King Yadra was a human sorcerer of the third kalpa, widely and incorrectly credited with the invention of the magical arts of pyromancy, necromancy, oneriomancy and infernalism, as well as the martial arts of deodandics and axe play. He ruled over the Echra River and its myriad tributaries, subjugating man, beast and spirit alike. His reign lasted sixty seven years before succumbing to an infernal parasite which he contracted after an expedition to the infernal realms below the Earth. His wife and successor, the naiad-queen Echra, continued his dynasty a further six hundred years before abdicating her throne. The Golden Empire of Yadra splintered into the Poet Kingdoms thereafter, each ruled by a claimant to the throne descended from a different poet or bard who had been Echra's concubine for a time during her rule.
The Scroll of Yadra is an ancient text by the Poet King, detailing his dabblings with sorcery. It also contains a great deal of lewd poetry and drawings of birds.
* You learn how to consult the Dream of Yadra for advice whenever you sleep.
* You may hire one extra Son of Yadra per time you have studied this book.
* Spells: Maleficence, Pyromancy, Black Glass, Deodandics.
(When studying the Scroll of Yadra, rolling a 4 gives you a level in Fighter instead of Wizard, but still learn the "spell" of Deodandics.)
Maleficence is as per the Salty Goo spell. King Yadra's element is Ghost Flames, the sort of green fire you get when you succeed at setting a ghost on fire. They don't spread to other ghosts; it seems each flame is unique to a specific soul.
Pyromancy is the Song of the Phoenix and the Art of Unburning. Cast the spell as you cast something into the flames and you will learn a song, unique to the thing burnt. Sing this (or any other pyromantic song) over a sufficient quantity of ashes and the object will emerge from the flame once more. The song sung does not need to match the object burnt; you can burn a pile of wood and sing forth a pile of silk, pound for pound. [dice] determines the maximum size of object: 1 for a chest, 2 for a man, 3 for a wagon, 4 for a wooden building. If you burn a non-food item to make food, it does not gain in nutrition for having been transmuted into a more palatable form.
The Black Glass was the most early form of infernalism, before people learned to conjure demons out of their hells instead of simply pointing an occult telescope down into them. Performing the ritual takes ten minutes and a mirror and allows anyone looking into the mirror to see into the infernal (i.e. subterranean) realm beneath their current location and converse with the spirits inhabiting the magma there. The spirits eat the memory-rich shades of the dead and know whatever those who have died nearby would know. They will trade this knowledge for further death, so long as it is performed above their particular hell, so the shades dribble down to them and not to some other infernal spirit. Stronger shades drift further down before getting eaten, [sum] = maximum HD of the deceased whose memories you want.
Deodandics is the formal term for what was once called the Red Art of Murder. In short, by killing enough people in the same way with the same weapon, one awakens a bloodthirsty intellect within it. Traditionally, a hundred people to let a weapon speak to its wielder in dreams and to give them a spell and an MD to cast it with. An extra MD and spell every multiple of ten thereafter. Deodands - weapons awakened thus - are jealous things who do not tolerate each other's presence, much less being wielded by the same individual. Yadra was one of the few exceptions to this rule. Studying his lore allows you to intentionally create Deodands, instead of stumbling into it by accident and slaughter.
The Song of Yadra is a work of pyromantic magic. It is, quite simply, the song of King Yadra's body and shade. Not his soul - that has long since been reincarnated - but the flesh, bone, sinew and soulless memory of the man. The result is a calque: a copied, borrowed thing. In this case, borrowed by whatever spirits are closest. In the absence of a more immediate spirit, this will almost always be an infernal one.
The Dream of Yadra is a work of oneriomantic magic. Through a ritual which he will not share with you, the Dreaming King enforces fidelity of speculation about him. Dreaming about or even imagining King Yadra forces you to produce an accurate and life-like representation of the King, down to what he would actually say if he were in a dream of yours, knew he were in a dream of yours and more importantly was aware of every dream that everyone has had of him since his earthly death and remembered all of them without going mad. (If he forgets, all he has to do is imagine what he was doing in that dream. That too, will be accurate.) The Dream of Yadra is quite happy to teach you the Song of Yadra, so that his body may inhabit the earth.
The Sons of Yadra are calque-men. Ash-summoned flesh and ash-summoned memories of a long dead sorcerer-king, inhabited by demonic spirits. They come to you clad in wood armour over fine, ash-black silk and carrying fire-hardened wooden spears. When they dream, they dream of their Father, who is their flesh and memory, and of their Queen, who is the river which runs through every Hell, searching for her long ago fallen lover. They are mercenaries with as many HD as you had MD when you hired them. They command prices to match and, unless you have studied the ways of King Yadra's Court, will not consent to serve under the same master as another Son of Yadra. One calque-man mercenary per customer, at most.
