EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a transcription of a note folded inside a manuscript of the Pocket Guide to the Empire, Second Edition. The manuscript, commissioned by the Empress Morihatha in the fourteenth year of her reign, was infamously left unpublished due to the scandalous nature of its contents – a product, many would say, of the Imperial Geographic Society taking far too literally its assignment to “modernize the claim that [Tamri-el] was in fact a unified Empire” (the role of the Septims in suppressing this vital document cannot be overstated; it is but one of many pieces of evidence against the Empire burnt to ashes by the Dragon’s acrid breath). The note, along with the manuscript, was found in the bowels of a forbidden library of the Moth Chantry, hidden from sight between two massive tomes of indecipherable paleographemes. The discoverer was a confrater of the Temple installed in a convenient position as an agent provocateur. Upon recovering the texts he immediately channeled them to Temple Zero via high-priority glyphstream, as per Null Oath protocols. Unfortunately, contact with him was subsequently lost.
Yet even more unfortunate is a delay in the propagation of the Truth! While the Temple’s mnemographers were able to decrypt the abnegaurbic doctrines of the note, the Pocket Guide remains a puzzle to our scribes even as you read this. Certain complications that arose at the end of its transmission have made the transcription process difficult – in passages, it can be difficult to distinguish the original text from the sender’s hectic fever dreams. It is the work of the Empire’s sleepers, no doubt: their touch venomous, their tendrils crawling through every pocket of the dreamsleeve.
The note appears to be the minutes of a secret meeting of the Elder Council held in 3E331 in which the membership of the Geographic Society were convicted of treason and the Pocket Guide was suppressed by Council edict. How they fear the Truth, who came to Power by clawing it to tatters! But they failed, of course, for the lovers of the Truth are many; though we know not who spited the Dragon by saving it, they who preserved these texts have embodied the heart of our Manifesto (and, indeed, may have helped bring it about.) And now the Temple has found it appropriate to publish its contents, that all of Tamri-el might see the Truth with eyes unveiled – for it is in the Truth that we are free from the mythopoeic enslavement of Talos and his co-conspirators, free from all Opression!
NU-MANTIA! FREEDOM! NU-MANTIA! FREEDOM! NU-MANTIA! FREEDOM! NU-MANTIA! FREEDOM! NU-MANTIA! FREEDOM! NU-MANTIA! FREEDOM!
***
Here you will find the foundation for your new Temple.
ECMB-MRA: mnemonic daedron-capacitance memospore classification xD15JMo0JfiX
cogitocode: a gnarled tibrol tree against the sunset, overlooking a lake; try to feel melancholy
"fk00-54bQ15"
ZERO-SUM VENTURE... RETURN FALSE... VERIFICATION 1
"f000-50bQ15"
FEXFEINT ENABLED... RETURN TRUE... VERIFICATION 8
"f000-000015"
WATERWORD WARD... RETURN TRUE... VERIFICATION 0
"0000-000000"
ACCESS GRANTED RELEASING MEMOSPORE
xxxx0001010101010101xxxxx0111100101010111xx101010xxxx0101010100x0x0x00010x00x0x0
x01000x00x00x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0010xxMINUTES
of a meeting of the Most-Esteemed
ELDER COUNCIL,
forever lieges and loyal servants fraternal of Her Most Honored and Exalted the
EMPRESS SEPTIM MORIHATHA,
Chosen of White-Gold and the Amulet of Kings, Sovereign of the Ruby Throne, Lord of Cyrodiil and her Dominions, etc., etc.,
Held
TWENTY-EIGHTH OF MID-YEAR
in the
THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIRST YEAR
of the Empire of Men,
transcribed and annotated by an adjunct of His Lordship the
GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF WEYE-UPON-RUMARE,
Master of the Hamlet-Across-The-Way, Most-Esteemed Among Equals of the Minor Council, etc., etc.,
FOR THE EYES OF FELLOW-COUNCILORS ONLY
We, in this year 331 of the 3rd Era of the Empire Cyrodiili, on the 28th of Mid-Year, have appeared before the Lord and High Chancellor Arboretumest-Best Ud-Maniphas Segu, representing in voice and authority our Empress Morihatha, hegemon of Cyrod and Cyrod and all its lawful territories under the Ruby Red Throne as established by Tiber Imperator, with the goal of forming an Elder Council consisting of the following persons:
Here we will dream-swell on a very, very long list of councilors with their respective positions and titles, and absentees, and councilors attending via trance, spectral representation, etc., except the following persons (hear-see: now), as they shall already be mentioned in those other estimable lists found now in your pockets save for the naked here assembled, etc., and the as-agreed-upon-in-amulet those members and delegates and strangely-beautiful silk concerns as writ in the council definitions for the legislative year 331.
AND AS the aforementioned Elder Council having been called together by the Lord and High Chancellor Arboretumest-Best Ud-Maniphas Segu via priority dreamsleeve transmission and couriermoth, to take place outside of the regular calendar, though thereby not replacing the scheduled meeting on the 31st of Mid-Year AND UNDER the Corbolo Protocol of 3E 275, this council session is to be treated compliant with the standards of security class "E12 - ad hoc and highly classified" and, thusly, SHALL be held in secret. Access to the session or its transcription must be denied to any citizen with Imperial clearance level smaller than or equal to 23b, as decreed in Subsection 4-B of the Concealment Clause of the Council Accords vis-à-vis the Corbolo Protocol. Does any present Councilor object to the aforementioned procedural enumeration?
*****
Elder Councilor Maganifly-Good One, Elder Councilor Ambassador Wood-Worth, and Elder Councilor Delphine IV have already presented their collected votes of “Nay.” What say the others?
Elder Councilor Trails-his-Graves seeks to initiate a vote of “Nay” – let us now be interrupted by an unseen cascade resonance in the echo-stream of his dreamsleeve transmission. Very good.
Elder Councilor Maganifly-Good One, Elder Councilor Ambassador Wood-Worth, and Elder Councilor Delphine IV, along with Our Ceremonial Guard here-now named and/or title Afternoon Nap and an adjunct to Elder Councilor Ambassador Wood-Worth here-now named and/or titled for this time-being, Circumference Comfort, now may proceed to assist Elder Councilor Trails-his-Graves in re-establishing a stable link. Make it happen, people.
Ah, very good. Unfortunately we must laugh now, and in a great volume, DO IT, as Adjunct Circumference Comfort has received injuries amounting to a minor concussion and third-degree burns along his thigh and needs to be escorted out of the Council chambers. Goodbye with you, good sir.
Upon re-establishment of all links, a cloture vote shall be re-instated as per Sub-Protocol 343 of the Laws of Triangulation, wherein all members may present their votes.
There is a unanimous NAY. Good for all of us. Very, very good. The Empress will be and is already pleased yesterday. Our Proceedings May Resume.
****
High Chancellor Arboretumest-Best Ud-Maniphas Segu: "All members of the Imperial Geographic Society that undertook the sacred act of the penmanship of the Second Pocket Guide via Imperial Command (in writing, no less): You are hereby given the right to defend your actions before the Elder Council."
Imperial Geographic Society Editor [NYMIX NOW ZERO'D]: "If I may, on behalf of -- "
High Chancellor Arboretumest-Best Ud-Maniphas Segu: "Let it be known that the right to trial was conferred upon the defendants. How does this Council rule?
Elder Council Collective: "Guilty."
High Chancellor Arboretumest-Best Ud-Maniphas Segu: "The matter of guilt having been settled, how does this Council move to sentence the defendants?"
Elder Council Collective: "Death, effective immediately."
High Chancellor Arboretumest-Best Ud-Maniphas Segu: High Chancellor Arboretumest-Best Ud-Maniphas Segu: "The Council has ruled. Guards?"
Hatta of The Sphinxmoth Inquiry Tree: "High Chancellor, ENOUGH! If I may first address to all assembled or in state ad semblio, I would request of the Council the reason that We have overlooked the need for an encoded Verification Return False for the Belharzaharm?"
Lord Jak Candlestick of the Western Wax, the Eastern Wax, the Southern Wax, but Not Yet of the Northern Wax: "Silence, Hatta! We are already in session. All here know your affinity for the son of the Aleshut (pauses for hymnals thirty and eight) but you have no right to--"
Hatta of The Sphinxmoth Inquiry Tree: "Acausal Interrupt! I will not allow these proceedings to be compromised by future scrying, nor to allow you to ignore silks uncounted since--"
Ghost Counsel Choir (Blade-Seneschal and above): "Peli-NULL. Hatta is dead. Move to formation of NU-Hatta post-assembly by his brethren blessed. 331 High Chancellor regains the floor."
High Chancellor Arboretumest-Best Ud-Maniphas Segu: "Thank you in the utmost of that ideal, Ghost Choir. No doubt, we are all in a moment of woe. Let me mourn for-- all right, I'm done. I shall now invoke the name of the Hasphat and most likely we will get sidetracked by talk of the Rim."
High Chancellor Arboretumest-Best Ud-Maniphas Segu: "HOLD! THE! CENTER! I have just been informed that Her Majesty has arrived in our heads. There we go! Ponder her! Now... where were we?"
This text was posted on the official Elder Scrolls Forums on January 1st, 2012, kicking off a thread titled Return False. Although it was posted by Michael Kirkbride (as Merry Eyesore the Elk), it was Written by Adventurous Putty, Adanorcil, and Michael Kirkbride in collaboration.
It was originally conceived by Adanorcil as a stand-alone text, but was later adapted to the Pocket Guide 2nd edition. More text was written in the auspices of Temple Zero, but not all of it ended up published.
Although it is preserved here as one text, it was originally published as a series of consecutive posts, each a few minutes apart. We have placed a horizontal rule in between each of these sections. Besides that, the formatting is preserved here as best we are able. The final art (originally hyperlinked to "There we go. Ponder her.") was drawn by Lady Nerevar.