Manuscript of the First Spell
A scroll sealed in a prism of frozen starlight, bound by twelve cosmic locks, each inscribed with a different rune of truth. The parchment itself is not paper, but a living membrane that pulses gently, as if breathing. The glyphs move when not watched — they reorder themselves, waiting to match the reader’s soul.
The writing is not in any known language. It is in a tongue older than magic itself. When the reader first sees it, they understand everything — not because they are taught, but because they are rewritten to comprehend it.
Mechanics & Inner Workings
Reading the manuscript is an act of divine disobedience. Once the manuscript is read in full (a 10-minute process uninterrupted), the reader may cast The First Spell, rewriting any one aspect of reality as if it were a mutable line of text in a script.
The spell takes effect instantly. There is no save, no resistance, no cost to cast — only the price of knowing.
It can only be cast once, but the impact is permanent, global, and immune to reversal. Even Wish, divine intervention, or Time Stop cannot undo it.
History
It was not supposed to exist.
Hydall wrote it when the laws of reality were still in their youth. It was a thought experiment: “What if the first spell could be written down?” The spell never had a name — because names limit. It was an act of perfect will manifest.
The moment he finished writing, the world stuttered. Mountains forgot to be heavy. Mortals across the world dreamed of different lives. Even the gods looked skyward, sensing something wrong — something that never should have happened.
Hydall sealed it away, and he has never spoken of it again.
Significance
To even glimpse the Manuscript of the First Spell, one must:
- Pass through a library wing with no time, guarded by paradox hounds and arcane traps.
- Solve the Lex Sequence, a riddle using forgotten syntax from the first language of magic that involves 12 arcane locks.
- Swear an Oath of Ignorance before the gate — knowing full well that upon reading the spell, this vow becomes a lie and thus collapses the gate forever.
Hydall does not fear that someone will find it.
He fears that someone will survive reading it.
Comments