The Atheneum

Travelling the skies of Temshai, The Atheneum is a massive airship holding an entire town. Built to hold a massive library and support its inhabitants, The Atheneum transports The Collectors around the world, where they can obtain all kinds of knowledge. The Atheneum is a place of mystery to most of Temshai. While its existence is widely accepted, few have seen it, let alone explored the library. The library itself is a rotunda surrounded by five large towers, each lined floor-to-ceiling with books with a central spiral staircase. The towers are the Pillar of Nature, containing books about the natural world, the Pillar of the Arcane, containing tomes concerning magic, the Pillar of History, describing Temshai as it is now and as it once was, the Pillar of Industry, for books about the day-to-day lives and pursuits of the denizens of Temshai, and the Pillar of Poetics, containing every manner of story and poem. On the west side of the library lies the Sanctum of Knowledge, a monastery housing the Order of the Tome. On the east, the Halls of Acquisition serve as a headquarters for The Collectors. Most of the town's few residents live to the north, while the small commercial area, containing the Reader's Repose inn, is to the south. The inn is run by Veren Stillbrow, an elderly gnome who used to be a scholar. It has two common rooms, one that is run in near silence for those who wish to read quietly, and one that, while noisier, is still quieter than more boisterous inns elsewhere in the world. Renowned for its ever-changing cuisine from around the world, the inn's best feature is its bedrooms, hosting one or two people each. Each one is magical, boasting a small in-room library and different themes, such as a gothic-style library, a treehouse, a cottage in a meadow, and an outdoor bed in the open, in a grove of trees by a stream. Many of the rooms are bigger on the inside than they'd appear, and all are private and cozy. Veren prides himself in his ability to choose the right vacant room for each individual or pair of guests.