowing their descendants willingly let in the invaders? We’ll become like the Egyptians, ruled by Arabs, Turks, and Circassians who know nothing of our culture and religion, until one day, we forget our roots.”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I

“Dotawo was a kingdom in decline, a shadow of its former self. Gone were the days when Yusifina’s ancestors ruled a vast land stretching the length of the Iteru, from the Sixth Cataract in the south to beyond the First Cataract in the north. Civil war, famine, plague, and invasions had ravaged the land, gradually reducing Nubia to ruin over the centuries until nothing but the rump state of Dotawo remained. The splendid cathedrals and opulent palaces fell to ruins, swallowed up by the desert or overrun by nomadic invaders. The Golden Age of Nubia’s glorious past was little more than a memory. As a child, Yusifina had heard tales of their legendary ancestors, the Empire of Kush, that once ruled over Egypt and expelled the Persian and Roman invasions. Now, they were a mere fragment of that once-great civilization, withering into obscurity and teetering on the brink of collapse. Even a small band of raiders out of the desert might be enough to topple the regime.”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I

“Species are not so different from civilizations. They rise and fall over time, struggling against nature and one another.”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I

“No story ever truly ends.”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I

“History is written by the victors. One day, people will look back on this moment as a glorious triumph as legendary as the Greek conquest of Troy or Rome’s destruction of Carthage. Did you know that this basilica was built with stones from the Colosseum, which itself was constructed from the ruins of Jerusalem’s Second Temple? Rome triumphed over the Jews, but the Jewish God triumphed over Rome. And now, we enter the dawn of a new era. This is not the end of the Eternal City; it is the beginning of the next chapter!”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I

“You have to be a little insane if you want to change the world.”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I

“San Hironimo was a military commander. Some call him the ‘Jeanne d’Arc of Nippon’–a charismatic young leader who fought for justice but met martyrdom before his prime. Perhaps it was his military background that made the authorities decide his statue was better suited here than the Pietà. Funny, isn’t it? Symbols can so easily have their meaning changed over time. One generation’s icon of resistance becomes the next generation’s tool of authority. Michelangelo didn’t anticipate his Pietà would inspire rebellion, nor could San Hironimo imagine being glorified one day by a military dictatorship centuries after his death in a land he’d never set his eyes on.”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I

“You don’t get it at all, do you, Papà? We’re all pawns here. Even me.”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I

“Giovanni is Giorgio?”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I

“Love? That’s a stupid emotion that makes people do stupid things.”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I

“The Christians waited three centuries before Constantine came along and granted them rights. He could’ve just as easily chosen Mithraism, Manichaeism, or one of the countless other forgotten sects spreading in the empire at the time. But we’re not waiting for a Constantine of our own to come along and grant us freedom. We’ll seize that freedom ourselves.”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I

“Two millennia ago, the Christians hid in these passageways to practice their faith in secret, hiding in the shadows from their persecutors. Eventually, they rose to power–they even converted the emperor. But when they did, the persecuted became the persecutor. The pagans who’d oppressed them for centuries found themselves forced underground, until eventually they died out.”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I

“But that’s the only way tyranny can be defeated – when people unite despite their differences to overcome it.”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I

“Even when you walk through the valley of death, God is still with you. And I will be too, even when I’m gone.”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I

“Without raising a sword, their emperor bowed before God.”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I

“Even in our failures, God brings about His glory.”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I

“Then perhaps the faith will endure, waxing and waning like the cycles of the moon. Who knows? Maybe one day, new missions will revitalize the Church in this country. I only hope that when the time comes, it’ll be missions sent by the Apostolic Church, and not the Latins or Nestorians.”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I

“It wouldn’t be the first time our faith has died out in this land. The first missionaries reached China centuries ago at the height of the Tang Dynasty. But after the Great Tang collapsed, it vanished, only to return one day with you Keraites riding down from the steppe alongside Chinggis Khan.”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I

“Every Golden Age comes to an end. The only certainty in life is uncertainty.”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I

“Chinggis Khan set out to conquer China. But in the end, China will conquer us.”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I

“The Latins want their Pope to be based in Rome; the Nestorians want their Catholicos to be based in Baghdad. You both forget that it isn’t these men who are the head of the Church–it is Christ himself.”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I

“It seems like the churches divide from one another over minutia. I think politics and culture have more to do with it than actual theology.”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I

“Latins and Nestorians–you’re both heretics. You divide Christ’s nature in two, and then wonder why your churches divide into endless schisms.”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I

“It’s better to be a poor man in your homeland than a king in a foreign land.”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I

“Christ crushes the head of the serpent underfoot. He has already triumphed over your Níðhöggr.”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I

“Sometimes the best stories are the ones about average people like us. It’s a reminder that we don’t have to be perfect. We can’t live up to the glory of the gods or heroes, and maybe that’s fine. We’re merely human, after all.”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I

“Rome was merely a kingdom of this world. All kingdoms of this world have their days appointed by the Lord. None will last forever. But the Church will. The Church outlasted the fall of Rome, and even the barbarians who brought Rome to her knees eventually bowed before the True Living God–the Angles, the Saxons, the Burgundians, the Franks, the Lombards, the Ostrogoths, the Vandals, the Visigoths. All have since become Christian. One day, I imagine that the Bulgars, Slavs, and even you Northmen will be welcomed into the fold of the Church. And the message of Christ will spread to far-off lands we’ve never dreamed of until finally, the Gospel has reached all the world.”
― Yisei Ishkhan, The Tales of Abel and Mitra: Part I