Since (German) 'w' is pronounced with the (American) 'v' sound, I think Bedwere/Bedivere is straight on.

This is going to be another mega-post trying to synthesize things.



(1) Koar and the Emperor Drake

I will try to reinterpret the Koar theology based on all of this subtext about Mount Aenatumgana. Xorus rejects the idea that the moon gods were ever servants of the dragons, but the story does strongly imply that Koar is actually the "Emperor Drake". I'm not sure if the Vvrael quest ended shortly before they re-wrote the gods documentation or if it was shortly after. The Koar part is almost identical down to the exact wording between the two versions, so there is no point in pasting both.


"New" Gods Document (current)

Koar, King of the Gods

God of Justice, Loyalty and Law

Koar is the King of the Gods. Once, he ruled all the Arkati and he is still the titular head of both the Light and Dark Gods. In practice, however, his direct control is only over the Gods of Light. Not since the fall of the Drakes in the Ur-Daemon War has Koar rallied all the gods to him, and none knows for sure if he could unify the Arkati now, no matter the cause. Still, it is said that as long as Koar lives, the Gods of Light and Dark will never face each other in open war. Legend holds that Koar sits on a great throne carved from the stone heart of the world extending up through the tallest mountain in Elanthia. He rarely leaves his throne, and spends most of his time slumbering or brooding. Even when he sleeps, one eye is always slightly open, and while Koar may not intervene in the affairs of gods or mortals often, there is little that escapes his notice.

The sages say that the mountains of Elanthia rise and fall as Koar’s brow furrows. One day, it is said, when the Gods of Darkness no longer vex their king, and when mortals no longer wage petty wars, the mountains will sink back into the ground and all the world will be a fertile plain. Earthquakes are attributed to Koar shifting restlessly, and before Koar’s brow is smoothed, legend holds he will rise from his throne in wrath, shaking the greatest fortresses to rubble. The prophecy is silent as to who or what will be the object of his ire.

Some common folk believe that Koar is not an Arkati, but actually the last of the Great Drakes. No one living can confirm this notion, however.

Koar’s blessing is often invoked during coronation ceremonies, and it is not uncommon for rulers to claim that their particular right to reign bears Koar’s approval.

Koar’s preferred humanoid manifestation is that of a huge man upon a throne, wearing a gold crown, contemplating the fate of all things. In manner, he is commanding, detached, or weary. His symbol is a golden crown, often set on a circle of white.

Lorminstra gave her Chosen teleportation orbs that would bring them to the Drake's Shrine from anywhere. The loresong on the orbs shows several Arkati building the shrine and then a huge dragon landing on top it, then magically absorbing into it rather than walking inside physically. When you parse Aenatumgana you have Aen pointing to The Aeneid, suggesting Dante's Divine Comedy where the nebulous sphere ("Eye of the Drake") corresponds to God above a mountain formed by the fallout of a demonic war, or to mountains like Aenos and Aetna where Zeus was worshipped. Atum points to Atum Ra, the creation/destruction god, who acts through the Eye of Ra. Gana are the attendants of Shiva, the destroyer of demons, who constantly meditates on top of a mountain. Then we have Onar's power coming from "living stones."


All of those things taken together suggest: [1]

(1) Koar is the Emperor Drake. The slumbering / brooding over a treasure horde thing is dragon behavior.
(2) He is embedded in the "living rock" of Mount Aenatumgana. The mountain is basically his head, the Drake's Shrine itself is his throne.
(3) The "Eye of the Drake" portal is literally his one eye that is always open when he is sleeping.
(4) If he were to "rise" from his throne in wrath, the mountains would all collapse. The Dragonspine Mountains might really be his "spine" so to speak.
(5) His older lore (still reflected in the Order of Voln) calls him the "master of mana", with unparalleled power over the flows of essence, to the point of being able to exert control over the weather. The magic of the world was said to flow through Aenatumgana, and I believe in one of these recaps it said something about the hazard of all magic failing, which would be paralleling the Shadow World version where the destruction of the Eye could cause the world to become totally on the side of purely material existence causing all magic to stop working. In The Rift you have Eye of Koar emeralds that can transport you out, and you lose silvers to the Great Drake.
(6) Terate as Lucifer and the Eye as God, and the salvation of Terate at the end, has a whole Judgment Day thing about it. "turn is thine" is about that.


Most of the rooms in The Rift look purely aesthetic, but a handful look like they are supposed to be meaningful. (One of them is a post-rewrite Gosaena looking figure who is half demonic, which I've interpreted as referring to what The Graveyard and Broken Lands imply about Kadaena.) Some seemingly depict possible futures rather than other places. In terms of the Shadow World parallel this might partly refer to the trans-temporal telepathy implied in the game about the Lords of Essaence, and maybe that's why Gosaena's rewrite was focused on her ability to see the future including the deaths of everyone, which is implicit about Kadaena but only in GemStone III.

One of the rooms shows the dead body of Koar. The idea was to expand the Rift so the world would be plunged into it. So I guess destroying the world and consuming all of its mana is effectively equivalent to killing Koar. There were conceptions of Zeus (Stoicism) where the universe was literally the process of his mind working itself out, so the creation and destruction of the world resulted from springing in and out of his head. (I mentioned Sulis "the Eye" before in the context of the hot spring located on the edge of Wales, where her full name is often Sulis Minerva, where Minerva is the Roman Athena analog of Lumnis who springs from Zeus' head.)



(2) Onar and the Secret of Stone

The additional information about the Castle Anwyn story increases the odds that the Onar as a region in Emer aspect is intentional. If his power comes from "living stone" in his lair deep below the Lysierian Hills, the Ahrenaek fortress in Onar run by the Dark Elf Sigirus does mean "Secret of Stone." The vignette opening that section of the Emer source book happens to be a scene of Ondoval and Schrek together, where Schrek is unimpressed with Ondoval and Ondoval is oblivious to the tentacled monstrosity underneath the facade of Schrek. Then with the Broken Lands you have this idea from the Emer book that the Lords of Essaence created the Dark Gods artificially.

In terms of the Welsh stuff about the castle, the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogion is named after King Math, and that one has woman named Blodeuwedd who was created from flowers and was turned into an owl by Math and Gwydion, and there is an owl in Castle Anwyn. It is an obscure point about Onar, but the I.C.E. Age form of the Dark Spirits had striking weaknesses, Omir is vulnerable to lillies of the field. He just can't approach anywhere near them. So it is very possible this is an allusion to that fact.

The Dark Spirits existed as extensions of will of the Dark Lords, and The Broken Lands implies Kadaena became Orgiana and she created Morgu (Marlu) as a body guard. (Part of Kadaena's lore was that she used Ordainers and great fire demons as body guards. One of them was a member of the Jerak Ahrenreth with Ondoval, Schrek, Lorgalis and some other figures. And Schrek happened to have found a way to control him.) I think the Terrorite demon of Shadow Valley may have come from the Broken Lands portal originally. Terrorites were often servants of Demon Lords. Maleskari was the Demon Lord of Death and Undeath, took the form of an enormous skeleton.[2]



(3) Bonespear Tower

Maleskari was made into the demon of Bonespear Tower. The tower door says he rules supreme there, and it says "Who's he?" below it. When you know he is a Demon Lord who takes the form of a building sized skeleton, you realize that Bonespear Tower is the demon, and the anti-magic field surrounding the tower is the barrier Bonespear set up to prevent the tower from moving. The visions inside the tower show a huge misshappen greenish monstrosity that people interpret as the demon. I'm inclined to think that is the demon's servant Bonespear was heard arguing with, but it's one of those things I'd really need to see the logs of the events themselves to pin down for sure. Subtextually I think that thing is shoggoth-like, and if the Ghostbusters parallel is intentional it is Slimer.

The top of the tower would have been like walking around in the head of the Statue of Liberty. The rivers of psychokinetic slime under the city correspond to the Shadow Valley black rivers. The waern would be Dana being possessed and turning into Zuul.[3] Dybbuks are evil possession spirits, so those physical bodies are warped flesh composites they're occupying, rather than the dybbuks themselves. Eidolon are just spirits from Greek mythology, but it's also a city in Emer.

The general idea they seem to be going for is Bonespear (Ivo Shandor) and his associates (the mezics => mezuzah => dybbuks) formed a demonic cult to the Demon Lord of Death and Undeath (Gozer) to learn his forbidden knowledge of necromancy, and the tower of human and animal bones was built (Dana's apartment building) to serve as the conduit for bringing Maleskari into this world (Stay Puft Marshmallow Man). Bonespear presumably got power hungry and tried to summon and control Maleskari, so he would be the one possessing the power of the tower, effectively becoming the Demon Lord himself as a form of immortality. ("Servants of the Shadow" referred to Kadaena's followers creating Great Demons, and Bandur portrayed himself as one.) This betrayal of his associates failed horribly and he came to regret his foolishness.


(4) Onar and Maleskari

This is that much more obscure than the preceding because it's purely in-game events. Fifteen-ish years ago Starsnuffer posted on the boards how he got that gaudy rippling essence shield. Apparently, Omir had it in for Kree for some reason, so he kept sending demons after them. (I've never met Kree so I was never able to ask him about it.) Eventually he sent a Demon Lord. Starsnuffer got a lucky shot on the Demon Lord with a twisted wand, because warding used to work in such a way that anything had at least a small chance of hitting anything. The Demon Lord came back and gave him the shield for defeating him.

So back to the point, Kree was the last person to possess this sword that has a demon in it, a "dark saw-toothed scimitar" that was bought at auction by Maruko. Kree has this story about the blade possessing an Ordainer. I'm vaguely aware of stuff happening about it in game. Like it became trapped inside a krodera sheath at one point. In any event, the sword had its own backstory before Kree had it, and if it has a loresong I've never seen it. (I was not playing yet quite that long ago, so maybe one of you would know exactly when the loresong mechanic was added to the game.)

When you hold the sword the demon says something to the effect that we will slay many souls for Maleskari. (Maleskari is an Ordainer.) The really strange thing about this is that the sword was found off the coast from the Isle of Aranmor, which is where Orgiana's theocracy was centered which was run by the daughter of the Empress Kadaena. Their culture often embedded demons in objects and weapons. The sword happens to have a slayer demon in it, though it is intelligent, so it is probably an invoker demon of the slayer type. These "demons of the Black Hel" are unusual in that they were created from spirits by Orgiana (Eorgina) as her servants. They are totally unrelated to Ordainers, which are "demons of the essaence."

The point of all this is to say the demon in the sword should really be a servant of Orgiana, but for some reason it is claiming to be the servant of the Demon Lord Maleskari. This plays back into the Broken Lands stuff about these terribly powerful demi-god scale demons being created as servants of the Empress and even as a form of eternal existence after death. I do not have anywhere near enough detail to figure out what exactly they were going for with all of that, but the village of Velaskar / Valaskar is implying Maleskari because he had a Terrorite lieutenant and the wyrm of Shadow Valley was a Terrorite (there's a skeleton key mural in the mine.)

So, The Temple of Darkness Poem as I mentioned earlier changed Omir's lore to imply he was more Orgiana's servant than just a collective resource, and introduced this whole vengeance thing which might have had an in-game representation that I'm not familiar with, and could be relevant to why Onar is important to Castle Anwyn.


(5) Trans-Temporal Telepathy

Originally, I thought Bandur Etrevion was serving Empress Kadaena in the indirect sense of serving her daughter V'rama Vair and the dark goddess Orgiana, who may be a post-death avatar for Kadaena. There may even be some truth in that, but I've changed my mind. The crypt corresponds in various ways to the Temple of Burning Night on the Isle of Aranmor, and the burial crypt on its royal estate where there is a fake sarcophagus of Kadaena next to a portal to the Black Hel where Orgiana resided and is now banished. (The Shadow World lore is contradictory on this point, on the same page it will say she actually escaped and then the next entry will say she didn't.)

This did not sit well for a few reasons. First, Orgiana has an intense hatred of men, so it makes no practical sense that she would help him. Second, Bandur is just some lowly human, there is no reason V'rama Vair would help him. Third, there is no way he could plausibly have seen and gotten into these places, even if he did go there himself. Fourth, those two places were picked out because they housed an artifact called the Helm of Kadaena at two different points in time, where Bandur had an obsession for stealing those kinds of artifacts. The Helm called out for a wearer, and there were myths that Kadaena might somehow return in vengeance to the world. And the biggest problem is that the Helm was stored there centuries after his own death, so it was literally impossible for him to be referencing the poem in the temple.

In other words, he was quoting from a poem that had not been written yet, which is not an isolated problem. There is a similar issue in The Broken Lands where the writing on the Dark Shrine had to have been written a hundred thousand years ago, but the Dark Gods had only been around for four to six thousand years, and it was written in a contemporary form of Iruaric, and the poem it is quoting alludes to conditions regarding the Dark Gods (e.g. the fact that Orgiana was banished at the end of the Wars of Dominion) that did not exist until several centuries after the events that took place with Uthex Kathiasas. Our glossary was clear that ancient Iruaric was hieroglyphic.

When I discovered how much Lovecraft was in these areas, I realized the metal manuscript and book next to it in the Crypt alludes to the end of the Shadow out of Time, where the narrator discovers this super-ancient text written in his own language because he's in mental contact with an ancient race that can see its own future (and own death) and transfers its consciousness into life forms further into the future to survive. (There is a beetle race following the end of humanity, which is how I interpret the fog beetles in the Broken Lands.) This is fair enough game because Iruaric was a telepathic language and Andraax, one of Kadaena's cousins, had that vision where he is describing the future where he sees himself encountering The Unlife. And the people afflicted can see visions of things that have not happened yet, and see places and things they've never visited and get driven to pursue them to make sense of it all. This is presumably why Gosaena was turned into a prophecy of death goddess.

So, Bandur's theocracy would decapitate the unfaithful, because that was how the Empress Kadaena was killed by her cousin Utha. Omir was implicitly Kadaena's servant per the Broken Lands implications of theology, and Castle Anwyn makes much of all these skulls. It is possible the reason they made Onar's symbol the skull is because of this archaic notion of the evil queen mistress he serves being decapitated. And his lair and embedded source of power being under the Lysierian Hills suggests he was created there, when the Broken Lands was clearly supposed to be some kind of workshop of Kadaena's where she made unnatural hybrids of extra-planar entities.


(6) Shar

The Shar storyline around this time period just completely dropped off entirely. No one really knows much about Shar, because the story was never able to unfold. From what I've been able to gather from second hand knowledge, Shar was supposed to be Despana's daughter, and she was going to use the crystal dome in the Broken Lands to ascend herself to godhood. But she had to find the Book of Tormtor to do it first. I remember Setzier did an interview where he called it "The Arkati Workshop."

All I remember myself was the massive troll king invasion where they were saying how they worship the Unlife. Shar happens to be a goddess of darkness in the Underdark in Dungeons and Dragons. The Dark Elves are supposed to worship the spider goddess Lolth, but there are some heretics who worship the other ones. Tormtor and Despana were names of Dark Elven houses. Despana was the name of a house famous for its demonic summoning. I guess we will never know where that whole thing was going.




(7) The Book of Revelations

I mentioned before how Satan is a serpent and dragon in Revelations. The instance of the sky going black, the sun blotting out, and the blood rain that Truekillr cited near the end of the Vvrael quest is more obviously an allusion to the Book of Revelations with this whole Terate as "the Fallen One" thing. Which, incidentally, was also quoted in Ghostbusters. "Judgment Day."

"And when I saw the Lamb open the sixth seal, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black like sackcloth of goat hair, and the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, like unripe figs dropping from a tree shaken by a great wind. The sky receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved from its place. ... And they said to the mountains and the rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of Their wrath has come, and who is able to withstand it?'"

Sounds like Koar rising from his throne in wrath and the mountains crumbling. The next part of Revelations is pretty clearly the basis for the loresong on the creation of the Drake's Shrine, where I'll include the relevant exerpt this time. The whole point was "sealing" The Rift, and the famous part of Revelations is breaking "the seals."

Case A: Revelations
"After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back its four winds so that no wind would blow on land or sea or on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, with the seal of the living God. And he called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: “Do not harm the land or sea or trees until we have sealed the foreheads of the servants of our God.” And I saw another angel ascending from the east, with the seal of the living God. And he called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: “Do not harm the land or sea or trees until we have sealed the foreheads” of the servants of our God."

Case B: Loresong on the Orbs given to the Chosen (maybe a whole "God's chosen people" thing going on with that title?)
"Your eyes cloud over as a vision begins to flood in, cascading out of the small orb like a tidal wave. You see an immense mountain encased in vicious cold and savaged by roaming storms that carry death in their howling song. At the top of the peak, huge slabs of granite rise slowly up out of the snow, lifted by the mind power of a group of four individuals. The tall, lithe beings stand back to back, facing each of the four compass directions with a globe of power encircling them like a glowing sphere. Their faces are set in concentration. They stand motionless as a huge shrine rises into the clouds, granite slab settling on top of granite slab. Finally, the magic pulses a last time throwing reflections into the clouds, and as light settles back into the grey overcast sky, a monumental shrine stands majestically, topping the mountain like a gem."


(8) Miscellaneous

* Since Risper quoted Faramir from the scene with Frodo and Gollum in Henneth Annun (and this was before the movies so it most likely came from reading the actual book), the frozen land of Nador seemingly becoming the halfling Ardo might be playing on a "Frodo the halfling ring bearer and his Fellowship" angle.

* When Rayyne touched the dark mirror in Castle Anwyn, the evil queen pulled her through it into some other world. Without the logs it isn't possible to nail down any exact reference that is being made. I think the queen in the mirror thing might be a "Bloody Mary" reference, where you say the name into a mirror and she appears, and she will show you visions of your future. Unless a skull appears, in which case you will die. Some people think this is based on Queen Mary who did brutal religious persecution (burned hundreds of people at the stake), and the queen in the Castle Anwyn story killed everyone in her Onar worshipping kingdom.

* Getting pulled through the mirror might be a "Through The Looking Glass", Alice in Wonderland reference, if there was specific enough language to nail that down. The Red Queen was famous for cutting off everyone's heads. The White Queen was able to remember things that had not happened yet, which connects to this prior thread of visions of the future and memories that do not belong to yourself. In the mines of Shadow Valley there is a room that speaks of "uninvited memories" that is actually quoting from "The Call of Cthulhu", where the chanting is happening saying how dead Cthulhu lies dreaming. But if there was a Wonderland thing going on here (down the rabbit hole), that would be the missing dream theme. Shadow Valley, The Broken Lands, and The Graveyard are all dream themed. It's just obvious with Shadow Valley.

* I tried to translate Lough Ni'halen as "lake without salt" by treating "ni" as "ne", though it's possible this is alluding to something I'm just totally overlooking like the Bedivere thing. However, the spelling difference from "ne" could be an allusion to the Knights Who Say Ni from Monty Python, who King Arthur leaves to travel to the frozen land of Nador and then runs into Tim The Enchanter. (Maybe that nettle berry bush with the berries that unpoison you refer to the shrubbery that the knights demanded Arthur give him. As it happens, nettle berries are actually poisonous, and they are pollinated by bumblebees.)

* Another more obscure possibility for the Ni is related to the Morgens, where violent German water spirits were called Nix. The Celtic version of them took the form of wet horses who try to drown their victims, which is another possible horse connection for Anwyn and Shadow Valley. The Japanese version of the same thing are kappas (who have a thing for killing horses), where were put on the Coastal Cliffs and given a description talking about underwater cities, which is pretty openly Lovecraftian.


- Xorus' player


[1] Even if this was intentional and true once upon a time, it can still be treated as totally outdated.
[2] I think the thirty foot skeleton with the huge staff in The Rift might supposed to represent Maleskari.
[3] Ironically, Danay was the one who wrote the recap for the story.

yer makin my brain hurt


Clunk

(Buy your swords at CBD weapons in Zul Logoth.)

This could be another weird twist in the theology I had never considered. The Lake of Tears was GemStone III specific and not part of a Shadow World source book, but would have been near the Gates of Oblivion. These days we call it the Ebon Gates. There is a souls into the Rift concept, which must only be an interdimensional rift into the Eye which already existed such that the Vvrael are corrupting it, and the old idea that the Gates of Oblivion actually led to many other worlds.[1]

The Empress Kadaena thing with the Graveyard is her being the "Guardian of the Forbidden", which referred to the forbidden "Key to the Void" on the Gates of Oblivion leading to the demonic planes of existence. In the Emer book it says she was decapitated before the Gates of the Void at the south pole and that her body fell into it, though it was actually put into a sarcophagus and the site eventually turned into a fortress of the Jerak Ahrenreth controlled by Lorgalis and Klysus (Luukos).

So with The Rift effectively being the Void (the Agoth were the "Demons of the Outer Void"), and that scene of Bandur with the infinity sign over his head is symbolically on the other side of the Gates of the Void in The Graveyard, you have the Empress on the other side of the Gates able to see the future and when everything will die, with a lot of those rooms depicting possible futures and so on where people have been driven mad by it. You can interpret (in a way that can be dismissed as outdated even if it was intentional) Gosaena the prophet into this temporal rift aspect within the Eye of the Drake, which corresponds to the Gate of the Void from Shadow World.[2]

- Xorus' player


[1] I referenced the black knight as alluding to the earlier storyline of the dark reaver emerging from a box in Danjirland. When it came out it shot a fireball up at Orhan (Liabo) in defiance. Its mission was to rip a hole into the other side of the Gates of Oblivion where the soul of some particular king was residing. Eissa (Lorminstra) herself helped adventurers kill it with a specially consecrated blade after cutting off its power source to the demonic pales.
[2] The Vvrael story line has its own strange chronology problems. Lorminstra said many had crossed "the circles" only to go mad (the raving lunatics), but the Drake's Shrine had been sealed off until the Chosen opened it. They must have entered before the shrine was built. There is a mural in the shrine depicting the Ur-Daemon War with an army facing off against them, but the gods documentation said there were perhaps no more than 50 Arkati and 100 Drakes at their height. That mural is depicting the future, or the past was very different than we know. I'm not sure we ever found out how the puzzle box got sent to Ta'Ashrim, or what the timing was on Terate being corrupted since he must have found that scroll a long time ago. The Queen had to have been corrupted / transformed by it / gone homicidal even earlier.
[3] Aside: I've read "Ur-Daemon" in the same sense as "ur-text" rather than a single specific race like most people seem to prefer. Like Yig is the ur-daemon behind mythical snake gods like Quetzlcoatl. The Elves have their stories of demons, which they later learned were extra-planar beings, so the earliest demons who were the ones that fought the dragons would be the ur-daemons. (Enchiridion doesn't capitalize it.) It's always been part of the game's Ur-Daemon lore (the beast on Teras Isle and later) that they have like an unconscious sleeping death and their bodies can never really die and their body parts recharged with their blood. Which is very Cthulhu-like.
[4] And with Mount Aenatumgana being "purgatory" from The Divine Comedy, that corresponds to Purgatory and the paths to Oblivion in the old death mechanics.

I was just thinking about the "Niebelun" thing again and how Wagner made famous operas about both Parsifal and Der Ring des Nibelung. The association of the ring's power with love and the denial of love, and the death of the gods, would come from his opera cycle about the ring. His most famous song (arguably) is Ride of the Valkyries, which comes from that Ring Cycle. Some people would be inclined to associate that song with Apocalypse Now, adapted from The Heart of Darkness.

I've not searched that angle yet. What most people first associate that song with, however, is Elmer Fudd singing "Kill the Wabbit." Just saying.

- Xorus' player

I was hoping for wording that would be more of a smoking gun, like those loresongs and Risper quotes borrowing exact phrases.

But the pentagram room having a "rabbit hole" and a "looking glass" ups the weight.


Anwyn Castle

[Anwyn Castle, Storage Shed]

This near-dilapidated building was apparently once used to store supplies and tools. Broken barrels and rusty pieces of metal pepper the floor, making it difficult to walk through the place without tripping. Squeaks and scratching sounds join the cooing of doves in the rafters, producing a soft harmony. You also see an open door, leading out to the castle yard.

Obvious exits: none

Looking closely into an old barrel laying on its side, you see a pair of bright eyes looking back at you! After an initial recoil, you look a little closer. A small mouse creeps hesitantly forward into view, its nose wriggling furiously. It regards you intently for a moment or two--then abruptly whirls about and disappears into a hole in the old floorboards.

Alice in Wonderland

‘Would it be of any use, now,’ thought Alice, ‘to speak to this mouse? Everything is so out-of-the-way down here, that I should think very likely it can talk: at any rate, there’s no harm in trying.’ So she began: ‘O Mouse, do you know the way out of this pool? I am very tired of swimming about here, O Mouse!’ (Alice thought this must be the right way of speaking to a mouse: she had never done such a thing before, but she remembered having seen in her brother’s Latin Grammar, ‘A mouse—of a mouse—to a mouse—a mouse—O mouse!’) The Mouse looked at her rather inquisitively, and seemed to her to wink with one of its little eyes, but it said nothing.

‘Perhaps it doesn’t understand English,’ thought Alice; ‘I daresay it’s a French mouse, come over with William the Conqueror.’

Later, the mouse starts lecturing about the history of William the Conqueror, with the Normans and Mercia and Northumbria. This scene is when Alice has flooded everything, making a lake of tears from crying. It is possible the original Lake of Tears from the first Griffin Sword War was supposed to be a sly Alice in Wonderland allusion, since it takes place in a dream that is woken up from, and the death mechanics messaging comes from a scene of the dream-quest protagonist waking up in Lovecraft's Dream Cycle stories.[1] Also, the mouse keeps running away when she tries to talk to it (from saying the wrong things), like the one in Castle Anwyn.[2]


- Xorus' player

[1] The ending of "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" mostly, with some bits from "Ex Oblivione", and arguably one with the same protagonist from "Through the Gates of the Silver Key". This gets alluded to in the exit of Shadow Valley as well, which symbolizes waking up from the nightmare.

[2] Castle Anwyn almost faded out of existence at the end of that storyline. "Through The Looking Glass" has Alice wondering if it would go out of existence when she woke up, or if she would go out of existence when the Red King woke up, and then whether life itself is a dream. The Graveyard, Shadow Valley, Broken Lands, and possibly now also Castle Anwyn are all Underworld/Death/Demon and Dream themed.

[3] The Red Queen and the "off with their heads" Queen of Hearts are not actually the same character, but they often get mixed together like in the Disney movie.

<<I really love the scholarly analysis going into this. The bibliography at the end is just icing on the cake. :)>> - Krakii

Just doing my Sherlock thing. :)

Today's ".. wait a minute..." moment was recognizing the phrase "strangely compelling" in the pentagram chamber. "Where was that.. that was the Graveyard... the crypt? The scroll room. It was somewhere in the scroll room." (The wooden door with the iron bands was also recycled for the vault inside Bonespear Tower.) There is a pentagram on the east side add-on to the Graveyard, which in the past I assumed was meaningless, but should probably double check because that always end up backfiring.


The Graveyard

[Graveyard, Crypt]

This room holds niches and chests filled with dusty tomes, yellowing scrolls and brittle manuscripts. The scrolls are fastened with sealing wax and silk ribbons, while the volumes are bound in rare leathers. Although fragile from the passage of time, the dry atmosphere of the tomb has preserved them. The documents arouse your interest but the fear that they may contain evil spells and dangerous knowledge prompts you to leave them be. You also see a stone niche with some stuff on it.

Obvious exits: east

>look on niche

On the stone niche:

Misc [2]: a strangely compelling volume, a vultite manuscript

Total items: 2

>read volume

In the Common language, it reads:

Servants of the Shadow: Power through Thralldom by Bandur Etrevion, H.S., M.C.L., R.L.N.

>look manuscript

The pages and cover of the ancient manuscript are made of vultite, accounting for its persistence over the millenia. The insignia of Gosaena is embossed on the otherwise blank cover.

Castle Anwyn

[Cavern Niche]

Once past the perimeter of the pentagram, the room narrows into a curved niche. Mounted on the stone of the back wall is a large mirror, its frame thickly carved with serpentine figures that writhe and curl around each other. The mirror seems strangely compelling. You also see an ancient carved chest.

Obvious exits: north, northeast, northwest

>look mirror

The longer you look at them, the sinuous forms along the frame of the mirror almost seem to move. Gazing into the mirror itself shows you nothing -- its face is a flat black pool of darkness with not even a ripple upon it.

Shadow World Master Atlas, 1st Edition

"Many take the form of crude trilithons isolated in the wilderness, while others appear as gleaming silvery ovals on ornate pedestals. Some are concealed underground, or are even disguised as normal doors in ancient structures. Some are always 'active' - meaning that should someone step through one, they will be instantly teleported to the other end of the portalway - while others must be activated by a magical phrase or item. Generally, active Portals are easily noticeable by a strange, 'substantial' darkness covering the entire opening; looking at the darkness for too long a time can cause queasiness."

Shadow World Master Atlas, 1st Edition

Shaalk (De-I.C.E.'d: Vultite): An enchanted material, very lightweight, pliable and resilient. Thinner sheets resemble the finest white paper but are glossier and almost indestructible. When exposed to extreme heat it melts, but normal fires do not harm it. Some of the most important tomes of the Lords of Essence were made with Shaalk pages. Shaalk can also be made into protective garments, as parts of certain tools, and even lightweight armor.

Shadow World Adventure Modules from 1989/1990

"Great Demons were fashioned by the most powerful of the Lords who had fallen under the influence of the Unlife, led by the Empress Kadaena. Wise but twisted in spirit, the servants of the Shadow offered knowledge beyond that which the Loremasters deigned to give such 'lesser beings,' and the power of the Unlife grew unfettered in the Second Era."

"The Shadow out of Time"

At length I tremblingly pulled the book from its container and stared fascinatedly at the well-known hieroglyphs on the cover. It seemed to be in prime condition, and the curvilinear letters of the title held me in almost as hypnotised a state as if I could read them. Indeed, I cannot swear that I did not actually read them in some transient and terrible access of abnormal memory. I do not know how long it was before I dared to lift that thin metal cover. I temporised and made excuses to myself. I took the torch from my mouth and shut it off to save the battery. Then, in the dark, I screwed up my courage—finally lifting the cover without turning on the light. Last of all I did indeed flash the torch upon the exposed page—steeling myself in advance to suppress any sound no matter what I should find.

I looked for an instant, then almost collapsed. Clenching my teeth, however, I kept silence. I sank wholly to the floor and put a hand to my forehead amidst the engulfing blackness. What I dreaded and expected was there. Either I was dreaming, or time and space had become a mockery. I must be dreaming—but I would test the horror by carrying this thing back and shewing it to my son if it were indeed a reality. My head swam frightfully, even though there were no visible objects in the unbroken gloom to swirl around me. Ideas and images of the starkest terror—excited by vistas which my glimpse had opened up—began to throng in upon me and cloud my senses.

I thought of those possible prints in the dust, and trembled at the sound of my own breathing as I did so. Once again I flashed on the light and looked at the page as a serpent’s victim may look at his destroyer’s eyes and fangs. Then, with clumsy fingers in the dark, I closed the book, put it in its container, and snapped the lid and the curious hooked fastener. This was what I must carry back to the outer world if it truly existed—if the whole abyss truly existed—if I, and the world itself, truly existed.

....

I have said that the awful truth behind my tortured years of dreaming hinges absolutely upon the actuality of what I thought I saw in those Cyclopean buried ruins. It has been hard for me literally to set down the crucial revelation, though no reader can have failed to guess it. Of course it lay in that book within the metal case—the case which I pried out of its forgotten lair amidst the undisturbed dust of a million centuries. No eye had seen, no hand had touched that book since the advent of man to this planet. And yet, when I flashed my torch upon it in that frightful megalithic abyss, I saw that the queerly pigmented letters on the brittle, aeon-browned cellulose pages were not indeed any nameless hieroglyphs of earth’s youth. They were, instead, the letters of our familiar alphabet, spelling out the words of the English language in my own handwriting.

GemStone's Modified Iruaric Glossary (Lord of Essaence Language)

"Translation of ancient Iruaric to modern day languages is difficult at best. Even translations from ancient Iruaric to modern forms of that same language will, at time, fail to represent the original ideas accurately. This is due mainly to the glyphical, or hieroglyphical form that early written Iruaric took. Often, similar symbols would represent many aspects of the same idea or word, with only minor changes in the glyph that differentiated the meanings. Often, however, these similar written forms had widely varying pronunciations. The use of phonetic representations of Iruaric as a written form are a fairly recent development, historically, and again vary widely from one culture to the next."

---

>'=explain Who would deny, after all, that a rhetorical question is merely a statement?
You may not explain with a sentence ending in a question mark.

I'm not really expecting to find any kind of smoking gun on the castle layout, with all of the elements of an island turreted fortress with bridge and barbican and so on. But it's worth noting that one of the castles associated with Arthur, Richmond Castle which was built following William the Conqueror, has a keep that was later added onto with towers (the Keep of Castle Anwyn is visibly older than the rest of the building) and the legend is that King Arthur and his knights are sleeping in a cave underneath it.[1]

There is an island castle that is the supposed conception place of Arthur, Tintagel Castle, but its layout is unknown as much of it fell into the water.[2] Apparently, Mount Aetna is considered the burial place of Arthur according to some, and Terate did die / disintegrate on Mount Aenatumgana. But all of this is needle meeting haystack.[3]


- Xorus' player

[1] Rising from their tombs. This notion is also associated with Cadbury Castle, often identified with Camelot, where the cavern has iron gates. The very large wooden doors to the pentagram cavern are iron banded. Cadbury has the virtue of being much older, going back to the Romans and Celts. Nymphs/satyrs are portrayed outside it in an octagonal shaped room. This is odd, because the only way in is through the Keep, which is described as looking older than the rest of the castle for being cylindrical.

[2] Castle Anwyn is supposed to correspond to "Avalon" in any event. Morgan le Fay is also supposed to be one of nine sisters on Avalon. The "nine maidens" thing is an often recurring mythological motif.

[3] I will try to figure out the meanings of some rooms in The Rift. This is bound to be highly speculative, The Rift is intentionally surreal.

---

>'=explain Who would deny, after all, that a rhetorical question is merely a statement?
You may not explain with a sentence ending in a question mark.

I'm not sure? I see the "go door" leading to a room with a question mark on Tsoran's map in the Anwyn crypt, but when I actually go there I can't seem to find any room objects to look at or have anything showing up from "search"ing. I know there's a few non-obvious rooms, like the torture chamber, bone seat and the bedroom.

There's a room in the barracks where red painting is over the doorframe, but that's what I think is supposed to be a mezuzah.


- Xorus' player

---

>'=explain Who would deny, after all, that a rhetorical question is merely a statement?
You may not explain with a sentence ending in a question mark.

I forgot to mention that the interior of Caernarfon Castle is a figure eight shape, like the infinity symbol path around The Graveyard. The timing on the castle was Edward I following William the Conqueror, which were all built on shores, and there would have originally been a keep from the prior Norman fortress that would have been on a mound. So that would be what the Anwyn keep is about, with the surrounding castle adding onto it while borrowing the even older underground architectural elements.

- Xorus' player

---

>'=explain Who would deny, after all, that a rhetorical question is merely a statement?
You may not explain with a sentence ending in a question mark.

Is that "Caernarfon" similar to "Caernarvon"? <Wiki says...>

Huh. Looks like the Welsh are getting uppity, and want their spelling back.

.

Don't tell me I'm going to have to go and mark up my old Avalon Hill "King Maker" board... <grumble>

Apparently, the etymology of the word "keep" comes from the Middle English word "kype" for "cask", which is probably why the wine casks are kept inside the keep of Anwyn Castle instead of being used as a military fall back. In The Graveyard this kind of obscure word play with older English happens a couple of times. The "purgatory" section of The Graveyard is a mock castle with a medieval throne room, great hall, and "cabinet" attached to the hall which is the private chamber of the liege.

This is instead portrayed as a food cabinet in the modern meaning of the word, with a hidden grating passageway leading down into the ice room / "larder" filled with dismembered humanoid bodies. Similarly, the small slab of ice in this "ghoul's larder" would be called a "thrawl", playing off the whole "thralldom" thing.

The keep is a "shell keep" which would mean it is on top of a mound, which means this octagonal room and pentagram chamber are inside a mound. That plays back off "The Mound" behind Shadow Valley.[1] The octagonal room pre-dates any fortification built on top of it, but then the octagonal architectural motif is borrowed for later expansions of the castle around the keep. Which is probably about Caerarfon Castle being built with Byzantine elements to assert Roman heritage through Magnus.


- Xorus' player

[1] It would also explain the moaning spirits, which were clearly based on the guardians of the mound in that story who could materialize and dematerialize themselves. The idea in that story was the mound had a path leading down into the deep earth, past ancient idols of dark gods, into a foggy valley of stampeding things.

---

>'=explain Who would deny, after all, that a rhetorical question is merely a statement?
You may not explain with a sentence ending in a question mark.

Rift Creatures (continued)

Here is another set of speculations pulling out the tendency to refer to Annwn by multiple "Caer" fortress names:


Caedera => Caer Dea => Fortress of Goddess
Seraceris => Caer Seris => Fortress of the Bound
N'ecare => Ne'Caer => Fortress of Without (Abandon?)
Csetairi => Caer Siti => Fortress of Thirst


Another mangling of Aivren would be Vri'nae, where Vri refers to Vritra like I speculated with the Vvrael, while "nae" is Iruaric for "past" meaning essentially the same thing as "ael" for ancestral. (lo'nae = "Spirit of the Past") Likewise, "tai ri" in Csetairi would be Iruaric, roughly "the pillar of all." But I would have no idea for "Cse."


Anwyn Dungeon

The random torture chamber connected to the pentagram cavern is labeled "Dungeon", and has no apparent motivation other than the queen being evil. The word dungeon originates in the medieval French "donjon", which was their word for a keep. So the original meaning of dungeon was a keep in the sense of a fortification rather than a place of imprisonment. So that is yet another example of a double entendre regarding castles playing off the archaic and modern meanings of the same word.

- Xorus' player

---

>'=explain Who would deny, after all, that a rhetorical question is merely a statement?
You may not explain with a sentence ending in a question mark.

"I played a Cthulhu based card game once where I ended up summoning Cthluhu to take out this guy who had the card giving him three hands so he could hold an extra weapon." -- Xorus

That sounds like Munchkin Cthulhu, from SJ Games (also makers of "OGRE" [boardgame, recently revived] and "Illuminati: New World Order"/INWO for short [CCG, long dead]).
I know that at least one set of it was out being played in the lobby of SimuCon the year we were NOT at the Sheraton Chalet/Tower, but two miles away at the DoubleTree. (I know because that was the game I was in. :)
(I want to say like 2006 or 2007? That was one of the years that Aongus brought Bearomir with him, and Eldreth had the orange construction bucket of Death Rum [though I realize that the latter does not exactly narrow the possible field...].)

That was also the year of the Great "Order of the Stick" Test Run (playing the boardgame)... about 9-15 months before they realized the game didn't really work well as released, and came out with an 'expansion' called "The Shortening" to turn it into something playable in, like, a reasonable sitting.

Then again, maybe that interpretation of the "oak hollow" isn't so far fetched after all...

>look

[Wine Cellar]

The dark, cavernous cellar is filled with racks holding dust-covered bottles of wine. Lining one of the walls are huge casks, taller than a giantman, with massive spigots tapping the front of each one. A glance at one of the bottles reveals a date of such antiquity, it would render the contents either exquisite or pure vinegar. Whichever is the case, there is an abundance of it, for the shelves, with their bottles, stand rank after rank in this cavernous cellar.

Obvious exits: up

>look rack

Although it is obviously very old, the oak the rack is made of still shows a deep luster.

>look cask

The fine wood of this cask displays a patina perfected over the years. It gives off the characteristic aroma of the generations of wine that have aged within it. There appears to be an opening behind it.

The subtext for those bodies might be Guenevere and King Arthur, but in terms of the in game story it is less clear. They might be fake royal bodies like the sarcophagus in the crypt in The Graveyard, since there seems to be multiple parallels to the graveyard, or there is something stranger about Terate's origins. Suppose the bodies are Terate's father and mother. The father (or King Arthur analog) looks like a giantman, and Terate was an Elf of the purest blood. Perhaps the third body with the wolf carvings is supposed to represent Terate. He was healed / resuscitated with some dark power and was sleeping on that seat of bones, so some exotic stuff is possible.

This is a first pass on parsing the possible meanings intended by rooms in The Rift. These will all be from Plane 1, though most rooms get reused on other planes. A lot of rooms are described as having mist, which fits in with the whole mist thing with Castle Anwyn / Shadow Valley / etc. etc. I'm going to skip over some of them if nothing specific is immediately jumping out to me about it. Others are obviously just depictions of what is implicitly Wehnimer's Landing being conquered or slaughtered.

There are some dead women on thrones which could possibly refer to the Empress Kadaena being dead. Her body fell into the equivalent of The Rift.


#2579: Blood Eagle
[The Rift]
A cold, grey mist swirls around you, making it difficult to gain any sense of what is here. Through the haze a huge, gnarled hand stretches upward reaching grimly for something past your vision. As you move closer, it turns out to be only a dead tree, the bent and gnarled limbs twisting toward a blood eagle hovering just out of reach.
Obvious paths: southwest

Interpretation: The blood eagle is a supposed Norse execution method that was only mentioned a few times, where the ribs are broken and spread out and so on. In one situation it is done to the killer of Sigurd's (Siegfried/Terate) father Sigmund (Sigemund of Wales in Beowulf), in another it is done to King Aella of Northumbria in revenge for killing Ragnar Lothbrok in a pit of venomous snakes, who was the husband of Sigurd's daughter Aslaug.


#2580: Reaper on White Horse
[The Rift]
The sound of hoofbeats approaches rapidly. When you whirl around, a white horse emerges from the surrounding mist with a black robed figure on its back. As the horse gallops by, the sound of a blade cutting the air fills your ears, and a burst of wind brushes your neck. The horseman quickly fades into the mist before you, a scythe the last thing you see as it disappears.
Obvious paths: northeast, east, northwest

Interpretation: In the Book of Revelation, which is quoted in the loresong of the orbs Lorminstra gave her Chosen and in the earthquakes / sky events near the end of the quest, Death is riding on a pale horse and "Hades followed close behind."


#2581: Summoning Circle
[The Rift]
Your wandering brings you to a small clearing. The ground is dry and parched, and there are large lines scratched into the surface and coated in a red, sticky substance. Following the lines a moment, you realize they make a rune covered circle, and that you are standing in the center of it. A cold wind whips around you at that point, and you hear howls in the distance.
Obvious exits: northeast, southeast, west

Interpretation: This might narrowly refer to the pentagram chamber in Castle Anwyn, which after The Rift was released had "hell hounds" which correspond to the hounds of the Wild Hunt that bring souls to the Underworld.


#2585: Shadowy Mass in Rolaren Chains
[The Rift]
Chains creak and strain under the load they are holding in the center of this stone-walled room. Eight rolaren chains reach up, entangle, and reach down to the ground on the opposite side of the large shadowy mass hovering just above the floor. It shifts and moves, as if alive and seeking an escape from the bindings. The chains glow slightly in the dim light, throwing unusual shadows on the walls while keeping the mass from growing too much.
Obvious paths: northeast, east, southwest, northwest

Interpretation: The chest in the pentagram cavern of Castle Anwyn (and the chest in Terate's bedroom) is carved with writhing serpents and sealed with a rolaren lock. This is what was containing his "wondrous stone" as well as the Vvrael scroll that drove him into obsession and dark power. Rolaren was originally intended to have mentalism suppression properties.


#2588: Infinity Symbol Man
[The Rift]
In the distance walks a tall man. His robe is grey and tattered, but the frame beneath it remains strong. Above his head floats the symbol of infinity, black and tarnished as the path he walks. No matter how rapidly you proceed towards him, you cannot seem to catch him, although he moves no faster than a saunter.
Obvious exits: northeast, southeast, west

Interpretation: This is Bandur Etrevion walking on "the dark path." The infinity symbol is the path of The Graveyard centered over his frozen body. The Graveyard has a detailed parallel to Dante's Inferno and Purgatory, and the Eye of the Drake looks like it was based on God above Purgatory in his Paradiso.


#2590: Silently Screaming Statue
[The Rift]
Screaming wind tears through this area, filling the air with a dreadful howling. Just ahead a cavern looms, offering a bit of solace from the biting wind. As you move closer to the safehaven, you see that the cavern is actually the open mouth of a massive, long-fallen statue.
Obvious paths: east, west

Interpretation: Probably symbolic of Koar being dead with the Colossus fallen on its side.



#2591: Eyes over Blood Geyser
[The Rift]
A huge fountain of blood erupts from the ground here, gushing hundreds of feet into the air and raining back down hard. At its apex, the thick fluid holds the pattern of a pair of eyes, watching your movements as you pass through. The eyes hold your own a moment, and a wave of nausea passes over you. When it fades, they have wavered and fallen with their medium.
Obvious paths: northeast, east, south, west, northwest

Interpretation: The eyes part is reminiscent of being under oppressive gaze of the Eye of Sauron when the mists part from around Barad-Dur. The blood fountain I do not know. Risper quoted from The Two Towers at the end of the Vvrael quest, so it isn't totally out of bounds.


#2594: Graveyard of Statues
[The Rift]
A graveyard lies before you. Unlike a normal graveyard, however, the things that now rest here never were alive. Hundreds of broken statues litter the field, some gazing sightlessly off into the distance, others reaching with stone hands up to whatever salvation waits for them beyond. The forgotten relics' final resting place gives an eerie air to the surrounding areas, as if you could share their unfortunate fate.
Obvious paths: northeast, east

Interpretation: There is a fallen monument park in Moscow. I do not know why that would be referenced if it was intentional. The broken statues with the forgotten motif is reminiscent of the poem Ozymandias, which is a whole fallen dead king memorial theme and Koar has his Colossus.


#2595: Long Rows of Doors
[The Rift]
A long field stretches before you, covered by dark clouds. The field is lined with rows and rows of long metal poles, each of which is situated near a stone door. While you look over the field, lightning flashes down from the clouds and strikes one of the poles. As the pole absorbs the burst of energy, the door nearest to it slowly swings open, revealing a black stone passage behind. The door stays open a few seconds, then slowly swings closed again.
Obvious paths: east, west

Interpretation: It is a relatively common image to depict some infinitely long hallway of doors opening up into mysterious unknowns. The Matrix sequel did it, for example. So the base of this idea is derivative but I'm not sure where exactly it might be pulling from...


#2602: Smirking Dark Elf
[The Rift]
Four banks of mist flow together, a distant scene forming within them. A bustling town comes together in the square. Halflings dressed in old style clothing stand about, some yelling angrily, others slain as they lay on their cloaks on the ground. One ancient dark elf leans against the base of the large frozen statue of a pack animal, smirking arrogantly.
Obvious paths: east, west

Interpretation: The center of Icemule Trace. Which high level dark elf of the time I will not guess, one immediately comes to mind who wanted a path to be made around the town so it would not have to ever be entered, but this looks like it might be an inside joke.


#2604: Endless Intertwining Stairs
[The Rift]
The fog you wander through parts to reveal thousands of stairways surrounding you. Sets of stairs lead to unknown destinations around you, up and down, horizontal and vertical. The bizarre monument fills your vision as far as you can see, none of the stairs really appear to be going anywhere except to other stairs.
Obvious exits: east, southeast, southwest, west

Interpretation: Obviously derived from M.C. Escher, such as his lithograph titled "Relativity" about a world without gravity.


#2611: Bound Giant With Snakes
[The Rift]
A giant hangs on an elaborate set of poles and straps here. Two thick poles set crossing each other are framed by two vertical and two horizontal ones. Violet eyes shrouded in shadow float near the giant's head, watching the expressions that pass there with great interest. A pair of winged snakes hover near the giant, flying idly about and occasionally striking him.
Obvious paths: east, west

Interpretation: The "violet eyes shrouded in shadow" refers to the Empress Kadaena. The Lords of Essaence had violet eyes, she is called "the Shadow", she wore a Shadowstone necklace which was used to enter the Eye of Utha (Eye of the Drake basis), her body fell into the Gates of the Void (the basis of The Rift). The rest of it is more complicated. The poles might be forming a Procrustean bed from Greek mythology. The Norse god/giant Loki is the father of the world serpent, and was bound with a serpent put over him dripping venom onto him causing anguish until someday he will be freed and fight against the gods in Ragnarok. It is reminiscent of Prometheus being bound and ripped at over and over again forever for giving forbidden knowledge to humans, and Kadaena is represented in the game as a forbidden knowledge "goddess" of sorts.


#2617: Sled Race
[The Rift]
A large snow-filled valley with rough sloping sides opens up before you. On the ridge tops from one end to the other stand two main groups of creatures. The north ridge holds huge clans of ice trolls standing ready with large slabs of ice, while on the south ridge groups of frost giants mutter at each other, holding equally large slabs. In the center of the valley a lone storm giant stands, arms up to signal the racers.
Obvious paths: east, west

Interpretation: Ice trolls will use your dead body as a sled given the opportunity.


#12090: Morphing Ooze Things
[The Rift]
Thick mist covers the ground in this small cemetery. Moss-covered headstones and graves placed in a chaotic order stretch as far as the eye can see. Several tombs rest on a small hill in the center of the quiet graves, on which three shapeless collections of ooze gather. As you watch them, they morph into various shapes and sizes, speaking amongst themselves in some deep, flowing tongue.
Obvious paths: northeast, east, west, northwest

Interpretation: The magru were based on the Absorber extra-planar entities from Rolemaster. It was impossible to communicate with them, though they could obviously communicate with each other through pulsation and whatever. They traveled from plane to plane replicating by devouring flesh.


#2618: One-Eyed Dark Elf Wanted Poster
[The Rift]
A stout wooden wall impedes your progress forward. In the center of the wall, on a large yellowed parchment, is a poster. The poster is a side view of a man laying in a coffin or box of some kind. Small arrows point to parts of the picture, and in an unknown language describe some of the things in it. A second, older poster next to the first has the picture of an old, one-eyed dark elf with the number "12000" below it.
Obvious paths: east, west

Interpretation: I would guess this might be some kind of inside joke about Thalior.


#2623: Skull Castle
[The Rift]
A long line of robed monks walks solemnly, fading off into the distance. They seem to be traveling toward the largest mountain of a set which runs across the distant horizon. Two bursts of flame shoot up from an opening in the mountain occasionally, illuminating a skull-shaped castle and a line of supplicants several miles long moving towards it.
Obvious paths: east, southwest

Interpretation: There is something vaguely Lovecraftian about these robed monks / supplicants. The skull castle in that light could plausibly be Castle Grayskull from He-Man. The idea was that a Council of Elders saw a vision of a sorceress in snake armor and future danger and the rise of He-Man, so they transferred all of their power into a magical orb, and turned their Hall of Knowledge which was the center of all knowledge in the universe into a skull shaped castle to frighten away others to protect the orb knowing He-Man would arise some day. Then eventually Prince Eric is transformed by a Sword of Power. This sounds very similar to the Arkati, Eye of the Drake, and Terate with his void blade. The castle has portals leading to other worlds and all over Eternia, and Elanthia if read as "uh lan thea" can be interpreted as Iruaric for "Eternal World." Skeletor resides instead in the castle of the Snakemen, and wants the ancient secrets of the castle to make him unstoppable and able to conquer the world, though originally his story was he was thrust here from another dimension and wanted to re-open the rift so he could return.


#2624: Headless Statue
[The Rift]
An immense statue stands before you towering hundreds of feet high, giving you an excellent view of its ankle. The statue has a large, muscular frame, and is resting his hands on the pommel of a two-handed sword. As you look up the statue's length, you realize it has one fatal flaw - it's headless.
Obvious paths: northeast, east

Interpretation: Possibly another Koar is dead symbolism with a dead statue referring to Colossus.


#2627: Man With Immense Boulder
[The Rift]
A portrait rests against an immense boulder here. The boulder seems to have a vaguely familiar shape, but exactly what is too difficult to place. Leaning against the base of the boulder is a modwir-framed picture, depicting an incredibly strong man wrestling with a heavy burden. The rock he holds appears to grow heavier, and he looks tired and pained by the weight of it. At the base of the painting before you are two footprints imbedded deeply into the ground.
Obvious exits: east, south, west

Interpretation: Looks like the Greek myth of Atlas, who holds the sky above the world on his shoulders (usually misrepresented as holding the world itself), and possibly crossed with Sisyphus who is condemned to push an immense boulder up a hill forever in the Underworld where it keeps rolling back down. Atlas was one of the Titans overthrown by Zeus, most of whom ended up in the Underworld but his punishment was different. Sisyphus was a king who was punished for trying to be more clever than Zeus, chaining death or the lord of the underworld so no one would die.



#2628: Huge Skeleton With Staff
[The Rift]
Mountains rise on either side of you, black peaks reaching for an angry red sky. The ground beneath your feet is broken and rocky, making you stumble uncomfortably. On the western side of the path stands a skeleton at least thirty feet tall. His bony hands clutch a staff from which hangs a lantern, filled with odd stones that glow in the dim light. The ripped remains of a black robe hang from the bones, fluttering in a slight breeze.
Obvious exits: east, south, west

Interpretation: The Demon Lord of Death and Undeath, Maleskari, was an enormous skeleton with a huge iron staff. He is seemingly implicitly related to Shadow Valley, and explicitly related to Bonespear Tower.


#2630: Rat Pirate Ship
[The Rift]
A beached ship lies in the middle of the field here, no clues or explanation as to how it arrived. The once shiny maoral wood has dulled now with age, and the ship's ribs and masts have split and fallen. The only passengers of the vessel are the rats, which number in the thousands. It's almost as if the boat itself writhes with their movements. High above, on the one remaining mast, flies a flag bearing a rat skull and crossbones.
Obvious paths: east, south, west

Interpretation: Spike the War Rat from the Bregandian war? That was around 1998.


#2631: Balance Scale
[The Rift]
A marble wall stretches for some distance to either side of you. In the center of the wall hangs a golden scale, with a small shelf on either side of it. On each of the shelves lies a shiny razor and a white towel. The bowls of the scales are spotless, although they have a slight coppery odor.
Obvious exits: east, south, west

Interpretation: Balance scales are a common symbol of justice, and Koard is the God of Justice. The "pound of flesh" phrase comes from Shakespeare, so I'm not sure that aspect of it is relevant.


#2632: Antlered Man
[The Rift]
A wide stretch of forest opens before you, the huge border of trees giving the impression of stoic guards protecting their land and secrets. Packs of ghostly dogs run toward you at the will of a huge, antlered man commanding them at the forest border. His bony finger points to you, and the dark gleam in his eye tells you he will not allow passage further into the woods.
Obvious paths: east, south, west

Interpretation: Looks like it is referring to the Wild Hunt with the spectral hounds, related to Castle Anwyn and Noralgar Forest. It is often depicted as led by Wodan (Odin), the king of the gods (hence Koar related) in the Viking religion, so that might explain why the huntsman is depicted with horns other than the general demonic thing.


#2633: Wheel of Fortune
[The Rift]
A line of people empties out of a pass to the north, too clogged for you to use as a route away. They all await their turn at spinning a wheel, at least twenty feet across and lying flat on the ground. Upon the wheel stand various figures: a reaper with a scythe, a being made entirely of light, and other oddities. Each person spins the wheel in turn, and each in turn receives their fate according to the figure chosen on the wheel.
Obvious paths: west

Interpretation: This is pretty obviously based on Fortuna's wheel. Dante had it in the fourth circle of Inferno, and depicted his own father on it. Ouch.

Revisions and Clarifications

(1) It turns out there is a very low hanging fruit I missed for connecting the King Arthur thread to the Nibelung / Burgundians thread. Geoffrey of Monmouth is the one that provides all of the life historical details of Arthur, who allegedly spent a lot of time in France. There is an "Avallon" in Burgundy, where Arthur Riothamus king of the Britons died. It's a King Arthur story arc of him crossing over into France to invade Rome, sort of like the dream vision of Magnus Maximus.

(2) I forgot to highlight the fact that Prometheus and Atlas are both Titans punished for rebellion by Zeus. This points back at the ghostly bard "Keat" and Keats poem "The Fall of Hyperion", which effectively means "the fall of the sun" which is symbolically important to The Graveyard because of its Egyptian and Dante subtexts.

(3) I forgot to mention that the violet eyes are constantly watching the Prometheus figure. This would be because Kadaena was serving as the analog of Yog-Sothoth in the Lovecraft mythos, which seems to also be true in the Broken Lands, because the dome with the Crystyl forest and mud sea of Horde colonies implies being able to watch all of time and space across all realities (and the dome seems to be based on the "almost sphere" of "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" and the Nyarlathotep [Bandur] related Shining Trapezohedron form "The Haunter in the Dark".)

(4) The Rift has a bunch of rooms featuring giants or giantmen. This could also play back into the Greek thing with the Titans, because the Giants were similarly punished by Zeus. Like Ephialtes was bound by serpents, and Greek giants came to be depicted as having serpents for legs.

(5) I forgot to mention that the supposed burial of King Arthur and Guenevere in Glastonbury Abbey is widely understood to be a hoax, which strongly implies those bodies in the Anwyn crypt are fakes, just like the sarcophagus in The Graveyard crypt which refers to the fake sarcophagus of Kadaena on the Isle of Aranmor that was used to imply royal queen line of descent for historical legitimacy. It is tempting to draw an "Isle of Avalon" / "Isle of Aranmor" parallel.

(6) Glastonbury Abbey was supposedly founded by Joseph of Arimathea, the first keeper of the Holy Grail. This is whose words were on the wall of the Cave of Caerbannog in the Monty Python movie, and this crypt is basically right next to the barracks with the "rabbit" and the mezuzah, and the Keep with the cave is also right next to it. I mentioned before there are stories that King Arthur and his knights are in a sleeping death in a cave under a castle who will return some day, which is the same theme Bandur alludes to in the crypt pulling off the poem about Kadaena on Aranmor.

(7) The antlered god as demon comes from twisting older pagan gods. Cernunnos (Latin: "horned one") was a Celtic antlered god discovered on a pillar found under the Notre Dame cathedral which also depicted Jupiter (Zeus), who came to be associated with keeping the secrets/treasures of the underworld, a guardian role usually associated with serpents / wyrms like the demon of Shadow Valley. The Greeks also associated the horned Egyptian Ammon-Ra with Zeus. Likewise, Beezlebub (cited in the "turn is thine" poem) comes from Baal, and the horned demon thing generally originates in the Book of Revelation.

(8) The one eyed dark elf could also mildly refer to Odin for some reason.




#2584: Body With Ten Longswords
[The Rift]
Mist swirls and flows around a small monument here. A man lies on the ground face down, quite dead. There are ten longswords protruding from his back, from the tip of the neck to the back of the knees. Small rivulets of blood have dried as they left the body, forming an unusual pattern in the dirt.
Obvious paths: east, southwest

Interpretation:

"And the skull was broad and huge, as if he were a monster or prodigy, to the extent that the space between the eyebrows and the eye-sockets amply encompassed the breadth of one's palm. Moreover, ten or more wounds were visible on that skull, all of which had healed into scars except one, greater than the rest, which had made a large cleft — this seems to have been the lethal one." (From the same description of finding King Arthur's giant body in Glastonbury Abbey.)

Forgot to add in the Naisirc. That would unscramble as Cair Sin, where Caer and Cair are both common spellings. That's five original Rift creatures with Caer/Cair inside their names and the remaining letters being meaningful. Coincidence? Have to look more into Ambrosius / Magnus / Vortigern / Riothamus / Burgundians.


So, Planes 1 through 3 have a lot of recycled rooms, and preserve the room sequence up to a point. Plane 4 and 5 are all unique rooms, but there's little in those ones with non-obvious symbolic meaning immediately jumping out to me, whereas there are a bunch in 1 through 3. There can be slight differences in almost identical rooms on other planes. There are tons of rooms overall with explicit or implicit snake themes. Plane 5 is basically all the same thing, it's just depicting a worm infested heart. There are some depictions of gold coins or a horde of wealth being fought over. This might refer to the treasure of the Nibelung, associated with "the ring" and dragon.


#2619: Jury Box
[The Rift]
The courtroom is packed with shambling corpses, filling the jury box and judge seat. A living person sits in the spot reserved for the defendant, chained to the desk with thick irons. He looks nervous, glancing around at the dead surrounding him with a wild look in his eyes. At the back of the courtroom hangs a blindfolded woman, head lolling grotesquely to the side as if the noose had broken her neck. Her dead fingers clutch a set of balance scales.
Obvious paths: east, southeast, west, northwest

Interpretation: Anwyn might have an "Alice in Wonderland" subtext. In the end of the story she's with a jury box of animals listening to the trial of the Knave for stealing the Queen's tarts, and this is the Queen of Hearts who wants to execute everyone saying "off with their heads!" The balance scales is another justice thing, where Koar is the God of Justice. So it is another dead Koar thing. The decapitated statue on other planes might refer to Kadaena being decapitated.


#12126: Kestrel
[The Rift]
Rows of sarcophagi line the rough stone walls of the corridor. They remain tightly shut, although hopeless moans emanate from within the sealed boxes. At the head of the hallway leans a mummy. His arms are crossed over his chest, bound by the shrouds that cover the large frame. From his back sprout two wings, also wrapped within the bandages. Although perhaps a trick of the dim light, you could swear you saw one of the wings move.
Obvious paths: northeast, east, southeast

Interpretation: Probably refers to the mummified Kestrel Etrevion and the whole "transforming into a demon in the Void/afterlife" thing about The Graveyard. The Lords of Essaence (e.g. Kadaena) used sarcophagi, in death-like sleep for thousands of years before waking up again.


#12100: Empty Water
[The Rift]
A line of women walks through here, moaning and weeping softly to themselves as they dip the jugs they carry into the waters of the river to the east. As they walk back to the well south of you their jars begin to leak, water streaming onto the ground until there is none left in the containers. Still the women trudge on, going through the motions of pouring the liquid into the well before returning to the river for a refill.
Obvious exits: west

Interpretation: The Greek myth of Tantalus. Tantalus stole ambrosia/nectar from Zeus and revealed the secrets of the gods. He was put in Tartarus (deepest part of Underworld used for punishment) where he has to stand in water, unable to drink any of it because it recedes away if he reaches for it. The interesting thing with that one is he cut up a boy and tried to feed it to the gods, and they put his parts in a magic cauldron to bring him back to life. He had a huge rock hanging over his head, akin to the Sisyphus punishment.


#2583: Small Skeletal Dog (Plane 1)
[The Rift]
A jagged chasm opens up nearly beneath your feet. Before you can step into it, a sharp barking sound startles you, catching your attention and bringing you to a halt. Looking down, you see a small skeletal dog at your feet. He dances nimbly before you, halting your forward progress into the pit. Blinking, you look again, and both the dog and the chasm are gone.
Obvious paths: east, southeast, southwest, west

Interpretation: This was a handful of months before waern were released. But this could conceivably be another Tantalus reference, because another version of the myth has him punished for stealing the magical dog that watched over infant Zeus.



#12107: Fog Beetles
[The Rift]
An immense moon the color of drying blood dominates the sky. It sheds ruddy crimson light over the broken world, seeming to swallow every other color in its red glow. Horrible beasts crawl over the ground, looking like giant lobsters which raise their claws in tribute to the lunar glow, while man-wolves raise their eerie voices in a primal tribute.
Obvious exits: southwest, northwest

Interpretation: This is a Broken Lands / Lornon reference. The lobster clawed beasts are the fog beetles. In Foggy Valley the Shan and Pra'eda are man-wolves, though that was released a handful of months later. Man-wolves appear to be part of the subtext of Castle Anwyn, as well as the leapers which are wolf-like apparent transformations of humanoids.


#12154: Undead Equines
[The Rift]
A herd of horses plays in the dead grass of the meadow. They frolic in the thin light that filters through the clouds, bending their heads to graze or simply standing with their herdmates. Upon the back of the leader sits a small child whose giggles seem to brighten the day. With a second look, the skin melts from the horses to leave nothing more than equine skeletons playing in the sun.
Obvious paths: northeast, southeast

Interpretation: This is probably a Shadow Valley reference.


#12110: Star Eater
[The Rift]
A sphere of delicate glass encases you, moving as you do. Outside the sphere sits the wide, starry universe. Stars and galaxies stretch before you, spinning in the deep silence of space. At the edge of your vision, something nags. Looking, you see a dark shadow passing over the stars, the worlds, creeping and devouring all it touches. It does not seem to have intentions of stopping, and far too rapidly for comfort, it will overtake all of the glittering motes of space before you.
Obvious exits: east, west

Interpretation: The Unlife and the sun consumed by shadow. But it is reminiscent of the Star Eater story Starsnuffer used to tell.


#12109: Gosaena
[The Rift]
A woman stands at the head of the huge cavern. The right half of her is perhaps the most beautiful woman you have seen. Her skin is the color of milk, and blonde hair streams down over one feathered wing. The other half of her body is the opposite. The skin is rough, with matted hair tangled with a wing like leather. In her right hand she holds a staff of light, with which she gestures towards a field of surpassing beauty. Her left bears a scythe, pointing towards a pit of angry flames.
Obvious paths: east, west

Interpretation: Split reference to modern Gosaena and the demonic transformation concept of her predecessor Kadaena.


#12187: Unfamiliar Constellations
[The Rift]
Above you the sky is black, dotted with shimmering stars. The constellations hold no familiar patterns, creating a strangely eerie feeling of disorientation and aloneness. Beneath your feet crumbles brown-red dirt the consistency of coarse flour. Around you the air is thin, barely breathable and reeking strongly of sulphur.
Obvious exits: northeast, west

Interpretation: The unfamiliar constellations line is used in the "purgatory" section of The Graveyard, with subhuman figures dancing under them gibbering in hellish glee. It alludes to the unfamiliar constellations Dante and Virgil see when coming out the other side of the Earth at the base of the mountain of Purgatory.


#12189: Black Knight
[The Rift]
Moans and shrieks of agony fill the large brown canvas tent. Chirurgeons walk between the cots, attempting to tend the wounds of those who lay bleeding on the rude beds. Suddenly, the flap of the tent is torn down, revealing a knight in bloody black armor. He raises his gargantuan claidhmore...and the scene fades, leaving you standing on the crumbling red earth.
Obvious exits: east, west

Interpretation: There are a few depictions of black knights. They might refer to the life of the black knight the Vvrael corrupted who killed Malaphor and was chasing after Daephron Illian.


#12194: Stairs
[The Rift]
A set of stairs carved from the purest white marble spirals up...into nothingness. No landing, no floor, simply a darkness so deep it seems to consume the light around it. The stairs rest on a floor of dark black onyx, making the twisting white column the only spot of light in the area.
Obvious paths: north, south

Interpretation: Stairway to Heaven. Can't ever reach it.


#12122: Koar is dead (Plane 4)
[The Rift]
A white bier rests in the center of a copse of dead trees. Four swords stand about it, one at each corner. Resting upon the cold stone bed is a man. His grey hair is held back by a golden crown, and his beard flows down his broad chest. Upon the side of the stone is carved a set of characters. Most of the letters have been lost to time, leaving only "---r, K--g of -h- -od-."
Obvious exits: southeast, northwest

Interpretation: Another Koar is Dead scene. There is one on Plane 3 where Elanthia has a tombstone.



#12138: Nine Skeletons Drinking from Golden Cups
[The Rift]
The dining hall is full of shadows, lit only dimly by guttering candles. Around the table sit nine skeletons, each holding a golden cup. The undead seem to be chatting, drinking from their chalices only to have the liquid flow out and over their ribcages. With a wave of disgust, you realize that the skeletons are drinking blood.
Obvious exits: northeast, southeast

Interpretation: Might be a nine maidens / holy grail / holy blood reference.



#12125: Lornon Preference?
[The Rift]
The chapel walls are lined with statues, one for each of the Lords of Liabo and Lornon. The statues seem to have been carved from wax, detailed to the long eyelashes of Ivas and the polished claws of Andelas. It is impossible to see the detail of the Gods of Light, for the wax has melted, turning them into misshapen and twisted replicas of what they once were.
Obvious paths: southwest, northwest

Interpretation: This is interesting because it is presumably not Vvrael related. The Vvrael wants to devour all, both light and dark gods. The Broken Lands implies Kadaena created some or all of the dark gods artificially, and the Eye of the Drake with its temporal visions would exist either way. We might actually think of The Rift as Koar having a nightmare, since he is sleeping and the messaging when the "Great Drake" takes your silvers implies you are inside him.



#12139: Lava Hands
[The Rift]
Lava boils over the ground, leaving you only narrow trails to walk between the streams of molten stone. Sticking out from the liquid rock are grasping hands, seeking assistance although surely the people they are attached to are dead. Suddenly, a body erupts from the magma. A scream of agony tears from its lips before the roiling river drags it back under.
Obvious paths: northeast, southeast

Interpretation: Reminds me of the Ur-Daemon claw reaching out of the lava in the Glaes Caverns on Teras Isle.

If you skip the Incas and go back up to Mesoamerica, shamans transforming themselves into jaguars (pumas) are called "Nagual." If you rearrange those letters into "Nualga", it is reminiscent of Noralgar. So that might be the other word spliced with Ragnarok and scrambled to form Noralgar, where the letters u and k both get dropped from words in The Broken Lands. The Shadow Valley serpent demon corresponds to the Lovecraft daemon Yig, who is explicitly said to be the basis of Quetzalcoatl.

In the Aztec mythology his rival Tezcatlipoca (god of night, sorcery, deceit) transforms into a jaguar as his nualga form. One myth is he turned into the sun and that made Quetzalcoatl mad (he's the flying snake), another was that they were successive rulers of the sun, destroying the world overthrowing each other. So that might explain the whole puma and snake thing with the Lysierian Hills and Shadow Valley, even though the pumas were put into the game before Shadow Valley was created. Tezcatlipoca's name also means "smoking mirror", referring to Aztec mirrors being made of obsidian. So that might be another reason for the pitch black serpent mirror in Anwyn.


- Xorus' player

"Werejaguars. Half man, half bear, half pig." - Al Gore

Some medieval killer rabbits:
http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2015/04/05/10-medieval-rabbits-didnt-mess-around/

And why:
https://jonkanekojames.com/2015/05/02/why-are-there-violent-rabbits-in-the-margins-of-medieval-manuscripts/

So, pressing the matter of the "fairy ring" further, even though it is older: the nymphs depicted in Castle Anwyn are fairies, the Queen corresponds to Morgan le Fay the elfen / fairy queen (up through the bainsidhe and morgens), fairies are often associated with mounds, and fairies once upon a time were liminal beings between mortals and ghosts/demons associated with witchcraft, where if you were drawn into their fairy world time would pass at a different rate akin to the subtext behind Shadow Valley. This helps motivate why there are nymphs depicted in the room next to the chamber with the huge pentagram that opened up with a fissure leading deep into the earth.

There is a common poem of unknown origin sometimes misattributed to Shakespeare (but he talks about fairy rings in Macbeth, Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, and more, so I might have to dig through those especially Dream which is about ancient Greek fairy kingdom) possibly relevant given the silent room messaging:

If you see a fairy ring

In a field of grass,

Very lightly step around,

Tiptoe as you pass;

Last night fairies frolicked there,

And they're sleeping somewhere near.

If you see a tiny fay

Lying fast asleep,

Shut your eyes and run away,

Do not stay or peep;

And be sure you never tell,

Or you'll break a fairy spell.

The other room with the trees possibly "massing for an assault" in this case would allude to the forest moving on the castle Macbeth, per the witches misleading prophecy, and the Battle of the Trees (Cad Goddeu) from Taliesin about the king of Annwn where the sorcerer Gwydion animates the trees, and there is an account of the birth of Blodeuwedd who was made of flowers of the field which I've speculated is archaically related to Onar. You might also think about The Two Towers from Lord of the Rings, which has the Ent battle at Isengard, which is possibly fair enough since Risper quoted Faramir's line in Henneth Annun from that book at the end of the Vvrael quest.

In any event, I'm going to try to connect all of this tree battle and witchcraft and prophecy and fairy rings through Macbeth, where you have that famous cauldron scene. (The whole point of the holy grail from the Welsh precursors is the magical cauldron becoming a cup in later stories.) I've noticed that most of the ingredients in that spell can be interpreted as present or had been present in the Lysierian Hills region. Fairy rings also grow on old pastures, linking with the horses / mares thing.

First Witch

Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.[1]

Second Witch

Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined.

Third Witch

Harpier cries 'Tis time, 'tis time.[2]

First Witch

Round about the cauldron go;

In the poison'd entrails throw.

Toad, that under cold stone

Days and nights has thirty-one

Swelter'd venom sleeping got,

Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.

ALL

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

Second Witch

Fillet of a fenny snake,[3]

In the cauldron boil and bake;

Eye of newt and toe of frog[4],

Wool of bat and tongue of dog[5],

Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting[6],

Lizard's leg and owlet's wing [7],

For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

ALL

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Third Witch

Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,[8]

Witches' mummy, maw and gulf[9]

Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark,

Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark,[10]

Liver of blaspheming Jew,[11]

Gall of goat, and slips of yew

Silver'd in the moon's eclipse,

Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips,

Finger of birth-strangled babe[12]

Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,

Make the gruel thick and slab:

Add thereto a tiger's chaudron[13],

For the ingredients of our cauldron.

ALL

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Second Witch

Cool it with a baboon's blood,[14]

Then the charm is firm and good.

Enter HECATE to the other three Witches

HECATE

O well done! I commend your pains;

And every one shall share i' the gains;

And now about the cauldron sing,

Live elves and fairies in a ring,

Enchanting all that you put in.

Music and a song: 'Black spirits,' & c

HECATE retires

Second Witch

By the pricking of my thumbs,

Something wicked this way comes.

Open, locks,

Whoever knocks!

Enter MACBETH

Hecate is an underworld goddess of sorcery in Greek mythology. Her line about elves and fairies is about the fairy rings of mushrooms. Macbeth walks in right after this and has them summon apparitions who give prophecies that he interprets means he will be king and cannot be vanquished. The "double, double" part of their spell refers to the fact that it all has double meanings. They're actually saying he is doomed. The Turk, Tartar, Jew, and baby thing are about being unbaptized. The roundabout relevance of this is that the version of the holy grail they used for Castle Anwyn was the "wondrous stone" associated with the fall of Lucifer in his war on heaven.

- Xorus' player


[1] "brinded" means the cat is striped, like the striped warcats.

[2] Harpies are bird people things in Greek mythology, they'd bring evildoers to the Furies who were formed from castration of a Titan. Anwyn's birds. Blodeuwedd.

[3] There are snakes all over the place around Castle Anwyn, and then the Shadow Valley tie-in.

[4] Newt's are little lizards, which are in the Broken Lands cavern. Frogs you have leapers, the transformation curse subtexts. Toads in Broken Lands.

[5] Bats you have batwinged things like vruul. Dogs you have hell hounds, (were)wolves, leapers.

[6] Adders are more snakes. Blindworms are snake-like lizards predated upon by cats. Roa'ters are mentioned outside Anwyn, subtextually there should be roa'ter like beasts in the Broken Land's bone pit.

[7] Lizards again you have the dark grotto. And myklian. There is an owl in Castle Anwyn.

[8] Dragon is the winged wyrm of Shadow Valley. Wolf is the wolf references and Arthurian werewolf subtext in Castle Anwyn. And the leapers.

[9] Witches' mummy is the fake body of the sorcerous queen in Castle Anwyn's crypt.

[10] Hemlock is etched on the tree trunk in the firecat caves, which is very dark and lit only by glowing lichen.

[11] There is a mezuzah in the castle barracks, a Jewish declaration of fealty to God. The room is hellish. Transcendentally cold like The Graveyard.

[12] Daephron Illian.

[13] Chauldron is entrails. Tiger is close enough to puma.

[14] The Krolvin. I'm not sure about the shark thing. Can't get 'em all.