Akashic Codex

This legendary artifact is the physical embodiment of every word ever written across the multiverse. Bound in covers of shifting, iridescent leather that defies mortal craftsmanship, the Akashic Codex contains infinite pages that never increase its size or weight. The pages glow with inner light and constantly update themselves with new knowledge as it is written anywhere in existence. Within its pages lies the complete collection of every wizard spell ever created.

Attunement

Only a creature capable of reading at least one language may attempt to attune to the Akashic Codex. The creature must make a DC 25 Intelligence saving throw with disadvantage.

On a failed save, the creature takes 20d20 psychic damage that bypasses all resistances and immunities. In addition, the creature goes permanently mad and falls under the effects of the feeblemind and confusion spells. These effects can only be removed by a remove curse spell cast using a 9th-level spell slot.

• If the creature is a humanoid and rolls a natural 1 on the saving throw, it is permanently transformed into a nothic. This transformation can only be reversed by a wish spell.
• If the psychic damage reduces a humanoid to 0 hit points, the creature dies and an allip rises from its corpse 1 round later. The creature cannot be returned to life by any means short of a wish spell.

On a successful save, the creature takes only half damage.

A creature that has previously successfully attuned to the Akashic Codex can attune to it instantly upon attempting to open it (no saving throw required).

While Attuned

While you are attuned to the Akashic Codex, you gain the following benefits:

• Your Intelligence score increases by 10, up to a maximum of 30.
• You have expertise and advantage on Arcana, Nature, Religion, and History checks.
• You can speak, read, write, and understand all languages.
• You can cast identify and legend lore at will.
• You are immune to psychic damage.
• You are immune to any effect that would reduce your Intelligence or is similar to the feeblemind spell.
• You automatically succeed on all Intelligence saving throws.
• You gain truesight out to a range of 300 feet.
• You can instantly identify any creature or object you can see, provided any information about it has ever been written in any book (essentially granting near-omniscience regarding documented lore, weaknesses, history, and properties).
• If you are a wizard, you may use the Akashic Codex as your spellbook. You can prepare any wizard spell you are capable of casting without needing to copy it or expend time or gold.

The attuned creature can always find the exact page they desire with one flip of the book. The pages continuously update and expand, yet the book never changes in size or weight.

Other Properties

• The pages cannot be ripped out or removed by any means.
• Creatures not attuned to the Akashic Codex are unable to comprehend anything within it through any means (magical or mundane); the text appears as meaningless scribbles, blank pages, or induces mild confusion.
• The book automatically shuts and seals itself when no creature is attuned to it. Only a creature currently attuned to the Codex can open it.
• The nature and appearance of the Akashic Codex cannot be altered by any magic, illusion, or effect.
• If you end your attunement, you immediately forget all specific knowledge gained from the Codex. However, you no longer need to make the dangerous attunement saving throw in the future.
  

   

  Destruction

  The Akashic Codex can only be destroyed through a ritual so paradoxical and perilous that most scholars consider it impossible:

  1. A creature must first successfully attune to the Akashic Codex (surviving the deadly DC 25 Intelligence save with disadvantage).

  2. While attuned to the Codex, the creature must then attune to the Book of Exalted Deeds.

  3. Afterward, the creature must attune to the Book of Vile Darkness.

  4. The creature must then travel to the Spire at the exact center of the Outlands — the only location in the multiverse where all alignments, philosophies, and planes meet in perfect neutrality.

  5. There, while holding all three books, the creature must locate the “Page of Cosmic Unmaking” within the Codex and cast Wish using the precise wording: “I wish the Akashic Codex, the Book of Vile Darkness, and the Book of Exalted Deeds to be unmade together in perfect balance, their essences returned to the primal forces from which they were born.”

  Upon casting Wish, the three artifacts violently clash. The creature must succeed on a DC 30 Constitution saving throw (this save is not automatically succeeded due to the Codex’s attunement).

  • On a failed save, the creature is instantly annihilated by the conflicting energies and ceases to exist. No form of resurrection or restoration (including wish) can return them.
  • On a successful save, all three artifacts are destroyed in a cataclysmic explosion of light and shadow. The Akashic Codex is gone forever. Its knowledge is not erased from the multiverse but scattered as harmless “echoes” — fragments of lore that appear randomly in dreams, ancient ruins, or the minds of scholars, ensuring that total wisdom is never lost, only dispersed.

Notes: Stacking Bonus: Intelligence Score, Bonus: Ability Score Maximum, Advantage: Nature, Advantage: Religion, Advantage: Arcana, Advantage: History, Proficiency: Arcana, Proficiency: History, Proficiency: Religion, Proficiency: Nature, Expertise: Arcana, Expertise: History, Expertise: Nature, Expertise: Religion, Immunity: Psychic, Language: All, Sense: Truesight, creature that can read at least one language, Communication, Buff, Utility, Foreknowledge, Cursed, divination