The Library of
Atoz-Theln is the largest repository of knowledge in the known galaxy.
It contains the noospheric archives of many worlds from the time of the Archaic Oikumene (and sometimes even more remote eras), and significant
physical media from cultures both human and nonhuman. Built before the
Great Collapse in the interior of a dwarf planet, it now lies within the
lawless sector known as the Zuran Expanse. Despite its location, it
remains an important center for scholarship.
The library is housed on several underground levels, all climate
controlled for the particular media they hold. There are rest areas and
tranquil spots to peruse information interspersed throughout, and rooms
they were once spartan but serviceable quarters for travelers. Animated
wall screens depict famous figures from the mythology and history
related to the acquisition and preservation of knowledge from many
worlds.
The
library’s inhabitants and staff are tall, thin, humanoids with narrow
skulls called Atozans. While their ancestors have been in the library
since before the Great Collapse, their society experienced a dark age
and backslid to savagery. Battles were fought between tribes occupying
the popular culture mediascape and exobiology specimen sections.
Dynastic histories from that time (meticulously carved into crystalline
display screens) suggest there was once a bloody chieftain who rose from
the recesses of the human evolution virtual displays.
Eventually, the Atozans clawed their way back to civilization and
restored the library as best they could to its previous functioning.
There are few of them left--only around 200--but their lives are
extended by nanotechnology, and they long ago fabered small-scale
cloning facilities. The ancient Library Mind never fully recovered its
faculties, but the Atozans have managed to kludge a solution to the
elaborate classification system used to organize the library's holdings.
This encrypted, ceremonial language is known only to the Atozans and
not shared with outsiders.