Tome of the End Times
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It is a most accursed device.

In my years of studying and scrying I have seen many things, both great and small, and seen the extent of Man's creation. But little do I understand of why someone would seek such a thing out, to work to bring it into existence, to maintain it, to protect it.

On the exterior, it is wrapped in thin but fine animal skin, though in later times I observed it encased in smooth metal. It opens like a book, but is unlike any you have ever seen. You cannot simply read it, nor find it in a library, for it is always under guard. No person not deemed worthy may be near it, on pain of immediate death.

But even if one were to look inside the Tome, and in my studies I have been able to see it, you could not read or interpret it. As a second cryptic protection, the tome will not answer to any but the One.

The Tome and any copies are maintained by the Order of the Five Points. Though, I understand that the One himself is guarded by a different sect; the relationship between these groups has not yet become clear to me.

Yes, the One. He is a powerful man, the Order answers to him and obeys his every command (but he is often content to leave them to their own devices). While there is always a One, he is not always him. It changes, though strangely it is not the Order who chooses the succession. It is through a mechanism far too complex for me yet to understand.

Regardless, he is the only person who can speak the Forbidden Tongue, and call the Tome's power forth.

I have only seen it in hazy visions, clearly an idea of what may be, but has not yet taken place. The One may, if he so wishes to, may face the Tome and speak the Dark Tongue. In that moment, he will have released the final spell that any Man ever may speak. Following this, a Curse is released upon the earth.

You see, the Men of this age serve the Bloody Beast. A mighty tower, unthinkably high, which continually thirsts for the blood of lesser Men.
What sacrifices the Bloody Beasts accepts puzzles me, for the aims and processes to feed it seem unexpected and strange. %

The Curse functions with a kind of magic I have never seen before the age I have looked in. It has been thoroughly studied by the wizards of their day, but I have deduced a few facts. It takes from the power of the sun, pulling for a moment a string of fire from its core, and unleashes it in all places on the earth.

Yet it goes further. A land which has been Cursed is uninhabitable. Many moons after, even if there is no evidence of its %
% Cursed fire

The Curse is nothing short of the full destruction of the world. In the haze I have seen it: untold numbers of humans suffering, with parched throats and hungry bellies, sick and aching, and many more dead. It spreads at once, but at the same time creeps slowly over tens of thousands of years, fading so slowly I cannot see it fade at all.

Yes. The Order of the Five Points is a cult, though not to an unusual god, for they serve the god of War.

The protections to the Tome give one a fool's hope, that it cannot be misused. And that so many have had the power of the One but kept in the Curse is unexpected but welcome. But one must wonder why Man would create such a horrid thing, to create in itself the seeds of its own destruction, and forever cling to it, as if it must be ready to impale all Men onto this dark spear.

% The Star, an other, in a bargain to have power, as long as it is not used. but The Star has perished. Five Points continues? maybe they honor Death itself

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