Forbidden Tome - "Behind the Mirror"
History
By the later years of The Shattered Era's first century knowledge of The Otherlands is heavily surpressed by those in the know. The Otherlands and its strange creatures are mostly believed to be myth or legends and The Church, The Order of Nox, and The Blackwell Institute all make great strides to keep this status quo. In part the motivation for this is to keep fear and panic under control and to keep those with mal intentions from exploiting the power of The Otherlands, but naturally it is also to allow these factions more control by allowing them to monopolize the explotation of this power. Despite this, in the first decade of The Shattered Era, when The Otherlands and The Isle of Nox were newly discovered and The Blackwell Institute had yet to be founded the newly discovered realm was met with optimism and excitement. Explorers, scholars, adventurers, and mercenaries were all eager to go to the Isle of Nox and ultimately into The Otherlands to seeks fame, fortune, and glory. Early pioneers attempted, and ultimately failed, to establish settlements on the new frontier in hopes of finding new resources to exploit. Chief among these adventurers was Bruno Roldan, whom prior to The Blackwell Institute was one of the most prolific explorers of The Otherlands. The famous explorer famously believed that The Otherlands, though the results of a great cataclysm, was to be our salvation. He bravely explored these lands with the fervent belief that it was the key to returning to a more prosperous era and perhaps to even push all of Loria into a true golden age. Bruno also believed that the knowledge of these realms and the great discoveries within should be common knowledge and so he wrote about his adventures in The Otherlands in his book "Behind the Mirror." After his disappearance in The Otherlands, his wife collected his notes and the manuscript from his study and had the book published and distributed. During the latter half of the century, after his wife's passing the manuscript and notes ended up in the hand of Tobias Blackwell. This was a fortunate turn of events as it was around this time the The Church and The Order of Nox began forbidding discussion of The Otherlands and spreading the belief that it was merely a myth. It was deemed heretical to discuss, believe in, or research The Otherlands and "Behind the Mirror" was quickly banned. By 83 SE most, if not all copies of the book have been burned, save the original manuscript at The Blackwell Institute.
Item type
Book / Document
Creator
Owning Organization
Rarity
Original Manuscript - Rebound by The Blackwell Institute is a unique artifact; however, the book was published and distributed in the early days of the Age of Shattering. By the start of the modern Shattered Era the church has deemed the book heretical and most copies have been destroyed. Surviving copies are rare, valuable, and illegal. The published copies of the book are also missing many of the technical notes and deeper explanations of the original.
