Archronicus



The Archronicus is an in-game collection of short stories that reveals tidbits of lore. It was added in the together with the second series of tutorials, and as such, celebrates the completion of tutorials by rewarding the player with pages for the Archronicus. These pages do not impact gameplay.

Pages
The Archronicus currently contains three unlockable pages, with each page revealing a little bit of lore of the world of Dota 2. These pages are earned for completing tutorials, with locked pages showing text in an ineligible font. Every page also comes with some artwork, usually related to the lore described in the page.

The Mad Moon and the Ancients
The first short story is granted for completing the Dragon Knight tutorial. It speaks about the history of the Ancients, and how they arrived in the world of Dota. This short story had already been made available via the Dota 2 Developer forum, almost a year and a half before it would arrive in the game.


 * WHEN A WORLD was still a cooling blob, it captured an eerie companion--a glowing crystalline sphere that came to be known in lore as the Mad Moon. This small orb was full of violent radiance--a visual reminder of conflict in the heavens, bright enough to compete with the sun in daylight.


 * But the Mad Moon was no inert rock. It was more truly a prison, in which two warring ancient intelligences had been captured and flung into exile aeons before, once the vast Primordials that underlay creation had tired of their endless strife. The punishment for these Ancients was to be locked together in one form, forever falling through infinity...and thus it went until our unfortunate world captured that wanderer.


 * For ages, primitive societies rose and fell beneath its weird glare; creatures of varying intelligence and sophistication gazed up in wonder and curiosity, to whatever extent their sentience allowed. Meanwhile, orbital stress and tidal forces allowed the Mad Moon's inhabitants to begin exploit what were at first the slightest of weaknesses, as they set to work prying open their prison. The cracks spread slowly, from the tiniest fractures, until at last there were millions of fissures, vast and aglow with weird energies.


 * On one apocalyptic night, the moon finally shattered, torn apart from within. Most of the moonstuff was flung into space or consumed as it hit the atmosphere. A few rare fragments fell to earth, either as fused molten lumps or as jagged crystals. The shards lay where they had fallen, and gradually the land around them recovered. As the survivors of the prehistoric cataclysm recuperated, flourished and developed civilizations, the Mad Moon became less a memory than a dream, with the night of its destruction woven into their myths.


 * The fallen shards of primal matter had fractured into their original composites: Radiant and Dire. In its pure form, each type of stone gave off a peculiar energy. For those who settled around the sites, they found themselves feeding on this unearthly power until they had not only harnessed the energy but made themselves dependent on it. They built shrines around the Ancients and revered them, ironically, as godlike entities that had fallen to earth.


 * The Ancients, both Radiant and Dire, provided many benefits: kinetic energy, mana, protection, even resurrection. But the emanations changed everything in their influence. Around the Radiant, the effects were bright and colorful, evoking lightness and charm. Around the Dire, a sinister radioactive glow, a visual seepage indicative of poison and decay. Neither force was neutral; they were both perfect complements and total contradictions that could never be at peace.


 * As each stone's cultural influence spread, it eventually came in conflict with the societies of its rival. Interference between the Ancients was cause for war, as the presence of one caused a corresponding fall-off in the energy of the other. Each stone could only be restored to full power with the destruction of its Foe-stone. And so the enthralled creatures rallied to protect their land by destroying the neighboring Ancient, and from far and wide the Heroes heard the call to battle and came to join, hardly realizing that in some sense both sides were the same.

Chronicle of Thesos: A Folk of the Keens
The second short story is granted for completing the Sniper tutorial, and speaks about the observations of a Keen called Thesos. In it, he describes about how he obtained the carcass of a dragon, how he dissects it, and his observations.


 * A rumour reached the High Bell some days ago of two strange beasts felled at the edge of the grainstock lands. Either by disease, or sword, the stories varied, but always it was spoken of two dragons, dark blue in color and very much dead.


 * I set out immediately and found their scaly bodies charred on the property of a grain farmer three day's travel along the ridge road. One great, one small, the dragons lay where they died, surrounded by the footprints of a much larger beast whose marks on the soil were large enough for a full-grown Keen to lie down in; and so I did, imagining the impossible scale of the animal in whose track I lay. A grand dragon true, like the stories of old, and like some say still live in the southerly wastes.


 * The tracks crossed the land for some distance and ended where the beast took flight at the edge of the field. So not by blade or pathosis had these young beasts met their end, but from an attack by one of their own kind.


 * With the good faith of my father's name, and the promise of immediate removal, I was able to purchase the rotting corpse of the lesser of the two dead dragons. The specimen being nowhere near to full grown, I was able to drag it behind my trusty zonkey for several hours to my father's lands. Several days of disarticulation and boiling commenced, followed by a full nights' inurement in wax, until, at last, the entire skeleton was laid out before me in the great hall, available for study.


 * Here I draw my observations with careful ink, noting the shape and size of every bone.


 * The structure of the wing surprised me. As did the curious architecture of the shoulder. The bones themselves, though very strong, were much lighter than I had expected. More like the bones of a bird than a creature with scales and teeth.


 * Most unexpected of all was the remnants of an old shield found in the beast's insides. Dragons are known for carrying steel in their gullets, to help gnash and grind their food. If a dragon (conventionally) breathes fire, how does it keep steel in its stomach, or any such material? But this one carried a most unusual form of gullet iron, and on it the mark of an ancient order seen only rarely in these parts today - a dragon crest, and the seal of the Scaled Knights of Uthorian. Woe to the knight who carried...

The Summoning Sea
The third page is granted by completing the Sharpeye vs Mogul Khan tutorial. It reveals a poem that speaks about the Gem of True Sight, and its connection to abyssal god Maelrawn the Tentacular.


 * Beyond the reach of Southward's End,
 * Where summer's warmth dares not to roam
 * Songs tell of ancient treasures lost
 * Worth more than titles, lands and home


 * At night skies streak in ribbon's glow
 * Chill ocean's maze of jagged frost
 * Wild winds betray the best of men
 * Where boldest captains fear to cross


 * Within 'tis said's a hidden coast
 * Unknown to neither map or man
 * Where once there died a seaborn fiend
 * Washed up along its sandy span


 * Inside this corpse, the legends claim
 * A gem lay hid away from sight
 * And who dares hold this stone unique
 * Shall see all hidden forms of fright


 * From whence the single frigate sailed
 * No soul still lives to dare recall
 * Brave voyage launched into the cold
 * Afraid of neither gale nor squall


 * To southern ice and wind they forged
 * The dauntless crew did plot their trek
 * In times the fields of floe and berg
 * Gave glimpse of land to all on deck


 * Upon an arctic shore they spied
 * Frost touched remains of monster vast
 * Old marks from briny wars they saw
 * And ice locked teeth to dwarf their mast


 * On darkened beach was set a host
 * To excavate this mortal coil
 * ''Their picks and tools they lifted high
 * Then dug into their grisly toil


 * For days and days they hacked and crawled
 * As stained was beach in ancient gore
 * Through rib and tissue, deep they delved
 * And wrought their path to monster's core


 * From humid depths came glowing dim
 * Strange spectral light of emerald hue
 * Great gem matched size with finder's fist
 * Worn crew rejoiced; old songs proved true


 * Returned to deck with treasure held
 * As one all crew did choke their breath
 * For ringed they were by wraiths of yore
 * Ghost ships long sunk, and those past death


 * For hidden from the common eye
 * Are ones who drift when lifeblood fails
 * Bright gem grants truth to sight they learned
 * Then set with fright to raising sails


 * Yet ghastly shades no harm intend
 * But warning men whose air's still drawn
 * To bring sight's stone on waters wide
 * Would raise the wrath of deep Maelrawn


 * A day and twelve on ocean waves
 * Passed laden, anxious crew's retreat
 * When came long shadows in their wake
 * Lord Maelrawn's servant, come to eat


 * By haste and lucky breeze they sped
 * Four dawns the scourge kept far at bay
 * Until a wisp of earth drew far
 * When fickle fortune's winds betrayed


 * As beast drew under ship to strike
 * Rowboats were filled with man and loot
 * Then loosed were heavy chain and weight
 * To crashed ship's anchor on sea's brute


 * Then deck leaned port as seabeast scaled
 * Wild tendril fury came aboard
 * In frenzied panic three boats fled
 * With ship entangled, kraken roared


 * Through tree thick feelers twist and squeeze
 * Wood hull made vent to frozen surge
 * As half-ship sank, death's master called
 * The gem still moved, and neared shore's verge


 * In rushed pursuit the kraken swam
 * To overtake the first boat of three
 * When drowned men froze and wreckage sank
 * Did hunter learn its charge stayed free


 * As second crew in horror rowed
 * Slick grasping fingers closed around
 * Yet once again gem was not there
 * And third boat's band set foot aground


 * So terrified of Maelrawn's rage
 * Did thrashing scourge set out anew
 * Then breached itself upon the surf
 * As kraken flailed, its foe withdrew


 * Of fated crew's last port and call
 * No grey account still deigns to say
 * Some firm believe they made toward home
 * Though others tell of hangman's sway


 * Of gem and tidal deepgod's hunt
 * Vain quest goes on without reward
 * Its servants blindly come to shore
 * To kill and raze, be put to sword


 * For no thrall creature of the depths
 * Nor spirit bound in drowning's keep
 * Nor Maelrawn the Tentacular
 * Shall rest till seas, gem comes to sleep

Trivia

 * The Mad Moon and the Ancients-story when originally unveiled on the Dota 2 Developer forum had an additional paragraph:
 * For all this time, the Ancients had been patiently working to resume the timeless war that had been the cause of their initial banishment. And as Heroes from all over found themselves drawn into the fray, none suspected that they were taking part in the ultimate battle of a conflict that had raged since the beginning of time.


 * The Chronicle of Thesos reveals that Dragon Knight serves an ancient order known as Scaled Knights of Uthorian.
 * The Summoning Sea is a reference to a thread on the Dota 2 Developer forum that originally began as a place to worship Maelrawn the Tentacular, where members soon started rhyming against each other instead.