Necrotaxia
Libro sobre los Mitos por Chris Nichols
Recopilado, ordenado y parcialmente traducido por Predacom
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[Necrotaxia; by Sophianus of Rome; original scrolls in Latin, limited diagrams; 64 AD (Nero rules Roman Empire); +9 Mythos; +3 Occult(Ciencias Ocultas); ; 1d4/1d8 Sanity loss (Perdida de Cordura; Contact Brotherhood (Ghoul), Resurrection, others; no extant copies]
[Necrotaxia; translated by Brother Francis of Acsiini; illuminated Latin codex; c.500 AD (early Middle Ages); +10 Mythos; +3 Occult; ; 1d4+1/1d10 Sanity loss; Contact Brotherhood (Ghoul), Resurrection, others; 3 known copies, possiblly more]
"There are many places in our Empire that the gods have forsaken. Yet, for all the temples in great Rome, she is the most accursed of all these. There are those who believe that many MANES and LEMURES live in our empirial city, and these wise know that verity of this. There are many cultes in the Empirial city; Bacchus and Janus and Mercury are here, but their dark cousins lurk here also. The banned cult of Hermes Cthonius still gathers in the graveyards of the empire. Madmen worship a thing like a slug, served by deadmen. men who drink blood walk the streets, spirits speak softly, bones rattle in sarcophagi, and unknown graves yield their shambling contents to the night. Of twenty years, have I seen these walking fears and the blood they spill. I scribe this record of their passing as an illustration and warning to those who would not fear the night."
----Sophianus, Necrotaxia, 64 AD
"...hay muchos lugares en nuestro Imperio que los dioses han desamparado. Todavía, por todo los templos de la gran Roma, Él es el más maldito de todo estos. Ahí hay de esos que creen que algunos MELENAS y LEMURES viven en nuestra ciudad imperial, y estos sabios saben la verdad de éste. Hay muchos cultos en la ciudad imperial; Bacchus y Janus y Mercurio estan aquí, pero sus primos oscuros acechan aquí también. El prohibido culto de Hermes Cthonius todavía se recoge en los cementerios del imperio. Dementes rinden culto a una cosa viscosa, a un animal lento, servido por insanos. hombres que andado beben sange en las calles, espiritus hablan suavemente, los esqueletos charlan en los sarcófagos, y tumbas desconocidas rinden su contenido a la noche.Veinte años tenía y temo la sangre que cuentan. Yo escribo este registro, de su paso, como una ilustración y advertencia a esos que no temen la noche."
----Sophianus, Necrotaxia, 64 DC
This book records the presense of the dead over twenty years (44-64 AD) in the Italian penninsula, with especially focusing on Rome, although several second-hand reports from legions in other regions of the Roman Empire are included. The work was written in Latin by Sophianus of Rome in 64 BC. Sophianus was one of Claudius' emperial scribes ordered to catalog the presence of unnatural occurances within the Empire. He was executed by empirial decree immediately after finishing the work to the current emperor, Nero. The book originally consisted of seventeen Latin scrolls stored in sealed jars in Sophianus' catacomb beneath Rome. These scrolls were later recovered by representatives of the early church. The scrolls were transported to the Monestary of St. John in the Italien Alps. There the scrolls were hand-copied by Brother Francis of Acsiini. The results of this two year effort was three copies of the work (these run about 700 pages) and the unhinging of the Brother's mind. Monestary records indicate that Brother Francis committed suicide after completing his work. He set himself on fire while standing on the chapel altar. The original scrolls were found charred to ashes strapped to Brother Francis' crisped body. The resultant fire burnt the monestary to the ground. The books were not seen for many years after this point. It is high likely that a confederate of Brother Francis removed them from the monestary prior to the blaze. In such a case, more copies surely exist. In Necrotaxia, Sophianus touches on twenty years of material concerning the activities of the dead. Often, he relies on second-hand reports and uses references from other works to illustrate his topic. Equally often, however, he posed as a cultist or acted as a spy in gain first-hand experience to supply data for the work. Because of this, some have likened him to von Junzt, and consider his work a precursor to von Junzt's Unauschprechlichen Kulten. He touches on many different beings and associated cults, as well as attacking several mainstream worships. Sophianus covers such things as ghosts, vampires, ghouls, and poltergeists. The sorceries of necromancers and other necromatic artifacts are illuminated. One of the cults of Glaaki is described because of the undead Servants of Glaaki. Reports from Egypt recount the presence of the mummified dead, and several related cults (at least one of these cults worships Nyarlathotep), while garrison reports from England speak of a group of undead druids worshipping Shub-Niggurath. He also infiltrated the cult of Hermes Cthonius, a depraved cult using corpes in its rites (read "The Auction" in Cthulhu Casebook for details). Sophianus also blasts the popular cults of Janus, Bast, Thoth, and Golothess among others. Christianity is not spared either, attacks on several groups carying out blasphemous worship service appearing. The tome also contain references to many other Mythos beings, most being touched on briefly and badly misinterpreted. The book is divided into 36 chapters by type, vampires in one chapter, ghosts in another, an so forth. Five chapters are general notes and discourse, ten on various cults (two of these chapters cover early Christian cults), and an introductory chapter leaves 20 chapters of central material remaining. While Sophianus definition of 'the dead' is rather loose, including not only the undead but also spirit beings, and creatures such as ghouls, nightgauths, and other beasts not truly dead but given to carnage when faced with humans, it still is an excellent reference to the horrors of death.
The known surviving copies of Necrotaxia are three medieval codexes bound in low quality brown leather, and sealed with an iron buckle. They show their years in the tattering, staining, and rusting of the covers, but are surprisingly legible and do not crumble as other books of such age would. Each volume was rendered with many hideous and frightening illuminations by Brother Francis, each progressively more evil than the one which came before. None of the volumes has identical illustrations, but they all contain Sophianus' original diagrams of rites, symbols, and maps. Several rituals are reproduced in their entirity. One copy is kept in the Vatican's 'Z' Collection, one of the world largest collections of occult works, and has been in church possession since the mid- 7th century. Necrotaxia is among is books listed in Indexus xpurgatious, the banned books of the Middle Ages. Another copy resides in the Smithsonian Repositories, a display storage facility in Washington, D.C, having been donated to the museum at its founding by the Mulder family (related to Gottfried Mulder) of Germany who had owned the book since 1742, according to accompaning records (later several members of this family entered service with the US government). The book is no longer on display because of the unusual number of fires which occur during periods when the book is on the exhibit floor. The third copy has never been recovered, but has resurfaced on several occasions. The infamous author of Nameless Cults, Friedrich Wilheim von Junzt reportedly had access to a copy, a fact he reported in a letter to the Vatican. When Vatican representatives spoke to von Junzt, the codex had dissappeared. The volume reappeared during the 1928 Federal raid on Innsmouth, MS. Cataloged among items confiscated for the raid, it disappeared enroute to FBI headquarters in D.C. Most recently, the Japanese Shiva/nerve gas terrorist cult possessed this volume at the time their compound was raided by Japanese agents in 1994(?). The book disappeared from an evidence locker in Tokyo one week later. Other copies may exist, but possessing a substantually different appearance.
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