The Sbitsbitrasstroitsa (the ‘Monks’)
The conflict did not grow into an all-out, all-destroying war. It was the ringleader of the others, an ancient, wise and nameless unicorn, who managed to bring about a temporary truce. This leader (now called ‘Unicorn’ by everyone) was able to convince the humans, during long conversations, that their ‘superior’ qualities were being wasted by the war, because they were being used for low-level, demeaning things. Those qualities were even in danger of being lost forever if the bloody conflict dragged on endlessly.
After all, wasn’t it true that man could excel his superiority precisely by focusing on more lofty matters? Wasn’t it the case that man was distinguished from the animal precisely by being aware of himself and a larger plan? By being able to suppress his instincts; instead of allowing them to flounder at will?
The humans, whose leadership consisted of a 13-member senate, were certainly not shy about this and there was nothing to do but accept the unicorn’s arguments as the only correct ones.
Thus, the unicorn managed to enforce a peace, and his main change was the promise to the humans that they deserved a new, superior status that made them an exalted caste overnight.
In this way, people were catapulted into becoming the centre’s spiritual elite. This elite answers to the unpronounceable name Sbitsbitrasstroitsa, but is popularly referred to simply as the ‘Monks’. From the very beginning of the new caste, it was not taken seriously in any way by the others.
Unicorn’s plan proved visionary in several respects. Not only had the war of the species ended; the human camp had now taken on a heavy burden: living up to the high expectations and obligations that their new status entailed.
This task was taken extremely seriously by the Senate and its execution was rigorous. In short, it meant that the stupid people (who formed a shocking majority) threw themselves into the new challenge with great enthusiasm; the cunning people got the better of it; and the clever people, or those who couldn’t agree with this new momentum, all disappeared from the scene, never to be seen again.
The fact that many had already forgotten their habitat did not mean that they had shaken off their inclination towards devotion. Even those, who had been deprived of such a primitive impulse during his or her habitat existence, now seemed to be doubly making up for its absence. Within a short time, the human camp had turned into a strict sect, devoted entirely to the worship of ink, or, as the Sbitsbitrasstroitsa themselves called it, the Primal Pool.
What Unicorn had also promised the humans was that their new task would relieve them of any social obligation within the centre. As a result, there was a separation between the two species. The humans retreated to their own area, where ink worship ensured that everyone, regardless of gender or age, could find their place within the hierarchy that worshipping the Primal Pool automatically produced.
By the Primal Pool, the Sbitsbitrasstroitsa, incidentally, did not mean one specific pool; but all existing ink. Wasting this substance was and is considered an outright insult to the Primal Pool. Anyone who, for example, accidentally knocked over a jar of ink could therefore, especially in the early days of the sect, expect a severe and cruel punishment.
History fails to mention, whether Unicorn had also foreseen, that before too long, three different trends emerged within ink worship. What I understood from it was that there was an orthodox trend, that wanted to keep everything as it was. A second group saw no need to literally worship ink, as the ‘true’ ink was within yourself, others and your environment. A third school regarded ink as a worthless commodity, as it is not capable of anything by itself, and that it was precisely its application to paper that was the issue which was the point.
The infamous and bloody Ink Wars lasted exactly twice as long as the war of the species, and had the net result of reducing the human camp by two-thirds, making them a diminished minority in the now other-species dominated centre.