HH8节译：恶魔学识
Daemonology
Stories which explore the supernatural nature of the Warp cannot be interpreted literally, for no rational mind could contain the true and eternally-changing knowledge of unreality. When discussing such tales, we must consider them to be allegorical, filled with the metaphors of simpler understanding which reveal the greater Truth. Such was explained by the poet Dominicus the Mad, whose work was considered to be entirely a fantasy of the insane until recent events revealed it to hold a kernel of Truth. Herein follows an exploration of the adapted ideas of Dominicus and other scholars, poets and preachers who have been ridiculed and persecuted over the long millennia, whose unreal works on the ethereal have been vindicated by reality.
我们不能从字面意思上诠释那些探索亚空间超自然本质的故事，因为理性的心智无法容纳非现实领域那真实且永恒变化着的知识。在讨论这些传说时，我们必须考虑到它们是预言性的，其中充满了隐喻，简单的理解揭示出的是某些更深刻的真相。这也解释了名为“疯子多米尼苏斯”的诗人的作品，他的作品一度被认为是纯粹的疯狂幻想，直到最近的事件才揭示出其中蕴含着的真相内核。下文中是对于疯子多米尼苏斯和其他数千年来一直遭到嘲讽与迫害的学者、诗人和传教士们被改编观点的探究，他们关于亚空间的奇异著作已经被现实情况所证实。
Within every man, woman and child resides a soul. Such a statement is a heresy against the Imperial Truth, but is known to be true. The nature of the soul has been the debate of scholars for millennia. It is believed that from this soul our thoughts, feelings and inspirations come; that the soul is the very root of sentience. The souls of Mankind are flickering beacons in the Immaterium, and like moths to a flame they draw the attentions of the aethertropic organisms which exist in the Warp. These harmless shades are pulled to us by the echoes of human emotions in the void. The brightest souls, those of psykers, accumulate around them swarms of these flitting creatures and, drawn by those fluttering swarms of shadows, the bat-winged predators of darkest night come to feast.
每个男人、女人和孩童体内都有一具灵魂。这是违背帝国真理的异端邪说，但我们知道这是真实的。学者们已经为灵魂的本质争论了数千年，人们相信思想、感受和灵感都来自于灵魂，灵魂是知觉的最初根源。人类的灵魂在非物质宇宙中是闪烁的灯塔，它们吸引着存在于亚空间中的以太质生物的注意力，就像灯火吸引飞蛾一般。人类情绪在虚空中的回响将这些无害的阴影拉向我们。其中最明亮的是灵能者们的灵魂，这些灵魂身边聚集着成群翻飞着的生物，而这些成群飘动着的阴影也会吸引最黑暗的夜色中背生蝙蝠双翼的掠食者们前来餍享。
The oldest bargains of Mankind involved the trading of souls. The exchange, often in the form of a sacrifice, was intended to earn the favourable intervention of the gods. Tribal peoples of Old Earth sacrificed animals to deities, believing that their lives, too, imparted some measure of the essence which their deities desired. This may be true, though it is now believed that it is the act of worship inherent to such a gesture that aligns a soul to the sentience within the Warp. Those in more dire need, or who greedily desired greater power, sacrificed their fellow men, hoping to attain richer boons from the gods, and though they knew it not, their prayers were directed to the supernatural entities of the Warp. These creatures are capricious, however, and only serve the purposes of Mankind for their own gain, the worshipping of believers often going unrewarded, to the amusement of dark powers. The vile kingdoms of the foulest hungering powers within the Warp, those sometimes called the gods of Chaos, are built upon the ethereal strength of the souls they hold sway over. In the Empyrean, the soul is the only unit of value, constituting both power and sustenance. For this reason, the Warp can also be known as the Sea of Souls.
人类最古老的交易中就包括灵魂交易。这种交易通常是以献祭的形式进行，目的在于得到诸神的垂青。古地球的部落民会向神祇献祭动物，他们相信献出生命能供奉出神明们所渴望的某些本质。这可能是事实，不过现在我们相信崇拜行为固有于这种将灵魂对齐亚空间内意识体的过程。而那些有更为急切的需求或贪图更强大力量的人会献祭自己的人类同胞，以期获得神明更为优厚的恩惠，但他们并不知道自己的祈祷对象是亚空间的超自然实体。这些生物反复无常，而且只是为了自己的利益才服务于人类的目标，（所以）信徒们的祈祷通常会毫无收获，沦为黑暗大能们的娱乐消遣。亚空间中最为腐坏邪恶的饥渴大能们有时也被称为混沌诸神，他们邪恶恐怖的王国建立于他们所支配的灵魂的以太力量之上。在至高天中，灵魂是唯一的价值单位，它们构成了（亚空间实体的）力量和养料。
Through our ancestors’ successful sacrifices and the prayers of early religions, some creatures of the Warp, those with the most predatory intelligence, aligned themselves to the fates of Mankind and the other sentient species of the galaxy. The sacrifices of the religious, be it through ritual, warfare or murder came to nourish these entities and transfer a measure of sentience to them, teaching them to draw ever closer to the bright flicker of the souls of Mankind. So attuned, the ripples of our every strong emotion in the Warp, be it fear, fury, lust or grief became a morsel for these entities. So too have our emotions and desires - be they light or dark 一 that we as a species have projected into the aether for millennia, shaped the aspect and demeanour of these entities. And as they drew close, we came to know them, and we attributed them a name common to the fears of many of Mankind's ancient faiths: Daemon.
通过我们祖先的成功献祭和早期宗教的崇拜，某些掠食智力最强的亚空间生物亲自干涉了人类与银河系中其他智慧种族的命运。无论是通过仪式、战争还是谋杀，宗教献祭都教导亚空间生物们愈发接近人类闪烁的灵魂。这种关系是如此协调，我们的每一种强烈情绪——无论是恐惧、愤怒、欲望还是悲伤在在亚空间中泛起的涟漪，都成为这些实体的一小部分。我们作为一个种族在数千年中投射在以太界中的情绪和欲望也是如此，无论这些情绪欲望是光正的还是黑暗的，他们都塑造了这些实体的外观和举止。而随着他们靠近人类，我们也开始了解它们，并且用诸多古老的人类信仰中的恐怖生物命名它们：恶魔。
The Theology of the Damned
诅咒神学
Those amongst the learned know that there is little clear distinction between the real and unreal 一 they are a continuum with but a thin veil drawn between them. Those keen enough to realise this Truth have, throughout Mankind's history, been labelled deranged and been cloistered in asylums. One such person was Empyreal scholar Alana Sellius. Found among her papers is conjecture gathered from her research into the tales of voyagers of the Warp. These papers, which are assumed responsible for Sellius' insanity, attribute every emotion a certain flavour, and state that Daemons come to prefer some tastes over others. The more extreme the emotion, the more pressing the hunger of the Daemon: rage more piquant than mere anger, and unbridled lust a more tender morsel than simple desire. Though at the time of her writing these were dismissed as the delusions of a broken mind, she goes on to explain that as Daemons align around these common emotions, they take on the characteristics of their favoured palate. As they gather and amalgamate, their shared essence and combined power is what we might consider the realms and gods within the Warp. This analogy is useful when considering, through the lens of various cultures, why the notion that the power of gods and their realms are shifting and in constant struggle and competition with one another over the souls of Mankind.
研究亚空间的学者明白：现实和非现实之间几乎没有明显的区别——它们是一个连续体，彼此之间仅有一层薄薄的纱幕。在人类的整个历史中，那些敏锐到足够意识到这一真理的人都被打上了疯子的标签，并被隔离监禁起来。其中之一就是亚空间学者阿兰娜 塞留斯，我们在其论文中发现了她对于亚空间航行的事例进行研究后所得出的推测。这些被判定要对阿兰娜的精神失常负责的论文认为每种情绪都有一种独特的口味，声称恶魔对于某些口味情绪的偏好胜过其他。越是极端的情感越能勾起恶魔的饥饿：狂怒比纯粹的愤怒更加辛辣开胃，肆无忌惮的贪婪也比简单的欲望更鲜嫩一些。虽然在她写下这些文章时，这些论点被误解为她因精神崩溃而产生的妄想，但她继续解释：恶魔们排列在共同的情绪周围，他们也会呈现出自己偏好的口味的特质。随着它们聚集并混合起来，他们共有的本质与合并的力量就是可能被我们视为亚空间中的领域与诸神的存在。当我们观察各种文化，思考为何（各种传说中）神明的力量和领域是在不断变化的，以及他们为何不断彼此争夺人类的灵魂时，这套神学理论是很有用的。
Her writings go on to expound that the so- called gods, or ruinous powers, are actually amoral in their truest form; they are acts of nature, likened as to the storms of inclement weather which gather in Terra's troposphere. These sentient storms harbour no malignant intent, but travel freely upon invisible currents of psychic force. Occasionally, these pressure waves collide, manifesting a Daemon as if from a bolt of lightning, and although such a creature is highly dangerous, its actions are random and are not in themselves motivated by malice. Sellius claims that Daemons do not harbour ill- intent, but can be directed to do harm in the same manner as lightning can be caged and then called forth from a weapon to destroy.
阿兰娜的著作继续阐述所谓的诸神或者说毁灭大能在最本质的层面上是无从区分善恶是非的：它们是自然现象，就像聚集在泰拉对流层恶劣天气中的风暴一般。这些有感知能力的风暴们并非心怀恶意去进行刻意毁灭，而是乘着灵能力量的无形潮流自由旅行。偶尔这些波潮互相碰撞便会显现出一只恶魔，宛如风暴撞击摩擦就会形成闪电一般。虽然这类生物极其危险，但它的行为是随机的，其活动自身也并非出于恶意。阿兰娜声称恶魔们并无恶意，但它们可以被引导去引发伤害，手法与将闪电困住并将之从武器中召唤出来用以破坏目标相同。
Her radical theology argues that, because these similarities are shared throughout so many cults and religions which were encountered during the Great Crusade, it lends them credence. The concept of an afterlife too is a galactic constant, though, as per Sellius' notes, a soul simply drifts in the Warp after death until a passing Daemon takes a liking to its essence and devours it. It would Appear that all of these practices of worship point to the evocation of the same deities, and of a unified spiritual understanding common to all of humanity. With religion, we may have been able to reconcile the horrific occurrences experienced in Warp travel because of the soothing teachings of faith. Therefore, she argues, religion itself may have played a pivotal role in the development of Mankind as a species capable of braving the cosmos, providing us with a common goal: to unite and collaborate in a journey (or even a 'pilgrimage', the apocryphal term favoured by Sellius), to meet the gods in their domain among the stars. She further posits that religion may have had the benefit of simplifying matters, of giving humanity a balm with which to soothe the madness of the knowledge that Daemons exist. If such holds true then the conclusion to be drawn from such theology is that we are as a species more vulnerable to the predations of Daemons due to the atheism of our Truth.
阿兰娜激进的神学理论声称：由于帝国在整个大远征时期遇到的诸多教派和宗教共享着某些相似性，所以它们是可信的。来世这一概念在银河系中同样常见，不过根据阿兰娜的理论，人死后灵魂仅仅是在亚空间中飘动，直到某只路过恶魔喜好其本质并将它吞噬。这套理论指出：所以的祈祷行为都是在呼唤相同的神明，指向的是全部人类所共有的统一精神理解。经由宗教，我们或许能够调和在亚空间旅行中所经历的可怕事件，因为信仰带有抚慰教导的作用。由此，阿兰娜声称：在人类和其他所有能够勇敢探索宇宙的种族的发展历程中，宗教本身可能都扮演了一个关键性的角色，给他们提供了一个共同的目标：团结起来，相互合作，进行一场前往群星间的圣域面见神明的旅行（甚至“朝圣”，塞留斯偏好这个虚构的词汇）。她进一步假设宗教可能具有使问题简化的好处，宗教给予了人类一份（精神上的）镇痛香膏，缓和人类因得知恶魔存在而产生的疯狂。倘若这一切都是真实的，那我们从这套神学理论中可以提取出这样的结论：由于我们视无神论为真理，所以我们在面对恶魔的捕猎时是一个更为脆弱的种族。
Manifestations and Incursions
（恶魔的）显现与入侵
Daemons take many forms, as we know from the accounts of travellers of the Warp, and the survivors of the Age of Darkness. In the immaterial realm they are amorphous and ever-changing. When they manifest in corporeal reality, Daemons absorb material around them to display shapes which invariably cause revulsion and fear in those who behold them. These forms are categorised as their 'Daemonic Emanations', and are not limited to what the human mind can imagine. Indeed, the human eye may be an inadequately crude instrument with which to behold such abominable creatures, and survivors of minor Daemonic incursions have spoken less of the visual Appearance of the Daemon than of their pervasive, putrid, rotting-meat stench and the feeling of cold dread they inspire. Much like their aspect, their motion too is unnatural and does not scan by the laws of physical movement we would naturally expect a living creature to uphold; jerking between flickering bursts of speed and glacial sloth.
我们从亚空间旅行者和黑暗年代幸存者的报告中得知：恶魔的形体繁多。它们在非物质宇宙中是不定形且永恒变化着的。当他们在实体宇宙中显现时，恶魔们会吸收自己周边的物质以显露出身形，而这些外形总是会让那些看到它们的人感到反感和恐惧。这些形体被分类为它们的“恶魔散射体”，而且这些形体并不受限于人类的想象力。事实上，人类的双眼作为观察这些可憎生物的工具还是过于精密了，少数恶魔入侵事件所留下的幸存者们能讲出的与其说是恶魔的外表，不如说是它们弥散出的腐肉臭味和恶魔所引发的寒意。而且恶魔的行动也大致如同他们的外表那样是非自然，并不遵循我们认为生物应当遵守的那些物理法则，动作就是在极快和极慢之间进行抽搐。
For indeterminate reasons, the Emanations commonly take the form of bestial limbs and crude ancient human weaponry, or else mimic the immediate horrors of the environment into which they are born, fusing their nascent corposant with both inanimate matter and flesh in hideous ways. It seems also that Daemons Appear to swell in size with the glut of energy they contain as they leave the Warp, able to Appear as vast, hab-sized behemoths of twisted flesh or brutish hulks of writhing ectoplasm that can smash aside a Predator tank, though it is impossible to ascertain if their size implies any form of hierarchy or is simply a coincidence of the conditions of their manifestation. It is believed also by the insane that Daemons take on altering aspects depending on their place in some vast pantheon or some tiered dominion within the Warp, though this is beyond the knowing of any sane human mind. Those practiced in the arcane, however, do suggest that it may be possible to influence or manipulate the form in which a Daemon may manifest, through rituals of an entirely esoteric nature.
由于某些不确定的原因，恶魔散射体通常会呈现出拥有野兽肢体和古代人类武器的形体，或者是模仿出他们所诞生的环境附近某些可怖之物，以可怕的方式将无生命的物质和肉体融合成他们那圣火般的新生躯体。在离开亚空间时，恶魔们的体积似乎会因体内所保存的过剩能量而膨胀，形体呈现为扭曲血肉所构成的巨大恶兽或扭曲外质所构成的凶残巨人，体积大到能将掠食者坦克撞到一边，但我们无法确定它们的大小是否意味着任何形式的层次结构，或仅仅是它们显现条件所造成的巧合。发疯的人们也相信恶魔会根据它们在某个巨大的神殿或亚空间中的某些分层领域中所处的位置而改变外貌，但这超出了理智者们的理解范畴。不过，那些修习过奥术的人也明确表示可以通过某些完全神秘的仪式对恶魔可能的出现形式进行可能的影响和操纵。
There have been psykers since humanity's earliest days, and as the incidence of the psychic mutation has grown over the millennia, so too has grown the incidences of Daemonic incursions. There are many ways in which Daemons can breach the borders of reality to become tangible, manifest horrors. Indeed, Mankind's first material contact with Daemons may have been entirely accidental. The use of psychic power pulls energy from the Warp and can draw a Daemon with it unintentionally. The more unrestrained the psyker, as we often see in the untrained psykers hunted by the Sisters of Silence, the greater the pull on the other side. Daemons are drawn towards the flaring brightness of a soul in the Empyrean, and in their hunger they clamour to push through into our world and devour that soul and all others.
灵能者在人类的早期历史中就已经出现，而在数千年的时间里，随着灵能变异的发生率上涨，恶魔入侵的发生频次也在增加。恶魔有很多突破现实边界来化为恐怖实体的手段，事实上，人类与恶魔的第一次物理接触可能完全是偶然的。对于灵能力量的使用会把能量从亚空间中抽出，并无意地将恶魔吸引过来。越是放纵的灵能者——就像我们经常看到的那些被寂静修女们追捕的未受训练的灵能者，在另一边的世界中产生的吸引力就越强。恶魔们被至高天中灵魂闪烁的光芒所吸引，这些饥饿的生物嚎叫着冲入我们的世界，吞噬掉灵魂和其他一切。
Daemons can also be manifested by those desirous of their power through an arcane rite of summoning. Mankind has, through morbid curiosity, been drawn to the substance of the Warp and the allure of its power since time immemorial. Over the ages, Mankind's sorcerers learned and refined their knowledge until, in hubris, they thought to control the powers of the Warpunleashing the horrors of Old Night. The stories from this time, preserved by the Sigillite's historical arcanists, speak of the many methods of summoning and subjugating Daemons as slaves of darkness to undertake the bidding of their arcane masters. Invariably, these tales end in disaster. What we can glean from them however is that summoned Daemons are inherently weaker than their kin in the Warp, for their power is derived from the quality and quantity of sacrifices made in trade for their manifestation. These summoned Daemons are then subdued, either through etheric rites or a focussing relic such as an arcane cornerstone. They may also be implanted into a person, pushing out the soul (or offering it to be consumed) to be replaced by the Daemon, in a form of summoning known as possession. This is considered to be relatively safer, as the destruction of the vessel would banish the Daemon within. Additional sacrifices and rituals of binding are required to stop the Daemon from rebelling and escaping back into the Warp, and these too weaken it.
渴望亚空间生物力量的人们也能通过召唤恶魔的秘术仪式让它们现形。自从无法追忆的远古时期，人类就由于某些病态的好奇心而被亚空间的实质所吸引。岁月更迭，人类巫师们学习和完善着他们学识，直到他们傲慢地自认为控制住了亚空间的力量，结果释放出了旧夜中的恐怖之物。掌印者（麾下）的历史术士们保管着源自旧夜的故事，这些故事讲述了诸多召唤并制服恶魔以使之成为黑暗奴仆去执行自己术士主子命令的手段，而这些传说也一贯是以灾难做结。不过我们也可以从这些中收集到一个信息：这些被召唤（到现实中）的恶魔天生就比他们在亚空间中的同胞们弱小，因为它们的力量来自用于交换他们现形的祭品的数量和质量，之后这些恶魔会被召唤者用神秘仪式或者诸如奥术柱石之类的聚集（能量）圣物制服住。恶魔们也可能会被植入一个人类的体内，原有的灵魂会被恶魔推挤出（或被恶魔吞噬），肉体被恶魔所夺舍，这种召唤方式被称为附魔。附魔被认为是一种相对安全的手段，因为摧毁载体就能放逐其中的恶魔。要阻止恶魔背叛或逃回亚空间的话，就需献上额外的祭品和绑定仪式，而这样也会削弱恶魔。
It was once believed that a Daemon must be summoned through ritual and incantation, even accidental incursions being caused by an untrained psyker stumbling upon some spell, and that the Daemon has no agency of its own; the very act of summoning causing its creation, allowing it to exist only for a short time before withering into the ether. In Ultramar, the Word Bearers performed the ritual of the Ruinstorm which dispelled that belief. This ritual gathered exceptional power through the sacrifice of millions of souls and the promise of billions more over the course of the Horus Heresy, and indeed in some symbolic fashion the sacrifice of the unrealised potential of the ambitions of Ultramar. With it, the Diabolists of the XVIIth Legion sought, by creating a great warp storm, to confound Loyalist reprisals.
我们曾经相信必须通过仪式或咒语来召唤恶魔，哪怕是未受训灵能者引发的偶然入侵也是（因为）偶然发现了某些咒语，而且恶魔也没有自己的代理；召唤行为使恶魔的现形，只允许恶魔们在消失进入亚空间之前短暂存在于现实中。但怀言者军团在奥特拉玛进行的毁灭风暴仪式打消了我们的这一看法。通过献祭数百万灵魂并且承诺在荷鲁斯叛乱的过程中追加献祭数十亿祭品，这次仪式聚集起了异常（庞大）的力量，也确实以某种象征性的方式牺牲了奥特拉玛完成尚未实现的雄心壮志的潜力。第十七军团的恶魔术士们试图通过制造出强烈的亚空间风暴来阻止忠诚派的报复。
Whether by accident or design, they also eroded the border of reality until it was gossamer thin. Able to push through this thinned veil of their own accord, Daemons in all of their unadulterated horror were able to manifest en-masse. These 'Ruinstom' Daemons were not constrained by the bindings of sorcery, ritual or sacrificial power. They were not at all safe, controllable or predictable. These were the untamed malice of the Warp unleashed on an unprepared galaxy.
无论有意还是无意，怀言者们的行为也侵蚀了现实的边界，直到边界变得像游丝一样脆弱。（现在）恶魔们能够自行推开这层薄纱般的边界，这些纯粹恐惧的生物能够集中现形。这些“毁灭风暴”恶魔们并不受到巫术、仪式或献祭力量绑定的束缚，它们根本就不安全、不可控和不可预测。这就是亚空间向这个未做好准备的银河所释放出的残忍恶意。
Appearing from tears in realspace, drawn of their own volition by the promise of souls on which to feast, the Daemons of the Ruinstorm brought untold ruin upon the worlds of the Imperium. These mass manifestations, or incursions as they became known, Appeared with little warning, although sometimes were heralded by a surge in the tides of the Warp, sensed only by psykers, who are a mistrusted breed at the best of times. No two recorded incursions are alike, though many share common expressions of esoteric phenomenon; such as the darkening of midday skies, the barking of hounds, and fires burning more fiercely and in flames of unnatural colours. Incursions could be accompanied by howling winds carrying screaming voices, anguished faces Appearing in clouds of dust, raging floods and sudden, catastrophic tectonic activity. Daemons could Appear as if from thin air, fall from space in their hundreds or march out from the maddening glow of portals to the unfiltered Warp.
餍享灵魂的许诺吸引了毁灭风暴的恶魔们，它们自行从现实宇宙的裂隙中现身，给帝国世界带去了难以言述的毁灭。这种大规模的恶魔现形或者说入侵几乎没有警告，不过有些时候也会产生某些只能被灵能者们感知到的亚空间潮涌作为预兆，但这些灵能者即便在最好的情况下也是不被信任的。没有哪两次被记录的入侵是相似的，但很多入侵事件中都有着共同的神秘现象：比如正午天空变得黑暗，传来猛犬的吠叫声，出现燃烧的更为猛烈并且呈现出不自然色泽的火焰。恶魔入侵会伴随着夹杂了尖叫声的风暴、出现痛苦面庞的烟尘云、狂暴的洪水已经突然且灾难般的地壳活动。恶魔们的出现方式宛如从稀薄的空气中钻出：成百上千的恶魔从太空中降落到星球上，或者从闪烁着令人发狂的光芒的传送门中涌出。
The Daemons of the Ruinstorm are beings of unrestrained predacity, which recall our ancestral memories of the caves on Old Earth where we helplessly cowered in fear from antediluvian megafauna. It is believed that for every moment they are removed from the Warp, these Daemons weaken, though they may sustain themselves by absorbing into their matter the souls of those whom they kill. Daemons Appearing from the Ruinstorm were witnessed to fall upon the citizens of the Imperium with wild ferocity, tearing open their bodies and feasting on their essence, causing terror and inflicting destruction until such a time as they could no longer remain cohesive in our reality; fading back into the Warp. The Daemons of the Ruinstorm are the very horrors of unplumbed space, they are the avatars of the Primordial Annihilator, and to speak openly and frequently of them courts madness.
毁灭风暴恶魔是不受拘束的掠食者，它们唤起了人类在古地球洞穴中的远古记忆：我们无助地惧怕着那些上古的巨兽。我们相信：尽管恶魔可能靠着吸收被杀死猎物的灵魂来维持自身，但它们在刚刚离开亚空间时也是脆弱的。出现在毁灭风暴中的恶魔们被目击到凶残野蛮地降落到帝国的民众当中，它们扯开人类的身体，饱食人类的灵魂，它们制造恐惧、散播破坏，直到它们无法在我们的现实宇宙中保持形体为止，之后它们就会返回亚空间。毁灭风暴恶魔是来自无尽空间的极度恐怖之物，他们是原初毁灭者的化身，公开且频繁地谈论它们就会造成疯狂。
