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| - Though Thoth 'Keltam never set foot upon Kaaran, his legacy survives as his lifes work, the Journal of Thoth 'Keltam, or the Thoth Codices. Carried across the seas by his acolytes, the Journals were one of the few sources of knowledge that was available to the surviving Keltashans as they rebuilt their society from scratch, and has thus had a considerable influence on Kaaranese history, culture, and society.
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| abstract
| - Though Thoth 'Keltam never set foot upon Kaaran, his legacy survives as his lifes work, the Journal of Thoth 'Keltam, or the Thoth Codices. Carried across the seas by his acolytes, the Journals were one of the few sources of knowledge that was available to the surviving Keltashans as they rebuilt their society from scratch, and has thus had a considerable influence on Kaaranese history, culture, and society. Thoth regarded himself as an athiest, and placed little faith in the abilities of spirits and gods, though he dedicated at least one Journal to the nature of the divine, where he expressed some support for the concept of an immortal soul. For the most part, however, the Journals are a written record of his lifetime's work studying what was around him - psychology, sociology, mathematics, geology, chemistry, physics - the list goes on. The Journals themselves number one hundred and eleven, with some subjects encompassing dozens of books. Thoth was a genius who was ahead of his time. While a tremendous source for early scientific knowledge, the Journals are mostly remembered for being the first written recording of the Keltam Peninsula Ruins. Discovered in 430 BC, their presence and the implications it held on Keltam religious doctrine was massive, sparking a period of religious upheaval. Many new cults and religious orders sprung up, either advocating the worship or reverance of these ruins, or their destruction. Thoth himself tried to keep an objective point of view in his studies of the ruins, but found it hard to remain objective as the true monumentality of the ruins became clear to him. As such, to prevent anyone from misusing his records, he encoded much of his work, scattering much of it across the entire set of Journals. To this day, his code has yet to be completely cracked, though some advancements have been made since the arrival of Covenant technology to Ketesh. The Journals nevertheless stand as a testament to the genius of Thoth, and the "Keltam Riddle" is well known across the continent as a euphemism for something of someone that is inscrutable. While many religious orders have tried to claim that Thoth's professed athiesm belied secret piety, only the Voltakran Alchemy sect of the Cult of Quenyathar has managed to infuse Thoth's work successfully, using the Journals as the basis for the Voltakran proto-science. Resembling ancient Earth alchemy to a degree, the glyphs and runes enscribed upon Forerunner artefacts have been adopted as components of alchemical calculations with a small degree of success. Original Voltakran Alchemy focussed more on the divine aspects of the world than the practical, but shifts have since produced true scientific method, and the "discovery" of gravity and electricity by Eldra 'Voltakra in 1400 AD and her theories about early physics propelled the Kaaranese into an age of scientific discovery that rivalled the Industrial Revolution of Britain. Even after the Covenant brought their technology to the planet, Kaaranese still possess more of a scientific ethic than their Sanghelios compatriots, and have produced some interesting innovations while skirting around Prophet decrees on the access to Forerunner relics. Thoth himself is credited for this, and his Journals have been reprinted innumerable times. Each university keeps at least one set, and individuals have sometimes paid high prices for reprints, hoping to uncover some great secret. They invariably fail in these attempts, but the practice continues.
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