The legendary fall of the Great Library of Alexandria frames the novel as a tale about power and sacrifice, underlined by the value of knowledge. Knowledge is portrayed as the target of corrupted human desires such as greed and destruction. Additionally, the characters grapple with their relationship to knowledge and must reconcile their desire for power with the moral sacrifices they are willing to make to earn it. As a source of power, knowledge is addictive and inexhaustible. The narrator says:

The trouble with knowledge, the idiosyncrasy of its particular addiction, was that it was not the same as other types of vice. Someone given a taste of omniscience could never be satisfied by the contents of a bare reality without it; life and death as once accepted would carry no weight, and even the usual temptations of excess would fail to satisfy. The lives they might have had would only feel ill-fitting, poorly worn. Someday, perhaps quite soon, they might be able to create entire worlds; to not only reach, but to become like gods (372).

Callum’s theory is that, as medeians, the six protagonists are aware of their superiority and only fake human fallibility to gain more power. This power often takes the form of knowledge, which they use to further their interests in the Society’s house or the outside world.