Forbidden Book:
The Temptations of YHVH
It's usually safe to assume that any book that's
currently in Yves' Special Collection doesn't exist anywhere else - provided,
of course, that the Main Enemy didn't write it. Destiny works in strange and mysterious ways, and its Servitors
do their best to add efficiency to the mix.
They tend to enjoy a virtually perfect record in tracking down almost
all of the really dangerous tomes (and that's 'dangerous' in the sense of 'semantic
equivalent of a neutron bomb, with a yield to match'). They are, in fact, nigh-infallible in that
regard.
Please note that a good number of qualifiers were
used in the above paragraph. The
Temptations of YHVH is an excellent reason of about why: the Damned book
doesn't want to stay in one place.
Strictly speaking, it isn't a book at all, as it
isn't a set of sequential pages of writing bound together - indeed, it's a
somewhat irregular conglomeration of milky-white, quartz-like crystals
(discovered in 1974 AD to be crystallized ineffability, to the profound shock
of a Seraph of Revelations who apparently simply guessed the answer). To 'read'
it, you stare at one of the facets; a person in the right mental state can
fairly easily call up information from the item. How it's presented will depend on the user; visions, text
scrolling and/or verbal narration seem the most common options, although
several Servitors of Animals who have encountered The Temptations of YHVH have
reported that some amazingly sophisticated olfactory and tactile information
can be accessed from it.
The 'title' of The Temptations of YHVH is a
bit of a misnomer: it implies a narrative of past temptations, when indeed all
it does is provide a future one. This
item sort of grants wishes; more accurately, it explains how to achieve one's
wish. This would be problematical, but
not Special Collection worthy, except that the item also makes almost all
things possible for the user while he, she or it is questing to fulfill that wish.
Note almost all things 'possible', not almost all
things 'inevitable': the user will have to earn a success. But said success will never be outside the
user's grasp: this thing can be used to, say, allow a human to break through to
another plane of existence and free the prisoners found there or give a demon a
fighting chance to destroy and eat a Demon Prince (yes, there are rumors that
this item was instrumental in both of those events) just as easily as it can
find open spaces in crowded parking lots.
You can't use it to take over somebody's mind, and it won't directly
kill anybody for you, and if asked it'll somehow indicate that both sides have
already made sure that it do what it could to ensure victory in the War - but
that's pretty much it when it comes to limitations on leveling the playing
field.
Naturally, this sort of thing is somewhat warping of
reality, as we - and, more relevantly, the clued-in fraction of the universe -
understand it. There is some debate as
to exactly how the item can do what it does, as it is effectively immune to
just about everybody's interested gaze, or multiband sensory scans. The ethereals who know of the item avow that
it is the focal point for the fabled Almighty Strand, which at least sounds
better than the We Have No Idea, Really, But It Probably Has Something To Do
With God theory shared by Heaven and Hell.
Asking the item is usually an exercise in futility.
Oh, yes, The Temptations of YHVH has a
personality, which can usually be adequately described as 'amused'.
Of course, all of this predisposes that the user has
an opportunity to muck around with the item for any length of time. This is
hardly a safe assumption to make, as the stereotypical first reaction that any
celestial has upon seeing anyone holding The Temptations of YHVH is
to make a running tackle...