Book of Eternity

Universe: DC (The Demon/JLA comics).

Description: Spellbook of high level magic and magic power source.

Requirements: Nothing exceptional. It has been effectively used by humans without any previous training in magic.

Powers/function: The Eternity Book or Book of Eternity has been alternatively identified as the spellbook of Merlin or, far less often, his father Belial. In addition to a record of the history of the universe, the tome contains Merlin's spells and has vast intrinsic magic power, which resulted in it being sought by Morgaine Le Fey as the only way of restoring her old youth and chosen as one of the twelve artifacts used by the Grandmaster against Krona during the events of JLA/Avengers.

The artifact has proven a powerful force, even in the least capable hands. Reading the book made Adrian Grout (a janitor of less than impressive intelligence and null magical capability) a powerful mage capable of casting spells to seal doors, summoning small objects, making an harem of Wonder Woman lookalikes and turning a tiny, dilapidated flat into a palatial "secret world". In terms of direct combat capabilities, Grout animated a filth monster (strong enough to give Etrigan a hard fight), could fire power blasts potent enough to stalemate Etrigan's eldritch blasts, and seemed physically strong enough to hold his ground against Etrigan… before being messily killed. Likewise, Turkish heroine Janissary became a sorceress of substantial (but erratic) power immediately after becoming the owner of the spellbook, despite her total lack of magic knowledge.

The Eternity Book is a singularly powerful weapon both for and against the demonic. It contains extensive information about all hellspawned DC entities of note, automatically protects against their attacks, records much of Hell's lore (such as spells to create a heart for an archfiend) and provides spells to compel their obedience through torture. Naturally, it also greatly boosts the power of demons. For example, the fallen archfiend Asteroth went from peer of Etrigan to casually overpowering him thanks to the Eternity Book, even though he had only been holding the tome for less than a minute and hadn't read it in any detail.

There are statements (from pre-Crisis appeareances of the book, but referenced in post-Crisis continuity) that suggest that the Eternity Book contains absolutely all of Merlin's spells, which would make the wizard's feats available to those who use the grimoire. In any case, it contains spells of attack, teleportation, flight, binding, protection, autodefense, transformation, intangibility, summoning, elemental control, fusion (such as the spell that originally fused the demon Etrigan to the human Jason Blood), empowerment, cloning (used by Etrigan to make his father and brother believe that they had finally killed him), dimensional travel and other mainstays of high level sorcery.

As a final point of minor interest, the Book seems capable of self-levitation and can be summoned at will by its owner.

Disadvantages: According to Janissary, a scientific mindset is detrimental for one who seeks to master the Eternity Book and believes her own knowledge of science to be the cause of her troubles with spellcasting. Therefore, this item might not work very well for super-science types.

Comments: High level magic is always pretty neat, but it is the fact that it is also a power booster that makes it really high level.

Relevant links: Book of Eternity

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