Finding an Unabridged Abiding Book after 1625

[Eff]

So let's say that I'm an independent scholar/chinless noble twit with academic pretensions and I want a full, 216-chapter edition of the Abiding Book to study. Where would I find one?
 

-Rokari use the Sharp Abiding Book and consider the other 144 chapters to be potentially polluted with the errors of Godlearnerism. Would they have full editions of the Abiding Book available for public/semi-public inspection?

-Loskalm's New Hrestolism rejects the Abiding Book entirely. I would assume that the related schools of Fronela also do so, because they're all coming from similar contexts. I suspect there are not many copies of Makanist lies in the Loskalm libraries.

-Akem and Arolanit are Brithini-ruled. They might have Abiding Books out of completeness.

-The Navigationalist School would almost certainly use the full Abiding Book, or possibly some other redaction, as they rely on textual interpretation of passages that Rokari ignore. But by 1625, the Navigationalists are underground or refugees. It might be a bit difficult to contact them to ask to look at their books.

-The Castle Coast probably would use the full Abiding Book, since they retain pre-Rokari post-God Learner Hrestolism. Not sure how many they would have, but they're a definite source.

-Safelster has a mixture of Rokari and henotheistic schools, alongside Arkatism. So the question here is whether schools like the Chariot of Lightning and Stygianism would use the Abiding Book, that is, if they're descended from God Learner schools or if they're not so descended. This would thus also apply to the Trader Princes of Wenelia.

-The Sedalpists of Umathela presumably use the Abiding Book, but it may be a redacted version.

-Presumably, Knowledge Temples in Kethaela, Teshnos, and Fonrit would also have some copies, out of pure completeness.

-Vadeli would also presumably be able to provide a copy.

Are there any others I'm missing?

[Joerg]

Jonatela has that monastic Seshnegi order of sorcerers transplaneted by Jonat who will have brought the Makanist scripture.

[AndrewTBP]

I’d expect there to be some in hidden monasteries in Kralorela, because of course. 
If there’s not copies in a hideous Thanatar temple I’ll eat at least 1 hat. 

[Joerg]

1 minute ago, AndrewTBP said:

I’d expect there to be some in hidden monasteries in Kralorela, because of course. 
If there’s not copies in a hideous Thanatar temple I’ll eat at least 1 hat. 

How long would those copies remain uneaten, though?

[AndrewTBP]

4 minutes ago, Joerg said:

How long would those copies remain uneaten, though?

Who says it hasn’t laid empty since the Dragonkill or similar 2nd age catastrophe?

😉

[Sir_Godspeed]

Could Delecti have one?

Lunar Herqouesters possessing one? Maybe even the Red Emperor.

Something surviving in Teshnos? 

Some ruin of the Six-Legged Empire? 

Something dug up by the third age colonists of the Jrusteli Isles?

[dumuzid]

Archidomedes, the tyrant of Golden Kareeshtu, probably has a copy or two he could spare for the right price.

[metcalph]

Many years ago I did think of the Index of Forbidden Books in LePlain, an occult library of books banned by the Ecclesiarch (which tells you how old this idea is - another was the Ecclesiarch refuting the Loskalmi doctrines with the Syllabus of Errors).  An Abbot reads all the books in the Library so that he can know the location of other prohibited copies for appropriate action.  Not a good fit for the Rokari anymore.

I imagine the Rokari would know of the 144 apocryphal verses and the reasons they were deemed spurious.  There would be no single text of the Abiding Book floating about but there would be commentaries on groups of the 144 verses scattered throughout Rokari literature.  One group might be condemned for posing unnecessary impediments to Rightness, another groups might be impeached for providing foundation for practices that led to the downfall of the God Learners.  Certainly Rokar himself would have writting passages on why this verse couldn't be trusted and so forth.  From this one could reassemble the original text but to the Rokari studying these verses is like obsessing over the Book of Enoch.  

[Nick Brooke]

52 minutes ago, metcalph said:

I imagine the Rokari would know of the 144 apocryphal verses and the reasons they were deemed spurious.  There would be no single text of the Abiding Book floating about but there would be commentaries on groups of the 144 verses scattered throughout Rokari literature.

Real-world example: the Panarion of St Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis. He quotes heretical scriptures extensively in order to debunk them, and is therefore one of our best surviving sources for early Christian heresies (some of which are only known from his work). A panarion is a medicine-cupboard, essentially: this is the book with cures for whatever ails the Church.

[David Scott]

14 hours ago, Eff said:

So let's say that I'm an independent scholar/chinless noble twit with academic pretensions and I want a full, 216-chapter edition of the Abiding Book to study. Where would I find one?

I've alway imagined them to be like a cross between the Anglo Saxon chronicles one (alleged) original that was copied and after distribution, added and subtracted from and all the constituent parts that have historically made up the bible (with each "book" being a similar to a chapter in the Abiding Book), being added and subtracted from when canon is declared.

I'm not sure there's an actual definitive copy, but everyone claiming to have whatever they do have, being the original / full / complete version. Occasionally scholars will get hold of two copies and find they are not quite what was expected.

[Alex]

1 minute ago, David Scott said:

I'm not sure there's an actual definitive copy, but everyone claiming to have whatever they do have, being the original / full / complete version. Occasionally scholars will get hold of two copies and find they are not quite what was expected.

YABWV!

[Jeff]

The "original" Abiding Book dates from 646. Not sure how many copies were ever made - for these purposes, let's assume that relatively few copies were allowed to be made. The God Learners council was responsible for the original text, and they made authorised copies, summaries, abridged or expanded versions. Of course, some individual God Learners surreptitiously made their own copies.

So after 250 years, we have a variety of different "Abiding Books", but you could always seek the God Learners council to consult the original. At least until the Closing hit Jrustela. Then you were left with the versions that had been made for various purposes. In places like Seshnela or Fronela or Slontos, folk tried to reconstruct the original book based on the versions of available BUT war and disaster screwed that up. Jrustela and Slontos sunk, Seshnela was sundered, and the God Learners were overthrown in Fronela.

Rokar realised the God Learners were the problem. He assembled the Sharp Abiding Book, cutting out the God Learners lies and creating a "pure" text. Whether it bears much resemblance to the book that once was in Jrustela is up to you.

[dumuzid]

1 minute ago, Jeff said:

So after 250 years, we have a variety of different "Abiding Books", but you could always seek the God Learners council to consult the original. At least until the Closing hit Jrustela. Then you were left with the versions that had been made for various purposes. In places like Seshnela or Fronela or Slontos, folk tried to reconstruct the original book based on the versions of available BUT war and disaster screwed that up. Jrustela and Slontos sunk, Seshnela was sundered, and the God Learners were overthrown in Fronela.

At least one God Learner, the unnamed imperial governor of Kareeshtu in Fonrit, revolted from the empire before it fully collapsed.  How well did such reconstruction efforts go there?

[Nick Brooke]

Are the God Learners still running Kareeshtu…?

There’s your answer. 

[EricW]

I think the solution would be to hero quest to see a Malkion saint, and ask them for a copy. Or reconstruct the original event, or do what Argrath did - have a chat to the ghosts of the original God Learners. 

Obviously there would be terrifying dangers, you might encounter horrifying guardians placed by people who never want God Learnerism to threaten the world again.

[AndreJarosch]

7 hours ago, Jeff said:

The "original" Abiding Book dates from 646. Not sure how many copies were ever made - for these purposes, let's assume that relatively few copies were allowed to be made. The God Learners council was responsible for the original text, and they made authorised copies, summaries, abridged or expanded versions. Of course, some individual God Learners surreptitiously made their own copies.

So after 250 years, we have a variety of different "Abiding Books", but you could always seek the God Learners council to consult the original. At least until the Closing hit Jrustela. Then you were left with the versions that had been made for various purposes. In places like Seshnela or Fronela or Slontos, folk tried to reconstruct the original book based on the versions of available BUT war and disaster screwed that up. Jrustela and Slontos sunk, Seshnela was sundered, and the God Learners were overthrown in Fronela.

Rokar realised the God Learners were the problem. He assembled the Sharp Abiding Book, cutting out the God Learners lies and creating a "pure" text. Whether it bears much resemblance to the book that once was in Jrustela is up to you.

Where was tzhe original Abiding Book located when the Closing, and Sinking of Land stroke?

Follow up question: 
Were the pages of the original Abiding Book waterproof?

[dumuzid]

1 hour ago, Nick Brooke said:

Are the God Learners still running Kareeshtu…?

There’s your answer. 

The answer to the first part is an unanswered question that depends entirely on the degree of connection between Archidomedes the Undying and that unnamed imperial governor, a point I've consulted the tribe on before to no decisive result.  At least one God Learner may have been in charge in Kareeshtu during every subsequent historical period other than potentially the Vadeli Imperium.

The second part does not necessarily follow the first for a society with the magical sophistication to keep a Vadeli slave population, either.  It's already pretty well established in the Guide and other sources that there was considerable religious synthesis between Jrusteli Malkionism and Fonritian Ompalam worship, to the extent that much of Fonrit came to view Ompalam and the Invisible God as synonymous and still does.  In that context one of the first projects I'd expect, say, the post-imperial janns of Afadjann to pursue when they had the leisure, given what Jeff has written,  is commissioning their own synthetic Abiding Book through the pens and surviving documents of their newly captive Jrusteli slaves, like a sort of evil Septuagint.  Specifically, a new version of the Abiding Book that incorporates what might be called the Revelation of Ompalam.

Edited January 2, 2022 by dumuzid

[EricW]

8 hours ago, AndreJarosch said:

Where was tzhe original Abiding Book located when the Closing, and Sinking of Land stroke?

Follow up question: 
Were the pages of the original Abiding Book waterproof?

Nothing a "repair" spell can't handle 🙂