Jake's Encyclopedia of Eels

Jake's Encyclopedia of Eels was a single self-published tome of knowledge about eels, available in the late 15 century DR. "People are practical folks and they want to read practical things. Can't make a pie outta stars, can you? No. Eels is important."

- Jake

Description
Jake's Encyclopedia was a shabbily cobbled-together book, loosely bound and filled with unevenly sized pages. The book was written in a similarly chaotic uneven script. The ink used was just as random as the rest of the book; seemingly, the author used whatever ink he could find.

Content
The author's foreword was written as a direct address to the grand library of Candlekeep, as a response to it turning down the author's book.

The book started by arguing that giant lightning eels only look like eels, but in reality, were more closely related to giant morays on account of their head shapes.

The next part of the book talked about how abundant eels were across the Realms and that they could be easily caught everywhere: in Neverwinter, Elturel, Calimport, and many other places. The author shared folklore about the origins of these slippery creatures. Some claimed eels were merely fish who learned to swim, some said that eels were baby leviathans, and some even accused them of being spies for the Underdark. However, the author was convinced that all eels bred in the Sea of Moonshae and traveled all over Faerûn from there.

Following this bold claim, the author went on rambling about the scholars of Candlekeep refusing to finance his research on the matter. The book continued this tirade for a few pages until it went back to the topic of eels.

History
In 1492 DR, a copy of Jake's Encyclopedia of Eels could be found in one of the suites of the Waukeen's Rest in the Western Heartlands. Judging by the book's contents, the author, Jake, applied for sponsorship for his eel research with the scholars of Candlekeep sometime before 1492 DR.

Appearances

 * Video Games
 * Baldur's Gate III