Library of Kolbjorn
Current objective
Find the way up to the library
A house by AhzidalThrones
Library of Kolbjorn
An enchanter's library, grown into the roots.
Enter the storyKnowledge grows here, whether anyone tends it or not.
The library takes its name from Kolbjorn Barrow on Solstheim, where the dragon priest Ahzidal was sealed away with his relics under the ash. The Nords remember him as their first great enchanter: a man who went to the elves to learn their arts, and turned every one of them to his own ends. A library in his name could hardly look like anyone else's.
The walk begins in a night garden of glowing flowers and climbs to a gate of blue crystal that will not open for just anyone. Past a grove of giant mushrooms lie the round hall, the reading rooms and the quiet alcoves, the gallery of books, and then the lower stacks, where red roots have broken through the shelves and books drift above a green-lit table.
Below them are the ritual rooms and a burning shrine beside an arch barred with iron. Whatever the library keeps behind that grille, it is not for lending. Then the way out climbs back into the night, under mushroom trees and stars.
Ahzidal, the Embittered Destroyer
Ahzidal was born in Saarthal late in the Merethic Era. He came home one day to find it burned by the elves, and he swore vengeance; in the dragons’ tongue his name means “the embittered destroyer”. He went on to become the first great enchanter among the Nords, learning the elven arts from the Dwemer, the Ayleids, the Snow Elves, the Chimer and the Altmer, and the arms he enchanted marched with Ysgramor’s host.
His hunger for knowledge led him to the dragon priests, then into madness, and at last to Miraak. He followed the First Dragonborn to Solstheim, and there he was sealed in Kolbjorn Barrow with his relics, under the ash, until 4E 201.
AhzidalThrones takes his name from this dragon priest, and so does one of his characters, Ahzidal Kolbjorn. The library is his own vision; our reading of it is an enchanter’s house that keeps what was learned from many peoples - crystal at the gate, mushroom trees in the garden, roots in the stacks.
- Kolbjorn Barrow
- A Nordic ruin in Solstheim’s Hirstaang Forest, buried under the ash of Red Mountain after the Red Year.
- The relics of Ahzidal
- His enchanted armour and rings, and an ebony mask that looks like bronze and grants power over fire.
- A black book
- Hermaeus Mora hid one of his Black Books, Filament and Filigree, deep inside the barrow.
Lore sources
The Night Garden
Glowing flowers, and a stair up through the trees.
Below the library lies a garden that glows by night: blue flowers, pale mushrooms on the branches, a stair climbing through the trees towards lamplight. Whoever planted it wanted visitors to arrive slowly - and to arrive already a little enchanted.
It chimes softly and brightens. Nirnroot grows only where it pleases.
The flowers shed their light like pollen.
The Crystal Gate
Warded, as an enchanter's door should be.
Blue crystal grows from the stone at the gate's feet and climbs its walls, and the arch itself is laced with glowing vines. The dragon priest whose barrow gave the library its name learned enchanting from the elves. The gate looks like a lesson he never forgot.
Photographs of this space · 1
The crystal hums under your hand. The ward remembers you.
The Mushroom Grove
Trees that are not trees.
Beyond the gate the path winds between giant mushrooms, their caps dark against the night sky, little lamps glowing in the grass. Trees like these grow in Morrowind, where the Telvanni wizards raise their towers out of them; here they keep the library's garden.
They breathe out a cloud of light.
The Round Hall
A stair at its heart, shelves all round.
The library proper begins in a round hall: a gallery of shelves running round the walls, and a central stair rising into lamplight. Every way from here leads up or down, and every one of them ends in books.
The rings turn, and five stones light one by one.
The lamps along the stair light one by one, all the way up to the shelves.
The Reading Rooms
Desks, paintings, and a glowing pool.
Stone rooms with carpets and heavy desks, paintings on the walls, torches in their sconces, and one desk set beside a pool that glows blue in the floor. There is light to read by, and something to stare into between the pages.
The Quiet Alcoves
Incense, flowers, and silence.
Smaller rooms open off the hall: a lectern with flowers and a thread of incense smoke, a quiet alcove, a far one with a single table. These are the corners where a scholar stops noticing the hours - and now and then, the years.
The quill rises, writes a line by itself, then crosses it out.
A page in the same hand. Its subject: the enchanting of the Ayleids.
The Gallery of Books
Two floors of shelves.
Shelves from the floor to the gallery rail, a balcony running all the way round, an arched door below: the library at its fullest, its books standing in ranks like a garrison waiting for orders.
Photographs of this space · 1
A book flies down and drops a page. Its subject: the enchanting of the Snow Elves.
The Lower Stacks
Where the roots have grown into the shelves.
Below, the library changes. Red roots have grown through the walls and the shelves; reading tables stand among them in pools of lamplight, books float above a green-lit table, and lecterns wait beneath a ceiling vaulted with roots. Down here, knowledge has begun to grow on its own, and it is not asking anyone's permission.
They loosen just enough. They have been reading it too.
The roots let a page go. Its subject: the enchanting of the Chimer.
The Ritual Rooms
Alchemy by the hearth, a table before a throne.
Blue lights by an arched door, an alchemist's bench by the hearth, and a round ritual table set with candles before a carved throne. This is where reading turns into practice, as it always did for Ahzidal.
It fills with light as you watch. Better not to ask whose.
The Arcane Enchanter
Enchanting, the old way: an item, a filled soul gem, and the knowledge. Set them on the circle.
The Burning Shrine
Fire, a red banner, and a barred arch.
The deepest room burns: embers in the floor, candles everywhere, a red banner over the shrine, and beside it a great arch barred with iron. Ahzidal himself was once sealed away with his relics. Whatever the library keeps behind this grille, it is not for lending.
Photographs of this space · 2
The mask of Ahzidal. Behind the grille, on a stone shelf: an ebony mask that looks like bronze. The library kept it for whoever read this far.
Back Under the Stars
The night garden again, the long way round.
The way out climbs back into the night, among mushroom trees and lamps in the grass. The garden is just as it was. The visitor, after the stacks below, may not be.
They drift up to join the stars.
Out under the stars again. A last flake of light drifts off the mushroom cap.
Music on this page
Every track belongs to its composers and rights holders and is credited here. If you hold the rights to one of them and want it removed, write to us: contact
- The Dwemer's Lament Brad Derrick. The Elder Scrolls Online: Greymoor (Original Game Soundtrack). © ZeniMax Online Studios Official release - The Dwemer's Lament Plays during: The Night Garden, The Crystal Gate, The Mushroom Grove, The Reading Rooms, The Quiet Alcoves, The Burning Shrine, Back Under the Stars
- The Cephaliarch's Domain Brad Derrick. The Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom (Original Game Soundtrack). © ZeniMax Online Studios. Recording: Maitsukas Official release - The Cephaliarch's Domain Plays during: The Round Hall, The Gallery of Books, The Lower Stacks, The Ritual Rooms, The Arcane Enchanter
- Moth, Butterfly, and Torchbug Brad Derrick. The Elder Scrolls Online (Original Game Soundtrack). © ZeniMax Online Studios Official release - Moth, Butterfly, and Torchbug Plays during: The entrance
The story continues
More worlds by AhzidalThrones
Explore the builder’s portfolio, characters and creations.
Now playing