Lore Primer

   

Current History

2020-2021

The Universe of the Game of Tomes "The GoTverse" is the world you are familiar with, except that secretly, there have always been magic-users known as Literomancers, who use the power of stories to create effects in the world. For centuries, they lacked any real power, but in 2020, something happened that gave their magic real teeth again.   Most people believe that something was the reappearance of an artifact called The Iron Tome, a book that is said to have the power to literally rewrite reality.   Along with the reappearance of that book came Undead — mostly Zombies, but other Undead as well. In November 2020, during an annual Literomantic competition called The Game of Tomes, the literomancers discovered that some of those who were in defeated Houses were actually dying — and continuing to walk around. A full-fledged zombie apocalypse resulted, and society collapsed. The Houses fell one by one, until there was only House Mollusca left. They led the survivors to victory against The Undead Horde, which was led by the first Night Monarch, The Nite Qing, and claimed the Iron Tome.   To Resurrect the dead literomancers, Coffee Quills, leader of House Mollusca, wrote in the Iron Tome to make it so. Unfortunately, all the pages of the Iron Tome had already been written on and in a mysterious script no one could comprehend. Some of this script had to be erased to complete the resurrecting. But erasing those bits of script had... consequences.   This led to significant changes in geography. Suddenly, there were mountains where there had been none, coastlines rearranged, and the Eastern Seaboard sank. Millions were killed. On the bright side, while the effects of the zombie apocalypse weren't undone, no one had ever heard of Covid-19.   Society reorganized itself in fealty chains to The Great Houses of old, believing (correctly) that only they had any chance of defending people from the Undead Horde, should it return. Suddenly, the literomantic Houses found themselves the rulers of regions known as "Protectorates". Now called Tome Knights, these literomancers swore to defend the world against the Undead Horde and gathered twice in 2021 for Tourneys of Tales to practice their skills.

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2021-2022

In the meantime, Coffee Quills stored the Iron Tome in a vault at the bottom of the ocean. But the effort was for naught. In November 2021, it disappeared from their vault, and Zombie Summoning Totems implicating other Major Houses appeared near their traditional seats of power. House rivalries came to the forefront once more, exacerbated by family dramas.   War erupted once again between the Tome Knights. It was soon discovered that a new Night Monarch, the Living Dead Girl, had appeared, along with more zombies.   A Grand Alliance of the survivors formed, eventually unifying under the banner of House Lapin, and they defeated the Undead Horde at the Battle of the Warren. Queen Sable Aradia of House Lapin claimed the Iron Tome. She, too, wrote in the Tome to restore the Undead, but the effects of her editing would not appear until later.   After the battle, the Tome Knights gathered in The Warren to celebrate their victory and pledge their continued support to one another, on the assumption that the zombies would return. A News Network sent a spy to record their personal conversations, revealing wedding plans between House Lapin and House Chiroptera, the fact that the leader of House Lapin was also secretly the biological mother of the children of House Meles, and a lot of other personal information.   Since a vault at the bottom of the ocean was insufficient to protect the Iron Tome, Sable Aradia began carrying it everywhere with her on her person. This had unforeseen consequences, wreaking havoc with her mental health and making her a target for two assassination attempts.   Also at this time, a trio of Tome Knights came out as being Voidtouched — connected to and changed by a place called The Void. Had Sable caused this plane to manifest as a result of editing the Iron Tome?

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2022-2023

Sable learned that the assassin was none other than her son, Lord Galakrond, who was under the control of nanobots created by The Company, an evil corporation that was conducting experiments on literomancers. While she tried to keep the burden of this knowledge from him, he found out anyway, and that knowledge drove him to the desperate act of stealing the Iron Tome on Halloween night, 2022.   However, ECC Books, a Sauropodan, had already been corrupted by the previous Night Monarch, and selected as her heir. He came to claim the Iron Tome, and both were grappling for the Tome at the moment that midnight turned on November 1. As a result, the Tomeverse found itself dealing with two Night Monarchs, each with a separate "Horde" under their control. But both agreed to work together to defeat the living and solidify their claim, agreeing they would sort out the issue between them later. Tensions remained between the two sides, however, and this facilitated their downfall.   Lord GalaWight concentrated on bringing his family under his thrall. Meles and Lapin suffered devastating defeats. At one point, five of Sable's ten children were drafted into the Undead Horde, including her youngest daughter, Princess Monkey Meles, killed by the corpse of her sibling Prinx Xantos Meles. The end result of that had devastating consequences — for the Woodland Family Alliance and the Undead alike. The Woodlanders — Houses Lapin, Meles, and Ailurus — were forced to flee to the Sauropoda Protectorate.   House Chiroptera and House Mollusca, who had allied, also suffered devastating defeats. Even the Cosmic Kraken and Queen Tara themselves were taken by the Horde. And they both already had their own problems. Queen TaraFaeBelle was new to the Cavern Throne, since her predecessor, her aunt Siobhan the Writer was killed in an accident; and the Molluscans had sent Scion Striker, nephew of the Cosmic Kraken, to the surface world to seek help in dealing with strange creatures that had begun entering fresh water at the world's major estuaries.   In the meantime, House Sauropoda and their bannermen, House Avis, made the fight against ICC DeadPeople. They sought to bring him back into their fold with the power of filking. Eventually, all Houses found themselves fighting at the side of the Dinos, and King Bob claimed the Iron Tome for the living at the Battle of Mount Mitchell.   In the aftermath of The Third Word War, one of the Major Houses and their bannermen vanished, and now nobody remembers anything but the vaguest details about them or any of their significant literomancers or heirs.

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2023-2024

The Tomeverse grappled with the loss of 4% of the total population, either through imperfect resurrections that had resulted from attempting to do an end-run around the Iron Tome through the use of filking magic, or through the unexplained disappearances. Coffee Quills, who had been forced to pass on the powers of the Cosmic Kraken to Scion Striker before he was ready, did not return. And it was not just an entire House who had disappeared, but members of several other Houses as well.   The remaining Houses agreed to guard Europe, the abandoned Protectorate of The Missing House, together. The scattered survivors of the House who had disappeared found new homes. Abandoned territory in what was once Washington State was ceded to House Ailurus.   At the April Tourney, the Self Care Mafia and the Chaos Cartel formed an alliance in a clandestine meeting. Erin Righ, who had trapped the Nite Qing in a book at Mt. Mitchell, asked for help in destroying him with a literomantic edit.   At about this time, Houses Ailurus, Meles, Lapin and Chiroptera brought a case against the Company before the International Criminal Court, and they prosecuted the Company for crimes against humanity. They were convicted, and the Company's empire was shattered.   Following the Tourney, Prinx Tempest Kwake enlisted the help of their sister, Queen Sable, in saving people from the reality her husband Buddha Kwake had come from, since it was soon to be destroyed in a fiery apocalypse. Queen Sable enlisted the help of most of the other Great Houses, and the Tomeverse launched Operation GTFO and prepared for the arrival of a million immigrants. But the effort of sustaining the Portal between worlds for so long cost the Prinx their life, and almost cost Queen Sable hers as well. Queen Sable took a few months to recover, and thus, missed the corruption of her House Librarian AttorraRu into the new Nite Qween, likely sparked in part by her encounter with the Nite Qing.   The other Houses had their own problems. Tensions came to a head between House Avis and House Sauropoda when Regent EGryph led the Avisans on a Migration to House Chiroptera. With Scion Striker overwhelmed by trying to master the powers of a Cosmic Kraken, Mollusca found itself leaderless, so JaySeaBoom was made the new Regent, and later, Anassa, or Monarch. The Nite Qween turned out to be a tactically clever opponent who was extremely difficult to fight. Tensions between the Houses came to a head just prior to The Battle of Crystal Song, but Queen Tara and Regent EGryph led the living to victory.

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2024-2025

With The Fourth Word War having been characterized by the heroism of the Bodyguards of the Great Houses, DM Stretch had gone above and beyond the call of duty by blowing himself up to block an escape tunnel between the Nite Qween and a severely injured Queen Sable. However, that meant that only his head had survived the explosion, so not enough of his remains were present to resurrect him. A black op was launched by Lapin and Ailurus to acquire a clone body for him from an abandoned Company facility. The Commander was successfully resurrected.   Archon Mykola Lapin-Void began to show signs of a mysterious illness that had something to do with being Voidtouched. The Bard with Many Names, one of the Ailurus Ferals (bodyguards) also began to show signs of an unrelated illness. It was later discovered that this was caused by the Iron Tome having taken his names while it was taking the names of the Undead so that they could be restored to life in the Fourth Word War.   As she had done as part of a group of Tome Knights who had shared the duty of guarding the Iron Tome while it was in Queen Sable's hands, Queen Tara continued to treat the Tome as a sapient being worthy of respect. She gave it pride of place and continued to speak to it in a friendly way.   In late October, while Princess Sunny celebrated her bridal shower at the Warren, The Bard with Many Names asked Queen Tara for the Tome. Knowing that nothing seemed to keep the Tome from falling into the hands of the Undead Horde at the approach of November, Tara gave it to him.   The Bard then challenged the leader of the Wild Hunt for control, and won. He announced himself to the House Leaders as the new Night Monarch, and instead of immediately attacking, he invited them to make truces with his Horde. He claimed he would offer a choice to the living, and invited them to join the Horde willingly.   Some House Leaders chose to take him up on it. Most, however, were suspicious. What was his game?   The Bard's reign was marked by the fae custom of brokering deals. He invited those who were participating in the war's 50K Team Up — an effort by the living to rally Literomantic Power while they are at their greatest strength — deals to increase their word counts if they would "donate" some of those words to the Undead Horde. Those who failed the challenge were "invited" to join the Horde. Duochanfan, a Power Writer of House Lapin and Princess Sunny's bodyguard, did so. Many Tome Knights were forced into moral dilemmas, and strongly tempted by The Bard's promise of peace and immortality.   Chaos erupted in a confrontation between the Horde and House Sauropoda, resulting in a massive fire and the raising of ancient Sauropodan ancestors as zombies. Regent Dazzlinkat was harangued by an ancient aunt named Bertha.   At a Karaoke Night hosted by the Undead Horde, Queen Sable was initially the only living Tome Knight who accepted their invitation. Owsla members Flubb and Cheetya Ironfist immediately followed her when they figured out where she had gone. Sable had a long conversation with AttorraRu to try to get some insight into Bard, who was not present. After a filk that sang of the beauty of life, Queen Sable resurrected Duochanfan, and all four living Tome Knights returned to the Warren.   The Bard's peaceful approach turned sour when the Undead Horde came for House Ailurus. Something went horribly wrong, and the Bard turned into a savage, ravening monster who levelled their House in a bloodbath. This was likely related to an attempt to use his True Name to divert his course as the Night Monarch.   Armed with an understanding of what was going on, and strongly supported by all the Houses after Queen Sable's struggles over the previous years, the final confrontation took place at the Warren. The Bard with No Names sang the living out of the Warren, but the living countered with a counterfilk.   Ultimately, none of this mattered. The Bard had come to the Warren to see Mykola in her illness. Myko had realized that her illness was fatal. Bard abandoned the Tome when he realized that he would not be able to save her by giving her Undeath.   Sable now had the Iron Tome again — but even resurrecting her daughter Myko was not possible by the nature of the illness, unless she was willing to completely change reality so that Myko had never been her daughter. Nobody wanted that. Sable attempted to save her anyway in the process of resurrecting the dead by writing in the Iron Tome, but failed.   As a last gift to her mother, at Tomesmas, Myko used her dream magic to heal some of Queen Sable's trauma. Archon Mykola passed away in early 2025.

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2025—Present

The Woodlander Houses, as agreed, shared the responsibility of guarding the Iron Tome and hosting the Tourneys. For the first time, the Iron Tome was publicly exhibited. The Woodlander leaders continued to treat the Tome as a sapient being.   With the passing of Archon Myko and Panda Polemarch Senna Nightshade, House Ailurus struggled to fill the void in their leadership. The Bard with Many Names became the new Archon, and HappyHappySad became the Seneschal.   New Treaties and trade deals were made between several of the Houses, and the Tome Knights raised a Milwordy's worth of literomantic power in order to raise the sunken Eastern Seaboard that had been destroyed at the end of the First Word War.   The Iron Tome finally confirmed belief in its sapience by speaking to Queen Sable and Princess ShyRedFox of House Meles while they were doing research in the Great Library. It tasked them with responsibility for the Great Library, and charged them to form the Order of Royal Librarians.   Over the past several months, the new Order has been engaging in an exciting, unprecedented exchange of literomantic knowledge between the Houses. But Princess Shy has been acting odd lately, and so has their friend Foxx. What happened to the Kings of House Meles? And what information might King Bob bring from his quest to find out more about the Iron Tome?