Parthos Wiki: The Death of Sigilstar Hall

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The Death of Sigilstar Hall

Relevant Knowledges: History, Literature, Religion

The death of Sigilstar Hall is synonymous with the life of Tehriol the Archivist.

For as long as anyone could remember, Tehriol was deeply fascinated with the past, more comfortable in the dusty chronicles of ancient history than with events in the present. He would spend days exploring and learning about many subjects, but one topic enchanted him more than any other: the corruption of man. It fired his mind, particularly the history of the corrupt deities and their contagious characteristics: the fall of twins-touched men to their perverted faith, the stumbling zombies of once-proud heroes, even the spread of depravity among the righteous. But as much as the cherished tomes of history intrigued him, he always felt that he got only part of the story.

Tehriol’s unquenchable hunger for knowledge led him to the Phet S’nar faith and, following years of estimable dedication, to the coveted position of Head Archivist in the Sigilstar Hall. But even decades were unable to dilute his dark interests. He used the prestige of his position to spend weeks buried in sleepless study, locked in musty cellars where dangerous texts were banished from the light of day. His innocent curiosity in depravity evolved into unhealthy obsession; the skin of his face sagged and sallowed, his eyes sank behind dark lids, and his involvement with the library diminished.

With Tehriol’s supervision, the Sigilstar Hall acquired the The Profane Tear, a villainous tome – allegedly dictated by the crazed god Maol himself to a blind and mute madman among his faithful, who used strips of his own flesh for parchment – stolen from the depths of Pafund Mal. Tehriol was fascinated, combing through the dry, fragile pages with ceaseless zeal. What the book contained is today only speculated, but Tehriol shared tantalizing snippets of his research with his closest colleagues. With their support, the entire hall was set to the task of recreating an enormous undertaking described by cramped writing, strange diagrams, and bizarre schematics penned by an otherworldly hand. It took more than a year, but the Sigilstar Hall recreated a massive orrery: a clockwork machine marking the passage of the planes as they traverse and revolve, unseen, through the great Ether.

What exactly happened when Tehriol activated the completed machinery is a matter debated among usually-confident scholars. A widely-supported hypothesis asserts that the orrery was a device intended to open a gateway between the material plane and the Abyss. Others suggest the contraption was some sort of focus for Maol’s corruption, disguised as an ornamental measuring instrument.

Whatever the device’s intentions – because it is not widely believed the device failed – the great library was unscathed but The Profane Tear, the orrery, and those present at the machine’s completion were never seen again. Members of the hall absent from the machine’s completion were found days and weeks later, wandering naked in the wilds and plagued with incurable states of blindness, rage, and insanity. The hall’s great libraries were raided in the researchers’ stead and centuries’ worth of forbidden knowledge was released onto the world, spawning a sudden rise in occult activity across Parthysis. The halls were never repopulated by the Phet S’nar faithful, the place justifiably condemned as a madhouse, and the stories of Tehriol and his preternatural devise left to conjecture, lore, and an often-recited cautionary tale.

Parthos Wiki : sigilstardeath

The Death of Sigilstar Hall