Ember Hollow is a very cold place full of people who generally have to stay home half the year or else risk being caught out in a blizzard. As such, they have a lot of libraries. There are any number of libraries, most of which are rather eclectic in the variety of books available.
Some, however, collect more specific things. There are a number of libraries that have obtained copies of rare books around the world, since they have the unique ability to safely store these tomes. Some countries have even voluntarily given copies, in the hope that some crucial piece of their history might be preserved.
The Hollow Library is such a place, where countries all over the world have donated select volumes to be taken into custody. In this case, it is less about preservation than it is to keep the contents well away from all who might seek to use it for true evil.
In eras past, some foolhardy souls have attempted to booby-trap the library building itself, leading to literal and figurative minefields to navigate just to get inside. It is quite dangerous to even go near the building, but that is not the reason for the aura of doom and horror that surrounds the place.
Dangerous Knowledge
The Hollow Library is not an unknown vault. Indeed, anyone might go and find it and seek the knowledge within. The address is plainly known. It is, after all, a library, meant to be used and borrowed from, not some vault sealed away from the world.
The idea behind this is that of the horrific things contained within, anyone might chose to follow those paths again. To prevent retreading of old paths, of ancient horrors and evils, it is thusly recorded and made available.
Most people do not avail themselves of this knowledge. There are a few, who brave it because they must know, either to save some piece of the world or to destroy it, but to most people there is a stigma to going to the Hollow Library. It means that one was not cunning enough to discover a better, more efficient path, and it means that one seeks true evil, and thus you are tainted by such.
That is usually the reason given, but the truth is that the whole building is full of horrors untold. Some of the books have taken on a life of their own, for some reason or another, and they have a malice that is all their own. Some actively seek to harm people who come for them, while others more passively offer doom on the life of one who reads them. It is a dark place, full of the worst kinds of ghosts.
A scant few of the bravest librarians the world has to offer safeguard this place, cataloging the books as they come in, keeping them in order, keeping the chaos contained.
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