Psychsorium, City of a 1000 Stoa of Philosophy

Psychsorium is considered the soul of dralasite society and the heart of Psychsorium is the Forum. The Forum is a large open plaza dotted with fountains, art, cafes, shrubberies, and small market stalls. The oldest and most prestidgous stoa front the forum as well as the Library of Psychsorium. The forum is a place for debate. The commerce that goes on there is just a pretext, indeed much pretext goes on without actually any commerce happening.

A stoa dedicated to the art of drawing in the customer arose in the past and its philosophy is focused on debate judo. Its practitioners are mostly cafe or market stall owners who are very good at posing questions and half questions to draw out the philosophy of a potential customer then using their judo like philosophy "throw" the customer. The winner wins the advantage in the commerce which results in either the stall owner lowering the price at a small percentage or the customer buying the pretext item at full price plus an up sell item "would you like batteries to go with that?"

Cafe owners operate a little different. customers must buy before they will really engage them. Though recognized master debaters are prized customers that eat and drink free because their mere presence draws a crowd.

Young dralasite philosophy students that are at the human level of senior in High school or Freshman in College begin to venture into the forum to have their debate skills sharpened. Knots of spetators will gather  on the steps of the Library, by a fountain or on the steps of a stoa to witness great debators plying their craft and skill. Students listen and take notes for "coffee shop" debate among themselves later.

The Library
The Library is not so much a full library but a library dedicated to one topic: Philosophy. It has limited selections in other topics to round out the collection but the Philosophy section is approximately 80% of the collection. The librarians are all master debators that rose to prominence in their individual stoa. Offically they no longer represent their stoa but some have still have been known to keep their individual bias'. It's considered a great honor to be nominated to the ranks of the Librarians. There are  honorary librarians that remain at the head of their stoa but this is a rare honor.

Despite their individual bias most of the librarians strive to remain neutral and will help young dralasites to find the monographs that will best sharpen and challenge them in their particular school of philosophy. They are even quite adept at playing devils advocate, even against their own heart felt beliefs.

The stoa masters, and Librarians fulfill an important role in dralasite society; they form a mix of master of ceremony, high priest, judge, and advisor. Often stoa masters and great debators are called on to arbitrate in matters but occasionally its deemed that the official neutrality of the Librarians is required. An odd number of them will be appointed to a panel. Any librarian with a past tie to a stoa involved in the dispute/debate is by custom expected to recuse himself from the panel.