Codex FINAL.Indd

John Snead (order #55137) 66.167.138.169 TALISLANTA FANTASY ROLE PLAYING GAME Codex Magicus DESIGN TEAM CREATIVE DIRECTOR LAYOUT & GRAPHIC DESIGN K. Scott Agnew Kevin Knight PAGE BORDER WRITING & GAME DESIGN Christian St. Pierre Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Mark Williams, K. Scott Agnew, John Snead, Colin Chapman, Max ART DIRECTOR Hattuer, Stephan Michael Sechi K. Scott Agnew COVER ART EDITORS Mark Williams Alison Ménard K. Scott Agnew ILLUSTRATORS Adam Black, PD Breeding-Black, Rich Emond, Ron Spencer, Anson Maddocks, Mark Tedin, Richard Wallace The Talislanta game and fantasy world are the creations of Stephan Michael Sechi. Talislanta is a trademark of SMS, and is used by Morrigan Press Inc. under license. All rights reserved. Codex Magicus is ©2006 by Morrigan Press Inc. and Stephan Michael Sechi . Electronic Edition February 2006. MORRIGAN PRESS INC. 46 WeldonWeldon Street Moncton, New Brunswick E1C 5V8 Canada On the Web: www.morriganrpg.com Email: [email protected] 2 John Snead (order #55137) 66.167.138.169 CHAPTER ONE HISTORY OF THE TALISLANTAN AGES The Archaeus that we walk now is the sum the Great Disaster itself. For those who seek the of all that has come before. In chronicling secrets of the past, fragmented accounts of savants these lost ages and the forgotten empires of and scholars make up the majority of what has antiquity, we delve deeply into what scars survived to the modern age, and now serve as Talislanta bears today. the primary sources of lore. As a result, all dates - Hotan’s History of the World mentioned in the following text are estimates based upon interpretations of the ancient Archaen The Forgotten Age is a series of periods that, calendar. overall, spans many thousands of years. From the To the modern scholar, the Forgotten Age is broken Time Before Time (even predating the discovery of into seven lesser periods, each beginning and ending the orb that brought magic to the men of Talislanta) with great societal shifts on the face of Talislanta. through the world-wracking horror of the Great These ages are known as the Time Before Time, the Disaster, and down through the centuries until the Primal Age, the Archaen Ascension, the Age of the founding of the Phaedran Empire. During this long- Heavens, the Age of Decline, the Great Disaster, ago age, the world’s fi rst—and greatest—magicians and the Time of Chaos. Naturally, the people of rose to prominence. Beginning as simple tribal the era did not speak of living in these times, but folk, these primitives would eventually master the the appellations serve modern historians well arcane might necessary to allow them unrivalled enough. After the Forgotten Age came the New dominance of the world itself. Exploration, Age, which was initially focused – albeit briefl y colonisation, discovery, invention…these were – on the Phaedran Era. the words that summed up the people we know as the Archaens. Reliable evidence and surviving records of this ancient era are rare, and accordingly, their value THE TIME cannot be overstated for many scholars. To attain factual knowledge of the long-past age is the life’s work of many worthy chroniclers and adventurers BEFORE TIME alike. Several events in history have destroyed any The only remnants, such as they are, of this true hope of reacquiring the ancient lore, most prehistoric era are found today in the inhospitable notably the burning of the Library of Badijan and 3 John Snead (order #55137) 66.167.138.169 region of Khazad in north-western Talislanta. for certain is that the Thane were occultists with a Travellers to the region can find stone pillars and great deal of interest in the lower planes, and they grave markers dotting the landscape at irregular assembled a minor fleet of black-hulled sailing intervals; evidence of the long-departed race known vessels that plied the waters near the north and as the Thane, who were—according to carvings on west coasts of Khazad. Standing stones littering the gravestones—a tall breed of humanoids. It is the beaches of Morbid Isle attest to some presence not known exactly when the Thane came to the on the small island to the north as well, but most region, for the Time Before Time stretches back of the lore pertaining to the Thane comes from to the world’s very creation. It would seem that Archaen writings dating thousands of years the Thane were either the lone example of the after the Time Before Time, and nothing can be region’s inhabitants in ancient times, or simply considered certain. the only ones who left their mark for future races to witness. Whatever the truth of the race, they lived and died in the Forgotten Age, lasting many ECHOES OF THE centuries without establishing any real contact with the rest of the world as it developed. Perhaps they PAST had grown used to being alone. CITY OF THE DEAD Khazad bears markings of the Thane even today, Necron is a sprawling city with alien architecture in the form of the ancient city now referred to as and a past shattered by both the passing of time Necron, and the scattered “warning stones” that dot and the Great Disaster. The legends of this city the landscape here and there. These pillars seem —located somewhere in north Khazad and buried to mark places where great battles or events took under the sands of the region—tell of an entire place in the Time Before Time, though exactly people mummified and buried within their ancient what the Thane were trying to relate with these capital. What treasures of a long-forgotten age faded etchings is lost to the past. Some evidence could adventurers come across if they located an of demonic figures remains on a few of these entrance down into Necron? pillars, but nothing is conclusive. What is known 4 John Snead (order #55137) 66.167.138.169 What few records of the Thane survive speak of emanate from its uppermost reaches. Skeptical a race that dealt with demons and had a vested scholars attribute these noises to the rushing of interest in dark arcane arts, so what relics and the wind through the many twists, caves and ancient wonders would such a people produce? hollows in the mountain’s body, while those Do these dark wonders still lie in the depths under with a more preternatural explanation point to an the desert? And of course, what of the tales that ancient Phaedran legend involving an archimage speak of the city’s inhabitants living on as spectral binding a powerful Shaitan somewhere within the undead, or mummifi ed in the hope of one day mountain. awakening once more? Perhaps neither of these explanations is true. Littered around the foothills of the crags surrounding the THE STANDING STONES Wailing Mountain—and at the base of the gigantic The grave markers and standing stones of the long-forgotten Thane are notoriously faded and diffi cult to decipher. For adventurers traveling to the desolate land of Khazad, The Black Savants any but the most cerebral characters are It is a rare historian that dedicates many years of his going to fi nd little of interest in the etchings life to wandering the desolate realm of Khazad in the that do remain. Grave-robbers are likely search for knowledge, but some of the most learned to find mummified corpses interred at adventurer-scholars that make the journey believe these sites, perhaps buried with trinkets they have chanced upon a potential link between the and items that have somehow survived ancient Thane and the occult order of Neferatus; the thousands of years without corruption. Black Savants. Perhaps all there is to be found is the dust of ancient bones. Of course, the island of Neferatus is barred to all outsiders, and few people even know the Black However, what if the markings of some of Savants exist, let alone have the years of knowledge these stones can be deciphered? It is all too behind them to make the connection. The link is easy to imagine that the stone pillars tell of tenuous at best, formed from sightings of black-hulled ancient battles or the locations of hidden ships sailing the seas around Khazad, etchings and settlements, but could it be possible that carvings upon the pillars that resemble what rare others form a “map” of sorts to locate the and priceless lore has been acquired about the Black lost city of Necron? Or what if the carvings Savants, and a general assumption that the two races have endured throughout the millennia are purported to be similar in appearance; i.e. tall, and still tell of an ancient ritual once used exceptionally gaunt humanoids. to summon and bind a powerful demonic entity from the lower planes? It is wholly Some of the ancient lore points to the Thane possible that some of these pillars were colonizing the region of Talislanta now called Khazad left as markers for traditional locations and creating Necron in order to survive a coming for ritual summonings, and scraps of apocalypse (thought to be no less than the Great history show the Thane in a very dark and Disaster itself). If this is true, it would certainly unwholesome light. explain why the Black Savants – a magical order unknown to most Talislantans – has a vested interest WAILING MOUNTAIN in the entombed city. It stands to reason that even In south Khazad, a colossal mountain now the dark spellcasters are seeking artefacts of their range is dominated by the twisting, spiral lost imperial glory…or perhaps working on a way to crag called Wailing Mountain.

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