Codex/Book of the Seraphs

Book of the Seraphs - Part I
Translation from "Eri oa Hiim" (The Lamentations of the Seraphs)

It is written by the Seraphs that when the void first appeared, the Father alone swept across it. New realities bloomed where he lingered, and when he stopped to rest, Urdak sprung forth from him. Here, the Father experimented until he created Jekkad, a realm superior to Urdak. The Father gifted Jekkad's denizens with burning ambition and he suppressed restraint, so that indecisiveness could not curb their efforts.

In the same moment he brought forth Jekkad, the Father forged Davoth to steward the realm. Davoth was a Primeval, one of the Father's first gods, and of such strength that each realm could contain only one. Alone, Jekkad's minds achieved great marvels as they sought to create a paradise. They grasped for unimagined powers to create a perfect society. Davoth felt pride as his people aspired to greatness but found their mortality to be a curse, an ending he would never be subjected to. Eventually their love of life and unbridled curiosity led them to seek immortality itself, as even Davoth feared his people's end while he alone remained. Davoth bent all Jekkad to seeking this ultimate knowledge at any cost.

As the Father planned his next realm he saw that Davoth would never cease his search for everlasting life for his people, no matter the cost, as he had been created by the Father to care deeply for Jekkad and its children. Foreseeing that Davoth's rule would ultimately grow to threaten all creation, and that Davoth would someday rise to challenge the Father himself, the creator of all things sealed Jekkad off from the myriad dimensions enfolded in his arms.

Davoth bent all Jekkad utterly to his will, consumed with fury at their abandonment, until outside the gleaming walls of Immora the plundered festered. The clear-watered Pleasure Lakes spoiled into the Blood Swamps. The Palace of Groans grew over the Ardenite Gardens.

The Father watched as Jekkad fell into darkness, and knew it could never happen again. Determined to avoid a similar result for the Earthly realm, the Father blessed his newest experiment with mortal pains and misfortunes, so that his new creations would treasure life, empathy, and peace.

Book of the Seraphs - Part II
Translation from "Eri oa Hiim" (The Lamentations of the Seraphs)

The very first creations molded from the void in Urdak. Seraphs are bound to the Father's will. The angelic creatures helped build the Father's works, assisted his researched, and once winged through creation to do the Father's bidding. After the Battle of Isonkast, the Father stripped them of their wings.

In atonement, the Seraphs built the Luminarium for the Father on the oldest sliver of Urdak, and took cool pride in building their marvels, including machines that could contain the terrible energies of the very essence of life. In order to prevent the Seraphs from seeking power, the Father ordered that they serve any who reach the Luminarium. Their laws and codes would serve all who arrive equally, and favor none.

Book of the Seraphs - Part III
Translation from "Eri oa Hiim" (The Lamentations of the Seraphs)

Most favored of all Seraphs was Samur Maykr. It was he who administered worlds, studied divine experiments, and reported progress in all creation. After much time, the Father grew frustrated with his own many divine errors, most vexing of all being Jekkad and its continued slide into discordance. The Father declared he would withdraw from the physical realm to prevent Jekkad's ever increasing power from someday shattering Urdak, and to stop Davoth from absorbing the Father's infinite powers that he so coveted.

So Samur took the Father's life sphere to the Luminarium as he was bidden to do, and for many ages the Maykrs and other supplicants came to the Luminarium to pray for intercession.

It was in the age of Nuzia when Samur shattered the Kezardine Veil and stole the Father's life sphere. Samur took the Father's pure essence into the corrupted realms of Jekkad. From then on only rumors of shadowy missions remained, along with whispers of his many comings and goings to the Earthly realms.

Book of the Seraphs - Part IV
Translation from "Eri oa Hiim" (The Lamentations of the Seraphs)

Life spheres contain the memory, intelligence, will, and the essential nature of a being's consciousness, all of it contained by the mighty inventions of the Seraphs. Because of this, when the first Khan Maykr died in the Siege of Kaza-Dur, their life sphere was carried from the field of battle to the Luminarium for the Seraphs to reconstitute. When the Khan Maykr returned to lead a host of Maykrs, their enemies fled before them in fright.

Only the most powerful, god-like, indomitable minds can survive the incredible stresses of having their essence fused into a life sphere, and fewer still can bear the agony of corporal resurrection.

Book of the Seraphs - Part V
Translation from "Eri oa Hiim" (The Lamentations of the Seraphs)

It came to be known by the Seraphs that the increasing failings of Jekkad troubled the Father as he looked upon its spreading tortures and horrors. It was the first realm he knowingly created, and it was still beloved by him. But he came to understand that his whispers of mortality to their long-lived souls drove them mad, and he knew the infection of jealousy in their hearts for the immortal in Urdak.

Davoth's grasp for power bent the walls between realms. His growing hordes defeated many deputies and lesser gods the Father created. As they were absorbed by Davoth, his strength grew far beyond what the Father placed in him.

The Father bid Samur, his most trusted, to help the Father in his final undertakings in the physical realm. The Father would confront Davoth in Jekkad, and after this, the Father would withdraw from the physical realm. Samur would then be tasked with taking the Father's life sphere to be stored safely in the Luminarium. Should the Father perceive any rising dangers from Jekkad, Samur would be calling to bring the Father's life sphere to a place that none could find it. Samur swore obedience, though he knew it would come at great cost, for the Maykrs would hunt Samur as a heretic.

Book of the Seraphs - Part VI
Translation from "Eri oa Hiim" (The Lamentations of the Seraphs)

Deep in Hell lies the Ingmore's Sanctum, a fragment of Urdak itself. It is sacred and protected ground that contains the Tomb of Souls, where the life spheres of the many gods the Father created are stored. Each one immensely powerful in its own way, yet judged to be flawed by the Father. The stories of their abominable ends in the physical realm are many.

It was from here the Father first created the new dimension of Jekkad. It was here he formed Davoth. And it was this ground that served as his first workshop and as a retreat from Urdak, where the Father could direct the engines of creation and oversee Jekkad's gleaming spires and glorious civilization. Samur could travel to the Sanctum, but never into Jekkad. The Father would keep his realms separated.

After creating Jekkad, the Father retreated to his workshop to plan the Earth realm. It was also here that the Father meditated on the future of existence, and made his plan to withdraw from the physical world.

Book of the Seraphs - Part VII
Translation from "Eri oa Hiim" (The Lamentations of the Seraphs)

Any supplicant may approach the holy ground of the Luminarium with life sphere in hand. Be they the most powerful in Hell, or the weakest in Urdak, all can approach the Luminarium to gain access to the power of corporal resurrection, though few minds are capable of surviving it. In the Luminarium the Seraphs serve all of Creation without preference.

It is only in the Luminarium that the resurrection can take place, and only the Seraphs that can give a life sphere the return of its original form, calling on the engines of creation to harness the great powers that lay between the dimensions.

It is a safe place, a hallowed ground, where the Father once looked over all who approached him to listen to his eternal word.

Book of the Seraphs - Part VIII
Translation from "Eri oa Hiim" (The Lamentations of the Seraphs)

The Seraphs speak of a time that Jekkad gloried in an age of unparalled bounty and achievement at the dawn of Davoth's authority. But Davoth came to tighten his rule to drive ever more resources to Jekkad's greatest minds as they hunted the secret of everlasting life. He harshly punished deviation from this goal, for he was unrelenting in his quest to safeguard his people. Jekkad's unrestrained minds slipped into ruthlessness and obsession. Davoth's perfect realm would be sustained, no matter the cost, for none in Jekkad could accept failure or embrace pain.

Believing Jekkad rejected by their creator, hate grew within Davoth. Jekkad fell further into inequity as Davoth consumed all the realm in pursuit of his goals, and the Father sorrowfully sealed Jekkad away from the other realms. The Primeval, created to protect and shepherd the people of his realm, stoked an eternal fury toward the Father as more of his people fell to mortality. He became the Dark Lord and raged against the walls of Jekkad.

The Father sensed this and knew they both needed to leave the physical realms before their warring lieutenants tore creation apart. It was then that the Father returned to Jekkad, now called Hell by many. Atop the Pyramid of the Lost where Hell once worshipped the Father, as the skies split and Hell trembled, the Father ripped the Dark Lord's life sphere from his chest. He placed it in the Tomb of Souls, unwilling to obliterate the Dark Lord's essence entirely as he had favored Davoth once.

Samur then took the Father's life sphere to the Luminarium, and for a time, there was a stillness in creation. But now the Dark Lord whispers lies and deceptions about the Father to his praying minions in Hell, while he rages, trapped in the Tomb of Souls. For even without a physical form, gods may yet influence the realms.

Book of the Seraphs - Part IX
Translation from "Eri oa Hiim" (The Lamentations of the Seraphs)

Whispered into existence in the first moment Urdak bloomed around the Father, the Luminarium is the first place of all places. It is the holiest of all grounds.

No living being can draw blood in the Luminarium. Were they to do so, they would lose all access to the power of resurrection. Blood has never been spilled on its pure and holy floors, no matter what faction walks between the doors, as the Luminarium is the last vestige of the Father's peace in all the corrupted realms.

Under its cornerstones the quantum engines of creation stir. The vast inter-dimensional structures spin in and out of existence, and they give rise to the energy needed to split essence from physical form, or to restore it.

Here in the Luminarium, Gods are reborn.

Book of the Seraphs - Part X
Translation from "Eri oa Hiim" (The Lamentations of the Seraphs)

The engines of creation are not metaphors or poetic words, but structures that lay just on the other side of reality itself. Under the Luminarium they breach the void's walls to touch the physical world.

Hell's machines can pull a soul from its body and process it into Argent. But Hell cannot return a soul to a body. It will never resurrect what it has consumed. It takes energies far more exotic than any Hell controls to not just cleave a being's essence from its body, but reincorporate it. Hell's machines are toys to what lies under the Luminarium.

The Seraphs proudly control these forces, calmly manipulating the nature of creation and mind to give life again to raw energy. Every life sphere resurrected is a sign of Seraph power and competence. The realms age around the Luminarium, but the Seraphs will always stand as the greatest engineers of the many dimensions the Father created.

Book of the Seraphs - Part XI
Translation from "Eri oa Hiim" (The Lamentations of the Seraphs)

The Seraphs remember that when the Dark Lord's lifeless body tumbled down the Pyramid of the Lost, Samur begged the Father to crush the Dark Lord's life sphere. Samur saw that they could destroy the Dark Lord's very essence so that he would brood no more against the Father.

The Father refused. The Dark Lord was his creation. It was better to leave Hell contained, with the Dark Lord reduced to whispers.

If it came to pass that the Dark Lord were ever reincarnated in physical form only another Primeval, or something more powerful, could slay him. Once vanquished in this manner, the Dark Lord could no longer rule Hell. Stripped of a Primeval's bindings to the realm it was forged in, it would be scattered across the stars. Any denizens of Hell not inside the realm's borders would die as they lost their connection to the very reality the Father designed them for.