The Qualic Scriptorium

More than just a library, the Scriptorium records experiences. Sensations. Fleeting moments in our time experienced by subjective senses. Witness and wonder.

— Scriptorium assistant

Nestled among the endless constructions and temples upon the black sands of the Boneyard is a peculiar building that seems more organic life than any structure a mortal could create. From loamy earth, its roots grow upwards into an intricate construction of wood and otherworldly metal, held together by molten magics and bathed in a golden glow.

Qualic Scriptorium Interior by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

It does not stretch outward like a tree; instead, at its peak, it spears into the plane's sky and folds in on itself as glowing pathways lead out to its external branches.
This is the Qualic Scriptorium, an extraplanar library and museum of experiences and mortality. It is home to Sothime, a reclusive deity strongly linked to the psychopomps. As part of their realm, the Scriptorium's task is to carry out their grand endeavour: to collect instances of subjective, conscious experience, allowing the documentation of the entirety of existence through brief, individual moments and senses.
Their task is one that shall never be complete, yet this does not concern Sothime. The universe is improved for the Scriptorium's existence; it need not be utterly complete to be useful, and indeed, shall never contain every experience. It holds value as itself, with all its eccentricities - so long as it is maintained, and so long as the grand endeavour never ceases.

And so the work continues, and the visitors come in stuttering bursts to a library of briefest snippets of time. It should come as little surprise that Sothime shares close links to Enhedha, the Scribe of Time; they are united in their drive to document.

Purpose / Function

Colour to the blind man and sound to the deaf. The taste of mother's fresh baking. The sensation of tears on your cheek. Each experience entirely anew, and each experience utterly unique - each saved here for eternity, to be witnessed and admired.

As a library, the Scriptorium is a fantastic way for the curious to experience wide ranges of emotions and feeling across the span of existence. Though very few are granted unfettered access to the realm, it is common for extraplanar researchers to travel to the Scriptorium's gates to seek out odd sensations to draw inspiration from, to attempt to clarify their current research with, or to garner a greater understanding of psychology.
The Scriptorium specifically remains organised for the use of travellers; if Sothime was to catalogue it all alone, their own systems would function in a nigh incomprehensible manner.

Sections are organised first according to the species and area they are from, and are then broken down into topics. A highly simplified version of this is as follows:

• Humanoid

---

• Gnomes
• Tastes
• Colours
• Blue
• Blue in regular lighting
• Blue at night
• Blue at night reflecting on a surface
• Red

---

• Humans
• Tastes
• Colours
• Blue
• Blue in regular lighting
• Blue at night
• Blue at night reflecting on a surface
• Red

---

Melidea River by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

Aisthex Prisms by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

The individual qualia are stored in golden aisthex prisms in much the same way as a library contains its books, which are then suspended in liquid melidea. Simply touching the melidea surrounding a given aisthex prism allows the concept to permeate an individual's mind and experience it as if it were their own.

Adding to the Scriptorium

You mean it's not just automatic?

— adventurer

Aisthex prism storage by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

Qualia are discovered and added to the Scriptorium by many varied means, but the two primary methods are tied deeply into the Scriptorium's presence on the Boneyard. The first method is that the souls of the dead, before judgement, filter very briefly through the golden lights surrounding the Scriptorium as they are filtered towards their final rest.
In this moment, the qualia attached to each and every memory are filtered into pure liquid melidea to be processed by the Scriptorium's many servitors and stored in their aisthex prisms.
The second method is more direct. By interfacing with both the Boneyard and the Astral Plane, the Scriptorium is able to collect qualia from every individual that teleports. Often, psychopomps serving Sothime will open small portals to other planes to enable the planar link so that more qualia may be obtained.

Though this method does not compare to the collection of the dead, it is one of the few ways for Sothime to reliably obtain qualia from living mortals and outsiders alike. Notably, many outsiders choose to willingly teleport in the vicinity of the Scriptorium every few years to aid Sothime's eternal task, including other deities of equal or greater power to the Mind's Eye themselves.

Defenses

To say there are many sensations would be an understatement of immense magnitude. If the Scriptorium were to be attacked, I suppose they'd just make someone experience all of those at once?

— pondering psychopomp

As a deity's realm and an extraplanar location in the Realm of Death besides, the Scriptorium is under no threat of attack. However, if it were to come under an assault, it is better prepared than many other deific residences to defend itself. The strange nature of its innards leads regular travellers into confusing spirals; attackers would face the disorienting lifts and passages moving around them, as well.
Both the psychopomps and the Scriptorium's own innate servitors would have a deep understanding of their enemy's location due to the building's careful logging and tracking systems, and access throughout the facility is made easier for those who understand it best by the way it can be commanded.
There is also the threat of Sothime themselves, and the enigmatic deity has already ordered the use of stored qualia as weapons in past conflicts. They are not above repeating the act. It adds to the library, after all.

Qualic Scriptorium Exterior by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

Alternative Names

the Living Library

Type

Library

Parent Location

the Boneyard

Owner

Sothime

Characters in Location

• Sothime

Locating Information

A common question asked is how one would ever find the knowledge they need. Whilst the Scriptorium's sorting system is wonderful, it is the sentient servitors Sothime created to assist in their task that provide greater help. Though they are limited in intelligence, the servitors - known universally as the Melissa - are small golden constructs in a circular shape that possess articulated mechanical wings.
Though each servitor does not have the entire Scriptorium memorised, designated keepers retain specific sections and communicate cross-section queries with fast dancelike motions and sounds to allow seeking Melissa to flit from section to section to hone in on a desired qualia.

Melissa Servitor by Hanhula (via Nijijourney)

Scriptorium Halls by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

What are qualia?

Qualia, the plural of quale, are a philosophical concept defining individual instances of subjective, conscious experience. These experiences aren't memories, dreams, or ideas: they are the sensations experienced.
The wetness of a tear, the taste of fine wine, the particular hue of the sky at dawn, and even the smell of a new book are all individual instances of qualia. Qualia are utterly unique: the way one individual experiences a sensation will never be the same as the way someone else does.
Ideasthesia is the phenomenon of evoking sensory experiences; this is what the Scriptorium seeks to invoke when an individual quale is experienced through the liquid melidea.

Scriptorium Heights by Hanhula (via Midjourney)