Disclaimer: The following document fragment is presented from an in-character perspective, it should not be taken as the truth of the setting.
Context: An exert from a book covering the Great Libraries, centres of mage culture around the world. This one speaks of one the player character will spend some time getting acquainted with, though it’s not quite up to date with who’s in charge of it at the moment.
The beginnings of the Queensport Library are at best hazy and at worst a series of unfounded speculations. The first evident traces of its existence date back to the 5th century where it is mentioned in several contemporary texts including the well preserved “Letters from Vaspasianus” and “Timaios’ Codex”. The latter of which is the only known text from that period to link the library with the controversial Donndubhán mages.
It is not clear if these mages were the founders of the library or merely the current caretakers. Historical texts suggest that they have maintained it “for generations” now, hinting at a history that might reach over a thousand years into the past and include a period where the location was not a library but a place of worship for the followers of the old gods. At this point, the library itself was already located in extradimensional space. However, it served predominately as a Secretum sanctuary on the British Isles. Several centuries of Roman rule meant the influence of the Secreta Secretorum was strong.
Around the 6th century, the turmoil in mainland Europe inspired a push to transport some of the more valuable manuscripts to a more remote location among these tomes were the salvaged remains of the Library of Alexandria and the reclaimed portion of the Library of Rhodes. This influx was enough to place the fledgeling library among the Great Libraries. Many mages followed along with the tomes, changing the local political landscape.
In 721 the library was officially restructured, this time with a stronger connection to the Secretum and a more rigid hierarchical structure. Morcant the Brown became the first Grand Librarian. The newly reformed library was almost entirely unaffected by the Silent War and became a haven for various outcasts. During this time the library began producing manuscripts, which were then copied and sent to the mainland. One of the most noteworthy of these is the “Codex Aranea”.
The library continued to function in this form for almost a thousand years until a new reformation in 1713. When the library came under the control of the Church, which in turn had strong backing from the Orthodox Secretum. The Library was rebuilt as part of the city’s Cathedral infrastructure, as part of a monastery, officially inhabited by Jesuit monks. Its name was changed to “Biblioteca Matris Amabilis”. During the reformation, certain texts were destroyed, including the “Tablets of Airgeadlámh” and “Gwydion’s Stone”. The destruction of these texts was met with fierce opposition from the Donndubhán mages who did not follow the Orthodox. This event caused the lineage to splinter from the Secreta Secretorum for two centuries. Though the monastery changed hands several times during those years, it did little to disturb the inner workings of the library itself, and the local mages made sure the political and religious turmoil did not affect it.
The library, or at least its external housing, was destroyed during World War 2 and rebuilt in 1953. This time under the guise of a secular institution, one of the signs of the Secretum’s separation with the Church. Despite this, the library kept the name “Grand Monastery Library”. Drust Wallis took on the title of Grand Librarian that year, though it was only a symbolic gesture as the elderly mage died in 1954. Baldric Aalst became his replacement until 1973. The position of Grand Librarian remained open for over a year after her death, until it was once more filled by Agnes Cormaic who held the position from 1974 to her retirement in 1992. Arthur Hobbs then held the position from 1992 until the current year.
Esoteric Musings... 