As mentioned in my first post, I have been researching the actual history behind the Liber Juratus (or the Sworne Book Of Horonius) for the better part of a month. And I continue to find the source text amazingly rich: the only surviving manuscript of the Liber Sacer, is housed in the Sloane Collection in the British National Library, and is believed to be at one time a prized possession of legendary occultist - mathematician John Dee. A heinous archive of enchantments and nigromany, it is said that the book along with all its copies should be buried with their owners and those who transcribe it without permission are damnable souls. Now that’s a serious copyright penalty. The book has also been connected to a number of other infamous medieval writings, such as the Greater Key of Solomon and the despised Grimoire of Pope Horonius.

So, while the Necronomicon sounds jazzy…we’re talking about the original here.

And speaking of the old “Liber Mortuorum”, I have begun the enjoyable task of re-reading a few volumes of H.P Lovecraft. A favorite of morduun, it has been noted that much of what takes place within our story follows a Lovecraft-ian - curiosity killed the cat sensibility. A deliberate choice to push sanity and good sense aside for the sake of exploration, with the end result being a rotting of the soul and a fate far worse than death. As we have discussed, the game design itself is reliant upon this fact; our ‘hero’, the Lord Inquisitor, must make his choice: to use the corruption of magic to save his skin, but damn his soul, or take the higher road and punish the flesh.

I took these notions into consideration as I began rewriting the “Trithemius - Discovery of the Liber Juratus” flashback this weekend. Hopefully, I will be able to share a bit of script with you soon!

- Baron Wasteland

This entry was posted on Monday, November 5th, 2007 at 9:24 am and is filed under Story.