Vernacular Guide Entry - Book of the Shadows
As promised, I'm launching the Vernacular Guide, a dictionary/encyclopedia of terms from my book series, Book of the Shadows. Entry one, Book of the Shadows.
It only makes sense that the first entry to my Vernacular Guide should be the title of the series itself, Book of the Shadows. If you go to the Vernacular Guide page you will see the phrase and its basic "dictionary" definition. Hereafter, anytime you click on the phrase, you will be redirected to the post I create at the time of adding that phrase to the guide to see a more detailed "encyclopedia" definition.
The Book of the Shadows, the Lost Tome, the Ancient Text… it has been called many things and has many legends attached to it, some true, some not.
The Book of the Shadows in not a simple book. It is a magical device similar to a zanpakuto in that it has a sentient spirit within it that does have the ability to take a physical form, but unlike the zanpakuto, is always humanoid with human levels of intelligence. Mages refer to these as Unison Devices. Something similar to a mage’s familiar, the Unison Device serves as an augment to their master. They hold tremendous amounts of information and are active in making recommendations to their masters for strategies and such.
As a Unison Device, the Book of the Shadows began as a single book. Its only purpose was to store the information given to it by its master. At all other times it has remained in a dormant sleep until it is called upon by its masters again. As an intelligent device it can easily discern its master based on sight, the sound of their voice, and their energy pattern and presence. What makes the Book of the Shadows unique for an intelligent device are a few additions made to it.
The first addition was the defense system. Generally speaking, Unison Devices are weaker than familiars and lack the ability to effectively defend themselves or their master independent of input from that master. Part of the defense system involves allowing the Book of the Shadows to succeed its own limiter that is otherwise in place to control the power of the book. Without the limiter, the power of the book is such that it would go completely out of control, destroying an area at least as large as a planet and potentially warping space and time causing dangerous instability in the fabric of the universe. Still, the limiter can be partially removed by the Book itself for the purpose of defending itself.
Another ability incorporated into the defense program is called Infinite Revival. An exceedingly powerful spell with no known counter, if ever the Book of the Shadows is in danger of really being destroyed, it is reborn again completely intact in its dormant book form. In short, the Book of the Shadows can never really be destroyed.
The second addition was more books. The essential idea is that the original Book of the Shadows naturally had a limit to how much it could hold. Rather than simply increasing its limit they separated the Linker Core, the intelligent sentient control of the entire system, and made additional books. This makes for a slightly more complex system. Counting Shadows there are three more books; Book of the Azure Sky, Book of the Crescent Moon, and Book of the Twilight Night. Each contains a different category of information except for Shadows which administrates these parts of itself. With this system the Book of the Shadows cannot reach its full capabilities until all the books are together.
The Book of the Shadows and its associated books have constantly changed locations over the years. Part of the reason is that when its masters find it the book stays by their side until their death. The book has never been separated from its masters for more than 100 years meaning at least one of its masters has had it with them in at least every other lifetime. If Lilith is to be believed, it did come to reside in the Great Library at some point, likely having been placed there by one of its masters to find easier.
The Book of the Shadows cannot be easily read. The entries into the book are made vocally, with the spirit of it recording the entries like a scribe. The entries are written in an amalgam of all languages known by the master, thus any one entry could potentially be written in the language of Nemesis, Japanese, English, Latin, French, and the languages of a host of other planets and civilizations, not to mention the different grammatical and dialectic differences that arise with any one language viewed centuries apart let alone millennia. By this means, even should an unwanted party somehow get its hands on the book, they would require an astounding comprehension of a staggering number of forms of languages to even begin deciphering it without the control device’s help. Even for the masters such a task can be incredibly time consuming, thus the book will translate its text either in print or through vocal replay.
It only makes sense that the first entry to my Vernacular Guide should be the title of the series itself, Book of the Shadows. If you go to the Vernacular Guide page you will see the phrase and its basic "dictionary" definition. Hereafter, anytime you click on the phrase, you will be redirected to the post I create at the time of adding that phrase to the guide to see a more detailed "encyclopedia" definition.
The Book of the Shadows, the Lost Tome, the Ancient Text… it has been called many things and has many legends attached to it, some true, some not.
The Book of the Shadows in not a simple book. It is a magical device similar to a zanpakuto in that it has a sentient spirit within it that does have the ability to take a physical form, but unlike the zanpakuto, is always humanoid with human levels of intelligence. Mages refer to these as Unison Devices. Something similar to a mage’s familiar, the Unison Device serves as an augment to their master. They hold tremendous amounts of information and are active in making recommendations to their masters for strategies and such.
As a Unison Device, the Book of the Shadows began as a single book. Its only purpose was to store the information given to it by its master. At all other times it has remained in a dormant sleep until it is called upon by its masters again. As an intelligent device it can easily discern its master based on sight, the sound of their voice, and their energy pattern and presence. What makes the Book of the Shadows unique for an intelligent device are a few additions made to it.
The first addition was the defense system. Generally speaking, Unison Devices are weaker than familiars and lack the ability to effectively defend themselves or their master independent of input from that master. Part of the defense system involves allowing the Book of the Shadows to succeed its own limiter that is otherwise in place to control the power of the book. Without the limiter, the power of the book is such that it would go completely out of control, destroying an area at least as large as a planet and potentially warping space and time causing dangerous instability in the fabric of the universe. Still, the limiter can be partially removed by the Book itself for the purpose of defending itself.
Another ability incorporated into the defense program is called Infinite Revival. An exceedingly powerful spell with no known counter, if ever the Book of the Shadows is in danger of really being destroyed, it is reborn again completely intact in its dormant book form. In short, the Book of the Shadows can never really be destroyed.
The second addition was more books. The essential idea is that the original Book of the Shadows naturally had a limit to how much it could hold. Rather than simply increasing its limit they separated the Linker Core, the intelligent sentient control of the entire system, and made additional books. This makes for a slightly more complex system. Counting Shadows there are three more books; Book of the Azure Sky, Book of the Crescent Moon, and Book of the Twilight Night. Each contains a different category of information except for Shadows which administrates these parts of itself. With this system the Book of the Shadows cannot reach its full capabilities until all the books are together.
The Book of the Shadows and its associated books have constantly changed locations over the years. Part of the reason is that when its masters find it the book stays by their side until their death. The book has never been separated from its masters for more than 100 years meaning at least one of its masters has had it with them in at least every other lifetime. If Lilith is to be believed, it did come to reside in the Great Library at some point, likely having been placed there by one of its masters to find easier.
The Book of the Shadows cannot be easily read. The entries into the book are made vocally, with the spirit of it recording the entries like a scribe. The entries are written in an amalgam of all languages known by the master, thus any one entry could potentially be written in the language of Nemesis, Japanese, English, Latin, French, and the languages of a host of other planets and civilizations, not to mention the different grammatical and dialectic differences that arise with any one language viewed centuries apart let alone millennia. By this means, even should an unwanted party somehow get its hands on the book, they would require an astounding comprehension of a staggering number of forms of languages to even begin deciphering it without the control device’s help. Even for the masters such a task can be incredibly time consuming, thus the book will translate its text either in print or through vocal replay.
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