A Book of Spell Books and Rules For Spell Books
Credits Design and Writing: Jeremiah McCoy Art: Jeremiah McCoy
An OGL rulebook for useSample with Dungeons file and Dragons 5th edition
fi nd more by the author at jeremiahmccoy.com
Feel free to email the author at [email protected] with any questions or corrections. 2 You have been admitted theSample library file staff here at Candlekeep. Congrat- Spell Book Rules ulations and welcome! It is possible In addition, we will be looking at I should off er condolences as well, some alternate rules for handling but you will need to come to that wizard spell books, and learn- conclusion on your own. I am Galia. ing spells. These are intended to I your guide and the keeper of the make spell books more important spell books here in the library. That in your game. is one of the most dangerous jobs for any librarian.
I love spell books. They are fas- cinating bits of fantasy. Wizards are supposed to be wise. They got that way because of of what they learned. Books are where you store knowledge. The most arcane knowl- edge is stored in spell books.
3 The books themselves can often be dangerous. The book’s arcane lore could often drive one mad, and hold terrible truths about the universe. They can be a bane as well as a boon.
With that in mind, I will present a few tomes of arcane power and lore. Some of these are dangerous to own and read. These are books you may want, because of those lost secrets, but some of them you may want to avoid.
The Books Themselves No conversation about spell books can be complete without discussing the book, object and technology. Books have existed in various forms since nearly the dawn of civilization. There is some argument as to what the oldest books are. There is the Tablet of Fate, but that is not in the mortal realm. The creator races almost certainly wrote things down and left carved temples in their wake, but those have not been defi nitively examined and their age determined. The Elves and Dwarves both devel- oped writing early in the DawnSample Age, but again file it is hard to fi nd defi nitively the fi rst. How many books were written, and simply lost to time, like the Nether Scroll.
The point is, we don’t have a defi nitive fi rst book. We have an idea what the fi rst printed books were. We know the kinds of technology used in books. Cave drawings are ways of telling tales or are etching prayers to stone. Clay tablets with little hatch marks gave way to marks made on stone and papyrus. That eventually led to parchment, and then paper.
Let us dive into a few key terms and technology to understanding the book. Hopefully, this will help you make more interesting books in your game.
4 Codex or Codices
This is the word for what most people think of as a book. Books can take a lot of forms, but the pages of folded paper which are stitched together and covered with a cover are called a Codex. The Stitch- ing doesn’t always get used. Sometimes they are just folded and stacked. Whatever the variations, this is the form modern people think of as books. Though we talk about the modern vision with pa- per pages, it can be done with other materials like wood or metal.
Tablet This is the stone or clay form of a book, and it is most likely the fi rst form of writing. If it is in stone and erected to mark something signifi cant, it is sometimes called a Stele. Tablets are mostly limited to a single “page.” They were often used for recording permanent records, or recording laws or historical events. They were also used for telling stories. The oldest known stories can be found on a tablet. Tablets were expensive, diffi cult to make, and diffi cult to transport. Yes, there are smaller ones, but the smaller ones are also fragile, so they have their own problems with trans- port.
There was a temporary tablet in antiquity done with a board cov- ered in thick wax. You wouldSample make marks file on it using a stylus. This is how you might work out some math on, or use in accounting. To erase, just heat up the wax and wipe it clean. Not really a book, but certain book adjacent.
Scriptorium This is where large scale copying of texts was performed. Candlekeep is not the only one, but it might be the greatest in the realms. The scribes make replicas of the text, and the illuminations, if possible. This was done by humans, however, so the copies are often not exactly the same. Artis- tic license was taken by some, others made simple mistakes. As a result, many times the same book could say diff erent things, and have diff erent art, depending on the scribe.
5 Illumination Illumination technically refers to the adding of gold and silver to the page, but mostly it refers to the addition of illustrations to the text. This can be found in texts from around the world, but in many cases, when someone refers to “Illuminated Manuscripts,” they are referring to the western tradi- tion. There are beautiful examples to be found. The form is an art in and of itself. First the text is written. Then the illustrations and large characters are laid out and drawn in black and white. Then, color and precious met- als are painted on to fi nish. Beauty is not all you can fi nd here. There are jokes hidden in some copies, and possibly some codes. This is a lengthy subject by itself and I am not qualifi ed to do it justice. An illuminated spell book would be more expensive, but absolutely worth the expense!
Scrolls
A Scroll is one of the more ancientSample forms offile book. Papyrus scrolls were often written to be 10 feet long. Some as much as 40 ft. This is some- thing you can do with papyrus. Papyrus does not handle being folded well, so it makes a bad choice for codices. Scrolls were more popular in the ancient world, but fell out of favor in the recent centuries it has fallen out of favor. The Codex is better for hiding, better for fl ipping through to fi nd a particular passage. Scrolls can still be remarkable and exist for quite a while. Despite falling out of favor, scrolls are still made throughout the realms. The scroll has a relationship to spells beyond that of normal books, as it is used for storing spells for temporary use. You read your spell aloud, activating its magic and expending the scroll. One does not need to be a mage to use a scroll either. The accepted usage for spell scrolls is wide spread, but rumors abound of more exotic ways for storing spells for later activation.
6 Paper, Papyrus, and Parchment Paper has been around longer than you might suspect, but it was a rela- tively late change that made it the default medium for the written word. Before the development of other materials, most writing went in clay and stone. Those mediums have the advantage of relative permanence. Stone is super hard to work, and it could take you a long time to chisel words into it. You can paint it on, and the ancients often did, but the paint is more apt to wear off or be taken off by the elements.
Papyrus is the fi rst paper-like substance we are talking about. You take stalks of a plant, soak them in water till loose, lay them out to dry overlap- ping each other, and you get papyrus as it dries. It is much like paper or parchment, but it is less fl exible. Papyrus is stiff and does not fold well. It is also more fragile. You can easily break off bits. The ancients did not re- alize this, but it does not age well either. It does hold ink, and that makes a serious diff erence. There is little diffi culty in writing on it. It is easily por- table. You could write a letter, and send it across the miles without special equipment. What a wonder that must have been when fi rst discovered. With that, instead of relying on some servant to memorize your words precisely, you can write the letter knowing it says what you think it should say, assuming you trust your scribe. Scribes are a shifty lot. Parchment is next. Parchment is special. It is much more durable and fl exible. Parchment is also much longer lasting. Parchment does not ap- pear to degrade over time at an appreciable rate. A thousand years later, parchment keeps going. It holdsSample ink well, evenfile better than papyrus. The catch is cost. While not as expensive and time-consuming as stone, it is more expensive than papyrus. Parchment is made of skin. It was usually gotten from sheep or pigs. The skins are worked till they are thin. This also means they are maybe not completely consistent in how they look and feel. It is a marked improvement on the papyrus for many reasons, but the expense is an issue. A thick book in the middle ages could cost as much as a house. Encyclopedia Britannica is right out. Note: Some people will bring up Vellum here. Vellum is really just expen- sive parchment. It is not physically diff erent, nor does it convey some extra quality. It is just made from young animals, so it is more prized. Paper is what we use now, but it evolved over the years. The paper used in Shou Lung when it was fi rst made is diff erent than the paper we see to- day. The most common form in the middle ages into the Renaissance was made from discarded rags and clothing. It wasn’t till the recent century that we got the modern methods involving wood pulping. It is slightly less 7