[Scenario Seed] The Great Library of Alexandria
Apr 15, 2022 6:56:23 GMT
Catsmate, greyhame, and 2 more like this
Post by soultaker666212 on Apr 15, 2022 6:56:23 GMT
Hi there! As my first post on here I thought I'd happily share an idea I had recently which can spawn numerous different sessions for you to play with.
The Great Library of Alexandria is one of the more known and larger of the libraries of antiquity. Said to house on some accounts 40,000 to 400,000 scrolls at its height, its objective was to house all knowledge of the world located under one roof. These papyrus scrolls contained various subjects such as mathematics, astronomy, physics, natural sciences and the arts of the times. It wasn't the first library of its kind and regularly competed with these other libraries such as the Library of Pergamum which adopted parchment due to the Library of Alexandria blocking off its access to Egyptian Papyrus.
Built in the third century, it was based on the earlier visions of Alexander the Great who wanted an empire of knowledge but died before he could see this happen. The construction began by Ptolemy I, a former general of Alexander and first king of Egypt during the Hellenistic period who located it in the royal district of the city. There is no account of its architectural design but may have had a mixture of Hellenistic and Egyptian designs, however there are accounts of its layout. The library comprised various gardens, reading rooms, lecture halls, meeting rooms and shared dining rooms but most importantly were the many shelves that contained the scrolls on. Known departments included a cataloguing department and acquisitions department.
The library acquired its knowledge using rather aggressive but royal funded tactics such as visiting “book” fairs in Rhoades and Athens and a policy of acquiring texts from sailors in the ports, making copies of them and keeping the originals but giving the copies back. With the vast trade of Alexandria, ships coming from the East and West settled in the docks which made it easier to get knowledge, especially with Alexandria being a leading factor in papyrus trade. Hired book hunters also scoured the Mediterranean for new books for Alexandria.
The Library was visited by many of antiquity’s greatest scholars including Archimedes who is credited to have found the Archimedes screw in the library. As the library grew, it brought thousands of books to the library containing various information topics of the day for those who wish to study these topics. There were some outstanding discoveries made in the Library, in 235 BC Eratosthenes not only realized the Earth was round but calculated the circumference and diameter of the Earth within a few miles of its actual diameter, Heron of Alexandria is credited as discovered the steam engine here, over a thousand years before the Victorians! The library thrived with the knowledge it contained and became useful for vast sources of info across Antiquity.
However in 48 BC, Julius Caesar laid siege to the city of Alexandria, and set the ships in the harbour on fire causing the fire to spread. The fire then spread to the library and is said to have caused a great Blaze. So much knowledge had become lost within the fire, scrolls on various important subjects now turned to ashes thanks to the actions of Caesar. Although the library did continue on after the fire and scholars did continue to visit the library however much of the contents were destroyed within the fire. The library slowly fell into decline as new rulers of Egypt such as Greeks, Romans, Christians and finally Muslims saw this place as heresy and threat to their empire instead of a source of knowledge.
But however, what if the Library had an a ulterior motive, what if the library secretly stored a vast collection of alien technology acquired from around the Mediterranean. One could say a pre-Torchwood/UNIT black archive if you will, one of antiquity instead of contemporary era. Inside hidden chambers unknown to the main populous, scholars begin to research the various technology that that they have found writing down their knowledge upon these scrolls and stored them somewhere secret. Because the library is famous throughout history, many time travellers can be found in disguise wandering the halls making secret copies of scrolls for safe keeping int he future, maybe they have left gadgets and tech of the future behind by accident, things that should not belong in the past that has now been found by the scholars to study.
Here is some ideas for technology that could have been found within the library
What if those book hunters onboard the Greek ships also have another motive, to trek for these strange artefacts and technology across the Mediterranean, might be a fun campaign to play as a group of these technological hunters sailing and adventuring across antiquity Mediterranean in search of these artefacts, could style this as an ancient version of UNIT/Torchwood. All this data would be then collected upon the scrolls and stored in special shelves, these scrolls contains blueprints and tech manuals, star charts of alien worlds, a list of known species etcetera.
The library does seem to contain though some live specimens, held within secret in hidden rooms for study. Maybe the scholars attempt to make communication to find info about these advanced technological items. You could through in any alien from across doctor who here and would be interesting to see how they would react to ancient life, here is just a few i have thought of that could be used
What really caused the fire though, history would have us believe it was Julius Caesar having burnt the ships in his siege, and that could as well be the case as well, but what if it were another reason for why it burnt. I mentioned the cybermen attacking the city in order to free Talos but numerous other aliens may have their reason to attack. The Silurian's could attack to free their pet dinosaur from the hands of humans, various alien species might see the library as threat to the galaxy/universe and wish to see it destroyed for their own motives (in reflection to how the library declined thanks to changing hands disagreeing with what the library was). This also could be the case of the misuse of technology by the Librarians, maybe Pandora's box opened up and released a deadly fireball causing the library to catch ablaze, Osirian technology being handled wrong and fired a blast of energy catching fire to the building, Sontaran battle grenades being thrown into a room etcetera. However, you could say that your players are responsible for the burning, knowing that humanity at his stage of development has access to all of this technology and the dangers of it could argue that the burning is necessary to stop history altering, convincing Julius Caesar to burn the ships which would then spread to the library or setting it off themselves.
These are all my suggestions though and I would be extremely happy if people use them for their campaigns either as one off adventures in time and space or as a fully fledge campaign!
The Great Library of Alexandria is one of the more known and larger of the libraries of antiquity. Said to house on some accounts 40,000 to 400,000 scrolls at its height, its objective was to house all knowledge of the world located under one roof. These papyrus scrolls contained various subjects such as mathematics, astronomy, physics, natural sciences and the arts of the times. It wasn't the first library of its kind and regularly competed with these other libraries such as the Library of Pergamum which adopted parchment due to the Library of Alexandria blocking off its access to Egyptian Papyrus.
Built in the third century, it was based on the earlier visions of Alexander the Great who wanted an empire of knowledge but died before he could see this happen. The construction began by Ptolemy I, a former general of Alexander and first king of Egypt during the Hellenistic period who located it in the royal district of the city. There is no account of its architectural design but may have had a mixture of Hellenistic and Egyptian designs, however there are accounts of its layout. The library comprised various gardens, reading rooms, lecture halls, meeting rooms and shared dining rooms but most importantly were the many shelves that contained the scrolls on. Known departments included a cataloguing department and acquisitions department.
The library acquired its knowledge using rather aggressive but royal funded tactics such as visiting “book” fairs in Rhoades and Athens and a policy of acquiring texts from sailors in the ports, making copies of them and keeping the originals but giving the copies back. With the vast trade of Alexandria, ships coming from the East and West settled in the docks which made it easier to get knowledge, especially with Alexandria being a leading factor in papyrus trade. Hired book hunters also scoured the Mediterranean for new books for Alexandria.
The Library was visited by many of antiquity’s greatest scholars including Archimedes who is credited to have found the Archimedes screw in the library. As the library grew, it brought thousands of books to the library containing various information topics of the day for those who wish to study these topics. There were some outstanding discoveries made in the Library, in 235 BC Eratosthenes not only realized the Earth was round but calculated the circumference and diameter of the Earth within a few miles of its actual diameter, Heron of Alexandria is credited as discovered the steam engine here, over a thousand years before the Victorians! The library thrived with the knowledge it contained and became useful for vast sources of info across Antiquity.
However in 48 BC, Julius Caesar laid siege to the city of Alexandria, and set the ships in the harbour on fire causing the fire to spread. The fire then spread to the library and is said to have caused a great Blaze. So much knowledge had become lost within the fire, scrolls on various important subjects now turned to ashes thanks to the actions of Caesar. Although the library did continue on after the fire and scholars did continue to visit the library however much of the contents were destroyed within the fire. The library slowly fell into decline as new rulers of Egypt such as Greeks, Romans, Christians and finally Muslims saw this place as heresy and threat to their empire instead of a source of knowledge.
But however, what if the Library had an a ulterior motive, what if the library secretly stored a vast collection of alien technology acquired from around the Mediterranean. One could say a pre-Torchwood/UNIT black archive if you will, one of antiquity instead of contemporary era. Inside hidden chambers unknown to the main populous, scholars begin to research the various technology that that they have found writing down their knowledge upon these scrolls and stored them somewhere secret. Because the library is famous throughout history, many time travellers can be found in disguise wandering the halls making secret copies of scrolls for safe keeping int he future, maybe they have left gadgets and tech of the future behind by accident, things that should not belong in the past that has now been found by the scholars to study.
Here is some ideas for technology that could have been found within the library
- Osirian Technology: Due to the location of Alexandria, Egypt was once home to the Osirians who after their fall and victory over Sutekh have left some of their technology behind for various reasons. They could take on forms of various common ancient Egyptian artefacts but hide their true purpose. Imagine the power one could have if they simply had them all, the power of the Osirians are not to be messed with/
- Greek Mythological items: Think of a Greek myth item, its now an alien artefact. Greek mythology is full of strange events/creatures/objects that have been used by doctor who before, so its no surprise that the Library of Alexandria houses many objects found within Greek Mythology, really just alien technology left by aliens who have visited Earth.
- Silurian technology: Buried near Alexandria within the Egyptian Deserts, a Silurian city can be found. Still under cryogenic hibernation, some have left their chambers to wander the Earth above, their fates are unknown but what is known is they have left their technology behind and now found its way into the Library. One could even dig in the desert to find Silurian technology buried just beneath the surface.
- Familiar technology from the aliens of Doctor who: Doctor who has is fair share of aliens, now imagine if some of them found their way into Ancient times, leaving their traces behind, Dalek casings, Sontaran guns, Judoon armour, deactivated Autons, Draconian daggers, Krynoid pods might be just some of the items found within the Library
- Technology of the future: I mentioned that there might be time travellers wandering the halls of the Library, imagine what technology that they left behind by accident, even some time travel devices such as a vortex manipulator, technology out of time and should not be there
- Atlantean Artefacts: In doctor who there is said to be 3 versions of Atlantis and we have seen different accounts of Atlantis, what if the library holds different artefacts and technology from each different version of Atlantis grouped up into one, maybe even from surviving Atlantean colonies
What if those book hunters onboard the Greek ships also have another motive, to trek for these strange artefacts and technology across the Mediterranean, might be a fun campaign to play as a group of these technological hunters sailing and adventuring across antiquity Mediterranean in search of these artefacts, could style this as an ancient version of UNIT/Torchwood. All this data would be then collected upon the scrolls and stored in special shelves, these scrolls contains blueprints and tech manuals, star charts of alien worlds, a list of known species etcetera.
The library does seem to contain though some live specimens, held within secret in hidden rooms for study. Maybe the scholars attempt to make communication to find info about these advanced technological items. You could through in any alien from across doctor who here and would be interesting to see how they would react to ancient life, here is just a few i have thought of that could be used
- Talos: Talos in Greek Mythology is an robot that was said to protect the island of Crete from attackers and pirates. In reality Talos is a Cyberman, how it got to Crete remains a mystery, however sightings of it had been seen wandering across Crete attacking anyone in sight with powers of the gods (cyber energy weaponry). Somehow the library had acquired Talos, and now holds him in a special cell where they can study it. Patched up with bronze to keep it alive and shoddy repairs, Talos more looks like its made of scrap goods of the era than the shining example of cybermen we see today. Although to the librarians it seems like Talos is complacent, Talos is really planning his escape, attempting to steal technology found within the library to contact the cyber fleets in order to rescue it, maybe he was successful and the reason the library burnt was because the cybermen attacked to free Talos.
- Sirens: In Greek mythology, sirens where creatures with the body of a bird and a head of a women who sang to sailors to lure them to their island to then attack and feed off them. The library has one of these sirens, but in reality its a flying dinosaur, an undiscovered species at that. Freed from the Silurian city below these dinosaurs escaped and found an island to live on breeding and maintaining its territory, using an evolved deadly screech to warn sailors not to come nearby only to swoop in and devour the sailors. The library had one of these sirens, chained up but regularly fed, approaching it requires one to wear wax in their ears as to not be deafened by its screeches
- Osirian Giant Psychic scarab beetle: These creatures were the pet dogs to the Osirians. Appearing as giant scarab beetles ranging in height from 60 cm to 50cm, they have a black shell on them and pincers that can cause deadly attacks. What makes them unique though is that they are psychic, making them hard to contain. They have the powers of mind reading, telepathy with their owners, telekinesis and more. Those with the psychic trait may find it easier to communicate with these than ordinary folk. Back during the time of the Osirians these were used for various purposes such as guard dogs, lie detectors and even in some cases mounts as there have been reports of bigger ones as well. The library houses 3 of these creatures but there are reports of more of them wandering the deserts of Egypt and beyond.
What really caused the fire though, history would have us believe it was Julius Caesar having burnt the ships in his siege, and that could as well be the case as well, but what if it were another reason for why it burnt. I mentioned the cybermen attacking the city in order to free Talos but numerous other aliens may have their reason to attack. The Silurian's could attack to free their pet dinosaur from the hands of humans, various alien species might see the library as threat to the galaxy/universe and wish to see it destroyed for their own motives (in reflection to how the library declined thanks to changing hands disagreeing with what the library was). This also could be the case of the misuse of technology by the Librarians, maybe Pandora's box opened up and released a deadly fireball causing the library to catch ablaze, Osirian technology being handled wrong and fired a blast of energy catching fire to the building, Sontaran battle grenades being thrown into a room etcetera. However, you could say that your players are responsible for the burning, knowing that humanity at his stage of development has access to all of this technology and the dangers of it could argue that the burning is necessary to stop history altering, convincing Julius Caesar to burn the ships which would then spread to the library or setting it off themselves.
These are all my suggestions though and I would be extremely happy if people use them for their campaigns either as one off adventures in time and space or as a fully fledge campaign!