The History of The Necronomicon in the Flanaess (Part One)
Date: Mon, November 12, 2001
Topic: Heretic's Nest


A treatise on the history of that most vile and blasphemous of tomes, The Necronomicon, and its place among the occult circles of the Flanaess.

Author: grodog.


The History of The Necronomicon in the Flanaess (Part One)


by grodog (see also http://www.rpg.net/ehp/imrryr/greyhawk.html)

Copyright 2001 by Allan T. Grohe, Jr. Used with permission. Do not repost without obtaining prior permission from the author.


The Necronomicon is the most significant text to the Lost Gods, their history, and their cults. The tome has taken on a life of its own, and is known by many names in addition to The Necronomicon, including al-Azif (a mistranslation of the original Baklunish title), The Demonomicon (a conflation by the Pholtine Church with the Witch of Perrenland's treatise of the same name), and various titles inspired by translations of "Necronomicon" (Book of the Names of the Dead, Tome of the Lost Gods, the Dead Gods Book, etc., etc.).

Long before the Invoked Devastation, the Bakluni painter, poet, and seer Abd Al-'Uzzâ ar-Rahib ibn Ad first learned of the Lost Gods in a series of prophetic visions. According to legend, in the year 2000 BH, Al-'Uzzâ began to seek explanations for his visions. Al-'Uzzâ first consulted with learned Suel magi, and the followers of Lendor and Wee Jas; he feared to inquire among the learned Bakluni. Eventually, after finding no answers among the Suel, Al-'Uzzâ visited priestesses of Istus, who offered no guidance. The wise hermits of the Dorgha Torgu warned him against delving beyond the natural dimensions of the Oerth, while the mullahs of the Exalted Faith reviled him as a blasphemer and cursed him in the names of the Thousand Paladins. At some point during his research, in secret, Al-'Uzzâ began to worship the Lost Gods.

In his writings, of which The Necronomicon remains the most infamous, Al-'Uzzâ claimed to be the first human to enter the Nameless City of Pillars (sometimes referred to as the Lost City of Pillars, the City of Nameless Pillars, the Nameless City, etc., etc.); while there, he learned many eldritch secrets dating from before the ascendancy of humanity over the Oerth. Returning to his home of Sana'a, Al-'Uzzâ penned Al Kitab al-'Awf, a collection of transcribed dreams, prophetic verses, illustrations, strange diagrams, and myths that foretold the return of the Lost Gods, who would "reclaim" Oerth as their own "when the stars were right." Al-'Awf's title literally meant "The Soaring Omens." Within a year of completing al-'Awf, he is said to have disappeared, never to be seen again. Other, more sinister, legends speak of Al-'Uzzâ being devoured alive by invisible demons before a zawiya of Al'Akbar. After the sultan of Sana'a outlawed his teachings and his followers, most Bakluni forgot Al-'Uzzâ in the intervening centuries.

Al Kitab al-'Awf would have passed into obscurity, and thence to oblivion, if not for the efforts of the followers of Al-'Uzzâ. They preserved his lore and his words, from generation to generation, by replicating al-'Awf exactly, down to the least stray mark nestled among the glosses, marginalia, illustrations, and diagrams. After each successor copy was completed, the original was ritually burned, and its ashes scattered on this wind, beneath the stars. (None of Al-'Uzzâ's personally scribed copies are believed to have been so destroyed by his followers).

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CthulhuHawk, Lovecraft



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