Lenner Library
The Lenner Library is one of the greatest collections extant of volumes on arcane and magical engineering in Pasaulis rivaled only by the Biblioplex at the Arcane Academy at Bayco. Inside the library almost every suface from floor to ceiling is jammed with books, scrolls and tomes. Its interior is vast, with long hallways, archive chambers and quiet reading rooms.
Main Entrance
The main entrance to the Library is an imposing edifice reached by climbing enchanted marble stairs which lead up to small plaza. The double doors are flanked by statues of Astraios and Noctis in their female aspect, one holding an open book and the other an open scroll. During the day the doors stand open. At night the doors are closed, locked and sealed with an arcane lock spell. Only the reference librarians and certain faculty members know the lock's passwords.
All of the security on the main door might seem silly considering the second floor entrance from the flying bridge from Grendrey's Tower is open until midnight every night. However the entrance door is locked with it's own arcane lock spell which recognizes duly registered students and faculty, and which stops permitting access at midnight.
Entrance Lounge
The first floor entrance leads to the Entrance Lounge, a large space full of luxurious couches and sturdy tables. Off of this area is a student store and a small cafe. A portal leads between here and the area of the second floor entrance. A bulletin board in this area posts campus jobs and sometimes help wanted ads from off campus.
Student Store
This small shop is stocked with books, equipment and useful gear. It stocks (empty) spell books, magic inks to record spells in the same, or create scrolls. It also has apparel embroidered with the school's crest and the sigil of the individual houses. TPA students do not wear uniforms, as do the students at Bayco, but many wear a marked item, which makes clear their association with the Academy.
Groff Lundquist, a human commoner, manages the store which is staffed by students.
Lenner Cafe
The cafe is almost a living thing. One wall is covered by the structure of a living plant, whose branches cross the ceiling. It has been know to rain in parts of the establishment and even have snow fall at some times of year, though snow is almost never seen in Toresta itself, which has rainy, but generally mild winters.
The cafe's human manager, Aisla Fitzbottom supervises the student staff. Thr cafe is open until just before midnight every day.
The cafe always serves tea, which costs 1 cp per cup. The sandwich of the day varies. Fish and sushi are also on the menu.
Index (Card Catalog Room)
Located off of the Entrance Lounge the Index is the room that contains the complete listing of all of the books, scrolls and artifacts in the library. Each item has an index card which gives the name of the item, describes its contents or use and is linked to the location the item is in the library. When properly activated the card will become an animated origami creature, such as a squirrel, bird or frog and lead the inquirer to the location of the item sought in the library.
The Index room is the province of the index librarians. There are several of them but the most renown for locating obscure materials is the Gearforged Librarian Clearness.
Lecture Halls
Four lecture halls are located on the first floor. The seats magically adjust to fit the body type of each student. The hall's acoustics are magically enhanced to amplify the lecturer's voice and mutes side conversations. Each hall can hold up to 30 students
Reading Rooms
There aremany reading rooms on the various floors, featuring simple wood chairs of various sizes around wooden tables. These rooms are separate from the regular stacks and reading tables in the main stacks. They are enchanted to allow conversation which does not bleed into the main reading area.
Stacks
Throughout most of the library floor to ceiling bookshelves contain the library's open collection, that is books available to students and other authorized users. The indexing system used to organize the books is a mystery to most who are not archivists or librarians, and the best bet to find books on a particular subject or a particular book is to use the Index, typically under the direction of an archivist or librarian.
The closed stacks located on the third floor can only be access with special permission. Many of the volumes located here contain hidden knowledge, some are magical in their own right. Shield guardians are stationed on this floor to prevent unauthorized persons from accessing the items held here.Amphitheater
Located on the east side of the first floor opposite the Entrance Lounge. The impressive stage is used for lectures, assemblies and performances.
The Garth
The Garth or central courtyard is surrounded by a covered cloistered walk, that surrounds the inner courtyard. At the center of the courtyard is a fountain dedicated to the Twins, which is enchanted to show the deities alternately in each of their gender states, while colored waters cascade around them. The area is inhabited by a trio of awakened shrubs. Students often study here, sitting on the grass or at one of the stone tables placed throughout the garden,
The Compendium
This area on the fourth floor holds copies of most of the mundane, widely available written works on Pasaulis . Most believe that they are reproduced here through the invocation of some kind of enchantment that was cast by the Archmage Amanda Grendrey herself. The books are inscrutably cataloged, so it's almost impossible to find anything without requesting information from a reference librarian in the Index.
At the center of this room is a statue of the Centaur deity Saulys, a mighty archer, and a being know for his great knowledge, who is said to have trained both Straznik the Guardian and Mysilwi Gwiazd, the Hunter.
The magical statue reads allowed the contents of most books placed before it, if the person placing the volume makes the request verbally. (The statue can assess the text such that verbal curses or magic incantations will not be read allowed.)
Archive Chambers
Almost half of the Third floor contains archive chambers where artifacts are stored and sometimes displayed for the few that have access to this floor. Many of these magical artifacts are dangerous or their exact purpose is unknown.
Scriptoria Collections
Located below the Entrance Lounge of the library, this room was built to house actively magical tomes, scrolls and spellbooks. Items here are not cataloged in the Index and access is highly restricted. The only entrance is via a magical portal and requires a special portal key and an arcane password to enter. This is where the Academy houses all of its most dangerous written artifacts.
Purpose / Function
The library was constructed to collect the entirety of arcane knowledge, not just spells and arcane artifact designs, but also its history, application and use.
Architecture
The Lenner library is constructed as a square with an central courtyard called a grath. A cloister surrounds the garth, providing a covered walkway constructed with arches. The building itself is four stories, though many who trapse its corridors are convinced that, like the towers to which it is joined, it is extraspacial in nature. Portals connect different parts of the building, and many internal rooms have windows that look upon landscapes not present in Toresta. The building was constructed in 637 ATC and designed by the artificer architect Pol Abramczyk.
The ceilings throughout the first floor are 50 feet high. The other floors are 30 feet high. Like the towers, magic portals join various rooms on various floors for fast transport. Each portal is locked onto a matched portal in another location in the building.
A large segment of the Third Floor is off limits to students and casual visitors and requires permission from a full professor to enter.
Like most structures in Toresta is outer walls are constructed of red brick. The building has a grey slate roof. Marble pillars are used to support he covered cloister walk in the garth. Numerous windows look out upon the inner courtyard, but the exterior wall have few windows looking out on the rest of the campus
History
Constructed in 637 ATC to replace the library originally located on the fifteenth floor of Grendrey's Tower, the Lenner Library was named after the Scribe Wizard Marc Lenner. Lenner was a legendary collector of Arcane sources, including many from the Shadowrealm. Upon his death in 622 ATC he bequeath his collection to TPA, where he had studied as a young mage. it required thirteen years to transport the collection to Toresta, requiring fleets of galleys to complete the transference.
