Disclaimer: The following document fragment is presented from an in-character perspective, it should not be taken as the truth of the setting.
Context: An excerpt from a book discussing a specific incident, shedding light on the thin edge between the truth and lies, that forms when one lacks the full scope of context. It’s easy to dismiss something as unimportant when you are not fully aware of what it is.
The Cerulean Shadow is a somewhat obscure cult that is the topic of discussion among mages for the last century. The mystery of the order is rather simple, but it shows a critical problem with the very nature of magery.
To this day, eighty years after the disappearance of the sect’s founder, it remains unclear if it was a real mystic order or a scam.
Why is this minor order so controversial then?
To illustrate that, we must look at the history of Teobaldo Varela, the man behind the cult. Teobaldo was not a man of any vital importance throughout most of his life. This changed only once he began preaching about the Cerulean Shadow – a being he claims to have repeatedly seen in the sky and conversed with about various esoteric topics.
The man had claimed, among other things, to possess exclusive information about the past, present, and future. Went on record saying the Shadow itself was a manifestation of Jesus speaking to him from some sort of “Heaven.” On several occasions, he mentioned that the Moon does not exist, and on several others claimed to have been there, where he met Saint Paul.
All of this he had supposedly written down in a book titled “Illuminations of the Cerulean Shadow,” whose only existing copy appears to be encoded in some way no one has managed to break yet. Assuming that, to begin with, it is not merely absolute gibberish.
The words of Varely are clearly and easily dismissible as nonsense according to everything we know about the world.
Yet in a letter to his friend, he writes in detail about the first World War and what precautions to best take to avoid most significant conflicts. He concludes the latter stating that the information presented was given to his by a “cerulean friend in the sky.”
Shortly after, he disappears without a trace.
To this day, we cannot make sense of the man’s writing, who or what the Shadow might be, and how much of the writing pertains to any more profound truth.
All we are left with is this mystery. And we must ask ourselves: is it even possible to solve it?
This is the price we pay for our secrecy. Who knows how many fragments of the truth were lost similarly? Who knows how many lies we revere as something they are not?
Esoteric Musings... 