In ancient times when the codes of civilisations were being worked from the raw stuff of human sociality there were great kings and wild beasts and they ruled their subjects together, in strange and circular lockstep, as gods might rule. In those elden days the great kings and queens fought with monsters from the deep chaos and named them Destroyers; for whatever they gazed on, that thing died. They named them Deceivers, for they wore the skins and took the souls of men; they named them Ruiners, for they went about the world tearing down the cities and walls and...