Seer Transcript – Vault-Filed Record: ON-2711-AX

Access Level: Archivist Tier Only

Subject: The Old Texts – Pre-Demonic Combat Scripture

Recovered by: Guild Seer Tarnis Veil-Binder (Vision Fragment 13A: The Fire Beneath the Ash)

Filed Under: Doctrine Precursor | Belief Systems | Memory Hazard Class Δ

“Before flame was regulated, before oath became measured, we worshipped the war itself.”

✧ Origin

The Old Texts predate the Demonic Era and form the backbone of the Orcs’ primeval faith—a theology of combat, challenge, and divine violence. These were not metaphors. Blood was covenant. Pain was praise.

Each god—Kelmora, Warden of Duels; Trazgar the Severing Blade; Vurnaz of the Last Stand—demanded ritual combat as worship. Victory signaled divine approval. Defeat meant exile… or worse, silence.

✧ Desecration & Collapse

With the rise of the Demonic Throne, the Old Texts were twisted.

The same rites were invoked, but not to praise gods—to bind demons.

Warlocks—once spiritual challengers—became priests of dominion. Combat lost its sanctity. Oath became chain. The scrolls were burned or sealed in iron, and belief shattered into fear.

✧ The Ember Reframing

When the Ember Oath was first spoken (0 A.A.), it was not innovation—it was reclamation.

The oath invoked structure over submission, purpose over passion.

But its flame bore traces of the Old Texts:

• The centrality of ritual

• The sanctity of oath

• The belief that strength has meaning

Not all factions agreed. Some whispered: “The Ember Oath is but the Old Faith in exile.”

✧ Heresy & the False Dawn

During the War of False Dawn (22–40 A.A.), the Old Texts resurfaced—corrupted again, this time by the Blackened Root.

They claimed the gods had never died—only been silenced by cowards.They used the forgotten rites as fuel for counter-oaths, sacrificial memory rites, and binding rituals.

Tarnis Veil-Binder, in a sealed vision, saw these words scorched onto a cavern wall:

“The Ember was never enough. Let the old gods answer.”

✧ Aftermath & Suppression

In the Unified Era, all surviving fragments of the Old Texts were flame-sealed by the Guild of Seers.

A codified decree (Edict 94-A, The Doctrine of Measured Flame) classifies these relics as Cultural Memory Hazards—too volatile to destroy, too dangerous to ignore.

Still, echoes remain:

• A combatant whispering a name not found in any Guild registry

• A duel fought without cause, but ending in reverent silence

• A spiral burned beneath the skin, unseen by glyphlight

🜎 Archivist Note

This record remains sealed not to erase history, but to preserve truth through discipline.

“We were not united by faith. We were united by what we feared would come if we stood apart.”— Final Memoir of Tarnis Veil-Binder

🜁 The Old Texts (Pre-Demonic Era, Before 0 A.A.)

• Nature: Sacred scriptures tied to a warrior's code. Orcs believed in gods of war, might, and ritual challenge. Combat was divine currency.

• Practice:

  • Duels and trials to win divine favor.

  • Tribal rites held during blood moons or celestial alignments.

  • Oral scripture recited before battle.

• Cultural Role: Unifying tribal religion centered around strength as sanctity.

• Relevance to Later Lore:

  • The concept of divine oaths originates here—binding combat to covenant.

  • This framework made Orcs susceptible to corruption when demonic forces began to mimic these rituals with darker power and promises.

• Overlap:

  • The ritual structures of the Old Texts were co-opted by demonic warlocks, which later sparked the Demon War.

  • Early roots of oath-magic appear here—prefiguring both the Ember Oath and the counter-oaths of the Blackened Root.

🜂 The Age of Demonic Rule (c. -1000 to 0 A.A.)

• Subversion: Demons twisted Old Texts. Gods of war were replaced with demon lords. The Oath became a Chain.

• Religious Collapse: True worship of the Old Ways was outlawed or forgotten. Warlocks rose as false priests.

🜃 The Ember Oath Era (0–13 A.A.)

• Event: The original Ember Oath is spoken at the Wounded Crossroads as a reclaiming of sacred autonomy.

• Continuity:

  • The Ember Oath reformulates the Old Texts’ belief in covenant—but replaces conquest with measured flame and unity.

  • Combat remains holy, but its meaning is inverted: not for domination, but preservation.

• Tension: Many Orcs remain torn—some see the Ember Oath as heresy against their ancestors’ true religion.

🜄 The War of False Dawn (22–40 A.A.)

• Legacy of the Old Texts:

  • The Blackened Root deliberately invoke ancient rites from the Old Texts, mixed with demonic oath inversion, to corrupt the Ember Oath.

  • Tarnis Veil-Binder receives visions that show her the demon-bound past of these traditions (via Kalgrath's spirit)War of false dawn canon….

• Conflicted Inheritance:

  • Some factions want to reclaim the purity of the Old Texts.

  • Others argue the Old Ways led directly to their enslavement.

  • This fuels the ideological and theological breakdown that becomes the War of False Dawn.

🜎 Timeline Overlay

Era	Key Religious Feature	Role of the Old Texts
Pre-Demonic (Before 0 A.A.)	Gods of combat, ritual strength	Central scripture and moral compass
Demonic Era	Demon lords co-opt ritual	Old Texts banned or corrupted
Ember Oath (0–13 A.A.)	Reclaiming oath-making, unity through flame	Echoes of the Old Texts reframed
False Dawn (22–40 A.A.)	Memory warfare, ideological crisis	Old Texts cited by Blackened Root and visionaries
Unified Era (Post-40 A.A.)	Guild of Seers regulates belief	Old Texts are archived, or lost