Book of the Black

The Book of the Black was a Sharran artifact that laid out the Black Chronology, an alternate timeline to the Roll of Years. It was written by Augathra the Mad, the famous Netherese seer whose work helped forming the marking of years by Dale Reckoning.

Description
It was a rather large tome and unassuming in appearance. To most readers its vellum pages appeared entirely blank.

Copies of the original Book of the Black did exist, but were extremely rare.

Powers
In truth, the Book of the Black's contents were cursed by Shar to be entirely undecipherable to anyone not of her choosing. This effect could not be reversed, even by powerful magic. With tremendous effort and skill, a reader could possible uncover about four lines of the book's text, and could require one of the most powerful arcane spells or even divine intervention.

Anyone that did manage to read some text from the Book of the Black were inundated with bizarre and troubling revelations about the multiverse itself. They could also glean some insight into Shar's followers, and the nature of her Shadow Weave.

History
In the, Augathra the seer received visions that led her to inscribe the Roll of Years. During this time, visions seeped into her dreams, laying out the alternate chronology that came to be crucial to the plots schemed and undertaken by Shar's worshipers. It was the information laid out in these visions that drove Augathra mad and led to her immortality.

The book was discovered centuries later in the, by the Dark Diviners of the Windsong Tower in Myth Drannor. They used its writings to create their own manuscript, The Leaves of One Night. This latter tome detailed the single moments at which the goddess Shar would be at her weakest, and achieve her greatest moment of glory. Shortly thereafter, both the Book of the Black and The Leaves of One Night were stolen by Sharran clergy.

Over five hundred years later, in the, the Cyricist Skull Servant Bineera Ethar discovered a torn parchment within the Sharran Monastery of the Ebon Dome in the Shadowfell, that laid out the Black Chronology inscribed within the Book of the Black. The church of Cyric began a search for the book, with the hopes of uncovering the secret plots held by the church of Shar.

Around the same time, a copy of the Book of the Black was sent over by Esvele Greycastle of the House of Night temple beneath Shadowdale, to Prince Yder Tanthul of Thultanthar. Unfortunately for the Shadovar prince, a notable section of the tome was missing.

The true and whole Book of the Black remained interred within the Crypt of Augathra the Mad near the ruins of Synod in Anauroch. Some time during or after Hammer of the, a band of adventurers recovered the book from within Augathra's tomb.

What came of the book after its recovery was unclear, but the events it foresaw had already come to pass. Other prophecies laid out within the ancient text were just over the horizon, waiting for the worshipers of Shar to make them reality.

Reputation
It was said that the contents of the Book of the Black were secrets held by Shar, and outlined horrors that were yet come to pass.

Notable Owners

 * Esvele Greycastle, came into possession of a copy during or after he travels near the Monastery of the Ebon Dome.
 * Yder Tanthul, received the copy sent to him by Esvele Greycastle.

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * Shadowdale: The Scouring of the Land • Anauroch: The Empire of Shade
 * Cormyr: The Tearing of the Weave
 * Cormyr: The Tearing of the Weave