The Jonstown Library has a collection of approximately 10,000 scrolls, gathered from across the world. A scroll typically consists of numerous sheets of parchment sewed together—this can be quite long, as a scroll can be 40–75 meters (44–83 yards) long when full unrolled. An individual scroll may consist of many unrelated chapters sewed together. A scholar needs to know the contents of a scroll in order to know that the scroll List of Animal Gods (named after the title of the first chapter) also includes several chapters on the history of the Shadowlands and that collection of recipes from Nochet.
My favourite bit about the Jonstown Library is Eonistaran’s Catalog Wheel:
The great Catalog Wheel of Eonistaran is a wooden device like a broad water wheel. Each of the Wheel’s seven boards holds multiple scrolls containing a partial listing of the scrolls and codices within the Library’s collection. At least five different organizational systems coexist within these great scrolls; some are numbered, some are based on the first line, another based on a cryptic code, and so on. If a scholar cannot find what they are looking for in one scroll, they simply turn the wheel and look in another scroll. Most scholars agree that the 120 volumes comprising Garangian Bronze-Gut’s Compendium of Persons Eminent in Every Branch of Learning with a List of their Writings is more comprehensive (but far less practical) than Desosinderus the Librarian’s more concise Scheme of the Great Bookshelves.
- RuneQuest Starter Set (2021), Book 2, Glorantha, page 42
- Sartar Companion (2010, 2012), page 23
I totally want a copy of the “Compendium of Persons Eminent in Every Branch of Learning with a List of their Writings”.
Parchment is made from animal skins. One thing Sartar has a lot of is sheep.