The Housing Scavenger Hunt

The Housing Scavenger Hunt (HSH) was brought up in the thread I posted about the Library on the Homeshow forums. The question of whether the Library had a section for the Hunt was asked.

The very first books on the shelf in the Library!

The answer is "Yes." The HSH has its own section in the Library on the Adventurer Authored Tomes floor. There is plenty of space for tomes documenting other player-run events as well. In fact, that reminds me that I need to move the books for the Festivals of Unity and Discord scavenger hunts to their spot beside the HSH books.

On to some background:

For those who don't know, in February of 2011, I decided to host what I named a "housing scavenger hunt." I requested submissions of homes. For each home submitted, I and the homeowner determined a good location for a clue to be hidden. Contrary to my belief that only a few people would be interested in submitting homes, I wound up with 75 homes submitted, belonging to approximately 50 different players. Some players submitted one home, others submitted many.

I learned a lesson--never allow unlimited submissions for something like this. Put a cap on it!

To give you an idea of what the HSH was, the text from the event book that each participant read is copied below. The event book was placed on the top floor of the Library v2.0, and adventurers were directed there to read the book. The event ran for one month, from Feb 8 - March 8 of 2011.

Adventurers of Norrath, 

  An associate of mine has encountered a rather embarrassing problem. She is a young wizard still learning her trade. During the casting of a routine spell, she managed to switch some runes around. The result is that she is stuck speaking in rhyming riddles!
  Jazamin has been understandably shy since the accident. However, now she has disappeared completely. The last time I saw her, she mentioned something about visiting various homes in Norrath to see if she could find the components for a cure. I would be most appreciative if you would take the time out of your schedules to see if you can track her down.
  As the Head Librarian of the Norrathian Research Library, Kelethin branch, I did some research for her. From the little I have been able to determine about my young associate's affliction, some of the ingredients for a cure will be rather difficult to obtain. There is also a bit of a timeline. If the components are not found by March 8th, 2011, Jazamin will be stuck speaking riddles for the rest of her life. Please spare us all the horror of listening to an Erudite rhyme.
  Jazamin mentioned that some of the possible items for the cure are best used fresh. If it turns out that she requires some of these items, you will not need to bring them back. Merely let me know what and where they are. In plain Common please, I am not fond of rhymes!
  To help you begin your search, I have included the last thing Jazamin said to me.
Thank you,
Jazabelle Wra'Eth, Head Librarian of the Norrathian Research Library, Kelethin branch
OOC:
  Welcome to the first Housing Scavenger Hunt! This is not a competition. I repeat, this is NOT a competition. This is instead a challenge.
  You are to "run the course" as directed by the clues you will find in players' homes and guild halls. Please take the time to explore the houses and halls! These players have opened up their hard work for your pleasure and enjoyment, and it would be rude not to take advantage of the opportunity they are presenting.
  There are two paths to pick from. One will take you through Neriak. This is marked as the "evil" path. You do NOT need to be evil to run it, but you WILL need to be able to sneak through Neriak safely. The other is the "good" path. You do NOT need to be good to run it. Both paths will take you through good and evil cities.
  Some clues in the houses and homes will have secondary instructions. If you are not interested in the prize at the end, you may ignore these instructions. If you would like to receive a prize, and you qualify (restrictions on qualifications are in the rules section), you must carefully note down the secondary instructions and figure them out.
  If you cannot find a home on the list when you click the door, try typing in the homeowner's name.
  ANYONE MAY PARTICIPATE! That is right. Anyone may participate. Complete the challenge on time, and if you are eligible, you will win a prize!
  If you find any errors with the Hunt, please let Jazabelle know immediately, so they can be fixed and others may enjoy the hunt error free.

  The hunt will continue until March 8, 2011

RULES

1. Unless you are from another server, you must be level 20 or above to participate.
2. You are welcome to use whatever means at your disposal to view a clue EXCEPT sending someone else to find it for you. Ingenuity is required for good characters visiting evil cities, and evil characters visiting good cities. It is possible! Just difficult.
3. Keep a list of the items the scavenger hunt wants you to obtain. Some items are part of the game world, and so you only need to tell Jazabelle what they are and where to find them.
   Example of how you might describe a reagent to Jazabelle:
   "A plate on the table in the Halfling's house in Rivervale."
   Other items are actual items you must loot. These items must be brought or mailed to Jazabelle before you may claim your prize. At the end of the hunt, you should have 8 items to give to Jazabelle, and 12 locations to tell her. 
4. When you BEGIN the challenge, contact Jazabelle. It may be by mail, private message on the SoE forums, or /tell. If you do not, you will NOT be eligible for a prize.
5. When you COMPLETE the challenge, contact Jazabelle. It may be by mail, private message on the SoE forums, or /tell. If you do not, you will NOT be eligible for a prize.
6. ONE entry per player. Do not bring multiple characters through the challenge, and expect multiple prizes. You may run the courses as many times as you desire but only once will you receive a prize.

A SAMPLE OF POSSIBLE PRIZES
  Many wonderful prizes have been donated by generous individuals. This is just a small sample of some of the prizes.
SC Plushies
Mahogany furniture
Eucalyptus furniture
Music boxes
Rare books
Rare furniture
Venril Sathir paintings
Firiona Vie statues
LON paintings
LON tapestries
Happy Scavenging!

JAZAMIN'S LAST WORDS TO JAZABELLE
Good path:
Within the manors of the Twins,
It is the place your path begins.
Innis' name is on the door,
Use the portal on the floor.
It lies below the mining bins,
Where furnace burns and bellows roar.

Evil path:
On a road where Deadmen Walk,
Close by fearful dreadknights stalk.
Through the third door to survive,
Xravilec waits as you arrive.
In room where one is made to talk,
Grab the clue while still alive.

Included in the books for the HSH are three books with clues--the good side, the evil side, and the neutral side that both the good and evil merged into. There's a fourth book with the riddles for the different components.

I had two individuals who did an incredible job documenting their journeys through the 50 player houses each of them had to visit. Optikal kept a rather amusing journal (three volumes' worth!), while Aluriel took a screenshot journal through the homes she visited. (And yes, Aluriel, if you put the link into a book, or transcribe the captions under the pictures into a book, it will go on the shelf beside the other HSH books!)

I would like to do another HSH in the future, but it was a lot of work. Part of it is that I didn't delegate work figuring out clue locations. While I did have someone write the clues for me (I'm not that good at rhymes), I had to error check each clue, location check each clue, copy each clue into a book, then deliver each clue to the homeowners. Lastly, I had to ensure that the clues were placed properly before the Hunt began. Phew!

I'm tired just thinking about it. I think I'll go take a nap... Or maybe I'll shelve more books.

The Library needs books!

The following list is a list of books that the Norrathian Research Library is missing. If you're on Antonia Bayle, and you'd like to donate or sell me one of the books listed below, please contact Jazabelle.

All donors are honored for their contributions with a plaque. If you wish to remain anonymous, there's even a plaque for that. Even nameless contributions are honored. Thank you!

Books that are bolded are rare books that are no longer obtainable via questing. If you have one of those books, please be aware that there is no way to get those books in-game any longer. (I don't want to cheat you out of your books! If you'd like to arrange for me to steal or buy the rare book from you, I'd be happy to discuss it.)

Books with a red title are newly added.

The library needs 29 (28?) books for the collection to be complete. (Order of the Frozen Wastes may not actually be obtainable.)

Donors have their name and donation posted on the Donors wall.

1. "The Age of Cataclysms" 
2. "The Age of Destiny" 
3. An ancient grimoire 
4. Book of Hate 
5. Books of Ancient Lore
6. Books of Ancient Myth
7. Books of Ancient Spells
8. "Destroyer's Folly" 
9. A disenchanted ancient grimoire
10. Guidebook to the Queen's Colony 
11. History of the Hand 
12. History of the Runnyeye Goblins, Vol. II 
13. History of the Runnyeye Goblins, Vol. III 
14. "Horguz" 
15. The Journal of Samantha Rageshree 
16. The Journal of Ubdub of the Reet 
17. The Journal of Yasva V'Alear 
18. Legends Paintings: Volume 5
19. Order of the Frozen Wastes (??)
20. The Outpost of the Overlord: A Guide
21. "The Pawn" 
22. Paying Homage to the Past 
23. The Pirate Queen and the Map
24. Remembrances - Nyalla-Phon 
25. The Tale of Alexander Simond 
26. A Tattered Journal 
27. Termble Clankerbang Findings Vol. 98 
28. a torn diary
29. Xass's Notebook

Needs a plaque:

1. A Dilapidated Journal 

The Norrathian Research Library, Take 3!

I posted this same post on the Homeshow forums. However, I prefer to keep everything archived here.

I love collecting books. You might even say I'm a bibliophile. But when a bibliophile runs out of space in her house, what is she to do? Build a library, of course! The first version of the Library came into existence because of precisely that reason. While building my Kelethin home, I ran out of room. I could either shelve most of my books and never add another book or item to my house, or I could move my library into a new house, and fill up my house with knicknacks. I chose the latter option.

The Library 1.0's lobby

Approximately two months later (after I'd shelved all the books), the lack of real windows in the library annoyed me enough that I tore it down, and then rebuilt it again. That resulted in Library 2.0.

The Library 2.0's lobby from the front door.

The Library 2.0's directory and information desk.

That library lasted for almost a year and a half. However, there were always little things that irritated me about it. The walls didn't line up as well as I wanted them to. You couldn't go outside the building. Each floor was a different height. I left it alone, despite all of that. For one, any time I mentioned redoing the library, I was jumped on by irate bibliophiles. Second, it took me weeks to sort, catalog, and shelve all of the books. The thought of doing it again quickly convinced me to leave it alone.

Then the Vale house was introduced. There are other library themed prestige houses. We have the Personal Library and the Arcane Academy. However, neither of them are unique, because they're pre-generated. Plus, the Library has been a tower for longer than those homes have existed. The Vale house was the perfect answer to the problem of rebuilding the Library. It's an island with character, unlike the Tenebrous island (don't get me wrong, I love the TT house. But it's very...bland. A perfect blank slate). It's a prestige house, so it's rent free--and that's a good thing, because I periodically forget to pay the rent on my houses. I took one look at the Vale house, and I decided it was high time to redo the library. We'd had building blocks and new tiles introduced. When both versions 1 and 2 were built, the only tiles that existed were cityfest tiles and the tinkered tiles. Now we have crafted tiles and building blocks!

For the first day or so, I left the old library alone. I bought the Vale house, and I began to build the tower.

Building the Library Tower version 3.0

View from the top of the partially completed Tower.

Originally I went with 10 floors, just like in Library v2.0. The problem with that was that the Vale house's item limit is much lower than the Kelethin house. Additionally, it takes more items to build a house you can run around the exterior of, rather than just building so you only see the interior. By the time I'd built all 10 floors, I had approximately a hundred items left for interior decorations and the books that count towards the item count. That wouldn't do at all.

Completed tower: 4 floors of books, three floors of other fun!

So I trimmed it down to 7 floors. That meant that I had to combine a couple of floors, and remove some floors altogether. The Lounge went away, as did the Rare Books floor. Luckily, Rare Books were just duplicates of books on other floors, just versions that are no longer obtainable in-game. Mythoi was added to "Notables and Mortals." Lastly, I moved "Chronicles" from "Chronicles, Cultures, and Hobbies," to join Mythoi. Floor IV will be pretty crowded, but it makes it easier for me to catalog the books--sometimes it's hard to tell which of those four catagories a book should fall under. By putting them all on a floor together, I neatly sidestep the problem!

I: Lobby

II: Adventurer Authored Tomes

III: Cultures, Lands, and Beasts

IV: Mythoi, Notables, and Mortals

V: Chronicles, Memoirs, and Hobbies

VI: Lecture Hall

VII: Observatory

The new lobby, south side. Pizazz thought I should switch the patterns of the floor and ceiling. While I agree with him, and think the star floor would look awesome, it just wouldn't be possible without rebuilding the entire tower. The tower floors and ceilings are rolled at an angle of 0.5, which means there's a difference of approximately 0.1 along the Z axis between the exterior of the room and the interior. Every piece of furniture was placed with this difference in mind. Furniture near the center of the room is 0.1 lower than furniture near the exterior, and all furniture is angled either 0.5 or -0.5 to keep the illusion that the floor is flat.

The new lobby, south side.

The new lobby, north side.

The directory. Spelling with books is a PITA!

Of course, once I finished the tower structure and the lobby, that meant I had to get started on decorating the interior of the tower. Then of course, I had to shelve the books. To do that, I had to destroy the old library, since none of the books belong to the character Library, and a lot of them are no-trade. I had to pack up the house and send the contents to the new library. Then I had to remove every item that wasn't a book from the moving crate, and move it back to the old library. Nearly a thousand items later, I was finally ready to start shelving books...

Four floors look like this.

Don't mind the mess. Eventually the books wind up on the shelves! Note the benches under the windows and in the center of the room, for people to sit on and chat. There are four floors that look identical to this--"Adventurer Authored Tomes," "Cultures, Lands, and Beasts," "Mythoi, Notables, and Mortals," and "Chronicles, Memoirs, and Hobbies."

I'm actually not finished shelving and cataloging the books. Because the catagories changed, I have to redo it all. However, since the structure is finished, I decided to post.

This is what a Library looks like when the Librarian goes insane.

The Library has always been a spot I've envisioned as a roleplay location. I want people to be able to come here for their lore needs. Unfortunately, I'm horrible at advertising, so that hasn't happened. It doesn't help that I forget to pay the rent on the Kelethin library, as I mentioned. The benefit to the Vale house is that it doesn't matter how often I forget to pay rent since it doesn't need rent! I've promised myself that once I shelve the books in the Library, I'll advertise.

People are more than welcome to hold lectures or what have you in the Library, despite that all books haven't yet made it to the shelves. Stop by and engage in a little RP if you encounter another bibliophile here!

In the spirit of roleplay, v2.0 and now v3.0 have lecture halls. The stools can be sat upon with either /sit or /sitc. There are also benches scattered all over the island, but I didn't take screenshots of those.

The view of the Lectern from a seat.

Because the top floor of the tower is an observatory, the board to the side of the lectern is currently a star chart.

Star chart board for your astronomy lecture needs!

However, the back of the star chart is actually a blackboard. The rotating board makes it easy to switch from star chart to blackboard. Just be sure to take the chalk off of the edge before you do, or you may sling it into the eye of some unsuspecting student!

I was given the telescope as a birthday gift a couple of months ago. To be quite honest, I had no idea what to do with it, until I realized I had been calling the top floor of the Kelethin library an observatory. It made perfect sense to me that I should make the top floor of version 3.0 an actual observatory, complete with telescope!

Luclin through the window!

Luclin and Drinal through the window.

The library isn't actually complete yet, since not all of the books are shelved. In fact, I've only managed to shelve up to H. I haven't even begun sorting them.

Library reflected on the water.

Once the books are all sorted, shelved, and catalogued, I'll be posting the library on the leaderboards for easy travel. At the moment, it's not up. It is open for visitors, however, at Library's Vale of Halfpint Delight in Freeport on the Antonia Bayle server. It can also be accessed through Library's Aerie Kolmas in Kelethin.

Thank you for visiting!

Many thanks go out to "the usual crowd" for bearing with me and helping me to error check this monstrosity. You know who you are! I'd list you all, but there are so many of you, I don't want to risk offending anyone by forgetting your name. I couldn't have done this without all of you. <3

And for those who are curious, there are more screenshots on my Facebook page. EQIIShare makes it so easy to take them while I'm building...

I am amazed and humbled. Also, update on decorating!

So apparently 400 awards on the leaderboards turns your home's name blue.

I am amazed and humbled by how much people like this house. I keep expecting the Tudor Farmhouse to eventually drift off into obscurity. It's been around for nearly five months now. Yet every time it drifts down, there's a sudden surge of interest in it, and it pops right back up. I don't know why it's so popular, but there it is.

As of right now, the Tudor Farmhouse is the only blue named house on the leaderboards (on Antonia Bayle, at least). And it's mine?! What in the world are you guys thinking?!

I am awed, humbled, and amazed. Also, slightly peeved. It's almost impossible to read the name when it's that color. Oh well. I guess I can either take it down, or leave it up and hope that there's another color in the list of awards.

Jazabelle's Housing News:

I'm still working on my backlog of projects, in between being swamped by real life. I finally cleared one project off of my plate, only to have another two line up. Luckily, one of the new ones isn't due to start for another couple of months. The other supposedly is for a person who's perfectly fine waiting a couple of weeks for me to get my act together.

It doesn't help that when the Vale house went in, I'd just come back to the game after a few weeks of break. The Vale house seemed like an answer to my prayers for the Norrathian Research Library. Being the flaky decorator that I am, I immediately bought a house. Instead of finishing off the projects I had lined up, I put together a new tower for the Library. Good news is, the tower's been done since three days after the Vale house went live. Bad news is, I haven't finished shelving the books yet. Also bad news, I keep taking time when I should be working on other projects to shelve books.

Perhaps in my next blog entry, I'll post the screenshots of the new Norrathian Research Library that I have posted up on my Facebook.

Webcasts and Leaderboards

I had the pleasure of showing Jaedrian of PUG TV around the Norrathian Research Library, Kelethin Branch. I had contacted him a few days ago, expressing interest in allowing the program to tour some of the homes I've built.

It took the Library several months to enter the Hall of Fame.
It was never the top of either category.

Surprisingly, people have apparently been requesting the Library. Considering how poorly it has done on the Leaderboard, people requesting it on a fledgeling webcast show was unexpected.

Speaking of the Leaderboard, I still dislike the fact that there are ratings at all. When the Leaderboard was first announced, Zhadowsee and I had a very interesting conversation about decorators and the Leaderboard. We observed that most individuals seemed to be against the idea. He thought that people who managed to overcome their dislike and posted their homes, and whose homes entered the Hall of Fame would change their tune. For the most part, he was right. People's opinions of the Leaderboard seemed to be directly affected by their homes' positions on said boards. It seems rare that people hold fast to their opinions, despite the position of their home on the board.

Then there's me. When the Leaderboard consisted of a five star voting system, I would not post houses there. No, I lied. I posted the Mazemansion for a Nights of the Dead competition. People used the Leaderboard to easily travel to the Mazemansion. The ratings it received were inconsequential. However, I did not post any houses with the intent of obtaining votes. Several people approached me about posting my houses on the Leaderboard for easy travel. I declined. Once the Leaderboard switched to the "like" system, I became more willing to post homes for exposure and travel, but I still disliked the concept of the Hall of Fame and the Leaderboard in general.

Amazingly, yes, I still don't like the Leaderboard.

I now have three homes in the Hall of Fame. One of those homes has been at the top of the Hall of Fame since it was inducted over a month ago. How do I feel about the Leaderboard? I still don't like it. Yes, it's not as hurtful with the "like" system. People aren't running around being half-star bandits, downrating other people's homes so that their own home is pushed up higher on the board. However, it still fosters competition in a previously competition-free environment. I'm not much of one for competition anyway. I don't like competing, and I feel that there are better ways to show off one's skills than to compete against other people. But that's neither here nor there. I've drifted off topic!

What I was saying before I distracted myself is that the Norrathian Research Library has done poorly on the Leaderboard, leading me to believe not many people were interested in it. Whether this is because word of the Library never spread, so no one visited to "like" it, or people visiting didn't "like" it, I don't know. And that's a good thing--I can't be upset that people didn't "like" it if I don't know whether they visited or not, unlike with the old system. But the Norrathian Research Library was requested more than once for PUG TV.

I stopped in last night to watch the live webcast of the Norrathian Design Wars. After that webcast ended, Jaedrian contacted me in-game, asking if I'd be willing to do the tour of one of my homes now. Specifically, he asked about the Library. From watching previous webcasts, I figured he would walk around and look at things, talking about what he saw. He would ask me the occasional question, which I would answer. Easy enough, right?

Wrong! I was told that since I'd seen his webcasts before and sort of knew what to expect, he was going to let me run the show.

Now, I have a terror of public speaking. It is a terror so bad, I almost lost my lunch every time I had to speak in front of the class in school. And he wanted me to talk! Well, I really couldn't say no at that point, so I decided to give it a go. I'd pretend I was just talking to this guy I was giving a tour to, and I wouldn't think, would not think about the fact that he was broadcasting it live, and people might actually be watching! I didn't entirely manage to convince myself, but I calmed myself down enough that I managed to talk almost normally.

They're on their second year of dates.

It didn't help that I was apparently lagging--watching the webcast after he posted it, I noticed that there were long pauses after he finished speaking and before I finished speaking. When I was actually doing the webcast with him, from my end, I spoke as soon as he stopped speaking. There were no long, awkward, first date pauses. Oh well!

I repeated myself over and over again. I stuttered. I wound up going off on tangents and never answering the questions he posed to me. At one point, I even called Norrath Azeroth! I haven't played World of Warcraft in over two years. Why in the world did I call it Azeroth?! That one still has me baffled.

And let's not get me started on how much I hate my voice. I detest my voice. Detest. I sound like a little girl choking on a bubble. Ugh!

There were so many things I wished I'd said in that interview. To begin with, I didn't really talk about the front room as much as I wanted to. It's the only room in the house that is actually inside the house. I built everything else myself.

The front room was intended to be a hidden valley high up in the cliffs above Kelethin. The idea behind the Library is that it isn't actually in Kelethin, just nearby. When I created the front room, the first month of grottos had just happened. We didn't know if the grottos would ever come back. We didn't know they would occur monthly. We didn't know they would be adding new tiles. I bought a couple of sky tiles, some foliage, and a bunch of grassy tiles for another project. By the time I got to the Library, I'd run out of grassy tiles, which meant some inventive work to cover the walls and floor of the acorn house.

And stone paving tiles didn't exist! I had to use the layout editor to flip stone hearths onto their fronts to use as the paved road.

If you look up at the ceiling while standing in front of the Library doors, I tried to use tiles to create an optical illusion of a tower rising into the sky. I didn't really succeed, but I tried.

I did mention that the valley room of the Library has existed since its first version. The only thing that's changed with it has been the doors. Blazewolf's "Temple of Na'Evrah" had those gorgeous sumac doors. I had to steal them.

First floor of the Library.

The counter in the first room of the Library tower is based off of the library where I used to spend my summers as a kid. I loved that counter, because it meant I was about to have a backpack full of books to read all week!

I didn't mention anything about the display in the center--that's my guestbook! People send me mail, and I update the guestbook with whatever they tell me they want to add to it. Now that they've made it so that you can send a mail from anywhere, I think I'm going to go back to encouraging people to sign the guestbook.

The Library is something that I envision as a lore source in-game. I'd like for people who need lore ICly to be able to go to the Library and look things up. I'd like for people to be able to hold classes on the 9th floor. I'd like to be able to zone into the Library and find people sitting around, chatting about this or that bit of lore. Will it happen? Probably not. But I can dream!

If I add seating up here, this'll be a nice place to relax and chat.

Maybe next time (and there probably will be another Jazabelle Does PUG TV time) I'll actually manage to say what I want to during the tour. We'll see!

Oh, you wanted to actually watch the tour? Here you go.

The Norrathian Research Library, Version 2

The original post was posted on the Norrathian Homeshow forums on December 3, 2010.

Ahh, so you came here to see a hint of what the Norrathian Research Library is all about, eh? If that's the case, I should begin at the beginning!

(Fair warning. When I talk, I talk a LOT. Feel free to ignore the big blocks of text, and instead scroll through to find the pictures scattered throughout )

The entrance of the Library, located at Aerie Kolmas in Kelethin, under Library. (If you take the world bell to Greater Faydark, there's a teleporter right near the globe you appear at. Take the teleporter to the Far Residential Aerie, right-click the Aerie Kolmas door, and type in Library) 

How the Norrathian Research Library -- or the Library for short -- came to be is a long and sordid tale. It involves angst, romance, daring rescues, and distressing damsels! Or is that damsels in distress? Either way, the short of the matter was, "I ran out of room in my house for books, since I insist on collecting every single book that comes my way. With the encouragement of Rakuno and Aurelis, I decided to build myself a Library. But not just any Library. I had just discovered the joys of the layout editor, and had stumbled upon the circle feature. With a little bit of fiddling with some erudite bookcases, I realized I could make a tower if I broke out!"

The original tower was a sort of flexing of untested muscles. I thought to myself, "No one's done a tower yet that I know of. I mean, I've seen places that claim to be "A Wizard's Tower" or whatnot, but never actually seen a tower with multiple stories. I'll steal Aurelis' cataloging system, and make a floor for each set of books!" Eventually I settled on 8 floors (Six for books, the bottom floor entryway, and a mid-point lounge.) I stumbled around a bit with the editor and came up with something I was pleased with, but not particularly proud of.

However, people kept praising the tower (likely because it's the only one of it's kind. Won't more of you please build towers so that I don't feel all alone in my ivory tower? ) To be honest, while I was flattered by the praise, it started to annoy me. I didn't feel the tower was worthy of praise. My house was so much more difficult to build, and yet people seemed to like the tower better. Plus, the ramps running around the interior of the tower -- while easy to navigate -- really cut into the useable room on each floor.

In addition, the tower felt incredibly dark with only the stained glass windows to make it feel less cave-like. And while I love the stained glass windows, they just aren't a substitute for the real thing.
So I decided to rebuild it. This time, with planning and diagrams and calculations to make sure I did it right.

*Ahem* To be honest, my diagram consisted of a vertical rectangle divided in eight. With a sloppily drawn 9th floor added when I said to Rakuno, "Oh, I'm debating adding a 9th floor, kind of an observatory maybe. Entirely walled in glass. But that seems like it'd be a lot of extra work." And Rakuno, that level-headed, intelligent man that he is, said to me, "Dooooooo eeeeeeeeet! You know you want to!" *siiiiiiiiiigh*

And my calculations... well. I let the layout editor do those for me. Most of the time. Aside from using the default calculator Windows comes with to occasionally figure out how high I needed to make the next floor.
And my planning. My planning consisted of me saying, "This time, I'll do it right!" 

***

So of course, the first thing all Libraries need (aside from the entry doors. You saw those above. They're exactly the same as the original, it's the one thing I didn't change. Well that, and the dimensions and shape of the rooms.) is a front lobby.

One thing about my original tower versus this one was I always wanted to put in a donor wall. A lot of people (Okay, maybe only about four) donated to the construction of the first tower. However, because of the ramps running along the inside walls, I didn't have room for it in the old tower. So I built one (and made sure it was promenently displayed) for this tower even before I started shelving books.

A closer view of the donor wall. The plaque I'm mousing over (which is the top plaque on the lefthand side -- the very first plaque) is for those people who wish to donate to the Library, but do not wish to be acknowledged in-character as it would be out of character for said person to donate to a Library. Or those individuals who wish to remain completely anonymous, but that I wish to thank publicly by letting people know that something was donated to the tower. So far, we've only had someone wish to remain anonymous ICly.

Here's a sample of what clicking on a plaque brings up:

I'm really not sure what I've done to deserve Sensqui's lavish kindness, but he keeps bringing me little gifts. At this rate, he's going to fill a book and need a second before the month is out...

Oh yes, and all those plaques on the wall? All but seven of them read "A blank plaque not yet engraved by Jazabelle."  I haven't had that many people donate to the library. Yet. I'm sure in a few years' time, with me constantly badgering people for things, I'll have to shrink the plaques down to make room. But not yet. 

I lied above. I also kept the exact same layout for the library desk and directory. In fact, it's so similar, I might even have saved that section with new-from-diff, dragged it over with the layout editor, and rotated it around the center of the tower to fit against it's new home! But of course, I didn't really do that. I'm just so good at rebuilding stuff, you think it looks exactly the same! In fact, if you counted pixels, I bet you'd find that everything is exactly the same distance from each other as they were before. (Because I'm lazy, I love that counter setup -- it looks like the library where I used to spend my summers as a kid -- and the layout editor makes it so easy to move things around, I did indeed drag it over with new-from-diff)

No, this is not the same exact screenshot. This time, instead of mousing over one of the Library Catalog "plaques," I'm mousing over the painting on the left. Amazing how it's an image of a tower-y thing.... and can it be that it says "Map" on that tooltip? What happens when we click the "map?"

Ahh! We get a really very badly done ASCII image of a tower.... with words telling us what each floor contains! How....neat?

Turn to look to the right of the directory, and you'll see a giant floor-to-ceiling window. Through that window, you'll see two unlikely lovers.

I truly blame the entire Homeshow channel for those two. Really. It's all your fault, Antonia_Bayle.Homeshow! Because you could not help me figure out a way to get Antonia and Lucan out there, and because you all started suggesting amusing things since I couldn't think of a female to use... these two hooked up while we weren't looking! (Yes, I know I could have used mannequins with the Lucan and Antonia masks. I did not like how they looked. Besides, the dryad keeps kissing the treant. Much more amusing!)

I tried to make it feel like you're in the cliffs above Kelethin. After all, you go through such a pretty little valley to get to the Library, and it doesn't make sense for something like that to be up in the trees. I know I didn't manage completely, but I tried.

The visible tooltip says it all. I've moved the sale of my fairy tales from my home to the Library. It just made more sense to me. Plus, this way the Library will (hopefully) get traffic from people coming to buy books. Who will then wander around, and tell their friends about this Library in (mostly) neutral territory that's easily accessable, and that has books on the shelves that you can actually read! Who will then tell their friends, who will tell their friends, who will actually stop by to read books sometimes. Maybe.

I found a use for the male and female mannequins I had intended to use as Antonia and Lucan! Meet Jazatwo and Jazifshewereaman! She's a librarian, busily shelving more copies of the Fairy Tales. He's a guard, posted to ensure none of the books wander down from the upper floors. This is not a lending Library, after all. Study to your heart's content, but do not try to walk off with any books, or he'll unsheath his scythe at you! ....or at least stand there and look stiffly.....not really intimidating.

The second use for the two mannequins is to scare the ever lovin' ....smelly stuff... out of me every single time I see them. I am not used to them being there, and I keep going, "WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE LURKING IN MY LIBRARY?!" If I ever get real visitors, I just may accidentally try and maul them out of startlement.

Moving right along! I'm not going to post images of every single floor of the Library. That's just too many, and aside from some decor changes, it doesn't really change that much on each floor, aside from the contents of the shelves. Suffice to say, I tried to decorate each floor according to what the book subject was. Rare Tomes has a rare statue and a tapestry made from a rare, Mythoi has Frostfell decorations -- yes, Frostfell falls into the "mythoi" category in my mind! -- and an Erollisi bow statue, Notables and Mortals has a Firiona Vie statue, etc. I'd like to put up a Venril Sathir painting, but I do not have access to one currently so!

This is Lands and Beasts. I thought it appropriate to stick a globe in the center of the floor for Lands and Beasts. Lands and Beasts also happens to be my third floor.

The sign telling you what floor you're on and what subject that floor holds. This is the catalog for the floor, divided up into the North bookcase, East bookcase, and South bookcase. Each bookcase is then divided up into shelves (five shelves per case). Hopefully that makes it easier to find the book you're hunting for.
Remember! Books are first divided by subject, then by bookcase, then by shelf. Finding the book on the shelf is up to you... (Although if you actually look carefully at the shelves, the books are pretty easy to find. First off, most of them highlight when you mouse over them. Only the oldest of them do not, and I'll be replacing the older versions with newer versions as I get them. The older versions will then be moved to Rare Tomes. Which currently has no books on the shelves, because every single "Rare Tome" I have is a duplicate of another book that's already on the shelf, and I was too lazy to put them up.)

As I said, I added a 9th floor to my tower. A few of you may remember that my 8th floor on the old tower had a lovely (I thought) glass roof. I decided I would one-up myself.

Welcome to the 9th floor Observatory.

Here is my lovely glass roof, transported all the way over to it's new home on my new tower!

And to give you an idea of the scale of the 9th floor room...

Jazabelle is small for a half elf, but still. To be honest, I myself did not realize how tall the ceiling was until I took this screenshot.

Now, some of you may be wondering "What about this 10th floor you were babbling about in Homeshow?" A very big thank you to Nef for offering to donate tiles for it. I am holding off on building the 10th floor until I can decide how I would like to configure the 9th and 10th floors, and what exactly I want to have on them. As someone else said to me, "You have all the floors you need, why would you build more? What would you put on it?" Plus, I started to work on building it, then realized it would actually take quite a bit of work to build it higher since I've put all these finishing touches in. And I need a break after cataloging, rearranging, and shelving all of my books. Not that I have even a drop in the bucket when compared with some of the others like Aurelis, Barx, and Maurna, but still. Over 200 books is nothing to sneeze at shelving.

And just because they make me giggle... a view from the second floor of the two lovers.

And a closeup that no one but a trustee will see, since it's outside the window, right by the lovers. I just had to show off my wicker picnic hamper. It's not really a basket. Hamper really is the best word. Thanks much to Toade for the two sides of the hamper handle! I'll get those dividers to you soon, I swear!

Awwww, she's leaning in for a kiss!

Thank you sooooo much for bearing with my incessant chatter. I hope you enjoyed the screenshot tour, and I do hope you'll come visit, if only to see the rest of the floors! (As Gracey says, "One of the neatest things about a tower is how the view out the window changes level by level.")

If you're all reeeeeeeeeally good boys and girls (and only if you're actually interested) I'll take a screenshot of the tower from outside and post it, just so you can see how tall and ugly it truly is. 

Alright! My ego is all huge and bloated from praising myself now, so I'm going to end this post before it segues into my entire life's story from the moment of my birth or something.

The Norrathian Research Library, Version 1

The original post was posted on the Norrathian Homeshow forums on August 31, 2010.

This was my second flexing of editor muscles. This home features the first domed glass ceiling--the one that started it all! (At least in my case.)

I've been meaning to post this for a while now, but between redoing my house six or eight times and a recent commission I was working on (in addition to going out of town and catching a horrible cold) I haven't found the time.

The majority of the tower is very similar, as it's mostly a place to house the books I've been collecting. My collection may not be the largest around, but I can guarantee that it's very well loved. I even went so far as to build a tower for it, after all!

There aren't many complex items built in the tower, aside from the tower itself. But I do like it. It only took about four days to make, so it's allowed to be a little sparse!

The Norrathian Research Library, Kelethin Branch is housed in Aerie Kolmas (the Far Residential Aerie) under Library on the Antonia Bayle server. Pay a visit -- it looks much better in person.

I have not actually finished putting the books on the shelves, but the structure itself is finished (aside from the restrooms).

If you feel like donating/selling/contacting me about getting some neat items into the library, feel free! I can always use a few more items.

Also, I'm collecting books! Have some old books you don't want any more? Especially books that aren't obtainable any longer? I will purchase them! I'm no Aurelis, but I'm working on becoming an Aurelis acolyte. Boooooooooks.

Do you write books? I reserve the top floor of my eight story tower for player-written books. Lemme know, and I will purchase them from you, or provide notebooks for you to paste them in.

Many many many thanks to Aurelis for her encouragment, input, and catalog system. Just as many thanks to Rakuno for putting up with random giant carpentry and faction item orders at all hours of the day and night, and for doing them as fast as an impatient Ayr'Dal used to instant gratification could wish!

Exiting Kelethin, entering the little valley where the library is housed.


Path through the forest to the front doors of the library.


Looking up through the trees to the sky above

First floor -- entryway, catalog, map, and front desk





Second floor -- Rare Tomes


Third floor -- Lands and Beasts



Fourth floor -- Chronicles, Cultures, and Hobbies



For those of you who don't know, Jazabelle always has a skeleton of some sort in her house. She started life as a necromancer, and it's left a lasting impression, even though she's an illusionist now.

Rakuno (on one of his many trips to purchase faction items) stopped by and picked up this skeleton for me as a surprise. Please note, this skeleton is a model only! No Norrathians were harmed in the obtaining of said skeleton. I swear. Honest.

The donor is anonymous, because it was one of Rakuno's other characters who picked it up, and as far as in-character actions go, said character would not donate an item to a library. Anonymous it is!

Fifth floor -- Parlor


Seowyth was giving away several items in Homeshow one day. I pounced on one of them, and was generously given several other items in addition! Thank you for the piano, Seowyth. It fits the parlor perfectly!


The restrooms are not finished. I became bored partway through. I'll finish them one day... maybe. As they're not important to the rest of the library, I haven't bothered!

Sixth floor -- Mythoi

Aurelis, Rakuno, and I had an amusing debate about mythos, mythoi, and mythoses. Mythos is singular, everyone! Mythoi and mythoses are plural. I prefer how mythoi looks, although I don't speak Greek, so I have no idea if that's the appropriate plural to use in this situation. Anyone know?


Seventh floor -- Notables and Mortals


Eighth floor -- Books by Adventurers



The books on this shelf are my fairy tale series. I promise, I'll get around to writing another fairy tale soon!

This book is probably the most important book in my collection. Anyone interested in book hunting should definitely pick up a copy, or poke Aurelis if there are no more for sale on Antonia Bayle. I have no idea if she's selling them on The Bazaar or not!