From the Underlands to the Skybridge

My Model of Mechanus, by Ranigat Josef

The book is written in an old or strange variant of Common, but a quick perusal lets you get a feel for the basics of the text. It's a rambling, quirky memoir of a rambling, quirky man. Ranigat Josef was obsessed with the various ways to traverse the planes, and particularly their ephemeral and chancy nature. He used methods discovered by the study of the Outer Plane of Mechanus to establish his own answer to planar travel. He must have been an elementalist -- he somehow used water and fire energy to power his devices.
The memoir is a frustrating combination of exactingly precise and meanderingly vague. Extended study is necessary to make heads or tails of Josef's life, struggles, or projects. However, the man's many secrets are hinted at, and careful reading of the text may reveal significant and valuable passages.
The "Underlands" and "Skybridge" of the title are both planes Josef used for important stretches of his "iron trail".

Document Structure

Clauses

Sturdily leather-bound, with iron fittings and clasp, this book has seen better days. Its cover is embossed with a simple half-sunburst, with squared-off rays. Between the covers are about 200 pages of cramped, scratchy script, broken by occasional diagrams, and abstract illuminations.
While Josef possessed an orderly mind, he had no concern for the comprehension of others; thus, while there is likely a sense of order behind the book's organization, it is apparent to none but the author. Discrete sections contain barely-related subjects, references to concepts elsewhere in the work are marked by "q.v." without any mention of page numbers, seemingly inconsequential details (and discussions of widespread or common sense concepts) are given their own headings or even illuminated title pages, while important insights are hidden in unrelated paragraphs or scribbled between the lines. Throughout, the author refers to his works with grand and somewhat flowery language, as if trying to sell his vision to readers without explaining his methods.

Read the Document

From the Underlands to the Skybridge

Pages 1-6: Ranigat Josef begins with a rambling description of his mission statement, including mentions of "the power of water and fire" that he "discovered" and would harness for his "great work". His mind is described as "overflowing with the visions of my day".
Pages 7-57: Jumbled histories of a good dozen worlds, including notes on the commonalities of their development -- social, technological, and magical -- in a nigh-indecipherable shorthand. Multiple societies on each world are mentioned.
Pages 58-59: A brief tribute to Josef's chief engineer, Vamrin Eilutrilostorian, praises his diligence and devotion, even in the face of death-by-slaad.
Pages 60-64: Notes for a speech Josef planned to give (or gave) to possible patrons or governing bodies, extolling the virtues of his planned "network" of "iron travel lines", for trade, cultural exchange, and rapid travel. Scribbled margin notes show that he was aware of the possibility of military misuse, but that he had not yet settled on a solution to this.
Pages 65-79: This section is bookended by elaborate illuminated pages, different in style from illuminations elsewhere in the tome, depicting a giant, leafless tree, glowing figures ascending around it, backed by a black-feathered dragon silhouette. The pages themselves bear a detailed, precise contract in Primal, written in a different hand than the rest of the book. The contract is for "the efficacious and orderly transport of the souls of deceased mortals upon Csearag, and those worlds attendant upon it, to their duly-recognized final destination, as determined by consensus of the myriad gods of Csearag". The contract is signed by Ranigat Josef and Prandeep, Sentinel of the Severed Sentence.
Pages 80-193: A description of Josef's many travails, political and engineering, as well as a few (mismatched) planar diagrams, showing established and planned connection lines, with notes in a personal code regarding planar hazards, conjunctions, and blockages.
The engineering sections are beyond the comprehension of any but a tinker gnome, but the political and planar information is fascinating and useful to a sage of those subjects. This section of the tome could count as 500-3,000 gp towards a Sage Knowledge library for relevant questions.
While most of the locations named are unfamiliar, and presumably on other worlds or planes, Sirellan readers recognize at least one name: Malyen. It seems the Seven Eternal Autarchs denied Josef permission to run a line of his network through Malyen, stating that they "would not invite a bar-lgura to a dinner party, and neither would they allow such a thing anywhere near their domain." Josef then turned to the Certopsian Matriarchy, who agreed to his request, against the advice of the Eternal Autarchs.
Pages 194-196: Rant about "anti-progress nuts" shutting down a waystation on the "network" due to complaints of banshee-like wailing, leading to beliefs the network was haunted. This shut down cut off a number of other waystations from the rest of the network, and by the time a work-around was established, the cut-off waystations had been destroyed, possibly by "anarchist cultists".
Page 197: Scribbled poem in another hand, unattributed. Mostly just disjointed imagery, with some alternate lines in the margins: "So under the mountains, and over the planes", "With the man of steel down the long, thin line", "Thin vein creeping, hot blood flow/Spill a little where the new towns grow", "...in the shuffling madness...", "Riding spotter on the sunset, stare it in the eye", "All the way to Rhia in the red, red sun", etc.

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Type

Journal, Scientific

Medium

Paper