Many blasphemous texts and monstrous tomes
have been penned by lunatics, cultists, and
fiends over the course of Golarion’s history.
Numerous answers to the Dark Tapestry’s mysteries
are supposedly hidden within the pages of Secrets of the
Dreaming Dark. The Emerald Codex of the Therassic Order
purports to reveal esoteric spells and rituals associated
with the mysterious Peacock Spirit of old Thassilon. The
religious texts of many evil cults contain blasphemies
capable of shocking even the staunchest of souls.
Perhaps most infamous of all of Golarion’s evil texts is
the notorious Book of the Damned, a multivolume text
that catalogs the evil Outer Planes and the outsiders who
inhabit—and rule—them.
But Golarion has hardly cornered the proverbial
market on the composition of notorious texts. In the
days before the Shining Crusade, one of creation’s most
dangerous grimoires came to the Inner Sea region from
a world far distant from Golarion, yet in key ways not
so different from it—for like Golarion, Earth has long
been under the influence of the Elder Mythos, the alien
gods that constitute it, and the deranged cultists who
worship them.
It was on Earth, in what corresponded roughly to
the year 3525 ar on Golarion, that a talented but mad
poet named Abdul Alhazred wrote his blasphemous
masterpiece, Kitab Al-Azif, after spending a decade
alone in the desert. The book swiftly gained a sinister
reputation, one that only grew after Alhazred was torn
apart and devoured by an unseen beast before several
horrified witnesses. The book would be translated
centuries later into Greek by the scholar Theodorus
Philetas, and then into many other languages over the
years to follow. A copy of the first translation into Greek
made its way via the Dreamlands to Golarion, where a
necromancer named Geir, eager to impress his lord Tar-
Baphon, took upon himself the task of translating the
text from an alien tongue into Necril, the language of the
Whispering Tyrant. Such a task was, of course, doubly
blasphemous, for not only did it bring Alhazred’s mad
revelations to an entirely new world, but in using Necril to
record the words, Geir directly disobeyed the Whispering
Way’s restriction of passing on its secrets via whispers
alone. Paranoid that he would be found out—but certain
the gift of the book would impress the Whispering
Tyrant enough to earn a pardon for his actions—Geir
took extensive steps to ensure the Necril translation
of the tome would be difficult, if not impossible, to
magically locate or transport. Unfortunately for Geir,
destiny intervened in the form of the Shining Crusade,
and he was divested of the newly translated tome in one
of that conflict’s first battles. Geir was, by then, a lich,
and his rejuvenation at his phylactery ensured no lasting
harm came to him as a result of his defeat, but the loss
of the Necronomicon to the crusaders haunted him for
ages (it was as a safeguard against this precise eventuality
that the lore of the Whispering Way was forbidden
from being written down). With his own wards against
divination preventing him from determining where the
crusaders had taken the dangerous book, Geir was forced
to abandon the text and hope the truth of its source
never came out.
In this regard, luck was with the lich. The crusaders
returned the Necril translation of the Necronomicon to
Zimar in Taldor, but with the nation focused on the
Shining Crusade, little effort was made to research
the dangerous tome after an initial disastrous attempt
resulted in the book being locked away in a vault. It
remained there for years, forgotten amid the chaos of the
Shining Crusade, until it was liberated during Qadira’s
attack on Zimar in 4079 ar. When the scholar entrusted
with studying the tome committed suicide by leaping
from Katheer’s Zenith of the Dawnflower, the book
was once again placed in a hidden vault, where it has
languished for the past several hundred years, patient
and potent, waiting for another set of curious and foolish
eyes to gaze upon the secrets its pages ache to reveal.
The following timeline notes important events as
they relate to Geir’s translation of the Necronomicon,
as well as other significant events involving various
copies of the Necronomicon on distant Earth (which are
presented in italics).
c. 3525 ar
Abdul Alhazred writes Kitab Al-Azif, the
original version of the notorious text that
would come to be known more commonly as
the Necronomicon.
3533
Abdul Alhazred is torn apart by an invisible
creature on the streets of Damascus on Earth.
3745
A scholar named Theodorus Philetas discovers
a copy of Kitab Al-Azif in the Imperial Library of
Constantinople, then translates the book from
Arabic into Greek and renames the volume the
Necronomicon. He is later forced to recant and
publicly burn his translation of the tome on the
steps of a church, but before he does so, he
hides a copy of the book in a library in Ulthar in
the Dreamlands.
3746
The necromancer Geir, an agent of the
Whispering Tyrant, discovers the Necronomicon
while searching the libraries of the Dreamlands
for clues on a ritual to transform him into a
lich. He returns to Ghasterhall in Ustalav and
manages to transport the Necronomicon with
him. He then begins work on translating the
tome into Necril.
3747
Geir completes his initial work on the book
that will become the Necril translation of
the Necronomicon. To combat potential theft
of his prize, he enhanced the book with
potent abjurations that prevent it from being
supernaturally located via divination magic or
transported via teleportation effects.
3751
Geir’s work on translating the Necronomicon
helps him complete his transformation into
a lich. He continues work on the translation,
intending to offer the translated book to his
master, Tar-Baphon, for great rewards.
3754
The Shining Crusade begins. Geir finally
completes his translation of the Necronomicon,
then destroys the stolen Greek version to
ensure Tar-Baphon will retain the only copy
of the book on Golarion. He sets out to hand-
deliver the tome to the Whispering Tyrant,
but is ambushed along the way by a group of
paladins in one of the first battles of the Shining
Crusade. Geir is slain during the battle, and
while he rejuvenates a few days later back in
Ghasterhall at his phylactery, his possessions,
along with the Necronomicon, have been
left behind. The crusaders recognize the
Necronomicon as a dangerous tome, but not
its true significance, as it is but one of several
grimoires captured in the fight. The crusaders
decide to send their captured spellbooks back
to Zimar in Taldor for study and safekeeping.
3755
After spending several months mired in
bureaucratic red tape, the Necronomicon
finally falls into the possession of noted Taldan
scholar Natharen Olatidar, who recognizes
the Necronomicon as a potent spellbook and
suspects that hidden within its pages are
secrets that will help the Shining Crusade. He
begins studying the tome in his quarters, and
grows increasingly paranoid that hidden agents
of the Whispering Tyrant may have infiltrated
Zimar and are seeking to reclaim the tome.
3756
Natharen makes a fatal mistake and attempts
to contact one of the entities mentioned in the
Necronomicon—the Crawling Chaos—to aid his
research of the tome. Unfortunately for Zimar,
his attempt is successful, and the revelations
Natharen receives from Nyarlathotep drive
him mad. He becomes convinced that those
in Zimar he suspected of being agents of
the Whispering Way are in fact minions of
something far more evil, and sets about
slaughtering nearly a dozen innocent priests
and scholars before he is himself killed.
Investigations into the mad wizard’s activities
reveal the dangers in the Necronomicon, and
the book is put into secure storage in a vault
in Zimar to await a time when the Shining
Crusade is over so that proper attention can
be given to the dangerous tome.
3828
The Shining Crusade finally comes to a close
after nearly three-quarters of a century. In that
time, the Necronomicon has been forgotten
in its secure vault, and the book continues to
languish within Zimar for many decades more.
4079
Qadira invades Taldor and sacks Zimar. Among
the invaders is a Qadiran scholar named Asea
Imbandi, who is aghast at the destruction of so
many rare tomes during the city’s burning. She
personally sees to the preservation of several
hundred books from Zimar’s vaults—among
which is the Necril version of the Necronomicon.
Returning to Katheer with her rescued texts,
Asea begins to catalog them, but soon after
she begins studying the Necronomicon, she
is driven to suicide and leaps from the Zenith
of the Dawnflower. A set of disjointed notes
found among her belongings warns other
scholars, and the Necronomicon is placed under
magical wards in the special collections of the
Mysterium, where it remains for many years.
Current Year
Lowls and his allies secure the copy of the
Necronomicon from the Mysterium. Lowls
immediately sets off for Neruzavin, leaving the
Mysterium and several allies in lockdown in his
panicked haste.
THE NECRIL NECRONOMICON
As with many other editions of the tome, the Necril
translation of the Necronomicon is bound in leather cured
from the faces of several men and women, their agony
forever preserved in the grimaces that now adorn the
book’s hideous covers. The text is several hundred pages
long, and the leaves within are made of remarkably thin
but resilient parchment that feels strangely cool and
almost greasy to the touch.
For the remainder of this article, it is Geir’s Necril
translation of the Necronomicon that is detailed, and
the book is referred to merely as the Necronomicon. The
contents of this specific translation are generally similar
to but in some cases differ wildly from those found in
the first Greek translation, or even Alhazred’s original
Kitab Al-Azif.
T he N ecroNomicoN ’ s D efeNses
The Necronomicon is much more than a mere translation
of an infamous book—it is, in fact, a magical item on par
with an artifact. Other copies of the book (none of which
exist on Golarion) aren’t nearly as robust in their defenses
as this unique translation, as Geir poured his soul and
will into the book’s creation, sacrificing much of himself
as he wrote the words within. He gained a great deal from
this devotion, and the act of translating the book aided
his own transformation into a lich.
Divination Proof: Any attempt to use
divination magic, such as locate object or
discern location, to divine the exact location
of the Necronomicon, as well as any attempt
to use scry to spy upon a person carrying the
dread book, is fraught with extreme peril.
Not only does the attempt automatically
fail, but the caster must also succeed
at a DC 30 caster level check to
avoid notice from the eldritch
powers that watch over the
tome. On a failed check, the
caster’s mind is assaulted
with horrific visions that can
cause madness. The caster
must then attempt a DC 20
Will save; failure means the
caster takes 1d8 points of
Wisdom drain, while success
means the caster takes only 1d4
points of Wisdom damage.
Teleportation-Proof: The book cannot be
transported by teleportation effects. If carried by
someone who teleports away, the book remains behind,
and the fool who attempted to teleport must succeed at
a DC 30 caster level check or the attempted teleportation
effect sends him somewhere singularly dangerous that
is associated with elements of the Elder Mythos or,
barring any appropriate such location in range, to a site
where undeath or necromantic energy is strong. The
book can be carried safely through gates, portals, and
other freestanding teleportation effects.
Method of Destruction: This copy of the Necronomicon
is inexorably tied to the existence of two powerful
beings: its translator, Geir, and the Dreamland duplicate
of its original author, Alhazred. Before the Necronomicon
can be destroyed, both of these beings must first be
destroyed. Geir dwells on now as a powerful awakened
demilich in the library of Ghasterhall in the nation of
Ustalav while Alhazred can be found in the deserts of
the Dreamlands (Pathfinder Adventure Path #111: Dreams
of the Yellow King 53). Once both of these creatures are
slain (acts that are monumental tasks on their own), the
Necronomicon’s anchor to reality is weakened and mere
damage can destroy it, although it has a hardness of
30 and 50 hit points. Complicating this entire task, of
course, is the fact that the book’s otherworldly muse,
Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos, is likely to take
note if either Geir’s or Alhazred’s dream incarnation is
destroyed; once either is defeated, the Outer God may
or may not take action against the book’s destruction,
by sending either agents, members of its cult, or a
direct manifestation of one of his avatars to attempt a
rescue of the tome, followed by relocating it to some
new world.
