Book of Shadows

History

The wicked witch, Eleanora Blackwood penned the Book of Shadows, herself, using shadows or possibly spirits from the Shadowlands! She also took her own soul and gave it to the book in order to bring it to life. The two share that link for eternity, and because of that, it is uncertain whether the book can be trusted at all. However, if Eleanora obtains her tome, she could use it to wreak the great havoc she has become famous for over time. After Eleanora’s death, the book ended up in the hands of a drunkard from the town of Wakefield. He witnessed her demise, and stole everything from the scene that he and his friend thought might be worth any money. They sold the book to a book dealer, who found the tome interesting.

The book could move letters around or make images appear on its surface at will, and while it was in the hands of that first book dealer, it only showed a few alchemical formulas. He sold it to an apothecary, and the apothecary held onto it until his death. A family member, found it, though it showed that person only notes on nature and biology. That person took it to a college, and it stayed there for some time, as an oddity, until a student stole it, and found a buyer- Dagan Erebus. The student knew the crime lord collected strange books, and Dagan could tell there was something special about the tome, so he kept it with his other old books in a collection meant to hide his personal prize, an ancient grimoire. If any creature came to steal Dagan’s tome, he knew it would have trouble trying to figure out which old book was the one containing his power.

Once authorities arrested Dagan, the Bureau of Demonic Analysis (BDA), the U.S. governmental agency overseeing mystical antiquities and demonic influence, gathered his extensive library up, confiscating the Book of Shadows with the multitude of other volumes. Through the strange powers of the Librarian, the tome, and many other magical books in Dagan’s library, vanished from the evidence room of the BDA, and appeared in The Library. It only ever showed the Librarian the spell for conjuring The Anax, a spell it obtained while nearby the powerful tome owned by Dagan. That showed that the Book of Shadows had the power of osmosis! It knew who Anax was, and it felt a desire for revenge. Thus, it awaited someone of strong darkness.

When Eve happened upon that dimension of knowledge, she obtained the Book of Shadows for the moment she walked into the place; the tome knew she held vast shadowy reserves of dark power. Yet- when she touched it, it felt that she was not inherently evil! Thus, the book hid its abilities from her until it no longer could, because it worried that she might destroy it. Then, after Dagan Erebus, The Phantom, possessed Evelyn, it felt that darkness had touched her heart, but not completely. Still, it feared revealing itself to her. Eve searched arduously for the twisted tree from the book, and her search brought her to Ghost Nook. Only from necessity, did it finally reveal itself. It had two hopes, one being that Eve could find a way to destroy The Anax! The other hope it felt was that she could be convinced to give into the darkness within her soul.

For a long while, it tried to convince her to follow its direction, but found that Eve was willful. Then, it capitalized on her casting dark spells! Not only did she seem more adept than its own creator did, but she grew more powerful at an intense rate. By the time Eve became shadow incarnate, the book realized that she had the power to obliterate it! In fact, it saw that once she reached that level of shadow, the book seemed more of just a plaything to her. That caused it even more worry, and it grew terrified it might die. From that moment on, it warily directed her, walking a line between trying to corrupt her, and keep her happy so that it could continue its evil existence. To the book’s chagrin, it now works as Eve’s assistant alongside The Anax- the very being it burns to destroy. Yet, what, ultimately, is the agenda of the unholy Book of Shadows?

Spells

Mind Control

Aka Manah! Hear now my plea

Crush their free will under your knee

Your evil aid to me now loan

Tie seductive thoughts to their own

My friend or foe it matters not

corrupt their mind into a knot

Darkness call I to take your soul

My powers shall, your mind, control!

The Mind Control spell has its root in prehistoric times. There, humankind first had the revelation of good and evil. As these concepts became reality, dark entities sprang into being on the lower vibrations of reality, the dimensions often called- The Outer Darkness. One of those entities, Aka Manah, grew in power as humans conceived dark thoughts. His domain encompasses the minds of mortals, and he seeks to twist their thoughts into only the foulest sort, for that empowers him ever further, while diminishing his counterpart in the higher realms of the Upper Light. Ancient spell casters, learned to commune with the entities of other realms, and some of the evil ones stumbled upon Aka Manah. With his voice filling their heads, they set about fashioning spells to bind others to their will. The spell passed among books, and on one of her travels, Eleanora Blackwood managed to find it. By casting it, the soul that inhabits the human body, rips out and becomes Aka Manah’s, and an empty, soulless shell remains behind, obeying the spell caster until death.

Command Undead

I call upon Sisters of Fate

Fling open wide Hades’ foul gate

As water freezes by wind’s chill

The darken dead obey my will

Power shackles spirit to heel

As an iron collar that I seal

Now my essence fills their head

Bend to my will, I command undead!

The necromancers of the ancient world often found fate to bind reality together. By insinuating themselves into the tapestry of an individual’s existence, after death, they could resurrect the body, by wrenching the original soul from its location within reality, and forcing it back into its old form. This worked even after the body had decomposed, and could be used even on skeletons or ghosts. The dead would rise to their feet, incapable of acting on their own accord; their resurrector bound their wills to their own! Generally, if not always, necromancers employed shadow magic, which itself, inherently, forms of dark, evil energy, and the souls of the dead would twist and warp into foul mockeries of their former selves. The truly unnatural act of necromancy could lead to very strange events, for if the person that raised the dead died, himself or herself, the creatures they conjured would be released! Many reports over the centuries of zombies, dark apparitions, and ghouls have their roots in such wicked tales.

Demonic Command

Chernobog, I call light’s reaper

Demon lord and shadow’s keeper

Hear me, Dark One, grant my spell

Give me powers over hell

Wicked words weave, heed my call

Unto demons make my thrall

Spirits of darkness upon this land

By Evil’s Lord, I now command!

One of the foulest spells a human can cast, Demonic Command places the caster in control of the vilest creatures within reality. The spell weaver could never achieve this on their own, for no mortal to ever live has a will strong enough to command the chaotic forces of the Outer Darkness, thus they must rely upon Chernobog’s power! This incomprehensible being of shadow, once commanded the legions of evil. From the darkest pits of the Outer Darkness, It reached out into the Cosmos, across dimensions, looking for life to corrupt and destroy, and It followed the ripples echoing across the planes of reality that led to mankind. The minds of humanity, the very thoughts of mortals, create these waves, and Chernobog beheld a small world rife with life! It tried to manifest with Its great power a portal, and succeeded as a rift ripped between the Outer Darkness and the physical realm, and the humans that gazed upon Chernobog became struck with madness and malice! The frail human psyche could not comprehend the very existence of It, and Chernobog found the Earth to bask within light of a sun! When the dawn rose, It reeled from the light and the portal closed.

The act of opening the passage, even for a night, drained the strongest being of darkness to Its limits. Within the boundaries of the lowest dimension, It preyed upon all things that It could find. Countless creatures from the Void to the Shadowlands were consumed, and Chernobog desired to find a way into the mortal world, permanently. It required the knowledge that humanity had gleaned, and followed their thoughts to the Dimension of Knowledge, commonly called, among the esoteric, The Library. There, all the data mankind had or would ever concoct existed, and It meant to devour the knowledge, using the data to control humanity, warping humankind into beings of grotesque form, to worship their deity, Chernobog, and bring its bloated form into the corporeal world. However, as luck would have it, a woman named Hypatia had come to inhabit that dimension, and though she appeared in the form of a mortal, It found her to be more powerful than even the strongest deities of Light. The Librarian managed to obliterate Chernobog, and It exploded into the Outer Darkness! As if a rain, the purple and black remnants of the once powerful demonic entity fell, and though none knows if It still lurks in some corner of reality, Its essence permeates the entirety of the darker dimensions.

Shadow Webs

Arachne, whom Athena beat

Cursed forever with eight feet

Seamstress now of darkened black

Weave a net, without slack

Round my foe tangle thread

Cover them from toe to head

Do it now, before power ebbs

Drape my enemy in shadow webs!

The Shadow Web spell has its roots deep in ancient times. Arachne lived as a farmer’s daughter, and she lived an ordinary life. As she grew, she used the loom, and found that she could weave quite well. She continued honing her craft, and became the greatest seamstress of all time. This caused her to become rather boastful, and one day she bragged in the presence of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and crafts, that she could out weave even the gods. The spirit, Athena, manifested, and demanded an apology, yet Arachne knew that none could compete with her, so she would not acquiesce. Thus, the goddess challenged her to a contest with Zeus himself being the judge. They both went to work, yet how glorious Arachne could weave that even Athena could not compete against her, and in the end, the mortal woman proved the victor. However, she wove a tapestry in the contest that insulted Athena, and the goddess burned with ire upon losing. She took her spear and touched it to Arachne saying that such a wonderful weaver, blessed beyond gods, should indeed remain forever so, and should not require a loom at all!

Arachne warped and changed, and became a woman, half-human and half-spider! The other mortals hated and feared the creature she had become, and they chased her into the wilderness. There, depressed, lonely, and cursed, she weaved her own noose and hung herself. Her spirit raged in the Shadowlands, filled with hatred for the gods and for mankind, and those that wield black magic can call upon her to spin her webs of shadow for them- trapping their prey like flies!

Shadow Frost

Boreas! I call upon thee

Blowing over the land and sea

Let your rage bellow fast and fierce

Through my enemy let your cold pierce

May no mortal, demon, or dead

Move a hand, leg or their head

Chill my foe freezing, frigid, and lost

Encase them within my shadow frost!

Often, witches and wizards must call upon forces outside themselves in order to accomplish their goals. Some of these magics can be used for good or ill. In the case of shadow frost, black magic plays a hand! Anyone with power may call upon Boreas, the Northern Wind, and he will listen to his or her plea. As an elemental, his disposition matches his ability, and he is cold, turbulent, and often blustery. A good-hearted invocator may call him forth to blow down an obstacle, cause a snowstorm to blind and confuse their enemies, or even encase them in ice for a time. However, a dark summoner’s magic will taint the natural powers of the wind, warping it into a cruel weapon indeed. Shadow Frost can only be created by corrupting Boreas’ power with shadow, and it works much as it normally would, yet with a vile twist. The ice merges with the shadow magic, and will completely encase the caster’s target, blocking them inside, so that their victim slowly suffocates. Then, as the shadow frost melts, it dissolves the target as well, leaving only a wet puddle where a person once stood!

Dark Duplicity

Let many stand where now stands one

As day flips night and moon flips sun

What my foe, doth see, tricks the eye

I am me and me am I

To the enemy let confusion come

Obfuscate their senses- render them dumb

Souls of the dead from damnation

Mimic through dark duplication!

When a shadow user needs to make a quick escape, there are a multitude of obfuscating spells to choose from. Dark Duplication has many uses. If the caster can see an area, with mortal eye or through a scrying device, they can conjure a doppelganger of themselves. Essentially, they tear a soul of the dead- one lost among the blackened, cruel lands of the Outer Darkness, and put them into the corporal world. For a time, this manifested spirit takes on the appearance of the conjuror, though it has no will of its own. It cannot interact with the physical world, because it remains an apparition, and after time passes, the pull of the afterlife drags the spirit back into the realms of damnation, and the image vanishes from the physical world. Some legends say that the power of a caster can be measured by the spell, for most can manage to conjure only one or two doppelgangers at a time. However, truly powerful shadow casters can summon three to five. Summoning more than that has never been known before… until Evelyn.

Shackle Undead

Zombie, revenant, ghost, or bone

Deep in their crypt or out on their own

Baron Samedi, I call, hear what I say

Cease all their movement in every way

Stop this spirit right in its tracks

Binding it tightly; give it no lax

You have heard, now, the words I have said

Send forth chains of shadow to shackle undead!

In the case of Shackle Undead, the caster must rely on a very fickle spirit’s aid- Baron Samedi! Generally, Samedi has no bedside manner, and most that seek him do so for the purpose of conjuration- intending to speak to the Ghede spirit. However, utilizing this spell does not require the Loa to be present, rather, the shadow caster calls to the Baron, who has no love for the undead, asking for him to bind the abomination with his dark powers! Samedi does not trust or tolerate the undead, for they go against the natural order, and it is his job to lead the dead to the places they belong- either the Light or the Shadow. Thus, he usually grants the boon, sending unbreakable chains of shadow that wrap themselves around the undead creature and trapping it. No known power can break the chains, and they will remain for some time before finally fading away. A few foolish mortals, over the years, have found themselves in a bad way, for they would dare cast this spell upon a creature not of undeath!

One particular instance involved a Haitian witch that had anticipated on capturing a man to use him as a zombie slave- something the Baron would never condone, yet worse, she cast it on the man while he lived! Instead of the chains appearing, shadowy snakes issued from her, wrapping around the witch and binding her tightly in front of her terrified would-be prey. Baron Samedi arrived, and scolded the witch for wronging him. He pulled a gris-gris (an amulet of sorts) from his staff, and handed it to the man that shook with fright. The Baron told the man to put it round the witch’s neck- and she would serve him instead! With shaking hands, the man put the charm around the cursing woman’s neck, and her eyes went stark white! The snakes faded, yet she stood still and quiet, her soulless eyes staring straight ahead. Baron Samedi told the man to use her for sex, cleaning, or any other purpose. The witch’s victim thanked the Baron for saving his life, and the Loa spirit tipped his hat and replied that the man was welcome for the gift, but to remember that Samedi would see him again- someday, for no one can elude death forever.

Bedlam Lust

Lilith, Eisheth, Naamah, Agrat

Queens of demons with wings of a bat

Incubus semen, Succubus sex

Create great arousal by way of my hex

Demonic laughter, Angelic sigh

With crooked mouth, liars lie

Tongue or finger or cock you thrust

Give sensual pleasure of bedlam lust!

Inside, around, or between realities exists a chaos, and when life becomes sentient upon worlds, their thoughts, feelings, and emotions, crash against this bedlam like waves against a cliff. When the first humans could internalize and comprehend lust- a new pantheon of being sprang into existence within the plane where demons dwell. These demons were succubi and incubi. Though the Cosmos has forever existed without beginning or end, only then, created by the very concepts of humanity, did these creatures form. As humans performed debauchery on Earth, the demons of lust could taste and feel it, because the actions and thoughts of humankind permeate that wicked realm. The more the sins of man- the more the demons could feast. Four of the succubi were the first to ever walk the Earth.

Lilith, Eisheth, Naamah, and Agrat, were summoned by some of the first conjurors among mankind. They realized that what they felt in the Outer Darkness were merely faint echoes compared to the waves of sexual desire emanating from mortals directly in the physical world. These succubi turned on their ignorant summoners, and the creation of summoning circles are linked to that ancient day. They drained the lives of men through sexual congress, and grew more powerful by the lustful act. Within Persia and the surrounding lands, entire cities became either enthralled puppets, yearning to serve their mistresses until they were drained of their souls, or the people fled bringing tales of the demons with them. The very first demon hunters in history, The Magi, formed and though their first attempts met with dismal failure, and though many countless people died, they learned and adapted, and within a decade, the growing empire of debauchery the succubi had built, crumbled before the hunters. They destroyed each demoness, destroying their physical forms, and their spirits returned to the Outer Darkness. These four had grown powerful with the consumption of thousands of souls, and they became the Queens of the Succubi.

By calling upon Lilith, Eisheth, Naamah, and Agrat, a shadow caster can cause their target to fall insane with Bedlam Lust! A primordial, unstoppable need for sex and sexual release will assault the hapless creature, and they will do any sexual act the caster desires, and if left to their own devices, they will masturbate furiously, orgasm after orgasm shattering their thoughts. There have been myths that say that for many, even after the spell ends, for the rest of their days, they will engage in sexual acts beyond comprehension. Many become sex workers, thus, in many cases, so powerful are the powers of these four demons, that the victim never recovers at all, a sexual deviant for the rest of time!

Shadow Bolt

I focus my rage, malice, and hate

Chaos I call for death I create

All of the anger that I have felt

Boiling inside shall singe skin and melt

The flesh of my foe- sizzle in pain

As power tears forth, rip them in twain

Through darkness, they feel terrible jolt

I issue to them my shadowy bolt!

Shadow can be hard to define. To the physical eye, it represents what cannot be seen or what is obscured. Ultimately, darkness is the absence of light itself. Negativity could be another way of defining it, and ultimately, just as the physical world is made of small particles of matter, waves and particles of negative matter and energy make up the Outer Darkness. Perhaps a person might think of it as a kind of antimatter, however, the evil of humans, and the darkness of their souls and minds, creates the Outer Darkness from the lowest depths of the Void to the highest dark plane known as the Shadowlands. Wielders of black magic can pull their evil together, building it up almost like static electricity. By harnessing their most negative emotions, they can conjure a Shadow Bolt made of pure darkness, and hurl the devastating attack at their foes. Like a never-ending lightning bolt, the power will issue out and destroy all matter and life it touches. Most shadow casters can send an attack like an actual bolt of lightning, a quick, instant discharge, singeing or killing their target. Some powerful dark practitioners of magic have managed to keep the bolt firing for several seconds, yet Evelyn Addams has truly wrought a record with her ability!

Unholy Twister

O, foul winds blowing, come now here

From every direction both far and near

I call upon shadow- that is light’s bane

Arrive to this place bringing your pain

Sinister wind lay forth your woe

Typhoon of darkness carry my foe

Into the air, my enemies blister

Fling them far, my unholy twister!

An Unholy Twister can only be formed by warping nature itself. Humans are creatures of nature itself- a product of the natural world. Most magic casters can use the elements to their needs, for starting with the most ancient shamans, humanity has understood and used earth, air, water, and fire separated man from the animals. Twisting the elements by employing shadow magic warps reality, but can make for powerful spells. If the shadow caster is powerful enough, they can invoke a small dust devil, giving it shadow, and sending it into their target as it rips and burns through life and matter. However, in extremely strong cases of those that wield shadow, they can conjure a large whirlwind that will suck their foes into it, tearing and shredding their foes and flinging their broken bodies into the skies!

Hungering Void

To the depths of Tartarus I call

Where only the wickedest souls fall

Betwixt this realm and the Outer Darkness

I open a portal of blackened starkness

I beckon the maw to claim a prize

A sacrifice to antagonize

Shatter their body, make them destroyed

Engulf them in shadow- the hungering void!

The Outer Darkness is a series of dimensions where only negative energies and frequencies exist. If the physical world, the corporeal, was a center setting on a dial, then the dark dimensions could be considered lower frequencies on the dial. The higher dimensions are known as the Inner or sometimes Upper Light. The dimension called Tartarus exists in the former- the Outer Darkness. That frequency draws and holds tortured souls. These hapless spirits relive their greatest pains in infinite circles. Only the most knowledgeable and powerful shadow casters can open a rift between the physical world and Tartarus, and to command that frequency to consume one’s enemy requires even greater power. Once opened, the portal works as a maw, and from the Void, tentacles reach out to pull the victim into the dark realm where they join the other lost souls- forever repeating their worst moments ad infinitum.

Shadow Slime

Gleeful, I revel deeply in sin

The darkness gives me power within

Feeling inside, I bless my evil ways

Piling each wrong for countless days

Yet now the ooze that bathes my soul

Must issue forth to service my goal

The foulness from every lie, sin, and crime

Cover the foe with my shadow slime!

As with many other shadow spells, Shadow Slime requires the caster to draw out their own darkness and manifest it into physical matter. In this case, the foul sin and cruelty within the practitioner of black magic, materializes in the corporeal world, forming a monster of slime that the caster can control with their thoughts. The ooze seeks their foes, and once found, it will attach itself to their flesh, which begins corroding. As the mortal creature screams in pain, the unholy substance dissolves them alive, and when its cruel work finishes, only bones will remain. Evelyn found a unique and inventive use for it, making a body suit on her foe. However, this only worked for the Shadow regenerate, but on a normal human, the sinful sludge would devour them within moments.