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I'm trying to set up a Nethys archive of information. I am currently thinking the following general organisation and would appreciate feedback on it. . .
Public archives
Open to generally anyone. Contains mundane information religious texts, books of flora/fauna/countries/etc.
Provides +4 to knowledge - Engineering, Geography, History, Local, Nature, Nobility and Religion.
Restricted Archives
Open to anyone with a letter of authorisation e.g., priests of Nethys, respected scholars and the like. Adventurers with a "Valid reason" in the eyes of the caretakers may be allowed to hire a scribe to review and supply answers from this section without being vetted but will not be allowed in themselves. This section contains rarer and more exacting texts on all subjects.
Provides +6 to knowledge - Engineering, Geography, History, Local, Nature, Nobility and Religion.
Provides +4 to knowledge - Arcana, Dungeoneering and Planes.
Forbidden Vault
Contains rare texts and records that are considered heretical or unseemly (books that are otherwise banned and destroyed) and information on potentially dangerous topics such as the dominion of the black or arboleths. Unlike the other two sections no one is allowed to simply browse this section access is only granted on the authority of the higher ranks of Nethys priesthood and a trusted scribe retrieves the records for you to review in a secured reading room as well as an armed paladin remaining present to ensure you treat the record with proper respect.
Provides a +10 bonus to all knowledge checks for researching information in its contents and rather than rolling your assumed to have gotten a natural 20.
Sealed Vault
This rumored collection contains things that are actively dangerous to the person studying them e.g., a tome that contains knowledge of the king in yellow but corrupts the reader driving them to the darkest side of their obsessions, details on a ritual to sharpen a blade on the wings of angels, rites to transform a person into a lich. These are things that are only kept because someone might need information on identifying and combating them or they're impossible to destroy. Access to these vaults is only on the authority of the head priest and under the supervision of at least 2 powerful priests or paladins, more may be required for some items and all those who enter must be inspected by another priest for corruption or removed items on leaving . This is kept in a separate demi-plane to secure the information therein.
Details of the corruption and information received are up to the GM and will vary depending on what information is being sought e.g. information on the elder gods could come with a madness or draw the attention of some other dark entity while research on the rites to become a lich could require a will save or move 1 step towards evil alignment.
I'm trying to set up a Nethys archive of information.
Is there a lore thing in Golarion called a "Nethys archive" that this is driving, or is this completely homebrew?
I assume it's a specific building? Is there more than one?
If my assumptions about it are correct, I guess it's fine? I would hesitate to put it in my homebrew campaign because I wouldn't want to have a definitive place where players could come and find out something about an adventure I have in store as opposed to discovering the information as makes sense for the adventure. If you need the PCs to gain some knowledge for an adventure, this is a fine way to do it, but (unless I'm mistaken) then this building/organization/whatever is there all the time for every other adventure, also.
If my PCs are trying to counter an aboleth plot, I want the aboleths to be mysterious and unknown. If the adventure could benefit from the PCs discovering one or more pieces of pertinent information, I'll find an adventure-specific way for them to do that.
But maybe I'm misunderstanding your intention here.
I guess also it would be helpful to evaluate a Nethys archive if I could compare it to a regular library.
(Oh hey! I just discovered that there are rules for using and designing libraries! I found it on... the Archives of Nethys website!)
There were some libraries like that during Mummy’s Mask.
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There were some libraries like that during Mummy’s Mask.
That's what prompted this and Nethy's priesthood seemed the most likely to be handling such a thing. Its homebrew and obviously there wouldn't be identical things in each archive hence why you can get a knowledge local inrformation result from them.
Its also not something that will be easy to access the higher levels especially for intinerant adventurers. Even knowing of the sealed vault would be rare and restricted to a few while the forbidden vaults are more of a "go here to find information on X subject if anyone know's they would" then a "stop by the Nethys temple and ask for information on X." Even with these results a GM is well within their rights to say information on a particular subject is not available e.g knowledge on dark beings dwelling in the darkness between stars - yes, exact details on the dominion of the black - no. It may be because even they don't have it or it may be the archives on Arboleths are stored . . . far off location (which has mysteriously been attacked and the party must survive the trap, etc, etc).
I'm not sure if it's quite the same thing, but the AKASHIC RECORD exists in the Pathfinder multiverse, and can be accessed though spells like AKASHIC COMMUNION if you don't want to get involved with actual Planar travel.