Order of the Library of the Neitherlands

The Order of the Library of the Neitherlands is an organisation that features in The Magicians.

History

The Order of the Library of the Neitherlands was an organisation that were the caretakers of the Library which was a multiversal archive that contained all knowledge in the Multiverse. They operated as an elite, multiveral administrative network, bureaucratic shadow hierarchy, and supreme archive guild tasked with monitoring and guarding all compiled knowledge in existence. The organization originally formed when an ancient lineage of space-time travelers gathered rare scrolls, artifacts, and codices from every corner of the universe to prevent dangerous magical secrets from falling into unvetted hands. The collection established its primary, infinite repository within a neutral extra-dimensional territory known as the Neitherlands—a cosmic crossroad structured like a series of interconnected, Möbius strip-shaped planets floating in a spatial void. Led by a supreme ruling coalition called the Governing Council, the group expanded its systemic reach by establishing separate specialty branches across multiple realities, including a dedicated facility deep inside the Underworld. Seeking to guarantee global stability and regulate the distribution of raw supernatural fuel, the administration systematically seized complete, absolute control over the production of magic from the divine cosmic Wellspring. The syndicate strictly policed the multi-world borders, deploying highly trained agents like the head librarian Zelda Schiff and the traveler-turned-operative Penny Adiyodi to enforce binding, unbreakable contracts and hunt down rogue spellcasters who threatened the universal balance.

In its early existence, Travelers were employed by the Order who wrote their most precious books an the Library grew into its current form due to them.

In secret, Everett Rowe had studied the means of becoming a god similar to how the ancient Librarians had underwent the process. The intention was to become a deity and share this knowledge with the Library.

The Library came to assume control of all magic production of the Wellspring and managed its use to the rest to the magical community.

Overview

In appearance, the Order of the Library of the Neitherlands was a massive administrative organization whose executive tiers, sorting staffs, and tactical recovery squads consisted entirely of adult human magicians, supernatural travelers, and bound spirits. They featured standard bipedal human physical builds spanning varying age ranges, with individual field personnel maintaining heavily conditioned physical forms to withstand high-stakes retrieval drops across volatile pocket dimensions. The organization expanded its visual presence to enforce a highly standardized, starkly conservative, and formal professional uniform aesthetic rather than traditional flamboyant wizard cloaks or flashy gear. Their garments consisted of dark charcoal-grey or matte-black tailored corporate business suits, crisp white collared shirts, conservative neckties, and polished leather dress shoes designed to project an air of absolute, unyielding state authority. Every individual operative prominently displayed a heavy metallic key ring or electronic pass card attached to their waist sashes, and high-ranking supervisors wore thin spectacles equipped with specialized magnifying lenses to read hidden text inscriptions. Their sprawling central repository properties emphasized a desaturated, sepia-toned visual layout, housing miles of towering wood bookshelves, dimly lit research desks, and restricted vault entrances like the Poison Room.

Leadership of the organisation was held by the Governing Council who provided oversight on the activities of the Library.

Its permanent employee base belonged to the human race, which subjected individual clerks and field agents. They relied on their comprehensive institutional databases and exceptionally high scientific intellect to execute complex mathematical calculations, map shifting multiversal geography, and track the personal life destinies of every organism in the universe down to the millisecond through a collection of living biographies known as the Books of Everyone. They did not possess a single shared, uniform superpower or collective physical invulnerability, depending instead on an advanced stream of ancient technology and specialized spatial anchoring matrices. Their specialized capabilities allowed separate units to step seamlessly between worlds by using an enchanted fountain array, manipulate localized spatial gravity to walk along inverted horizontal wall geometries, and project dense kinetic force fields to neutralize rogue threats. When an individual librarian passed away, their underlying energy matrix avoided standard physical decomposition, allowing the administration to smoothly execute a contract transfer to transition the deceased employee's spirit into an active desk shift inside the Underworld Branch.

Among the charges in their care were the Books of Everyone that contained the history of every individual in existence.

One facility was the Underworld Branch that was located within the Underworld where it was operated by Librarians who had died before their contracts had ended.

Another facility maintained by the Order was the Satellite Library which was a backup site.

Dangerous knowledge was kept in the Poison World that was a radioactive world that would kill intruders that sought the forbidden knowledge.

Members

• Everett Rowe : male head of the Order who sat on the Governing Council.
• Zelda Schiff :
• Cassandra : a scribe who could foresee the future where she was employed by the Library for a thousand years to write the Books of Everyone.
• Phyllis :
• Cyrus :
• Derek :
• Penny Adiyodi :
• Sheila Cozener :

Notes

• The Order of the Library of the Neitherlands was created by Lev Grossman where it featured in the setting of The Magicians universe.

Appearances

• The Magicians:

External Links

• The Magicians Wiki Entry

This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.