Qingcheng:Grand Archive

General Information
The Bai Ze’s personal library, known to the Youkai of the outside world simply as the Grand Archive, is quite possibly the greatest repository of knowledge in existence, with the only other contender being the Celestial Library in heaven. It exists partly beneath the city of Samarkand, but most of it lies beyond the city limits.

It is here that the Bai Ze stores all of his own works, as well as other texts and valuable artefacts that he has amassed over the millennia. It has grown so large as a result of all of this, that some of the larger chambers were starting to develop their own weather patterns. As a result, the archive is currently in the midst of a modernisation process, having vast amounts of its information effectively digitised and physical copies placed into long-term storage.

Due to powerful anti-magic wards, unaided flying is impossible within the archive, and even exceedingly difficult in the surrounding areas. For that reason, and due to the sheer size of the archive itself, anyone wishing to explore it will have to make use of its own internal transportation network, which includes numerous flying platforms, moving rooms, motion fields, light-trains, and other conveyances.

Architecture
The Archive itself is a sprawling, semi-fractal array of chambers and corridors, with the oldest rooms, those nearest the surface, being the most akin to a traditional library. The upper levels also hold numerous galleries, display rooms, studies, and offices, as well as living quarters for the comparatively small staff.

Most of the library’s texts on magic and related topics are stored in the east-wing annex, a sprawling series of rooms that extend for some distance.

Being a relatively old part of the library, and comparatively disorganised, this section is a prime candidate for the modernisation process, but many of the texts possess various enchantments that make them difficult to include in the deeper storage systems. The entire annex is attended by its own army of flying magical servitors: crystal flowers of varying sizes, similar to those used aboard the Xuanshi.

The lowest and most modern levels serve as example of the future of the archive. Very little concern is given to appearances, with most of the corridors and rooms starkly empty at first glance, lit only by glowing beams of light suspended in the air itself. There are no actual books or scrolls here - but where shelves of them would be, stand rows of featureless black monoliths, created and sustained by immense magical fields. Each of these structures is practically a library unto itself, fields of space compressed fractally to the point where hundreds of acres are folded into a block three meters tall by one meter square. To further enhance their storage capacity, their contents are transmuted into a pseudo-liquid form, literally hyper-compressed information. Each also holds the capability to extract information upon request and display it in a more easily grasped form.

On the lowest level, right at the heart of the archive, lies its controller, magically connected to every part of the vast structure. It knows every inch of every room, and the position of every thing within the archive. All of the servitors, the transportation systems, and even the structure of the archive itself, is under its control.

Zhi
The Archive can be considered a Youkai in its own right, as Zhi is intrinsically linked to the structure itself, and cannot actually leave its confines. It is her job to oversee the archive’s operation, to manage its store of information, and to defend it against intruders.

In carrying out this duty, she seems detached, businesslike, and almost emotionless. Having the security and continued operation of the archive as her highest priority, she won’t allow anyone to tamper with it or bring any sort of harm to it or its contents - this overlaps with self-preservation, as she sees the archive as an extension of herself, which is true in some way.

Her duties extend to welcoming permitted visitors, assisting them with retrieving information as needed, and to help them in finding their way around the vast archive. Her powers allow her to be in many places at once, often taking on whatever form her guests are most comfortable with. In many ways, she seems more like a machine than a person, providing what is asked, if it is within her means to do so, and coldly brushing off any requests that she cannot or is not permitted to fulfil.

At times, however, she displays some faint hints of personality - be it in a faint smile or overeager question. She seems rather curious about the world beyond the archive, and always happy at the chance to add new information concerning it to her records. She also seems to have a slightly playful sense of humour, often tricking less important visitors or making them take needlessly circuitous paths through the archive - usually, this is just to see if she can get a rise out of them. As none but her know the actual layout of the archive at any given time, and few understand how it functions, these pranks are almost pathetically easy for her to carry out.

She is incredibly loyal to the Bai Ze, and they even seem to be friends to a degree. He often visits her directly at her home on the lowest level of the archive, where they might play a game of Weiqi or debate some intellectual matter. Having near instant access to all of the archive’s information, she is nearly the Hakutaku’s intellectual equal - not that she would ever admit it.

Powers and Abilities
Being physically merged with a structure spanning more than a hundred miles in every direction, and incapable of moving, one might be fooled into thinking that she has little in the way of power of her own, but this is far from the case.

Not only is she the power source for the archive, pouring immense amounts of energy into maintaining its various systems and fuelling the magic that operates them, but she also has direct command over all of its servitors and an understandably comprehensive knowledge of magic. She can instantly cast spells anywhere in the region of the archive, and can maintain hundreds of different magics simultaneously, allowing her to easily fight off an entire army, should it be necessary.

Her own innate power gives her the ability to be in several places at once, dividing her consciousness seemingly without ill effects. Typically, the result of this is a semi-translucent, faintly glowing apparition of whatever form she chooses. Normally, there are little more than ghostly images, merely to give visitors to the archive something or someone to address their queries to, but they can become a little more substantial with a small input of power. Unless anchored by some external source of power, however, they cannot exist outside of the archive.

Relationships

 * Bai Ze: The Bai Ze is her master, mentor, and probably closest friend. She shows far more emotion in his presence, and is genuinely happy to see him when he visits. They often have tea (Well, he has tea and she watches) and a game of Weiqi during these times, as well as various conversations on matters simple, intellectual, and philosophical.


 * The Prefect of Baohushi Commandery: Being technically part of the Baohushi Commandery, she falls under his authority. The seem to get along fairly well, owing a great deal to his love of literature, and her ability to provide many great stories. She also generally refrains from playing her “games” with him, as he is in many ways her direct superior.

Residents
Bai Ze: The Bai Ze visits the archive regularly, usually to check up on the state of the place or to submit some new work that he has either created or acquired. He tends to visit Zhi during these times as well, checking up on her personally and sometimes staying for a while.

Zhi: She is a permanent resident of the archive, being phyiscally and magically connected to it.

Entry Requirements
One would need to be in the outside world and reach the city of Samarkand in order to even attempt to access the archive. From there, it would be best to have either the Prefect or the Bai Ze’s permission to enter, lest they have to deal with an angry Zhi trying and probably succeeding in murdering them.