The Old Book of Priests is an ancient collection of pages documenting priests from the Age of Beasts and the Rising Age. The book was creating in the early years of the Obsidian Age by the priests of Bayorc to immortalize the greatest achievements of the priests before them. The book is comprised of about 800 pages (though only a few have been found and still exist) and took 7 years to complete. The book was on display at Bayorc’s South Monolith until the Age of Intellect when the monolith fell. The book mostly survived and people in the area took the pages for themselves, eventually distributing them all across Pangea. Ever since, they have been popular artifacts to try to find at ancient sites. Even after the Ice Age and the splitting of Pangea, people still find pages because a surprising amount of them were preserved (possibly due to them being in close proximity to priestly magic).
All writing in the book is in gnomish. Above each page is the gnomish text and the English translation.
Eryn, Brave and Wise
Eryn, Brave and Wise is the name of the most recently found page. It was discovered on August 49th, year 4 of the Blue Age. It depicts a priest named Eryn, a snake monster, and a gnome soul holding a coin. No one knows the context of this page or the myth it depicts. It was found in the Grizzly Gnome Colony inside of an extremely well preserved sealed box (see the Rockies Box Discovery for more information). The page is slightly torn but it’s in very good condition relative to it’s age.
“Eryn ys rra”-“Eryn, brave and wise”. Located at the top left corner.
“Ros”-“Danger”. Located above the snake’s head.
Dead Dragon
The Dead Dragon page was discovered in the remnants of a house fire in the town of Silver. The date of this discovery was around year 110 of the Golden Age. One side of the page was burnt off, so it’s unclear what priest is depicted here. The one visible side shows a dead dragon (possibly a proto-dragon) with an axe lodged in it’s head, a spear, and the hat, arm, and foot of a priest.
“Ros”-“Danger”. Located above the dragon’s head.
Paulette and the Snail
The Paulette and the Snail page was donated to the Gnomish Archive in year 1,862 of the Age of Empires by a decedent of one of the original Bayorc priests that worked on the book. The page portrays the Myth of Paulette (specifically ‘The Snail’ section) where the priest, Paulette, plays a lyre and talks to a snail. The page is in relatively good condition.
“Paulette thurghit yf glygek”-“Paulette talked to the snail” Located on the left.
“Glygek Jufonaglhit”-“The snail listened” Located on the right.
Olaf and the Joyful Skeletons
This page was discovered during the Stone Age by a group of gnomish miners (see the Dark Temple Discovery for more information). It shows Olaf the priest partying with a group of gnome skeletons as he does in the Myth of Olaf. The page is heavily torn at the top right where additional text once was. The only letter you can make out now is Ros, which peaks out of the tear slightly.
The page was drawn by a priest known as ‘Yondy‘ who signed the back. The Blue Monolith Library in the Grizzly Gnome Colony contains a journal kept by Yondy in the Obsidian Age. It tells us that they were an immigrant from the Ratlands who learned Gnomish while working at Bayorc*. It’s there that they became one of the main contributors to the book.
*The ancient languages of the Ratlands didn’t have articles, which is why Yondy wrote without them on this page.
“Olaf gupthyt wakr fath Kjandrgr rrun”-“Olaf drank liquors with joyful skeletons” Located on the left.
