Prophesy [Into the Blessed Lands & Vault of Larissa]

[Grains of Sand – a module from the old campaign that had a trove of prophesy. I’ve tuned blue the ones I am confident have already come true in the old campaign]

One million grains of sand can blot out the sun. The cat plays with the bird until it is ready to pounce. One thousand years is not forever. When the sword sows only bones, the scythe reaps only blood. One whisper in the silence can shake the pillars of heaven.

The Hegemony rises upon the coils of its ally. Woe to the powerful who scorned the least of the thirteen. Their secret shall tear the falcon in twain.

The child finally meets the Father. In blood it was begun and in blood it will end. Some will drink deeply, others will bathe in it.

Within their metal hives they ride upon the minds and eat of their sentiments. Man is cattle to Man. The wheel turns, as the beaten child becomes the beating parent.

Proclamation. Devastation. Prostration. Those who hold back the night fall. Shall any light be rekindled or shall the dead lie quiet within Neroth’s embrace?

The Standard lost, the army is demoralized. Loss begets loss as the City of Delights falls. [The Standard Lost probably refers to events in the rebellion/liberation of Abesios … but Savona never fell]

I believe all of these prophecies have already been completed.

1. I would never have solved, but lucky the answer is given in the module itself. This talks about a great war that was approaching (The Coryani Civil War) and the famine that will follow. This proved true in Year 4 The Deadliest Prey where it talks about grain shortages, and tighter restrictions to getting it.

2. This was completed in Year 2 Where’s Illiir’s Light has Never Shone. When the Myrantians of Abesios broke free. But we didn’t know everything until Year 6 Sacrifice. Abesios broke free with the help of renegade Yigites from the south. The least of the thirteen has always been the val’Inares. And in Sacrifice there is a possibility to help them find a home in the new territory of the Abesios Dominion among the Myrantians and Yigites.

3. The child is the val’Assante. The father is Manetas. Manetas was the Valinor that created the val’Assante line. He stated it himself in Last Rays of a Dying Sun. Manetas caused much bloodshed throughout out the land.

4. I’ll admit that “metal” is an odd word. But this prophecy talks about the Il’Huan. How legions such as the Legion of the Watchful Hunter were purposely ordered to be converted into Il’Huan. Of course they wouldn’t have done it if they knew the truth, so it was done forcefully by those who were loyal to the people giving the orders. Of course this had huge repercussions for Cadician Legionnaires when they found out. And to everyone during the Battle of Enpebyn.

5. This is about the death of Menisis and his revival.

6. This about the breaking of Coryan. First the loss of Abessios, ending with the loss of Savona. While Savona did not fall in battle, you could say it fell from grace. After it left Coryan it didn’t join the rebels even in the end. Unlike numerous provinces and cities during the Civil War. i.e Ulfia and Valentia.

For the “Metal Hives” bit in terms of Calmemnon val’Assante’, from a metagame perspective would his fate have been known at the time Grains of Sand was published? If I recall correctly his fate was decided at the end of the 3.5 campaign by a group of PC’s who placed Scipio on the throne and stipulated that HIS natural born heirs would take precedence over Calmemnon. Grains of Sand was a 2nd Year story, which means that unless Henry read the players REALLY well, this is (or, at least was originally) meant to refer to something else.

However, it might NOW mean the Voiceless ones in Dar Zhan Vor having coopted Calmemnon, for that is the joy of Prophecies: You can twist them to mean whatever you want!

But 4…I am essentially positive that 4 does NOT refer to the Il’Huan. One because they live underground … and not in metal hives. Two because they do not psychically prey upon each other but live in a hive mind. Three because watchful hunter not withstanding they don’t qualify for man preying on man. Except for the one BI the Il’Huan have ignored humanity.

I agree metal is an odd word. And I can’t figure that out because we’ve never heard of a an Il’huan home (nest?) But the rest of the prophecy could mean Il’Huan. Perhaps it’s something simple like they have metal-like exo-shells. Just throwing that out there.

Il’huan are creatures that take over the body of another creature. They transform the original into the insect-like creature we are all aware of and replace the original creature’s mind with the individual Il’huan, which is then added to the Hive Mind of the species. So it sounds like they ride minds and eat their sentiments (not their own but the original creatures’).

Because the vast majority (if not all) of the Il’huan were originally men you can look at the next line and say that men like the ones from the Legion of the Watchful Hunter were being feed as “cattle” for new host bodies to the Il’huan. The bad guys wanted a huge loyal army, so they ordered a legion to go to a location, had them all transformed into Il’huan, and thanks to an artifact the Il’huan were loyal to the bad guys. Instant army that can’t disobey.

The last line can mean a couple things. The Il’huan is the child that was beaten in the past, and now they are beating up the new younger race (humans.) The Il’huan are controlled by Manetas, so he’s the child of Illiir that was beaten when he was first imprisoned. Now he’s beating the val’Assante, his own children, by forcing them to kill each other, fight on the battle field (against each other and his own minions) and destroy the Empire they rule.

You’re right the BI in Year 5 was the one called the Battle of Savona. I never went to it so I don’t everything that happened during the module. As I understand it, the PCs beat back the Loyalist forces lead by the Voice of Emperor. So Savona ended the battle the same way it started, as neutral. They didn’t fall to the Loyalist and didn’t join the Rebels. I had no idea the damage caused to the city was so severe, that you’d say the city had fallen. i.e. fallen to ruins, fallen into disrepair.

It’s always helpful learning something from one of the people who wrote the module.

Definitions of words is what makes prophecies so hard to understand because the way we read it doesn’t mean that’s the way it will happen.

Generally speaking cities that have BIs in or near them do not fare well…Enpebyn, Solanos Mor, Nishanpur, Savona, Grand Coryan, Joppa…as I recall none of them came out unscathed, but rather worse for wear….

The loyalists never occupied it and Savona was rebuilt. I don’t consider that the same thing as “falling” especially when the first half refers to Abesios.

Funny thing about prophecies….they don’t take your considerations into consideration.

Um. Long time no see guys. Heard you had some prophecy going on

The metal airship was crewed by the Swords of Nier I believe, and was in effect “stolen” tech. My recollection was that it first appeared at the Battle of Four Armies, but given that such events happened around a decade ago my memory could be flawed.

“My brethren were gifted with a vision, a terrible one which showed unto us the image of the God-Emperor, who would stride out from the Hidden Lands and be welcomed as Liberator only to take the Holiest of Holies by shedding the blood of the most innocent.

“The very mention of his name shall make kings tremble, stop the heart of an Emperor and cause that which was endless to end.

Manetas was called the God-Emperor in the distant future, that was averted with his imprisonment. Calcestus and Manetas had the same facial structure except Manetas looked better. It makes sense that Calmemnon will have the face of his father and therefore Manetas’s as well.
Who else but Calmemnon would be able to stop the heart and kill Emperor Scipio, especially if he’s looking at the face of a young Calcestus.

In his wake an entire people shall be liberated, their curse lifted but at the cost of their brother; while another is damned forever more in the eyes of all.

This sounds like dwarves but it isn’t. It’s the val’Tensen. They were cursed to never be allowed to enter Paradise until their honor is returned for breaking their vow. And I’m thinking the val’Virden and the val’Emman will be damned because they pose a threat to the Destroyer. The brother of Hurrian is Nier.

“And about his head floated twelve keys that shall unlock that which it most craves.

Twelve Keys of man that unlocks the Throne of Man. The Gift of Illiir and supposedly allows for powerful compulsion magic.

“But beware – though called savior by many and his followers legion, his true name is the Destroyer! The Enslaver of Humanity! None may stay his hand but the ember that is bereft of fire and even then it may not be enough, for when faith fails in one, faith will fail in us all!

The fire reference say Nierite to me. Perhaps the damned Nierites from earlier or Leonydas himself. This is also saying that while it will look like Calmemnon it doesn’t actually mean it will be him. I mean we have dealt with plenty of doppelgangers. It could be someone pretending to be him, for example the Voiceless Ones. I mention them because Leonydas himself had one of the Twelve Keys of Man. It doesn’t mention if he took it with him to the Citadel of Silence but I wouldn’t put it past him to carry it on him wherever he went rather than keep it safe in one place.
Anyway to have all 12 Keys you had to have gotten 1 from Leonydas.

I will mention one thing from the Prophecy given in the Words of the Seer and it shouldn’t be considered a spoiler. The Destroyer is called a Stranger in that prophecy. Calmemnon is not a stranger. Any Noble Born would have heard of him. Any Coryani citizen would have heard of him. Any member of a secret society would have heard of his leading a mission into Dar Zhan Vor. So again my vote is on a Calmemnon doppelganger.