Codex of Whispers

The Codex of Whispers is a leather-bound book filled with stories and rituals from a world beyond this one, described by the unnamed author as Norn. While copies have been located and read by Flame in the Night and Tesin Movahesh, the original document is held by the Centurion — which is believed to contain the only unadulterated version of the story.

Legend of Norn

The Codex details a land destroyed by some great calamity, after which only two groups of Humans remained. The first — a collection of independent tribes known collectively as the People of the Maelstrom — survived by entrusting their fate to "gods of spirit", which are suspisciously similar to the Elder Numens in description. They were considered allies of nature, and wielded both the power of their patron spirit and the "souls of the elements" in battle.
The second, the soverign nation of Draemyre, survived the calamity by turning away from nature and the gods, taking up technology and the arcane instead, using a type of magic similar to Technomancy. While the author of the Codex seems biased against these people, they claim that Draemyre was not always a "bad place", and had only become so after a hostile takeover by a sorcerer king. The author states that this same king was the first to corrupt one of the Elder Numens on Norn, resulting in the creation of a Beast of Armageddon.
Once created, the Beast spread its infection to others, forcing the two peoples to work together in order to protect themselves. As part of this alliance, a hero born of both lines — his mother a Draemyrian, and his father of the Maelstrom — was selected to be their mediator, and given a crystalline ax as both a badge of office, and a weapon capable of killing the Beasts for good. This ax, which the Codex gives the name Azkhrumdar, was made of the roots of a holy tree, and instilled with an artificial intelligence crafted by the Draemyrians, which the author states was the pinnacle of their work.
With Azkhrumdar in his possession, the hero began to eradicate the Beasts with his band of warriors, who were said to be his equal in battle save for the ax in his hand. The Codex names Sara No-Name, Chang Lu, and Valka in particular, but implies there were others. However, the tale takes a darker turn when the hero's own spirit patron — a crow described by elemental shadow and harsh winds — is corrupted by a Beast, and the creatures of Armageddon begin to rally around it. The story "ends" as the hero and his friends leave to kill the crow, and over a dozen pages at the end of the Codex are left blank in all known copies of the text.

Spells & Rituals

Throughout the text, whenver a spell or ritual is introduced in the story, the author is careful to pen the actual incantation, making the Codex as much of a story as it is a reference. While all of the magic described within was intended to be used against the Beasts of Armageddon and their infected (which were likely Wither creatures, going by the descriptions) they are not intrinsically tied to the species in their design. Unfortunately, copies of the Codex rarely include more than a few of the spells, and due to their esoteric nature, few are considered to be accurately translated. Known spells include:

• The Sanguination spell, present in the copy owned by Flay.
• A interrupted ritual led by Alexander Marcus (seen only in The Codex of Whispers, Part 3).
• While not confirmed by any other source, the clone of Aroden inside Unari's Spectacles believes that whatever caused the Gap was a result of a ritual in the Codex.