UoM: Delving into Darkness Again (Chyril 22nd TT)

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Morg
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UoM: Delving into Darkness Again (Chyril 22nd TT)

Post by Morg »

Morgan hummed an old Dortenese folk song as he strode along the corridors of the University of Magick towards its library. The extensive collection of tomes was not unfamiliar to the Dortman. Information could be found on the tiniest subfields of magical theory, and Morgan frequently dropped in to refresh his memory of some of the symbols used in the laying of wards, or to learn new ones. A pleasant bonus was that Becca was often to be found there. Their encounters were always enjoyable, to say the least, and seemingly even more so when unexpected.

For once, however, the young illusionist was not at the forefront of Morgan's mind. Instead he had been dwelling on another, wholly less pleasant entity: The Book. The book which had been the source of all the trouble at Pan's Temple, and which Elvin had refused to let his two accomplices even catch a glimpse of. In the time since the incident the Professor had been more than tight-lipped about it. Not that Morgan had ever asked explicitly, of course; in fact, until Chyril it had rarely crossed his mind. Nevertheless, given his role in the conflict, he expected to be told more, and, for someone whose lust for knowledge was as strong as Morgan's, being kept in the dark amounted to nothing less than a betrayal.

So he'd come to a decision. If the Professor wouldn't tell him about the book, he'd just have to find out for himself. As he strode into the library, he reviewed what he already knew. It's a book, with links to dark magick, and something of a will of its own. That wasn't much to go on, to be sure, but an artifact of such power was likely to be rare indeed, likely the stuff of legend... the sort of thing that should by all rights be well documented in a place like the University's library.

He made his way directly to the librarian on duty, standing in line if necessary and waiting until there was no one within immediate earshot. "Good day. I'm looking for books about dark magick," he stated simply. "More specifically, books about books about dark magick. Information about the texts used by its practitioners."

Morgan had decided that honesty was the best policy here. Subterfuge had never been his way, and he was hoping that his status as a reliable senior student of Daemonic Warding would qualify him to access the material he was after. If a student came along simply wanting to learn about dark magick, it was unlikely that he would just go up to the librarian and ask bluntly where he could read up on it as the Dortman had just done.

The funny thing was that Morgan did simply want to learn about dark magick, but not for the sake of using it. For him the learning was an end in itself, not a means to an end. If the world of Tazlure was threatened by a mysterious outside agency, Morgan wanted to know about it.
[size=84][i]"She told me I had too much to dream last night..."[/i] - [i]Apprentice of the Universe[/i], Pure Reason Revolution
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Post by Grant »

Student workers were like cockroaches. There were always limitless supplies of them, and they would do virtually anything to protect their residency. Unlike cockroaches, student roaches didn't scatter when the lights came up...but they did tend to scatter when there was work to be done...a scrambling, anxious retreat that often left the weakest among them...the one that thought or moved the slowest...behind such that they were invariably "selected" for tasks.

Today, the weakest student worker was a young girl...hardly more than fourteen and no doubt from a wealthy family (like most students)...standing in plain sight such that Morgan could approach her easily. At first glance, it might seem as though she were the only one in the library...but this was far from the truth. She was simply the weakest cockroach.

"B-books on...dark magick? Oh, no, not here. There are books on primitive magick...and we have some theories on dark practices...but a compendium of dark magick literature isn't something with which I'm familiar. You might try some of the typical references for magickal documents. Perhaps they'll offer an outline of the...kind of tomes you seek?" she offered. Of course, she was suspicious...it wasn't every day that a person entered the University Library and asked for material on Dark Magick. "Another possibility might be to ask the Professor of the Dark Arts...he might have a few suggestions if you're curious about such things." There, that should do it. If the Professor is involved, that should protect me from any wrong-doing!

Just like the cockroach, any Student Worker also sought to avoid notice...and being caught helping a student hunt down books that might be restricted was a certain, sure way she would suddenly gain a LOT of notice.
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Post by Morg »

A Professor of the Dark Arts! That would solve a lot of problems... but somehow Morgan figured that his image of a Professor of the Dark Arts, an evil, cackly type of creature living in a fetid lair and teaching dark magick to those who displayed an interest, wasn't really going to exist as part of the University. After all, unlike all other forms of magick, which were merely tools to enforce their user's will and thus were fundamentally outside morality, dark magick was said to corrupt its users such that its power could not be used for good - or so the story went. Morgan was not entirely convinced by this, but respected that it was the prevailing view, and that decisions made by the University were going to be based on it. So, no professor of dark magick for him. It was possible that the girl was referring to Moore, the Professor of Defence... and that would likely be an equally unhelpful avenue of approach, because the University as a whole seemed to want to keep students in the dark (paradoxically) about dark magick, so Moore was unlikely to be keen to point Morgan in the right direction.

Silly, really, as policies go, Morgan reflected. The library was yet another example of it. Oh, no. No books on the dark arts. How do they expect us to be able to defend against something we know nothing about? In Morgan's view it was much like smoking White Mist. Back in Dort he'd encountered a few people who'd tried it out, youths like him. It was supposed to induce some rather pleasant effects, the nature of which were unknown to him... but far more of an attraction, in his view, was that it was absolutely and positively illegal to possess or use it. The thrill of doing something punishable by law was a powerful incentive to a young person. Morgan had often pondered whether or not it would be sensible to make the substance more readily available and less stigmatised. That way it would likely decline in popularity, once it was no longer daring and risqué.

"Thank you," he responded meekly. No thanks at all. I could have told myself that much. Pity that so many of the people who work here couldn't care less about their job. "I swear, my essay assignments are getting tougher and tougher," he added by way of explanation. It wasn't a lie in any sense of the word; just completely unrelated to the reason he was looking for books about books about dark magick.

Morgan sighed and made his way to the section where bibliographies of well-known magical works were to be found. He hadn't had much need to use such volumes in the past, but he used the same philosophy he used to pick any book from a series of similar titles. Rather than just picking the biggest, he leafed through a few titles to find the one with the smallest print. Such works, he'd found, were regularly the ones with the most scholarly and complete content. Once he'd procured a volume, he looked for an index or contents table, hoping to garner clues as to where he might find information on a sentient, malicious book.
[size=84][i]"She told me I had too much to dream last night..."[/i] - [i]Apprentice of the Universe[/i], Pure Reason Revolution
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Post by Grant »

Indeed, Morgan was correct in every way. The Student Worker curtsied prettily...definitely the product of wealth...and stepped to one side. "I can...find out where Professor Moore is, if you would wish?" she murmured to Morgan's thoughtful back, though in truth she had never even seen the man. Moore hadn't been himself since last yahren, for reasons unknown to most. That is to say, the man had grown somewhat despondent and quiet, a condition that afflicted many people in the Citadel after a few notorious events of last yahren.

Curiously, Demonology wasn't the only texts considered off-limits in the library. Entire forms of magic were described extensively...but no methods for utilizing them were detailed. Mind Magic was chief among these, a form of magic that, for one reason or another, was considered dangerous and forbidden by the University. As such, any inquiries about these practices offered tantalizing hints, rumors, and speculation...but they were short on absolute fact, and left the reader (most likely an inquisitive student, such as Morgan) hungry to learn more. It was a cycle of containing knowledge that was not only expected, but was almost customary among those who had it...and would hold it over those who didn't.

It didn't take Morgan long to find reference to tomes of Demon Magic. In fact, legends of such literature were strangely frequent in many of the bibliographies he checked, though...as he had suspected...they were short on fact. Still, one particular reference stood out as more convincing than most:

Biblio Libre Magicka, Vol 2 wrote:"...That he survived the trip at all was the will of darkness itself, it seems; but for seven years, the warrior-poet travelled what the demons referred to as the Six Pits, alternating from fugitive, prisoner, torture subject and fascinating trophy. At last, he emerged from his hellish ordeal, a man broken in spirit and body, his ability to see the world normally having been fractured beyond repair.

Retreating to a small village, Khar-Naahrn wrote down his memories into six tomes, detailing what he had seen and learned there. Then, as he had finished the sixth tome, demons again come to him, this time possessing the minds of the villagers around him. For three more years he lived in a hell, this one on Tazlure itself, as the demons filled him with visions and harried him to write more. Finally, shattered and insane in ways that no living man could have imagined, the poet set to creating his seventh and final work.

This was to become the Liber Maleficarus, in which Khar-Naahrn wrote down the most important items that he had recorded in his previous six tomes; he also detailed the art of dark sorcery, which had been revealed to him partially during his years in the Many Hells, and came to him fully in the harrying by the possessed villagers. When he ran out of paper to write upon, the villagers sacrificed themselves so that more pages could be made from their bodies; when food ran out, they became his nourishment as well as his jailors. Eventually, the book was finished, and the warrior poet used his own blood to annotate those pages he thought not complete. Afterwards, he bound the book in ensorcelled leather, which he had created from his own skin – a final act which pushed his body over the limit, and allowed him at last to die."

The books written by Khar-Naahrn are now commonly called the Liber Maleficarus, after the seventh book of the compendium. They are said to detail the methods, uses, and necessities for the practice of Demonology, with the Liber itself used as a premise and the previous six manuscripts detailing focused aspects of Hell. Hatred, Desire, Corruption, and Destruction are all said to be topics of these supporting manuscripts, each significant in itself...but fatally dangerous if used without the preparation provided by Liber Maleficarus itself.


Morgan could find a few other, fanciful tales of books on dark magic...a few on demons, a few on mind magic, and a few on something known as blood magic...but the Liber Maleficarus occurred too frequently to be discarded as chance ramblings or fanciful legend. The greatest chilling truth was that most of the Liber legends read much the same despite a very clear disparity of authors...another indication that the legend must have some basis of fact.
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Post by Morg »

It wasn't certainty... but then there was precious little of that in the magical profession. An educated guess was often the best that could be hoped for. With that in mind, Morgan could suspect that the Book which Elvin was holding was one of the volumes of this Liber Maleficarus. Either that or it was the Eldritche Tome of Dire Insectes. The latter seemed to fit the bill perfectly, but was only attested in a single bibliography, and seemed to be based on the discovery of a single Giant Bee in Kislovan.

Powerful dark magick. It must be. One of seven, though. Now Morgan was curious, burningly so. The things that could be learned... if I'm right, this is the official biography of darkness we're talking about. How better to fight it than to learn from the source? Jealousy suddenly flared up inside him. Maybe Professor Motricé is keeping it for himself. Hoarding that knowledge for the glory it might bring him. It was a very un-Morganic thought, and he quickly suppressed it, slightly concerned that it had crossed his mind at all. More likely he's just worried that it's too dangerous for me and Becca to handle. Well, in that case I need to convince him otherwise.

Morgan carefully replaced the bibliographies where he'd found them. I need to speak to Elvin. Soon. Fortunately, he knew just how that might be accomplished. He knew that the adhiel professor was a friend of Elaine, the blind singer who he'd met that night at the Dragon and who he'd later (very indirectly) helped to save from the Changer. He also knew that she was getting married that day... and so it wasn't too long a shot to assume that the professor would attend the ceremony. Although he didn't know the couple involved too well, Morgan himself had been considering going, if only to have more time with Becca.

Becca's presence could prove an additional difficulty. He figured he had more chance of success if he approached Elvin on his own... and so he found himself in the unprecedented situation of not wanting to be pounced by the lovely illusionist. Hopefully, though, she'd be too tied up doing whatever it was she was doing there to notice him before his business was concluded.

Fifth mark of tradetide, it was. Better get changed, then. Morgan stood and strode out of the library as bouncily as he had come, absently running his fingers through his somewhat tangled hair. Finally I might be getting some answers.

(OOC: I'm done here, unless there's anything you want to add?)
[size=84][i]"She told me I had too much to dream last night..."[/i] - [i]Apprentice of the Universe[/i], Pure Reason Revolution
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Grant
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Post by Grant »

(OOC: Only that I just loved the Giant Bee reference! Nicely done ;))


~Fin!
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Post by Tristam »

Archived with no skills awarded.
[size=100]
Donald heard a mermaid sing, Susy spied an elf,
But all the magic I have known, I've had to make myself.

Shel Silverstein[/size]
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