Libraries.Books and other fun stuff.

[bluedude21]

I'm trying to come up with an interesting library, most of the knowledge in it contains necromancy, dark magic and such but is used by enforcers in my novel to research dark magic as they need to know about dark magic to combat it. I want to ask what would it look like in your imagination.

I've got guards disguised as stone angels that guard the entrance of the building and floating orange lanterns that follow a person around the library when they need to. I'm not entirely sure what sort of librarians to use, humans, elves or invisible ones where books simply fly off shelves.

 

[Ireth]

I kinda like the idea of invisible librarians, myself. But there are questions to be answered here. Who owns the library in the first place? Where'd they get all the books from?

 

[Sparkie]

The books themselves: Are they tomes? Scrolls? Codex?

I picture the librarians of dark knowledge to look physically corrupted somehow. Knarled limbs, sickly skin, that sort of thing.

 

[MadMadys]

A massive, empty hall with a single lit pedestal in the middle. Upon it, a faintly glowing kindle fire with all the world's knowledge.

On a more serious note, how about the books/tomes/scrolls organize and categorize themselves? They contain enough knowledge where an adequate shelving systems should be within their capabilities.

 

[Barsook]

I picture the librarians of dark knowledge to look physically corrupted somehow. Knarled limbs, sickly skin, that sort of thing.

Maybe they are warlocks? And maybe the head warlock is the one who created the way how the books organize and categorize themselves like what MadMadys said. Maybe some dark magic that can also protect certain books from people, like how Morg (in the Fisherman's Son series) did in his library.

 

[Queshire]

A giant centipede-thingie with the head of an old woman with a beaky-nose! For the librarian that is. Or maybe a tentacly mass of flesh able to reach all throughout the library without leaving it's spot at the head desk.

Well, anyways, where is this library located? I'm guessing that, seeing how it caters to dark magic users, it's not easy to find or open to the public, yeah?

Anyways again, personally I think that for optimum creepiness, what's in the library is less important than how you describe it.

 

[ThinkerX]

For whatever reason, the OP's concept reminds me of the library guarded by the mad monk in Umberto Eco's 'Name of the Rose': a secret library in a closed off tower, pages treated with poison, books piled on tables according to subject.