a Snard is born . . .

The geezer maintained a retinue of astrologers and psychics, whose sciences
were kept in a state of mockery in public, but in the privacy of his
private dungeon abode the truth of their powers was well known.
These gifted prisoners, under fear of torture and death, served the geezer
with useful knowledge about the future. And then it came to pass that a fearful
prophesy came to be known, so terrible that those who saw it tried their best
to keep it from the geezer, fearing his terrible wrath. But of course he
tortured it out of them, and once hearing it, had them killed.
The prophesy was of the immanent birth of a saviour of mankind,
a deliverer who was destined to break humanity free of the grip of the geezer
and his minions. The astrologers knew when and where this saviour was to be born,
but when the geezer suggested killing the child, the psychics explained that
the spirit was not of an individual but of a collective will of humanity to be free,
and that merely killing the child they were predicting would only force the
spirit to be born somewhere else - outside of their vision, and free from control.