Equivalent to Library of Alexandria?

[Oli Ironbar]

Is there a Golarion equivalent to this? Something like a town or nation that actively looks to have a copy of every book ever written in its libraries?

[Calliope5431]

"Every book ever written" is more challenging in a post-Gutenberg world, which I'm 70 percent sure Golarion is.

That being said pretty sure that the Magaambya has something like that. The Mordant Spire might as well.

[The Raven Black]

The Grand Archive of the Pathfinder Society in Absalom might fit.

And several locations in the outer planes (the Vault of Abadar springs to mind).

[Hill Giant]

The Forae Logos

[keftiu]

The Magaambya dates back to the mortal rediscovery of magic; their archives have gotta be deep.

[Perpdepog]

There is a metaphysical space, the Akashic Record, which is said to have everything ever written down inside of it.

I also know of Katheer, a city presented in one of the Strange Aeons volumes. I forget the name of the library you go through there, but there are also meant to be loads more libraries that aren't the focus of the adventure.

[The Raven Black]

keftiu wrote:

The Magaambya dates back to the mortal rediscovery of magic; their archives have gotta be deep.

I think Nidal goes even much farther back. Doubly so as they welcomed survivors of Azlant and Thassilon.

[QuidEst]

I believe that Nidal's library is the oldest mortal collection of written works on the planet, having been started about 10,000 years ago, and collecting the most important works of Earthfall's survivors at the time. It predates the Magaambya's founding by about three thousand years. Nidal wins a lot of "oldest X" contests because it's the only nation to have survived the apocalypse. Even on the other side of the planet, politics caused too much turnover for any nations to have survived that long. Nidal has a god personally in charge of its politics, through three undying mouthpieces. Not great for quality of life, amazing for long-term preservation of historical records.

[Matt Morris]

The Sarzari Library in the Crimson Citadel of the Red Mantis assassins is also supposed to be very comprehensive.

[Dubious Scholar]

QuidEst wrote:

I believe that Nidal's library is the oldest mortal collection of written works on the planet, having been started about 10,000 years ago, and collecting the most important works of Earthfall's survivors at the time. It predates the Magaambya's founding by about three thousand years. Nidal wins a lot of "oldest X" contests because it's the only nation to have survived the apocalypse. Even on the other side of the planet, politics caused too much turnover for any nations to have survived that long. Nidal has a god personally in charge of its politics, through three undying mouthpieces. Not great for quality of life, amazing for long-term preservation of historical records.

Well, the elves probably have some even older texts they took with them to Sovyrian, but that's not technically on Golarion anymore.

As far as "every book ever written"... that's probably only going to be found in the outer planes somewhere. Abadar's First Vault would be a good candidate. The Akashic Record too.

[Darth Game Master]

Hill Giant wrote:

The Forae Logos

Good answer, and—though it's besides the point of the question—I find Absalom would probably be the best place for Alexandria-like shenanigans in general, since Osirion was never ruled by anyone from the direction of Taldor or Iblydos, but the Isle of Kortos has been influenced by all three. Not that Absalom should be constrained to one source of inspiration, of course, being such a worldly city with its own unique role in the setting, but it's something that would fit.

[Wei Ji the Learner]

If one is looking for a more rare or esoteric location, Valashinaz has a library in her Treasure Vault.

[Sanityfaerie]

Calliope5431 wrote:

"Every book ever written" is more challenging in a post-Gutenberg world, which I'm 70 percent sure Golarion is.

That being said pretty sure that the Magaambya has something like that. The Mordant Spire might as well.

The printing press is a level 9 item that costs 600 GP. So, yes. Might be mostly limited to the Alkenstar area, though.

[Wei Ji the Learner]

Sanityfaerie wrote:

Calliope5431 wrote:

"Every book ever written" is more challenging in a post-Gutenberg world, which I'm 70 percent sure Golarion is.

That being said pretty sure that the Magaambya has something like that. The Mordant Spire might as well.

The printing press is a level 9 item that costs 600 GP. So, yes. Might be mostly limited to the Alkenstar area, though.

I'm pretty sure Andoran and Absalom also have printing presses, if memory serves?

[Oli Ironbar]

Nice! I posted this here although its for my groups PF1 Kingmaker campaign since the lore with PF1 is mostly the same (and those forums don't have the same number of eyes on them now), but now I am curious about the level of magic available in PF2.

Do spells exist that are similar to Commune with Texts and Greater Create Mindscape? The plan is to create a literal living library where the knowledge gathered from Commune with Texts shapes the Mindscape held by the head librarian. Can that be pulled off at a high enough level in PF2?

[Garrett Guillotte]

Wei Ji the Learner wrote:

I'm pretty sure Andoran and Absalom also have printing presses, if memory serves?

There's a wiki article for that too: cited examples in at least Andoran, Cheliax (including parts that are now Ravounel), Galt, Nex, and Alkenstar "in the Inner Sea region alone". "Expensive, but not uncommon". They're even the central component of the Hellknight Order of the Rack's origin story.