Books in RuneQuest

Mechanically, a book ought to add +1D4x5% to one or more skills. Some might also provide knowledge in one or more sorcerous Runes or Techniques and even provide knowledge of specific sorcery skills. A few special books (like the Orange Book) might even raise a characteristic modifier or increase a characteristic. These books should be the object of quests in their own right.

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• Light of Action: This Lunar battle manual is thought to have been written by Irrippi Ontor in preparation for the Battle of the Four Lights. It describes the perfect movement of the Armies of Light in defence of the Sky.
  • This book (usually organised as four scrolls) takes a full year to study and with a successful Read New Pelorian roll it adds +20% to the reader’s Battle skill and +10% to Celestial Lore. Upon a successful INT+POW roll on a D100, the reader achieves intellectual mastery of the Fire/Sky Rune as per page 384 of the RuneQuest Rules.
• Glorious Reascent of Yelm: Composed in the First Age, this text is a mythic cosmology and kings list of the Yelmic religion.
  • It takes three seasons to study.With a successful Read Firespeech, it adds +20% to the reader’s Yelm Lore, +10% to Dara Happan Customs, and +5% to Celestial Lore.
• The Roads and Graves of the Makers: This text lists the first seven Sartarite kings, their main deeds, the roads they built, and where their graves are. There are many variations of this (often simply called “The Sartar Dynasty”).
  • This text takes a hour to study and with a successful Read Theyalan it adds +5% to the reader’s Sartar Homeland Lore.
• The Orange Book or Theogony: This collection of God Learner texts from the Mythical Synthesis Movement is allegedly based on the Blue and Brown Books of Zzabur. It details the origins of the cosmos and the Runes, includes a series of genealogies of the different gods, arranged by elemental Rune, and describes the major events of the Gods War.
  • This book consists of 84 orange-coloured sheets of vellum and takes three seasons to study. With a successful Read Theyalan roll it adds +15% to the reader’s base Cult Lore skill and +5% to the reader’s Magic modifier. Upon a successful INT+POW roll on a D100, the reader achieves intellectual mastery of the Summon Technique as per page 384 of the RuneQuest rules. Most versions of this book include 1D3 sorcery spells. The book is thought to be protected by a dangerous curse.
• Report on the Orlanthi: This Lunar text is a the most detailed descriptions of that people and their society.
  • The book takes a season to study and with a successful Read New Pelorian, it adds +15% to the reader’s Heortling Customs skill.
• Six Chapters on Sword Fighting: This combat manual is thought to date back to the Second Age and is commonly attributed to Li Phanquan.
  • The text takes a season to study and with a successful Read Theyalan skill roll it adds +10% to the reader’s Sword skill.
• Economics: This book is traditionally divided into three books.
  • It takes one season to study, and with a successful Read Theyalan skill roll it adds +10% to the reader’s Household Management skill.
• Studying the palace records: A season spent studying the records of the local palace or temple combined.
  • With a successful Read skill in the language the records are written in adds +5% to both the reader’s Bureaucracy and (local) Customs.
• The Lives of Our Red Goddess: This didactic tract is an account of the birth of the Red Goddess by the Seven Mothers and of the Seven Steps of the Red Goddess to Hell and back. It is often illustrated.
  • With a successful Read New Pelorian roll, the reader gains +10% in Seven Mothers Cult Lore and +2% to their chance of Illumination.
• Songs of the House of Sartar: This epic poem is based on oral tradition and details deeds and tragedies of the House of Sartar prior to the Lunar invasion of 1602. It is intended to be read aloud and was likely composed by a poet and only later recorded and refined by a Lhankor Mhy sage. The poem consists of 2400 stanzas divided into nine books. It takes about three hours to listen to the entire poem.
  • With a successful Read Theyalan roll, it adds +10% to the reader’s Heortling Customs and +5% to their Sartar Homeland roll. If the reader succeeds with a Sing roll while reading the poem, those who listen to the full poem and succeed with a Speak Heortling get the same bonus.

I’ve long wanted to do a Lhankor Mhy library campaign, inspired by Foucault’s Pendulum and the Club Dumas. Most of the characters would be scribes and we’d spend our time trying to gather lost knowledge – the rest might be a few other Lightbringers responsible for making sure the scribes don’t get killed.