"There will not be a single spectator. All will be participants. The work requires special people, special artists and a completely new culture. The cast of performers includes an orchestra, a large mixed choir, an instrument with visual effects, dancers, a procession, incense, and rhythmic textural articulation. The cathedral in which it will take place will not be of one single type of stone but will continually change with the atmosphere and motion of the Mysterium. This will be done with the aid of mists and lights, which will modify the architectural contours."
- Alexander Scriabin
Basic Information
The Mysterium is an unfinished work of music by Alexander Scriabin. He intended it to be played in the foothills of the Himalayas, and claimed that it would end the world if it was played correctly.
Sources
Game and Story Use
- Perhaps the Mysterium is intended to summon an Eldritch Abomination capable of destroying the world.
- The PCs come across rumors that the Mysterium wasn't unfinished after all - and that someone is collecting the copies of the sheets on which it was written down (which have been scattered all over the world and are in the hands of numerous collectors). Now they need to hunt down the sheets before some madman destroys the world with it.
- Perhaps the Mysterium will transform the world into something better if it is played in precisely the correct way - but if someone introduces some dissonances (either deliberately or accidentally), the world will transformed into something worse.
- Something like the Mysterium might exist in a fantasy world - where the whole concept is more credible.