Legacies of Charlemagne

The most difficult aspect of using an ancient book is being able to read its contents. Sometimes it’s a simple matter of finding an expert who will do the translating for you; sometimes even this is not enough. The older the book in question, the less likely that the contents will be understood, due to linguistic changes, vowel shifts, archaic alphabets, codes or ciphers, idiomatic expressions or references to concepts or events which are no longer available to a modern audience. In fact, the whole process of translation is a minefield of questions and conundrums, many of which will never be overcome. In the world of the Mythos, these issues are ever-present and some of the difficulties which Investigators will encounter are listed below.

Each of the following languages and alphabets has a listed Difficulty that comes into play when an attempt to translate a work in which they are used is attempted; this is an additional mechanic and may be ignored if the Keeper so desires. Some languages are so archaic or rare that an initial Idea Roll must be made just to identify them and begin the translation effort. Similarities with other languages add benefits and these are listed here also.

Also listed are Mythos and other texts which are written in the listed language and which may be used to identify and help translate an unknown block of text. Bonuses to interpretation are listed parenthetically near each tome. The mere presence of one of these books in an investigator’s library will allow an unmodified Idea Roll to identify the language or alphabet in question.

Finally, where available, a work – academic or otherwise – which acts as a key to the translation of a language or alphabet by offering comparison examples in two or more languages, are listed as a kind of ‘Rosetta Stone’ for the language or alphabet in question.

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The Westphalian Alphabet

Charlemagne’s creation of the Westphalian state as a means of controlling and maintaining his captured Saxon lands led to the inception of a new culture. The Westphalian (“West Welsh”) melting pot saw the creation of a new dialect and alphabet to enable trade and communication amongst its peoples. This was a blend of Frankish, Gothic and various Celtic tongues all toeing the Latin Church line. The results are fairly plain to see in the resultant alphabet: Gothic and Etruscan letter-forms march side-by-side with Runes and even some vaguely Arabic styles. The influence which it had on the Vehmic Alphabet (and the Inquisitorial one afterwards) is obvious, although Westphalian is not based upon the Latin phonetic set in the way that that system is.

More influential than the written language of this people is perhaps their attitude towards the land and its control which was most likely heightened by their being a displaced and blended culture. The Westphalians organised themselves by a system of ‘forest lore’, with parcels of land in the control of local lords and their foresters; these men had the ability to dispense their masters’ justice as they saw fit. As these ‘forest police’ grew more organised, they – ironically – took on aspects of the previous pagan worship which they had been brought in to replace. Such concepts as ‘The Wild Hunt’, ‘Forest Men’, even ‘Robin Hood’, all descend from this cultural appropriation. Of course the most pernicious creation of the Westphalian region was the Vehmgericht, or Secret Tribunal, established by Charlemagne whose links to blood and the land, and later to the Inquisition, no doubt inspired the Teutonic revivals of the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries.

Difficulty:                             Hard: Idea Roll:

Works in this Language:    None

‘Rosetta Stone’:                   None

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The Vehmic Alphabet

According to tradition, Charlemagne established the Vehmgericht in the German Catholic areas of his kingdom after 772 AD to enforce his will upon the recently suppressed Pagan Saxon tribes. As part of his war of attrition against them, he forcibly moved over 30,000 Saxons across the Rhine and replaced them with an equivalent number of devout “West Gauls” who became known as the Westphalians.

The Vehmgericht was established by five knights who enacted vigilante justice upon any Saxons who railed against the rule imposed upon them. The word “vehm” is said to derive from the German word for tree – baum – and is indicative of the tendency of this cadre to decorate forests with the hanged bodies of their victims. In time, this bloodthirsty unit attracted the attention of another organisation with similar interests, that of quelling non-believers – the Inquisition. It can be no coincidence that the Vehmic Alphabet and that adopted by the Inquisition bear marked similarities.

Difficulty:                             Slight: Idea Roll x 2

Works in this Language:    None

‘Rosetta Stone’:                   None

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The Inquisitorial Alphabet

Most people would not be too surprised to learn that the Inquisition, that instrument of terror deployed by fanatical Popes throughout European history, used a series of codes to hide the nature of the correspondence between their agents. What is surprising is that this invented written language was based largely on alchemical and Hebrew symbols. For an organisation heaven-bent on wiping out heretics across the globe it seems more than a little hypocritical of them to have borrowed their enemy’s alphabets as inspiration for their secret codes. To add insult to injury, it’s also a very simple replacement code that’s laborious to write, so what they gained from it is anybody’s guess.

Difficulty:                             Slight: Idea Rollx2

Works in this Language:    Codex Maleficium (+20%); Zekerboni (+10%)

‘Rosetta Stone’:                   None

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Codex Maleficium

Along with the Codex Dagonensis, the Codex Spitalski (aka. The Leprous Book) and the Cthaat Aquadingen, the Codex Maleficium first appeared in northern Germany around the year 400 AD and was possibly meant to be identical with them. Scholarship has posited the notion that the book was originally written in German or Gothic, or derived from sources in those languages: it could be that all four of these works are in fact the same book, compiled and written in four different locations and intended to be called the Cthaat Aquadingen, given that text’s mangled German (or Gothic)/Latin title. However, later amendments and additions have rendered the book unable to be reintegrated as a single volume and it now stands alone as a discrete text.

The Codex Maleficium was captured and named early after its discovery by the Inquisition and removed to the holdings of the Holy Roman Empire; it now resides within the Vatican and access to it is severely restricted. Transcriptions of the work were prepared, heavily edited and annotated, coded in the Inquisitorial Alphabet, to be used as a reference work for Vatican agents. These copies refrain from outlining the ritual procedures of the text, preferring to gloss over material deemed too blasphemous for the tastes of holy warriors. Excerpts from other captured books were also included in this printing as a means of comparing, codifying and contrasting the practices of disparate heretical groups.

Like the Codex Dagonensis, the Codex Maleficium contains information on the Elder Sign, incantations designed to thwart magical summoning, the Nyhargo Dirge for dealing with the corporeal undead and several Tsathogguan rituals. Unlike any of the other related books, this is the only source for the First Sathlatta; what this incantation may do is unknown, a situation which will likely not change until the Vatican removes their restrictions of access.

(Source: Brian Lumley, The Cyprus Shell)

Latin; Author(s) unknown; circa. 400 AD; 1d6/2d6 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +10 percentiles; 32 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: Affect Weather; Call Dagon; Call Mother Hydra; Call Tsathoggua; Contact Deep One; Contact Tsathoggua; Elder Sign; “First Sathlatta”; Nyhargo Dirge; Summon/Bind Formless Spawn

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The Vatican transcriptions of this work are notorious for having been blunted in their effectiveness: much of the brain-searing content has been eliminated and the spells are always incomplete leaving, more often than not, just a gloss of what the intention of the spell is and nothing more. Arguably, much of the SAN loss from reading these texts comes from the tedium of having to decode the text from the mind-bogglingly stupid Inquisitorial Alphabet!

Latin, in the Inquisitorial Alphabet; transcriber(s) unknown; various editions, post 400 AD; 1/1d4 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +3 percentiles; 4 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: None

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The Zekerboni

The Zekerboni was transcribed from an unknown source by coven-leader Pietro Mora in 1630; Mora and his followers were arrested and executed in 1631 for practising witchcraft and for initiating outbreaks of the plague. A handful of copies of Mora’s manuscript were published by the Inquisition to use as evidence in stamping out further instances of heresy inspired by the coven-leader’s pernicious influence and it was thought that all copies had been burned at the conclusion of the investigation. This was evidently not the case, as a bill of sale in the estate of a noted Piedmontese family shows that a copy was sold to a French nobleman in 1744. Other copies may have also escaped the flames but, if so, their whereabouts are unknown.

As a precaution against exposure to its blasphemous contents, all copies of this dreaded work were treated with a virulent contact poison, soaked into the boards and bindings; some reports also claim that the paper and ink used in the printing were similarly treated. Contact by a reader while not wearing gloves necessitates a CON Roll versus a POT 10 poison: a failed roll means that the poison begins to take effect, after being absorbed through the skin, in 30 minutes. Initial effects are numbness and a cold feeling in the fingers and hands, which spreads over 12 hours, finally causing paralysis and death by suffocation and cardiac arrest.

(Source: Keith Herber, et al, The Compact Arkham Unveiled)

Italian, written in the Inquisitorial Alphabet; Pietro Mora; 1630; 1d2/1d10 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +12 percentiles; 30 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: Unknown