Iron Library

The volumes of the Iron Library sit heavily in towering cases, gazing down on the librarians milling frantically below. Between the leather, wood, and metal bindings are scribed secrets of ages long forgotten. In the honeycombed warrens behind these buttressed walls, sequestered priests sit, furiously re-scribing the ancient words; racing time’s decaying breath. One word at a time they breathe life into the ancient mysteries.

Entries are organized alphabetically. Each section details places, people, events, and things. In most instances the information available is limited to that which has been learned in the course of the Chronicles. Information on Spells & Magic may be found in their separate area.

Within the dark Kyrm Oryroð is housed a sprawling library. The largest repository in the northern world, the Iron Library is an invaluable resource for scholars (rf. Hall of Kīrūid). The creation of the library was begun following the Departure of 46 DR as a means of collecting Yrūni knowledge, lost after the war. Following the war, the Eylfāe and Acèntyryr occupants collected all Dekàli books and scrolls, burning them in guildhouse-sized piles within Oð’s Temple Square. Many scholars and magicians trying to leave the city were captured and killed on the roads leading from Oð; their books and manuscripts were also destroyed. Very few escaped into the Tor’n Evalshat, believed at the time to be the only harbor against the Eylfāe. Most of those who escaped into the mountains were found and killed by the Ortor. In this way, the history of the people was erased.

Following the Departure and the subsequent extermination of remaining Acèntyri settlers (46-55 DR), Hardrok the Wise, a Pryn Roð and Dekàli theologian, was given permission to begin a library and the funds to collect those few documents that remained in the city, or that became available on the market. The library soon was brimming with materials, and was moved to a larger building in the Temple Ward. By 112 DR, the Priesthood commissioned a hall built for the library near Temple Square (now the Weavers Guild) where the collection was kept until 142 DR when fire swept through the ward and some of the collection was lost.

In 146 DR, the Priesthood was persuaded to move the remaining collection into Kyrm Oryroð and merge it with the temple’s own small collection which had survived the war. Since then the library has grown, and every several decades more of the temple’s interior is devoted to it. Fortunately, the Iron Temple will not run out of room in the foreseeable future, as most of the temple has remained abandoned since its construction.