Shadow vellum

Shadow vellum is a relic of Umbra, the affinity of death and its aftermath. It holds an old piece of Covenant-stuff, the substance of the Seal-shards, bound into a dark vellum, and its treasure spirit answers to Wefan, the Weaver.

Written on it is The Deepward Step, one of the five oldest spells, older than the Scar. Reading the vellum can press that spell into the reader's core. Its ancient rank does not override the ring of affinities, and whether it can be cast in a round depends on the pinned ruleset.

For a reader whose core woke in Umbra, the vellum always gives. For any other affinity it is a gamble: the spell may take, or the kingdom may lose all the mana it has stored, because power forced against its grain curdles. Either way the vellum is spent.

A coreless lord may hold it, but holding a relic gives no core, and no item gives a Human lord the power to cast. A spell taken from it belongs to the reader's core and perishes at the Unsealing, like every learned spell.

No one knows who made it. Cultivators of Umbra tell a story: Odrin Half-Core read the vellum before Deopa took him as the first mortal master of Deep Hand. That is their belief, and the record does not confirm it. What became of Odrin afterwards is not yet told.

Tellan, the Keeper of Tallies keeps the vellum among the Mnemoliths between Turnings. There is one in each Turning. When it is spent, its shard returns to his keeping for the recasting, and no copy is made.

Player-visible facts