The Learned Canyons

Essences: parchment, ink, wax, wood, (minor) reptiles/amphibians

A maze-like network of natural wooden canyons infused with parchment, which spontaneously copies anything that was written anywhere in the world somewhere inside its vast corridors – lengthy tomes, business ledgers, diaries, scribbled notes. Through use of magic and skilled guides, vital information may be obtained – if it is sufficiently desired or searched for.
not all writing is based on paper or parchment - clay-pressing, tying knots, and carving into stone are all common in the world. these forms of writing are approximated in the Canyons in their ink-and-paper equivalents.
however, the vast majority of the library is either blank, written in the strange "native" script of the Canyons, or from other untranslated languages; as such, finding anything of worth among the chaff is not straightforward. fortunately, the distribution of types of books within the library is far from random - though the method of organisation is very poorly-understood.
The Learned canyons are also the only source for Paired Pages in the known world - occasionally a book that is being actively written, or that the location of is known, is found in the library (often by listening for the sound of scribbling). If the other end can be located, a Paired page set is now usable. There are special scriptoria where loud and rhythmic writing is carried out en masse, to help "manufacture" paired pages. specialised seekers - bookfinders - hunt down these pairs, as well as other useful or valuable books.
While this area is valued for parchment and for learning, it produces insufficient food to sustain its population and therefore imports a lot of essentials.
In some areas, roofed over and sorted into proper libraries.
A resource – and occasional battleground – in the fight between the Eastern and Western Giterikin.
Learned canyon things:

• Pagehunters - many become (or were) witnesses, and some use ear trumpets and similar, due to the intensity of listening/looking. Some can recognise key words from hundreds of languages
• How do scriptoria prevent others from getting their books? Or do they not - after all, they own one end already! Do they use erasable materials? For ease, and increased sale value?
• Collation/collated books, really large books, scrolls
• Rename as wickwake gulch
• Dangerous beasts - ink-kraken or serpent - link to season of snakes?
• Rubric has reading-platforms on rooftops (unless you're very secretive) and imports a lot of candles from the border of nearby wickwake gulch
• "shredded flakes of doggerel verse" to an illuminated koi
• Dangerous Librarian spirits, strange cults, and/or rare animals that sort sections of shelving?
• Vellum skinks eaten?

Questions:

• Are the canyons wooden or stone?

Geography

Settlements and Locations:

• Rubric: a largish town, with lots of covered-over stacks, that acts as a hub for book collection, translating and processing in the area - as such is very cosmopolitan. Food etc is imported. Cusisme and Sespedel's hometown, which has a small Festil community.
• Greenchapter: one of the few areas that produce food in the canyons, based around a clearing in the stacks but spreading out around. Largely growing root vegetables.
• Inkwell: exactly what its name suggests, a place where ink naturally rise to the surface, forming pools and streams. Near here, having an ink-stained mouth and teeth from having to drink ink rather than water is common, and seen as a mark of being lower-class riff-raff. Inkohol, a liquor made here using ink, is also common, though there are fine varieties (often in bright colours) drunk by the powerful as well as the commoners. It is one of the town's main exports, other than the unprocessed ink.
• The Delvestacks: a mine/cavern system within the learned canyons where the oldest and most light-sensitive parchments are found. Secret tunnels from The Srem reach deep into the Delvestacks – the tribes (Festil and others) come and go as they please, trading directly with their cousins, the autodidact nomads of the learned canyons.
• Wakewick Gulch: area plagued with candlethickets and wax elementals, source of frequent fires in the Canyons. Wax Mystics have their stronghold - Tallow Keep - in the heart of this area.

Fauna & Flora

The local fauna tends towards the reptilian/amphibian -toads, lizards, tortoises and the like. Their parchment eggshells are covered in a strange script that is as-yet untranslated. Nesting birds from Giteri are also a pest.
Creatures:

• candle elementals
• wax geckos
• inkwell toads
• print-block tortoises.
• Illuminated Koi - popular pets of aristocrats in The Giteri, fed on flakes of shredded documents.

Natural Resources

• Paper
• Books
• Candles/wax
• ink

Type

Canyon

Location under

The Giteri

Included Locations

• Rubric

Related Historical Events

• 24 LF
  Birth of Sespedel
• 900 LF
  Proliferation of Paired Pages