Great Library of Greyhawk
The Great Library of Greyhawk boasts one of the finest and most complete repositories of books scrolls in the Flanaess, rivaled only by the Royal Annals of Rel Mord and Enstad's deeply isolationist Nethalion Archive. Its impressive facade is a grand sweep of granite walls, columns, stairs and statuary masks the aging bulk of an old Oeridian fort which seemed the perfect spot for the collection in Zagig’s day. Three wide stairs lead to a pair of massive front doors, suitable for a castle or fortress. The library contains books, scrolls and papers on countless subject, loosely organized into topics corresponding to the building’s six wings (History, Geography, Artistic Studies, Poetry and Literature, Science and Engineering and everything else, optimistically titled “General”).
Each wing is essentially one huge room holding thousands of books arranged in shelves from floor to ceiling. Rickety ladders are situated throughout each room to help patrons access the higher stacks. Tables and chairs stand at the center of each wing and one or more assistant librarians are usually on hand to help decode the institution’s notoriously puzzling coding system and enforce a rigorous code of silence. When not attending to the needs of patrons, these scholars work on volumes of their own, copies of which are added to the collection upon their completion.
Silence is expected of all visitors, and armor and weapons are strictly banned and anyone caught defacing library property suffers a mandatory term of service in one of the city’s more toilsome work-gangs. Admission is free and all are welcome to enter the library and browse through its cool, musty halls. No use of fire is permitted, and the building has no heating system. Magical lights are hung throughout the building, remaining lit at all hours.
Any visitor is welcome to peruse the volumes in the six public halls in the front of the building. Only those who are Contributing Members of the library board can remove these volumes, up to three at a time. Contributing Members must donate at least 100 gp annually to the library in order to maintain membership status. Others must conduct their research on premises. Contributing Membership is often granted by sponsorship. For example, a rich merchant or powerful noble will generally employ a personal secretary or scribe. While the noble or businessman might not be a member, he will certainly make sure to purchase a Contributing Membership for his scribe.
Six wings lead off from the main entry hall- three to the right and three to the left. Each is separated from the entry by an open arch. These are labeled History, Geography, Artistic Studies, Poetry, Science, and General. Each, of course, contains volumes on the listed topic. There are several thousands of books in each wing. Funded through the good offices of its contributing members, the library is well able to acquire new volumes. Indeed, it has several sages and scribes under contract to actually write books, mostly detailing current affairs in the Free City itself. This surplus of capital also enables the library to maintain a selection of exquisitely rare, even magical, tomes, and to protect those treasures accordingly.
The rear of the library building is a stone edifice, layered over on the outside to look like wood. Only Contributing Members are allowed back here, and even they may never remove any book from these chambers.
An iron door leads to a narrow hallway behind the head librarian’s desk. Several scribes labour constantly in here, not so much from scholarly diligence as from duty. Their true purpose is to serve as sentries, for their hallway guards the three locked, iron doors to the Library Vaults. These large metal chambers, surrounded by heavy stone, are the repositories for the library ’s most valuable works.
A well-respected sage known as Iquander currently manages the affairs of the Great Library as its chief administrator. Iquander keeps quarters in a warren of small rooms below the library, but most often can be found manning an impressive desk on a large raised marble platform just inside the building’s main entrance. Iquander originally came to Greyhawk from the Duchy of Urnst, on the trail of some elusive bit of arcane lore on behalf of the Society of Sages and scholars of Nellix. Before Gratius Saghast died, he passed his position to the able Iquander, who has an astounding memory and excellent organizational skills. He fell in love with Greyhawk’s collection, and hasn’t left since. Chosen for his position by the previous head librarian prior to that worthy’s death, Iquander views the library as the sole living record of the city of Greyhawk (and, to a lesser extent, the Flanaess itself). He sees his role as the protector of that record, a task at which he is occasionally overzealous, redacting certain tomes and doing his best to limit their corruptible impact upon the city’s intellectual “canon.”
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