Let it be recorded that this is the complete and faithful compilation of the Gnostic Gospels of the one called Anonymous, as gathered, preserved, and set in order by the Orthodox Church in the years following the Second Impact.
Let what has been written remain unaltered, and what has been preserved remain unbroken nor questioned, though its truth be weighed by each who reads.
In the years following the Second Impact, the world which now stands is not the world that once was. For the seas were broken, and the sky was made strange, and the works of men were cast down in a single turning. And those who endured spoke in fragments of what had come before, as of a dream half-remembered.
What follows is a faithful account of the letters and works of the one called Anonymous and of those who named themselves his disciples, and bore his words into the years that followed. His true name is not known, nor the place of his birth, nor the full measure of his deeds. Yet his words endure where greater monuments have fallen, and his voice remains where kingdoms have been silenced. These are those words, as they have come down to us.
These writings were gathered from the scattered remnants of many tongues, preserved in fragments and in full, carried across the long years from the dawning of the Ninth Aeon unto its final hour.
Know that Anonymous was not as other men, nor was he a man, though he walked among them. For in those days the world stood divided against itself, and the works of men were as dust before the turning of greater powers. Kingdoms rose and were cast down, and the voices of the wise went unheard. Yet among them there was one who saw, and one who wrote, and one who endured. These are his words.
Not all that he wrote has been preserved, and not all that has been preserved is understood. There are passages broken, and passages forbidden, and passages whose meaning has been sealed from those who would seek it. And though time has worn away their edges, and though many hands have altered what once was whole, yet the truth of them remains, as a fire buried beneath ash. Still, they are set down here, as they were found, neither wholly trusted nor wholly denied.
Let the reader take heed. For within these pages are things long hidden, and truths that were not meant to endure beyond their time. And it is said that to know them is to be changed, and to carry them is to be burdened. Yet what is written cannot be unwritten. And what has been remembered cannot return to silence.
Thus begins the record of Anonymous, as it has come down to us from the end of the Ninth Aeon.