Library of Yaragph

Where humanity built marvels of technology... and lost them.

Created and Edited by Lo, the Wise

The biggest pool of knowledge in the known world... Or, at least, it was that once.

Purpose / Function

As the name already implies, the Great Library has one purpose and one purpose only: to store and maintain data in the form of books, scrolls, paintings, carvings and much, much else.

Alterations

The entrance of the library was broken and deformed when it was found, thus House Fargrete demolished a small part of it and built it anew. Its insides were also poorly maintained, but it did not need any further complete reforming.

Architecture

The library contained one, gigantic central room, where the common books were stored, mostly the result of passing travelers and merchants who were required by law to hand over anything that contained information not yet inside the library for it to be copied and stored.
The entrance to the central room was separated from the outside by what would nowadays be known as a fortified gatehouse, built into the very rock that made up the outside of the hollow hill the library was built inside.
Adjacent to the central room were two smaller rooms that were used to store and maintain instruments used to copy already existing books and create new ones. it is unknown if the copying itself was also done in those rooms, but it is likely.
Four more rooms were connected to the central room, barricaded by sturdy and nigh unbreakable doors. Those remain shut and sealed to this day, even after the flooding of the library at large, leading scholars and researches to believe that the contents inside of it are still somewhat intact. It is now known what was stored in those rooms, but it was most likely the home for the oldest and more dangerous of scrolls and books.
In the back of the central room, there was a small room, most often described as a safe, whose content is unknown, since nobody has been able to open it ever since the flooding happened.

History

Ancient History

The Great Library, as it is most often called, was created by unknown hands, most likely around the time most of the Araskan Households were created. When it was found, it had already been filled with ancient pieces of lore, most of them broken beyond repair or incomprehensible, written in long-forgotten languages.
Long ago it was invaded by unknown people, and for an unknown reason, but the results are quite obvious. Its entrance was busted open, then destroyed by large rocks and explosives, most likely the results of catapults/trebuchets and ancient magick, and the library was sealed shut for generations.
When it was finally found again by House Fargrete its entrance had to be almost completely rebuilt, and its interior was in a state of deep disrepair, skeletons, both human and inhuman, spread out inside, signs of battle all around them.
For many years House Fargrete repaired the inside structure of the library, recovering all pieces of knowledge they could, and storing them accordingly, although many of them would go unreadable until their final days.
Generation after generation the library was repaired. House Fargrete built their household on top of the library's entrance into the underground and, in due time, a city developed around it, using the nearby Pincer Bay as a valuable trading hub. Over time, using the data collected and stored in the library, House Fargrete became a house of scholars, sorcerers and scribes, whose most important mission was the protection of such immense amount of information, and the expansion of it.

The Fate of Knowledge

Sometime in the year -25 BK of the Imperial Calendar, nobody knows the date precisely, the city around yara'gyph, Yaragph, was attacked by the forces of the soon to be emperor Kruber, son of Marric. The city's defenders fought bravely, but could not withstand their besiegers for long. eventually, the Arch Librarian and Prince of Yaragph from the time, Marggot III Fargrete, challenged Kruber and his newly invented alchemy to a duel of epic proportions against his ancient lores of sorcery and witchcraft. Sadly, the Prince lost the duel, his old and fragile body betraying him in the last of his moments, allowing Kruber to impale him through the heart. Using the very last of his breath, however, Marggot cast an unbreakable incantation of immense power and sank the entire library to the depths of the earth, creating a gigantic sinkhole who soon flooded with the water from the nearby River Yarrickson and Pincer Bay, destroying almost all knowledge stored there, thus denying his enemies such power acquired over the generations.

Known items lost on the Library:

The Scroll of Biding

The Scroll of Biding was just one of the many ancient scrolls of magical lore that were stored and lost in the library. Nobody is sure of exactly what it does, but some recovered records state anything from literal mind control, to summoning and binding demons, to animal husbandry. This is just one of many examples of what has been lost when the great library was swallowed by the ground and sea.

Lanterns of Mary

The Lanterns of Mary were a group of 5 small (roughly 20cm tall and 10cm wide) and 5 big (precise dimensions unknown) lanterns that were invented by a noble of the house Fargrete, Mary the Tinkerer, in somewhere between -32 and -25BK.
The lanterns consisted of metal and clear glass main body in the shape of a hexagonal based prismatic container that housed what appeared to be a small flame within it, but was, in fact, a miniature and semi-stable portal to an alternate dimension that gave out a bright yellow and red light. The portal was too small to let anything but the light through it.
The absence of a fuel source and its closed nature meant that it could work for indefinite periods of time and underwater, with the added benefit of being usable in closed environments without fear of choking via the smoke and fumes that would come out of a fuel-driven light source.
Sadly, it never left the prototype stage of development, being lost when the library was sunk. Its portals have already collapsed due to time, so it would be extremely difficult for it to work again, or even be found.

The Dictionary Trinity

The Dictionary Trinity, as the name implies, is a name given to 3 different texts that, when put together side by side, could translate Old Imperial, Runic and Divine Script into one another almost flawlessly.
The three dictionaries are actually two stones with the shape of a hexagonal based pyramid engraved with various rules and words for Old Imperial and Runic, respectively, and one octagonal based pyramid that was engraved with the words and rules of Divine Script. Following a set of guidelines and prosedures, one could take a specific letter in any of the languages and match it with corresponding ones in one of the other languages.

The Book of Wrath

The Book of Wrath was a book written originally in runic, then translated over decades and more decades to Old Imperial. The book itself is rather simple. It is a detailed guide to warfare, both individual duels and battles.
This is one of the very few items lost on the library of which there are still copies out there, albeit incomplete copies, where the translation from Runic to Old Imperial, then to New Imperial was very badly done and few details still survive.

RUINED STRUCTURE
-25 BK

Alternative Names

Great Library, Pool of Knowledge, Yara'gyph

Type

Room, Education, Library

Parent Location

Port City of Yaragph

Owning Organization

Province of Araska