The Weeping Scrolls

Slowly collected and catalogued within the libararies within the Sanctuary of the Weeping Scholar, the Weeping Scrolls are the mournful conscience of a dead empire. Their very nature reflects the tragedy they chronicle, the collapse of the magical empire of Nel'Akhiron.   The Weeping Scrolls are not made from mundane parchment. They were a living medium created by the ancient "Archaists" from Aetherweave fibres, a heavy cloth interweaved with strands of wire that were enchanted with Zhak'raa magic. Before the fall of the empire, these scrolls were used to record the sacred rituals and philosophical tenets of the faith.   After the Bleed began as a result of the Annihilation, the scrolls themselves became sentient documents of sorrow. They absorbed the suffering of the world around them, and their once-pure ink now drips a thin, magical ichor that weeps from the pages, staining them with a dark, shimmering residue. Each scroll's "weeping" is a unique magical residue that reflects the specific sorrow it contains.  

Content and Purpose

The Weeping Scrolls are not simply historical texts; they are prophecies of blight and chronicles of heresy. They were written by Archaists who witnessed the Archomancers' betrayal and desperately tried to record their descent into madness before their own minds became Echoes.   Their purpose is twofold:

• To act as an archive: They are fragmented and scattered across Nel'Akhiron, with each piece offering a new insight into the Archomancers' heretical practices, the origins of their power, and the specific weaknesses of their domains.
• To serve as a warning: They are not encouraging; they are a grim testament to the folly of power. They serve as a constant reminder that walking the same path has only ever led to ruin.

 

Location

The scrolls are found in unlikely places, a direct result of their frantic abandonment. They might be clutched in the petrified hands of an Echo, left where they died while trying to escape the encroaching Bleed. Some may be hidden away in the dusty, forgotten corners of a library, in a sealed chamber that was meant to protect them from the corruption. Scrolls could also be found deep within the corrupted territories of the Archomancers, where their magical properties might have kept them intact while everything else rotted away.   Nowadays, the Scrolls are being gathered and collected by individuals at the Sanctuary of the Weeping Scholar.  

Examples of Scroll Fragments

Fragment from "The Litany of Korvax's Blasphemy"

"...and he proclaimed that Zhak'raa was a fool's current, for it only flowed, never held. He took up the forbidden Sacrament of Blood and vowed he would forge a 'held life,' a new truth of muscle and sinew. He spoke of a citadel with a beating heart, and his skin began to crack, weeping life that was not his own..."

  Fragment from "The Lamentations of the Whispering Spire"

"...Vez'Thul closed his mind, and in so doing, trapped his soul. He now resides in a place of perfect lies, where the only truth is the sorrow of his self-imposed prison. The Labyrinth is a scar upon the mind itself, and his whispers travel upon the winds of Nel'Akhiron, for there is no air there, only thought..."

  Fragment from "A Study of the Sacred Current"

"...and we were told that to learn the Current's will was to accept its boundless flow, to become but a vessel. But the Archomancers declared that a vessel was a cage, and sought to become the Current itself. The Bleed is not a disease, but the Current's final scream as it shattered them, and itself, upon the world."