Extract from the “Synod’s Vault Catalogue of 4E 170”
Code: BCV 03, 303 (Red Book)
Location: Binder’s Conclave Vault, Area 3, Section 2304
Status: Public to members, potentially dangerous
Background: Discovered in 4E 169 during the cataloguing of the old archive of the Guild’s Auxiliary Department of Exoimperial History [ABC 01, C170.5764]. No mention in any extant previous catalogue. Relocated to the Binder’s Conclave Archive the same year [ABC 01, I.57770]. Relocated to the Binder’s Conclave Vault in 4E 170 upon detection of enchanted properties [ABC 01, I.78947; ABCV 03, 00037].
Description:
The object consists of a leather-bound book with semi-rotten covers and intact pages measuring 5 pertands of height, 3 pertandts of width and 2.5 pertandts of thickness, weighing 100 angaids. At first sight there appears to be a wide discrepancy between the almost rotten state of the covers and the pristine sheets of parchment bound within them. Material analyses indicate that the leather and parchment originated from central Skyrim. Application of the Vonran spell permits dating the object around the Late Merethic Era.
The pages of the book display runic characters inscribed with a red material. Upon further examination the displayed runes have been determined to correspond with the draconic alphabet and the material used to inscribe them has been determined to not be ink. At this point the red material used to write this book is unknown, although it emanates extremely high levels of magick-adjacent energy. Attempts to channel and analyze the emanating energy have proved fruitless, and at this moment it proves impossible to analyze with any of our available tools. The operatives in charge of the analysis report hearing a distant unintelligible voice whenever they try to perform a magickal exegesis. The book’s dragon runes have been copied and are currently undergoing a process of translation that shall be included as an appendix to this entry.
Appendix 1: Translation
Kos daar fun. Meyz fin tiid se fin Kodaav, Mindokrotmorah arhk sonaaki lost junne se Quethsegol Ahrol. Pah vahhe fin zokonik joor se fin hofkahsuleyksejun nahkip ney dovsil ahrk dovbahlok. Ko daar vah nutinvaak Onikpeyt, kiir se Thyror arhk Greorga, nol vomindok gutwundun daal wah ek fronhofkah, meyz hofkahaar ol us.
Tol vah Mindokrotmorah laan Onikpeyt ol nahkipheyv. Voth brodvaazze, fin faasnu kulaas se aan sahlohofkah voth frini grind fin dovah. Fin dovjun komeyt: “los aan onikaan hi mindok, naal dov vomindok?”. Onikpeyt zaan: “tol sosi los sahqo ol peytte, ahrk tol geinmaar losni aan hofkahaar, nuz aan Hofkahvun!”. Ahrk voth munax thu’umme,Onikpeyt meyz Mindokrotmorahkriid.
Voth fin dovah qahnaar, fin hofkahaarre hon fin dovsos vokunkomeyt herma-morafroni. Mu diin daar het, nosaan ko dovsos. Fin saraan herma-morafron los do un kruziikdu’ul […]
Appendix 2: Unofficial form of annoyance
This is to certify that I, Junior Custodian Arunius, sent the text of the book hereby catalogued to the Binder’s Council for TRANSLATION and certainly not TRANSLITERATION and that I most certainly asked for the WHOLE BOOK to be translated, and not just the first two pages. I would also like to point out that I enjoy the possibility of personally contacting the Thrice-Versed Dracolinguistics Research Group to obtain a translation but that I am DIRECTLY FORBIDDEN from doing so by the Secrecy Statute, and any request for contact has to go through the Binder’s Council, which, as I’ve been told repeatedly, does not have time for “books that cannot defeat elven armies”.
Signed,
Gregor Arunius
Junior Custodian of the Binder Council’s Vault
Office 376, Binder Council’s Vault, Southern Wing.
The Synod
Cyrodiil
Empire of Tamriel.
Appendix 3: Update to description, 4E 201.
The book is empty. The script is gone.