TheDescription of the World

The Description of the World is a book written by Rustichello.

Description
It is a book that Marco Polo told someone. He had returned to Italy from China. He dictacted the information to another Italian man Rustichello, who compiled all knowledge nto one book. However, original copies were not kept and only copies of copies were created.

The descendants of the Polo family handed the copy of the book to the Vatican. The chronicles had mentioned Friar Agreer. This was different as the Chronicles mentioned him but was edited out for public consumption. Vatican records had shown two accompanied them.

Copy with extra chapter
One copy was created by Marco Polo himself with one extra chapter, one that detailed certain things that he had refused to say to people. This one copy ended up at a castle in Switzerland, where Seichan stumbled upon it. The extra chapter was copied and given to Grayson Piernce and Vigor Verona.

Seichan then gave a copy. The text read

Chapter LXII
Of a Journey Untold; and a Map forbidden

Now it came to pass, a full month beyond the last port, we sought to restore our waters froma fresh river and repair two ships. We oprted into small boats, at which time the abundant bird and thickness of vie astounded. Salted meat and fruit were also depleted. We came with forty and two of the Great Khan’s men, armed with spear and arrow; and as nearby islands were populated by naked Idolaters, who ate the flesh of other men, such protection of body was considered wise.

From a bend in the river, one of Kaan’s men shouted and pointed to a steep rise of another peak from out of the valley floor. It lay a score of miles inland and deep within the thickness of the forest; but it was no mountain. It was the spire of a great building; and other towers were now spotted, half hid in mists. With ten days to idol in repairs as the Kaan’s men wished to hunt the many birds and beasts for freshmeat, we set off to seek these builders of mountains, a people unknown and unmapped.

The forest opened upon a great city of many spires, each covered with the carved faces of Idols. What devilish sorcery were employed by such a people, I would never discover; but God in His merciful vengeance had smote this city and the forest proper with a great blight and pestilence. The first body was a naked child. Her flesh were boiled to bone and covered with large black ants. Everywhere one turned, the eye came upon another and another. A count of several hundred would not match the slaughter here; and the death was not constrained to the sin of man. Birds had fallen from the sky. Beats of the forest lay in twisted piles. Great snakes hung dead from branches of trees.

It was a City of the Dead. Fearing pestilence, we sought to leave with much haste. But our passage was not unwatched. From the deeper forest, they came: their naked flesh was no more hale than those strewn across the stone steps and plazeas, or foating in the green moats. Limbs were rotted to expose the flesh beneath. Others bore bubbling welts and boils that covered most their skin; and still more carried bellies heavy with bloat. All around, wounds wept and steamed. Some came blind; and others scarbbled. It was as if a thousand plagues had blighted this land; a legion of pestilience.

From out the leafy bower, they swarmed with teeth bared like wild animals. Others carried severed arms and legs. God protect me even now, many of those limbs were gnawed.

Now as the sun sank, so did all our hopes. Each in his own way cast prayers to the heavens. Kaan’s men burned bits of wood and smeared the ashes on their faces. I had only my confessor. Friar Agreer knelt with me and offered our souls to God through whispered prayers. He clutched his crucifix and daubed my forehead wi th Christ’s suffering cross. He used the same ashes as the Kaan’s men. I looked upon the other men’s marked faces and wondered: in such trial, were we all the same? Pagan and Christian. And in the end, whose prayer was it was finally answered? Whose prayer brought the Virtue against this pestilence into our midst; a dark Virtue that saved us all.