Library of the Lost

A Graveyard of Memories

Purpose / Function

The Library of the Lost houses all manner of things that have been lost or forgotten. Its bookshelves are filled with many a trinket believed lost and books that contain long-forgotten memories of all manners. Memories that have been replaced with magic, memories that have been lost to age and sickness, memories someone has been cursed to forget, memories that have been repressed by their owner as protecting from trauma.
Solely those who are well and truly lost find their way to this place but doing so comes with a cost... Only no one ever seems to remember the price they had to pay. Similarly, only those who no longer are lost and have found what they needed to find can leave this place.

Design

In the space between planes, on a chunk of earth seemingly floating in the void, there stands an imposing, ever-growing library. Smudged bricks stretch seemingly endless towards the sky - or what constitutes as one in a void. Colossal arches adorn the outside of the building. They are filled with stained glass windows segregated by tracery and depicting ominous images. These images are too eldritch for mortal minds to comprehend but will leave anyone who looks at them for too long feeling unsettled and with a feeling of impending doom.
A colossal set of heavy wooden doors, decorated with intricate carvings of ancient runes and symbols, leads inside the building. Upon approaching the doors, they swing upon as if by magic, and a deep, echoey rumble welcomes the visitors. When entering the library, visitors immediately find themselves in a great hall... And when they turn back around to look for the doors they came through, they will only find rows upon rows of never-ending and ever-shifting shelves filled with all sorts of books, artifacts, and trinkets. The passages between bookshelves are lit up by ever-burning candles.
One could spend lifetimes exploring the ever-shifting corridors and still have seen but a fraction of it...

Sensory & Appearance

The air is heavy with the musky smell of old and new books alike. The place is shrouded in gloomy darkness, brightened only slightly by gentle candlelight. Inexplicably, a soft crackling comes from the burning candles, disrupting the otherwise oppressing silence of the library. Occasionally, visitors can observe shadowy figures with gangly limbs hushing through the shadows.

Denizens

Visitors of the Library would do best to keep quiet as the Keepers of the Library do not much like having the silence broken. It is unclear who those Keepers are but rumor has it that those who never find what they need eventually become part of the Library, serving as its protectors and keepers forevermore.
Some even believe that the Library itself is sentient, an eldritch being in its own right, harvesting the lost, feeding on the emotions attached to the trinkets and memories, only letting go of something if it gets something in return...

Contents & Furnishings

The many books on the shelves have no titles, at least none mortals could ever hope to decipher or comprehend. Opening one of the books - or touching one of the trinkets -, one can experience an echo of the memory it contains in one's head. Those with a weak mind might end up trapped in this memory, experiencing it over and over again, caught in an endless limbo. Upon closing the book - or putting down the trinket -, the visitor retains no memories of its content unless the book contained something of theirs.

Special Properties

It is impossible to tell day from night in this place as time seems to flow differently here - or maybe not all. Those, who end up in the Library of the Lost, find that they no longer feel hunger or thirst, or have any need for sleep. No matter how long they spent in the Library, they do not age - and those who eventually leave will discover that mere minutes have passed in the place they came from.
Magically inclined visitors will also find themselves unable to cast but mere cantrips. Any magic more potent than that simply fizzles out.

Written for Spooktober
Prompt 07: Grave

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Location:
Everywhere and Nowhere
The space between planes

Founding Date

None, it just is

Type

Library

by Prateek Katyal