Arcanum Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura [antikvár]

nVo single volume to date has yet collected all six thousand years of Arcanum's recorded history. Indeed, many would argue that it is impossible to approach such a Gargantuan subject within the covers of a single book! When I was a younger man. it was my burning ambition to write the deiinitive history of all Arcanum, but I never imagined for a moment that it was possible to do so in a simple or concise manner. Instead I labored for many decades, traveling from place to place in my researches, and produced no fewer than twenty-three detailed volumes which I dared to call "The Compleat Histories". Alas, the fiery arrogance of youth!I now believe that compiling the entire history of Arcanum in any great detail is a task well beyond the reach of any one manand what is more, it is a task which will become more difficult with every passing year. In my travels, I have had occasion to sift through many of the world's great libraries and scriptoriums, searching always for the most ancient books, scrolls, and tablets which were still legible. Arcanum's history revealed itself to me slowly, showing first one face and then another as I spent weeks, months, and even years in transcription and translation. But for every precious source document which had been recorded on a sturdy clay tablet, a sheaf of hammered gold, or a roll of soft vellum, there were a hundred papyri which were as dry and fragile as old leaves, and a hundred more which had haU-crumblcd into illegible fragments. The millennia of knowledge contained therein were in imminent danger of being lost foreverand in some cases, they were lost before I ever arrived.Both the elvish and dwarven races are possessed of rich oral histories, which chronicle events even more remote and arcane than those recorded by their scribes but these oral traditions are hard to Come by for those outside the appropriate race and culture, and I've rarely been privy to them. Perhaps that is best, as the line between fact and myth grows less clear the further one looks behind, and the transcription of oral histories is more properly the work of a folklorist than an historian. Whenever possible, I have always attempted to keep my own chronicles well-grounded in fact, erring on the side of discretion rather than speculation or untoward credulity; over the years I've found that it's rather easier to believe a well-told and dramatic story that it is prove that story true!Arcanum Players Guide - 1