What is the Emerald Tablet?

The Emerald Tablet is actual text in real world occultism. There was reputed to be an original Emerald Tablet from which may extracts were copied. But it has special significance in the Nephilim's secret history.

As explained on Major Arcana p13, the priests of Thoth preserved imperfect copies of Akhenaton's 22 Golden Tablets in the form of 22 Emerald Tablets. The knowledge contained was transcribed on papyrus and collected as the Book of Thoth, of which many copies were made. The original tablets and most of the transcriptions were later lost or destroyed. 

One tablet called the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus was found beneath the Sphinx by Alexander the Great and became the basis of the Corpus Hermeticum, but later vanished with his corpse in 323 BC. Many Nephilim who know of it believe it was the Emerald Tablet of The Magician.

According to the history chapter of the unpublished draft for Slaying the Dragon (the planned alchemy supplement before the US version was canceled), the secrets of alchemy were originally shared by reading and transcribing from the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus. Although no rules are provided, it seems to be a work of White Stone alchemy that allows the reader to learn the Philosopher's Stone and includes knowledge of all other alchemy subjects too.

How could a single Tablet contain the secrets of an entire Occult Science before its discovery and development? Unlike Sorcery and Summoning, which changed and evolved over time, all three circles of Alchemy appear to be have been discovered simultaneous in their modern form. Thus, a single Emerald Tablet really could contain its secrets! While the tablet was lost or destroyed and its secrets forgotten with it, the PCs will inevitably recover it.

The French version lists the Emerald Tablet as a potential quest for PCs to study, but no gameable details are ever given. The US version, as a given above, has a longer history.

I previously mentioned how NR introduced Quests as Techniques that PCs could pursue to gain occult benefits, such as The Magician's Arcane Quest for the Minor Tablets. The Emerald Tablet was never written up as a Quest for NR, but I can hazard some possible guesses based on the structure of other quests. It's probably synonymous with the Third Circle Alchemy Quest, in which the alchemist pursues Agartha by studying Alchemy and purifies their soul into an Agarthan state just as Black Stone purifies lead and other base metals into gold. The Emerald Tablet itself would be an aid to this Quest but, as with the Ebon Tablet and the Bronzen Sublimation (the Arcane Quest of the Unnamed Arcanum), it probably isn't mandatory and the alchemist could reinvent its secrets on their own.

Given the revelation that The Magician's Arcane Quest inscribed on their Tablet is the Quest for the Minor Tablets, then the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus cannot be the same one. (Also, I just personally find it nonsensical that The Magician's Tablet would hold the secrets of Alchemy but not anything specific to their actual philosophy.) Is one of the Major Arcana the Arcanum of Alchemy? Do the Emerald Tablets not line up 1:1 with the Golden Tablets? What does that mean for the other Emerald Tablets? It's a mystery for the PCs to solve, if the GM finds it an interesting avenue of exploration.

Anyway, what would the actual Gains for the three levels of the Alchemy/Emerald Tablet Quest be? I'll save that for a future post on the Magnum Opus...

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