Ilúverin

Full title: Ilúverin (Remembrance of All)
Author: Many from the First Father forward. 
Published: Council of the Ilúverin 
Format: Manuscript, heavily abridged printed copies.
Content: The Great Elven book of History is not magical, Not even totally unique. However the True Copy, the original kept in the Library of the Great Mother Tree is beyond price.
The book is 10,000 volumes, each covering a century The books are three foot high by two foot wide. All are hand written in fine script in Quenya, the old Elvish.
Abridged copies are common in Elven homes. Excerpts of the most important events and/or events important to the family are seen. Usually no more than three volumes. The Ancient history, the Vital history, and Family History.
 
===History===
The Ilúverin began as a chronicle started by the First Father, Silanta Tommie, in the first days of the world. It was continued by other scribes until the Patriarch Council created the Council of the Ilúverin that decides what goes into each Century Book. 
Today the Ilúverin is compiled from all the suggestions and chronicles of the previous century then written in the century after the one it chronicles. It can take 50 years to get the last book ready in order to be written.
90,000 years ago the Crystal city of Old Calaborleen was destroyed by a meteor strike. The original Ilúverin lost. The volumes penned by the First Father gone. Once the more immediate issues of surviving in a devastated world and the massive loss of life were dealt with, the book was mourned. The reserve copy brought down from the Silver Mountains and the process of recovery begun.
Then came the expedition to the underdark below Gods Wound Lake. The lake bottom area had been excavated by the greedy to seek the lost treasures of Old Calaborleen. When the surface party got there the area leaked like a sieve, and only the one unmovable and impenetrable block stood. That block was the divinely protected library of Old Calaborleen. They got into it and recovered a treasure of Elven books beyond price.
The Original Ilúverin was returned in triumph. The adventures lacked for nothing. A tale by non Elves that did make the Century Book.
	
Currently the True Copy of the Ilúverin, is kept in the archives of the Tree. There is a copy in the Woodmanor Library. Abba Eecreeana has a copy in The Great Library off plane. And the original back up in the Silver Mountains of the Mithquendi
===Powers===
Protection for itself. Much magic has been spent to see that the very very old books remain not only intact, but usable. Each new Century Book is likewise treated. It has no powers outside of the knowledge it contains.
===Downside===
Massive. this one book is a 10,000 volume library. It has several hundred people that look to it, an army of Sages and Scribes that gather events to prepare and write the next Century Book. There is an even more massive and not as protected library of I vamme -esse i ilúverin "things we didn't put in the Ilúverin"
==Reaction==
On Earth? a few scholars know about this book. It made a brief and deeply moving appearance on the National Geographic Greyhawke Expedition. It is just so HUGE! A library in and of itself. 
There is an Oxford team negotiating with the Elven Patriarchy to put the Ilúverin into electronic format. For both accessibility and preservation. As the book as had one close call already this is seen favorably. The Elves have no great importance attached to the manuscript, save the precious volumes penned by the first Father. Likewise the knowledge is not special, as in only Elves can see it.
Category:Greyhawke
Category:Magical Artifacts
Category:Eyrian Empire
Category:Books
Category:Intangibles
Category:Elven Library