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I would just like to say that after a bit of monkeying around with regular expressions and microsoft excel that I estimate the elves have infected about 65.7% of our library's topics, falling short of a full third perhaps only because Laurelorn has no rodents for some reason.

Do with this information what you will.
 
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I imagine if they were to find any random necromancy book they would turn up their nose to it because magic in most of those is ametour, minor league stuff and no elf would lower themselves to spending decades it would take to master necromancy themselves. I mean why bother? Especially since they might not think end result is worth it.

Only something like Liber Mortis would be worth their time tough but absent of that they are likely to ignore it. So yes I think Elves would ignore it.

Asur or Druchii both still don't use Black Powder or canons on their ships and that is almost no brainer upgrade in most cases. Magic that is at best side grade is not going to spread before that.
It probably wouldn't take Elves decades to learn necromancy. The Druchii seem likely to already know the secrets of Dhar (they utilise it more than almost anyone else) and necromancy would just belearning the specifics of how to blend it with Shyish. And we know Elves learn colour magic at the same speed as humans do.

Barring Dwarfen secrets gunpowder weapons tend to explode, and to Elves, that likely weighs more than to humans. And the Druchii's naval tradition is largely piratical, and more focused on capturing ships unsunken. And of course, bows and bolt throwers are evidently still perfectly adequate for purpose considering every faction, including those with gun powder fields one or the other.
 
I found a citation for them having physical books. I suppose while it's entirely possible for Cython to just memorize the knowledge, sometimes it gets annoying in regards to topics they're no longer interested in, or maybe they just occasionally like being able to physically look at the writing while thinking.
Boney mentioned that Cython has a perfect memory. Cython probably keeps its books because they are treasures to it. It likely does not see a reason to give up something it sought out to claim possession of.

Have The We made any book requests known? Do The We know they can make book requests?
They do request books. At the time, there was only the original colony. It mostly buys books on their own rather than borrowing books from the library. That is because We view giving up books they have read as being similar to death. They are mentally incapable of giving up books after they have read them. I imagine the library colony acts similarly.

Incidentally it probably would view defacing books to be equivalent to attacks upon itself.
 
Suddenly thinking about how the high king of the karaz ankor has a huge-ass archive of captured skaven writing and wondering how we might get a copy

It'd be cool is all I'm saying, rat lore is great and the elves only gave us a pittance!
 
[x] [LIBRARY] Colleges of Magic: Liminal Pathways, Nehekharan Pantheon, The Mortuary Cult, Nehekharan Incantations
[x] [COLLEGE] An Ulgu powerstone (5 CF)
[x] [DWARF] No purchase.
 
Suddenly thinking about how the high king of the karaz ankor has a huge-ass archive of captured skaven writing and wondering how we might get a copy

It'd be cool is all I'm saying, rat lore is great and the elves only gave us a pittance!
I could see a deal where we provide the scribes to translate as much of it as possible in return for getting to take a copy of whichever writings aren't about the weak points of dwarven defenses and military tactics.

At the same time, I could also see all of the local librarians being extremely mad at us for even suggesting that they allow barely trained human scribes to do a real dwarf's job in the name of mere expediency. Unfortunately, if they don't take us up on that deal, I'm not sure how much of it would be translated by this point, and if it isn't translated it'll cost a lot of dwarf hours to make sure that nothing we get could come back to hurt the Karaz Ankor
 
I could see a deal where we provide the scribes to translate as much of it as possible in return for getting to take a copy of whichever writings aren't about the weak points of dwarven defenses and military tactics.

At the same time, I could also see all of the local librarians being extremely mad at us for even suggesting that they allow barely trained human scribes to do a real dwarf's job in the name of mere expediency. Unfortunately, if they don't take us up on that deal, I'm not sure how much of it would be translated by this point, and if it isn't translated it'll cost a lot of dwarf hours to make sure that nothing we get could come back to hurt the Karaz Ankor
I don't think that Karaz-a-Karak needs the assistance of K8P to hire scribes to translate the hoard.
 
[X][LIBRARY] Colleges of Magic: Liminal Pathways, Nehekharan Pantheon, The Mortuary Cult, Nehekharan Incantations
[X][COLLEGE] An Ulgu powerstone (5 CF)
[X] [DWARF] No purchase.
[X] [PURCHASE] No purchase.
 
I actually disagree. We know that he has a strong enough memory to remember entire dictonary after one read. So most likely he has memorized a hoards worth of books but I doubt he keeps the books around, no point to it from his PoV really.
Nonsense! When he got the book it became part of his hoard. He may have the contents memorized, but the physical book is still part of his hoard. And as any dragon will tell you, hoards aren't for using, they're for having.
 
The scrolls in question are the largest you've ever seen, and covered with carefully-copied diagrams and notes in a language that seems entirely alien, even after you catch a glimpse of both Eltharin and Khazalid in its patterns. You get the impression that mere ink and vellum should be entirely incapable of containing the message within, and that it condescends to be contained in a merely mortal medium as an act of generous benevolence. It is beyond the peoples of the current era to even measure how many steps they are removed from the original lessons of the Old Ones, those that joined forces with the Dragons to shape this world and held back the onslaught of Chaos for long enough for life as you know it today to grow strong enough to take up the fight themselves.
Looking at the way Old One script is described here, it does seem likely that there is something inherently "special" about the Old Ones' language. This is a newly-scribed copy of a text that Mathilde can't understand at all, and it still looks so obviously magical Mathilde's practically ascribing agency to it.

We've previously had discussions about whether or not this language would actually be special in some fashion or if we'd just be reconstructing the most dead language in existence*. I think this is reasonable evidence that it'd be inherently valuable in some way.

*Except Nehekharan.
 
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I mean, something about that language is fundamental enough to reality that the languages descended from it have drifted remarkably little, and speaking words of some of those descendent languages can cause magical effects all on their own.
 
The bright side is that it does sound like the sort of thing that will only really grow during mass acquisitions, and that the moving shelves means the issue can, theoretically, be fixed as new systems of categorization arise.

The downside is that Mathilde is about to discover technical debt.
Thankfully Mathilde already has a partial solution to technical debt.
Enter this: the Mark One 'Kvinn' Wheeled Modular Bookcase.

snip

There is another, subtler bugbear of would-be librarians who yearn for order: that of expansion. Dedicating a shelf to a single topic is all well and good, but as you acquire more document you reach the limit of that shelf. The question can be put off by balancing additional books atop the row of spines, but eventually one must succumb to the inevitable and displace the contents of an adjoining shelf. This is annoying on a personal scale, but could be disastrous on the scale of a library that wishes to maintain proper order. The displaced shelf must displace another, and that a third, until the displacement dominoes through the entire contents of the hall it is in. And this would happen every time a shelf reaches capacity. Well, this is where the minecart tracks come in. Each bookcase will be dedicated to a single category only, and when one reaches the capacity of its case, a new one can be wheeled in. A single moderately-fit librarian with a can of axle grease and the key to release the locking mechanism of the wheels could move entire bookcases around with ease, and with no risk to the secured contents.
You'd still have to come up with a new arrangement of where to put all the books but the actual physical process of moving those shelves is much easier.


They do request books. At the time, there was only the original colony. It mostly buys books on their own rather than borrowing books from the library. That is because We view giving up books they have read as being similar to death. They are mentally incapable of giving up books after they have read them. I imagine the library colony acts similarly.

Incidentally it probably would view defacing books to be equivalent to attacks upon itself.
They are willing to let people like Mathilde borrow their books if they trust them enough that they're sure they'll bring them back, it's not an ironclad rule that they will never give up a book under any circumstances.
Mathilde can be trusted to bring the books back. The same is not true of every random shmuck who wanders in off the street, who even if they don't have larcenous intent could have a hankering for reading ancient and irreplaceable tomes in the bathtub.
 
This is also the We writing about the We, their contributions are categorized under Dwarven because the only known We are citizens of the Karaz Ankor.
A bit late of a reply but I think you're making a mistake categorizing We writings as Dwarven just because they're citizens of Karaz Ankor, the logic behind getting extra bonuses from different cultures are that they bring new perspectives to the table and different ways to approach and comprehend a problem.
But the general idea of how the bonuses work is that each different perspective has something to offer, so even if she's only ever read about Skaven logistics, it could offer useful insight in non-Skaven logistical situations.
And the We definitely have a different culture from the Dwarves of Karaz Ankor even if they're both citizens of it. And what happens when they write about something that already has a dwarf bonus attached to it? Here's some example scenarios:
  1. Linguistics. Our library contains four languages, Reikspiel, Khazalid, Eltharin, and Written Queekish. While the We are unlikely to have the authorization to learn Written Queekish that still means it has an incentive to learn three languages to access the majority of the contents of KAU. That could inspire them to write about their perspective on learning multiple languages when once they knew none except when they go to publish the Dwarven Bonus is already maxed out at Extensive and Esoteric meaning that even though the We have provided genuinely novel insight into linguistics the bonus cannot be applied, breaking the rule that new insights from new perspectives should provide new bonuses.
  2. Karaz Ankor. The We could be inspired to write about their perspective on their strange two legged allies but again the bonus for Karaz Ankor is at Extensive and Esoteric meaning the We's bonus can't be applied.
  3. Trade. The We have a unique view of gold as something not of inherent value but of having extrinsic value as a medium of exchange. This perspective is centuries ahead of Imperial economic thought and is a conclusion that Dwarves would never arrive at short of insanity. Even today with modern economic theory a lot of people think gold has intrinsic value outside of making things look pretty and for certain electronic and industrial processes. Now admittedly gold does have more intrinsic value in Warhammer than in the real world due to the fact that it's important for certain magical spells and rituals but it's still overvalued. Yet because the Dwarven bonus for Trade is already at Extensive and Esoteric there is no room for a further bonus point.
I could go on but I think I've made my point clear, by lumping We-derived writings under the Dwarven category you're crippling their future bonus potential. As such I feel It would make much more sense to seperate We writings from Dwarven ones into a new seperate category. Karaz Ankor and The We are seperate sections in the Civilized Realms portion of the library after all.
 
The Citadel-We occasionally do, with the cost coming out of their silk fund. The LIbrary-We so far haven't, since the influx of books is far beyond what they can 'digest' and they don't seem to have grasped the concept of not reading a book.
ah, soon enough they'll be like the rest of us. Twenty unread things that you're interested in, but still can't muster the desire to actually knuckle down and do so.
 
A bit late of a reply but I think you're making a mistake categorizing We writings as Dwarven just because they're citizens of Karaz Ankor, the logic behind getting extra bonuses from different cultures are that they bring new perspectives to the table and different ways to approach and comprehend a problem.

This isn't a mechanical decision by me, it's Mathilde's in-universe decision. There'd be some sort of symbol or colour to denote the origin of particular texts and Mathilde doesn't want to invent an entirely new one for a species that has so far produced a single-digit number of books. It's open to revision if that changes, because having to revise your ordering system after your collection hits some hitherto unknown incompatibility is a major part of collecting things.
 
This isn't a mechanical decision by me, it's Mathilde's in-universe decision. There'd be some sort of symbol or colour to denote the origin of particular texts and Mathilde doesn't want to invent an entirely new one for a species that has so far produced a single-digit number of books. It's open to revision if that changes, because having to revise your ordering system after your collection hits some hitherto unknown incompatibility is a major part of collecting things.
So if the We does produce a writing worth a bonus point we don't have to worry about it getting lost if the Dwarven bonus is already maxed out?
 
The Citadel-We occasionally do, with the cost coming out of their silk fund. The LIbrary-We so far haven't, since the influx of books is far beyond what they can 'digest' and they don't seem to have grasped the concept of not reading a book.
I now desperately want a book club social to explore this, lol. Could catch up with Cython too, what with all the new religious elf texts that we just acquired...
 
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