Forae Logos

Also known as the Wise House and Library of Kortos, the Forae Logos in Absalom's Wise Quarter is the city's oldest and largest library, and one of the most extensive archives of written texts west of the Pit of Gormuz.

Structure

The Logos is a monumental structure built in the Azlanti tradition, with the entrance atop a pyramid-like base and led to by 33 steep steps. The Protectorate Anthology, headquarters of the Wise Quarter's Learned Guard, is located at the bottom of the steps. The building is also located near the infamous Blakros Museum.

The top of the Logos has a flat roof and sharply angled features. Its façade features twelve 50-foot supporting telamon columns each depicting one of the guises of Aroden, of which the Artist and Scholar frame its entrance. Several of these columns animated to defend the structure in response to Tar-Baphon's siege of Absalom in 4719 AR.

The library is composed of several themed wings that organize its collections, as well as reading rooms that sometimes display special relics. The structure also contains basement and sub-basement archives, and is connected to the Scriveners' Guild headquarters by underground tunnels whose use is restricted to senior members of the Guild and Learned Guard.

History

The Forae Logos is on paper as old as Absalom itself, being established in Absalom's Founding Laws. It is a public institution owned and operated by the city government and has been charged since its opening with collecting and preserving knowledge.

Collection of works

See also: List of written works

As one of the greatest sources of knowledge in the Inner Sea region, the district watch—known as the Learned Guard—jealously protects the library's scrolls, documents, tomes, and other written works. Absalom claims ownership of every item in its collection, and as outlined in the Founding Law, the city's Grand Council forbids the removal of any text except by unanimous agreement.

The collection is bolstered by a Grand Council order titled the Scholar's Law, which requires that every book brought into the city either be copied for the library or be taxed a silver per page, a tariff also called "paying silver letters". Inspectors of the Scriveners' Guild enforce this law by comparing books at Absalom's gates and on Pilot Island against the library's list of holdings. Personal items, such as diaries, spellbooks, and ledgers, are officially exempt.

Although enforcement of this law is haphazard and subject to corruption, it has been quite profitable for the city both in gold and knowledge. Brivit Nae, the Head Librarian and Conservator of the Logos since at least 4708 AR, also orders two copies made of all works requested by patrons. Under her management, the Logos's collection has grown by 2 percent—a significant rate considering the library's collection dates back more than 4,000 years.

Similarly, the Crier's Table committee of the Grand Council is intended to approve and deposit all other matter printed in Absalom, such as the city's broadsheets, into the Forae Logos before it can be distributed. However, this mandate is applied in practice mostly to larger entities that work with the city's government.

The Logos also hosts archives of items and relics, many of which are classified as unconfirmed or unidentified and are stored in sub-basements at least three levels deep beneath the library.

List of collected works and items

The Forae Logos' collection is ancient and wide-ranging, including extensive writings and artifacts from Azlant and many since-redacted versions of Cheliax's history. The following works and objects are known to be among the tens of thousands of items in the Logos's collection. Many of these are reported in letters from Curator of Apocrypha Djavin Vhrest to his fellow faculty:

• Accounts of the Lost Angel by Lady Saphon Laghanni, which Vhrest suspects contains a coded message
• An astralabe, catalogued as being of "Ninshabur Origins, Circa 1000 AR"
• Book of Serpents, Ash, and Acorns: Shadows of What Was and Will Be, a tome made of compacted ash detailing Seraph's Ladder
• The Burgundy Bowl by Yisme the Candler, a book of subtle Kuthite propaganda
• Chronicle of the Cantorian Spring, a book of ancient Elven text scribed on living leaves that require watering and cultivation
• The Divers Folios, deemed to be mostly a false copy of the Book of the Damned save for three folios
• Dwarven Smear by Gaspard Vocci, a racist rant that contains at least 14 encoded dwarf poisons
• Fourteen Pages of Rain by Quan Quan, which depicts an unusual view of Castrovel
• Gird, a self-aware intelligent book attempting to escape the Logos and travel to Oppara
• Sixteen harrow decks
• History of the True Art by Jackdaw, a book on Ralzeros the Overwatched
• Fourteen copies of Hunter's Moon by Ailson Kindler, one of which features a hidden skip code its printer claims is an error
• Libram of Forgotten Dreams, a book containing rituals concerning the Dreamlands
• A shard of an orb of dragonkind, purportedly part of a gift from Mengkare to Eltembren
• A forgery of Pathfinder Chronicles, Volume 5 with directions to dangerous sites
• The Red Shining Star by Father Scepter, a children's book containing precise tracings of Asmodean Monographs
• The Romance of the Cooper and the Hen Handler by Lord Lonteirre Jeanvar II
• A rubbing of the Shield of Aroden, potentially depicting all 12 pieces
• The skull of a Shark Island iguanadon, misidentified as the skull of Kazavon
• Viceroy by Dardral the Lesser, illuminated with mind-affecting alchemical formulae
• The Words of Voxkel the Reader by Voxva, containing words that can grant and revoke the reader's literacy
• A Zenj bark etching depicting a circle of nine creatures, unusual as most similar etchings depict 10

Unconfirmed, unknown, or untitled works

• #42,003, burned fragments of Secrets of the Dreaming Dark
• #42,466, an elaborate riffle scroll
• #42,880, a bear permanently polymorphed into a book

Scriveners' Guild

The Forae Logos is also home to the Scriveners' Guild, which cares for the books and enforces the Scholar's Law in exchange for free access to the library.

Learned Guard

The Learned Guard is housed in buildings around the library, and while they are responsible for protecting the entire district, their mandate requires them to protect the Forae Logos above all else.

Employees

Among those serving under Head Librarian Brivit Nae are:

Curators

• Irranda Liassheir, Antiquities
• Djavin Vhrest, Apocrypha; an expert on the occult magic tradition, the Book of the Damned, and journals of the Eldest
• Nadine Vives, Impossible Texts
• Aliyas Ardenvaugh, Absentia (deceased)

Assistant curators

• Assistant Curator of Cryptohistory Doctor Liseng

Archivists

• Second Archivist Qilaus Sandaril

References

Paizo published an article on the Forae Logos in Guide to Absalom.

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.