Literature and Lore (Dominaria Supplement)

Creator's Note

Since the earliest parts of human history on Dominaria, the written word has been important in the preservation of history and the telling of stories. Oral traditions exist also, many techniques and processes took time to develop, but copies of books written in the First Age still exist. Many other races too have literary traditions. The great Elven Sagas are written in books and scrolls. The Dwarven tales of their heroes have been penned on paper or etched in stone and metal for millenia. Even Orc texts exist, from books to cave paintings and great banners of text inscribed on hide. These books can be found on farmer's shelves and great libraries alongside the countless other works written over the thousands of years of Dominaria. Some weighty tomes are displayed proudly in the front of a library, others are kept by common folk to read, and yet others are studied or hidden away. Books are everywhere on Dominaria, and they contain the history, stories, learning, and dreams of the world.

Human Books

First Age

Libria Mathmatica

The formative text in human mathematics. The book is of unknown age and authorship has never been determined, but it definitely originates in the First Age. The text forms the basis for most basic human math: it establishes the basic principles and axioms of math and most higher math such as algebra and geometry has been derived from this work.It is entirily possible that the original settlers of Athon brought this text with them but that is of course impossible to determine.

A Record of the Lowland Wars

Late First Age text recounting the wars fought against the Lowland Elves, Beast Nations, and between Humans themselves in the Westlands (then Lowlands). Written by Andron Kalp, wizard-chronicaller and battle-mage of the Athonian Army of the Hydra. This is the first text written about that war, and the only surviving work on any First Age War other than the Barbarian Invasion made by an eye-witness.

Rhovin's Commentaries

A series of three books written by the man "Rhovin", which is undoubtedly a pseudonym or polypseudonym, which contain letters from him to the great human leaders of the time. All content was written by Rhovin and the letters are meant to be a satirical protest against the humans' often violent expansion across the Westlands. Rhovin acknowledges that in many cases the beast nations started the wars, but argues that in these cases - and the cases where the humans started the wars - that humanity always went too far in search of territory, often to little initial end. Rampant expansion for its own end, xenophobia, and greed are the main points of his discussion; although he is fair and makes many sound arguments for the expansions in hi retorts against himself. the book is still regarded as a masterpiece and one of the pillars of the satirical and logical cannon.

The Tales of Aaron the Bard

Mid First Age legend of the Sarnian Aaron the Bard, it rercounts his travels south to the Najiki Archipelago to explore the fabled islands that the First Men told of in their tales of coming to Dominaria. In his multi-year odyssey Aaron traveled the length of the Najiki Archipelago and wrote of a giant storm on the far side of the world that blew him to a strange land of jungles and pyramids. He would later return via a scratch-built ship, following the coast and rounding the Horn of Arcadia to return to Syracuse. Despite its veracity, it is largely regarded as legend.

Memnon and the Minotaur

An ancient legend about a Korenthan warrior and his 5-day ordeal with a Minotaur of the Northern Fens. Memnon and the Minotaur stalked each other through the forests, swamps, and bayous of the Fens and fought three titanic battles. During Memnon's ordeal he was visited by 5 beings, one each day. These beings, fey creatures of the Fens, alternatively encouraged him and told him of his impending faliures depending on the type of fey. The rivers and the trees spoke well to him, but the swamps and vines spoke ill or tried to ensnare him. On the last battle, Memnon finally slew the Minotaur and brought its horns back to Korenth. The horns hung in the Temple of Yondalla for almost two centuries until the city was sacked by Sartos during the Great War. These horns were taken as proof of the tale's veracity, for the Minotaur was very fierce and Memnon only one hero.

Fundamentals of Logic

Written by Plautican of Sarnia, this book lays out the first codified system of logical debate and rhetoric. The Laws of Identity, Non-Contradiction, and Law of the Excluded Middle paved the way for the "Imperial Logic" and the later "Reformed Logic" school of thought. The book is highly respected into the Fourth Age, but periodic assaults are made on it's Laws by progressive orders and especially metaphysical thinkers.

Principles of Physics

The seminal work of the fabled University of Cartaan. The first half of this treatise contains all of the major papers put out by the great minds of the University, as well as all of the counters and commentaries. The second half of the work then goes on to outline the three main fields of classical mechanics: static, kinematic, and dynamic. These three fields together most basically concern the set of physical laws describing the motion of bodies under the action of a system of forces. This work has been studied thuroughly and led to the development of Laws of Motion and Gravity in the Second Age. It was also carried out to the East where Caliphi scholars would later discover acoustics, optics, and develop star charts and the heliocentric model.

Second Age

The Travels of Jason Farstrider

Mid Second Age chronicle of the adventures of Jason Farstrider as well as his detailed records of the places he visited. Divided into 4 Volumes: The Northlands, The Great Mountains, The Lesser Islands of the South, and The Islands of the West. This is still the primary text for many common Dominarian Humans on these areas, despite how old it is.

Sarafina's Fables

Sarafina's Fables is a collection of nearly 500 fables credited to a pre-Imperial Onean Witch named Sarafina Pekala. In the wake of the Barbarian Wars, Sarafina began to write stories to teach lessons that she had learned over her long life. She wrote the vast majority of her tales using animals. This freed her from the boundaries of race and religion while still allowing her to use the concepts abstractly to tell stories about people and their differences. Her stories, ranging from "The Wolf and the Lamb" with its tale of law and injustice to "The Fox and the Stork" which teaches the Golden Rule, are still used by parents and teachers to teach life's basic lessons almost 3000 years later.

The First Eagle

This monumental work recounts the life, times, and conquests of King John the Great: King of Illyria and founder of the Great Imperium of Man. It is compiled from the writings of several historians, two biographers, and fifteen eyewitnesses from among his Generals, companions, and family. Although the parts of this book were created over nearly 200 years, the great lexicographer Ethan of Onea would finally compile all of the works into the text now recognized. He completed his work in roughly 800 SA.

The Outer Realms

The first human work on the Planes. The book, first taken to be pure fantasy, was written by a man who found the accessed the Plane of Mirrors and the Endless Stair and conducted a reasonable survey of Arborea, the Elemental Plane of Fire, and what most modern scholars agree is the 89th Level of the Abyss. He called the planes Heaven, Inferno, and the Dread Sea of Eternity and, using his rather accurate studies, made many erroneous philisophical and magical conclusions. He also speaks of at least seven, but possibly nine, other planes or demi-planes of which scholars can tentatively identify Ghenna, Bytopia, and the demi-plane known as Ravenloft while also believing that one of the others must be Limbo.

Al-Qadim, The First Book of Tales

One of the earliest creative works to come out of the East, The First Book of Tales tells stories from a fictional land called Al-Qadim, "The Land of Fate". In this anthology stories mostly take place in the coastal country of Zakhara and specifically its coastal capital of Huzuz. The stories in this early work all teach the primacy of fate and the penalties for hubris. The pirates of the Bay of Huzuz are the only ones who seem to be able to break free of their fates, and then only at the expense of others. The philosophical ramifications of this are still debated even though many more stories from Al-Qadim have come out over the years.

The Fourth Age

Observations from the Siege of Northwatch, A Treatise on Siege Warfare

A somewhat misleadingly titled book, this tome is a practical rather than esoteric tome. John the Winter Bear, XXXX of XXXX, fought in the Assault on XXXX

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Encyclopedic Works

The Great Battles and Sieges of Dominaria

This monumental tome is highly valued for its wisdom and insight and is made up of an incredible number of Volumes. The series is roughly comparabe to the Encyclopedia Britannica, but concerning war and conflict. The work itself is really a compendium of works compiled within a canon established by the University of Cartaan in the First Age. The torch has passed throughout Dominaria's academia, with the format changing over time as classification and nomenclature changes; the latest works are currently in progress on Saleria. The Volumes concern different areas of Dominaria during different ages and vary widely in rarity and percieved value based on where one is. Generals and nobles alike will collect the tomes and keep them in their library to read and also as show pieces. For a man to have more than one or two of these tomes shows power or money and even among high lords a "full Age" or even "full region" is impressive. Complete sets exist only in a few places, because even after the printing press these books with their diagrams and maps are hard to reproduce. The most well-known full sets were housed at the Grand Library of Venicia and the Imperial Library in the Centrality; both of which have fallen making the fate of the tomes unknown.

• The First Age
• The Great Battles of the Lowland and Beast Wars
• Detailing the Athonian and Sartaan Campaigns in the Lowland War as well as the three major Campaigns of the Beast Wars. Appendixes include the lesser Beast Wars and the brief Dwarven War.
• The Great Battles of the Great War
• Detailing the great civil war between the Athonian League and the Sartan Coalition.
• The Great Battles of the Latter First Age
• Detailing the Beldroni and Arcadian Unification Wars, the Narrow Sea War, and the Barbarian Invasion. Appendices cover the battles of note from the First and Second Expansion Periods.
• Note: The Appendix on the battles during the rise of the first Eastern Nations is actually a separate book and is the rarest of the series by far.
• The Great Sieges of the First Age
• Detailing the Great Sieges of the First Age. Appedixes cover the formative periods of siege warfare on Dominaria: the Great War and the Beldroni and Arcadian Unification wars.
• The Second Age
• The Great Battles and Sieges of the Second Age, Volume 1: Imperial Unification
• Detailing King John's Conquest of the West, as well as later wars, an appendix covers the Illyrian phalanx.
• The Great Battles and Sieges of the Second Age in the East: Volume 1
• Volume 1 covers the Pardic War and the Otarian Civil War, an appendix covers the rise of the Cabal.
• The Great Battles and Sieges of the Second Age in the East: Volume 2
• Volume 2 covers the wars between the early Caliphates and the rise of the Southern Caliphate to supremacy.
• The Great Battles and Sieges Second Age, Volume 2: The Cabal War
• Detailing the nearly world-spanning Cabal War and the release of The Flood, appendices cover post-war population movements and the stories of the biggest caravans or survivor cities.
• The Great Battles and Sieges of Second Age in the South: Rise of the Island Kingdoms
• The first volume covering extensive naval combat. Detailing the rise of the first Island nations in the west and east. Appendices cover the development of naval tactics both near islands and in the open ocean, as well as the unique land tactics developed on the Islands.
• The Third Age
• The Great Battles and Sieges of the Third Age, Volume 1: The Second Great War
• This volume covers Grand Caliph Suzerain's invasion of the Westlands. Appendices cover the development of tactics on both sides, the unique beast-riding tactics of both sides, and turmoil and battles in the West after the war.
• The Great Battles and Sieges of the Far East
• A unique text in that it covers Elven warfare; a human scholar-warrior living with the Elves wrote the text. It covers the Elven cleansing of the Aktar Fells and their defensive war on the plains against the Dhazanti Caliphate and their Sibersk allies. The second half of the book is dedicated to the Elves' war against The Wandering One. An appendix covers the Wandering One's development and evolution through this period and actually diverges into a record of his reformative years in the Far East.
• The Great Battles and Sieges of the Third Age, Volume 2: The Wandering One
• This volume covers the Wandering One's two campaigns against Otaria and Eastern Arcadia. Appendixes discuss this period as the height of the Dragon Rider, the height of magical warfare, and the development of tactics against non-human or demi-human units. Another appendix covers the social and governmental decay that the second war caused and the ensuing 'Witch Hunts' in the Westlands.
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• The Fourth Age
• The Great Battles and Sieges of the Fourth Age, Volume 1:
• This massive work in progress covers the turbulent start of the Fourth Age, excepting the Dragon's Wars. All of the current work will likely not make the final product, as so little of the Age has past.
• The Great Battles of the Fourth Age, The Dragon's Wars:
• This massive tome covers the campaigns, movements, and battles of the Dragon's Wars in detail. The war produced so much by way of warfare that the material being made for the Fourth Age book on the Dragon's War was taken and this book was published in 82FA.
• The Great Sieges of the Fourth Age, The Dragon's Wars:
• This massive tome covers the sieges and city-based campaigns of the Dragon's War in detail. So much of the war revolved around siege and counter-siege tactics that the book on siege warfare was quite literally re-written. The war produced so much by way of siege warfare that the material being made for the Fourth Age book on the Dragon's War was taken and this book was published in 82FA.

Elven

Elven Legends

The Lay of Lúthær

The Lay of Lúthær tells the story of Corellon Larethian and Gruumsh, the champions of the Realms of Light. The two were best friends until the Battle of Lúthær. The story, considered to be a fantastical explanation for the enmity between Elves and Orcs, may in fact be a semi-true tale of a real battle during the Prothean War. The Lay, written in traditional octosyllabic verse, tells the tale of their falling out and the epic duel the two held. Monologues and dialogues dominate the Lay and it is held in the highest traditions of tragedy. At the end of the story, a distraught Corellon cries as he curses the now one-eyed Gruumsh and banishes him into the Outer Realms.

Common lessons from this story: The treachery of Orcs, and occasionally the idea that all non-elves will eventually betray you.

Human Legends

The Fall of Mantaér

All Dominarian Humans have some sort of cautionary tale about too much power in the hands of man and the madness that will surely follow. The tales generally revolve around some sort of mystical world of peace and plenty beyond imagining where hubris caused men to forsake their Gods and cast them away. Generally seven men (alternatively five or thirteen) took this power for themselves and used it to make the world an utter utopia. But brief was this prosperity, for these men soon fell to madness and invited in beings from a 'far realm'. These beings destroyed the beautiful world of Mantaér.

Common lessons from this story: Hubris, too much power, a stigma against Outsider-type beings.

The Doom of Ubar

The precautionary tale of Ubar.

This eastern legend tells of the wealthy trading post and caravanserai of Ubar. Ubar was a fortress-town on the high road through the Janni's Anvil of the great eastern Sea of Sand. An ancient Sha'ir of great wisdom founded the city after he made a pact with the a Jann of the desert. Ubar was wealthy and privileged beyond imagination, with buildings and apartments of granite and fine marble rising like cliffs out of an oasis in the blasted desert. But pride befell the city. The last Sha'ir imprisoned the Jann, and chose to resist the Jann of the desert when they demanded her release. In their rage, they destroyed the city completely.

Common lessons from this story: Hubris, the dangers of consorting or contending with Jann.

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