17. The Great Library
A warm, magically-heated brown and red brick three-floor building, the Great
Library is a place that fascinates even the mages that study there. They buy any
tome, scroll, or letter that is sent to them and they are willing to sell some
of their books at high prices. Each floor holds roughly 2,000 seperate works that
have been collected over the course of three centuries, and the place is manned
by whimsical faeries, elves, humans and gnomes. Research must be done within the
library and it is impossible to read anything without a librarian staring down
unless you pay to use one of the three private rooms on the third floor. The
first floor is magically lit and contains famous essays, epic poetry, fantasy
and history, and great works of literature. The second floor has but two shaded
windows and grey walls and is literally overwhelmed with huge bookcases jam packed
with philosophy, theology, letters, unfinished manuscripts, biographies and city and
nature guides. The third floor is always unlit and has a huge round table with
a candle always burning and eccentric mages always studying. This floor holds the
odds and ends of books, untitled works, arcana, occultism, and mage texts, as well
as many books banned in other cities. Three rooms on this floor are reserved for
those willing to study in secrecy, although the doors won't reopen and will sound
an alarm for those contemplating book theft. Each room has a small table, a broken
candelabra and a bookcase of texts outlawed even in Essembra, such as books of
demonism, essays on hell, illegal alchemical guides, drug instructions, and books 
about evil deities.