Alexandria

**Alexandria, Egypt** is the home of the Great Library of Alexandria. Due to the power of the Great Library, the city has become a nation-state of its own, much like the Vatican in our world.

## Description

Alexandria is a very rich city, and the center of the world in many ways. It has known peace and prosperity for thousands of years. It is a city that gleams. Everywhere it's sparkling and spotless with broad avenues for steam carriages and wide, flat pedestrian walkways. Preserved ancient monuments are everywhere. Even the poor seem to have a respect for history here. Every building is carefully maintained and freshly painted each year. The streets are lined with beautiful gardens, flowers, trees, and fountains. It's exotic, clean, attractive, polite, and cosmopolitan. It's hot and humid and smells like the ocean. The buildings are made of hard angles and warm stones. The sky is a pale, sun-bleached span. Misr Station is where trains arrive. It's made of gleaming white marble and buff-colored stones. Ptolemy House is where postulants reside. It's located near Alexandria University. Scholars of the Library live in the Alexandria Lighthouse.

As the power of the Great Library grew, the city of Alexandria became an independent state in its own right. It has power and influence that spreads into every corner of the world because it holds the knowledge of humanity. It uses that power by withholding that knowledge from those countries, kingdoms, and empires who fail to agree to the Great Library's terms. Alexandria was the first place in the world to encourage common people to read and learn. It's the first place to educate without regard to status, creed, sex, or religion. Anyone without commissions into Library territory is not allowed to cross the Alexandrian border. Even Alexandria is not immune to the original book black market. It has a flourishing black trade near the docks. The black trade community here is small and close-knit. The city's museum, university, and zoo are under the Library's control.

When visiting someone's house, it's the custom to touch one's fingers to the small insect statue of the household god Bes on one side of the doorway and then to the goddess Beset on the other. It's also Egyptian custom to go without shoes on the tiled floors of homes. Alexandrian homes are almost oriental in their simplicity, with a few luxuries showing. It's the style for men in Alexandria to be shaved hairless head to toe.

## Known Locations

* Alexandria Serapeum
* Alexander's Tomb
* The Lighthouse at Alexandria
* The Great Archive
* The Iron Tower
* Ptolemy House
* The Black Archives
* Misr Station
* Alexandria University
* Alexandria Museum
* Alexandria Zoo
* High Garda Compound

## Known Residents

* Red Ibrahim
* Anit Ibrahim
* Keria Morning
* Christopher Wolfe
* Niccolo Santi
* Jess Brightwell
* Brendan Brightwell (temporarily)
* Morgan Hault
* Thomas Schreiber
* Khalila Seif
* Glain Wathen
* Dario Santiago
* Eskander Pallis
* Annis
* Theo
* The Artifex Magnus
* Gregory Valdosta
* Zara Cole
* Guillaume Danton
* Joachim Portero
* Izumi Himura (formerly)
* Rafael Seif
* Neska Darzi
* Thabani Botha
* Scholar Prakesh
* Scholar Amahle
* Scholar Zhao
* Obscurist Sybilla
* Obscurist Gregory
* Obscurist Dominic
* Obscurist Rosa
* Captain Nghiem
* Sergeant Vickers
* Katja
* Tariq Oduya
* Abdul Nejem
* Nabeeha Nejem
* Barzem: Jess's black trader contact

## Trivia

* The official coinage is a *geneih*, but everyone calls it a Roman because of the portrait of Julius Caesar on the face. ,