Sunday, 4 November 2012

God's Lost Children, Part 2 - The Turner Codex



This text is a series of over 100 copper plates, each bearing the hammered glyphs of what appears to be the Mayan system of writing. They were discovered in 1891 by the eccentric explorer Maplethorpe Turner who was shown two of the plates whilst investigating a small village named Rio Craso in Guatemala, deep in the jungles of Petén. Investigation found that the plates had washed downstream from a Mayan ruin which had collapsed beneath the force of a recent hurricane. The locals had assumed that the ruin was simply a hill and no-one had explored it previously. Turner probed within the eroded edifice and found the remainder of the plates.

Each plate is made from a copper-like material and is rectangular, measuring 8” by 7½” and ¼” thick. All of the plates bear two columns of hieroglyphs which, upon cursory examination, appear very similar to the standard Mayan alphabet; a closer look will reveal however, that there are significant differences between this script and the Mayan glyphs. Metallurgical analysis of the plates will reveal that they resist oxidisation and scarring by acid; as well, if bent out of shape, they will slowly return to their original shape within several minutes. A Cthulhu Mythos roll will determine that this material is called ‘yal’, or ‘copper from above’, a metallic substance referenced in many Mythos tomes.

The matter of the text involves the religious and historical events of a colony of Muvian refugees who fled from the destruction of their homeland to establish a new home in the Guatemalan heartland. This kingdom, known as Hemaerpi, covered large territories in Guatemala and Belize and began a steady decline into decadence, worshipping a bloodthirsty deity known as Qai-Hwann. The civilisation erupted into bloody warfare and rebellion and was eventually wiped out by neighbouring states, leaving only the metal plates as testament to their existence, locked within their last hidden temple.

(Source: Keith Herber, Cthulhu Now: “The Evil Stars”, Chaosium, 1992)

Archaic Mayan Glyphs (-30% to Skill); Great Priest Dha-khurpa; Petén, Guatemala; 1d3/2d4+1 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +5 percentiles; skill check to Hieratic Naacal; Anthropology +1; 16 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: “Great Prayer of Dha-khurpa” (Call/ Dismiss Hastur), “Instrument of T’ezcha Ha’ptl” (Chime of Tezchaptl), “Song of Qai-hwann” (Song of Hastur), “Preparation of the Guardian” (Bind Byakhee), “Preparation of the Xocoatl of the Sky” (Brew Space Mead), “The Unbreakable Pact” (Unspeakable Promise), “Sanctification of the Stones” (Free Hastur)

Maplethorpe Turner returned with the plates to the United States and began the difficult task of trying to translate them. Undeterred by the dearth of available knowledge regarding the Mayan hieroglyphs, he questioned several authorities in the Boston area and set to the task with a will. In a very short period of time he became obsessed with the work, estranging himself from his family and ruining his financial stability. His reading of Otto Dostmann’s Remnants of Lost Empires and discovery of certain parallels between the glyphs on the plates and certain carvings at sites along the Pacific Rim, allowed him to complete his translation by 1901.

A difficulty arose however, since no publisher seemed willing to produce the book. Turner’s lack of connexion to any mainstream academic institution stood against him, along with his notorious disregard of academia in general; as well, he had become increasingly paranoid about the plates and steadfastly refused to let anyone see them. Understandably, many publishers were unwilling to turn their hands to what might most likely turn out to be a hoax. In the end, Turner used the remnants of his fortune to self-publish the work in 1902, under the title Rites of the Ancient Maya Revealed. The book was panned by the critics and received the coolest of receptions by the academic world. Turner became disillusioned and ever more reclusive, before dying in 1911. A fire which destroyed his estate and which was blamed on his youngest son, Wordsworth Turner, also destroyed the original plates.

English; Maplethorpe Turner: Rites of the Ancient Maya Revealed – The Turner Codex; Boston, 1902; 1d2/1d6 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +4 percentiles, Anthropology +1 percentile, Hieratic Naacal +1 percentile; 3 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: “Great Prayer of Kaiwan” (Call/Dismiss Hastur), “Chime of Tezchaptl”, “Preparation of the Xocoatl” (Brew Space Mead), “The Unspeakable Oath” (Unspeakable Promise), “Rite of the Stones” (Free Hastur)

In the late 1960s, an informal Spanish version of the book was circulated among the faculty of Mexico’s Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia (“National School of Anthropology and History”). This translation focussed only lightly upon the plates themselves and sought to highlight the background to their discovery and the efforts of Maplethorpe Turner in discovering them, arguing that similar finds may still be waiting in the Guatemalan wilderness. This Photostatted version is very hard to find and has the following statistics:

Spanish; translator unknown: Ritos de los Mayas antiguos reveladores; Photocopied manuscript, Mexico, late 1960s; 1/1d4 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +3 percentiles, Anthropology +1 percentile; 3 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells:Para crear el carillón del Tezchaptl” (Enchant Chime of Tezchaptl)

Facing financial ruin due to his father’s single-minded push to produce his magnum opus, Wordsworth Turner launched a different approach in restoring the family fortune. Having worked as his father’s research assistant during the initial translation of the Codex, Wordsworth was able to duplicate as many as 10 copies of the manuscript by hammering copied glyphs into sheets of copper roofing material. These, he sold off to interested parties for anything up to US$500.00 apiece. Sadly, one of these eager investors was William Randolph Hearst who, like any good newspaperman, decided to check his sources before committing himself. Discovered, Wordsworth Turner torched the family home to claim the insurance and to hide the evidence of his fraud and then skipped to Guatemala where he scraped together a living as a translator for archaeological teams. He was found self-strangled in Santo Domingo in 1933 under suspicious, but not unexpected, circumstances.

At least one copy of this faked work is held in the inventory of the Smithsonian Institute and it has been shown several times as part of a display of bogus antiquities labelled “Apocryphal Mayan text, c. 1915”.

Archaic Mayan Glyphs (-30% to Skill); Wordsworth Turner; Boston, 1913; 0/0 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +0 percentiles; 1 week to study and comprehend

Spells: None; however, since the glyphs represented are taken en bloc from the original plates, a successful Luck roll will grant a Cthulhu Mythos +1 bonus


In the late 1980s, musician Brian Lochnar produced several albums, together with his bandmates in God’s Lost Children, with lyrics which he claimed were derived from the Turner Codex. After his death in 1987, occult publishers Phantastic Productions sought to capitalise on the dead singer’s fame by producing a low-rent, occult, ‘tell-all’ publication, claiming to reveal “the secrets behind the music”. From the Library of Brian Lochnar – the Secrets of the Turner Codex was a shabby effort, combining publicity shots of the band with gory imagery culled from Aztec, Olmec and Mayan art with little or no relevance to the Turner Codex. In fact, the text of the book vacillates in referring to the ‘Codex as the “Turner Codex” or the “Tumer Codex”. The book is laced heavily with lyrics from God’s Lost Children’s songs, guitar tabs, and allegedly similar texts from other surviving Mayan Codices (none of which have stood up to academic scrutiny). The book was only printed once; a later publication in the same year - Conversations with Lochnar – a collection of dialogues with the singer as relayed by ten different US psychics with whom he was ‘in contact’ after his death, was a better seller and even spent two weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List in 1989.

(Source: Bret Kramer, “Notes on the Turner Codex”)

English; Phantastic Productions; Los Angeles, 1988; 0/1 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +0 percentiles; 1 week to study and comprehend

Spells: None

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