Tome of Eldritch Lore: Difference between revisions

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[[File:~~necronomicon_5873~~.jpg|link=Evil Dead|frame|You ''can'' judge this book by its cover.]]

[[File:necronomicon 5873.jpg|link=Evil Dead|frame|You ''can'' judge this book by its cover.]]

{{quote|''"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

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In [[Cosmic Horror Story|Cosmic Horror Stories]], they typically [[Go Mad From the Revelation|drive their readers into gibbering insanity]], the title alone can make them [[Hearing Voices|hear voices]].

Normally these books are centuries old, but one common subversion is for them to be modern paperbacks with [[Bland-Name Product|almost-familiar names]] ~~-- e~~.g., ''The Idiot's Guide to Demonology'', ''A Child's Garden of Gibbering Horrors'', ''The Home Handyman's Guide to Building Gates to Hell'', ''Chicken Soup for the Soulless''.

Normally these books are centuries old, but one common subversion is for them to be modern paperbacks with [[Bland-Name Product|almost-familiar names]]—e.g., ''The Idiot's Guide to Demonology'', ''A Child's Garden of Gibbering Horrors'', ''The Home Handyman's Guide to Building Gates to Hell'', ''Chicken Soup for the Soulless''.

See [[Magic Hat]] and [[Things Man Was Not Meant to Know]]. Compare [[Brown Note]]. Not to be confused with the [[Great Big Book of Everything]] or [[Spell Book]], which are more of a neutral nature. May overlap with [[Tomes of Prophecy and Fate]] if they have evil prophecies. Can involve [[The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You]].

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== Anime & Manga ==

* ''[[Madlax]]'' ~~-- The~~ ''Firstari'', the ''Secondari'' and the ''Thirstari'' are capable of driving cities of men into their darkest emotions, creating [[Evil Twin|doppelgangers]], and bringing down airplanes.

* ''[[Madlax]]''—The ''Firstari'', the ''Secondari'' and the ''Thirstari'' are capable of driving cities of men into their darkest emotions, creating [[Evil Twin|doppelgangers]], and bringing down airplanes.

* Common item in the ''[[Read or Die]]'' TV series done different ways. One, in which a god-like man named "The Gentleman" had his essence written into a number of such books. In the [[OVA]] series, there's a partial subversion: handwritten notes in the margins of an otherwise-harmless book held the secret to {{spoiler|driving the entire human race to suicide}}. The manga used it straight; ''The Dark Abyss'', a book bound in human flesh, that the publisher required 5 different people to print, a page at a time. Reading it or listening to someone read it instantly resulted in insanity.

* ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' has a videotape, Chapter Black, which serves essentially the same purpose. It's a recording of every evil deed ever done by humans, which human-hating [[Big Bad]] Sensui makes a point of showing to his followers to drive them insane with disgust at people.

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** And later we learn that {{spoiler|Noah is actually a ''construct'' of the book itself, embodying one of it's chapters, not it's owner. After the first one (Greed) is defeated, the book produces a new one - embodiment of chapter of [[Oh Crap|Wrath]].}}

* Grimoires in ''[[To Aru Majutsu no Index]]'' seem to be this, considering that they allow the user to gain ''tremendous'' power, but the results range from (so far) [[Blood From the Mouth]] at best and [[Body Horror]] at worst. Only the eponymous Index of Prohibited Books has been able to read the grimoires and [[Photographic Memory|store them in her head]], since she has no mana to power the grimoires.

* Caster's Noble Phantasm in ''[[Fate/Zero]]'' is Prelati's Spellbook, a tome with a covering made of human skin. It's a self-powering prana generator and allows the user to summon [[Eldritch Abomination~~|Eldritch Abominations~~]]. It's also called the R'lyeh text, as a [[Shout-Out]] to the [[Cthulhu Mythos]]. It can also allow Caster to {{spoiler|[[Fusion Dance|merge with the book]] in order to summon a gigantic [[Eldritch Abomination]]}}. Is it any wonder that Caster is so absolutely insane?

* Caster's Noble Phantasm in ''[[Fate/Zero]]'' is Prelati's Spellbook, a tome with a covering made of human skin. It's a self-powering prana generator and allows the user to summon [[Eldritch Abomination]]s. It's also called the R'lyeh text, as a [[Shout-Out]] to the [[Cthulhu Mythos]]. It can also allow Caster to {{spoiler|[[Fusion Dance|merge with the book]] in order to summon a gigantic [[Eldritch Abomination]]}}. Is it any wonder that Caster is so absolutely insane?

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* There is also the ''Book of the Vishanti'' which is said to contain every counterspell and defensive magic ever known or will be known, including a spell to free one from the Darkhold's control (odd that it doesn't seem to contain the spell to cure vampirism, which is in the Darkhold). It also contains a lot of useful lore penned by previous holders of the tome and it seems to explicitly add new pages for current owners to add their own information into its pages.

* [[Doctor Strange]], the Sorcerer Supreme, has an entire library of these.

* [[Kurt Busiek]]'s ''The Wizard's Tale'' revolves around a [[Tome of Eldritch Lore]] which the [[Inept Mage|inept]] and not particularly evil wizard must locate and cast spells from. {{spoiler|Fortunately, he learns that the good guys hid it rather than destroyed it because it contains a spell to banish evil. He [[Heel Face Turn|casts it instead]].}}

* [[Kurt Busiek]]'s ''The Wizard's Tale'' revolves around a Tome of Eldritch Lore which the [[Inept Mage|inept]] and not particularly evil wizard must locate and cast spells from. {{spoiler|Fortunately, he learns that the good guys hid it rather than destroyed it because it contains a spell to banish evil. He [[Heel Face Turn|casts it instead]].}}

* The [[Green Lantern|Sinestro Corps]] has the Book of Parallax, which contains everything every Sinestro Corpsman has ever done or will do in the name of causing fear.

** Later on we see the Book of the Black, penned in the tainted black tears of the undead Guardian Scar.

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** ''De Vermis Mysteriis'' has an important role in [[Stephen King]]'s short story ''Jerusalem's Lot'', a homage to Lovecraft. ''Necronomicon'' briefly appears in another short story, ''I Know What You Need''.

* [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld]]'':

** Parodying the Necronomicon, is the ''Necrotelecomnicon'' (translated as "On communing with the deceased", or "the Phonebook of the Dead"). Supposedly, reading it would drive a man insane, which suits the purposes of the Librarian just fine (he's an orangutan, and thus not a "man"). The books (''Equal Rites'' in particular) even recount an unfortunate case of a mage who tried to read the Necrotelecomnicon, and as a result he was never seen again, and the book became several pages thicker... ([[In Soviet Russia, Trope Mocks You|On Discworld, Necrotelecomnicon reads you!]]) The ''Necrotelicomnicon'' also appears in the Library of Dream in Neil Gaiman's ''[[The Sandman]]'', under its alternate title, the ''Liber Paginarum Fulvarum'' (which is [[Canis Latinicus|Dog Latin]] for "The Book of the Yellow Pages"). It also makes an appearance in ''[[Good Omens]]'' (which Terry and Neil wrote together).

** Parodying the Necronomicon, is the ''Necrotelecomnicon'' (translated as "On communing with the deceased", or "the Phonebook of the Dead"). Supposedly, reading it would drive a man insane, which suits the purposes of the Librarian just fine (he's an orangutan, and thus not a "man").

The books (''Equal Rites'' in particular) even recount an unfortunate case of a mage who tried to read the Necrotelecomnicon, and as a result he was never seen again, and the book became several pages thicker... ([[In Soviet Russia, Trope Mocks You|On Discworld, Necrotelecomnicon reads you!]])

The ''Necrotelicomnicon'' also appears in the Library of Dream in Neil Gaiman's ''[[The Sandman]]'', under its alternate title, the ''Liber Paginarum Fulvarum'' (which is [[Canis Latinicus|Dog Latin]] for "The Book of the Yellow Pages"). It also makes an appearance in ''[[Good Omens]]'' (which Terry and Neil wrote together).

** The Octavo - the book containing the eight most powerful spells, left behind on the Disc by its creator. (When Rincewind "accidentally" read the book, one of the spells got stuck in his head; this left him unable to learn any other spells [even after he got rid of it] - and was responsible for much of the plot of the first two books.)

** And then there's the footnote about how, like Oxford's Bodleian Library, Unseen University's Library has the books chained to the shelves. The difference is that in the Bodleian that's to stop the students damaging the books, while at UU it's...the other way around. UU also has several volumes of sex magic, one of which must be ''kept in a room full of ice''. Humans can't read them without being driven a very specific type of mad, but the librarian can, because he's an Orangutan, and simply gets unusual feelings about fruit for a while.

** And then there's the footnote about how, like Oxford's Bodleian Library, Unseen University's Library has the books chained to the shelves. The difference is that in the Bodleian that's to stop the students damaging the books, while at UU it's...the other way around.

UU also has several volumes of sex magic, one of which must be ''kept in a room full of ice''. Humans can't read them without being driven a very specific type of mad, but the librarian can, because he's an Orangutan, and simply gets unusual feelings about fruit for a while.

** ''[[Discworld/I Shall Wear Midnight|The Bonfire of the Witches]]'', written on behalf of the Cunning Man, is so full of his hatred of witches that a copy of it allows a curse ineptly attempted against a witch to work simply by being in its proximity, and later almost allows said creature to manifest into the world through its pages before it's pressed shut very decisively.

* Robert W. Chambers' ''[[The King in Yellow]]'' stories feature the eponymous ''play'' which simultaneously enlightens and drives mad anyone who reads it all. (Presumably a production would be impossible to stage.) Only a few brief excerpts, not enough to clearly indicate the plot or subject matter, are ever given. Likewise, the Yellow Sign is never actually described. Chambers' stories predated Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos stories and Lovecraft cited them as an inspiration.

** A similar work in the [[Cthulhu Mythos]], the ''Massa di Requiem par Shuggay''. is an "opera" that is impossible to perform. Why? {{spoiler|If the performance isn't interrupted, Azathoth is summoned midway through the second act. This would lead to everyone going mad or [[Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies|the world ending]].}}

* The Dictionary of the Khazars, as described in the lexicon novel of the same name, was printed in a poisonous ink. Remarkably, this ink causes convulsions, pain, and eventual death not from licking or eating the pages, but from reading them, and death would always strike at a particular point on the ninth page.

* One might argue that the Book of the Dead in the ''Undead and ______'' books by Mary Janice Davidson is a [[Tome of Eldritch Lore]], as it can only be read for a page or two at a time before it starts to mess with your head. Though given that it gives instructions and prophecies for Queen Betsy's entire reign (whether or not it has more unpleasant spells and such isn't mentioned), it is also a [[Great Big Book of Everything]] as well.

* One might argue that the Book of the Dead in the ''Undead and ______'' books by Mary Janice Davidson is a Tome of Eldritch Lore, as it can only be read for a page or two at a time before it starts to mess with your head. Though given that it gives instructions and prophecies for Queen Betsy's entire reign (whether or not it has more unpleasant spells and such isn't mentioned), it is also a [[Great Big Book of Everything]] as well.

* The vampire novel, ''The Historian'' has one of these which has the effect of attracting Vlad Dracula and his minions to those who find a copy. This is made creeper by the fact that the novel actually looks like the [[Tome of Eldritch Lore]] described within.

* The vampire novel, ''The Historian'' has one of these which has the effect of attracting Vlad Dracula and his minions to those who find a copy. This is made creeper by the fact that the novel actually looks like the Tome of Eldritch Lore described within.

* The book ''The Club Dumas'' by Arturo Pérez-Reverté reproduces the nine illustrations that provide the clues to invoke the devil in the tome of eldritch lore (''De Umbrarum Regni Novem Portis'' ~~-- everything~~ occult [[Everything Sounds Sexier in French|sounds better in Latin]]), repeated each time the protagonist finds one of the three surviving copies of the ''Novem Portis'', as each one has a subtly different set of illustrations. There is a [[Twist Ending]] that hinges on these differences. It is little surprising that these illustrations are supposedly reprinted from the fabled ''Delomelanicon, or Invocation of Darkness''.

* The book ''The Club Dumas'' by Arturo Pérez-Reverté reproduces the nine illustrations that provide the clues to invoke the devil in the tome of eldritch lore (''De Umbrarum Regni Novem Portis''—everything occult [[Everything Sounds Sexier in French|sounds better in Latin]]), repeated each time the protagonist finds one of the three surviving copies of the ''Novem Portis'', as each one has a subtly different set of illustrations. There is a [[Twist Ending]] that hinges on these differences. It is little surprising that these illustrations are supposedly reprinted from the fabled ''Delomelanicon, or Invocation of Darkness''.

* The ''Malus Codicium'', from the ''[[Warhammer 40000]]: [[Eisenhorn]]'' series of novels, is such a book, as it contains many scriptures on daemon summoning, binding etc. The protagonist (an [[The Judge|Inquisitor]] perfectly used to dealing with such artifacts) finds this book ''particularly'' creepy, as unlike lesser books encountered, it gives off no sinister aura. It's just like any other book...that helps you bind daemons.

** The Necroteuch from the first book is a lesser example, it is the entire focus of the book but what exactly it does is never stated, and it emits an aura of incredible evil so it is a bit of a no-brainer what to do with it. ( {{spoiler|After you've tricked a Chaos Space Marine into picking it up. And taken advantage of its effects to kill the Marine.}})

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* The Codex in [[The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel]] series.

* Coriakin's [[Great Big Book of Everything]] in ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]''.

* In ''Strong Spirits'', the protagonist's rival in mediumship, Cockcroft, has acquired a famous necromancer's [[Tome of Eldritch Lore]] and wants to summon the author's ghost to help him figure out its cryptic contents. {{spoiler|Subverted when the ghost is finally contacted and admits he was a charlatan who wrote a fraudulent "spellbook" to impress the rubes.}}

* In ''Strong Spirits'', the protagonist's rival in mediumship, Cockcroft, has acquired a famous necromancer's Tome of Eldritch Lore and wants to summon the author's ghost to help him figure out its cryptic contents. {{spoiler|Subverted when the ghost is finally contacted and admits he was a charlatan who wrote a fraudulent "spellbook" to impress the rubes.}}

* The Darke Index in ''[[Septimus Heap]]''.

* The grimoire of King Gorice of Witchland in E. R. Eddison's ''[[The Worm Ouroboros]]'', used to harness the powers of Hell.

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** Another is the ''Codex of Betrayal'', which is a collection of four books, each with several dozen chapters, totaling multiple thousands of pages, written by the last follower of the God that was murdered and over thrown by [[Satan|Asmodeus]]. It chronicles the history of the god, the war in heaven, and the creation of devils, serving a similar function for devils as the ''Demonomicon of Iggwilv'' serves for their [[Chaotic Evil]] adversaries.

* ''[[Exalted]]'' has numerous examples, but the most infamous might be ''The Broken Winged Crane''. How bad is it? It isn't even ''written'' yet; all the copies that exist are reverse engineered from the perfect version that comes into existence the day the world ends. And seeing as the only canon character to have read the book is implied to have been abducted and [[Mind Rape|mind raped]] by archdemons, there's a very good chance the book ''causes'' it.

* As befits its tone, ''[[Deadlands]]'' has a few of these tucked away in its pages and pages of [[Splat~~|Splatbooks~~]]. The most "Eldritch Lore-y", though, would be the Whateley Family Bible, ~~which--in~~ addition to having the Family Tr...Shrub (don't ask) in the front ~~pages--contains~~ margin notes on how to perform all manner of dark arts. The irony of profaning a [[The Bible|Holy Bible]] is not lost on the [[In the Blood|misanthropic family]]. [[Player Character]] Whateleys, while assumed to be a moral cut above their NPC brethren (and cousins and uncles, some of which are the same people), can get a "pocket sized" version, which contains less forbidden lore and can cause [[Brown Note|panic in anyone attempting to translate it]]...whether they succeed or not!

* As befits its tone, ''[[Deadlands]]'' has a few of these tucked away in its pages and pages of [[Splat]]books. The most "Eldritch Lore-y", though, would be the Whateley Family Bible, which—in addition to having the Family Tr...Shrub (don't ask) in the front pages—contains margin notes on how to perform all manner of dark arts. The irony of profaning a [[The Bible|Holy Bible]] is not lost on the [[In the Blood|misanthropic family]]. [[Player Character]] Whateleys, while assumed to be a moral cut above their NPC brethren (and cousins and uncles, some of which are the same people), can get a "pocket sized" version, which contains less forbidden lore and can cause [[Brown Note|panic in anyone attempting to translate it]]...whether they succeed or not!

* ''[[Mage: The Awakening]]'' has numerous books called grimoires, where a mage enscribes all their knowledge of a spell (literally; it leaves their mind forever) so that others can learn it more easily. Needless to say, some grimoires are less than wholesome, including: the book of the life of an Atlantean prophet that turns those who study it enough into a psychic clone of said prophet; a bestiary on [[Eldritch Abomination|Abyssal beings]] that leads the mage who reads it enough to believe that he's uncovered an important secret and that all his friends have turned on him; and the book that contains both normal spells and spells that draw upon the Abyss but doesn't tell you which are which.

** The worst of these are ''The Final Spell Of Ali Ben-Mechem'' and ''The Invsible Codex''. The former is a seemingly-sentient spell that teaches you how to summon reversed forms of [[Enemy Within|Goetia]] symbolizing reversed Virtues into your enemies' minds, which are actually [[Eldritch Abomination|Abyssal entities]] who ''[[Enemy Without|will]]'' [[Evil Twin|escape]]. The latter ''is'' an [[Eldritch Abomination|Abyssal creature]] in the form of a [[Tome of Eldritch Lore]], which actually takes that form to lure power-hungry mages so it can eat their souls.

** The worst of these are ''The Final Spell Of Ali Ben-Mechem'' and ''The Invsible Codex''. The former is a seemingly-sentient spell that teaches you how to summon reversed forms of [[Enemy Within|Goetia]] symbolizing reversed Virtues into your enemies' minds, which are actually [[Eldritch Abomination|Abyssal entities]] who ''[[Enemy Without|will]]'' [[Evil Twin|escape]]. The latter ''is'' an [[Eldritch Abomination|Abyssal creature]] in the form of a Tome of Eldritch Lore, which actually takes that form to lure power-hungry mages so it can eat their souls.

*** Interesting subversion: The ''Ialdabaoth Codex'', besides being [[The Unpronounceable|incredibly hard to spell]], ''seems'' like it it first, being an Abyssal bestiary that gradually drives it's readers to paranoia and the summoning of it's contents...except that's the precise ''opposite'' of the book's intended function: It's actually a ''[[Sealed Evil in a Can|prison]]'' for the various [[Eldritch Abomination~~|Eldritch Abominations~~]] it describes (it scours the mind of it's new prisoners and writes an entry based on it's findings), and the madness is the result of them trying to get out. The writers of the book were actually pretty nice people, and a story hook presented involves reconstructing their [[Prestige Class|Legacy]].

*** Interesting subversion: The ''Ialdabaoth Codex'', besides being [[The Unpronounceable|incredibly hard to spell]], ''seems'' like it it first, being an Abyssal bestiary that gradually drives it's readers to paranoia and the summoning of it's contents...except that's the precise ''opposite'' of the book's intended function: It's actually a ''[[Sealed Evil in a Can|prison]]'' for the various [[Eldritch Abomination]]s it describes (it scours the mind of it's new prisoners and writes an entry based on it's findings), and the madness is the result of them trying to get out. The writers of the book were actually pretty nice people, and a story hook presented involves reconstructing their [[Prestige Class|Legacy]].

* While most of them don't literally involve books (and conversely not all book-related cards in the game suffer from this, either), [[Magic: The Gathering]] features its share of cards that play on the 'forbidden knowledge' theme by providing access to additional cards for a modest sacrifice in life points or cards already in hand or in play.

** With the release of the ''Innistrad'' set, based on gothic horror, it has an archetypal example: [http://magiccards.info/isd/en/226.html Grimoire of the Dead], whose playtest name was, in fact, "Necronomicon".

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** Games Workshop also released a book called Liber Chaotica (the Book of Chaos), a guide to all things Chaotic in the the Warhammer world, with occasional referances to Warhammer 40k. As a different take on this trope, the writer was not trying to support Chaos, but was ordered by the [[Church Militant|Cult of Sigmar]] to compile it to help fight Chaos. Naturally the study of such subjects [[Go Mad From the Revelation|has a less than stellar effect on his mental health.]]

* ''[[Arkham Horror]]'', being [[Cthulhu Mythos]] [[The Board Game]], features the usual library of eldritch tomes such as ''Unaussprechlichen Kulten'' or ''[[The King in Yellow]]''. You generally burn movement points to read the tome, make a Lore check, and gain spells, skills, or some other benefit at the cost of sanity.

* In ''[[Earthdawn]]'' any book about the [[Eldritch Abomination|Horrors]] can potentially have bad effects on the person who reads it (including the [[Defictionalization|''Horrors'' source book]], but probably the straightest example of a [[Tome of Eldritch Lore]] is the Book of Scales. According to legend, a group of powerful Horrors captured a dragon and forced it to write a history of the Horrors, using the dragon's own scales as pages and its own blood as ink. The dragon then scattered the scales as far apart as possible to minimize the damage. The Book of Scales allegedly contains valuable information that can be used to battle the Horror, but is so tainted that carrying around a single scale (not even reading it, mind you, just carrying it) will eventually drive a person mad.

* In ''[[Earthdawn]]'' any book about the [[Eldritch Abomination|Horrors]] can potentially have bad effects on the person who reads it (including the [[Defictionalization|''Horrors'' source book]], but probably the straightest example of a Tome of Eldritch Lore is the Book of Scales. According to legend, a group of powerful Horrors captured a dragon and forced it to write a history of the Horrors, using the dragon's own scales as pages and its own blood as ink. The dragon then scattered the scales as far apart as possible to minimize the damage. The Book of Scales allegedly contains valuable information that can be used to battle the Horror, but is so tainted that carrying around a single scale (not even reading it, mind you, just carrying it) will eventually drive a person mad.

* A flavor text in the ''[[Nobilis]]'' Third Edition rulebook says that [[Fictional Document|A Philosophy of Treason]], a book detailing the case for serving the Excrucians, has many fake copies that will remove the eyes of any who read and fill their eye sockets with worms. Ouch.

** Oh, and the genuine article is almost as bad.

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* A couple of optional quests in ''[[Fable]] 2'' have the Normanomicon, the book of the extremely dead. Said quest is a touch underwhelming, as it mostly involves getting the book back from a bunch of undead mooks two bumbling brothers (Max and Sam) have accidentally summoned.

** The book returns in ''[[Fable]] 3'' with a more interesting quest line, which involves getting the book for the ''ghosts'' of the two brothers from the last game, and one of them going mad with power.

* The ''Gran Grimoire'' in ''[[Final Fantasy]]'''s Ivalice Alliance miniseries. In ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance]]'', it's a magickal tome that transforms the sleepy town of St. Ivalice into the actual Ivalice. In ''[[Vagrant Story]]'', it's not a book per ~~se -- every~~ stone in the city of Leá Monde is inscribed with ancient Kildean runes, turning the city into the ultimate codex of magick.

* The ''Gran Grimoire'' in ''[[Final Fantasy]]'''s Ivalice Alliance miniseries. In ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance]]'', it's a magickal tome that transforms the sleepy town of St. Ivalice into the actual Ivalice. In ''[[Vagrant Story]]'', it's not a book per se—every stone in the city of Leá Monde is inscribed with ancient Kildean runes, turning the city into the ultimate codex of magick.

* ''[[Golden Sun]]'' has the "Tomegathericon" an item which allows the party member who equips it to take the "Dark Mage" classes, and grants powers such as attacking with hellfire, summoning demons and raising zombies. Curiously, the tome is given to the party by a benevolent animistic deity, who asks that they safeguard it until the witch doctor of the tribe that worships the deity has matured enough to be worthy of receiving it (witch doctor also being a benevolent role).

** [[Shout-Out|Note that it was actually called Necronomicon in Japanese.]]

* The various magical tomes from ''[[Grim Grimoire]]''. With every new [[Groundhog Day Loop]] cycle Lillet goes through, they become even more powerful, until she's capable of summoning dragons, golems, and arch-demons.

* ''[[Shadow Hearts]]'' has the Emigre Manuscript, a book so evil that it even has skull-shaped pages. Its main selling point is that it contains instructions on how to bring someone [[Back From the Dead]], something attempted in all four games of the series. Unfortunately, most attempts end up as grotesque [[Eldritch Abomination~~|Eldritch Abominations~~]].

* ''[[Shadow Hearts]]'' has the Emigre Manuscript, a book so evil that it even has skull-shaped pages. Its main selling point is that it contains instructions on how to bring someone [[Back From the Dead]], something attempted in all four games of the series. Unfortunately, most attempts end up as grotesque [[Eldritch Abomination]]s.

** The Pulse Tract and R'lyeh Text count even more so. The Pulse Tract incarnates a god form the soul of the earth, one which very nearly destroyed all of Shanghai and subjected the our hero to [[Mind Rape|The Mother of All Mind Rapes]]. The [[Shout-Out|R'lyeh]] [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|Text]] however, besides being named after a certain undead city, 'summons a god form beyond the stars' which was described as being as far above humanity as humanity is above insects. Eldritch indeed.

* ''[[Super Paper Mario]]'' has the Dark Prognosticus, which was featured in the header picture. The game's intro states that "The book held frightful secrets not meant for people's eyes." Later in the game, it's discovered that {{spoiler|Lord Blumiere was reborn as [[Nietzsche Wannabe]] Count Bleck}} upon first opening the book.

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{{quote|"Legend has it that the mad Arab Al Aksandir Garambel wrote it after he was driven insane by his very first summoning, a terrifying entity known only as Wa'tz'ynn."}}

* In the [[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)]] RPG, all the books are present, from The Book of Eibon to The Necronomicon. Books will give you knowledge of the occult, but also cause permanent Sanity loss.

* In the Lovecraftian-style [[Interactive Fiction]] game ''Anchorhead'', there are (appropriately) several evil artifacts, including a [[Tome of Eldritch Lore]]. Tip for players: ''don't read it.''

* In the Lovecraftian-style [[Interactive Fiction]] game ''Anchorhead'', there are (appropriately) several evil artifacts, including a Tome of Eldritch Lore. Tip for players: ''don't read it.''

* In ''[[Tales of Phantasia]]'', the summoner Claus main weapons are books, including the Necronomicon, Liber Ivonis, Requiem (for Shaggai), The King in Yellow, Celaeno fragments, and pretty much any other fictional grimoire from the [[Cthulhu Mythos]]. The GBA version has alternative spellings (or poor translations) of said books. Also, these books apparently weigh a ton, since Claus can use them to smack around monsters.

* In [[SaGa|Final Fantasy Legend III]] the wizard Shar can use the Tablet to free the people of Pureland from the Masters power. Since the whole game is a [[Shout-Out]] to the Cthulu mythos its most likely the Necronomicon. In the original Japanese it's a "Goblin corpse".

* In a nod to the D&D examples listed above, [[Planescape: Torment]] has a book called the ''Grimoire of Pestilential Thought''. Not only will it offer to teach spells in exchange for the main character doing increasingly awful deeds, it can also offer 'advice' which has a very good chance of making the main character more evil just from hearing it.

* The ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' series has a few of ~~these-- in~~ fact there's an entire school of magic that is dedicated to using the magic in these kind of tomes, the aptly named "Dark" magic (Although, because [[Dark Is Not Evil]], but many think it is, some good dark-wielders call it "Elder magic".) Effects from delving deep into the dark arts often includes insanity and ~~corruption-- whereas~~ the spells themselves are known for having interesting effects such as; Stealing one's life force (Nosferatu), Summoning a horde of voracious insects (Swarm), Exposing someone's soul to the torment of hell ([[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Hell]]), making someone [[Pink Mist|explode in a shower of blood]] (Balberith)... but the most true to the form of this trope would be the tome of Loputous in FE 4-- a book containing the power of a [[Child Eater|Child-Eating]] Dark God. Upon reading it, [[Final Boss|Prince Yurius]] went completely insane, murdered his mother (he tried to kill his [[The Cutie|adorable]] [[Mysterious Waif|sister]] too, but she was warped away before he could)... it's effect: Halving the stats of anyone who challenges the wielder, unless said opponent is wielding the tome's opposite number, [[Game Breaker|Naga]])

* The ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' series has a few of these—in fact there's an entire school of magic that is dedicated to using the magic in these kind of tomes, the aptly named "Dark" magic (Although, because [[Dark Is Not Evil]], but many think it is, some good dark-wielders call it "Elder magic".) Effects from delving deep into the dark arts often includes insanity and corruption—whereas the spells themselves are known for having interesting effects such as; Stealing one's life force (Nosferatu), Summoning a horde of voracious insects (Swarm), Exposing someone's soul to the torment of hell ([[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Hell]]), making someone [[Pink Mist|explode in a shower of blood]] (Balberith)... but the most true to the form of this trope would be the tome of Loputous in FE 4-- a book containing the power of a [[Child Eater|Child-Eating]] Dark God. Upon reading it, [[Final Boss|Prince Yurius]] went completely insane, murdered his mother (he tried to kill his [[The Cutie|adorable]] [[Mysterious Waif|sister]] too, but she was warped away before he could)... it's effect: Halving the stats of anyone who challenges the wielder, unless said opponent is wielding the tome's opposite number, [[Game Breaker|Naga]])

* ''[[Jets N Guns]]'' features the Necrofilicon, a book with such horrible grammar, that reading any part of it out loud will wake the dead in the immediate area.

* Although ''[[Castlevania (Nintendo 64)]]'' and it's remake, ''[[Castlevania (Nintendo 64)|Legacy Of Darkness]]'', have the Necronomicon as their Main Menus, the book itself does not appear in either game.

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== Real Life ==

* All [[wikipedia:Grimoire|grimoires]] [[wikipedia:Category:Grimoires|categorically]] are this by definition.

* [[Ancient Egypt]] had the Book Of Going Forth By ~~Day -- popularly~~ known as The Book Of The Dead.

* [[Ancient Egypt]] had the Book Of Going Forth By Day—popularly known as The Book Of The Dead.

** The book was a collection of various spells for different Pharaohs, printed on the walls of their tombs. It was essentially a collection of "prayers," or spells, but due to this, the spells were almost entirely unique to the individual. Some spells were very similar to each other, and some Pharaohs even had the exact same spells as others, but the spells were not intended to be used by anyone except the Pharaohs themselves. The spells were usually various forms of magical protection against demons in the underworld, or incantations to help one reach paradise.

* The ''Thousand And One Nights'' aka ''[[Arabian Nights]]'' is said to drive to madness anyone who reads the entire work. It's online at Project Gutenberg for anyone who's curious enough to try it. [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3435\]