#halas

caleb takes time on the ship studying four books the nein took from halas's library/study:

book 1: a spellbook.

liam reads the card matt gives him, but doesn't share anything out loud 😭😭😭. later, when nott asks caleb if there are "reality shifting things" in the book, caleb hedges a bit and says, "a little, yeah." (YT 2:52:45)

book 2: a number of studies on the effects of alchemical compounds on corrupted plant life.

there are corrupted trees and plant life in aeor and in the savalirwood.

since halas got himself got before the savalirwood corruption happened, this book couldn't reference that. halas tells caleb in ep 125 that aeor had fallen before halas's time. so this book could refer to research that came about after someone spread the corrupted nature from aeor elsewhere.

and, while the book is somewhat a preview of what the nein will eventually find in aeor, it also would've been an interesting hook for them if they, as a group, pursued a molaesmyr/savalirwood path.

book 3: speaks of public debate records within the forum of zeidel regarding the moral implications of arcane experimentation on prisoners of ghor dranas and warnings of the war with the gods. it's a transcript of a debate forum.

two story hooks here:

ghor dranas eventually becomes rosohna. given that the book discusses moral implications, it possibly could've painted a more sympathetic light on the then-inhabitants of xhorhas, and thus their current descendants, which most of the nein were not yet inclined to do at this point. caleb, having gone through arcane experimentation himself, would have interesting insight here.

followers of torog tortured prisoners beneath ghor dranas. there's not enough in matt's brief description to know if the book talks about torog specifically. but that, potentially, could have lead into the crawling king/laughing hand arc.

book 4: discusses the theories behind the ice fields and the underreaches of Eiselcross and the beasts that live and endure it.

this is also an aeor preview, highlighting what kind of horrors the nein could encounter on their way to the aeorian ruins.

You are tended to by physicians, a dying art in a flying city. Occasionally, when she can find the time, your mother takes you to its architecture, with its curving columns and highest peaks, where you can pray to the stars who thread the sky. Where you can wish upon those stars.

Your name is Halis and you meet some strange people in the hospital, and one of them fills you with a warmth you can only start to describe. She shares that warmth with you and for the first time you can breathe unaided. Your mother looks at her and she is reduced to tears of joy. Your mother will be killed that same night.

The city is falling. Safety is a memory. Those who've been killed are the lucky ones, and you are waiting for her to arrive. The goddess of fate, the one who prevails over rules set by nature itself, looks down upon the entire city and plucks you from her void, and that who swore not to intervene, intervenes.

You are placed on a terrestrial land, on a magicless land, on a land where your casual ability to operate a sending stone for more than a 25 word message is considered borderline holy. A breath of Aeor's knowledge, your kindergarten classes give you the same knowledge as the town's most studied wizard.

Your name is Halas. You were born in the calamity, and you hold the fractured knowledge of Aeor in your subconscious. The calamity is coming to an end, the final stand is nigh, and if it were to go poorly, no-one on this plane is safe.