Abyssal artifacts

So, I created this topic not so much cuz I want a abyssal artifact section or anything (even though I wouldn't mind it), but more to put all stuff about items connected to the abyss in one thread if any other would come up.

The reason why I thought about it is cuz I thought about the abyssal-book that Gattison wrote about on white wolf's forum (can't access it now so I can't look up the exact name on the book but it was something arabic I think). I really liked that one and since alot of our abyss mystic concepts has been tied to "searching for lore" it was just on my mind.

Now to the point, WW's books don't really mention any abyss mystic books out there (as far as I know) but when I read in Guide to the High Clans I saw that the Lasombra section started with this:

Guide to the High Clans page 33 wrote:

Fear of the dark is bred into the Children of Seth, just
as it must be bred out of the Childer of Caine. The darkness
is your home now, so you had best make your peace with
it, and learn to make fear your friend and ally.
— Ambrosio Luis Monçada, Keeper of the Faith
From The Shadows of History, author unknown

I'm not sure, but I'm guessing that the history text we read in that section is actually The Shadows of History or parts of it. If so, this is kinda unimportant to the Abyss Guide since it's only dealing with Lasombra and it's history, not really Abyss Mysticism.
But there is also a chance that The Shadows of History is actually another text which is just quoted in the beginning. I would like to know what you guys think?
And if it's the latter, couldn't The Shadows of History maybe be something we could use since it could contain words of Moncada and his take on ... darkness and stuff.

Not a bad idea.

The items (books) I came up with so far were:

Al Sfih (Avestan Edition, untranslatable/I made it up)
Al Sfih (Greek Edition, untranslatable/I made it up)
The Leges Abyssi (Latin Edition, Latin for "Laws of the Abyss")
The Leges Abyssi (English Translation, Latin for "Laws of the Abyss")
The Testament of Nu
I Nomi de Ombre e Ombre (Italian, "The Names of Shades and Shadows")

Plus there's valis' find:

The Gospel of Laodice (from The Road of Heaven sourcebook)

I can't think of any other specific items offhand, besides these few books....

A groovy, what can you tell me about The Gospel of Laodice, or can you direct me to the place where Valis have written about it? I'm curious to find out what an abyss-tied book does in Road of Heaven.

A bunch of inpiration from Infernalism: the Path of Scream
Some books are directly related to powers over darkness

I didn't really see too many darkness references in there, Agathe. Which ones were you thinking would be appropriate?

Also, I came up with an idea for a possible Abyssal Artifact.

In this thread (Chapter 4: Storytelling) I mentioned the creator of the Abyssal Necronomicon, [Abdullah Alha Zhred] (whose name I do not like because it's too close to Lovecraft's character).

Gattison wrote:

...he claims to have visited fantastic cities beyond our reality and to have penetrated deep into the Underworld where he confronted unimaginable beings whose reality-shunning dreams predate time itself. Supposedly, he visited the ruins of Babylon, studied the subterranean geography of Memphis and spent an entire decade alone in the great southern “Dana,” or Crimson Desert, of Arabia—a place rumored to be home to many restless, dangerous spirits and ancient, monstrous beings....

So my idea is, this NPC traveled to some Underworld places, and some very special ones related to the Abyss, obviously, or else he wouldn't be the author of the Leges Abyssi.

So what if we had an Abyssal artifact that was a small vial half-full of dust from [Alha Zhred's] shoes/dansals, that had some Wraithly/Abyssal properites or connection or something? Like, possessing the vial could simply decrease Diffs of Abyss-stuff by 1, while using some of the contents in a ritual would decrease Diff by 2.... Or maybe a better, more interesting power?

I like that idea Gattison! Maybe also it could be speculated what such a potent dust could do with Abyssal Alchemy? I dunno...

Sorry it took me some time to answer:

Quote :

I didn't really see too many darkness references in there, Agathe. Which ones were you thinking would be appropriate?

1) The Black Book of Manu is the Most obvious of course since it directly refer to Angra Manyu/Ahriman.

Then some inspiration for us
2) The Black Bible could be something talking about the correlation I mention in an other topic between the Road of Night and the Devil's Road leading to the creation of the path of Night. It might have been written by Angelis Ater... I could be a pretext to talk about them...

3) Akaa et Nuon Ta, aka "Cry of the World", is talking about the cosmic cycles (and that mean certainly the Deep Void/ocean at the Origin) by the means of "Shadowplay". To me that scream created by a magic based on darkness! an Akkadian version has also been written which mean its older than Babylone and it was already around nearby the birthplace of Obtenebration... But I recognize that it might not be enough to put it in our book.

4) Last and least: The Greater Key of Solomon is a book about the rules inorder to summon and deal with any spirit, even demon... While it's not darkness related it's so general that no spirit of any kind could avoid it's law. It's a must have in any library for anyone that wants to deal with it... This one is not so important that we have to mention it but I thought its still interesting to discuss it with you.


Anda I love the idea of making it something special among mystic's tools
Could it be linked somehow to TALON ?

Quote :

Anda I love the idea of making it something special among mystic's tools
Could it be linked somehow to TALON ?

Naah, not in any way that I can think of anyway. It was more an idea to suggest that it could be used as material in advanced abyssal alchemy but not really point out exactly how that could work or what that would do... leave that open to the ST. I dunno, just a thought.

Gattison wrote:

Plus there's valis' find:

The Gospel of Laodice (from The Road of Heaven sourcebook)

I just read about The Gospel of Laodice in the Road of Heaven book. Why would this belong in the Abyss book? There's nothing in the text that connects it to Abyss Mysticism or even Obtenebration or the Lasombra. Can you point me to where you guys dicussed this so I can get a clearer understanding of Valis thoughts.

Agathe

I understand you first grimoire suggestion, however the others are a little too vague. The Angelis Ater suggestion is a little too far away from what the original text of the book suggests, a little too much making something work cuz we want it to work. But yeah, I think that The Black Book of Manu could be used as an abyss book.

Here's something else I noticed that I can't believe I missed earlier, it was right under the Nightmaster in the book.

Umbra, the Velvet Shadow, p. 137 wrote:

Hearts of Midnight
Fetish - Level 5, Gnosis 8
These black gemstones stop Gifts involving
Gnosis from affecting their bearer. They also
prevent the bearer from spending any Gnosis
(although he may still make Gnosis rolls, such as
the one necessary to attune the fetish to himself).
Hearts of Midnight are found only in the Abyss.
Some werewolves murmur that the Wyrm plans
to use the fetishes to strip Garou of their spirits.

Heh...

Anyway... perhaps there is a way that a Heart of Midnight could be useful to a vampire? Perhaps these artifacts suck up supernatural energy ("tass") and "feed" it to the Abyss through the Abyss Realm? So maybe then, once a kindred can figure out how to activate it (since it needs to be "attuned" by a werewolf, I'd assume other supernatural types can't just pick it up and activate it), they can use it to make kindred blood inert, stealing the supernatural power of the vitae, or something like that?

Yae or nay?

Never played werewolf so I have no idea of what you just said But make it happen!