As the people of the White Walled City expanded outward after the First Son’s crusade to end the demonic presence throughout the land, the ancient walls that would form the basis of today’s major cities were not the only relics reclaimed from the ruins. Tucked away deep within the vaults of the major cities where they were protected from time and the elements, there were many scrolls and tomes that held various information relevant to ancient times, before the Fall of Man. While some have been loosely translated from the various ancient tongues, there are many texts that still to this day have not been translated, despite the best efforts of modern researchers. What knowledge lies within these mysterious tomes may well be considered lost as time rolls forward.
Because the tomes are so mysterious, not much can be said about the contents of the texts, aside from the fact that there are diagrams of bizarre contraptions, words in an ancient tongue that do not translate, even with scholars dedicated to understanding the ancient languages of the Second Age. What is known is that the cooperation of the varying scholars of the new settlements have produced one fact – these ancient cities not only had their own individual languages different than the other settlements, but they also seem to have written these texts in a form of code, characters native to the city they were found within, but each with their own type of code structures. Despite great efforts by the scholars and scribes who have managed to partially understand the languages of the past, no major breakthroughs have been made for these texts containing secret knowledge.
Many of the monarchs who have taken hold of the cities have even gone as far as to tuck away and forbid the texts from being decoded, or stored them away in safekeeping for a fear that whatever knowledge contained within them might somehow trigger another mass extinction event across Caelon, similar to the events of the Fall of Mankind. As one scribe put it, “It is better that the secrets hidden within these pages stay hidden, for the God of Names has already passed his judgment upon those who put the quill to it. We must keep the curse from being cast again at all costs.”
Despite this, there are rumors that the texts are still actively being researched for the secrets they hold, in the hopes of reclaiming the wonders and the glories of the past societies. Should the secrets one day be discovered, there is no telling what might happen. For now, society remains blissfully unaware of the nature of these lost secrets, and it is perhaps for the better that this is the case.
