Library of Lore
Realm of Boccob
Location: Outlands / Ringlands
Boccob’s realm, the Library of Lore, is a real graybeard’s paradise. This library ain’t your usual dusty book stacks; it’s a citadel of knowledge that’d make a Guvner’s head spin and mouth salivate.
First, the setup: The Library of Lore, it’s perched on a barren bluff in the Outlands. The only way up to this trove of arcane secrets is a great staircase, and it’s guarded by elder elementals of each stripe. No cutter gets past these bruisers without the nod from Boccob himself. And those who try to get clever with teleportation or astral trickery, they find themselves right back at the foot of the stairs, as if the planes themselves are having a laugh. Seems Boccob and the Lady of Pain have something in common at least in their mastery of such magics.
Assuming you make it inside, the library’s a madhouse of passages and corridors, all crisscrossing and looping like a Xaositect’s daydream. It’s got meditation cells for mages, armouries chock-full of magic items, and libraries—some true, some false—brimming with arcane lore. Getting access to a true library, that’s a rare privilege, granted only by Boccob. Spend an hour of research there and they say it’s like communing with the powers themselves.
The place is also a museum of magic items, with examples of every (non-artifact) doodad ever made by mortals, all tucked away—under traps and wards, of course. And just to keep things interesting, golems and shield guardians patrol the halls, making sure no knights of the cross trade get too light fingered.
Now Boccob’s a greater deity, and his influence sweeps out from the library, spreading up to a hundred miles. Within this range, he can tweak spells with a flick of his finger, limiting magics tied with law, chaos, good, or evil. And within the library, he’s cranked up the magic, making divination spells stretch further and allowing all magic users to cast their spells silently, so as not to disturb other readers.
The petitioners serving Boccob, they look human enough, but they’ve got their own tricks, like being able to sniffing out agents of chaos, evil, good, or law. They’re the librarians, scribes, researchers, and guides of this grand archive, always on the lookout for those who deserve the knowledge hidden within, and those who deserve to be kicked out.
And here’s a juicy bit: Some say that the items in the library are just for show, that Boccob could whip up the real McCoy if he wanted, but to anyone else, they’re as useful as a chocolate teapot. Mind you, in a place like the Library of Lore, even a chocolate teapot might hold a secret or two.
Canonical Sources:
- Manual of the Planes [3e] p150-151 (description of the realm)
- Dragon Magazine #338 [3e] p38-51 (Boccob and his clergy)
Sources: Jon Winter-Holt
