Book of Breathings

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An ancient text of unspeakable power, written in a language of salt and starlight, split in two for safekeeping.

The Book of Breathings is one of the oldest and most dangerous artifacts in Prythian, said to contain the language of creation itself. It is split into two halves—one kept in the mortal lands, one among the fae—to prevent any single power from wielding its full might. To speak its words is to command the very essence of life and death, but the price for such knowledge is steep and often fatal.

Appearance

Bound in scaled leather that shifts between deep blue and silver, the Book of Breathings is a heavy tome the size of a mortal's forearm. Its pages are not paper but thin sheets of polished obsidian, each inscribed with symbols that seem to breathe—pulsing faintly as if alive. The script is no known language; it shimmers and rearranges itself when stared at too long, as though the book does not wish to be read.

Also known as: Book of Breathings, The Breathing Book, The Salt-and-Starlight Codex, The Two-Fold Tome

What They Know

• It is said to have been written by the Cauldron itself, or by the first Made things, in a time before the courts existed.
• The book is written in a language that cannot be spoken by mortal tongues without causing the speaker's throat to seal shut.
• Only two people in recorded history have ever read from it: one went mad, the other vanished.
• The two halves were separated after the last War, one given to the mortal queens for safekeeping, the other hidden in a fae vault.
• Its pages are said to contain the true names of all things, and to speak a name aloud from the book is to gain absolute power over that thing.

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