AC:DM CD Lore/Early Dereth Texts/The Explorations of Alatar Locke/An Explorer's Notes
An Explorer's Notes
I, Alatar Locke, have spent many of these past five years exploring the vast and dangerous labyrinths beneath the surface of Dereth. Indeed, I may be considered one of the premiere and most experienced fortune-seekers and explorers this world has yet known – among mortal men. But alas! we – even I – do not compare to the majesty and power of this world's original masters.
It is to my great and eternal regret that they are no longer with us. I do not mean the Olthoi. I mean the mysterious race of people who first tamed this world, who built vast structures and carved out the extensive corridors in the stone, and who then vanished. At this point in my long and arduous explorations, I am certain that these mysterious people disappeared fairly recently. Though, by "fairly recently," I mean a period of time that stretches back to the reign of High King Pwyll by our counting.
I call the vanished race the "Empyrean." (I am gratified that so many others have begun calling them that as well.) I am certain they looked something like we do, though it is my guess that, masters of magic that they were, they had likely conquered such mundane things as age and disease and all manner of other human failings that plague us mortals. I am also convinced that they stood as masters over more of this world than we can see. This land that we call "Dereth" is only an island. Surely the Empyrean must have had kingdoms and empires far beyond that which we can see here.
In fact, it is my intent to present some new theses that will shock the staid and scholarly who have said the Empyrean must have been a – dare I say it – staid and stable race. No, indeed. In my extensive travels I have come to see that there must have been several eras of vastly different civilizations even among the Empyrean.
Among the oldest caverns beneath Dereth, for instance, I find a keen sense of geometry, of attention painstakingly paid to symmetry and repetition of forms that resemble spirals or perfect squares or other such constructs. My peers will surely scoff at me, but let the uneducated say what they will. I am of the highest education that Aluvia could provide, taught by the most brilliant Gharu'ndim scholars my father could afford. I know of things that the average nobleman could not begin to comprehend. And the Empyrean constructed halls and pathways through the earth I myself cannot comprehend, save in their simplest essentials. It is my new belief that these ancient structures served some magical purpose. Alas that the secrets are now lost, and that the structures are so old and decayed that not even a hint of magic remains. Otherwise I could prove to everyone that my thesis is correct.
But there are newer labyrinths as well. How do I know they are newer? It is a matter of observation; it would take me too long to explain in this brief paper. Suffice it to say I have been researching this for quite some time, and have ascertained that later civilizations of the Empyrean used different materials, and different styles, in their great constructions. Finely finished walls with intricate patterns! Swirling portals to inaccessible chambers! Devices of glowing crystals! Bridges and chasms and, last but not least, hidden troves of magical treasure whose power exceeds any craftsmanship of our homelands!
Alas! that these marvels have become the jealously guarded provinces of beasts and crude monsters. Some of the most magnificent ruins lie within the Direlands, that inhospitable piece of Dereth to our west. And the Direlands are overrun by such brutes as the tumeroks. A colossal waste it is, that such sublime treasures are being plundered by such primitive and vicious creatures who cannot possibly appreciate beauty or craftsmanship. But I have had too many brushes with the cold scythe of Death in the Direlands to dare to minimize the danger posed by tumeroks and their brethren; though base and crude, they are indeed to be treated with respect.
But I digress. My purpose in writing this was to communicate what I have found. As knowledgeable and well-traveled as I am, I am only one man. I cannot be everywhere, I cannot see everything. So, fellow-traveler, fellow-explorer, fellow-scholar! You too must keep your eyes and mind open and sharp. See that you miss nothing. There is much left to be discovered and marveled over. I eagerly await the day when the last treasure is freed from the monsters, when the last corridor is explored, when the last mystery is uncovered and gives up its wonders.