» Sun Jun 24, 2012 5:20 am To initiate dialogue:
- Must be Arch Mage of the College of Winterhold
- Must be Thane of Winterhold and at least 4 other holds
Speak to Tolfdir in the College of Winterhold about making amends - giving an olive branch, if you will - with the people of Skyrim. You must already be well-respected in the land (Thane) and you must be leader of the College (Arch Mage). He presents the idea of a library - one that is open to the people, and outside of the College.
To progress past initial dialogue:
- Civil War must be completed for either side. This is because you'll need guards, and they're hard to come by with the war going on.
- Must have at least 200k gold.
Once all of the above are met, Tolfdir will ask you to speak with the Jarl of Winterhold and convince him that this is a good idea, and will help get Winterhold back on its feet. Tolfdir will then collect 200k from you, and the construction of the library will begin.
(I'm thinking it basically replaces the top of one of the mountains behind Winterhold.)
Construction will take 30 days, with visible progress along the way. Next, you'll need to hire a librarian. When you speak to Urag gro-Shub, he is completely unwilling to leave his post as librarian of the Arcanaeum, but has a recommendation. Speak to this person (haven't decided on this yet) and hire them for 5k gold.
Once the library construction is complete, and the librarian is hired, you'll have an empty three-floor library filled with rooms and empty bookshelves & dressers. The first two floors make up one area, with rooms and divisions that allow you to organize the library's collections as you see fit. There are glass cases as well, for those extra rare and valuable items. There are two rooms that will have extra guards posted outside - one for rare volumes, and the other as an 'Appointment Only' area. How and what you put in these two areas are up to the Dragonborn.
The third floor is accessible through a spiral staircase in the central column (staircase begins on second floor). The third floor is a separate room divided into five areas, with bookshelves and scroll racks (racks that function as bookshelves, but are used to display scrolls). In this area of the library, magic is ineffective. At the top of this room is a pulsating ball of blue energy that is basically creating a bubble within the magicka stream, preventing all magic from being used. This is the area for housing scrolls and spellbooks for casters to study. They will not be able to use them up due to being inside the magicka bubble. There's a small room with a teleport pad with a keyhole - use the key given to you to teleport to the Arcanaeum in the College (there will be a teleport pad in the Arcanaeum that will transport the Dragonborn back to the library). This teleportation pad room is outside of the magicka bubble, so you can use it (and you'll be able to cast spells, but there's nothing else in here, so it doesn't really matter).
On the first floor, there's a trapdoor in a storage closet that goes down to the housing accomidations. Speak to Tolfdir again and for 25k gold, you can have the place furnished - it will contain all of the amenities (enchanting table, alchemy table, blacksmith items and cooking pot). The Dragonborn will also have the ability to move here with her or his spouse. There's also a nice balcony in the side of the mountain with a nice view.
Just start adding books to the shelves, scrolls to the racks, and notes to the dressers. When you're done placing what you have, speak to the Librarian and ask her to catalog the items in the library. She'll start walking around, and ask you to return in 8 hours. When this is done, things will start to happen. People will begin to get word of the place and begin traveling to the library. You'll get members when you obtain a specific set of items (such as all of the books relating to the Dwemer, and Calcemo might begin his trek from Understone Keep), certain quantities of unique items, certain quantities of total items, etc.
Interesting thing is you won't know when you've triggered a member to join. They'll start walking from wherever they are in the world - they won't just appear in the library. There's no quest completion or anything to let you know when you've piqued someone's interest. Also, if someone was killed prior, they won't become members, obviously. You just won't get a member for that particular set.
On the librarian's desk is an open catalog (similar to the ledgers at the shops). Click on this, and it will open a menu screen similar to the 'Esc' screen, with 'Collection Stats', 'Overall Summary', and 'Complete List'. 'Collection Stats' shows you the various sets you have, how many unique items you're missing, and the total for that set (like with 2920, if you add 5 books across 2 different, it will read '2920 The Last Year of the First Era: 2 of 12, 5 total' since there are 12 in the set). The 'Overall Summary' will list the total books, unique books, total notes and pages, unique notes and pages, total spellbooks, unique spellbooks, and total scrolls, unique scrolls - as well as overall totals and uniques, and total members. The 'Complete List' just lists everything you have. Note that stolen items will not count toward any total, and will not trigger any members, and the librarian will ask that you keep stolen items away from the library.
The library will receive donations dependent on the number of members you have. You'll be able to pocket a portion of this money. Not sure what the amount should be, or what the maximum number of members to have before problems arise (crashes, etc.).
Some things I considered:
- When you reach a certain number of items in the collection, the librarian will offer to take 5k gold from you and have a statue of Hermaeus Mora built in the alcove at the center of the first floor. If you still have Oghma Infinium, the librarian will put it in a special case at the statue, and the alcove will now be heavily guarded. She will do the same if you still have the Elder Scroll. If you have them both, you can now receive a blessing from the statue - an additional 15% skill increase bonus that stacks with standing stones and other items (but replaces other blessings).
- Members will alternate - they'll walk back to the inn in Winterhold for a few days, then go back to the library. Back and forth. This should help keep the place from getting too crowded.
- Members who are triggered by especially difficult collections will have bonuses - they could be master trainers or special merchants, or could have special quests of their own.
- Not all members have to already exist in the world. They could be spawned in specific locations, like at the border with Cyrodiil, or out in the wilderness, or in one of the towns, before they begin their trek.
- Once a certain number of members is reached, Winterhold will begin to rebuild. The destroyed buildings in town will be rebuilt, and the town will have a new blacksmith, alchemist, fletcher, and stable.
