Valarn is a city of many faces. During its rich history, countless people fought for the right to define history and create meaning. Many documents remain until this day and the package on the rustic table is no exception. A cord keeps together a variety of objects. First of many is a single page. It looks like it has been torn from a book. A handwritten note at the top marks which book it was from.

Ryckwat, Elrawn: Notes on Cleanliness

Published: 1187 pd, Greater Hall of Letterievalism. Excerpt on the triumvirate of rites.

[The letters are weathered with ink quickly fading away. Needless Serifs make it hard to read the document]

such as the rites of cleaning. Alexey states “There is no doubt in my mind that the rise of Valarn triveth [there’s a dried out note on the side: Linked? Brought about?] the three rites” (Kalyminz 301 pd, pagarum 471). Six hundred years of scientific inquiry have seen this unchallenged until Saskia Alooren’s thesis ‘On the importance of hygiene’ (Alooren 960 pd). She states, “It’s rather that the divinely mandated hygiene gave rise to the Dalman Theocracy. The divine insistence prevented diseases and infections while improving the quality of life” (Alooren 960 pd, pagarum 19).

Saskia makes reference to the letters of the apostate Rimaldi, wherein he describes “With filth comes provda [another note on the side reads: Power or Might] over the evil spirits. It can bring disease and sickness by malada [note says: Likely reference to the idea of bad air?], does it not stand to reason that we can achieve ways to surmount this by embracing filth?” (Rimaldi 300 pd).

Today, we have a greater understanding and found truth in both perspectives. Hygiene allowed us to suppress many diseases (as evidenced by Ruttenmeier 1180 pd, pagarum 291 pd), but it is with filth that we learned to fight infections (see Kraszenlivisc 1022, Witt 1050 on Breadbreath [a translation note at the corner lists Breadbreath as bread grown stale with the grasp of green]. There is much ado about whether the divine decree has brought us a way to stem disease or prevented us from finding ways to cure it. The answer, this paper reckons, will say much about our relationship with the divine.

[There’s a short note scribbled at the bottom. It lists various names, amongst them Rimaldi, Elrawn, and Alooren. Each of them is crossed with a circle around the sentence ‘executed for divine heresy’]

The sheet ends there. Tugged underneath is a tattered map of a village with another torn out page glued to the back.

[https://i.imgur.com/TrynlNj.png]

Talaron Region, 35 123 inhabitants, 3 491 in Alvesdorf (1009 census). Founded: 508 in Alvesdorf.

Excerpt from the Atlas Divinisia

It is strongly advised to avoid traveling to the Talaron Region. The drab forests and fields offer little to the stimulant mind and only the three largest cities can offer a modicum of civility. The centerpiece to this region of barbaric traitors is the Von Alveshorn Burg at the top of Alvesdorf.

Stolen by the Traitor Alveshorn during the unrests following the abdication of the Dalman Theocracy, this once summer-residence saw itself fortified into a minor fortress. During a short-lived period, the region declared itself independent and dared the mighty capital by taking the fields as threat. Valarn and the divine negotiated peacefully and Alveshorn saw the error of his way. He died in shame by jumping off the tallest tower. Those that helped the capital see through the transition, have been rewarded with nobility. [An insert leaflet tells a different story: The Theocracy, still clinging to power, burned the fields down and risked years of famine, simply to execute the traitor lord, his family, his friends, and their family. The torture instruments are still on display in the Von Alveshorn Burg hundreds of years later].

Despite the leniency of the wise capital, Talaron has never found it within themselves to fully embrace civilization, although they do keep to the faiths nowadays. Their inferior mind is made most obvious by their droll insistence on keeping the Jiesherzen language alive. Do not indulge these rebellious manners, if you must visit there.

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Notable families from Talaron: Basrenminn, Ivel, Zuresti (the latter was naturalized into Valarn Aristocracy)

The notes on Talaron don't end there. What follows is a register of various misdeeds owed to individuals. It's an impressive number of crimes that suggests that Talaron people really are murderous brutes but when it is compared to the years, it's obvious that some creative liberty in presenting the information has been taken. Propaganda is a Valarn pastime, after all. That's something the next document can attest.

[This is a collection of handwritten notes that had been stuffed into an envelope. The envelope itself has been labeled Valarn Propaganda]

Turesai People – (spoken as Tu as in Tuesday, res and ai as in eye)

- Turesai once lived in Hanressin [a map of the city is part of the notes - or so it says. It's absent.]

- City abandoned once Divine Faith grew prominent.

- Turesai Women considered amicable and highly desirable.

- Turesai Men said to be volatile and untrustworthy.

- All Turesai are apostates by blood.

[The inside of the envelope contains a set of notes expanding on the various findings. It marks the deliberate political nature of these assumptions and then offers an alternative explanation]

The Turesai actually did live in Hanressin as a sort of rival city. Valarn threatened them with war and thanks to the support of the divine, they were invincible. The Turesai were forced into nomadic exile as a result. The people were often used as scapegoats for catastrophes due to their denial of the Valarn Gods. Ever since the abolishment of discrimination in 1097, they are once more considered people, but old resentments die hard. True peace is unlikely at this point in time [this is circled many times]

The next item is a book. It's not that old, perhaps a dozen years at most. The cover has been burned out and the seal of banishment is placed on the lid of the book. Opening it up, the preamble speaks of the purpose this book once sought.

Leichtmeisterin Funjier, Marie: Lirum, larum, much arcanum

Published: 1190 pd, Greater Hall of Letterievalism. Old Men’s Magecrafts. Preamble.

The book in front of you is testament to years of my work on the state of arcane magic in Valarn. Years ago, when I was but a fresh Scientis at the Academy of Applied Divine Mechanisms (henceforth ADM), I was obsessed with the era before the divine. When Prince Cathrion in divis Deliaster re-opened the vaults for the public, my colleagues at the ADM came to call me the dusty cellar cat.

How could I resist digging up centuries of sealed knowledge? If the Dalman Theocracy had one saving grace, it was their urge to catalog everything. Every letter of correspondence, each banished book, even documents about judgments had been written down and sealed away in the royal vaults. While many historians sought to reconstruct the era of insanity, my purpose was a different one.

What had caused the disappearance of magic? Pretty quickly, my enthusiasm infected my colleagues and together we proudly present to you this collaborative effort in bringing the knowledge of the arcane back into the modern days of the divine.

Leichtmeisterin Injas will lead the way with a theory on magic constructs and the lasting effect of magical enchantments. It is her firm belief that many of the now dormant structures can be brought back with minimal effort.

Leichtmeister Orenheimer picks up the feather in the second chapter. His work on merging divine with arcane magic has turned many heads in recent years. With the knowledge we found, he makes a proposal to resurface the aptitude tests.

Third in this tome will be Grandmeister Romlan. He broke the mold in 1182 when he suggested that divine magic can be achieved with the use of alchemy. This inspiring colleague needs little introduction and we’re grateful for his article on the transformation of alchemy.

In collaboration with Grandmeisterin Ollienis, I will examine the close relationship of arcane with early male brotherhood cults and their fear of the divine in the fourth chapter. We will lay out for everyone to see that before the cults of filth, there was a balance between male and female magicians.

The fifth chapter will be of historical purpose. It will explain the now debunked believe-system behind the god Abyss and the entropic loss of energy. Today we know energy is eternal, but even back then skeptics doubted the mandated truth. It’s this chapters goal to bring this to light.

The sixth paper establishes a theory on the diminished interest in magic. It works around the various cultural aspects – including the Tharekter movement in 908. Grandmeister Layeres provides this and the next chapter, which will go into great detail on all manner of cultural phenomena.

Dear scientis, it’s our belief that this work will provide ample opportunity to further the needs of knowledge in face of divine tyranny. For this purpose, we have obtained the rights to print Supreme Grandmeisterin Gahars legendary lecture for the first time ever. Her work ‘Why women didn’t kill spellcasting but neither did men’ earned her the ire of the Enlightenment Bureau, but with the opening of the vaults, we can now prove her suspicions and reveal the role of the divine in mortal matters.

[The actual book has been censored to the point of complete uselessness. Entire pages are missing, others have so many words stricken out that little remains but the chapter titles and random words here and there. A selection of 'the, a, and, the, then' is all that's left]