Ancient Book

The Old School RuneScape Wiki also has an article on: osrsw:Book of darkness

This article is about the God book. For the book used in 'In Aid of the Myreque', see Ancient book (In Aid of the Myreque).

For the hymnal obtained upon completion of the The Temple at Senntisten quest, see Ancient Hymnal.

Ancient Book
Release	4 August 2010 (Update)
Members	Yes
Quest item	No
Properties
Tradeable	No
Stacks in bank	No
Equipable	Yes
Stackable	No
Disassembly	No
Destroy	This book can be reclaimed from the bookcase in your player-owned house for a fee, are you sure you wish to destroy it?
Actions
Backpack	Wear, Check charge, Preach, Destroy
Equipped	Activate/Deactivate, Check charge, Preach
Values
Value	200 coins
Alchemy	Not alchemisable
On death	Reclaimable Reclaim: 30 Sacrifice: 120
Weight	1 kg
Examine
The holy book of a forgotten god.
Advanced data
Item ID	19617
Links	MRID • recipe
Calcval parsed	47731
Calcval smw	{{GETotal|Ancient page 1|Ancient page 2|Ancient page 3|Ancient page 4}}
FAQ • doc

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The Ancient Book is a book held in the pocket slot, and is the God book aligned with Zaros. It can be purchased from Jossik for 5,000 coins after completion of the Horror From The Deep quest along with The Dig Site quest. Ancient books must be made using all four torn Ancient pages which can be purchased from other players, obtained from treasure trails, cremating a vyrewatch, or opening an ancient casket. Equipping an Ancient book allows the player to preach and perform ceremonies, such as blessing, last rites, and wedding rites by operating it (none of which have any effect on the game itself, and are simply recited lines of text).

It is worth noting that the book's pages sound as if they were written recently, since the book talks about followers of Zaros being oppressed - while when Zaros was in power, he had great influence and many followers. It has the same inventory image as the Book of the Gods. Despite being a Zaros-aligned item, equipping this book offers no protection within the God Wars Dungeon.

Lost Ancient books can be reclaimed from a player-owned house bookcase, complete with all pages that have been added, for 100,000 coins. However, the book will lose all its remaining charges, requiring the player to add additional pages in order to activate the passive effect.

After completion of One Piercing Note, if the book has all four pages, it can be used to create an Illuminated Ancient Book and unlock the god book off-hand override. This requires 60 Crafting and 60 Prayer, and grants 10,000 Prayer and 10,000 Crafting experience (for the first time only). The ancient book is not consumed in the process.

Filling the Ancient Book with all pages currently costs 47,731 coins.

Book info

Ancient Book
Author	? (edit)
Readable
Bookcase
Databox • Talk page

Combat stats

Requirements			Degrades			Tier
30			Yes			None
Class			Slot			Attributes
All						Armour				0.0
						Life points				0
Weapons		Main		Off		Prayer				2
Damage		-		-		Damage reduction
Accuracy		-		-		PvM: 0%			PvP: 0%
Style		-				Style bonuses
Range		-				5.0		5.0		5.0
FAQ • docs

Passive

Ancient Book passive

The ancient book can be activated like scrimshaw to provide a passive combat effect. The book can be recharged with any ancient page, giving 45 minutes of active time per page. This is shared, unchanged, with the illuminated book.

The passive has a 5% chance per hit to activate. When it activates, icicles hit and surround the target, dealing 120-200% damage (PvP: 40-120%) and binding the target for 4 seconds. This is based on Nex's ice prison attack.

Cost

Page	Cost
Ancient page 1	14,569
Ancient page 2	10,524
Ancient page 3	9,949
Ancient page 4	12,689
Total	47,731

Usage cost

Duration	45 minutes
Item(s) consumed	1 × Ancient page 1	1 × Ancient page 2	1 × Ancient page 3	1 × Ancient page 4
Total GE Price	14,569	10,524	9,949	12,689
Per hour
Cost	19,425	14,032	13,265	16,919

Transcript

The following text is transcluded from Transcript:Ancient Book.

Wedding Ceremony

---

• Ye faithful and loyal to the Great Lord, May ye together succeed in your deeds, Ye are now joined by the greatest power.

Last Rites

---

• Thy faith faltered, and no power could save thee. Like the Great Lord, one day thou shalt rise again!

Blessings

---

• By day or night, in defeat or victory, The power of the Great Lord be with thee.

Preach

---

• Pray for the day that the Great Lord rises; It is the day thou shalt be rewarded. Power to the Great Lord!

Historical version

---

Preach

---

• Though your enemies wish to silence thee, Do not falter, defy them to the end. Power to the Great Lord!
• The followers of the Great Lord are few, But they are powerful and mighty. Power to the Great Lord!
• Follower of the Great Lord be relieved: One day your loyalty will be rewarded. Power to the Great Lord!
• Oppressed thou art, but fear not: The day will come when the Great Lord rises. Power to the Great Lord!
• Fighting oppression is the wisest way, To prove your worth to the Great Lord. Power to the Great Lord!

Update history

This information has been compiled as part of the update history project. Some updates may not be included - see here for how to help out!

• ninja 23 November 2020 (Update):
  • God Books, Illuminated God Books, and Erethdor's Grimoire now toggle 'off' upon death while you have a Ring of Death equipped. This behaviour is in-line with scrimshaws and intended to prevent charges from being wasted while preparing for combat.

• patch 17 December 2013 (Update):
  • The god books have been updated to match the current Sixth Age story.

• patch 4 June 2013 (Update):
  • God-books now stay attached to your hip while woodcutting.

• hotfix 18 March 2013 (Update):
  • Preaching with the various God books will now only preach a certain passage, rather than one out of a possible 6 passages.
  • Players can once again attack from a distance whilst holding a god book.

• patch 1 November 2011 (Update):
  • The blessed god books now all mention the god that they represent.

• update 4 August 2010 (Update):
  • Added to game.

Trivia

• Prior to 22 February 2016, this book used to be held in the off-hand slot.
• The Book of War and the Ancient Book are the only two that do not mention the God's name when reading from them.