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| “ | Writings from a time long passed. | ” |
Ancient Tablets, are the most common types of "Knowledge" that can be found. There are 10 tablets that are accessed via hidden rooms and 5 notes that can be found in specific locations. All Knowledge is acquired during crusades after defeating The One Who Waits. Ancient Tablets can be found in any of the four biomes, but will be received in order.
There is a chance that, during a crusade in a fighting room, two totems will be there: one hidden in the background, the other in the room with the player. Attacking it a few times will cause it to activate. A beam of red light will appear to connect the two totems, and a secret path will open up. Once inside, the player will have to offer up one 
red heart to receive a tablet. On doing so, the lights on the shrine will flash one of five colors and a black, fuzzy hand will reach down to deliver the Ancient Tablet. Note that having the Telescope tarot card makes it significantly easier to find a hidden room, instead of having to actively look for the hidden totems in the room. It is possible to find multiple lore rooms during a single crusade.
If you want to know if a dungeon has a secret room, pay attention to the room count, since usually a normal gauntlet has 11 rooms.
After receiving the first and last tablet, text will appear on screen that is similar to how the prophecies appear.
| “ | I await one who values truth over all else. | ” |
— Unknown, after giving first tablet
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| “ | It is done. Take this, and remember me. | ” |
— Unknown, after giving last tablet
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Ancient Tablet I
I meant only to survive, and yet she, feathered hand of Great Ones gone, has seen me to be worthy. Oh, First Gods, guide me! I devote myself to you, wholly, body and soul. I will strike down dissent. I will cull doubt. I will nourish this Crown and be worthy of this power. In blood, I swear.
Ancient Tablet II
Great Ones, I find fragments of your power across these vast lands. The blades once gripped by your mighty fists, the tears once fallen from your all-seeing eyes, the ichor that runs through the very veins of the earth… I seek your understanding. I prostrate myself before you. I vow that those who will not serve in their life will serve with their death instead.
Ancient Tablet III
Simple things… silly, almost… creatures seek protection in my shadow, pour faith into my soul and by their devotion I am changed. I was like them, once…
Ancient Tablet IV
I used to think them strange, these three feathered beasts, unworn and unweathered by the passage of time. To be keepers of Godly tools, and yet not be tempted to Godliness themselves—do they not hunger as we do?
Now, wisened in age, I understand. Hatched beneath the First, they crave no power, seek no other fulfillment, for it is not in their nature. And it is by nature that we must abide.
Ancient Tablet V
My pilgrimage has lead me thus, to the caverns of a Godly skull, remnants of a Great One now decaying into earth. The air here smells sweet, the soil rich and dark… I hear whispers, I feel watched, yet there is naught around, just these strange, small mushrooms, their spots almost like eyes… but that’s impossible…?
Ancient Tablet VI
I had not seen her in some dozen years, perhaps a score, perhaps a hundred. She is changed, alarmingly so, the mutilation of her body naught compared to the madness taking root in her mind. Her kin were indifferent. ‘Twas foreseen, the card reader said. I asked, what of her duty? What of the Crowns? What of her very nature?
And the smith answered: it is lost.
Ancient Tablet VII
I have lived long, too long for simple memory and so I must continue to chronicle these histories. Followers rise, bloom, and die, like so much clover on the ground, and my troublesome peers, Gods by a right no longer divine, rise and fall like tides cut free from the moon. One came to my temple, young and ambitious and thirsty for war. I dismissed them. I will not abide such blasphemy.
Ancient Tablet VIII
Whispers reach my temple. Gods fallen, shrines crumbled, Followers taken, and Crowns simply gone. Our numbers are beginning to dwindle. I do not fear. I will swing my righteous axe, draw my zealous sword, and know that I walk with the blessing of the First at my brow. Heresy shall not be tolerated in these Lands.
Ancient Tablet IX
Yngya cannot be found, and the leaves change no more. ‘Tis clear, now, that none shall survive this purging. The Owl has chosen a different tact, one I cannot condone; for regardless of what they threaten, I shall never relinquish my beliefs. They call me the greatest of fanatics, and perchance this is true: for I would rather perish than sacrifice my devotion. Great Ones, I am yours eternally.
Ancient Tablet X
He of havoc, he of blight; she of hunger, they of might. He that lays a soul to rest; five remain of hundreds blessed
- An initial version of the tablet instead read:
I am shamed, shamed. I deserve no forgiveness. I deserve to die here, shrouded in sin. I renounced the First Gods. How easily pain made a defector of me. I will take whatever punishment is due, but I beg you, reader of these chronicles, remember: they call their faith old, but they are nothing more than heretics. He of havoc, he of blight; she of hunger, they of might. He that lays a soul to rest; five remain of hundreds blessed.
It was changed to simplify things, but the original version adds further context into the fate of the Fanatic, the state of the Bishops and the history of the Old Faith.
The player will receive a Serpent Follower Form after obtaining the tenth tablet.
Possible Interpretations[]
- Tablet V mentions that Spore Grotto was once the head of one of "The First Ones".
- Tablet VI mentions Clauneck and Kudaii ("the card reader" and "the smith"). It also mentions someone who has lost her mind, who might be Chemach.
- After the implied characters in Tablet VI, the feathered hand from Tablet I might be Chemach when she was still sane and was responsible for granting crowns to the chosen ones. Tablet IV mentions three feathered beasts which are "keepers of Godly tools" which could be the Tarot Cards, Weapons and Curses used by gods, and the relics (and crowns before insanity).
- Tablet VII mentions a young God, ambitious and thirsty for war. Since the Fanatic refers to this God as "them", they are probably referring to Shamura, who is the Bishop of War.
- Tablet IX and the Offering to the Owl note imply that Haro was once a god of the hunt, who'd since relinquished his godly status. The inverted colors of his robe as well as the crossed out eye on his crown further suggests this.
- The final tablet says that Leshy, Heket, Kallamar, Shamura and Narinder ("He of havoc, he of blight, she of hunger, they of might. He that lays a soul to rest;") are the only survivors of a purging that killed hundreds of the Fanatic's fellow crown bearing Gods.
- Tablet II says that there were "blades once gripped" by the gods left scattered throughout the lands. Silk Cradle has swords embedded in its ground. This doesn't necessarily mean that the blades belonged to the gods, and it's a bit of a leap to assume so, but it does introduce the idea of Silk Cradle being, quite literally, the cradle of the Old Faith where all of the first wars were fought and the gods were chosen, that the other Bishops emerged out of to conquer. Tablet VII also possibly references Shamura, and Shamura is the oldest of the Bishops and Silk Cradle is their biome. It stands to reason that Silk Cradle was Shamura's homeland, and the first place they defeated the old gods.