Tomes of Kulthea

Warning: This page concerns archaic world setting information from the I.C.E. Age of GemStone III. It is not canon in contemporary GemStone IV, nor is it canonical for Shadow World as the details may be specific to GemStone III. It is only historical context for certain very old parts of the game and these things should not be mixed.

The Tomes of Kulthea were the official game documents of GemStone III in the I.C.E. Age, directly analogous to the "Tomes of Elanthia" of the Play.net library. They were mostly excerpts from source books published by Iron Crown Enterprises, especially the Shadow World Master Atlas (1st Ed.) and the Quellbourne adventure module which covered the Kelfour's Landing region.

Some of the documents were unique to GemStone, but most were scrapped after 1995 when the world history was re-written from scratch.

Article List

This is an excerpt from the Kelfour Edition in the middle of 1991. Some of the later documents, especially those pertaining to The Broken Lands, had not been written yet.

                        A Guide to the Tomes of Kulthea
                        """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
 ___________                  by Elwyn Moonstorm
/ \  ______ \               Seeker of Knowledge and
\@| /~/~~\_\ |            Professional Street Urchin
  | \~\____~ |
 _| _~~~~\~\ |                         Number Name   (Keyword[s])
/@| \~\__/~/ |ince my recent arrival   ----  -------------------------
\_/  ~~~~~~ / to  Kelfour's Landing,   0001  Introduction and Help
  ~~~~~~~~~~ I have  been  possessed         (Kulthea)
of a desire to learn all there is to   0100  Necropolis of Etrevion
know  about  our  fair  land and the         (Unlife)
world  in which we live.  One of the   0101  Unusual Weapons
greatest  sources of information, of         (Weapon, Weapons)
course,  is  the  renowned  Tomes of   0102  Gemstone III House System
Kulthea.  Unfortunately, indexing of         (Kulthea)
the  Tomes  leaves  something  to be   0103  Iorak's Reach
desired.                                     (Magic)
   In  a  meager  attempt to correct   1000  Introduction & Storyline
this  deficiency,  I  assembled  the         (Unlife)
following  catalog  of its contents.   1001  The Early World
I  have  little  doubt  that  it  is         (Channeling, Kulthea)
incomplete;  even  were able to find   1002  Kulthea, World in Context
all   the   articles   which   exist         (Kulthea, Planet, World)
currently,  new  materials are added   1003  Kulthea's Geography
regularly.  In spite of difficulties         (Geography, Kulthea)
inherent   in   tracking   down  all   1004  The Weather
functional query keywords, I believe         (Seasons, Weather)
this  list,  when  all  is  said and   1005  The Moons of Kulthea
done, is reasonably comprehensive.           (Moons, Tides, Weather)
   The  format is simple.  I include   1006  Kulthea's Magnetosphere
the   article   number   and  title,         (Kulthea, World)
followed  by  a  list of one or more   1007  The Flows of Essence
keywords that point to that article.         (Essence, Flow, Magic)
There  are at least 150 usable query   1008  Flora and Fauna
keywords,  many  of which point to a         (Kulthea)
single article.  Those I found yield   1009  Peoples of the World
the  best results are Channeling (11         (Essence, Flows, Kulthea)
entries),  Essence  (23), Gods (19),   1010  The Past of Kulthea
Kulthea  (14), Orhan (8), Navigators         (History, Loremaster)
(10) and Unlife (15).                  1011  Appearance of Loremasters
   It  should also be noted that, in         (Loremasters)
many   cases,  singular  and  plural   1012  The Coming of the Unlife
versions  of a keyword yield differ-         (Shadow, Unlife)
ent   results.   A  case  in  point:   1013  The Wars of Dominion
there  are  eight  articles  in  the         (Unlife)
Tomes    dealing    with   Kulthea's   1014  The Third Era
satellites.    Three   of  them  are         (History, Kulthea)
accessed  by  the keyword Moons, the   1016  Interregnum
other  five  with  the keyword Moon.         (Navigators, Unlife)
Finally,  only  about  half  of  the   1017  Timeline
articles  seem  to  be accessible by         (Altha, Kadaena, Utha)
using   their  titles  as  keywords.   1018  Land Masses
Article #1017 Timeline, for example,         (Geography)
is   not   accessible   by  querying   1019  The Poles
Timeline.   It  is only available if         (Poles)
you  query  the  names of historical   1020  Isles
figures mentioned therein.                   (Essence, Navigators)
                                    -7-
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
1023  Land Masses                      1059  Foci
      (Geography)                            (Essence, Navigators)
1024  Vegetation                       1060  Transport
      (Flora)                                (Essence)
1028  Special Elements                 1061  Flow-storms
      (Elements)                             (Essence, Flow)
1029  The Waters                       1062  Channeling
      (Ocean, Seas)                          (Channeling, Unlife)
1030  Fresh-water Bodies               1063  Origins of Channeling
      (Seas)                                 (Channeling, Power)
1031  The Seas                         1064  From Orhan
      (Seas)                                 (Channeling, Orhan)
1032  Tides                            1065  Local Gods
      (Tides)                                (God)
1033  Great Deeps                      1066  Artifacts
      (Seas)                                 (Channeling)
1034  Ocean Hazards                    1067  Effects
      (Ocean)                                (Power)
1035  Reefs                            1068  "Holy" Places
      (Navigator)                            (Deities)
1036  Whirlpools                       1069  Channeling
      (Kulthea, Navigator)                   (Channeling, Power)
1037  Icebergs                         1071  Gods
      (Currents)                             (Gods)
1038  Climate                          1072  Deities
      (Seasons, Weather)                     (Deities, Loremasters)
1039  Calendar                         1073  Interpretation
      (Seasons)                              (Channeling, Essence)
1040  Storms                           1074  Involvement
      (Weather)                              (Essence, Gods, Unlife)
1041  Essence Influence                1075  Lords of Orhan
      (Essence, Flow, Weather)               (History, Lords)
1042  The Moons                        1076  Orhan
      (Moons)                                (Lords, Moon, Orhan)
1044  The Moons                        1077  Nature of the Lords
      (Moons)                                (Lords, Unlife)
1045  The Moon Varin                   1079  Kuor
      (Moon)                                 (Gods)
1046  Charon                           1080  Valris
      (Moon)                                 (Essence, God)
1047  Mikori                           1081  Reann
      (Moon)                                 (Gods, Unlife)
1048  Tlilok                           1082  Eissa
      (Moon)                                 (Gods)
1049  The Flow of Essence              1083  Phaon
      (Essence, Flow, Flows)                 (Gods)
1051  Essence                          1084  Oriana
      (Essence, Flow, Power)                 (Gods)
1052  Channeling                       1085  Cay
      (Channeling, Power)                    (Gods)
1053  Mentalism                        1086  Iloura
      (Deities, Mentalism)                   (Gods)
1054  Arcane Power                     1087  Shaal
      (Flows, Power)                         (Gods)
1055  A Note on Telepathy              1088  Jaysek
      (Mentalism)                            (Gods)
1056  Barriers                         1089  Kieron
      (Essence)                              (Gods)
                                    -8-  
  
1090  Teris                            1135  Claedesbrim Current & Bay
      (Gods)                                 (Current, Sea)
1091  Iorak                            1136  The Land of Quellbourne
      (Gods)                                 (Kaldsfang)
1092  The Lords vs Local Gods          1137  Flora of Quellbourne
      (Gods, Lords)                          (Flora, Kaldsfang)
1093  Local Gods                       1138  Wild Beasts of Q'bourne
      (Gods, Lords)                          (Creatures)
1094  The Unlife                       1139  Animals of Quellbourne
      (Evil, Unlife)                         (Animals)
1095  The Nature of Evil               1140  Sea Life, Claedesbrim Bay
      (Essence, Evil, Unlife)                (Sea)
1096  Origins                          1141  Fortune Hunters
      (Essence, Flows, Unlife)               (Gods, People)
1097  Manifestations                   1142  The Gnolls of Stonehold
      (Unlife)                               (Gnoll, People)
1098  Organizations                    1143  Trolls of Upper Kaldsfang
      (Loremasters)                          (Troll)
1099  Home of the Loremasters          1144  Worshippers
      (Loremasters)                          (Hrassk)
1101  Navigators                       1147  Ice Kral of Trelkinaark
      (Loremasters, Navigators)              (Ice Kral)
1103  Some Navigators                  1149  Kelfour's Landing
      (Navigators)                           (Kaldsfang, Kelfour)
1104  Facts about Navigators           1150  Seoltang Language
      (History, Navigators)                  (Claedesbrim Bay)
1105  Compasses                        1151  Ice Kral Language Notes
      (Compasses)                            (Ice Kral, Language)
1106  Recruiting                       1152  Troll Language Notes
      (Navigators)                           (Language, Troll)
1107  The Navigators' Purpose          3000  The Defensive Bonus (DB)
      (Navigator)                            (Armor, DB, Parry)
1108  Scribes of Nomikos               3001  The Offensive Bonus (OB)
      (Nomikos)                              (OB, Parry, Weapons)
1109  The Library                      3002  Parry Percentage
      (Library)                              (DB, OB, Parry)
1110  Dragonlords                      3003  Armor
      (Dragonlords)                          (Armor, DB, Parry)
1111  The Dragon Helms                 3004  Open Channeling List
      (Armor)                                (Channeling, Spells)
1112  The Five Dragonlords             3006  Mage Base Spell List
      (Dragonlords)                          (Essence, Magic, Spells)
1117  Heralds of Night                 3007  Cleric Base Spell List
      (Unlife)                               (Channeling, Spells)
1119  Navigators                       3008  Closed Essence Spell List
      (Navigators)                           (Essence, Magic, Spells)
1120  Contacting a Navigator           3101  The Labyrinth of Zenon
      (Navigator)                            (Sage)
1123  Portals                          4000  Quest of the Navigator
      (Portals)                              (Navigator)
1124  Essence Currents                   _______________________________
      (Currents, Flows)                 |                               |
1126  By Sea                            |  Next time you feel like it,  |
      (Navigators, Sea)                 |                               |
1131  Quellborne: A History             |   Throw back your head and    |
      (History)                         |                               |
1133  Land of the Silver Mist           |     !!!!!  H-O-W-L !!!!!      |
      (Kaldsfang)                       |_______________________________|

See Also

• Kelfour Edition volume I number XII (May 1991)