History Quotes / TimeAbyss

-> Then he slept. And in a little while the world forgot the Master. He slept the hundred years, though rather before that time the discovery he had been awaiting was made, but no one awakened him, for the world had changed since his going and now there were none who would have wished to see him return. His followers had died and mysteriously the secret of his resting place was lost. For a time the legend of the Master’s tomb persisted, but soon it was forgotten.
So he slept. After what by some standards would have been a little while the Earth’s crust decided that it had borne the weight of the Himalayas for long enough. Slowly the mountains dropped, tilting the southern plains of India towards the sky. And presently the plateau of Ceylon was the highest point on the surface of the globe and the ocean above Everest was five and a half miles deep. The Master would not be disturbed by his enemies, or his friends. Slowly, patiently, the silt drifted down through the towering ocean heights onto the wreck of the Himalayas. The blanket that would some day be chalk began to thicken at the rate of a not a few inches every century. If one had returned some time later one might have found that the sea bed was no longer five miles down, or even four, or three. Then the land tilted again and the mighty range of limestone mountains towered where once had been the oceans of Tibet. But the Master knew nothing of this, nor was his sleep disturbed when it happened again, and again, and again. Now the rain and rivers were washing away the chalk and carrying it out to the new oceans and the surface was moving down towards the buried tomb. Slowly the miles of rock were washed away until at last the metal sphere which housed the master’s body returned once more to the light of day, though to a day much longer and much dimmer than it had been when the Master closed his eyes.

So he slept.
After what by some standards would have been a little while the Earth’s crust decided that it had borne the weight of the Himalayas for long enough. Slowly the mountains dropped, tilting the southern plains of India towards the sky. And presently the plateau of Ceylon was the highest point on the surface of the globe and the ocean above Everest was five and a half miles deep. The Master would not be disturbed by his enemies, or his friends. Slowly, patiently, the silt drifted down through the towering ocean heights onto the wreck of the Himalayas. The blanket that would some day be chalk began to thicken at the rate of a not a few inches every century. If one had returned some time later one might have found that the sea bed was no longer five miles down, or even four, or three. Then the land tilted again and the mighty range of limestone mountains towered where once had been the oceans of Tibet. But the Master knew nothing of this, nor was his sleep disturbed when it happened again, and again, and again. Now the rain and rivers were washing away the chalk and carrying it out to the new oceans and the surface was moving down towards the buried tomb. Slowly the miles of rock were washed away until at last the metal sphere which housed the master’s body returned once more to the light of day, though to a day much longer and much dimmer than it had been when the Master closed his eyes.

After what by some standards would have been a little while the Earth’s crust decided that it had borne the weight of the Himalayas for long enough. Slowly the mountains dropped, tilting the southern plains of India towards the sky. And presently the plateau of Ceylon was the highest point on the surface of the globe and the ocean above Everest was five and a half miles deep. The Master would not be disturbed by his enemies, or his friends.
Slowly, patiently, the silt drifted down through the towering ocean heights onto the wreck of the Himalayas. The blanket that would some day be chalk began to thicken at the rate of a not a few inches every century. If one had returned some time later one might have found that the sea bed was no longer five miles down, or even four, or three. Then the land tilted again and the mighty range of limestone mountains towered where once had been the oceans of Tibet. But the Master knew nothing of this, nor was his sleep disturbed when it happened again, and again, and again. Now the rain and rivers were washing away the chalk and carrying it out to the new oceans and the surface was moving down towards the buried tomb. Slowly the miles of rock were washed away until at last the metal sphere which housed the master’s body returned once more to the light of day, though to a day much longer and much dimmer than it had been when the Master closed his eyes.

-->--'''The Fig Men,''' ''Literature/TheDeep''

->Every single thing in the cosmos has a fixed life. Galaxies, planets, humans, Transformers... I alone have stood outside the reach of time, watching, ever vigilant, as the millennium marched past. I have seen oceans rise, continents shift and mountains crumble. I have seen brother rise against brother, and the decimation it leaves behind. And always the great cycle continues, as new life rises from the ashes of destruction. Now after eons of watching, I too have become part of the cycle, starting a new life with purpose and meaning, and though that life might end, I know now [[ResurrectiveImmortality I will never die]].

->Hellboy... Your fall should be like the fall of mountains... But I was before mountains. I was in the beginning and shall be forever... The first and the last... The world come full circle.

->''Eons past, Shazam himself had wielded the power of the ancient gods, as a super-hero -- the first such being on Earth. Then he had asked for the gift of aging, and been given it, though he aged at a much reduced rate compared to normal men.''

->''Before the gods that made the gods \\

O God, how long ago.''

->I have seen thousands of millions of years, [Tavi]. In a time such as that, oceans swell and die away. Deserts become green farmlands. Mountains are ground to dust and valleys, and new mountains are born in fire. The earth itself flows like water, great ranges of land spinning and colliding, and the stars themselves spin and reel into new shapes. It is the great dance, Aleran, and the lifetime of your race is but a beat within a measure... In that time, I have seen the deaths of many things. Entire species come and go, like the sparks rising from a campfire.

-->-- ''The Creature From The Black Lagoon,'' by Jim Shepard

-->-- ''Dancing on the Head of a Pin: A Remy Chandler Novel''

->[[AC: I REMEMBER WHEN THIS WILL BE AGAIN]].

->Sometimes the discovery becomes massive and everybody in the world finds out at once and I end up on a pedestal. Sometimes they make me their leader, sometimes they call me an abomination, sometimes I get arrested and studied, usually it's all of this at once. I've been everywhere. I've done everything, spoken every language, built a pyramid, survived re-entry. History goes in cycles. If you watch it for long enough you can see the tipping points coming and be there when they happen. I invented fire, the wheel, the electric motor, antibiotics, you name it, every era, every country. Fought in X number of wars. Once, I actually ruled the whole world.\\
I've walked on the Moon barefoot.

->Eldest, that's what I am. Mark my words, my friends: [[ThirdPersonPerson Tom]] was here before the river and the trees; Tom remembers the first raindrop and the first acorn. He made paths before the Big People, and saw the Little People arriving. He was here before the Kings and the graves and the Barrow-wights. When the Elves passed westward, Tom was here already, [[FlatWorld before the seas were bent]]. He knew the [[DarkIsNotEvil dark under the stars when it was fearless]] -- before the [[EvilOverlord Dark Lord]] came from Outside.

->Ere iron was found or tree was hewn,\\

It walked the forests long ago.

-->-- '''Hendrik Willem Van Loon''', ''The Story of Mankind''

->When your kind first huddled around the fire, I was the thing in the dark!

->You know, I've been here for a very long time. I remember many things. I remember being on a shore-line, watching a little grey fish heave itself up on the beach. And an older brother saying "Don't step on that fish, Castiel. Big plans for that fish." I remember the Tower of Babel -- all thirty-seven feet of it, which I suppose was impressive at the time. And when it fell, they howled "Divine wrath!" But come on, dried dung can only be stacked so high. I remember Cain and Abel, David and Goliath, Sodom and Gomorrah.

->The LORD created me at the beginning of His course as the first of His works of old.\\

finding delight with mankind.

-->-- John 1:1, ''Literature/TheBible''

-->-- Revelation 1:8, ''Literature/TheBible''

->''Not all races have {{creation myth}}s. The [[EldritchAbomination aboleths]] do not share myth stories for a simple reason: they believe it is an indisputable fact that they were the first, the primal race that existed before nearly all else, second only to the [[CosmicHorrorStory unknowable Elder Evils]] that spawned them. They know this because they [[PhotographicMemory remember the ancient world with crystal clarity.]] All else in the world is a pale imitation of their primal perfection. Even the deities themselves are subject to derision, for the aboleths know that they predate the gods. They have seen the world destroyed countless times by apocalypses both natural and artificial, yet each time the world remade itself and the aboleths survived. They are truly nightmares out of time.''

->''Before Shinka's walls were built, before the torii at Okina stood, she was there, tall and proud against the sky, and she will be there long after they have fallen into dust.''

->''It is said that the mysterious Old One Tepok taught Kroak how to draw upon the winds of magic, and that the serene Potec how to unravel those same threads. It is even written that it was Kroak and his peers who [[TrainingTheGiftOfMagic taught the ancestors of the High Elves]] [[BeenThereShapedHistory the magic they wield to this day]], in the golden age of Ulthuan before the Elves wrote down their histories. In his lifetime, Kroak witnessed the rise and fall of civilizations, entire races blooming and fading into extinction. Lord Kroak was present at the birth of the world as it is seen today, and it is said that he is fated to endure until the last moment of time itself, [[ApocalypseHow when the continents will burn and the world is consumed]].''

->''Some were old even before the Fall of the Eldar, wizened creatures that have engineered the death of suns just as they have given life to thousands of monstrous forms. Many of their number [[BeenThereShapedHistory are the selfsame hedonists that led the ancient Eldar empire]] to [[AndManGrewProud utter catastrophe]]. Yet they regret not a single moment of their depraved existences. So steeped are these [[MadScientist Haemonculi]] in matters arcane that they see even death [[DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist as no more than an interesting curio]].''

->''Even with the finest life-extending, mindframe-uploading, and memory-sideboarding technology, seventy-three million years is a ''very'' long time for a sapient creature.\\

Back then, when Earth was busy being all hot and patient, life elsewhere was already old...''

->As the stars and black holes slowly start dissipating, our universe begins to breathe its last breath. For trillions of years, nothing happens. After the last star has died, there is nothing left in the universe except for blacks holes for an unimaginably long period of time, and even they are slowly dying. It took nine clocks to reach this point, but it won't be until the forty-third clock that the last black hole has finally dissipated. The universe has been reduced to its component particles and the distances between these particles are so great that they will never interact with one-another ever again. There will be nothing left of our universe except for a cold, dark void forever expanding into nothingness. And only then will this door open.
-->-- '''Spumwack''', ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1CddzgVW14 The Universe Death Clock]]''

->[[EvilLaugh Muhahahaha...]] My true self was born 1,200,000 years ago... The legendary god of blacksmithing, [[{{Imageboards}} Aramaki Scaltinof]]... forged a sword that a Stand dwelled within! Meaning as lang... As long as there's someone to wield me, I'm immortal!

->Before there was time, before there was anything, there was nothing. And before there was nothing... [[EldritchAbomination there were monsters]].

->You're tiny and you're minuscule\\

But up here, a hundred years is just a flash, a blip, a flickeeeeeer~!

->It all began when your universe was forged in the crucible of the Big Bang. At this time, our civilization was already 17 years old.
-->-- Unnamed Nibblonian, ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''

->For a trillion years, I dwelt in solitude, content with my job and my stamp collecting, but then I looked across immensity and saw the big bang, and I was like, "Whoa, who's that?" And I knew then that I was lonely.

->I lived ten thousand lifetimes before the first of your kind crawled out of the mud.

->''Do you truly know'' '''''old''''' ''I am?'' '''''The days are like water.'''''