Libraries

Most phyles have private research facilities for the furtherance of their own interests. A few, however, also make knowledge available to the public at large:

• The Clock Tenders are known to have some interest in sharing knowledge with others (although it’s widely suspected that they keep a lot more to themselves). Larger Clock Tender enclaves often include a Scriptorum – a library focused mainly on grimoires and other books and scrolls of magic. Non-phylists can usually get access to such a library for a “reasonable donation”. The library in the Peace is large, but not the largest of their public repositories. That honour goes to a book-hoard simply known as the “Great Scriptorum”, which occupies the entirity of a (not particularly small) shard.
• The All-Seeing Eye maintain reading rooms in almost all of their enclaves. These are typically mostly archives of the Chronicle, and thus sources for people seeking historical information. Due to the erratic distribution of chronicles from enclave to enclave, the exact materials at any one archive can vary quite a bit. The Public Archive in the Peace has one of the more complete collections, but even it has (often irritating) lacunæ. Admission is usually 1gp for a day’s worth of research.
• Several of the older draconic members of the Talon have taken to collecting books, and when you do that for a millennium or two, a decent-sized library builds up. While they generally aren’t too keen on having lots of strangers tramping through their lairs, a few have reading rooms which can provide very good information on obscure topics. Admission to such establishments generally depends very much on making a favourable impression upon the proprietors. One of the better known of these, and a poet and historian of some repute, is known as the Word Hoarder.
• The Wretched Victims sometimes maintain caches of rather grotesque pornography. You’ve heard of “tasteful erotica”? Yeah, not that. The less said about them, the better.
• Both the One World Party and the Mutual Defense Co-operative maintain lending libraries – an otherwise unheard of concept (many of the others don’t even have open stacks). That’s the good news. The bad news is that their collections tend towards pulpy novels and how-to and self-help guides. The MDC’s libraries are scattered fairly widely, but OWP tries to have a functioning library pretty much anywhere they have a presence. Both usually charge borrowers a yearly fee.

[Rules notes: i haven’t been able to track down official rules on the mechanics and benefits of research. unless someone can point me to something, for now we’ll go with the following: a day’s worth of research in a library can grant a bonus on a relevant Knowledge check. the size of the bonus will depend on the quality of materials available.]