There lived an old mage in the far away and long forgotten city of Faerkly, who was cursed, with the desease of amnesia. Yeardin was a quiet mage, of little real power, as he would forget the intricate workings of his spells, due to his memory loss (123SR). Yeardin sought a way to correct these problems, at any cost. He sought the knowledge far and wide, looking for the cure to his amnesia. Yeardin was unfamiliar with the world, and it took him a long while before he found the smallest clues. He asked for the god’s assistance, but none would hear his plea.
Yeardin began the research of magical items, planning on creating one that would solve his memory loss. He began experimenting on various women and children, to see if any of his research had the slightest effect. Many times Yeardin failed, erasing memories from the people, and throwing out his spells and failed items. The people of Faerkly did not approve of Yeardin’s behavior, of course, and when they found out who it was, they proceeded to send a mob of people after Yeardin, demanding that he returned their memories (125SR).
Yeardin could not, of course, and had to flee the city. Yeardin would return, he swore, to have his vengeance. He sought out the books of knowledge across the lands, but none would help him in his quest. It seemed that the only memories that the mage could hold on to were that of his exile, and that he could not remember anything.
This was starting to grate on Yeardin, for he had been one of the better learners in the city when he was a child, but now, he could not remember something long enough too attempt to learn it!
Yeardin was finally able to create a minor magical item, or so it seemed. He created a book that he could write all of his memories in, so that he could access them if he forgot, and the greatest part of the book was the fact that it could never run out of pages! Every time you wrote in the book, and filled another page, another would appear, at the end of the book. Yeardin was extremely excited about his creation, now he could study something, write it in his book, and it could not be forgotten. Before long Yeardin realized that he could not forget what was in the book, he never found himself looking up details he had written in the book, they were somehow linked with his mind, and could not be forgotten (129SR).
Yeardin began to write his every thought into the book, and was amazed at the sheer volumes of information it could hold. He copied entire texts of magic and other mundane things into the book, and found that he could not forget the spells. When he cast a spell, it would remain in his memory, as if it had not been cast. The only limit to Yeardin’s spell power now, was exhaustion.
As Yeardin finished scribing all that he could remember into the book, he realized that he could have other people write in his book, and he would gain their knowledge as well. Little did Yeardin realize, that every time he copied something into the book, the book from which it originated would become empty, actually transferring the text into Yeardin’s book.
As Yeardin found people to write in his book, sometimes paying them for the services, only to find that whatever was written in the book would be erased from the memory of the writer, to appear in Yeardin’s head. Upon this realization, Yeardin found the answer to his vengeance. He would take the book back to Faerkly, enter the city in another guise, and erase the minds of those who ostracized him.
He took the book to the city, and indeed was able to assume the mass of the cities memories (131SR). Yeardin would go so far as to capture citizens of Faerkly, and force them to write in his book. When the people could write no more, the book would drain the body of all reason, and leave them a living vegetable. Yeardin had to find a place for all of these people, and thus decided on his next plan.
Yeardin invaded the keep of Lord Jearyl, fourth knight of Faerkly, and proceeded to wipe out his people in a mere manner of a week, at which time he attacked Lord Jearyl, and assumed his memories as well. He hid all of the bodies from the keep, as well as the body of Lord Jearyl, in the cellars of the keep, never to be heard from again (132SR).
It was not long before the people began to suspect the whereabouts of the missing people. They eventually tracked them down to Yeardin’s castle, to find what was left of the people of Faerkly. This incensed the villagers, and that began to suspect that Yeardin had come back to their city and resumed his stealing of memories.
Yeardin saw them coming and fled, and neither he nor his book has been seen to this day.
The Book of Holding appears as a deep red covered book, covered by the fabric of a strange leather, with gold lettering on the binding, written in some long forgotten arcane language. The cover of the book is bordered in a line of gold, and in the center of the book lies a symbol that appears to be the top of a human brain surrounded by a golden circle. The pages are a thick brown type, looking as though they have been very close to flames for a long period of time, without the flames actually ever have reached it. The pages are capable of holding magical spells and information.
The Book of Holding can hold an infinite amount of knowledge in its pages, but all such knowledge in the book cannot be learned by someone that discovers it. Any new knowledge placed into the tome will indeed reach the user’s mind. The book is not actually written in, it in fact sucks the memories of its victims through the contact of that person’s body, but can also transfer through the use of a writing pen. The book will want the owner to ‘write’ all of his or her knowledge in the book, and the owner will feel compelled to do so. The book coerces the reader into believing that they have the same memory problem as the mage Yeardin had, even if this is not the case. When the owner has given all of the information he has to give, he will seek to gather the knowledge of others to add to his book. Any such victims that are forced to write in the book and do so for an extended period of time (1 day for each point of the victim’s intelligence), will lose all of their memories to the book. Such people will lose their intelligence at a rate of 1 point per day. If the book does not receive at least one point of intelligence per month, it will begin to drain the knowledge from the current owner of the book. Once the book chooses an owner, it will give all of its memories that it receives in the time that that person has intelligence. It will not change owners before the one they have has been reduced to a zero intelligence. If the current owner of the book is a non-mage, and mage spells are transcribed in the time that the owner has access to the book, that character will be able to cast that spell once per day.
