Ten things you might find in a Harenian Library

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Scholastic cities can be amazing places to establish campaigns around. They are centres of learning and lore, where obscure secrets, forgotten ideas and buried truths can only be uncovered by wise and dedicated characters. They offer a chance to investigate the past and the present and can direct players towards new quests. In the Arclands setting, the scholastic city of Harenis is the nearest thing Aestians have to our world’s great library of Alexandria. It is a pristine white marble city built offshore on an atoll, battered by frequent monsoons. Fifty miles inland is the great Library of Harenis, which is contained inside a mountain chamber and is itself the size of a city. You can find out more about Harenis from the links in this article, but below is a list of ten items you can find in a Harenian library (feel free to adapt these to your own campaigns too).

1. Ratheker oil

Ratheker oil is a pungent substance used in burial rituals across the Arclands. It is normally dripped on the eyelids of the deceased, in order that the tranquility, which is said to be a property of the oil, seeps into the body where the sleeping soul resides. The oil then helps to transport the deceased on their journey to the afterlife, or so it is believed. Ratheker oil can also be used in many other ways, some scholars inhale it in order to plunge themselves into deathlike trances where they have access to knowings that are far beyond anything the conscious mind can understand. A jar of Ratheker oil in the study of a scholar or sage is a powerful clue that its owner has experimented with radical and forbidden ways of acquiring knowledge and might not be all that they seem.