Black Library of Chaos

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Targetdrone.gif Black Library redirects here. For the publishing subsidiary of Games Workshop, see Black Library (BL Publishing).
Guardian-Scribes of the Black Library[3]

The Black Library of Chaos (also known as just the Black Library) is the Eldar's repository of forbidden lore.[1] Knowledge of the library's existence is known to few and even fewer are allowed entry.[1] The passages to the Black Library are guarded by Harlequins, who come and go as needed from the library[9] although their Solitaires may come and go as they wish.[1] Entrance to the library[11] is guarded by the Guardian-Scribes[1] – said to be themselves the most terrible of all perils in the Webway,[14] and its records maintained by the White Seers.[7b]

Library Contents

Within the Black Library of Chaos are collected tomes and writings describing the Eldar's studies of the warp. These collected tomes, books, and codicies describe all aspects of Chaos: its blandishments, influences, forms, creatures, perils, promises and horrors.[1] Within psychically-locked rooms are countless black tomes of Daemon summoning, grimoires of magic, and records on countless Chaos Cults throughout the galaxy,[14] and thousands of dark and secret volumes of malignant power.[18] The library contains not just Eldar knowledge of Chaos; any knowledge of Chaos is taken and kept within the Library,[1] such as a copy of the Book of Magnus.[13]

Though most often mentioned in relation to its collection of chaotic lore, the Library contains other mysteries as well. It is said that knowledge of the fate of Arhra, the fallen Phoenix Lord, is contained within the vast archives of the Black Library, as is the nature of ancient "Star Gods".[5b]

Works known to be in the collection include:

Rumoured Contents

Location

Kyganil shows Ephrael Stern the beginnings of the path through the Webway to the Black Library[19]

While the Black Library exists wholly within the Webway[5a] within the Warp,[11] echoes of the Black Library persist within the materium. Some time after the opening of the Great Rift, the last of these traces in realspace were located at the western fringes of the Ghoul Stars, within a triangle formed by the Grand Shrine of Asuryan and the Exodite worlds of Syph and Quilan.[5a]

The Black Library may be accessed in several ways, including the labyrinthian paths of Webway Gates guarded by the Harlequinstext-middle[Help], such as those detailed within the Tome of Karebennian[10a][16a] (which intentionally lead to an ambush on Arcadia)[16b] and through the more flamboyant path known as the Endless Stair or Neverending Stair[7a], a coiling vortex of silver runes through which the White Seers and their engines translocate to any Webway Portal within the Webway.[17] However, every passage to the Black Library is triple-guarded by the Harlequin Solitaires and Guardian-Scribes.[18]

Construction

The Black Library is often described as a "Dark Craftworld".[9] While this is true in the sense that it is an Artificial World of Wraithbone construction,[11] it is no mere ship or lost city.[11] Just as the webway is a labyrinth of psychoactive tunnels that shift and change, as if each visit is a visit anew,[9] so does the structure of the Library – it is a labyrinth within a labyrinth.[9] The Library's mind defends itself, barring the weak and corruptible.[1]

History

Ancient History

The exact origin of the library is unclear, stories within its shelves name the Old Ones,[9] the ancient Aeldari,[9] and the Eldar Gods.[9] Cegorach is closely associated with the library, and may be it's creator, although for what purposes the Laughing God would build such a repository can only be guessed.[2]

Fall of the Eldar

Much of the Eldar's ancient knowledge was lost during the Fall of the Eldar, with the Craftworlds being the rare exception and as they have drifted apart, this knowledge has consequently become fragmented – yet more lost each time a Craftworld has been lost over the millennia.[1]

The Library is the only source of the Eldar's knowledge concerning Chaos that has remained untouched.[1] Since the fall, the Guardian-Scribes have begun to collate and transcribe the Black Library's knowledge of Chaos to disseminate it among the Aeldari.[1]

Ahriman of the Thousand Sons has sought entrance to the Library for nearly ten thousand years, in his vain attempt to understand the ever changing Tzeentch, Lord of Change.[9]

Recent History

In M41, Inquisitor Bronislaw Czevak was granted entry once he had proven himself worthy to the Black Council.[10]

Inquisitor Jaq Draco followed the Emperor's Tarot and found a way into the Black Library from which he stole the Book of the Rhana Dandra.[12]

Invasion

In 998.M41, shortly before Abaddon the Despoiler's Thirteenth Black Crusade, Ahriman led his warband of Thousand Sons into the Webway in an effort to finally claim the Black Library. Engaging in furious battles with the Harlequins and the Craftworlds of Ulthwé and Lugganath, Ahriman advanced to within sight of the Library itself. However, several major arteries of the Webway were choked with the dead before the Chaos Marines were driven from the secret paths leading to the Library. The breach caused by the rampaging Sorcerers was sealed. As a result, a section of the Webway was lost forever.[4]

Opening of the Great Rift

Shortly before the Great Rift[5e] the last lock on the Crystal Tome,[5d] which has rested upon an obsidian plinth at the heart of the Black Library since the Fall of the Eldar, opened – revealed within were writings said to have been written by Cegorach itself, telling of a final act that changed utterly the tale of the Fall of the Eldar telling of Cegorach's ultimate jest which would trick Slaanesh into expending all of her energies to save the Eldar instead of destroying them.[5c]

Even hidden in the Webway the Black Library was not immune to the turmoil caused by the Great Rift, which caused a section of the Library to fall into the Warp completely. Now in the clutches of She who Thirsts, that portion of the library is tainted forever and beyond the reach or ability of even the White Seers to cleanse.[7b]

Black Council

The Black Council serves in an advisory role to the Guardian-Scribes of the Black Library, the race's greatest Farseers drawn from several Craftworlds.[10]

A select few Humans dedicated to destroying Chaos[1] have been given access to the Black Library by the Black Council[10] and even then only in the company of Harlequin:[14] a select few Inquisitors of the Ordo Malleus[14] and Bronislaw Czevak,[10] as well as the Illuminati who have been granted special access to come and go as their needs warrant.[1]

Sources

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