Hazlen Codex

The Hazlen Codex is one of the precious few surviving examples of pre-dynastic spellbooks. It belonged to a young mage who's name has been lost to time, and was painstakingly copied into into a larger historical volume which is how it survived into modern times.

History

The original spellbook was composed over several years by a young mage as he learned his craft. At some point, it was likely discarded, likely when the owner obtained a better spellbook. It contains mostly spell-forms, but also includes notes on his efforts to create new spells. The book most most likely recorded around 2500 B.G.A., the tail-end of the Second Chaotic Period

The exact fate of the original copy is unknown, though some time around 2350 B.G.A. it was copied into Hngrath's Book of History which contained a number of personal diaries and journals amongst it's other contents. Hngrath initially composed as many as 20 volumes, mostly of history, first-hand accounts of historical events, and personal writings of peoples long dead. Only volumes 2 and 6 survived, with 2 containing the Hazlen Codex. Based on the arrangment of Hngrath's book, historians suspect that his third volume likely began with a journal recorded by the author of the Hazlen Codex.

Hngrath's books were copied down through the ages. They were not regarded as books of magic, merely historical accounts, and so were often given little priority. Exactly how many volumes were lost by 1500 B.G.A. is not known, but at this time, a large library of ancient books was moved from Weagal to the Library of Arindell, with at least volumes 2 and 6 among them(at this time having been copied into a single bound book of their own).

The collection of books from Weagal spent the next thousand years in storage at the library, until it was finally broken apart and sorted into the collection. The book containing Hngrath's volumes was uncermoniously sliced in half for reasons that are lost to the depths of library sciences.

After another two hundred years, a librarian named Carlos Belgrade found volume 2 of Hgrath's work. Volume 6 was listed in the Library's card catalog, but would not be found until the Third Age. Carlos was the first to recognize the contents of the volume as containing part of an ancient spellbook. Dabbling in magic himself, he spent a considerable time studying it, and successfully learned several of the spells contained within. This in itself was considered an impressive feat, as particularly old spellbooks typically required decadeds of study by powerful mages to unlock their powers. Moreover, unless a spellbook had been specifically laid down as a grimoire(which the Hazlen Codex was not), it was usually completely impossible for a later mage to decipher.

Carlos used the information in the Hazlen Codex to create a teaching grimoire of his own, that was then widely reproduced as a sort of magical primer, used to teach magic to countless others.