A note on the possible upper potential 
of faerie chain use: It is said that when 
Grandmaster Leafless Lei Zhao's hut 
was robbed by New Nicene thieves ten 
years ago, she used her blue lily 
chains as a focus to twist their hideout 
in on itself until it opened to the night 
air, allowing Grandmaster Zhao to 
properly perform a locator spell. As 
Grandmaster Zhao is ever unfailingly 
polite, she even fixed the twisted limbs 
of the thieves before turning them into 
the authorities. However, Grandmaster 
Zhao has not confirmed or denied 
these claims, and will repeatedly 
request to be brought chocolate 
raspberry tea when questioned about 
that incident. (Which is her response to 
most requests from people who can't 
take a hint.) — Zatta Sounding Song1!5 


Doubt 


| see it falls to me to say it: I'm not certain we 
should be encouraging these to be made by so 
many students. It's improper. Additionally, 
anything that carries the effect of a "ward of 
protection" tends to be relied on excessively by 
the foolish. — RR 


My complaint is simpler: must we bear such 
excess focus on the "aesthetically pleasing" 
magical creations? Shamble-cratting is just as 
useful a practice for prospective 

thaumotologists. This will simply lead to 
excessive conflation of 'magic' with ‘beauty’, not 
to mention encouraging too many of the frivolous 
to partake in our ancient art. —S.D.N. 


Jesus, is all this really such a bad thing? If the 
"frivolous" want to be "thaumotologists", is that 
really such an issue? You guys. —Iris J. 


Listen. Do you all know what you're 
dealing with? These little... quilting 
parties of yours? This goes against the 
very heart and soul of magic. Once 
mage practitioners were all about 
esoterica, about mystery, hidden 
knowledge, about puzzles for the 
worthy to prove themselves. Gnosis 
should come at a steep price, always. 
These... children, weaving your fairy 
chains... they are in and of themselves 
an insult to the Spirit of Magic. If you 
plan to throw the gates wide open, you 
had best be prepared to deal with the 
cherubim with their flaming swords. — 
Unsigned 


Just ignore the old fogey occulists, guys. We 
may be stuck with the ones not human enough 


to join up with Big Brother — that's the Global 
Occult Coalition, to those of you just joining us 
— but that doesn't mean we have to listen to 
them. We're the Serpent's Hand. We're about 
spreading knowleage, not hiding it. —Iris J. 


Do not pretend we are an ideological monolith. 
Not all under the Serpent's Banner support this 
agenda of the normalization of the ineffable. — 
Tsagadar Raven-Eye 


Oh, yeah, because the whole Garden thing 
would've worked SO much better if the Serpent 
decided to hand over the fruit of the tree of 
knowleage of good and evil if and only if Eve 
could travel through all of the First Nine Worlds, 
complete a diary about her pilgrimage through 
the Ravelwoods, solve a series of logic puzzles 
and get three Ph.D.s in navel gazing. Would that 
be enough to satisfy you, oh High Mage of the 
Raven Eye? —Sier N. 


You all know that's the Serpent thing is a 
metaphor, right? It didn't really happen? It's part 
of a (fictional) Biblical story? —Jack Peterson III 


...okay I'm suddenly thinking Raven-Eye has a 
point. We should kick Jack Peterson III out of the 
Library. And probably Jack Petersons | and II 
with him. Something all sides can agree on! — 
Sier N. 


Jack Peterson III: The very fact that you are 
asking that question shows your basic lack of 
knowleage. Is this your first day in the Library, 
little whelp? You are a symptom of a cancer too 
great to be expressed in these small words. 
Regardless, this conversation is beneath my 
status. | shall not be further contributing. — 
Tsagadar Raven-Eye 


In response to Iris J.: We're not about hiding 
knowleage unless we have to be, | should point 
out. There's a time and a season for everything 
and for everything a time and a season, if you'll 
pardon me butchering Ecclesiastes. —M”*. 


There was a time when you would not go up the 
misty mountain nor down into the glen for fear of 
offending the many little men. Now your cities 
are old, your people grow too bold and all that's 
for us are the little lily chains. 

Your arguments offend, and here they must now 
end. Cease your bickering. Stop the fight. Turn 
off the computer and turn out the light. 

Did ye forget that we were abandoned when the 
Christians came? The treaty-bond withers 
without the chains. If you abandon the fae when 
we are extinct you'll have yourselves to blame.— 
Ps. Bsm. 


1. SeeWatanabe et al"Developing an educational fairy 
chain for fun and profit". 

2. Note this is only a ‘helper’ effect, it only helps if you 
want it to or don't mind; an outright mind control effect 
would be taken very seriously! 

3. If you're thinking in percentages, think around 5%, you 
roleplaying game fanatic, you. Don't try to rely on these 
above serious magical techniques. Oh, and don't festoon 
yourself with these to try "min max", that's just 
embarrassing. Not to mention that the effect will be 
lessened for the insult. Children these days... —RR 

4. | use mine to keep wasps out of my hair! Jay~ 

5. A 5% reduction in good feelings is terrible, you feel 
every percentage lost. 

6. When woven with certain crafting techniques, the 
chains may even cause minor harm to the thief, or work 
as a distant focus for certain effects. 

7. Aside from us noting that we aren't noting it. Gotta 
preserve the mystery. 


8. Loyalty terms proposed by Z.S. 

9. For example, they can be used to provide minor 
protection for someone you don't really know, but like or 
sympathize with. 

10. The example in the illustration above uses a much- 
loved potted plant as an expert example. 

11. Yes there is. See "The Impact of Fairy Jinxes on Pork 
Futures" by E.B. White for starters. 

12. Yes, "Men" instead of "Humanity" or "People". It's an 
old title written by crappy monks. What can we say? It's 
alliterative at least, | guess. —Ilris J. 

13. "The Children of Light" references fae, particularly 
faeries (partly as the terms are often used 
interchangeably in classic as well as recent texts); "The 
Children of Dust" references humans. Old, traditional 


names. 
14. Third Chapter, Violet Lantern Waystation, Los 
Angeles, California. 

15. Not the Z.S. who wrote the metaphorical book on 
Apparatuses! | guess I'd be Z.S.S.? I'm not sure why 
signing off with initials is so popular. 


The Lord Of Endowments 


Serpent's Hand Hub » The Lord Of Endowments 


The Lord of Endowments 


The Uplifter of Men, The Godsmaker, Ophiomorphus, 
Azazel 


Conspectus 


The Lord of Endowments is a godlike being that 
claims to facilitate human apotheosis — the 
transfiguration of humans into godhood. It is 
believed by some to have manifested physically 
in the 10th century, but this event was lost to 
history. A small group of adherents credit it as 
responsible for catalyzing human sapience in an 
even earlier manifestation and seek its return to 
the world in order to guide them into apotheosis. 


It is symbolically related to other archetypal 
figures that stand at the boundaries between 
animals, humans, and gods. These similarities 
may relate to a common origin, or are perhaps 
merely a manifestation of the monomyth as it 
relates the fundamental question of what it 
means to be human. 


Dr. 's assistants and found that Dr. "had 
always been obsessive about his work," often working 
long hours, a tendency that was also reported by former 
colleagues. Research assistants reported that Dr. 

had recently begun to exhibit signs of severe stress, 
working around the clock and sleeping for short periods 
of time in his lab so as to devote more time to his work. 
Several interviewees noted that Dr. had recently 
begun to make remarks about "doing the impossible" 
and discovering "the next level of human perception,” but 
that he was secretive about his work and refused to 
allow colleagues and research staff into his laboratory 
beginning three weeks prior to his seizure and 
breakdown. 


Foundation staff searched Dr. 's laboratory and 
found SCP-712-1 mounted to a table with the emitting 
lens aimed at an 18% grey optical target placed 

9907 mm from the emitting lens. On a desk behind 
SCP-712-1 were a single page of handwritten 
calculations describing the two output wavelengths of 
SCP-712, and a journal of notes. SCP-712 is referred to 
simply as "The Machine." The contents of the second 
page detailed observations of SCP-712-1's effects and 
Dr. 's personal notes. The content of the pages 
are transcribed as follows 


Page 1: [DATA EXPUNGED] 
Journal: [DATA EXPUNGED] 


Dr. 's handwriting becomes progressively less 
legible toward the end of the journal as he describes 
growing effects of observing SCP-712. He makes 
several mentions of protecting others and keeping them 
away from SCP-712. 


After reviewing Dr. 's writings, Foundation 
personnel recovered SCP-712. A cover story was 
presented to Dr. 's colleagues and researchers 


explaining that his research into LASER technology had 


Knowledge 


Traits: 

The Lord of Endowments is a divine being and 
as such is primarily composed of spiritual 
energy. It has, however, manifested in physical 
form at least once and has claimed to also have 
manifested in the distant past. Its last vessel was 
said to be a giant humanoid with many devices 
grafted into it. During its last manifestation it had 
altered a man by installing implants similar to its 
own who was sent to spread its teachings as its 
herald. 


Nature: 

The Lord of Endowments claims not to desire 
worship or obedience, but instead seeks to 
rebuild humanity into a new form with the 
powers of gods. It shows active contempt for 
human institutions, religions, moral systems and 
governments. It scorns conservatism of all kinds, 
and encourages a redefinition of humanity. 


History & Associated Parties: 

At sometime in the 10th century C.E. the Lord of 
Endowments manifested somewhere in the Atlas 
Mountains. It uplifted its herald and began to 
attract a small group of followers. These 
followers clashed first with Muslims, who saw 
them as dangerous apostates and associated 
the Lord of Endowments with Iblis; then later 
fought with the Christian Kingdoms of Northern 
Spain who apparently confused them with 
Islamic invaders. These teachings spread north 
into Spain and east throughout North Africa, but 
little remains of this movement today. The herald 
was believed to be immortal, but has also been 
lost to history. 


No conventional historical record or even oral 
histories exist that chronicle these events, and it 
may be that they were veiled or expunged from 
human memory! by supernatural means. 


In 1975, Maria de Guzman began to channel a 
follower of the Lord of Endowments named 
Israfil; most of our knowledge comes through 
him. 


The Lord tells us that he has come before. He is 
that which gave fire to man, and separated us 
from the animals. 


The Lord has sat alone all the long centuries, 
kept separate from mankind by the jealous gods. 


The Lord of Endowments was betrayed by his 
own herald. The armies of the Caliph Al Hakam? 
came and dismembered him. They slew all of us 
who followed him. They destroyed all our works. 
They rendered us forgotten.3 


— lsrafil (speaking through Maria de Guzman) 


Since then, de Guzman has continued to 
channel Israfil and has gathered a small 
following of practitioners who seek apotheosis. 
They claim that racial memory of the dawn of 
human sapience as facilitated by the Lord of 
Endowments is responsible for the myths of the 
theft of divine fire throughout the world4 and 
associate it with the neo-Ophite serpent of 
wisdom. 


Approach: 

De Guzman claims that it is possible to summon 
the Lord of Endowments into a physical form. 
This would require a portion of the corpse (which 
they claim has survived in a secret tomb and is 
effectively immortal) and a place of power where 


it had been manifest in the past. She and her 
fellow devotees of Israfil's revelations are 
currently searching for both. 


Observations & Stories 


In the Kingdom of Leon, in that year, the 
penultimate eighth of King Bermudo°, a force of 
Moors came up from Cordoba and did battle with 
the forces of the Kingdom at a field north of 
Simancas. As the battle waged, a second force 
of Moors with the heraldry of the Emir's armies, 
as well as chivalry from Castille met in parley 
with the commander of the Leé6n men, Sir 
Alfredo de Simancas, and then joined forces 
with the Ledns against the invader. It was said 
that the first group of Moors were led by a 
soldier from Hell, who had been sent by the 
Devil himself, and that in this way both 
Mohammedan and Christian were pleased to 
fight together against him. 


It was in the autumn of 1089 A.D. that word had 
reached the archbishop of Toledo of a cursed 
cave near a spring in that place, where the Devil 
had hidden his general, after the battle with 
Leon, against the Day of Judgement. It was said 
that if you went down to the cave, this devil 
would speak with you, and that some people had 
done so. So it was that his Grace had 
summoned me from my hermitage to do battle 
with this devil and cast him back to hell. 


| traveled to the place and while at first the 
people were afraid to show me, eventually, after 
| had performed some small miracles and 


healings, they took me down to the cave. There 
was a voice there, and it spoke of things that the 
Church deems heresy, in the manner of that 
related by Hippolytus from the lectures of 
Irenaeus, but was not like other devils | had met 
and | could not, with all my craft, banish it. So 
instead | called on the bones of the earth, and 
sealed up the way down to the cave, though | 
left a channel through which the spring may still 
flow. 


The curious thing, when | returned to that place 
for the founding of the University at Salamanca®, 
was that no man or woman in that town recalled 
the story of the devil cave, even those with 
whom | had spoken with during my earlier visit. 
— The Chronicles of The White Monk of Tours’ 


It was there [hiking near the Barrage Sidi el 
Barrak in Tunisia] that | encountered this curious 
band of barbary apes’. They demonstrated a 
much higher degree of caution and cooperation 
than others of the species, and | resolved to 
attempt to communicate with them. | was 
surprised to find a single mind, not like the 
sensual animal semi-consciousnesses that | was 
expecting, but rather a clear self-identity, 
somewhat alien, but fully sapient. 


This mind was a telepathic gestalt shared by the 
entire band. It believed that it had existed for two 
score or more of the lifetimes of its component 
monkeys, and it may be effectively immortal as 
long as the apes breed true. At first it was 
suspicious, but | demonstrated that | was not like 
other men, and not just for my psychic gifts. It 
was lonely, having not communicated with any 
other being for a millennium and soon we 
became cordial. 


The ape-mind shared vague memories of once 


being an ordinary troop of clever, but pre-sapient 
beasts. The image of a giant, towering over not 
just the apes, but humans as well, was quite 
clear (perhaps as tall as two dozen of the apes 
stacked one upon the other). This being did 
something to these particular apes, something 
both unendurably painful but also transfigurative. 
Afterwards the apes were one mind, with 
apprehension and reasoning equal to or greater 
than that of a human mind.