...alas it seems I have no takers.
Okay. Three things stand out to me from the Blessed Lands book. The most important concerns the Cathedral of the Pantheon and it states that...
on Page 86 of the Blessed Lands book its wrote:
While the interior holy area was restored as best as possible and secured from menaces, the keen observer will note that all passages other than the main entrance are blocked off or otherwise sealed.
In other words there is no shortage of potential hiddey-holes in and around the Cathedral. In fact most of the original Emerald Society discoveries which led to the creation of the Mother Church were the result of things they found excavating under the Cathedral to the Pantheon. Those areas are sealed off because they connect to the ruins in the undercity & ultimately the unclean area.
So I think its sound speculation to assume that Calmemnon was looking for something he thought was hidden there. If your goal is creating the next Imperium what would you need beyond the Throne of Man?
The more boring suggestion I have is ... a huge pile of cash.
on page 82 of the Blessed Lands book its wrote:
The treasury of the Imperium was lost and was said to be so vast as to dwarf that of the Coryani and Khitani Empires combined ...snip... As yet, the treasury of the First Imperium remains unclaimed and ostensibly hidden somewhere be- neath the building
Honestly I hope this isn't it. Though this treasure is supposed to be under site 82 the Assembly Hall of the First Families. They are pretty close to each other in the First City. But still if this was Calemnon's aim I assume he would have occupied that building ... still that's a lot of pay-ola for a would be emperor.
A more interesting option is ... a big pile of ancient knowledge
page 149 its wrote:
the lost Tower of the Eternal Scholar, a near-mythical repository of knowledge founded by a group of worshippers of Althares that reportedly safeguarded the wealth of knowledge accumulated throughout the history of mankind from the purges of Leonydes val’Virdan after the fall of the Imperium. Tales speak of the fact that the Nierites were never able to find it though it was said to be hidden in plain sight.
How about hidden in the Cathedral of the Pantheon? Would that be in plain enough sight? If I had to guess this is what I would lay my imperials down on as a bet.
Anyone else have better ideas? Or even just other ideas?