Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows

The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows is a book that featured in the movie The Ninth Gate.

Overview

The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows was a mystical rare book that was originally written in the 17th century by the author Aristide Torchia who was believed to had been the Devil's apprentice and the only known mortal to had read the Delomelanicon. Through this, he decided to make an earthly copy that was stated to had been co-authored by Lucifer the Prince of Darkness himself. At least three copies of the manuscript were written before Torchia was uncovered for heresy and burnt at the stake for his witchcraft. However, the three books survived the centuries and became the focus of the occult with a satanic cult forming around it calling itself the Order of the Silver Serpent. It was believed that any copy of the book had the potential of calling upon Lucifer himself to the mortal plane though only a few were aware of the true nature of the books. Each of the three books were identical though there were discrepancies namely in the engraved pictures. Some of the images were different in each book and a signature was present in different pattern either as AT for Aristide Torchia or LCF for Lucifer. It was believed that by taking the nine engraved pictures, one could incant a ritual designed to bring forth the Devil himself through the Ninth Gate with those taking part in the act being made invulnerable to mortal means.

In the centuries that followed, the Order of the Silver Serpent always kept at least one copy of the book for themselves for their cult activities. Initially, it was a witches coven initially that worshipped the Devil but as the years went by it became a secret society and social group for millionaires and celebrities who attributed their good fortune to their membership in the cult. By the 20th century, the three copies managed to survive the centuries with one being present with Baroness Kessler who was in Paris, the other was with Victor Fargas who was a collector of the occult in Spain and the last was in the Cenzio brothers bookstore in Toledo. Baroness Kessler at the time was a member of the Order of the Silver Serpent and used her copy during the groups rituals. However, the Order degenerated into one where sexual desires and carnal relations were pursued which detested Kessler who left the group and took her copy with her. In order to secure another copy, Liana Tefler a satantic worshipper had married her millionaire husband Andrew Tefler to use his wealth to restore her families prestige. She also used the money to buy one of the copies of the book that was in the Cenzia brothers bookstore and used it in her cults rituals. When Andrew Tefler learnt of this, he killed himself but not before selling the book to Boris Balkin.

Balkin in turn attempted to use his new purchased item to bring forth Lucifer himself but the rituals failed. Thus, he suspected that since there were three copies than two might be a forgery with only one being the real version. In order to ascertain this fact, he hired a rare book dealer by the name of Dean Corso and tasked him with verifying this finding. Being paid a considerable sum of money to accomplish this feat despite Liana Teflers attempts at reacquiring it and the number of deaths involved. Corso initially believed that Andrew Tefler bought the book but after travelling to Spain to meet the Cenzia brothers he learnt that it was at the urging of his wife. Following that, he went to Toledo in order to consult the Fargas collection and reported descrepancies to Balkin who in turn wanted to the Fargas copy at any cost. Sometime later, Corso learnt that Fargas had been murdered; drowned in his own fountain and his book burnt though the engravings were ripped out. With this being a dead end, Corso took what research he had gathered and went to Paris to meet Baroness Kessler. When she learnt of his employment by Boris Balkin, she refused to give him access to the book. However, Corso managed to convince her to give him access to her copy by highlighting the earlier descrepancies he had discoveered. This shocked Kessler who had become a devoted follower of the occult and Lucifer whereupon she gave him permission to proceed with his study. In order to protect Balkin's copy, he hid it in his hotel apartment suite.

Corso continued his study of the Kessler collection where he highlighted even more discrepancies between the book but he was knocked out. When he awoke, he found the Baroness murdered and her collection in flames which included her copy of the book. Similar to the Fargas collection, the engravings were also ripped out from the manuscript by whoever conducted the act. When he returned to his hotel suite, he learnt that someone had broken in and taken the Balkin copy. Knowing that Boris Balkin was capable of murder for the book, Dean Corso decided to track the culprit and learnt it was Liana Tefler who had done so and had gone to her chateau in Paris where the Order of the Silver Serpent congregated on the anniversary of Torchia's death. He broke in but was caught initially but managed to escape. Just as Liana was reciting from the book, Boris Balkin broke in and murdered Liana Tefler for it. Dean Corso tracked Balkin down to an isolated keep and concluded that Boris had murdered both Fargas and Kessler for their copies in order to open the Nine Gates. This was because Boris Balkin believed himself to be a true worshipper of Lucifer and deep beneath the keep he placed the engravings in a select pattern. Thinking he had completed the ritual with a helpless Corso to watch, Balkin claimed he was now invincible and poured flame on himself to demonstrate that he could feel no pain. However, the fires consumed him and he was in agony forcing Corso to kill him. Later, Dean Corso learnt from a mysterious young woman who had been helping him that the ninth engraving was a forgery which was why the ritual failed.

Curious over the entire incident, Corso decided to visit the Cenzia brothers bookstore but it had been sold and renovated by new people. As they moved a large book shelf where a page suddenly fell and was revealed to be the original engraving that was in the position of the Cenzia brothers. Taking the page along with the accumulated pages, Corso returned to the remote keep where he performed the ritual and seemingly entered into the Ninth Gate.

Whether Corso met Lucifer remains unknown.

Notes

• The Ninth Gate is based on the novel The Club Dumas where this book is called De Umbrarum Regni Novem Portis in Latin which translates to mean The Book of the Nine Doors of the Kingdom of Shadows and was written by Alexandre Dumas.