Warehouse 23

Liber Athenaeum

By Owen S. Kerr

Art by Brian Despain and colored by Phil Reed

It often requires more courage to read some books than it does to fight a battle.
-- Sutton Elbert Griggs (1872-1930)

Warehouse 23: Liber Athenaeum

The Liber Athenaeum (Latin for "book of libraries") is either a work of powerful magic or sufficiently advanced technology, depending upon the campaign world. Different groups and cultures refer to it as The Last Book, The First Book, and The Final Reference. The book is a repository of great knowledge, as it has the ability to recreate within its covers the text of any written material about which the user has heard. The volume responds to the spoken or unspoken wishes of the user, with near-telepathic precision. Whether the tome is psionic or simply a near-AI expert system, the Athenaeum never fails to surprise a first-time user with the breadth and scope of knowledge about the exact topic that is foremost on the subject's mind.

A discerning GM may not want to unleash the full Athenaeum in his game world, so feel free to limit the scope of the text. A book with full knowledge of business information, perhaps, or a text with clear and accurate information on personal relationships, would serve many of the same purposes as the full work, without unbalancing the game universe. These limited texts only have access to data which is immediately pertinent to the subject. (Your players may try to fast-talk you into giving more information than you feel . . .

This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.



Article publication date: March 10, 2000

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