The Living Library
The Living Library is an expanding, some even say sentient structure below the soils of Primus. It has entrances across the realms, most notably under the The Academy Arcane in Dawnharbour and under the North Town Gatehouse in Midnight. It is widely held to be the largest repository of knowledge in the Inner Realms. Some say it is the greatest in the Realms as a whole, but this is a harder claim to prove.
The library's passages twist around each other, following some design of its own. Its halls stretch like fingers into the earth under the school, burrowing deeper and deeper. No one knows how deep they go, as each layer is haunted by monsters who make their home in the darkened passages. Visitors are advised to keep their wits about them and keep a map of their travels to avoid getting lost. Librarians who spend regular hours in the Library go armed, and some gatehouses provide Wands of Hold Monster or other catch-all defenses.
Known Libraries are usually contained by Gatehouses built above and around the entrance. These Gatehouses feature armouries to equip the Librarians for their various duties, such as keeping the Library's more rambunctious denizens below, fighting off unhelpful or overly-aggressive monsters who find their way in, assisting visitors who cannot safely venture within, re-shelving returned books, keeping track of the Library's architectural shifts, and tracking down late returns.
Architecture
The passages of the library are only five feet wide, but are a startling thirty feet tall, with the walls bending toward each other into a peak. Every wall is floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and dead-ends end in points similar to the arched ceiling.
A proper map of the Library is difficult, as it is always growing new sections and rearranging existant ones. However, this growth is slow, ponderous, and while there is always the possibility of un-noted surprises in a place this expansive, the Librarians generally have an up-to-date understanding of where the sections are.
The Library names its own sections, in brass signs affixed to the wooden stacks through no adhesive or fixture that anyone can discern. These names are a source of amusement and confusion both for the Librarians and visitors alike.
- TRUTH: Moving to the right after descending the stairs to the Library will lead one to the Nonfiction sections.
- ABOVE: The Astronomy section deals with the sky and stars, as well as the Astral Sea. Several volumes on Auria as a location are located here, as well. Its Observatory allows a view of the stars at any time of day.
- BELOW: This section features books on geography and travel, as well as a subsection on cartography. Cartography features a fantastic telescope which allows the user to scry on any part of the Realms as it currently appears, though living beings are always filtered out.
- BETWEEN: Sandwiched in sections on the borders of ABOVE and BELOW, books on echo realms, other dimensions, the weave, and other fuzzily-defined aspects of the world.
- DANCE: The Language section, divided among sub-sections, with combinations and works on language, communication, and meaning-making in general sorted into the "Dance" corridors that connect them:
- HANDS: Manual languages and visual communication, as well as books on visual arts are stored here.
- TONGUES: The Spoken Languages section features conversational tables with wooden masks that, when worn, allow the wearer to speak languages their anatomy is not usually suited for.
- EARS: This sound-sealed room is for exploration of music and song, and features a sizeable dance floor. It connects to HEARTS.
- LIFE: The Biography and Memoirs section covers the lives of everyone from common peasants to monarchs and deities. History books not specific to an individual are also here.
- AFTERLIFE: Philosophical and cultural discussions of the soul and its post-mortality fates are found here, as well as many necromantic tomes.
- AFTERDEATH: Books on decay, illness, life cycles, and geology, as well as corporeal undeath and necromancy are found here.
- HALF-TRUTHS: Creative Nonfiction is located in between the main sections, and houses various works of technical truth whose full accuracy has been sufficiently compromised by creative liberty or honest error.
- HEARTS: The Poetry section connects to both EARS and DESIRE.
- LIES: Going to the left leads into the fiction section. Various genres of fiction are divided among rooms and twisting corridors.
- DESIRE: The Fantasy, Romance, and Fairytale room features a resplendent statue of a knight in old-fashioned armor.
- FEARS: The Horror section lacks large rooms, instead winding through labrynthine corridors. It is darkened, but one can read by the will-o-wisps light if bold enough.
- CURIOSITY: Mysteries line the shelves of this ponderous section, which features a Puzzling room for puzzle books, complete with a large corkboard, strings of coloured yarn, pins, and a basket of scrap notes in various colours.
- EXCITEMENT: Bordering on FEARS, EXCITEMENT houses adventure stories and thrillers. Travel through this section is supernaturally fast.
Alternative Names
The Endless Archive
Type
Library
Parent Location
Related Report (Primary Locations)