Thinking about spellbooks. Like, anyone can memorize the contents of a book. Especially when you know full well that if you can get this right you can just start hurling freakin' fireballs whenever you want. So, obviously, we're missing something important here.
If you need the book, and not just the info inside, then there's something more. Written in flowing script of a weird language you've never seen, in inks that somehow remain vibrant decades, maybe even centuries later. Diagrams and patterns that shine in the light. And the dark.
You need to have the book in your hands, or the magic doesn't seem to work. Keeping it in your possession is just as vital as a warrior's axe, or an archer's bow. Scrolls can work in a pinch, but the cheap things seem to fail even as the spell manifests.
Look closer. Run your fingers gently over a page. You're not imagining it, you're definitely feeling something here beyond the weight of the arcane knowledge. You've cast this spell enough times you can practically feel it under your fingertips.
That beautiful handwriting was such a pain to decipher, and that language has been dead for longer than the book has been around. But you tried writing it all down word for word in a notebook in your own tongue, and all you did was make a fool of yourself when trying to cast.
Each page is a program. No different from a printed circuit board, save for materials. You're holding a PDA older than silicon.
Hm.
Maybe you should find out what's in this ink. Maybe you should find a tattoo artist with a very open mind. This could get interesting.
@Balina I like where this is going.
@Rosemary I don't actually know if I have anywhere specific I want to take it right this moment, but it's been rattling around in my head and I wanted to get it out into the rest of the world. It feels Correct, somehow.
@Balina There are interesting ways you could go from it. A few guiding questions, should you want them: Did the people who wrote the book know how it worked, or were they just following an arcane formula they didn't understand? Is the book itself the source of the magic, or does it merely manipulate forces that already exist? What happens if the book gets damaged; is it capable of repairing itself, or is it possible to get it repaired by an ancient sect of warlocks or something?
