Just to be ridiculous, anyone want to do this?  I've got a plot in mind too.

About 4000 BC: Egyptian Mystics produce Adjective scrolls, letting them apply adjectives to objects and people.
about 3000 BC: They create Noun scrolls to produce objects.
about 2500 BC: They combine the two.  Maxwell's book is from around 2400 BC.
about 2000 BC: The knowledge of how to make them starts to spread to other areas.

These scrolls and books are spread around the world, but were a secret until Maxwell started going public with his.  Now the people who have them are split into 3 groups:
Heroes: use their scrolls/books to help people.
Villains: use their scrolls/books to hurt people and for power.
Greedy: Use their scrolls/books for their own pleasure/wish fulfilment/profit.

Heroes and villains are at war with each other, and are trying to recruit the greedy.