Spellbook

Written by EmperorCharlesII

"We mages crave knowledge. We rarely eat and rarely sleep, as those comforts can be created by magic in an instant...But knowledge is the hardest comfort to create. We slave over beakers and alembics to make potions, we delve into old libraries to find brittle books and scrolls, we hound our contacts for any news of the world and its research. And one day, if we learn a lot and we trust someone very much, we will give them the fruits of our labours: a book."
~Giran Coltranor, Archmage of Frecrest

Construction

Spellbooks are as different as the multiverse is varied. The actual physical tome version is, naturally, the most common and the most well-known culturally, but many store that knowledge in different forms like carvings, passed-down collections of oral stories, or even tied-together ropes and stones in some places. The medium is not very important; what matters is the passage of knowledge and the recording of it.

Mechanics & Inner Workings

Spellbooks contain magical knowledge, whether that be just plain hermetic spellcasting or lore related to alchemy, magicozoology or demons. They are written accounts of a mage's research, which may get very particular and focused. They are very enriching for those who understand that research, and collections of such book form the basis of many magical communities throughout the multiverse.

Significance

A spellbook signifies the power and knowledge that a mage has collected over the course of their lifetime. As such, they are incredibly well-guarded in case of theft or scrying and it is rare for someone to be gifted such an item.

Item type

Magical

Base Price

Relatively cheap for a blank book. Filled ones are much more expensive or not for sale at all.

Rare Stores of Knowledge

The rarity of spellbooks will depend on the rarity of mages in a given world and their need for storage of spell knowledge. On Renath, they are common enough that many paper and ink manufacturers only deal with mages writing spellbooks. On the other hand, the mages of Earth rarely keep their knowledge in books and any books there are are very carefully guarded.