invented grimoires

JJ Burke · Post by **JJ Burke** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 10:23 pm

everyone knows that obscure old books full of evil power are traditional ingredients in the mythos formula. what, if any, infamous tomes have you cooked up for your characters to find?

in my story 'I.N.R.I.' i'm introducing an eldritch volume called viaticus in veritas inremeabilis, which (if i'm not wrong) means 'for a journey into truth from which there is no return.'

the background of the book goes like this. during the spanish colonization of 'alta california,' missions were established to facilitate the dominance of european culture over those of the native tribes.

an anonymous catholic priest collaborated with a manitongva shaman (the manitongva are my fictitious splinter tribe with ties to mysterious powers) to produce an instruction manual of ancient magic/technology that supposedly came from ancient superhumans, refugees from a country that was wiped from the face of the earth.

the book is written in a combination of latin, spanish, and another form of writing that isn't identified. the ultimate purpose of the book was for the besieged natives to form an alliance with the old ones and drive the conquistadores off the new world. obviously, something went wrong...

so have you invented any books like this? i think we should use each other's books the way hpl's buddies used the necronomicon and de vermis mysteriis and whatever in a bunch of different stories. that would be wicked bitchin awesome, says me

Hodgson · Post by **Hodgson** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 12:00 pm

I haven't invented any grimoires until now, but I have a story I'm finishing now (first draft) that has something of the kind.

An intellectual and wealthy man retires to a modernist and isolated house in the west to write a comprehensive survey of the modern world and to advance his belief in the commencement of a new age of science and reason. The work is interrupted by steadily increasing visions of monstrosities, things he's never heard or seen before that come to him during the day. Eventually, the old book is set aside and a new one is begun, a catalogue of the world's aberrations. So far, the book is nameless.

Enkil · Post by **Enkil** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 9:41 pm

Nothing I've really made up myself. Just the Necronomicon and the book in The Library of Sand, which I don't name but is implied to be the Book of Thoth.

JJ Burke · Post by **JJ Burke** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 10:49 pm

hmm.. i thought it would be a pretty common thing for writers to do in this particular vein of fiction. i'm pretty sure i noticed one or two original grimoire titles among the featured writers/selected tales/etc sections of the temple.... hmmmm, if i find em i'll post em

Lagwolf · Post by **Lagwolf** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 2:42 am

I have invented several in my tales.

decadence · Post by **decadence** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 6:10 am

I have actually been writing one, totally made up, called

"Diobolicus Ex Libram"

Mostly for my own wry amusement.

JJ Burke · Post by **JJ Burke** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 12:48 pm

Lagwolf wrote:I have invented several in my tales.

why not mention them here? that's kinda the point of the thread

Tindalos · Post by **Tindalos** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:04 pm

Oh, its more fun to just invent grimoirs out of funny sounding latin words. Just don't screw up the translation, or things get ugly.

Jesus Prime · Post by **Jesus Prime** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 9:03 am

I made up the "Book of Sarnoch", part of the Biblical Apocrypha, for one of my stories, but I doubt I'll ever use it again.

Issac Pilgrim · Post by **Issac Pilgrim** » Sat Jun 20, 2009 12:05 am

viatica in veritas inremeabilis: great title!

JJ Burke · Post by **JJ Burke** » Sat Jun 20, 2009 11:32 am

thanks, i just hope the latin isn't too doggy. if you're interested, here's the story.

if you're not that interested, here's the specific part about the grimoire:

Preliminary analysis of Codex VVI
W. G. Coyman, Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, August 1973
The volume in our possession is ostensibly titled Viaticus in Veritas Inremeabilis. The front and back covers are loose tablets of petrified wood, species undetermined, comparable in size to a tabloid newspaper. Both faces of each are roughly but deliberately carved with geometric figures and patterns. The tablets are fragile beyond doubt, yet perfectly intact and ably preserving the pages pressed between them. The book is unbound, only held together by the will of its keeper. Neither are the pages numbered; it remains uncertain that the complete contents are present, or that the order in which they are found was that originally intended. The “paper” is of unknown composition, bearing traits of leafy vegetation and animal hide. Each page has ragged edges which appear to have thickened and scarred in response to cutting. No two pages are of uniform dimension; the smallest is a mere strip like a cash-register receipt, the largest is folded in half so as not to protrude beyond the covers.
The assumption of the title is based on the first page presently encountered upon removal of the front cover. Two lines of writing are centered in a bizarre filigree of floral motif. The first line exemplifies an unidentified language which is interspersed throughout the pages. These markings are not clearly alphabetical, diacritical, glyphic or otherwise, yet their situation suggests an analogy to the recognizable script directly below it. This of course is the aforementioned Latin title which means for a journey to truth from which there is no return. Featured on other pages in varying combination with Latin and the unknown cipher are passages of Spanish text. Differing consistencies of penmanship and drawing style indicate multiple authors, but no identities are recorded. It appears that the Latin and Spanish portions were penned by someone(s) either affiliated or familiar with the Catholic Church. One of the most striking illustrations near the “conclusion” of the book is a rather monstrous corruption of the image of Christ on the Cross, annotated only in that alien language which hardly resembles the work of a writing utensil. . . .

...and the story includes a few small excerpts from the book itself.

tsathoggua · Post by **tsathoggua** » Sun Jun 21, 2009 9:21 pm

hmmm...
my only grimoire ever is a book which remains unnamed although it is nicknamed "the diary" and it recounts the life of a man from a forgotten civilisation who hunts and collects the bodies of mythos-type creatures, kind of a mix of a crazed taxidermist and reanimator...

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