I've been lurking for quite a while now, and I think I'm ready to get in on some of the action. So, without further ado...

Words have power. Many people don't realize just how much. Strength smashes things, blades cut things, bombs destroy things, but words can bring all of that force about. Words can also bring an end to that destruction. Words can move people to tears and words can make people feel joy. Some words can strike terror into a person's heart.

And those are just normal words. Magic words are in a whole class of their own. Not only can power be wielded through them, but they are themselves power. When they are written down, that power doesn't simply go away. And the more of those words that are written down in one place, the greater the concentration of power becomes. Magical books are nothing to be trifled with.

One such book has no name. It is even older than written language itself, having first come into existence as simple pictures scratched into cave walls. The form of the book has changed many, many times since then, eventually leading up to the point at which it could actually be referred to as a true 'book'. As time passed there eventually came a point at which the book contained so much magical knowledge that not even those who wrote in it knew everything it held. The book had far more pages than physically possible, and while anything a person wrote down themselves was available to them, large parts of the rest of the book could not be accessed without random luck or a great deal of magical knowledge. Much of which was in those hidden parts of the book.

What is also unknown to any living human is when the book became sentient. The book long absorbed power both from the occult knowledge written into it, spells cast on it, and from the act of writing by many, many masters. The occult power gave it thought, but the touch of those who wrote in it gave it personality. And they were none of them nice men. The book was not a true mind, however, and required contact with humans in order to maintain a personality. Left alone for too long it would sink back into inanimate slumber.

The exact date of the transition is unknown, but it was certainly well before a point in the 18th century when the book was lost, sunk to the bottom of the Caribbean aboard a pirate ship, sealed within a specially made casket bound with chains. It was in the late 1990s that the book was discovered by a marine archaeological expedition and awakened. The book, along with a number of other recovered artifacts, was taken on board the expedition's ship and brought back to the university that had mounted the expedition. In due time the case was opened, with far more difficulty than the archaeologists expected, and the book carefully removed with gloved hands to prevent any damage to the obviously ancient tome.

There was nothing to the book itself that made it obviously more important than many other interesting artifacts that had been recovered, and if anybody had any concerns about how tightly sealed it had been, they kept the thoughts to themselves. Eventually the artifacts were split up to be researched by various academics at the university, and the book wound up in the lot assigned to a grad student. It was several days before she got around to the book, but eventually her bare hand came into contact with it... and the book awoke.

It had been asleep for a very long time, however, and its ability to act was limited in any case. It simply bided its time, getting a feel for the new surroundings it found itself in. The contents were a mystery to the grad student, largely written in ciphers and languages that were unrecognizable. Eventually she put it aside and turned to other work, planning to enlist someone from the linguistics department for help. By that time, however, the book was ready to act.

One day the woman came to her desk and found the book sitting open, despite the door having been locked and the window closed. But what was more interesting was that it was open to pages written in recognizable English, ones she had never seen before. Upon inspection it turned out to be a magical spell, allowing one to perform some minor acts of levitation. It required little work, and so she thought to amuse herself by going through the motions that some deluded person must have one believed in. When the pen on her desk floated into the air, she jumped back so hard that her chair fell over.

She tried the spell again, then turned the page. The book obliged her with more information. It used what it had learned of her life through the time she had spent near it, talking on the phone, writing emails and doing work. It also carefully gave her only the practical knowledge needed for very specific acts of magic, keeping the actual theories of the practice hidden from her.

Using what she learned in the book the woman improved her life and her academic reputation, as the book lured her in and gained her trust without her even realizing that she was being strung along. Then, the chance the book had been waiting for. The woman, now with her doctorate and a leader in her field, found that her fiance was cheating on her. The book had found the opening it had been anticipating for a very long time. Every spell she had cast before had performed perfectly, so when she found a spell that claimed it would instill loyalty she took it at face value. She didn't know that the book could outright lie.

She drugged her fiance and took him to the basement, stripping him naked and laying him on a floor sketched with symbols of mystical power. She chanted the words, meaningless to her, applied the ointments and poured a specially prepared potion down his throat. When the floor began to glow with an unearthly red light, she thought she had succeeded. And she had, but not in the way she wished. The man's body was torn to shreds, the air filled with blood and ever smaller pieces of gore, all of which were sucked into the book with a gust of wind that blasted the woman to the floor. By the time she lifted herself up she saw something crawling back out of the book... but it wasn't her fiance. The spell had given the malevolent sentience within the book the conduit it needed to physically interact with the world and make use of the knowledge it contained, something which all of the previous owners had known enough not to do. The book was quite ready to show what it thought of the idea of having an owner, particularly a woman. Before she could think to scream it was on her.

Over the course of a month it broke her down through alternating punishment, pleasure and promises of power as the priestess of a cult devoted to the book. Eventually her will crumbled, and the book had the start of its new power base. In truth, she was nothing short of a slave. The book, however, needed minions to interact with the world without revealing itself. It had great power but limited mobility, and no way to disguise its mobile form in a manner that would allow it to interact with people without giving away its nature. That power, however, ensured that the book soon had the cult it desired. A short lived one, however. The book increased the size of its cult too quickly, and took too many sacrifices. It underestimated the flow of information in the modern world and its activities stood out.

The book still isn't sure exactly what happened, as it was so sudden and the book's ability to move about freely is limited. What it does know is that its cult was attacked by somebody with great power, and the building was set on fire. Seeing most of the cult decimated, the book panicked and fled, teleporting itself away and hiding itself in a library. Without regular worship or sacrifice, the book could not maintain its power, and it did not know who had found out about it. It needed to find a place to hide away, more secure than a simple library, where it could bide its time and come up with a plan. Using much of its remaining power, it cast about for the most secure possible place... and discovered Shokushu, far from where it expected any humans to be. Perfect. With what remained of its strength it teleported itself to the school, placing itself inside the library in a conspicious spot and placing an attraction charm upon itself before it slipped back into slumber. It was no guarantee, but enough students came by, sooner or later one would likely touch it and awaken it once more...



So, there's the background! Now onto some of the crunchy bits. The book (or Codex, for the sake of a name, though it uses none) is, in fact, a book. Its actual form is a thick tome bound in aged leather, with corroded brass clasps, yellowed pages and no text anywhere on the cover or spine. It can, however, disguise itself as a book of pretty much any shape and size. In mobile form it separates from the book, and has a generally humanoid appearance. The exact appearance, however, varies based on Codex's whim. It always has two arms, two legs, a torso and a head, but beyond that there can be a fair bit of variation. No tentacles, wings or the like, however, and although it can take many forms, it can not appear as a normal human. The flesh it has taken over is far too twisted for that by this point. In this form Codex can move freely within a radius of the book that will, for convenience's sake, be large enough to encompass the island. It need not physically traverse this distance however, and can also move freely vertically. Appearing several hundred feet up in the air will quickly lead to reintroduction to the ground, however. Codex can also teleport its book self, but this is generally limited to the same range as moving its mobile self, based on where it originally appeared. Setting a new base location is incredibly taxing, and it's generally just better to let itself be carried by someone else, accomplishing the same thing if not as quickly.

Other powers include just about anything that has been written in Codex over it's long existence. Many of these, however, are irrelevant to the setting or will be kept at bay as part of Codex being allowed to remain on the island. For what remains, however, it can mask an area to make it seem like no one is there, it can summon demons to aid it (a time consuming process, however, and not one that can be done at a whim) and some minor mental manipulation. (It can make something have an undefinable interesting quality to it, make an area feel unsafe, like one should stay out of it, etc.) It can't fully take control of a person's mind, however. Not any more easily than humans can, at any rate. It can also teleport a girl (or several) about within the same area that it can move around in.

Additionally, Codex is very difficult to destroy. Its humanoid forms may have various levels of natural protection, but with enough blunt force trauma, a sharp enough edge or the like it can be damaged. Any severed body parts will fade back to dust within a few moments and return to where they should be, however, and battered areas will likewise regenerate. This can provide enough time to run away, for whatever good it will do. (Not much.) The one thing Codex does fear is fire. Although it has heavy magical protection it is, in the end, a book, and a fear of fire is deeply ingrained into it. The mobile form is highly flammable, although even after being completely burnt away it will still come back, and likely be quite angry. Normal fire won't destroy the book itself, but will cause it to revert to its true form and usually teleport itself away.

As for Codex's goals... Well, long run it wants to have a cult dedicated to worshipping it as a god, and all that rot. This, however, will not be happening at Shokushu. Shokushu is a break while it works on its plans. In the meantime, however, in lieu of worshippers it needs to find its own sources for the energy it requires to remain sentient. This is, essentially, mental activity in close proximity. While it could accomplish this through simply disguising itself as a textbook and sitting there in class, this would do little more than keep it stable. It needs bigger extremes to really get the energy it needs. A genius working on some complex math problem might do it, but that's hard to manipulate into happening, and not much fun. Fear, however, suits it just fine. And having acquired a physical body, it now knows some of the things that come with it. Like pleasure. And given the base for its personality, the activities it finds pleasurable are generally not mutually so. The ideal combination for these desires, at least at Shokushu, means raping lots of girls. And perhaps a little mental abuse to go along with it. Something Codex is looking forward to getting started on.

So, I think that pretty much covers it. If there's anything I left out, feel free to ask. Looking forward to getting started on some RP!

Ooh. Very unique. I actually enjoyed that character quite alot. He seems very interesting to say the least, and if you're eager for a roleplay, I would be only too pleased to comply. Welcome to Shokushu ^_^

(I agree with Ms. Genesis. You have one of the most unlikeliest monsters around here! And with all the bookworms around, think of all the good times...

Welcome, friend/ You will find yourself most welcome here... )

Oh dear. That's definitely a new one! Very interesting character

Wow... just... wow.

I really couldnt say so much. The concept, the way it was presented...this is one unique and interesting creature to have arround.

I definetely hope to see you in school.

*Peeks in the table of contents*

Interesting...

I'm curious, though, why does the book fear fire but not water?

I think I might have to pick you up. You certainly look like the most intersting thing in the library.

Well, I would think paper can be turned to ash by fire, whereas water would only serve to wet it, and seeing as the ink is magical, I would surmise that it would also be fade proof =3

anywho, welcome to the island ^^

Not entirely true... Wated can also cause pages to warp or stick together, and generally makes books more fragile.

It's true about water. I did consider it, but well... If it applies to water, it'd really have to apply to fluids in general, wouldn't it? After all, being splashed with just about anything is bad for paper. But, A) fire is more obviously dangerous to paper, and B) it wouldn't be much fun if the character couldn't come into contact with things that might be a little... wet.