Forbidden Book:
Oraculum Manus Occultus (Cum Sermo Novalinae)
It is said about Archangels that they are all given
three gifts of prophecy. The first
occurs prior to their ascension, and often goes unnoticed until hindsight gives
eyes' better discernment. The second
occurs upon their ascension, when the link with the Higher Heavens and the
Divine is most potent. The third, alas,
comes upon them when they find the True Death.
It is some debate among the Host about which is the purest example of
prophecy: Raphael's and Oannes' pronouncements are carefully guarded secrets,
so it is hard to balance their force against the ones uttered before their
bearers' apotheosis. It is certainly
true, however, that the ones occurring during apotheosis are among the most
well-known instances of Archangelic prophecy (besides Gabriel's, of
course).
Certainly the most notorious one comes from the
second group. When Marc became an
Archangel, his prophecy was unexpected - it was the first raising of an
Archangel since the end of the First Rebellion, after all; this phenomenon did
not occur previously - and judging from the subsequent reaction, not entirely
welcome, either. Speculation by later
generations over what was said have been only fueled by the fact that every member
of the Seraphim Council below the rank of Archangel present at Marc's Prophecy
voluntarily submitted to having their memories of the event utterly wiped away.
All save one.
Novalis, Angel of Flowers, was closest to Marc during his moment of
terrible glory. It is widely agreed
that she must have heard every word, and it is certainly True that she declined
to have her memories removed. As she
was about to be elevated in her turn, it apparently was not considered to be an
issue. Her own divinatory utterances
were interesting in their own right - it is widely agreed that Blandine
attempted the first Redemption attempt as a result of Novalis' prophecy - but
not especially relevant towards the oddities surrounding Marc's foretelling.
Or perhaps not.
Several thousand years later, a very interesting set of scrolls
(permeated with so much ineffability that it was practically crystallizing
along the sides) showed up. The text
was written in Old Angelic, in a hand that was clearly Novalis'; it appeared to
be a copy of Marc's prophecy, heavily annotated (in green ink) by the Archangel
of Flowers. The word 'appeared' is used
because while the language was clearly Old Angelic, the text was neither
comprehensible nor gibberish, simply... not understandable. All enquiries to the Archangel of Flowers
were met with a smiling, murmured comment about having a unique perspective on
the matter and an offer of tea.
It is uncertain just how many copies of the Oraculum
Manus Occultus exist, but the numbers seem small. New versions seemed to get penned at the whim of Novalis; while
Marc's prophecy (if that is what it is) is always presented in the same
language and format, the language and text of the annotations are never quite
the same twice and the medium in which the 'book' can be found has ranged from
everything from scrolls to books to a read-only CD-ROM. One thing that remains fairly constant is
that all versions of the Oraculum Manus Occultus seem remarkably
resilient and tough: one reliable report indicated that a particular copy has
survived a house fire, being shot with a Maxim gun, the sinking of the Titanic,
sixteen uses of the Calabite resonance and the attentions of a two year old
(although it is unclear whether that last was also - incorrectly - noted as the
use of a Calabite resonance).
Interestingly enough, while no angelic researcher
has ever been able to decipher the main text, Servitors of Revelations have
determined to their satisfaction that the status and mystery that is the Oraculum
Manus Occultus has absolutely no effect on their dissonance conditions...
or, for that matter, the inability of the entities who have deciphered
the text to give any meaningful answers about its meaning. Oh, yes, there are quite a few individuals
who know what Marc's putative prophecy apparently was, even if they cannot hope
to explain it. They are noted for their
titles that they formerly held (like "Baron" or "Duke" or
"Demon of"), for their noted serenity... and for their unwillingness
to fight the War in a violent capacity.
They show up in Heaven, hand off their book to the somewhat bemused
Revelations team set up to document the phenomenon, go through their
debriefings in a remarkably cheerful and helpful manner, get easily Redeemed
and go on with their new lives. The
Revelations team plays with the book for a while and quietly sends it back to
Novalis. Eventually another demon shows
up carrying either that copy, or another one.
Sometimes an existing copy shows up at the foot of Jacob's Ladder, which
also gets forwarded to the Archangel of Flowers.
Hey, I never said that the Host called this a Forbidden Book.