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.

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
During the Age of Humanity, 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 book 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 went missing.

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

 * Heroes of Shadowdale
 * Esvele Greycastle
 * Yder Tanthul

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