Library of Lyosha

The Library of Lyosha, also known as the High King's Library, is the greatest collection of non-magical books in Westrun, and perhaps all of Erenth.

Lyosha himself is believed to have been a sage of the ancient world. Indeed the oldest text in the Library is called Histories of Lyosha and is recorded on a series of clay cones, each bearing his distinctive signature. The writing is in the form of pictograms whose meanings have been lost to antiquity.

The Library itself was once lost, but was exhumed by Dwarves who began to lay the foundations of Peakshadow as a gift to human kind, early at the start of the Seventh Age. To the records they found there, the subsequent kings of Peakshadow added whatever tomes they could acquire or have written.

The books themselves are kept by an order of sages known as the Lyoshans, or more commonly, the Gray Beards of Peakshadow or the Fingermen.

The Lyoshan's vow never to write books of their own, and never to share the knowledge they have gained by reading, but rather only to present the books they have found for other's to read and draw their own conclusions. To help fulfill this vow, the Fingermen amputate their first and second finger on their right hand after taking the hood of their order.

Some believe that Lyosha himself is interred in the bowels of the library.