InsaneJournal

The Building: Is an extremely large one located in Mayfair that as well as looking like a top-notch (and highly secure) hotel goes on several levels below the ground. Magic keeps it looking as though it is smaller than the extensive floor space it is: once inside, you can’t tell how far the building extends as it seemingly goes on forever.

The Levels: On the ground level are various people’s offices and this continues upwards -- everything above ground-level is the kind of thing that could, potentially, be destroyed by fire, lightning strike, act of God or extremely problematic magical act. There is a basic small library above the ground floor with texts that can be examined, upon application, by non-Librarians -- training texts, anything that is essential to Occultists and also basic magical history/understanding the preternatural world books. This place is small-risk -- the texts in it are not likely to contain any major information that could risk the balance and is supervised constantly.

On lower levels, things begin to get interesting. More offices, of those who have a supervisory rank rather than the ordinary recruit. Training rooms, sound-proof, fire-proof, magic-proof. The living accommodations of the Library. Health-care provision, because if you want health-care from being cursed with a wasting disease, the Library isn’t going to send their folk to an ordinary hospital. Laboratories, for the analysis of new materials on the Market that are considered suspicious. More dangerous-information Libraries, and then the Portal. Below the Portal level is not generally known and the staircases that take you further down are not available to any but those qualified to go further. However, it is common knowledge (or urban legend?) that below the Portal lies the really dirty information -- all the potentially explosive magic that could send the world hurtling toward Armageddon that the Library has collected over the centuries, sealed away from the possibility of weak human minds being tempted.

Entering as a Magic-User: A reception-desk takes up the entrance hall and is manned by several users all at once. A clairvoyant of some kind is always on staff -- any potential problems and they’ll see it before it happens, turn you around and kick you out - unless of course, they need to ‘deal’ with you first. The reception desk is how you get in contact with any individual you are looking for, and of course, the minute you step inside, the Library is monitoring you. What the mundanes see: A very large, very expensive looking office building converted from what was probably a hotel with a very annoyed looking doorman. You just... don’t go in -- unless you possess a journal.

General: The Library offers recruitment to most Naturals who possess magical abilities that lend themselves to Librarian work -- if you are going to be useful, they would like to hire you. This comes as a mention with the handing over of a journal, or with the development of an ability to the point of Library interest (i.e. a Market-goer who manifests talent with whatever it is they’ve purchased). Like any other organization, what is not outright ‘we would like to sign you up’ is standard applications -- those who know about the Library can apply to work there. People do: the pay is extremely good, the possibility of being trained in your abilities and acquiring more is high and the work-day is rarely dull (plus the pension & health-care provision for ‘accidents on the job’ is awesome). The UK provision for employment requires being over a certain age to join the army and as the Library is the equivalent, there is a minimum age of sixteen - although one would need to be exceptional to enter at this age rather than the general standard, somewhere between eighteen and twenty one. Like the army, however, the training process is tough, the tests to sort candidates into the areas of speciality are extremely hard and the retention-rate of recruits to actual Librarians is about 30%.

Forcible: Forcible recruitment is rare, but it happens. People whose magical capabilities are too strong and who possess a ...less than neutral nature to be permitted to run free are given the option of containment or recruitment after tests have been run to examine the extent of power. Containment may be one of two options: magically bound to an extent or destruction. Recruitment in this fashion does not allow for retirement and the dog-tag connection is that much stronger, i.e. superiors would be capable of reading base-level warning emotions i.e. feelings of guilt, feelings of destruction, etc.

Recruit to Librarian: Recruits must learn and demonstrate in the yearly tests extreme control of their abilities. Diagnostics are run on what they can do, whether that can be extended further and they are put through both physical and magical training. All recruits must be extremely physically fit by the end of the training period, all recruits must have a significant basis of magical historical knowledge and understanding of theory of the major branches of magic-use (aka: the Occult, the Market, those born magical) and would have practical experience of all three elements if a Natural, two if without an ability at birth. The amount of information to acquire is intense and this is coupled with psychological testing to see if the recruits can be tempted or swayed in the keeping of order and balance -- getting harder and harder each year. Like the Army, the Library has a policy of ‘break you down, then build you up’ so that they retain control over their recruits. The training period can last varying amounts of time, but the standard from raw-recruit to basic level Librarian is somewhere between three and five years. When recruits pass out, it is in batches -- and in a concluding ceremony that involves the tattoo-branding and awarding of the Library dog-tags.

Tests: Once the basic level testing is complete (i.e. that you are no longer a recruit but can pass into the Library) there are section tests for various areas of the Library. The elite -- the Praetorians -- are the hardest to get into, creaming off the top 10% of recruits usually, although obviously, this is based upon choice of work-area on behalf of those who undergo regular recruitment (those forcibly recruited rarely have a choice, usually being powerful enough that the Praetorians is where they’ll end up). All the testing is different, consisting of theoretical and practical. You can apply as many times as you like for as many areas as you like -- but if you’re consistently failing, it is perhaps best to stick to the current department.

Job Development: Most Librarians find a speciality they like and stick with it -- progression up to supervisory level is possible but takes a good couple of decades of service first and talent. The exception is Praetorians -- about half of Praetorians became so immediately upon finishing recruitment, the rest are those who have applied and taken the necessary tests and passed in.

Journals: The Library journal system is generally watched for any problems that may arise. However, the magic that ties them together/binds the connections and finds new magic-users works in an entirely neutral fashion (aka, it doesn’t give the Library serious advantage). Thus, what is behind a lock is behind a lock and un-viewable to Librarians. If there were a magical disaster on a truly dreadful scale, no doubt appeal could be made to the higher ups to view what information had been disseminated via the journal system but generally, things are kept private. The Library is intended as a peacekeeping/neutral and balancing force and thus what you write -- well. Librarians are not all-powerful.

Dog-Tags: The dog-tag system is somewhat different. It allows for mind-to-mind communication between Librarians although conscious effort must be made to connect minds via the dog-tags. It does not permit invading minds, rather people must be ‘tuned in’ via the dog-tags (although most people are tuned in during an average day and if they were not ‘connected’ on a work-day, questions would be asked as to why). However, the dog-tags do act as a sort of GPS: they relay vital statistics -- aka, ‘this Librarian is Not Dead’ and a generalized location back to the Library when worn. Communication via them can also be personalized -- either a general broadcast can be relayed via the dog-tags or one directed to someone specific.

The Tattoo: Whilst most Librarians do not know what the tattoo over the heart does (‘balance from chaos’ in a language so old, most cannot actually read it, twisted into a design that is ornamental so it is not immediately apparent that it is text), it is a further vital-statistic tapped into the Library. It directly ties into the magic of the individual, latent and potential or actual and can thus be used to keep knowledge of what kind of magic is at the Library’s disposal. The tattoo gives a certain amount of Library potential control over magic -- if they obliterate the tattoo, they can affect your capability for magic. It is itself, magic, so for those who are in possession of abilities that leave them impervious/self-healers, etc, the tattoo can penetrate. It’s older magic and more powerful than that of the individual as it is fed by each Librarian wearing one over the years -- which means you do not heal from it. It is a mark of honour amongst Librarians, worn directly over the heart and given in the final ceremony that is the end to training.

Portals: The portals can be used by anyone with a journal and are based on the Library premises. If not a Librarian but a generic magic-user, approach must be made through the Library reception desk, request made and journal inspected for genuine possession. Relay from one Library to another will spit you out in the same location in another Library building. The portals are a room in which signs and sigils have been etched over the walls and floor and a clear circle demarked on the floor. You step inside, state which city you are intending to transfer to (whichever language: it’s a polyglot portal) and step out of the circle in another Library. Simple.

Within the London Library: Supervisory Librarians are non-played characters, simply because it would skew the power-balance between playable characters. However, most subsection-departments have head Librarians who are reported back to -- this is where they’d be. For the rank and file, there’s an ‘unofficial’ ranking: Praetorians, Trading, Information and Monitoring.

Above London: The root of the Library is in Rome, where its origins remain. Rome is essentially, the ‘head-office’, monitoring the activities of individual branches, handing down precognitive knowledge of any serious disasters that stretch beyond the Library’s resources but are encompassed in Rome’s, and discipline too serious to be left in-house.

Information: Keeping tabs on the world around them would be useless if some people did not collate all that information and keep it stored. Some Librarians do just that: constant report writing and analysis, filed in large black leather-bound books that are filed in the Monitoring Library specific to the purpose. Whilst these souls are often pitied by the rest of the Librarians (most who hate writing reports, even if it kills them) the work requires a certain amount of skill to do and ability to be recruited to do it. These are not your average reports after all -- the reports written by ‘field-agent’ Librarians come through and are further analyzed for what this means for the wider magical balance, by these people. They have a higher connection to the other Library locations as they help create the net that is the constant flow of Library information to keep the locations interlinked in terms of knowledge. Within this is the subset of actual librarian Librarians - who keep track of all the books in the various specific libraries of the Library. They? Are nearly as scary as the Praetorians and possibly a little mad.

Market-Monitoring/Trading: Whilst the Market is a separate (living, breathing, problematic) entity, the Library keeps a permanent stall within the Market when it is in town to act as a kind of Customs. Illegal items, that which might contribute to spells/rituals that would have significant balance-impact, Market influence over its customers & Vendors -- all these are scrutinized by the Librarians working the Market. They keep track of who is trading what, where it is coming from, who is buying what -- whilst the Library keeps an obvious presence, there are also further, less-visible workers within the location.

Monitoring: The Library keeps tabs on all magic users in its area, and those exposed to magic. This is an incredibly heavy job and thus the majority of the Library’s work-force is in this generalized department. Monitors hand out Library journals to those who are new magic users or mundanes exposed to magic in a way that makes sense not to dispose of them, keeps track of who is doing what and where the forces of good and forces of evil are in the eternal chess-match that is life on earth. Monitors are committed to the concept of balance -- they do not care if you are innocent, or guilty as hell, so long as whatever you are doing balances out the white and the black to a shade of grey that is consistent with keeping earth neither aligned with Heaven, nor aligned with Hell, but tucked out of the line of fire between the two. Thus Monitors will see bad things happen to good people and good things happen to horrible people -- and their job is to ensure the mundanes don’t catch on, and that things happen or do not happen in accordance with the assignments handed down by those who know more about which contributes to balance and which does not. They are backed up by the Praetorians who essentially ‘clean up’ if something a Monitor has noticed has gone beyond standard ability to keep things contained (i.e. if a Mundane or magic-user needs to be destroyed to keep balance/the general-mundane ignorance of the Library to an acceptable level/a wide-scale magic problem) but the majority of a Monitor’s work is observation, record and stepping in if need be. Obviously, with the amount of magic being used in a single day across the whole of London, things slip between the gaps. Minor uses of magic are going to be lower priority than the higher-up ones, of course -- so someone perhaps playing with pyrokinesis in a small way in a mundane area that could be blamed on a trick of the light and a cigarette lighter is less likely to be dealt with than someone killing people -- although repeated uses of ‘small-scale’ magic in a way detrimental to going unnoticed is going to result in a Monitor making themselves known. Incidents can and do slip through the net or are followed up later -- how else would Mundanes learn about the Library and the preternatural world, after all? -- but anything big, well. That’s going to flash up with the Library precogs who are a separate sub-section within Monitoring, focusing on trying to predict what will happen.

Training: This job is a shitty one and largely given to those who have, in some way, irritated the hell out of the Library. It has various sub-divisions: those who can assess magic potential and extent of abilities in Naturals, those with general command to teach Occult and Market-acquired magic to those who need/want it, those who attend to the physical portion of the training and of course, those who deal with the brand new recruits. What amounts to ‘pastoral care’ is limited to those training the raw material into Librarians and is, in fact, laughable. See ‘break you down before they build you back up’. Within this are Mentors -- those who are ordinary Librarians who are assigned individual recruits in need of special attention. Mentors are overseen by those whose usual job it is to train recruits, as their role is in addition to their work, rather than their job.

Clean-up & Disposal: The Praetorians are your elite, best-of-the-best and black-ops types. They are rigorously tested, kept to a small number of highly skilled individuals and monitored more than your average Librarian for loyalties and commitment. They are those who ensure people who cannot be contained or controlled ‘disappear’ and are largely responsible for discipline abroad.

(NB: If you can think of something additional the Library could be doing/a Librarian’s job could be as part of the general direction of the Library, we are always open to new suggestions, just drop the mod mail a line with what you’re thinking of.)

Living Accommodation: Most Librarians live on the premises in individual rooms (cells, really. Think ‘monastery’ and you’d be about right) in sex-segregated corridors. The living areas are in the higher areas of the place - most unimportant stuff is toward the top end of the building, the further down you go into the bowels of the place, the more important things are. (The portals and the library of the Library itself is, as you may have guessed, on the bottom levels.) Librarians can live out, although most prefer the convenience of being on-the-spot as it were. If Librarians live out, they are watched more closely for evidence of corruption (monitoring meetings, analysis of behaviour, general ‘we are watching you’ esque behaviour) although the Library hasn’t reached the point of bugging people’s homes. The dog-tags are enough for finding guilt, after all. There are common areas: a ‘mess hall’ which is segregated by rank (aka, the supervisory Librarians aren’t going to eat with the rank & file) and common-rooms for relaxation. One or two of the standard Librarian-usage libraries have certain areas that are comfortable enough to encourage kicking back there (and the obvious ‘studying and improving’ which is generally the Library response to ‘I have spare time, what should I do with it?’).

Retirement: The general UK retirement age is 65 and at this age, Librarians are, by law, offered the option of retirement (all those but those shanghaied into working for them). This comes with the provision of monitoring -- and those with exceptional clearance for secrets sign a waiver that is a loss of memory for those secrets pertaining to Librarian business. A standard pension package is begun upon job commencement and check-ins are required for the first ten years post-retirement on a sliding scale of involvement (aka: year one, check-in every two months, year two, check-in every four months, year three, check in every six months and so on) in order to monitor potential involvement with non-neutral parties. However, most Librarians don’t really retire. Having had all that information and all that power -- why would you?

Spare Time: The work-day ends at variable points for different individuals and the Library is never closed. However down-time is permitted and encouraged -- Librarians need time-off, like everyone else. However, misbehave in public and you are likely to receive a lecture.

Party Line: The Market is not a neutral body and those running it remain largely outside the Library jurisdiction. However, magic in all its forms comes under the Library jurisdiction and thus the grey area. The Library’s standard policy is that the Market may not infringe or directly interfere with the magical balance by influencing individuals but may provide without interference that which is requested by individuals who wish to disturb balance (who will be then horribly dealt with). In other words, so long as the Market doesn’t try and swing the magical balance around, they have no beef with the Market -- but will deal with those who do want to change the balance and use the Market for their purposes.

Interactions: Thus far, the Library and the Market maintain a fairly cool relationship -- and there is great potential for working problems. There is a territorial balance between the two: the Library does not infringe upon the Market’s ability to conduct their work and the Market permits a Library presence.

Those Working with the Market: Those assigned to monitor the Market and/or work within it are carefully examined for any previous affiliation with the place. If you have direct familial connections to the Market, you would have to be exceptional in order to be assigned to work within it (and would be subject to a higher degree of monitoring due to questionable loyalty).

Standard: Librarian punishment is irregular as most Librarians by the time of becoming an actual worker have been through so much testing and questioning of their loyalties that they do not misbehave. However, minor infractions of behaviour (insubordination, substandard work, dereliction of duty) are addressed ‘in-house’ as it were: awarded nasty duties, subject to tests/extensive personal monitoring to keep tabs on future actions, etc.

Major: Deviation from the Library’s basic law: ‘balance above everything’ is met with severe and swift punishment. Rome dispatches one of their own to deal with things: death for those who have severely altered balance/become corrupt and this is usually, what Rome does. For lesser infractions or when the Library is showing its strength/making a point, there have been cases of magic-ability bound and the Librarian cast-out and denoted to the magical community as ‘persona non grata’ with additional memory loss if exposed to secrets deemed too important to be permitted retention. These cases are extremely rare -- firstly because there are extremely few instances of Librarian disobedience and secondly because within that subset, ‘mercy’ is not a word many use associated with the Library itself.