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The Codex of Primary Sources is an internal document maintained by the Arkaeni Order. Compiled in secret by the mystic-scholar Spanico the Sane (1164–1209), the Codex serves as a classified reference catalog of texts, artifacts, oral accounts, and metaphysical theories believed to predate recorded history.

Though its existence is not publicly acknowledged by the Order, the Codex is rumored to be the most complete record of pre-Theological, pre-Church magical lore still in existence. It is stored in a restricted chamber of the Atheneum at Umstrad and is accessible only to a small circle within the Arkaeni hierarchy.

Purpose and Structure

The Codex was assembled to:

Catalog all known or rumored sources of lost magical knowledge
Record the locations of significant items believed to retain residual metaphysical value
Track confiscated or destroyed artifacts known to have been seized by the Tethuric Church
Provide symbolic, linguistic, and ritual frameworks for pattern analysis
Serve as a centralized intelligence record for ongoing Arkaeni recovery efforts

Each entry includes:

Name / Designation
Origin or Source (if known)
Status: Arkaeni possession, confiscated, destroyed, missing, or unverified
Summary of Contents or Properties
Interpretive Notes (often speculative)
Codex Reliability Score
Cross-referenced Index Keys

Entries are grouped into twelve major thematic sections, including: Cosmology and Creation, Primordial Beings, Ancient Geography, Magical Principles, Ritual and Practice, Surviving Artifacts, and The Unspoken Era.

Secrecy and Security

The Codex is considered one of the Order’s highest-value assets and is not referenced in any official Arkaeni materials. Knowledge of its existence is restricted to initiates of the Fifth Seal or higher, and is guarded by both physical security and compartmentalized doctrine.

Even within the Order, only select members know of its full contents or current custodial status. Any unauthorized attempt to access, copy, or disclose information from the Codex is grounds for immediate severance.

The Addendum Ledger

Due to the dynamic nature of recovery and loss, a living companion document—the Codex Addendum Ledger—is maintained by appointed Lorekeepers. This document logs:

Updates to artifact status or location
New leads under investigation
Corrections to previous entries based on field reports
Verified acquisitions to the Arkaeni archive
Discreet alerts of Church movement or interest in referenced items

The Ledger is updated in cipher and never stored in the same location as the Codex itself.

Arkaeni Archive

While modest in size, the Arkaeni Archive contains a small number of physical artifacts believed to be genuine relics of the forgotten age. Most have been acquired through covert field efforts, trade, or inheritance from sympathetic lineages. All verified acquisitions are recorded in the Codex under internal notation and relocated to protected storage.

Whenever possible, the Arkaeni seek to intercept or retrieve such items before they are destroyed, reclassified, or absorbed into the Tethuric Church’s centralized repository system.

Church Interest

Though the Tethuric Church publicly discredits the Arkaeni and denies the existence of any credible magical lineage, internal records suggest the Church has long suspected the existence of the Codex.

Multiple infiltration attempts have been documented at the Atheneum. Several individuals affiliated with ecclesiastical scholarship have been identified as possible informants, sending recovered data to unknown Church entities. Their goal is believed to be the extraction of information regarding objects not yet in Church custody, particularly those that may have been overlooked by prior purges.

The Church is known to possess vast stores of confiscated material spanning centuries, the contents of which remain classified. The Codex lists only confirmed confiscations—those verified through field observation, intercepted correspondence, or historical testimony. The full extent of the Church’s archive remains unknown.

Strategic Importance

If ever compromised, the Codex would provide a near-complete roadmap of Arkaeni operations, priorities, and vulnerabilities. It would also allow the Church to systematically locate and seize materials the Order has spent generations identifying and protecting.

For this reason, the Codex is not simply a book. It is a liability, a weapon, and a line of last defense.

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-'''''The Codex of Primary Sources''''' is a compiled reference work attributed to the [[Arkaeni]] scholar [[Spanico the Sane]] (1164–1209). It catalogs myths, disputed artifacts, and speculative reconstructions of a forgotten era predating recorded history. The Codex is widely regarded as the most complete attempt by any organization to systematize and recover what the Arkaeni refer to as pre-veil knowledge—a term encompassing magic, divine hierarchies, and sentient nonhuman civilizations. Others refer to this as the time of the "[[Befores]]".
+The '''''Codex of Primary Sources''''' is an internal document maintained by the [[Arkaeni Order]]. Compiled in secret by the mystic-scholar [[Spanico the Sane]] (1164–1209), the Codex serves as a classified reference catalog of texts, artifacts, oral accounts, and metaphysical theories believed to predate recorded history.
-Though mainstream institutions reject its contents as speculative or allegorical, the Codex remains culturally significant among mystic and esoteric circles, and is archived in both Arkaeni and [[Tethuric Church]] repositories.
+Though its existence is not publicly acknowledged by the Order, the Codex is rumored to be the most complete record of pre-Theological, pre-[[Tethuric Church|Church]] magical lore still in existence. It is stored in a restricted chamber of [[the Atheneum]] at [[Umstrad]] and is accessible only to a small circle within the Arkaeni hierarchy.
-==Compilation and Purpose==
+==Purpose and Structure==
-Spanico began compiling the Codex as a junior archivist within the Arkaeni, a fringe metaphysical society devoted to reconstructing what they believe to be suppressed or forgotten truths. The work was completed in 1203 [[EE]], the product of four decades of cross-referencing folklore, untranslated fragments, cult scriptures, and oral legends.
+The Codex was assembled to:
+*Catalog all known or rumored sources of lost magical knowledge
+*Record the locations of significant items believed to retain residual metaphysical value
+*Track confiscated or destroyed artifacts known to have been seized by the Tethuric Church
+*Provide symbolic, linguistic, and ritual frameworks for pattern analysis
+*Serve as a centralized intelligence record for ongoing Arkaeni recovery efforts
-The Codex does not refer to any specific lost event by name, but certain entries imply a catastrophic cultural break in the deep past—known among Arkaeni adherents only as “the Veiling” or “the Great Forgetting.” No academic consensus exists as to the origin or meaning of these terms.
+Each entry includes:
+*Name / Designation
+*Origin or Source (if known)
+*Status: Arkaeni possession, confiscated, destroyed, missing, or unverified
+*Summary of Contents or Properties
+*Interpretive Notes (often speculative)
+*Codex Reliability Score
+*Cross-referenced Index Keys
+Entries are grouped into twelve major thematic sections, including:
+Cosmology and Creation, Primordial Beings, Ancient Geography, Magical Principles, Ritual and Practice, Surviving Artifacts, and The Unspoken Era.
+==Secrecy and Security==
+The Codex is considered one of the Order’s highest-value assets and is not referenced in any official Arkaeni materials. Knowledge of its existence is restricted to initiates of the Fifth Seal or higher, and is guarded by both physical security and compartmentalized doctrine.
+Even within the Order, only select members know of its full contents or current custodial status. Any unauthorized attempt to access, copy, or disclose information from the Codex is grounds for immediate severance.
-==Known Copies and Custody==
+==The Addendum Ledger==
-There are four confirmed copies of the Codex:
+Due to the dynamic nature of recovery and loss, a living companion document—the Codex Addendum Ledger—is maintained by appointed Lorekeepers. This document logs:
-*The [[Umstrad]] [[Atheneum]], maintained by the Arkaeni Order
-*A private copy held by the current Head of the Order
-*A classified reference edition within the [[Archive of Enen]], maintained by the Tethuric Church
-*A partial academic transcription housed at the library of [[Mader-Chackett University]]
-While the Tethuric Church does not endorse the metaphysical claims contained in the Codex, it acknowledges its cultural value as a catalog of folk belief and post-mythic reconstruction. Internal Church commentary refers to the Codex as “useful for tracing distorted echoes of pre-religious imagination.”
+*Updates to artifact status or location
+*New leads under investigation
+*Corrections to previous entries based on field reports
+*Verified acquisitions to the Arkaeni archive
+*Discreet alerts of Church movement or interest in referenced items
-==Structure and Categories==
+The Ledger is updated in cipher and never stored in the same location as the Codex itself.
-The Codex is divided into twelve thematic sections:
-*Cosmology and Creation – Origin patterns and world-making structures
+==Arkaeni Archive==
-*Primordial Beings – Descriptions of figures such as the [[Eldinar]] and [[Palanem]]
+While modest in size, the [[Arkaeni Archive]] contains a small number of physical artifacts believed to be genuine relics of the forgotten age. Most have been acquired through covert field efforts, trade, or inheritance from sympathetic lineages. All verified acquisitions are recorded in the Codex under internal notation and relocated to protected storage.
-*Divine Genealogy – Alleged lineages and relationships among forgotten deities
-*Early Races – Accounts of sentient lifeforms not found in historical record
-*Ancient Geography – Conjectural cartography of unverified landscapes
-*Magical Principles – Frameworks for forces such as [[vorsys]] and [[omnicrux]]
-*Ritual and Practice – Reconstructions of ceremonial systems
-*Surviving Artifacts – Mentions of items rumored to retain unusual properties
-*Linguistic Records – Partial glyph systems and speculative syntax
-*Natural Philosophy – Nonstandard cosmological or elemental theories
-*Prophetic Writings – Documents claiming foresight or cyclic return
-*The Unspoken Era – Disconnected fragments hinting at total systemic collapse or transformation
-Each entry includes:
+Whenever possible, the Arkaeni seek to intercept or retrieve such items before they are destroyed, reclassified, or absorbed into the Tethuric Church’s centralized repository system.
-*Title and Provenance
-*Attributed Origin
+==Church Interest==
-*Current Status (if traceable)
+Though the Tethuric Church publicly discredits the Arkaeni and denies the existence of any credible magical lineage, internal records suggest the Church has long suspected the existence of the Codex.
-*Summary of Claims
-*Arkaeni Authenticity Score
-*Cross-linked Symbolic Parallels
-==Interpretive Role and Reception==
+Multiple infiltration attempts have been documented at the Atheneum. Several individuals affiliated with ecclesiastical scholarship have been identified as possible informants, sending recovered data to unknown Church entities. Their goal is believed to be the extraction of information regarding objects not yet in Church custody, particularly those that may have been overlooked by prior purges.
-Among the Arkaeni, the Codex serves as both scripture and hypothesis: a guide to rediscovering or reviving forces believed to have once shaped reality.
-Mainstream institutions treat it as an anthology of religious psychology and myth. While the Tethuric Church publicly dismisses the Arkaeni's claims, its Archive of Enen maintains a redacted version of the Codex under academic classification. The Church’s position holds that while the Codex contains “no usable truth,” it remains valuable as a “map of what people once believed they had lost.”
+The Church is known to possess vast stores of confiscated material spanning centuries, the contents of which remain classified. The Codex lists only confirmed confiscations—those verified through field observation, intercepted correspondence, or historical testimony. The full extent of the Church’s archive remains unknown.
-==Access and Control==
+==Strategic Importance==
-Within the Arkaeni Order, access to the Codex is limited to members who have completed at least five years of formal study. Sections involving active ritual theory or energy modulation are further restricted.
+If ever compromised, the Codex would provide a near-complete roadmap of Arkaeni operations, priorities, and vulnerabilities. It would also allow the Church to systematically locate and seize materials the Order has spent generations identifying and protecting.
-The Tethuric Church retains a copy for the purposes of containment, preservation, and hermeneutic contrast, but does not permit public study of the document. Requests for interinstitutional review are handled on a case-by-case basis.
+For this reason, the Codex is not simply a book. It is a liability, a weapon, and a line of last defense.
 [[Category: In-Story Books]]
 [[Category: Magic]]
 [[Category: Books on Magic]]