The Hidden Light

The Hidden Light is a book recovered from the Pillar of Ualune.

## Description

Equal parts research and zealotry, the Hidden Light is a tome dedicated to the dealings of the Keeper with mortal individuals, the agreements reached - and the results yielded. Despite worship of the Keeper being seen as heresy within most Realms of Ahlus, few can deny that at least some of the pacts made have yielded far-reaching benefits for many.

## Research

### Completed by Hassk

The Keeper, master of whispers, secrets and the tome, has remained a controversial enigma ever since his presence was first noted by the Principal Races of Ahlus during Aita's Second Gift - an ever-present ear and unyielding looming gaze. A few amongst those newly formed sought to offer praise too unto the Keeper, a font of knowledge arcane, but in matters divine lacking. Through the edict of Yaldin the Judge, who decreed that the memories of mortal minds were to be beholden to him alone for sack of the Moment of Judgement, praise was outlawed, recollection faded - and into the shadows the Keeper was once more plunged. Nonetheless, wherever curiosity twisted into obsession, the Keeper lingered, offering up knowledge forgotten - or never known.

While such cults of transactional values were often made up of cabals of dark-aligned wizards, sorcerers and artificers, alongside beings offered arcane might through pacts sworn upon flesh and soul alike, there are those few events in history that have been attributed to either the acts of those pledged to the Keeper, or utilising knowledge otherwise unobtainable without his offerance. When the earthmote ruled by the Cloud Giant Zumnathaur was critically damaged by the Green Dragon Verkrent, it found itself plummeting towards the Gawylthlian capital of Inverden - only to be fragmented near instantaneously into dust by an eldritch force roused from within the city. This was later revealed to have come from operatives of The Order of the Black Veil, a sect dedicated to the Keeper and operating exclusively out of the settlement. Whether altruistic or simply fueled by self-interest and survival, it was through the power of the warlocks of the Keeper that the city, its people and culture was saved. When Juiblex bid his followers to tear a link between the Prime Material Plane and the layer of Shedaklah in the Abyss, fetid pools of oozing sludge spilled forth across Ahlus, but nowhere more so than in the Giado Territories and Lylcairn. The Year of the Faceless Lord ended prematurely when occultists of the Keeper reweaved the gateways between the Abyss to that of Minauros, pitting demon against devil for time sufficient for complete dispelment. Come the attempts of the Honoured Blood, a group of vampiric followers of Venari that sought to quell the light of Taranis' Eye and plunge Ahlus into darkness, it was said that a trio of wizards, empowered by the Keeper spurned the ever-lingering eclipse blocking the sunlight to move once more, working in uneasy conjunction with priests of both Taranis and Emes. Few can deny that such acts, ignoring any other motives lingering unseen and otherwise unbeknownst, worked out for the bettering of the folk of Ahlus. But it is for the death of Alnair that the followers of the Keeper stir the most discussion, for the ramifications that follow are like to cause continued concern.

There are myriad beings that exist without notion of mortality. Devils and demons never truly die, unleash slain upon the lands of their home planes - a task inhospitable and impossible for nearly all. Celestial entities, deva and empyreans, planetars and solars are summoned anew by the divine beings they serve should their corporeal form find destruction. Archfey rule over swathes of the Feywild, wielding powers comparable to gods, and further afield still beings ancient and primordial entertain themselves with matters and means beyond mortal comprehension. What happens when such a being, incapable of death and destruction delivers both upon the mortal plane? A foe without weakeness, immune to permanent annihilation. As was discovered by the Whisper Bairn, fleeing after the defeat of their armies at the hand of Xorithomlax, it seems that even this is not beyond the knowledge of the Keeper. The fiend was torn asunder by an unknown force, life-essence sundered, unable to rematerialised in any form.