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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ripzerai" data-source="post: 3351468" data-attributes="member: 38324">The history of the Book of Vile Darkness is in the rulebook of the same name (by Monte Cook), page 14. The original Book of Vile Darkness was a scroll penned by a wizard of the Vasharan race millennia ago. It was only a few thousand words long.This kernel was added to and improved upon by a succession of later writers - a cleric of Nerull tripled its length, and many other evil priests added thoughts of their own. Some added knowledge given to them by summoned fiends.These scrolls were first (as far as is known) collected into a book by none other than Vecna, who added some of his own secrets to the collection. This is perhaps the "original" version of the book that your PCs found, as the earlier versions are less potent and don't look like books. Cultists of Erythnul went on to create several lesser, flawed copies of this work - typically, they carry a curse that drags their users to the Lower Planes. Eventually the book - as bound by Vecna in human flesh and demon bones - found its way to the library of Baalzebul, who added still more pages to its already horrific contents. There are said to be six true copies of the Book of Vile Darkness today, at least one of which made after Baalzebul's alteration. There are at least eighteen flawed or faked copies, and Vecna's original is still out there somewhere.Another variation appeared in Greyhawk Adventures, page 95. Over 400 years ago, an explorer named Atirr Aedorich ventured into the strange, eldritch landscape known as the Sinking Isle, where a society of surpassing wickedness sank into the ocean long ago, though the island occasionally rises, its Cyclopean ruins seemingly empty. Atirr discovered in the ruins a book sealed against the waters by a lead casket. The book passed into the hands of the imperial House of Rax, which later fell into decadence and ruin; where it is now is unclear. This book is actually both a Libram of Ineffable Damnation and a Book of Vile Darkness simultaneously. Who might have created such a tome is unknown, but the accursed civilization in question is possibly connected to the origin of the sahuagin race. I might be inclined to tie in the Elder Elves and their disastrous attempt at sundering the boundary to the Far Realm, as well as the Elder Evils of the aboleths.</blockquote>

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