Book of the Dead

The Book of the Dead was a dangerous artifact that belonged to the goddess of death, helped by Vanadon.

Its antiquity is beyond comprehension, as it existed before any mortal and will exist after every mortal. When taking physical form, magic is the only thing holding the book in one piece. The runes and incantations contained within are written with dark ink. The book can take many forms and shapes, but will always hold the name of every mortal that died and its final words.

The book, in addition to being a complete collection of all the dead, holds many powers. Its bearer can predict the death of any mortal, and possess can guide their soul through the void to the outer plane where it will rest for eternity.

Destroying the Book

The book cannot be destroyed, if the physical form is to be destructed, it will find a new one. The book was once consumed by a dragon, and this dragon became the living embodiment of the book of the dead, its scale bearing the ink with which the last words of the fallen are written.

History

In ancient times, the Dragon scribe Vanadon served the goddess of the dead and protected her endless Book of the Dead, a massive tome which, thanks to his diligence, bore the names and final words of all creatures who ever have died, and whoever will die. Vanadon served his goddess dutifully for millenia. Neltharion already betrayed numerous of the dragon god at this point, and was spreading his corruption among powerful dragons, influenced by the earth warden, Vanadon faced the god of death alongside Neltharion, consumming the endless Book of the Dead to greatly lower the dark lady of death power, and took its power into his own body, transforming himself into the Living Book of the Dead. From now on, the names and last words of the dead instantly inscribed themselves upon his milky-white scales. When he emerged, with paper-white scales covered in endlessly shifting patterns of black scrawling, he became known as Vanadon-Necroth, the Scaled Book of the Dead. Now recognized as the god of Passage, all mortal are destined to face him. He became beloved by the undying gardens' heroic inhabitants as a keeper of the memories of the dead. Though the loremaster Vanadon once kept his library open to all creatures, he has grown paranoid during the war after the War of the Ancients. His archive-lair was once a majestic castle that towered over the passing dead soul, but Vanadon-Necroth transported his entire archive-lair elsewhere, leaving only the crumbling, gutted structure of his once-magnificent castle in its wake. His godly power also grant him the power of perfect recollection and all information he adds to his infallible intellect is instantly inscribed upon his ivory scales. Now, the Archives of the Dead drift on the waves of the endless Void, tethered to the bones of a dead god of memory, whose name is forgotten to all but VanadonNecroth himself. Within this arcane fortress, VanadonNecroth stores and maintains all of the physical tomes and scrolls he collected in his long life-which has also inscribed the details of countless spells from all disciplines of Magic upon his scales. Though he no longer needs physical records of his accrued knowledge, he takes pleasure in reading and re-reading his favorite scrolls.

Item type

Book / Document