卡尔萨斯 Karthus

死亡颂唱者 the Deathsinger

台词

“死亡不是终点，旅程才刚刚开始……”

“Death is not the end of the journey, it is just the beginning...”

传记

卡尔萨斯是湮灭的使者，是不死的亡灵。从来都是未见其恐怖身影，先闻其鬼魅挽歌。活着的人惧怕那些永世不得超生的亡灵，但卡尔萨斯却在亡灵的存在中只看到了美丽和纯洁，这是生与死的完美融合。当卡尔萨斯从暗影岛获得新生的时候，他决心要担任不死亡灵的使徒，把死亡的欣喜带给所有凡人。

The harbinger of oblivion, Karthus is an undying spirit whose haunting songs are a prelude to the horror of his nightmarish appearance. The living fear the eternity of undeath, but Karthus sees only beauty and purity in its embrace, a perfect union of life and death. When Karthus emerges from the Shadow Isles, it is to bring the joy of death to mortals, an apostle of the unliving.

卡尔萨斯是湮灭的使者，是不死的亡灵。从来都是未见其恐怖身影，先闻其鬼魅挽歌。活着的人惧怕那些永世不得超生的亡灵，但卡尔萨斯却在亡灵的存在中只看到了美丽和纯洁，他看到的是生与死的完美融合。当卡尔萨斯从暗影岛获得新生的时候，他决心要担任不死亡灵的使徒，把死亡的欣喜带给所有凡人。

The harbinger of oblivion, Karthus is an undying spirit whose haunting songs are a prelude to the horror of his nightmarish appearance. The living fear the eternity of undeath, but Karthus sees only beauty and purity in its embrace, a perfect union of life and death. When Karthus emerges from the Shadow Isles, it is to bring the joy of death to mortals, an apostle of the unliving.

卡尔萨斯出生在诺克萨斯首都城墙下，贫民窟最底层。他的母亲在他出生的同时去世了，只剩下他的父亲独自抚养他和他的三个姐姐。他们与其他几个家庭共同住在一所残破不堪、蝇飞鼠窜的救济院中，靠雨水和害虫填饱肚子。卡尔萨斯是所有孩子中最擅长觅食的，经常为他们的大锅中增添一些残缺不全的尸体。

Karthus was born into abject poverty in the sprawl of dwellings built beyond the walls of the Noxian capital. His mother died at the moment of his birth, leaving his father to raise him and his three sisters alone. They shared a crumbling, rat-infested almshouse with scores of other families, subsisting on a diet of rainwater and vermin. Of all the children, Karthus was the best ratter, and regularly brought gnawed corpses for the cook-pot.

在诺克萨斯的贫民窟中，死亡是人们习以为常的，父母一觉醒来发现身边的孩子已经僵硬冰凉，新的一天便从他们的啜泣声中开始了。卡尔萨斯慢慢地学会了欣赏这些啜泣和哀悼，他还会着迷地望着千珏教团的死亡记录员在自己的手杖上刻下计数印记，然后将尸体抬出救济院。到了晚上，少年卡尔萨斯会偷偷在拥挤的救济院里四处张望，寻找那些奄奄一息的人，希望能看到他们灵魂跨越生死的瞬间。不过许多年过去了，他的夜游始终无果，因为没人能准确预计一个人的死亡时间。他一直都没机会看到人死去的那一刻，直到有一天死亡开始造访他的家人。

Death was commonplace in the slums of Noxus, and many mornings began with the wailing of bereaved parents who woke to discover their child cold and lifeless beside them. Karthus learned to love these laments, and would watch, fascinated, as the tally-men of Kindred notched their staffs and bore the bodies from the almshouse. At night the young Karthus would sneak through the cramped rooms, seeking those whose lives hung by a thread, hoping to witness the moment their soul passed from life to death. For years, his nightly travels were fruitless, as it was impossible to predict exactly when a person would die. He was denied witnessing the moment of death until it reached his own family.

在如此拥挤密集的居住区中，疾病爆发是常有的事，卡尔萨斯的姐姐们也染上了瘟疫，于是他开始精心照看她们。他的父亲只知道借酒消愁，这时候卡尔萨斯成为了恪尽职守的弟弟，在他姐姐们身染重病、生命垂危之际给予关怀和照顾。他看着三位姐姐一个接着一个地死去，在她们临终渐渐暗淡的眼神中，卡尔萨斯仿佛感受到了某种神圣的召唤 —— 他想要了解死后世界，渴望探究永恒存在的奥秘。当死亡记录员前来带走尸体的时候，卡尔萨斯跟着他们回到了神庙，不停地向他们提问关于千珏教团以及关于丧葬工作的事。一个人可不可以存在于生命结束但又未迎来死亡的夹缝中？如果生死之间的交界能够被理解并掌控，那么生命的智慧是不是能与死亡的明朗融为一体？

Outbreaks of disease were frequent in such cramped confines, and when Karthus’s sisters sickened with the plague, he watched over them intently. While his father drowned his grief, Karthus was the ever dutiful brother, caring for his sisters as the disease consumed them. He watched each of them as they died, and a sublime connection seemed to reach into him as the light faded from their eyes - a yearning to see what lay beyond death and unlock the secrets of eternity. When the tally-men came for the bodies, Karthus followed them back to their temple, asking them question after question about their order and the workings of death. Could a person exist at the moment where life ends, but before death begins? If such a liminal moment could be understood and held, might the wisdom of life be combined with the clarity of death?

死亡记录员很快就觉得卡尔萨斯非常适合加入他们的教团，并吸纳他加入自己的行列，最初卡尔萨斯负责挖掘坟墓和拾柴火葬，后来升为了收尸者。卡尔萨斯每天都会推着他的骨制小车，在诺克萨斯的大街上收纳尸体。很快，全诺克萨斯都对他的安魂曲有所耳闻，他的悼词悲恸凄美，描绘了死亡的美丽，祈愿死后世界是令人向往的圣地。许多悲痛欲绝的死者亲属都会从他的哀乐中找到慰藉，在挽歌中获得平和。最后，卡尔萨斯被派到神庙中，专门负责照看病人，给与他们临终关怀，在死亡如期而至的时候与死者共同迎接。卡尔萨斯会在每个人临终之前对他们低声说话，引导死者的灵魂渐渐走向死亡，并在瞑目以后寻找更加深奥的智慧。

The tally-men quickly recognized Karthus’s suitability for their order and he was inducted into their ranks, first as a digger of graves and pyre-builder, before ascending to the rank of corpse collector. Karthus guided his bone-cart around the streets of Noxus to gather the dead every day. His dirges quickly became known throughout Noxus, mournful laments that spoke to the beauty of death and the hope that what lay beyond was something to be embraced. Many a grieving family took solace in his songs, finding a measure of peace in his heartfelt elegies. Eventually, Karthus worked in the temple itself, tending to the sick in their final moments, watching as whatever death had laid its claim upon them took its due. Karthus would speak to each person laid before him, ushering their souls into death, in search of further wisdom in their fading eyes.

最后，卡尔萨斯终于发现，他无法从凡人身上学到更多东西，只有死人才能回答他的问题。虽然死去的灵魂无法告诉他死后世界是什么样的，但却有一些用来吓唬小孩子的玄幻的故事和传说，讲述着一个死亡并不意味终结的地方——暗影岛。

Eventually, Karthus reached the conclusion that he could learn no more from mortals, that only the dead themselves could answer his questions. None of the dying souls could tell of what lay beyond, but whispered rumors and tales told to frighten children echoed of a place where death was not the end - The Shadow Isles.

卡尔萨斯将神庙金库里的钱席卷一空，凑齐路费前往比尔吉沃特，这座城市正在被一种奇怪的黑雾萦绕，据说会将人的灵魂拉向大海远方的诅咒之岛。没有任何一位船长愿意载卡尔萨斯前往暗影岛，但最后他找到了一位酩酊大醉的渔夫，因为举债如山所以破釜沉舟。渔船在大海中航行了许多个昼夜，最后一阵风暴把他们吹上了一座海图上从未标记过的岛屿，卡在了岸边的礁石上。一团黑雾从扭曲的树林和荒芜的废墟之中滚滚而出。渔夫立刻将船撤出礁石，调转船头向比尔吉沃特的方向仓皇而逃，但卡尔萨斯却跳下了船，涉水走上了沙滩。他紧扶着自己刻满痕迹的死亡记录员之杖，勉强站稳，然后骄傲地唱起了他为自己临终谱写的挽歌，他的歌声顺着一股寒风飘进了岛屿的中心。

Karthus emptied the temple’s coffers and bought passage to Bilgewater, a city plagued by a strange black mist said to draw souls to a cursed island far out at sea. No captain was willing to take Karthus to the Shadow Isles, but eventually he came upon a rum-sodden fisherman with a mountain of debts and nothing to lose. The boat plied the ocean for many days and nights, until a storm drove them onto the rocks of an island that appeared on no charts. A black mist rolled out from a haunted landscape of gnarled trees and tumbled ruins. The fisherman freed his boat and turned its prow in terror for Bilgewater, but Karthus leapt into the sea and waded ashore. Steadying himself with his notched tally-staff, he proudly sang the lament he had prepared for the moment of his own death, and his words were carried on a cold wind to the heart of the island.

黑雾继续飘散，穿过了卡尔萨斯，用古老的魔咒蹂躏着他的肉体和灵魂，但他超脱死亡的欲望是如此强烈，就连黑雾都没有将他彻底击倒。相反，黑雾重塑了他，卡尔萨斯在岛屿的滩涂上获得了重生，成为了一具没有肉体的幽魂。

The black mist flowed through Karthus, ravaging his flesh and spirit with ancient sorcery, but such was the force of his desire to transcend mortality that it did not destroy him. Instead, it remade him, and Karthus was born anew in the waters of the island as a fleshless revenant.

卡尔萨斯实现了一直以来的愿望，成为了自己梦寐以求的存在形式，站在了生与死的交界处，这时他获得了新的启示。一刻成为永恒，这种美感让他惊奇赞叹，与此同时岛上的其他怨灵全都醒了过来，就像鲨鱼闻到了鲜血一样，被卡尔萨斯的热情吸引过来，见证他的转变。卡尔萨斯终于找到了自己的归宿，他周围的灵魂全都能领会到不死祝福的真谛。一股义不容辞的狂热注满了卡尔萨斯，他知道，自己必须回到瓦洛兰，将自己的礼物分享给其他活着的人，将他们从那些微不足道的世俗担忧中解脱出来。

Revelation filled Karthus as he became what he always believed he should have been; a being poised at the threshold of death and life. The beauty of this eternal moment filled him with wonder as the wretched spirits of the island rose to behold his transformation, drawn to his passion like predators scenting blood in the ocean. Finally, Karthus was where he belonged, surrounded by those who truly understood the boon undeath truly was. Filled with righteous zeal, he knew he had to return to Valoran and share his gift with the living, to free them from petty mortal concerns.

卡尔萨斯转过身去，黑雾载着他飘在海浪上，追上了渔夫的小船。渔夫跪在卡尔萨斯面前，求他饶命，但卡尔萨斯却赐给了他死亡的祝福，终结了他的世俗苦痛，在亡灵的挽歌中重生为不灭的鬼魂。这位渔夫是卡尔萨斯解放的众多灵魂中的首例，很快，这位死亡颂唱者就将指挥一支不死怨魂组成的大军。在卡尔萨斯新觉醒的感官中，暗影岛处于一种无情的冥河边界状态，肆意地浪费着死亡的福祉。他要催动亡者进行一场圣战，将湮灭的美好送给活着的凡人，结束俗世间的痛苦，开启不死亡灵的光辉时代。

Karthus turned and the Black Mist bore him over the waves to the fisherman’s boat. The man fell to his knees before Karthus, begging for his life, and Karthus granted him the blessing of death, ending his mortal suffering and raising him up as an immortal spirit as he sang his lament for passing souls. The fisherman was the first of many such souls Karthus would free, and soon the Deathsinger would command a legion of unliving wraiths. To Karthus’s awakened senses, the Shadow Isles was in a state of apathetic limbo, where the blessings of death were squandered. He would galvanize the dead in a crusade to bring the beauty of oblivion to the living, to end the suffering of mortality and usher in a glorious age of undeath.

卡尔萨斯成为了暗影岛的使者，湮灭的代言人，他的悼词赞美着死亡的荣光。他的亡魂军团也会加入他的安魂曲合唱，他们挥之不去的歌声会传出黑雾的范围，在寒冷的夜晚，回荡在全瓦洛兰大陆的墓地和停尸间中。

Karthus has become the emissary of the Shadow Isles, the herald of oblivion whose laments are paeans to the glory of death. His legions of unbound souls join with his funereal dirges, their haunting song reaching beyond the Black Mist to be heard on cold nights over graveyards and charnel houses all across Valoran.