It's not worth quibbling about how her powers work. She will be able to learn other people's special talents if she wants and whatever being a wizard usually is she can be that too. No wonder the person at the gate was confused.

"Thank you." She goes off towards where the books about types of people are.

The natural philosophy section is ... fairly poor by the standard of a modern library, but opulent by the standard of a place that has not yet invented the printing press. There are three bookshelves full of monographs, treatises, and compilations. There are also a pair of worn leather armchairs and a window to let in some light to read by. One of the chairs is occupied by one of those long silver fish, who is reading a book on a little stand and turning pages with tightly controlled puffs of air.

There is nothing that handily identifies itself as a complete guide to local sentient species, but there are books titled: Beyond the Mountains and Who I Found There, The Historical Populations of Sea-Peoples, The Hypothetical Subterranean People, A Population Census of the Unified Territories, and many more.

Alright, she'll gently pick a book and start reading. She'll try starting with the census. A part of her wants to pick up every book but that would be very marked and she probably wouldn't read most of them. So she'll refrain at least for the moment.

According to the census, the Unified Territories contains humans, fairies, pixies, whirl-the-winds, red caps, dragons, and turtles, in order by population. It also has a small number of water-walkers and polar bears who are not citizens, but are permanent residents. When broken down by territories, the most populous is the fields, and the least populous the desert, with the forest and grassland sitting between them. There are 78 registered wizards, not counting dragons. (The book does not elaborate on why one wouldn't count dragons)

Overall population statistics suggest, to someone willing to do the math, a moderately large, sparsely populated area with birth and death rates typical of a roughly medieval highly agrarian country.

That at least gives her more names but she was more looking for information about the kinds of people. She knows a bit about population statistics because of her classes but not enough to intuitively assess population numbers or birth and death rates. Wizards being rare is also a good thing to know given that she's telling people she is one. She didn't think she was claiming to be part of such a rare group.

Are there books that seem likely to tell her about what different types of people are like and what their special talents are?

Also while she's thinking about it, she focuses into her mind and pulls a copy of the census out of a bag and puts it on a shelf.

There continue to be no obvious guides to all sentient species, but there are books on each of them individually. Her options include: Fairy Plant Weaving, A Catalogue of Human Talents, The Aetherical Ecosystem: Practical Consequences of Wind Domestication, A History of Dragon Mountain, On The Applications of Water-Walking to Practical Alchemy, Polar Bears: Masters of Diplomacy, On the Migration Patterns of Cities, and several more.

Well, it seems like she has a lot of reading to do then. Starting out with an understanding of human talents seems like a good beginning.

Human talents are widely varied, which is part of why they have adapted so well to many different territories and climates. Although most scholars agree human talents are weaker than the magics of other species, the flexibility within a community makes up for it. Humans tend to be more community-oriented than many other species (fairies and pixies being an obvious exception; in fact, they often co-habitate with humans).

The book is mainly, as promised, a catalogue. It categorizes talents by whether they are divinatory, instantaneous, or sustained. (This is clearly an artificial taxonomy, not a natural categorization, because several of the special talents mentioned cross the boundaries of the categories.)

Divinitory talents include things such as "always knowing which way is north", "knowing whether water is safe to drink", "premonitions of danger", "knowing where to hit someone to hurt them", etc. Instantaneous talents are more varied, including things such as "cure an area of leather", "make birdcalls", "remove dirt from an area", "heat stones", etc. Sustained talents include "encourage the healing of skin", "see through nearby mirrors", "run more quickly", etc.

How people end up with their specific special talent is largely unknown, although it is always the case that someone's special talent is suited for them in some way. Often, it matches their chosen profession in some way. Less often, but still commonly, it matches their personality somehow. Humans never agree fully on anything, but they have a much stronger than chance tendency to like their special talents. When offered the hypothetical chance to switch with someone else, only about 10% of humans say they would take it.

Unlike many other species, humans are not born with a special talent manifested. While some babies do develop talents early in life, it's more common for a special talent to develop during puberty. A small number of humans never develop a special talent — although the author speculates that they actually have divinitory talents so subtle that they do not actually know that the source of the information is magical.

Humans are also noticeably more likely to be wizards than other species (except dragons; the author implies at this point that they are a dragon). This is also not well-understood, but some magical theorists believe that the human propensity for different forms of magic leaves them more mentally flexible when it comes to activating their special talents, which makes it easier to learn the magicks of other species.

So most special talents are less impactful than her spirit granted abilities. Well at least more than the most dramatic ones. She does remember that Snowglobe means that she could probably get her own unique special talent like humans usually have but decides not to do that right away. Now she's curious about dragons, there was at least one book she saw about them.

Dragons claim to be the second-oldest sapient species in the world — which is strange, because nobody can find evidence of any older species. Consequently, details of their early history are somewhat hard to corroborate.

As the dragons tell it, they were formed from the sands of the desert by the light of the moon. The first dragons wandered in the desert until they found the sea, where they learned to subsist on fish. Early dragons were solitary, but that changed once they discovered aquaculture. With their needs for food taken care of (rendered difficult by the fact that Dragons continue to grow throughout their lives), the dragons were free to indulge their natural curiosity.

A flock of dragons congregated on the tallest of the southern mountains, rapidly inventing speech, writing, formal magic notation, several early spells, meat-preservation techniques, and the calendar. This was the founding of Dragon Mountain, which remains the longest continually-occupied settlement in the world, since it predates the calendar.

Dragon Mountain has, at various times, been home to as many as 200 dragons, and as few as 7. Historically, approximately half of all dragons have lived in Dragon Mountain, with the remaining dragons living in their own solitary territories. Dragon Mountain remains the only settlement of dragons. Even solitary dragons usually make a trip to Dragon Mountain for some decades during their adolescence to learn reading, writing, arithmetic, magic, and alchemy.

Its status as a center of learning also attracts members of other species, who are generally welcome to study there so long as they study peacefully. The number of students is largely controlled by the difficulty of traversing the desert in modern times, although many centuries ago the dragon of admissions did have a policy of eating the least capable students when the mountain got too crowded. That policy has been repealed since the Seven Gorges Treaty on Interspecies Relations.

Because of its remoteness, most accounts of Dragon Mountain come from the dragons themselves, or from the dragon-bonded who feel a call to travel and bond with a dragon when they hatch. Both these sources are obviously biased, which is why the book ends with an extensive bibliography. The bibliography mostly seems to cite sources written in a language which gives her the impression of being whistled.

All these mentions of magical theory are interesting. Are books about that also in this section?

"Natural Philosophy" is a pretty extensive category, but does not appear to include magical theory. A little bit of wandering around the rest of the reference section will turn up a single shelf tucked into one corner, partially hidden behind a reading lamp, with some books on magical theory.

These books include: An Introduction to Magical Notation, The Importance of Psyche in Visualization, Every Known Variant of Firebreathing: A Comparison, Practical Spellcraft, The Design of Divinatory Instruments, Web-weaving: A Practical Tutorial, A Theory of Thaumodynamics, Theory of Thaumodynamics: A Response, Shortcomings of Academic Thaumodynamics, and Thaumodynamics: A Reconstruction.

So there isn't really an obvious place to start. She'll try reading a page or two from each to see if it's more clear which of them are actually written for beginners.

An Introduction to Magical Notation and Practical Spellcraft are both clearly written for beginners. The Design of Divinatory Instruments seems to assume that the reader is already familiar with creating enchanted items. The Thaumodynamics books are perhaps more practically useful as a sleep aid.

More importantly, it's obvious from An Introduction to Magical Notation that the aforementioned magical notation is language-y enough that she can pick up parts of it with her Spirit-granted powers.

Omniglot is just fantastic. She'll put each of these back on the shelf where she found them. Her powers mean she can conjure copies and read them later. She doesn't want to spend her whole first day in the library as wonderful as the library is. Now it's time to go find the maps.

Right this is more like a map from a fantasy book than one ones based on satellite images she's used to.

The good news is that if she wants to visit the dragons they might not be too far away. She isn't actually sure she wants to visit the dragons. Does this section also have books about what the places marked on the map are?

It does! There are a handful of more detailed maps of specific places, as well as a surprising number of travelogues.

Hmm, if there's a map of Terrance that might be nice. Otherwise she's interested in a map of the plains he's wandering. As for books, she's just looking for a brief overview of the other cities and some explanation of who the oracles living up in the mountains are.

A Tour of the Continent provides some brief descriptions about each city:

Kingsport, capital of the Unified Territories, is a hub of learning and culture. As a port city, it has easy access to the interior of the north, as well as good sea connections to the rest of the eastern coast, even though water-walkers rarely visit it. The city is also home to the Royal Academy of Mages, and the biannual conclave.

Iceholm is the largest settlement of polar bears in the world. Most of the city is carved out of ice, leading to some truly beautiful architecture (about which the author rhapsodizes at some length). Its primary exports are fish and philosophy, and its primary imports are refined metals. The city is governed by a strange kind of foreign government — a "democracy", which gives each of the polar bears who has completed their education a say in the laws.

Remsfield is sometimes metaphorically called 'the turtle of the north'. Despite being stationary, it forms the center of a number of trade routes, and has the largest stationary market in the world. Exports include pretty much everything, although notably a lot of grain.

Treeholm is less urban and more dispersed than the other cities featured in the book, although its total population is actually comparable to Kingsport. Because of its position on the border between the north and south, it has a long history of distinguished battles. It is also the only non-human-majority city within the Unified Territories at time of writing, with pixies and fairies making up more than half of the population. Exports include living plant-based materials and artisanal goods.

Merriterra is fairly isolationist, and difficult for outsiders to access. Consequently, little about it is known. They maintain a trading post on the surface, where they mostly interact with water-walkers and the few human ships brave enough to leave the coast.

Crossing Ways is the largest mobile city, being more like a constantly changing network of barges, ships, and carts built on the surface of the ocean. When it ranges north, it can sometimes be seen from the coast with a telescope. It is technically accessible to humans, but most find the city hard to navigate.

Dragon Mountain is the center of dragon culture and learning. Carved from a single mountain, it is rumored that the tunnels extend deep underground. The mountain is also known to anchor potent protective spells. The fact that it is sized for dragons means that the buildings and corridors are uncomfortably large for humans to navigate, which in turn inspired the creation of a kind of cart that is hauled on a track up and down the mountain to provide access to the different levels.

On the turtles, it has this to say:

Theresa, oldest of the turtles, can usually be found near the southern edge of the grassland. She specializes in textile manufacturing, and has a fondness for tea.

Taylor is a mid-sized turtle. They enjoy swimming, and therefore tend to hang around on the eastern coast.

Terrance is the most far-ranging of the turtles, being found nearly anywhere within the grasslands. He specializes in glassworks, and collects romance novels. He features the largest library of any turtle.

Timothy is Terrance's younger brother. He patrols the southern border with the desert, and has a reputation as a formidable enemy of pirates.

Terra is the youngest turtle large enough to be called a city. She tends to haunt the border with the forest, and is unique for her high population of fairies. She has the most extensive gardens and living buildings of all turtles.

Thomas is also far-ranging, being found all over the west. He specializes in the spice trade, and boasts the largest merchant bank of any turtle.

Terpsichore is small for her age. She has the most restrictive immigration policies of any turtle, and focuses primarily on the production of art. She is famed for her great concerts, and follows a predictable tour schedule so that fans of the theater may know where to find her.

The grasslands are apparently largely unmapped — which makes sense, if all the settlements move about. Likewise, the oracles are hard to find information on. Everybody knows that there are oracles in the mountains, but nobody agrees on what they are, how they got there, why they live there, or what it is that they prophesize.

There is a city map of Terrance. Generally, his hindquarters are residential, sides industrial, and shoulders mercantile. The city council meets on his head. The market is a small ways tailwards of the library.

That's enough context for her to get started with... well maybe she should also try to find a book about how much things cost. She knows that can change pretty often but having at least a rough sense would help with trading.

Terrance's reference section does not appear to have that particular kind of information. There are books that will reference prices (although they are, as often as not, in currencies that she has not heard of), but no systematic texts exploring prices of common goods and services.

Oh well, she'll go back to talk to Bwittertree.

Bwittertree has compiled a human-scale list of books, including locations and reference numbers, and set it on the big desk beside their small desk.

When Sapphire returns, they're giving directions to a flying fish.

"... and then speak to the librarian there. But I'm warning you right now that the heat is metaphorical."

They catch sight of her over the fish's fin.

"Ah! Madam wizard — were you able to find everything all right?"