Codex

**The Codex** is a book that ever person in the world has. It is a leather-bound book that mirrors the list of the Core Collection straight from the Great Library of Alexandria. It can also be used to send messages to others.

## Description

A Codex is provided free at a child's birth. It contains a list of all texts in the Library that are available to the public, called the Core Collection, and it is continually updated. The Codex functions through the Obscurists. The connection to the Codex is an active bond, maintained through the vast system of alchemical bonds and scripts that the Obscurists write and imbue with the power inside them. When used to communicate, the user can feel the faint vibration of pen scratches from the other writer. When a person gets a message, their Codex flashes and hums. To steal someone’s Codex is a serious offense because it cuts that person off from access to the Library. In a war zone, the Codex doesn't always function as it should. To most people, the Codex is a living document mirrored from the original in the Library. It's used to locate books and load them into Blanks. The Codex is a person's access to the written word.

Codexes are bound in leather with the Library's seal embossed on them. There are different types of Codexes. For example, Jess's father gives him a Scholar version of the Codex when he leaves to begin training at the Library. This version has plenty of extra pages for taking notes. Works that are interdicted from the Codex are removed, prohibited, and forbidden. They are placed in the Black Archives instead. Texts are sorted into three categories: unique, rare, and common.

### Blanks

Blanks are empty books that provide access to the Codex. They're covered and bound in leather. They come with a list of books in the Core Collection. By touching an entry in the Library's core volumes, a person can transfer the text into any blank. Library-stamped blanks can be found in any home, no matter how rich or poor. Blanks work best when they are near each other. It's possible to purchase prefilled blanks. These books are color-coded. Biographies are maroon and histories are blue.

## Known Texts

* *Inventio Fortunata* by a monk from Oxford
* *A Gentleman's Guide to the Cultivation of Wheat, Including the Diseases to Which It Is Prone* by Howell Pryoy (common)
* *On the Circumference of the Planets* by Ping Le translated from the Chinese (rare)
* *A Process of Iron* by Gwen Neame (rare, a novel)
* *Argonautica* by Apollonius Rhodius
* *On Sphere-Making* by Scholar Archimedes
* *On Further Nature of the Elements* by Scholar Archimedes
* *The First Book of Urizen* by William Blake (after six copies are purchased by ink-lickers, there're only two copies in the world, both are in the Brightwell's possession)
* *Liber de Pontntia*
* *Of the Imperishable* by Archivist Gargi Vachaknavi
* Treatise by Medica Phlogistes written in 1733
* Historical letter from the reign of King Noshirvan of Iran
* Letter from Spartan poet Tyrtaeus to his son
* Letter between Emperor Aurelian Augustus of Rome and Queen Zenobia of the East

## Trivia

* Original books that are not in the Codex and are destroyed are called Lost Books.
* The word Codex means "an ancient manuscript text in books form." It comes from the Latin word *codex*, which literally means "block wood," and later denoting a block split into leaves or tablets for writing on, hence a book.