Baria Day—The Prophecies of Groetus

The Prophecies of Groetus—Major Artifact

This large tome contains the 999 prophecies of Groetus. At some point during the Age of Faith, Groetus was one of the greatest of ancient Thassilon's diviners. His knowledge of all subjects was vast and most impressive, but he knew he had only scratched the surface of the total well of knowledge. He became obsessed with what he didn't know; the more he learned, the more he knew that there was to learn, and this concept drove him mad. He began to use all of his considerable resources to learn more, and sold all of his material wealth save for his books in this pursuit. Eventually (or so he believed) his work paid off, and he learned secret rumors of the first creations of the deities, creatures called the draugr. These primal creations, as the first-made of the gods, represented to Groetus the primal source of knowledge, yet he could find nothing more of their existence except for obscure references in ancient texts from a time believed to be before the Age of Savagery. These bits of knowledge were tantalizing to the extreme, and spoke of how the draugr were tasked with the charge of guiding the development of life. But the draugr failed in this task, somehow, and the gods smote them and cast them out. What became of them is unknown; methods of contacting the divine such as commune or contact other plane were singularly and strangely uninformative—as if the divine were purposefully ignoring the spells. But Groetus did find one possible source of information. He told no one of the location or nature of this source, fearing it would be stolen from him. What is known is that in 741, Groetus traveled alone into the wild of the northern mountains and was gone for 17 years. He reappeared in 724 in the city of Thassilon before his old friend Dematrus, sage and high priest of Lydia.

            Exactly what he told Dematrus is also unknown. What is known is that Groetus' journey into the wilds of the north changed him—and not for the better. Those who glimpsed the sage speak of skin that had turned alabaster white, of black eyes filled with stars, of a voice that seemed to come from everywhere when he spoke, and of a terrible feeling of unease that radiated from him like the agony of a man dying in extreme pain. Certainly, what Groetus whispered to Dematrus on that fateful meeting was of great power... for a mere ten minutes after Groetus appeared in Thassilon and ventured into the inner sanctum of the temple of Lydia to speak to Dematrus, a terrific explosion tore through the building and a large portion of the temple collapsed. An instant later, a terrible sphere of white energy rose from the ruin, and Groetus' voice echoed throughout the city.

"I KNOW ALL TO KNOW FROM THE INNER SPHERE. I TRAVEL NOW BEYOND THIS SPHERE OF FALSE KNOWLEDGE TO THE GREAT TRUTH THAT AWAITS ME BEYOND LIFE AND DEATH. YET DESPAIR NOT, FOR WHEN I HAVE HAD MY FULL I SHALL RETURN TO TEACH WHAT I HAVE LEARNED. AND YOU SHALL ALL REJOICE, AND MY WORD SHALL AWAKEN THE TRUTH."

            With that, the sphere flashed into the night sky and was gone.

            Dematrus' body was never recovered, but a large tome written in Groetus' hand was eventually found in the rubble of the temple ruins. This tome of 1000 pages held hundreds of prophecies written in magical writing that reformed to the reader's native language. Each of the first 999 pages held a different prophecy, yet each reader of the book had difficulty remembering what was within, save for a few key passages. No one has ever made it to the final page of the book—the contents there remaining the tome's greatest mystery of all. At first, the church of Lydia allowed all scholars to read the tome, but when it became obvious that many of these scholars were being driven insane by the prophecies and tried to force what they had read to become reality (often resulting in terrible destruction and mayhem), the church instead entrusted the keeping of the tome to the church of Hyarak. The Prophecies of Groetus were hidden away in his greatest temple, the Shining Cathedral in Donarj, and there they remained for many years until they were stolen by an unknown force in 339 AR. The book has been missing ever since.

The Prophecies of Groetus grant a +10 bonus to all Knowledge checks made by anyone who carries it. In addition, the carrier may make Knowledge checks as untrained skill checks while holding the massive tome. Although the book has 1000 pages, it only takes a single night to read, and upon finishing the reader retains knowledge only of a few key prophecies. How the book chooses which prophecies are retained, and why it chooses the ones it does, is unknown. As a result, the reader gains a permanent increase of +3 to Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma (as if he had lived to venerable age—he does not later gain these bonuses should he manage to live to such an age), yet suffers from increasingly debilitating forms of madness. The Prophecies of Groetus can also be used to cast vision once per day, and contact other plane once per week.

 Caster Level 20th; Weight 6 lb.

(Again... fans of Golarion will notice a few familiar names here, but there's been quite a few changes to both Thassilon and Groetus in the transition from Baria to Golarion. While Thassilon is ancient in both worlds, in Golarion it has expanded to be an entire nation, not merely a powerful ancient city. And Groetus was probably never a human of any sort in Golarion... although I could see a foolish sage falling to a similar fate after seeking out forbidden Groetus secrets hidden in some distant Golarion hills!)