An Introduction to Candlekeep

"An Introduction to Candlekeep" is a short story by Ed Greenwood written for the Candlekeep website.

"The following work is an amazing treasure we hold here at Candlekeep, penned by none other than Ed Greenwood, creator of the Forgotten Realms especially for the Candlekeep web site. It is included here to share with you all.. Please respect this honor and do not duplicate this work elsewhere without permission. The text below is copyright Wizards of the Coast. Many thanks to Ed Greenwood for the time and effort in producing this for us. A truly beautiful piece of Realmslore."

- An Introduction to Candlekeep

Description
The short story is preceded by a dedication, in which it is requested that this work not be duplicated elsewhere on the web. The text itself is prefaced by a fragment from Elminster's Daughter. The narration is interspersed with segments of background and game terms, which do not form part of it, but help in understanding it.

Summary
The story is about a supplicant to Candlekeep, a scribe named Theldrant Ornan. With a Tethyrian group ahead of him in the road as the sun sets over the Way of the Lion, he realizes they will not let him spend the night in their camp, and decides to cut across the forest, heading directly for Candlekeep rather than risk a night on the road.

Arriving to the monastery, he offers up an expensive book in excellent condition: the Black Tome of Magely Might by Maskauman. The monks reject it, however, as their collection possesses a score of copies of the book already. He is extremely dejected, but the monks ask if he has other books he'd like to share; his only other book is a heavily degraded tome he's been using for paper scraps. The monks reveal to him that it's a copy of Thalavoon's Spells for my Sworn Mages, written in a cipher he failed to discern. Overcome by shame, he nonetheless accepts to trade it for entry.

Wide-eyed and somewhat disturbed, feeling intense guilt over his actions with the book he abused, he is startled by the monks. The Keeper of the Emerald Door reassures him that he won't be held to account for what he did to that book as he didn't know better, but warns him that he'll be slain on the spot if he does that to any of their books. He's then introduced to Belabra, another monk; she holds him as he faints.

When he wakes up, he's still in her arms, but in a different room: she reassures him, but warns him his time is limited. He is a witness to the Endless Chant, and admits he's indecisive as to what he wishes to see in Candlekeep. Soon, he blunders into a room where numerous books unleash deadly spells, and somehow finds himself in a different room after fainting, injured; he's found by Othraun, a monk with the power to cast his sight through the books across Candlekeep. Othraun who warns him not to blunder into the wards of the Inner Rooms.

The story abruptly ends when Othraun reveals he was once injured while experimenting with books, and that's how he learned how to look through them.