Edrianon Sightings
The Last Prophecies Of The Anchorite Edrian Loom
The Last Prophecies Of The Anchorite Edrian Loom
The EDRIANON SIGHTINGS are a collection of parchment sheafs on which the words of Edrian Loom, a man turned mad and then religious, were collected in the final minutes of his life. The passages bear the name of Edrian's last place of confinement, the EDRIANON MONASTERY in the Midlands.
Prior to its formation, Brother Loom is said to have entered into seclusion alone in a nearby cave as an anchorite. As the years passed occasionally individuals would come to him and claim that he spoke of the future. This attracted the attention of more worthy folk including clergy who investigated and claimed him to be a conduit of the High. In time, as Edrian's insanity grew more and more perilous, a walled monastery was erected to house him and the small order that had begun to form around him and his utterances.
The use of 'SIGHTINGS' refers to these particular passages instead of the mountains of parchment that contain much of his other ramblings. They are described as such due to the manner in which they were relayed to the attending novitiate who was tasked with transcribing any utterances that day. In his madness, he spoke of what he saw and spoke these descriptions to the storm clouds that gathered overhead. It is rumored that some of the SIGHTINGS went unrecorded due to the storm and the novitiate's fear but that which was transcribed worried some and amused others.
While hard to locate in their original form, a single parchment bound to wooden plaques and disseminated by the Order, the EDRIANON SIGHTINGS can be found in out of the way places and libraries established before the waning of interest in the idea of holy divination. It is most commonly encountered as part of a treatise or collected works due to brevity and its outsized though short-lived importance in both clerical and arcane scholarship circles.
The Edrianon Sighting
Prepare, prepare—The Walls are Falling.
Prepare, prepare—The Storm is calling.
Black Moon, Red Summer, The Thorn-Tangled Heart
Black Wall, Silver Moon, Fertile Be The Bridge
Old Wounds, Ancient Wrongs, Shadows Grow,
Blow The Horns! Hear It High! Hear It Low!
The Dark again, Break The Door
Plague of Greed, Peace No More
These Heralds All, The Heart of War
Walls Will Shake, Foundations Torn
Treason’s Return, Seed Unborn
Through Scales of Hate, Eyes of Scorn
Prepare, prepare—She Walks Again
Prepare, prepare-I see the End.
Historical Basis
The SIGHTINGS were taken down by a young brother in the final hours of Brother Edrian Loom's life. Already mad as a dog and just as vicious when not in a stupor, the renowned 'prophet' was chained to a post in an enclosed pen where he was watched for any further prophecies. The exact retelling of the events of the prophet's last day vary from order to cult to storyteller or anyone else who has heard the story.
It is agreed that there was a storm that swept off the mountains in a fearsome fashion to descend on the monastery. The prophet Edrian is described in the notes as '...frantic and restless as a wolf, baying at the clouds, the rain and whimpering at the lightning'. As the weather worsened, there was a great peal of thunder and the prophet closed his eyes and began reciting the words known as the SIGHTINGS to the sky. As the man's voice was described as 'stately, loud and stentorian' which was a far cry from most of his lunatic rages and spasms. The words he intoned were relayed as if he was seeing them from afar, hence--the SIGHTINGS. All of the retellings speak of a great lightning bolt that struck the prophet or the post he was chained to and took his life as this was recorded by the novitiate and the order upon Edrian's tomb.
Some versions speak of words garbled and lost to the wind and his doom--hints of the future gone forever. Most scholars assume the novitiate did not linger to weather the storm and only caught the parts which were carried on the wind and not drowned out by the lashings of the storm.
Regardless, the SIGHTINGS are described as a series of stanzas in dissimilar meters. An uncomfortable rhythm to them that scholars of old found 'disquieting' when repeated in chorus by the Edrianon order.
Variations & Mutation
There are a number of scholarly, arcane and religious basis to support the existence of additional stanzas and portions of the prophet's last words. Specifically, the single parchment attributed to the novitiate refers to it in the plural--SIGHTINGS. In days when it was read more, these debates were common even amongst theological circles.
The more outlandish in their beliefs posit that the remaining portions will be revealed 'in due time.' The majority of those who have studied it subscribe to the belief that there may have been more but it was lost due to the ferocity of the storm or the cowardice of the novitiate.
Cultural Reception
Copies of the original scroll were made and circulated widely for a decade or so before most folks lost interest and many established clergy and arcanists cited their skepticism of the work or its providence. Many older libraries hold copies of the SIGHTINGS but it is far more commonly cited in indices and derivative works by scholars, clergy and others with an interest in it.
A few decades later, many Western Church potentates decried 'prophecies' in general as being a 'leash on the will and heart of Man.' As the freedom of Mankind and its destiny is something that the Church's dogma indicate DOMIEL granted unwritten to the World, prophecies began to fall out of favor. That the arcane community allowed this to happen is cited either as proof that prophecies were nothing of the sort or, to those of a more suspicious nature, a plot by dweomercrafters to collect and hoard the gleanings from the future to their own end.
Date of First Recording
Approx. -140 BL
Related Locations
Related Organizations
Comments