Biblos Quarter
The Great Library's name is still officially "The Cathedral of Knowledge" even after the Reformation. It sill dominates the quarter, even though things have changed so much.
Biblos (Book) Quarter
The Great Library's name is still officially "The Cathedral of Knowledge" even after the Reformation. This huge, multilevel structure is now run by a secular priesthood of scholars, many of whom live in the old priest quarters (in fact, until recently one or two of them were priests of the old temple). It is the cornerstone of the Colleges that are found in the quarter. The Colleges have sprung up since the Reformation, as the inadvertent monopoly the Temples of Knowledge had over education ended. Education is no longer ritualized and centered upon classics. Now free exchange and exploration are the central ideas of these new colleges. Magic is now, tentatively, being taught in public.
The area around the Great Library has become specialized in supporting the Great Library and the new colleges. Papermakers and Stationaries are found in this quarter, as well as BookBinders. Inkmen actually make a fine ink in the area. The Ink of this city is well known across the land.
The quarter is filled with book sellers and scroll mongers. In fact, this is the majority of businesses here. If the library was not enough, you can get newer books than those found in the library. And since the Library is no longer allowed to have religious works, bookstores and small libraries containing these works are more prevalent than you would expect.
There are a dozen shops of Scribes and researchers, who will find and make copies of things from the Great Library for a modest fee. The will also do other scribely duties, including reading to illiterate folks. Translators have set up shop here, so you can get papers in any language here. (With the presence of translators and foreigners here, as well as free thinkers/ radical, some say the spys hang out here as well.
A few scholars who make a living teaching nobles or at a College, or have retired from said profession, seem to congregate in this area. The few streetside bistros in the quarter, are filled with lively and scholarly debate as well as excellent pastries and tea.
It is strange that the most athletic of professions, the courrier is also centered in this quarter. These young madmen are suited to the urban environment, as they have been known to "bounce" around walls, terraces, bridges, dodge traffic, as well as run the city streets. There are dozens of "stables" here where human runners wait for assignments. These speedy runners (or riders for longer deliveries) deliver things of all sorts in the city and the surrounding areas.
Thank you SE. While Ideas are great, full write ups are better.
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? Responses (5)
Very Very Cool! It gives us a feel for the place and a sense for its history. You can see the old academics sipping tea and debating something obscure. You can see new students with their books over pints trying to be brilliant. You have shops and people bustling to special shops looking for things. You have immigrants getting translations. You have people of good rank buying their own stuff here, besides the servants of their betters. It is Boston or Cambridge all over. The Library/ college folks make up the bulk of the population. Many will be foreign or at least far travelled. But you will have other fringe Inteligencia and intrigue of spies her as well. That means potential for drama.
I really like the couriers (By the way, fix spelling please). I guess this is what would happen if bike couriers didn't have bikes and skateboards, they would have to be 'extreme' in other ways.
Not bad, but I'm not going to gush quite as effluently as Kendra. I am left to ponder something, intentional or not, once an institution gains a monopoly/power it is loathe to surrender it, no matter how lofty their ideals. Did the Cathedral of Knowledge oppose the rival colleges, in loosing it's monopoly it seems to have flourished to the point of supporting 'hooligans' running around rather than classical stuffy academecians.
Well, given that it was a Reformation, it was, "do it this way, or die/ go to jail/be tortured/ be excomunicated". Reformations are never neat, but they do then to be final... given a little time.
This is several decades later (if not a century), as implied by the time it took them to organize and build up new colleges, thus most of the complex or personal issues have all washed away (or conviently swept up or forgotten by historians).
To be honest, that was mostly fluff, for inspiration or to give people some lines to color in. The concept of a new(ish) district, with its purpose and its root (such as an old Catholic Monestary where they taught people, or some other center of learning), are the important part. I wanted to show how people could do things, and show the changes that occured over time, for their world in such a setting. They could grab this and use it for their world, but they will have to change things to fit their setting. Or write their entire world around it.
It's a neat study in what could happen to a powerful religious/philosophical center after a revolution like your Reformation. I like it as a scaffolding on which to build other happenings to fit into a setting.
Nifty details and a useful location. Can easily be adapted to lots of uses.