The Twilight of the Gods

Cone Man had heard dark legends that Chrestos the Young and Hip, Mighty Overlord of the Great Halls of Wisdom in the Land of Panpolya, had pondered the parlous state of their frail finances and had duly resolved upon a savage and terrible course of action to remedy matters. The legends, as it happened, were both true and false.

The legend bearers said Chrestos would subordinate the 16 Great Halls of Wisdom to 4 regional Chieftains who would co-ordinate their efforts while perpetrating a few minor atrocities - such as putting a thousand Panpolyans against a wall and reviewing them. The legend bearers, however, had underestimated the epic scale of the catastrophe about to fall upon the Land of Panpolya.

Chrestos, it transpired, had far more exciting ideas for the Land of Panpolya. All 16 of the Great Halls of Wisdom were to be subordinated to a single chieftain, and their existing customs and culture subsumed into one Super Hall of Wisdom, stretching the length and breadth of the Land of the All Blacks. Cone Man knew not who this chieftain or chieftainess would be, but as a hardened veteran of many restructurings he knew that the new chieftain would rule them all, ring-fence them with memorandums and mission statements, and keep them bound in the dark.

Like fortress garrisons facing besieging armies without the prospect of relieving armies, the Panpolyans knew they were masters of their own houses until the passage of time dictated that they would be servants in someone else's house. They were simultaneously free and facing slavery. The period of remaining freedom was about one year - in effect the Twilight of the "gods" who had ruled Panpolya from their desks.

The Germans had a word for this phrase "twilight of the gods", Cone Man mused - gotterdammerung. "Blazing cones!" groaned Cone Man, "This is not the quiet life I expected when I set out to become a librarian 25 years ago!"