The Book-Barrows

During the Dragon Wars, the Cult of the Leviathan moved across Elbid like a plague, destroying all who opposed them. Among their enemies were many rival cults, who hid among the populace and served eldritch masters other than Leviathan. When the armies of The Little Dragon uncovered these secret places, they were ransacked, and their occult treasures seized by Leviathan's servants. Any tomes inspired by other eldritch beings were gathered and consigned to the Book-Barrows.

The Barrow-Wardens are not worshippers of Leviathan. Their master is another entity entirely, one that seeks aims more esoteric than Leviathan's simple predation. This being is a consumer of secret knowledge, called the Unopened One, the Reader Who Does Not Read, or the God-in-the-Margins. It does not wish to save the world, nor does it hunger to consume it. Its servants are wholly indifferent to the fate of humanity. They care only for the books.

Slumbering Tomes

The volumes entombed in the Book-Barrows are not common works of parchment and ink. They are born of strange, occult sources, and carry a vitality and malignance all their own. The Little Dragon knew such tomes would be uncovered in his campaign to conquer the world, and he knew they could not be allowed to circulate uncontrolled. In the hands of the uninitiated, one of the great grimoires can unleash plagues of madness and death. In the hands of a master, they can ascend into half-divinities, consuming host after host in their pursuit of actualization.

Thus The Little Dragon resolved to contain these potent entities - and he knew with whom he must ally to do so.

The Book-Barrows are timeless. Located █████████████████████████, they predate the Cult of the Leviathan itself. They are a labyrinth of half-buried halls and ossuaries, with shelves of bone and ash that shift constantly under the weight of their contents, exhaling clouds of dust with each lifeless gasp. Corridors change and twist in a state of perpetual flux, confusing both the dreaming tomes and any who would dare to steal them.

It is forbidden to speak in their presence. The books can seize upon the echoes of a living voice and warp them into profane spells. Ink must not be carried into the Barrows, nor any tool of writing, for these are weapons the books may wield - forming crawling passages that infest the skin, inscribing themselves into flesh, and seizing the soul. Few are permitted to enter the Barrows' depths, lest the tomes prey upon their ignorance and escape into the wider world. The bindings laid upon them by the Barrow-Wardens and their god are potent, but never absolute.

The Barrow-Wardens

The guardians of the Book-Barrows were once human, before they surrendered themselves to their patron. That devotion reshaped them into what they are now.

• Voices silenced: their mouths were filled with dust.
• Blood forbidden: it was drained away, replaced with dust, lest it be used as ink.
• Bodies remade: desiccated and pale, they appear frail, but are stronger than they seem.

The Wardens never speak, nor write anything that cannot be instantly erased. They scrawl brief messages in the dust and then obliterate them with a dry exhalation. Some have mistaken them for weak or fragile, but those who tested them learned the truth: the Wardens have read from the tomes, and the awful things they know are not withheld when the Barrows are threatened.

Their creed is the creed of their patron: knowledge must be grasped, gathered, seized, and preserved. It does not matter if it is known or forgotten - it must exist. Secrets are most precious of all, especially those that can never be revealed. Some whisper that the Barrow-Wardens' god is an amalgam of forbidden knowledge from a billion worlds. Whether this is true or not cannot be known.

The Bargain

The Little Dragon struck a bargain with the Barrow-Wardens. The Cult would deliver to them books too dangerous to keep and too powerful to destroy. The Barrows would guard them, and keep them from falling into dangerous hands. In return, the Cult could submit written questions to the Wardens, and receive answers drawn from the accumulated knowledge of the Barrows.

The Wardens agreed. The pact was sealed.

How many of the Cult's most dreadful rites originated within the Barrows is unknown, but it is likely that at least some did - including the ritual that unleashed the Calamity in Kemet.