Item from The Black Company by Glen Cook
The Black Company's history — centuries of journals kept by a succession of Annalists who wrote down the truth as they saw it, which means the truth with all the interesting lies left in.
The Annals are the Black Company's most important possession — more important than weapons, supplies, or contracts. They're the running history of the Company, maintained by a designated Annalist who records events, decisions, battles, deaths, and the institutional knowledge that keeps the Company functioning. The Annals are also the series' narrative device: the books we're reading ARE the Annals. Croaker's volumes are Book 1-3, Murgen's are the middle books, Sleepy's are the later ones. This means every bias, omission, and lie that the narrator includes is canonically part of the Company's official record. The truth isn't objective — it's whatever the Annalist wrote down. The Company treats the Annals with religious reverence. Losing them would be losing the dead — every brother whose name is recorded in those journals would become anonymous. The Annals are how the Company honors its fallen: by writing them down and carrying them forward.
Physical journals — worn, battered, written in multiple hands across centuries. Some volumes are ancient and barely legible. Some are missing. Croaker's volumes are in his cramped physician's handwriting. The Annals travel with the Company, protected like battle standards, because they ARE the Company — without the Annals, the dead are just dead instead of remembered.
Also known as: The Annals, The Company Annals, The Books of the Company