The Courtyard

" It still had the same glamour as through the window, but it was not the same. I heard chatter and conversation, yet I was the only one there. The pathways looked covered in ice, yet I could feel a spongy grit beneath my feet. The light suggested midday, yet when I looked to the sky, all I could see was a vast sea of stars."

-Khaldoun the Loxodon, from "The Courtyard" by DimJim

Creator Name
daftPirate

Description
Somewhere, commonly presumed to be in the center of The Library, is a place known as the Courtyard. It is as heedless of the laws of reality as the rest of the building. It is entered through ordinary doors in seemingly ordinary walls, but once inside, it seems to have no visible end.

The Courtyard is a place of life, rather than shelves and paper. A great forest stretches out beneath the twilight sky, interspersed by meadows and lakes. It is inhabited by an array of creatures, most of which a visitor from the materials planes would be surprised to find that they recognize: birds of all kinds, squirrels, foxes and badgers. Fish in the water, insects in the ground. Alongside them are creatures found in no other realm; some are benign, others predatorial. Nearly any beast imaginable can appear in the Courtyard, and some of them find their way into the halls of the Library itself.

History
There is no agreement on why this region exists in The Library. More worldly visitors sometimes suggest that it is meant as a comforting oasis for The Library’s guests, a relief from the perpetual dark and confined spaces inside the building. Academics have claimed that it stands to reason that The Library would have a place to collect and maintain living specimens. Whatever the case, most who visit the Library, no matter how short their journey, find that their paths lead them through the Courtyard at some point.

Behind the Scenes

 * The courtyard was officially canonized on December 20, 2020
 * The courtyard was first mentioned in a lore post made on reddit by BobbyBass