The Samatian Journal of Decimus Lucius Crassus
Tribuni Angusticlavii of the Brotherhood of Diocletian -III-Transcribed in the first year of the rule of King Richard III.
The Artifact
The book is slightly larger than a paperback novel, bound in well-worn red leather with a simple strap to secure it. The vellum is startlingly crisp considering the obvious age. A strange smell rises from the pages -- not the mustiness of aged texts but something very human, like sweat and blood.
The pages are covered in spider-thin writing in an archaic form of Latin, interspersed with elaborate drawings: anatomical sketches, mechanical schematics, maps, and symbolic diagrams. Margin notes in a different hand were added centuries after the original composition.
The journal is 434 pages long.
Structure
The journal contains three primary sections:
- Prodigium ("Unnaturals, portents, monsters") -- a bestiary organized into five categories of supernatural creature
- The Samatian Campaign -- an account of a military expedition into Southern Samatia (modern Romania/Hungary/Slovakia/Ukraine border region), dated 307 CE
- The Libri Sibyllini Invisus -- interpretations of prophecies from the secret book of the Cumaean Sibyl
The Prodigium
Crassus organized the supernatural beings he encountered into five categories. His taxonomy predates modern understanding and maps imperfectly onto current classifications, but the observational detail remains valuable.
Laimia (Spectres)
Crassus documented a vast and conflicting population of vampiric beings in the ancient world. What he classified as a single creature type, modern understanding recognizes as individuals afflicted with vampirism -- a Spectre condition that can affect any sapient species.
Notable encounters:
- Thacius Dalius Eutherius, a registered member of the Legion who had earned distinctions for his service while concealing his vampiric nature. His cooperation provided intelligence during the Samatian Campaign. His fate is not recorded.
- Members of the Spears of Longinus, a vampiric cult operating under a distorted interpretation of Christianity. One cell was captured; another was destroyed entirely during the attempt.
- A group of eastern origin, possibly from as far as China, who displayed abilities that surprised even Crassus. They escaped.
The assassination attempt that prompted the Brotherhood's founding was carried out by Ionnas Onesimus, a Spear of Longinus -- a former slave of attractive appearance and entertaining talents who had gained proximity to the Emperor Diocletian. Under interrogation, Ionnas revealed enough about the hidden supernatural world to justify the formation of Crassus's specialized legion.
Lycanthrope (Theriae)
Crassus encountered what he classified as werewolves. Modern taxonomy identifies these as Theriae of canine lineage. His Roman cultural biases are visible throughout -- he seems as disgusted by the creature's Germanic heritage as by its inhuman nature.
The captured specimen, Matavacer, was a canine-form Theriae whose pack had been decimated by an incursion of unclassified creatures (categorized by Crassus as Chimerae). The capture cost Crassus two dozen men. There is some indication that Crassus believed Matavacer could be domesticated or cross-bred, though the results of any such experiment are not recorded.
Orphean (Constructed Beings)
A single encounter with a being Crassus could not classify within his other categories. The creature, a female who gave her name only as Eurydice, was found fighting unidentified entities and captured while distracted.
Eurydice withstood torture for many days and revealed virtually nothing. Over the course of a week she attracted increasing numbers of hostile creatures to the camp and produced a disturbing psychological effect on those interacting with her. She was eventually killed through vivisection and dismemberment, and her remains were buried.
Modern interpretation suggests Eurydice may have been an Eidolon, a constructed being created by an Aeon, or possibly a Woven colony in humanoid form. The psychological effects she produced and her apparent indestructibility prior to systematic dismemberment are consistent with either classification.
Nymphs (Masques)
The only encounter Crassus describes as genial. Three individuals -- two women and a man -- claimed to have been touched by the gods and displayed abilities consistent with glamour-based perception manipulation. They led the legion on a chase over several miles before vanishing. Four soldiers disappeared during the pursuit and were never recovered.
These were almost certainly Masques, and the soldiers' disappearance is consistent with documented Masque tactics -- perception manipulation used to isolate and disorient targets.
Chimerae (Unclassified)
Crassus's catch-all category for anything that did not fit his other classifications. This section includes encounters with ghasts (remnants of the dead persisting in the Shadow), possessed mortals, hostile entities from unidentified Domains, and dozens of creature-hybrids encountered during the Samatian Campaign. Crassus attributed these hybrids' creation to the necromancer he had been sent to investigate.
Many of these "Chimerae" were likely sub-sapient fauna from the Shadow or from Domain borders, creatures that exist in Nod's margins to this day.
The Samatian Campaign
The campaign's true purpose was the investigation of a being referred to as a "Child of Hades," prophesied by the Cumaean Oracle as a dire threat. This being had established a fortress deep in the Carpathian mountains.
Crassus led 120 soldiers of the Legio Quies into the borderlands. Constant harassment by hostile creatures reduced the force to 50 before they reached the fortress. A covert assault was organized and Crassus penetrated the stronghold, only to be captured.
The entity within appeared human but inhumanly perfect. It wore fine robes and jewels, treated Crassus with care and hospitality, and proved completely immune to repeated assassination attempts, displaying speed and strength beyond anything Crassus had previously encountered. The creature raised dead Legion soldiers and reshaped their bodies into new and monstrous forms. It responded to only one request for its name, declaring itself Tzimisce.
Modern assessment: Tzimisce was almost certainly a powerful Shaper operating from a Domain-adjacent stronghold, possibly an Eidolon of considerable age and accumulated power. The ability to reshape dead flesh is consistent with advanced Shaper techniques, and the creature's apparent immortality and indifference to mortal weapons aligns with Eidolon-class entities in the Germaine Foundation's classification system.
Crassus was freed after several months of captivity. He returned to his remaining troops in a fever and marched back to Rome. Of the original 120, only 35 survived.
The Libri Sibyllini Invisus
The journal's final section reproduces and interprets prophecies from a secret book of the Cumaean Sibyl, given to Diocletian on the first day of his rule by an anonymous woman. The text is dense with mathematical and symbolic formulae, switching between Roman arithmetic, base-7 mathematics, and Arabic numerals. The prophecies reference Tzimisce and other Prodigium, though their full content remains partially opaque even after translation.
The historical Sibylline Books were burned in 405 CE by the Christian general Stilicho. Whether the secret book Diocletian received was related to or separate from the public Sibylline collection is unknown.
Margin Notes
A Brotherhood scribe in the medieval period translated the journal as part of a larger library of occult knowledge. His margin notes update Crassus's tactical observations for 15th-century technologies and chide the original author for perceived ignorance regarding certain creatures. The notes confirm the Brotherhood's continuous operation from the Roman period through at least the 14th century.
Provenance and Significance
The journal is the third of three kept by Crassus during his campaigns. The other two have not been located. The artifact provides the earliest known systematic documentation of supernatural creatures by a mortal military organization and establishes the Brotherhood of Diocletian as the oldest confirmed predecessor to modern organizations like the Germaine Foundation.