Spellbook

A spellbook is an item carried by spellcasters in the Gunpowder universe. Spell books come in many different colours and can be made of quite a few different materials, but are almost always quite thin containing only enough pages for the maximum number of spells a person can possess at the highest rank.

Workings
The innate workings of spell books are quite mysterious, even to characters within the Gunpowder universe who don't specifically work with the magical objects. Despite this, there are some facts that are known about them. First and foremost in the knowledge of spell books is that magic in the Gunpowder universe is not based on incantations, so rather than reading spells from the book, a spellbook acts as a sort of magical talisman that records a spell casters various spells and gives them the ability to use them.

Spell books are bound to a single owner, although some rare cases where a spell is designed to take effect after the death of the owner or in similar unusual circumstances do exist. Spellbooks can also be rebound to a different owner through magic, at which point the original owner loses all claim to the book. A spellbook works best when kept on the person of its owner, but can function so long as it remains within close proximity of the caster. The further away a spellbook gets from its owner, the weaker the spells the caster is able to produce and the harder it is to produce them.

Should a spellbook be destroyed, its bond with its owner will be broken and they will become unable to access their magic until bound to a new spellbook. A spellbook will however still function when damaged in most circumstances so long as its pages are kept together. Even if all the pages of a book are ripped out, they will still function probably so long as they are kept together (it is for this reason that the books of captured outlaws are burned not merely ripped apart). The fewer remaining pages of a book the owner has the less spells they will be able to learn and access. A spellcaster with extremely few pages of their book will most likely not be able to access even the smallest trace of their magical ability.