Author: Rasgon

In the land that would become known as the Pale, during the first days of the Aerdi colonization, lived the wizard Tsojcanth (spelled Xojcanth among his own people). Tsojcanth was a diviner of the Tdon, the fabled society of lawgivers of the Aerdi. The Tdon put its members under strict guidelines of what is and is not proper study. As long as he stuck to academic magic, and did not delve too far in into the darkness, he was considered lawful.

But Tsojcanth's powers were vast, and he saw that which no one else could see. A darkness was building in the cold North, a force of madness and despair that soon might not be stopped.

This is how Tsojcanth broke the Law of the Tdon and assembled the largest body of occult lore that anyone would compile, until Iggwilv, who built her endeavors solidly on Tsojcanth's base.

Tsojcanth would go into trance for a week or more, coming out severely dehydrated and with unexplained burns. His scrolls would be covered with writing he did not remember scribing, in languages he did not know. An Inquisition was brought into the matter, and Tsojcanth was cast out of the fraternity.

Tsojcanth was undeterred. Saving what he could, he moved closer to the darkness.

A few years later, in a remote community in Perrenland, Tsojcanth (the spelling now after the customs preferred in that country) had assembled a group of like-minded mages. Over long-abandoned Flan ruins they built a tower of local black stone, and Tsojcanth taught the spells that would allow them to see into the building darkness.

No one understood the meaning behind the scrolls except Tsojcanth. He saw what must be done, and retreated to his hut to plan it out.

It was almost too late that he saw what his society had become. Some of his students had no thought for binding the darkness, and hoped to gain power from it instead. Some had come too close already and had emerged from their trances broken or corrupt.

Thinking quickly, their master gathered the scrolls of lore and hid them away in caverns so riddled that none should ever find them. His students never saw him again, but waited in their ebon tower for his return.

Tsojcanth ventured into the heart of the growing darkness. Reading words given to him, he thought, by the gods themselves, he wove fresh bindings over the rift in the heart of reality. Whether it was by the strength of the spell or assassins sent by a furious cult, Tsojcanth died soon after.

A few of his faithful students knew what had been done. Going back to Aerdy, they testified before the Tdon in an attempt to clear their selfless master's name.

The high priests convened. Their own small divinations confirmed what the outland wizards had said. Speaking before a council of bishops, they announced adjustments to the canon. Some amount of research into darkness was needed to preserve the light.

Some say this was the doom of Aerdy, that this small amount of permissiveness ultimately led to the demon-seeing house of Naelax and the Tdon's own ignominious end. Perhaps, but I think it unfair. Tsojcanth's sins directly include Iggwilv and the Ebon Tower - to put too much on to the shoulders of a man who gave everything is foolish when King Ivid is such a readily available target.