To the High King of the Kingdom of Arameth by the Mercy and Election of Balnorim Almighty:

This report is drafted in order to comment on a phenomenon that occurred in the cosmos back in the Second Era and to request funding and permissions for further research into the exact nature of said phenomenon. The phenomenon, put concisely, was the sudden shuddering and subsequent disappearance—the term “disappearance” putting it mildly—of a star in the north sky. The event was observed, recorded, mused upon, and never satisfactorily explained, and it remained unexplained for centuries until the lich lord Kel’Daz Murgodrin proposed the metaphysical map of the universe. This map, so the lich lord claimed, shows vital intersecting points of the temporal fibers that compose the universe and govern metaphysical ideals. While the fibers themselves do not occupy any “space,” and therefore do not truly have any location in the universe whatever, they do seem to have certain intersecting “points” which can be mapped out in the stars. Thus, when one draws on certain metaphysical aspects, such as through spellcasting, one actually provokes a reaction from these temporal fibers, and where multiple fibers so influenced intersect, any of a large array of phenomena may occur at the intersecting point. While his research has yet to be totally verified (it would require only the most powerful scrying magicks to be able to prove such a point beyond reasonable doubt), it is the only viable explanation for the disappearance of the star.

Previous theories for this star’s disappearance include large-scale magical failure, such as what caused the appearance of the Void over Mt. Droshan in the year E.H. 721; an act of God’s holy wrath; a collision of the star with another celestial object, one that gives no light and thus would counteract the very essence of the star; and stellar decay, a concept held by few, and rejected as poppycock by most, including the vast majority of the most brilliant scholars. We propose, in this report, to add another, more viable explanation, and we do so in the light of evidence garnered through recent events: the dispelling of the Void and the return of Mt. Droshan with its gnomish residents.

All of the aforementioned theories—which, save the last, are viable—do not hold up to the evidence provided by the gnomes after their long absence from the Realm. According to them, during this “exodus” of sorts, they hung in open space near the edge of the universe. There, they claim, the very fibers of time turn in upon themselves, thus allowing one to view past, present, and future events in a manifestation called the Cosmic Mirror. The gnomes, being in this space for centuries, studied this mirror and were able to view the events surrounding the disappearance of this star. What they found was astonishing in that they found nothing at all. They witnessed the vanishing of the star, its shuddering and violent disappearance, but could perceive no events surrounding the phenomenon nor any evidence of triggering stimuli. It seemed to occur without provocation of any sort.

So how could such a thing occur? No detectable stimuli, no explanation, no reason or logic. Just a shuddering and a disappearance. Now, one might argue that the disappearance of the gnomes themselves was an unexplained phenomenon, but they were at least able to scry the causes of their exodus, and various pieces of evidence were left behind, including a journal recording certain events which are beyond the scope of this report to discuss. They could trace their own disappearance, but not that of the star. Therefore, there is no reason to believe any of the aforementioned possibilities. No wickedness to provoke an act of Deity, no magical disturbance, no collision, and—of course—no decay.

This leads us, then, to our explanation: that something occurred somewhere in the universe that triggered a heavy disturbance in the invisible fibers of space-time, which caused—we think, and the lich lord agrees—a hole in the very fabric of reality, thus causing the violent shuddering, rending, and disappearance of the star and any other matter that might have been in the vicinity. We doubt that this is the result of magic. According to the lich lord, whom we must acknowledge to be the leading authority on such subjects, the most powerful magicks can only hope for the mildest effects upon the universe. This effect, as he puts it, is little more than the that of butterfly wings upon the wind, and thus would not have the power nor the innate natural function to rend the fabric of reality itself. Since such a rending is the most plausible way an entire star could disappear in a burst of shredded matter, there must be some explanation other than simple incantation.

Here, we delve into another of the lich lord’s theories, that of Cosmic Duality. This theory has been confirmed by modern scholarship, theological discourse, and philosophical inquiry, and it should be noted that while the lich lord is the first to have proposed such an idea, it is modern scholarship, theology, and philosophy that have fleshed out this idea and brought it to the field of informed discussion today. This Theory of Duality holds that because all things are ordered by law, there must be an opposite to law, or rather, an opposing option to obedience to a law. Even the fibers of space-time, which are invisible to all save those who wield the most powerful of magicks, are beholden to such laws, and exist on the premise of their obedience to that law. The absence of such law, or the total rejection of it, as the case may be, is what we call Chaos, which some say is also Nothing Whatever. Whichever it be, Chaos or Nothing or both, it serves us to know that this is the absolute lawlessness of matter. As ordered and organized as matter and space and time are, so is the utter rejection of such order the essence of Chaos.

What we propose, then, is that some event caused a total rupture of this cosmic order—or rather, a total departure from law—at this particular intersection of temporal strands where this star disappeared. Since temporal fibers occupy no space, this event could have occurred anywhere in the universe, and so will be far more difficult to scry as a trigger of the phenomenon. While this makes it impossible to determine exactly who or what provoked the disappearance, we can discern what cosmic laws must have been broken in order to cause this rupture in reality.

Intersecting at this point in the cosmos are several strands, only one of which would be truly significant. That strand is one of the High Emotive strands governing love and kindness. It is certainly plausible that this strand would be disturbed, as affronts to kindness and love in general are something of a commonality in this world. However, if that were the only factor to be involved in the disturbance, then it would follow that every intersection involving strands governing love would be so ruptured, which would likely consume the universe as a whole.

Therefore, we must examine the other strands, but these only add to the enigma. They all seem to have almost nothing to do with one another, and yet here they combine. An affront must have been committed against a number of these, if not all, for this phenomenon to have occurred, but to imagine what sort of act would affront all of these is a mystery not easy to solve. The list includes, as far as the lich lord has mapped, strands governing sweet savors, especially those pertinent to mellow citrus fruit; petrolic substances (lich lord’s term); water in all its unnatural forms; mechanical manufacturing; sugar; spiritual appeasement; and sour fruits, particularly limes.

What could possibly offend all of these ideals is difficult to determine, especially given that we do not understand what the lich lord means by some of these items, such as petrolic substances. However, there are several substances that we can work with. By determining the cosmic nature of the elements that we do understand—particularly water, sugar, sweet savors, limes, and especially spiritual appeasement—and by determining the cosmic laws upon which they are based, we can suggest a number of acts that may pose a total affront to those laws, and thereby determine some possible actions that may have been perpetrated to create this phenomenon.

We will begin with water. It is a life-giving substance, one that flows, cools, refreshes, and, at cold temperatures, freezes. It has many natural forms, including ice, rain, seas, lakes, oceans, puddles, spittle, and a component of life fluids, like those in the human body or found in fruits. What is curious here is that the strand involves water in all of its unnatural forms. What exactly this may entail is difficult to say, but it would likely include any instance where water’s nature is manipulated by the hands of men or magic. We cannot be sure what this means, since anything man can do to water by mundane means is only a simulacrum of natural processes already extant. Magical manipulation, on the other hand, has nearly limitless possibilities, such as the transmutative powers of polymorphing spells. But this wide range of possibilities is not particularly helpful to our analysis. The only thread of logic we can hold to is that if this thread governs water in its unnatural forms, then the affront to it is likely something involving water in a natural form.

Sugar is not so natural as water, as it is refined by human hands from existing matter. It is sweet, and so would naturally be offended by something bitter or sour. It is for this purpose that some would consider combining sweet and sour to be taboo, in which case we may suppose that whatever event provoked the stellar disappearance may have involved just such an action, or rather, that of combining sugar’s sweet savor with something sour or bitter.

In connection with this, then, we call attention to the third strand in our discussion, or the strand that governs sweet savors. This strand in particular governs the flavors of mellow citrus fruit, which has a very blatant connection to oranges and nectarines. That this strand intersects with that governing limes is curious, especially since limes are sour, and mellow citrus are, to be redundant, mellow. While the combination of these two may seem to affront one another, we suggest otherwise. The fact that these are both related to citrus in general, and that all citrus have specific qualities in common, suggests that the two strands would actually blend together. Therefore, whatever action occurred must have offended both of these at once, perhaps by combining something that affronts both the savor and the nature of citrus fruit with said fruit.

In addition, limes have many cosmic implications that seem to suggest mellowness, and which will connect it to our last item of spiritual appeasement. Traditionally, limes are considered to something used in purification, such as to purge infections from wounds or cleanse certain foods. It may be for this reason that some cultures, particularly those pertinent to some nomadic tribes in Setserta, will eat scarcely anything without a healthy squeezing of lime juice. According to some traditions within these same cultures, limes also possess spiritual properties which refresh the soul upon consumption, adding vigor and strength to the human being as a whole and preparing the spirit for the afterlife. Thus, an affront to this would be anything impure that contaminates and corrupts the soul.

The connection this has with spiritual appeasement is unquestionable. Spiritual appeasement is based on the complacency of the soul. It means that the spirit is at rest and pleased with whatever the goings on are. In the Balnoric Doctrines, we know that this is only possible through just and true living, or living life according to the laws that Deity has prescribed. When obedience to divine law is not the circumstance, the soul finds itself in a state of distress. Therefore, whatever caused such an affront to this metaphysical strand must have been some sort of disobedience to divine law, or in other words, a sin.

Putting these all together, we can determine possible qualities of the act that caused the rupture in the metaphysical fabric of the universe. These involve something with water in a natural form, bitter—likely not sour, since this is already present with the affiliated lime aspect—flavors, harshness, and spiritual corruption. We should also note that these would all have been used in some way to affront an entity or idea that included kindness, water in an unnatural form, sugar, sweet savors of citrus fruit, limes, and spiritual appeasement (in addition to petrolic substances and mechanical manufacturing, which are little more than meaningless terms invented by the lich lord). The offending act may have involved combining a substance or substances characterized by these traits with something representing the metaphysical ideals governed by these strands, or it may have been some attempt to transform the substance so represented in that part of the sky into something completely opposite of its nature, either by artifice or by magic. Either of these would have been a direct affront to these strands, and we conjecture that it would have been enough to disrupt the fabric of the universe where they intersect.

But what sort of substance or idea would involve natural water, affronts to kindness, bitter flavors, and spiritual corruption? The first two aspects are extremely broad, as well as the last, though this does let us know that whatever the act was, it could be classified as sin. The aspect of bitter flavors, then, is what will help us to narrow this search, but the number of bitter substances in existence is still great. Fortunately, many of these have been shown to have, or at least idealized to possess, beneficial properties for the soul. Therefore, such substances as mint, onions, and yogurt will be far less likely to be part of the cause of this phenomenon as they do not offend the aspect of spiritual appeasement. We can then list only those substances that may be an affront to this aspect, either because they profane the soul, or because they focus on carnal rather than spiritual benefit. These include beer, cabbage, celery, chamomile, and endive, along with countless other herbs commonly used in treating the body, particularly with the purpose of facilitating fertility.

This, then, is the summary. We suppose that some item combining these characteristics (those of lime, water in unnatural form, sugar, and any one or more of beer, cabbage, celery, etc.) was created somewhere in the cosmos and thus caused a disturbance in the metaphysical ideals of these substances and their attributes, which in turn disrupted the temporal strands governing those metaphysical ideals, which finally resulted in the tear in space and time that caused the star to disappear that night in 1988 in the Second Era. However, further research is required in order to pin down the specifics of this phenomenon. It is for this purpose that we request funding and permissions for the following instruments and expeditions:

• Funding for the recruitment, employ, and training of scholars, mages, and other wise men to aid in research and inquiry into the exact cause of this phenomenon.
• Funding for the recruitment of strong men for exploratory expeditions.
• Funding and permissions to outfit an expedition to either the Remnant High Elves or to old High Elven ruins in order to procure a pylon to sustain powerful magical energies.
• Funding for research of powerful scrying spells, which will be adapted to track these metaphysical elements in the universe in order to find the specific cause.
• Funding and permissions to search for the lair of Kel’Daz Murgodrin so that we may find what exactly he means by “petrolic substances” and “mechanical manufacturing,” as well as for possible aid in developing much needed arcane technologies for the process of research and inquiry.

We hope for your most benign consideration on this pursuit of knowledge and enlightenment.

The Arameth Council of Mages
Est. P.C. 521

***

Addendum I:

To the High King of Arameth:

We give you our thanks for the funding supplied, which has allowed us to procure a pylon from the gnomes and to send some mercenaries to accompany our scholar to the lich lord’s lair. We are better prepared for our inquiries and research, but hardly closer to achieving our end. To do so will require further funding and permissions for consultation with the Remnant High Elves. This will be to the purpose of developing specialized magicks to track the metaphysical substances.

The expedition to the lich lord’s lair was costly and hardly productive. All the mercenaries were slain, and the scholar whom they accompanied returned shaking madly and mumbling “consider the carrots” over and over again. We do not know what this means, and we are currently attempting to restore the young man’s sanity in order to discover exactly what would have occurred.

In order to continue our research, we request that you grant us those funds and permissions that will allow us to contact the High Elves of Melanir, as we have already specified. Their knowledge of the arcane is integral to our research, and will aid us greatly in discovering not only the cause of the phenomenon, but also in restoring the arcane powers we once possessed long ago as a people.

Please consider us benignly, and let our request be weighed with enlightenment and scholarship in mind.

The Arameth Council of Mages
Est. P.C. 521

***

Addendum II

To the High King of Arameth:

Little progress has been made in our divinations. The magicks required for our task are beyond the scope of our current knowledge, and we find ourselves unable to sufficiently specify the metaphysical parameters of the spell in order to make it effective.

However, progress has been made with respect to poor Bernard, the scholar who returned gibbering from the lich lord’s lair. By the Divine rites granted through Balnorim in his Everlasting Mercy, the young man’s sanity has been at least partially restored. According to him, the expedition had reached a pool swarming with skeletal monsters, which set upon the warriors in the group and cut them down. Bernard reports that afterward, he met with the lich lord, who said something about unknown terms such as “plastick,” “factories,” and “jellow,” and then bid him to consider carrots in our search. Exactly what is meant by this is uncertain for us, but we shall have to consider the metaphysical implications of carrots as well as those we have already discussed as we continue our research, if only because we have little else to go on.

We request once more that you grant permissions to enter Melanir, the abode of the Remnant High Elves. We will handle the funding for the expedition. We need only that you grant us allowance to enter their borders.

We thank you again for your generosity in funding our endeavors for enlightenment and progress, and we hope for your most serious and kind consideration of our request.

The Arameth Council of Mages
Est. P.C. 521

***

Scrivener’s Note:

The research was abandoned in the year 546 when other matters came to the forefront of the Council’s concern, namely those events surrounding the assassination of the High King of Arameth. The only progress that had been made since the last addendum was that the bitter plants had been narrowed down to cabbage and celery, and that “petrolic substances” and “plastic” were somehow connected. They never visited Melanir.

-Scrivener Geral, 549 P.C.